By: Chet Brokaw
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - For centuries, members of the Lakota, Cheyenne and other American Indian tribes have been climbing Bear Butte to fast and hold religious ceremonies.
Colorful prayer cloths hanging from trees line the path to the top of the mountain, which rises about 1,300 feet above the surrounding plain.
But often, and especially in August, the serenity of the site is disturbed by a deafening roar, caused by thousands of motorcycles.
Indians have sought for years to block development of land around the butte into campgrounds, bars and other sites that could interfere with their religious use of the mountain. Now they have an ally in the governor.
Gov. Mike Rounds wants to spend more than $1 million to prevent developers from putting biker bars and other noisy businesses on ranch land near the mountain on the northern edge of the Black Hills. Saying he wants to protect the beauty and peace of the religious site, Rounds has proposed using state, federal and private money to buy a perpetual easement that would prevent commercial and residential development of some land on the western side of Bear Butte.
Indians working to protect Bear Butte praise the Republican governor's plan. ''Any kind of assistance from anybody in preserving the butte is welcome,'' said Gene Blue Arm, a Cheyenne River Sioux tribal member who has sought to limit development near the religious site.
Get the whole story here: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416379
Monday, December 31, 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" is Dee Brown's eloquent, fully documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the 19th century. When it was first published in 1971, both reviewers and the reading public responded first with shock, then a deep sense of shame, calling it "shattering" (Washington Post), and "heartbreaking" (The NewYork Times). It went on to sell over a million copies in hardcover and four million copies in paperback, and was translated into 15 languages around the world.
Want a copy of this book? Click here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0805017305/unitedecoactionfA/
Want a copy of this book? Click here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0805017305/unitedecoactionfA/
Wounded Knee, December 29, 1890
The Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 (which was originally referred to by the United States army as the Battle of Wounded Knee -- a descriptive moniker that remains highly contested by the Native American community) is known as the event that ended the last of the Indian wars in America. As the year came to a close, the Seventh Cavalry of the United States Army brought an horrific end to the century-long U.S. government-Indian armed conflicts.
On the bone-chilling morning of December 29, devotees of the newly created Ghost Dance religion made a lengthy trek to the Pine Ridge Reservation in southwestern South Dakota to seek protection from military apprehension. Members of the Miniconjou Sioux (Lakota) tribe led by Chief Big Foot and the Hunkpapa Sioux (Lakota) followers of the recently slain charismatic leader, Sitting Bull, attempted to escape arrest by fleeing south through the rugged terrain of the Badlands. There, on the snowy banks of Wounded Knee Creek (Cankpe Opi Wakpala), nearly 300 Lakota men, women, and children -- old and young -- were massacred in a highly charged, violent encounter with U.S. soldiers.
The memory of that day still evokes passionate emotional and politicized responses from present-day Native Americans and their supporters. The Wounded Knee Massacre, according to scholars, symbolizes not only a culmination of a clash of cultures and the failure of governmental Indian policies, but also the end of the American frontier. Although it did bring an end to the Ghost Dance religion, it did not, however, represent the demise of the Lakota culture, which still thrives today.
On the bone-chilling morning of December 29, devotees of the newly created Ghost Dance religion made a lengthy trek to the Pine Ridge Reservation in southwestern South Dakota to seek protection from military apprehension. Members of the Miniconjou Sioux (Lakota) tribe led by Chief Big Foot and the Hunkpapa Sioux (Lakota) followers of the recently slain charismatic leader, Sitting Bull, attempted to escape arrest by fleeing south through the rugged terrain of the Badlands. There, on the snowy banks of Wounded Knee Creek (Cankpe Opi Wakpala), nearly 300 Lakota men, women, and children -- old and young -- were massacred in a highly charged, violent encounter with U.S. soldiers.
The memory of that day still evokes passionate emotional and politicized responses from present-day Native Americans and their supporters. The Wounded Knee Massacre, according to scholars, symbolizes not only a culmination of a clash of cultures and the failure of governmental Indian policies, but also the end of the American frontier. Although it did bring an end to the Ghost Dance religion, it did not, however, represent the demise of the Lakota culture, which still thrives today.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Do you know...
Ramona Bennett is a longtime and prominent leader from the Puyallup tribe. A pioneering activist on behalf of Indian fishing rights, she co-founded the Survival of American Indians Association in 1964, an organization that helped bring local “fish-ins” to national prominence.
Bennett was elected to the Puyallup Tribal Council in 1968, and elected as Tribal Chairwoman in 1971, a position she held until 1978. In addition to her fishing rights advocacy, she participated in the takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Building in Washington, DC in 1972 and helped take over Tacoma’s Cushman Hospital in 1976. She also opened doors for women activists by actively fighting attempts during the 1970s to exclude her from National Tribal Chairmen’s Conferences.
Much of Bennett’s leadership has focused on issues of social welfare. She began her social service work in Seattle’s American Indian Women’s Service League in the 1950s. In 1972, she co-founded the Local Indian Child Welfare Act Committee. Through the Committee, she developed a model for childhood and family service in Washington State that she used to help her co-author and secure a national Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978. In the 1980s, she served as an administrator for the Wa-He-Lut Indian School in Olympia before going on to co-found Rainbow Youth and Family Services, a Tacoma-based non-profit that she still directs today.
Bennett earned an MA in Education from the University of Puget Sound in 1981, and received an honorary Doctorate of Public Affairs from the school in 2000. In 2003, the Native Action Network awarded her with its Enduring Spirit Award.
She is also listed in 100 Native Americans Who Shaped American History.
Bennett was elected to the Puyallup Tribal Council in 1968, and elected as Tribal Chairwoman in 1971, a position she held until 1978. In addition to her fishing rights advocacy, she participated in the takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Building in Washington, DC in 1972 and helped take over Tacoma’s Cushman Hospital in 1976. She also opened doors for women activists by actively fighting attempts during the 1970s to exclude her from National Tribal Chairmen’s Conferences.
Much of Bennett’s leadership has focused on issues of social welfare. She began her social service work in Seattle’s American Indian Women’s Service League in the 1950s. In 1972, she co-founded the Local Indian Child Welfare Act Committee. Through the Committee, she developed a model for childhood and family service in Washington State that she used to help her co-author and secure a national Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978. In the 1980s, she served as an administrator for the Wa-He-Lut Indian School in Olympia before going on to co-found Rainbow Youth and Family Services, a Tacoma-based non-profit that she still directs today.
Bennett earned an MA in Education from the University of Puget Sound in 1981, and received an honorary Doctorate of Public Affairs from the school in 2000. In 2003, the Native Action Network awarded her with its Enduring Spirit Award.
She is also listed in 100 Native Americans Who Shaped American History.
Tribe Gets Funds For Earth Lodge
Associated Press
The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe will get a $74,000 federal grant to build a Narrows Earthlodge Interpretive Center near the Missouri River.
The Narrows is a huge bend in the river. Travelers can walk about 1.5 miles across the gap to each the other side or travel 25 miles around the bend on the water.
The grant, which was announced by U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., will be used for a series of interpretive panels along the Native American Scenic Byway.
Visitors will be able to learn about American Indian culture and about the life of the Arikara tribe, which once inhabited the river valley.
The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe will get a $74,000 federal grant to build a Narrows Earthlodge Interpretive Center near the Missouri River.
The Narrows is a huge bend in the river. Travelers can walk about 1.5 miles across the gap to each the other side or travel 25 miles around the bend on the water.
The grant, which was announced by U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., will be used for a series of interpretive panels along the Native American Scenic Byway.
Visitors will be able to learn about American Indian culture and about the life of the Arikara tribe, which once inhabited the river valley.
Cherokee Nation to offer online language class
As posted at Muskogee Phoenix.com
TAHLEQUAH — The Cherokee Nation will be offering a Cherokee language course online through the tribe’s web site beginning Jan. 7.
The Cherokee Nation began offering language classes online in 2003. Since then, approximately 1,000 students register each session. Students from all over the world, including France, Australia, Spain, Mexico, Germany and Canada have taken part in the courses.
Registration for the upcoming class began Monday. The course will last 10 weeks and is free to the public. Classes offered include: Cherokee I, Cherokee II and Cherokee III.
To make the classes more interactive and easier to access, the Cherokee Nation will use updated software, which will allow for more students to participate, easier login capabilities, full-screen options, archiving abilities and a new cross platform interface for PCs, as well as Mac users.
Classes are live, and anyone with Internet access can participate. The course works best with DSL or higher Internet capabilities. For more information or to register, visit www.cherokee.org.
TAHLEQUAH — The Cherokee Nation will be offering a Cherokee language course online through the tribe’s web site beginning Jan. 7.
The Cherokee Nation began offering language classes online in 2003. Since then, approximately 1,000 students register each session. Students from all over the world, including France, Australia, Spain, Mexico, Germany and Canada have taken part in the courses.
Registration for the upcoming class began Monday. The course will last 10 weeks and is free to the public. Classes offered include: Cherokee I, Cherokee II and Cherokee III.
To make the classes more interactive and easier to access, the Cherokee Nation will use updated software, which will allow for more students to participate, easier login capabilities, full-screen options, archiving abilities and a new cross platform interface for PCs, as well as Mac users.
Classes are live, and anyone with Internet access can participate. The course works best with DSL or higher Internet capabilities. For more information or to register, visit www.cherokee.org.
As Minnesota turns 150, how will it face up to its original sin?
By: Nick Coleman
History is not just in books. It's also found in tears.
Twenty years ago, I watched a group of Dakota Indians stand by a trench dug in the prairie dirt alongside St. Cornelia's Church on the Lower Sioux Indian Reservation in Redwood County.
There were men I had known for years: Ernest Wabasha, Dave Larsen and the late Amos Owen, a Dakota spiritual leader. They had come to bury 31 Minnesotans -- their relatives -- who died almost 125 years earlier, in a prison after the Dakota War of 1862.
The anonymous remains -- labeled only as male or female, adult or child -- had been placed in cardboard boxes, which were laid above the grave. The bones had been kept for decades by a museum. Once they had been men, women and children. Few, if any, had taken a major part in the war that cost the lives of hundreds of white settlers and was the last desperate act of a people whose culture and land were being taken from them.
But they were all punished. They were all Dakota.
This isn't an ancient story. It is the story of Minnesota's original sin. And as we prepare for next year's 150th anniversary of statehood, we should remember history is a living and often painful thing.
Get the whole story here: http://www.startribune.com/local/12759742.html
History is not just in books. It's also found in tears.
Twenty years ago, I watched a group of Dakota Indians stand by a trench dug in the prairie dirt alongside St. Cornelia's Church on the Lower Sioux Indian Reservation in Redwood County.
There were men I had known for years: Ernest Wabasha, Dave Larsen and the late Amos Owen, a Dakota spiritual leader. They had come to bury 31 Minnesotans -- their relatives -- who died almost 125 years earlier, in a prison after the Dakota War of 1862.
The anonymous remains -- labeled only as male or female, adult or child -- had been placed in cardboard boxes, which were laid above the grave. The bones had been kept for decades by a museum. Once they had been men, women and children. Few, if any, had taken a major part in the war that cost the lives of hundreds of white settlers and was the last desperate act of a people whose culture and land were being taken from them.
But they were all punished. They were all Dakota.
This isn't an ancient story. It is the story of Minnesota's original sin. And as we prepare for next year's 150th anniversary of statehood, we should remember history is a living and often painful thing.
Get the whole story here: http://www.startribune.com/local/12759742.html
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