BACK TO SCHOOL

The University of Nebraska at Lincoln nearly killed this Indian, and the process intensified when it hired two Wasicu men with multi-million dollar grants from the U.S. Government to lie with statistics about Indians. Specifically, they were to do surveys which were - and are - designed to "prove" that Peoples in particular POW Camps "want" U.S. Government drug and alcohol prevention and treatment centers located ON these "Reservations." Such centers would be based on European/White/Wasicu models of prevention and treatment, and staffed by Whites, with a few token positions thrown in for the IRA Government's nepotistic system. I knew what they were up to from the beginning, and they knew that I knew. Public universities - along with the Prison Industrial Complex - are the primary victims of the budget cuts caused by deficits and the drive to reduce taxes - are now dependent on grants from private corporations and U.S. and other governments. So these two men, with the $10 million grant they came in with, and its guaranteed renewal - because they would produce the "scientific" answers the U.S. Government wanted to here - attacks on me escalated. I became so ill I had to go on medical leave. I was "retired" without my knowledge while on the medical leave. I became more ill, and ended up on Social Security Disability - not enough to survive.

My Wicasa Wakan (Medicine Man) helped me through the next years. I have always spent summers on Pine Ridge. Last summer I asked my Wicasa Wakan for help find something to do that would help the People. Before I left, I found myself enrolled in Oglala Lakota College, and registered for classes. I just completed my first year in Tribal Law A.A. degree program, part of the Lakota Studies Program. I have taken courses in Legal Research and writing, taught by a Judge on Pine Ridge; Lakota Culture; Tribal Law, Treaties, and Government; Lakota Language; Indian Law; and Lakota History. They have been HARDER than imaginable - even for someone who has spent my entire adult life in college and university. And I have LEARNED MORE than imaginable, in class and in doing research, and from the students in the classes - though I thought I knew about these subjects and about life - and death - on the Rez. And I LOVE it PASSIONATELY.

I may stop at the A.A. Degree. I may continue on to the B.A. Degree in Lakota Studies. Either way, I hope to be able to contribute to the Oyate by teaching at Oglala Lakota College, from a Traditionalist, Indian, Lakota perspective; by practicing law, notably to help fight all those who continue to steal the land and all those who continue to irradiate and pollute the land, air, and water: the White farmers with their chemicals leasing land from Indians who need the lease money on top of the land, and the White corporations with their unsafe mining of minerals, including uranium, and their dumping of chemicals and radioactive waste, underneath the land - and into the Aquifer. Finally, I plan to offer all of my education - Wasicu and Lakota - to help those who are fighting for, at minimum, the ENFORCEMENT of the TREATIES (however dubious their validity, due to their being signed by force, mistranslated, altered after they were signed, and signed by...Which Indians? With what "authority" to sign them? By how many actual Indians? Under what conditions?) and the RETURN OF LAND and with it the RETURN OF SELF-SUFFICIENCY.

Wopila for Oglala Lakota College. Wopila for all the people on Pine Ridge and across "Indian Country" who are struggling to regain Indian land; who are struggling to clean up Indian land, air and water; who are struggling to improve the health of Indians by eliminating carcinogenic chemicals and radiation, improving diets, increasing exercise, eliminating drugs and alcohol; who are struggling to decrease the violence of poverty, addiction, and gangs and domestic violence...to all those who struggle every day in every way to Owe Aku, Go Back to Our Ways.

I am Blessed. I hope to use and share what I know and what I am learning. I hope to be used, by and for the Oyate, by and for the Spirits.

Wopila Tanka.

Mitakuye Oyasin.

U.S. Must Return Land Seized in 1877 to Lakota - Ned BlackHawk

U.S. must return land seized in 1877 to Lakota
By Ned Blackhawk
COMMENTARY
TODAY IS A sad day in American-Indian -- and American -- history.
On that day 130 years ago, the federal government broke its own laws and eventually used military force to seize illegally the once vast reservation homelands of Lakota communities known as the Black Hills.
This seizure in 1877 violated the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, and deepened one of the most enduring tragedies in American-Indian history. In a single generation, the largest and most powerful American Indian confederacy on the continent confronted deadly attacks on its territory and populace.
The assault at the Black Hills culminated in the infamous December 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee, where the U.S. military unleashed overwhelming firepower against a band of Lakota along the banks of a creek known as Wounded Knee.
Even the staunchest defenders of U.S. military actions recognize the tragic nature of this conflict. And these events remain seared into Lakota history.
The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty was a historic achievement for Lakota leaders who, despite a generation of white expansion, negotiated a favorable recognition of Lakota sovereignty over what is now western South Dakota, including the sacred Black Hills.
Lakota bands displayed remarkable political and military resolve during the 1860s, particularly through their concentrated attacks along the Bozeman Trail.
Weary of war, in 1868 U.S. and Lakota leaders returned to negotiations. The result: a congressionally ratified reservation covering the western half of South Dakota. This "Great Sioux Reservation," with recognized hunting lands in Montana, now became the Lakota's indisputable homeland to be held in trust by the federal government.
But the 1874 discovery of gold in the Black Hills ruptured this agreement. It brought illegal occupations of the Sioux Reservation that remain contested to this day. As historian Jeffrey Ostler writes, "Forced to choose between expansion and honor, (President) Grant, not unlike many of his predecessors, sacrificed the latter," opening the reservation to waves of intruders.
Many Lakota, in turn, fled their besieged reservation to Montana, defeating the U.S. Cavalry at the Little Big Horn before being forcibly returned to fragments of their reservation.
U.S. courts have recognized the illegality of these actions and offered modest payments, but the Lakota nations remained determined to get the Black Hills returned to tribal communities.
The conflict continues 130 years later.
It may be hard to imagine the federal government "returning" lands to American Indians, but it shouldn't be. Given the remarkable strides made recently by American Indians across the country, American Indians now maintain increased political and economic visibility.
The once poorest of the poor are now helping balance legislative budgets, and Indian communities in California, Wisconsin, Washington and elsewhere maintain effective partnerships with state governments.
American Indian nations stand poised to gain further autonomy and self-sufficiency, and many justifiably see the Black Hills, particularly the Black Hills National Forest, as mismanaged federal lands. Meanwhile, timber and mining corporations are eyeing the Black Hills for themselves.
The Lakota have religious and legally recognized ties to these federal lands, and the U.S. government must act now to rectify its violations. National leaders need to recognize and reverse the failures of the past.
Blackhawk is associate professor of history and American Indian Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Write him at Progressive Media Project, 409 East Main St., Madison, WI 53703; or e-mail him through pmproj@progressive.org.

Red Woman

This name, Red Woman, came to me slowly and also in an afternoon. That afternoon, I was listening to our traditional Chiefs speak in the red hot sun of South Dakota. My face was red. Red with sunburn - I am a half Blood after all. Mostly I was Red with rage. Red with tears. Tears of anger. Tears of shame. Tears of outrage. Tears of grief. Tears of heart-wrenching sorrow and searing torture. Tears of remembering what my mothers and fathers and all of my ancestors have endured. Tears of momentary thoughts of what little I have endured. And I felt more Red - more of an Indian - listening to these Traditional Chiefs speak, with all the emotions I was feeling with their words, their words in our language, that somehow the Spirits and Ancestors blessed me to understand. I felt a connection to the pain, the agony, the humiliation, the mutilation, the fear, the courage, the lives, the deaths of my ancestors. There was no more "half" any more. That afternoon I knew I was an Indian, and connected to my Indian ancestors by stronger bonds than to anyone else, anything else. And I knew what it meant to be Indian more than ever before. Because the abuse, the outrages, the humiliation, the desecration, the lives, the deaths in subjugation and resistance...they are all still very much alive. Just as we are not vanished or a vanquished Peoples, we are subject to the worst lives and the worst deaths. The lack of self-sufficiency, taken from us with the land, for what, for gold, mazaska. What else can be taken from a person, from a People, that could be more eviscerating than self-sufficiency? Do we Ghost Dance to bring back the self-sufficiency, the peace, the pride, the independence, the work, the lives, the deaths we once had? And did they try to stop us from the Ghost Dance? And did they succeed? And I know that we do not feel anger. We do not feel rage. We are contemplative people, as individuals communing, communicating, with Wakan Tanka and the Wakan Spirits, and as communities, communing, communicating with each other, to find what is wrong, and what to do about it. I think of Crazy Horse, not at all crazy. He spent much time in "solitude" - listening for Wakan Tanka and the Wakan Spirits to guide him, away from people and things, distractions, into Nature and silence, coming into harmony with Our Spirits, only listening, only empty, to be filled with what Our Spirits would tell him to do. He realized that the Wasicupe were determined to take all of our land, kill all of our people. And he knew that he must act, act in self-defense. Wasicupe know lust that drives them as hard as our love of Our Spirits, our Ancestors, the rest of Creation - lust for land, gold, Mazaska, material things...oil, uranium. Wasicupe know hate that drives them to injure, mutilate, and eradicate Creation, two-leggeds, and Nature - to get more land, gold, Mazaska, material things...though they tell themselves it is hatred of NON-Christians, NON-whites, NON-Civilized, NON-humans. And without that driving, insatiable lust, without that driving, relentless hate, Crazy Horse, had to fight it, had to act in self-defense of his People, of us, as we do today. We felt and feel no lust, no hatred, but we must fight to protect our Sacred Sites, our relatives, Sacred Nature, our Relatives - all Peoples, from two-leggeds to Crawling Ones, to Tree People...All Creature of Creation. And we must remember, through our talking ways, that we are not angry people, we are not hateful people. We are Red, but with sorrow, and with determination, and with conviction, that we MUST defend our People, as we MUST defend our Ways, as we MUST defend our Sacred Sites, as we MUST return to our Ways, as we MUST return to our LIVES, to our challenging, Spiritual, self-sufficient, loving, communal lives. I am reborn, as Red Woman. Wopila. We are all being reborn. Wopila.

Links

http://groups.msn.com/FirstNationsHistoryNewsandViews
http://groups.msn.com/AmericanIndians

Timeline of Native Peoples' Relations with the US Government, 1787-1956

Timeline of American Indian Relations with the Federal Government, 1787 to 19561

1787 to 1886:

1787 - First [US] federal treaty enacted with the Delaware (Lenni Lenapi) Indians.

From 1787 to 1868, 371 treaties were ratified by the US
government. (Between 1607 to 1776, at least 175 treaties
had been signed with the British and colonial governments.)
While treaty provisions varied, they commonly included a
guarantee of peace and friendship; clarification of boundaries;
an understanding of any specific lands ceded to the US
government; guarantee of Indian hunting, fishing, and gathering rights (sometimes on ceded lands); a statement that the tribe recognized the authority and protection of the US government; and an agreement about trade regulation and travel of non-Indians in Indian territory.

1789 - Indian Commerce Clause of the Constitution. Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 stated “The Congress shall have Power...to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.” This clause is generally seen as the principal basis for federal rather than state governmental plenary power over Indians.

1790 - Indian Trade and Intercourse Act. This first federal
Indian statute outlawed all Indian land transactions that were
not federally approved.

1823 - Johnson v. McIntosh. First of the Marshall Trilogy’s
Supreme Court decisions that limited certain exercises of Indian sovereignty.

1824 - The Indian Office. This federal agency was administered by the War Department. The Office became the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 1849 and was relocated in the Interior Department in 1854.

1830-1875:

1830 - Indian Removal Act. This law mandated the removal of Indians east of the Mississippi River to territory west of the Mississippi in Oklahoma.

1831 and 1832 - Cherokee v. Georgia and Worcester v. Georgia. US Supreme Court ruling that Indian tribes were not foreign nations, but rather “domestic dependent nations.” Both cases provided the legal [sic] basis for the federal trust relationship. [Note: Under the Separation of Powers, the Judicial Branch does not have the power to make or change legislation.]

1834 - Indian Territory. Under the Western Territory bill of
1834, Congress created Indian Territory in the west that included the land area in present-day Kansas, Oklahoma, and
parts of what later became Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming. The area was set aside for Indians who were removed
from their ancestral lands which, in turn, would be given to
non-Indians. The area steadily decreased in size until the
1870s, when it was the size of today’s Oklahoma, excluding
the panhandle.

1835-1871 - The Trail of Tears and Indian Removal. Between
1835-71, between 150,000 and 300,000 Indians were forcibly removed from their ancestral homes and relocated in Indian
Territory. In 1838, President Jackson sent federal troops to
forcibly remove almost 16,000 Cherokee who had refused to
move westward. In May, American soldiers herded [sic] most into camps where they remained imprisoned throughout the summer and where at least 1,500 perished. The remainder began an 800-mile forced march to Oklahoma that fall. In all some 4,000 Cherokee died during the removal process.

1851 - First Treaty of Fort Laramie. In this treaty, the Sioux [sic], as well as several other Plains tribes, allowed non-Indians to pass through their territory on their way to the far west. In return, the US government declared that most of the present day states of North and South Dakota and parts of Wyoming, Nebraska, and Montana (134 million acres) comprised the territory of the Great Sioux [sic] Nation. [Note: "Sioux" is the word the Anishinaabe Peoples, being forced into our land, used to refer to us. It means "little snake or "little enemy". In actuality, we are a tripartite People, composed of Santee (Eastern, Dakota dialect), Teton (Western, Lakota dialect), and Yankton (Far Eastern, Nakota dialect) Peoples.]

1864 - Sand Creek Massacre. A peaceful camp of Cheyenne
and Arapahos was attacked by the Third Colorado Cavalry
whose soldiers mutilated and killed nearly 500 unarmed
Indians. [Note: The soldiers returned to cheering crowds in Denver, brandishing body parts of the mutilated victims as they paraded through the city.]

1868 - Second Treaty of Fort Laramie. Treaty guaranteed the Sioux [sic], Cheyenne, and Arapaho rights to the Black Hills and recognized tribal hunting rights beyond reservation boundaries. The federal government agreed to abandon the Bozeman Trail and pledged to keep non-Indians out of the Great Sioux [sic] Reservation and other tribal lands. [Note: Uner this Treaty the US "gave" us a minute portion of the land "given" to us in the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie.]

1871 - Indian Appropriation Act. This money bill included a rider that allowed the House of Representatives to ratify Inidian treaties along with the Senate. Thereafer, all future Indian policies would be made by both houses of Congress, rather than by treaty. [Note: This is the LEGISLATIVE termnination of sovereign nation status for Indian Peoples.]

[1874 - Custer led an illegal expedition into the He Sapa (Black Mountains), seeking and finding gold there.]

1876 to 1877:

1876 - Battle at Little Big Horn [Greasy Grass]. This battle occurred when General George Armstrong Custer and the Seventh Cavalry were involved in a campaign to forcibly place the Sioux [sic], Cheyenne, and Arapaho onto reservations. In retaliation for Custer’s attack on a hunting camp in the Little Big Horn Valley, Indians responded by killing Custer and [all of his troops]. The federal government spent the next two years tracking down these nations, killing some of their people and forcing most others onto reservations.

In 1877, [US] Congress annexed the Black Hills and the million acre reservations guaranteed by treaties were vastly reduced.

[Note: July 25, the Date of the Battle of the Greasy Grass, is celebrated as Victory Day among us.]

1878 - Carlisle Indian School. This first off-reservation military-style boarding school for Indians was established in Pennsylvania. The school created a model curriculum, disciplinary regime, and educational strategy designed to “kill the Indian and save the man.”

[Note the death, physical and psychological damage inflicted by Christian and governmental Boarding Schools is infinite, and continues to this day. See Kill the Indian, Save the Man, by Ward Churchill, Childred Left Behind, by Tim Giago.]

1880 - [US] Civilization [sic] Regulations. These US Interior Secretary rules (re-issued in 1884, 1894, and 1904) set forth a series of offenses and penalties that applied only to Indians. They outlawed Indian religions, the practices of “so-called” medicine men, religious ceremonies, and unauthorized roaming off the reservations. They remained in place until 1936.

[Note: Desecration of our Sacred Ground; persecution and effective prohibition of our Sacred Ceremonies and Objects remain rampant today.]

1886 to 1934:

1887 - [US] General Allotment Act (Dawes Act). This law authorized the [US] President to allot portions of certain reservation land to individual Indians - 160 acres to each head of family and 80 acres to others - to establish private farms, and authorized the [US] Secretary of Interior to negotiate with the tribes for purchasing “excess” lands for non-Indian settlement. The law sought to destroy Indian communities where property- sharing encouraged “tribalism,” subjected alloted land to taxation, and opened Indian lands for non-Indian purchase and settlement. The result was that from 1887 to 1934 (when the Act was repealed), Indian land holdings decreased from 138 million acres to 48 million.

1888 - The Sioux [sic] Act. This law divided the Great Sioux [sic] Reservation into six separate [distant] reservations in an effort to dilute their power and make much of their land available for non-Indian settlement.

1889 - Oklahoma Organic Act. This statute divided Indian
land into two territories in what is currently the state of Oklahoma: the Territory of Oklahoma in western Oklahoma was opened up to non-Indian settlement; and the Indian Territory in eastern Oklahoma was retained for continued Indian settlement.

1890 - Wounded Knee Massacre. The massacre occurred
shortly after non-Indians in South Dakota became alarmed by
reports of Indians performing the Ghost Dance. Non-Indians
feared that such actions would result in war with the whites.
The Seventh Cavalry reacted by massacring more than 450
men, women, and children of Big Foot’s band of Miniconjou
Dakota and of Sitting Bull’s Hunkpapa people at Wounded Knee.

[Note: The "fear" of the Ghost Dance is a pretext for the massacre of imprisoned, sleeping, unarmed children, women, and elderly men. Reprisal for our victory over Custer, desire for free access to the resources of the He Sapa (Black Mountains or "Hills"), and the desire to exterminate our People ("The only good Indian is a dead Indian" - General Phil Sheridan) are more realistic motivations.]

1891 - Indian Education. This statute authorized the [US] Commissioner of Indian Affairs “to make and enforce by proper means” rules and regulations to ensure that Indian children attended schools designed and administered by non-Indians.

1893 - Indian Education. This Act of [US] Congress allowed the [US] BIA to withhold rations and [US] government services if [Native] parents did not send their children to school, as provided in the Civilization [sic] Regulations.

1898 - Curtis Act. This law ended tribal governments refusing
allotments and mandated the allotment of tribal lands in
Indian Territory.

1906 - Antiquities Act. This law declared that Indian remains
and objects found on federal land were the property of the
United States.

1919 - [US] Congress extended American citizenship to all Indian veterans of World War I.

1924 - Indian Citizenship Act. This law extended US citizenship and voting rights to all American [sic] Indians. Some Indians preferred to maintain only their tribal membership.

1928 - Meriam Report, “The Problem of Indian Administration.” This report, commissioned by the [US] Department of Interior in 1926, focused on the poverty, ill health, and despair that characterized many Indian communities. It recommended reforms that would increase the [US] BIA’s efficiency, promote the social and economic advancement of Indians; end allotment; and phase out Indian boarding schools.

1934 to 1968:

1934 - The “Indian New Deal.” The brainchild of [US] BIA Commissioner John Collier, the Indian New Deal was an attempt to promote the revitalization of Indian cultural, lingual, governmental, and spiritual traditions. This blueprint for reform was written by non-Indians who had championed Indian rights [sic] for decades through private organizations.

1934 - Indian Reorganization Act (IRA). The IRA was the centerpiece of the Indian New Deal. It encouraged Indians to “recover” their cultural heritage, prohibited new allotments and extended the trust period for existing allotments, and sought to promote tribal self-government by encouraging tribes to adopt constitutions and form [US] federally-chartered corporations. Tribes were all but required to adopt a US-style constitution are were given two years to accept or reject the IRA. Tribes who accepted it could then elect a tribal council. 174 tribes accepted it, 135 of which drafted tribal constitutions. But 78 tribes rejected the IRA, most fearing greater federal control.

1946 - [US] Indian Claims Commission. The Commission established by [US] Congress was to end tribal grievances over treaty enforcement, resource management, and disputes between tribes and the US government. Tribes were given five years to file a claim, prove aboriginal title to the lands in question, and bring suit for settlement. The Commission would then review the case and assess the amount, if any, that was to be paid in reparations. Until the Commission ended operations in 1978, it settled 285 cases and paid more than $800 million in settlements.

1953 - Termination. Under [US] House Concurrent Resolution 108, the [US] federal trust relationship with many Indian tribes was terminated. Terminated tribes were then subject to state laws and their lands were lost to taxes and sold to non-Indians. Eventually, [US] Congress terminated over 100 tribes, most of which consisted of a few hundred members. The Menominee of Wisconsin and the Klamath of Oregon were exceptions, with 3,270 and 2,133 members respectively.

1953 - [US] Public Law 280. This law transferred jurisdiction over most tribal lands to state governments in California, Oregon, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Alaska was added in 1958. Additionally, it provided that any other state could assume such jurisdiction by passing a law or amending the state’s constitution.

1954 - [US] Public Law 83-568. This law transferred responsibility for American Indians and Alaskan Natives’ health care from the [US] BIA in the [US] Department of Interior, to the [US] Public Health Services within the [US]Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

1956 - Relocation Act. This Act allowed the [US] BIA to offer grants to Indians willing to leave the reservation to seek work in urban locations. By 1975, more Indians lived in urban areas than on reservations.

1 important benchmarks in federal-tribal relations and is not intended to be an exhaustive or definitive timeline of such events or issues.

DavidYeagley.org

DavidYeagley.org
Han, Dr. Al Carroll,

I just read your essay, "Republicans Do Nothing for Indians But Kill Them" in the Yahoo Group Necessary Dissent. I am a half Blood, whole Spirit, Native, who was adopted out to, and abused by, (Republican) European people. I found a job - and published a book - where you did, at the University of Nebraska. It has been sheer hell here, but I found the Red Road, in the Oglala Lakota Way, and that made all the hell worthwhile. I am leaving that job now, to work for our people.

I am writing to tell you, OHAN!!!! for your essay. I am going to post it in every Native Internet Group in which I am involved. WOPILA!!!!

Mitakuye Oyasin,
Hante Unpan Winyan (Cedar Elk Woman)

Names

Han, Mitakuyepi,
Greetings, All My Relations,

Indigenous people receive different names over their lives. As you know, my ancestry is about half Indigenous to Turtle Island, but I was adopted to European Americans, as was my birth mother. So I cannot find out the extent of my ancestry, beyond half, and I cannot find out the particular Oyate, people - "named" variously "tribes" and "nations" and now we are returning to the original name that WE used for ourselves, people - with whom my ancestors lived, whose cultures and spiritualities they practiced, and sufferings and genocides they suffered. So I do not have those names, those particular Oyate names. An individual person is only a very small part of people. But I know more about names for me than about the names of my ancestors, or the names of the particular Oyate of which they were small parts.

You know already that, apart from Indigenous names, I have many, many, many names. But today I will talk briefly about my Indigenous names. A person is given their names by their Elders, or by a Wakan Wicasa or Wakan Winyan - a Sacred-Medicine Man or a Sacred-Medicine Woman - or because of dreams of visions that person has. These names are related to the characteristics of that person; to what that person does, or has done, or will do. The Wakan Wicasa or Wakan Winyan, or that person can know what they wil do through communication with Wakan Tanka, and the Wakan Spirits, in dreams or visions, for example.

My first Indigenous name was given to me by my Elder and Leksi, Hante Unpan Winyan, Cedar Elk Woman. Hante, Cedar. Cedar represents, purity and the East (from which I came). It is one of our four Wakan green relatives used for Wakan purposes. Hante, Cedar, can be burned for purification, of a place, an object, a person, a prayer, a gathering, a Ceremony. It can be mixed with other Wakan green relatives and burned, again, creating purification. Unpan, Female Elk (Black Elk, a man, is called Hehaka Sapa, Black Male Elk). I do not know much yet about what the four-legged relative Elk represents - though I have always thought they are very beautiful and strong and graceful, so I feel honored to be given this name. I do know that Elk, like Cedar, represent the East, from which I came.

Today, I want to tell you that I am taking a second Indigenous name. It did not come from a dream or a vision. It came from a lifetime of anger and rage, and grief and mourning, over what has been done to Indigenous people. This began as a child, before speech. We believe our ancestors speak to us in our blood. This would explain why I turned the television set to black when cowboys or cavalries hurt or killed "Indians". Why I was always on the side of Indians. Why I played Indians, not Cowboys. Why my adoptive grandmother who came from Norway by herself on a ship at age 18 to escape severe parental abuse, then inflicted on her chidren, including my adoptive mother, who inflicted it on me. But my adoptive grandmother and I loved each other strongly. She was tender and kind and gentle and loving with me alone. In her old age after a life of unimaginable hard work, she worked her "fingers to the bone" to make an Indian dress for me. I have no idea how she could have found the image to copy. But she did. Because the dress this elderly Norwegian woman, uneducated, unassimilated (though she forced her children to assimilate, forbidding them to speak Norwegian, punishing them for accents) was authentic. It had leather fringe at the hem, and at the bottom of the sleeves. It had teeth, rows and rows and rows of teeth, each sown on individually, circling the neck first, then continuing in ever widening circles to form a yolk. It had beadwork. It was fashioned, with her failing eyesight and arthritic hands, over who knows how many hours and evenings...because she wanted to make me, the little girl who loved Indians, happy. And she did, she did. I am crying now as I write this. So, from a child, from birth, my Ancestors were telling me I was an Indian. How we lived. What a village smelled like, sounded like, felt like. How I found shade in which to play. How happy I was there. What we ate, how we made it. How we rode horses - which I did passionately and obsessively until I turned that abuse onto myself, or tried to escape it, in self-destructive life, in slow suicide of alcoholism and drug abuse and addiction, in cutting my wrists with a razor blade to the bone, through the veins, through the tendons, to the bone. In taking the only thing I had in an empty apartment, a window, and breaking it, and using the broken glass to cut and stab and slash myself 241 times. How many Indians did these things? How many are doing them today? Walking to school with a boy named Benjy, meeting him at the orphanage in which he lived. We were walking to kindergarten or first grade so we were five years old. Benjy made me laugh. Benjy was my friend. So I could ask him, it was ok to ask him, why he was in the orphanage. Because he had accidentally shot out his brother's eye with a slingshot. Benjy is an Ojibwa, an Anishinabe. I pray he is in this world today. If he is not in this world today, he is in the Spirit World today. Han, Sic' Esi! Benjy and I said to each other, because we knew, at age five - he an Ojibwa, an Anishinabe, stolen, ripped, torn, wrenched, from his family and put in a prison for children; me, adopted out and being raised and abused by Europeans - we knew and said that he was put in an Orphanage because he shot his brother's eye out by accident with slingshot BECAUSE HE WAS AN INDIAN. We, wise ones walking to school at age five, said to each other, "If a white boy shot his brother's eye out by accident with a slingshot, they wouldn't have taken him away and put him in an Orphanage." I had never thought about Benji as an Indian. He was my friend. That was not my virtue. Where I grew up, there were only whites and Indians, and we didn't make distinctions. I have gone back many times and thought about all the people I grew up with from kindergarten through high school that I didn't think about as Indians, that no one thought about as Indians, that no one spoke about as Indians. They were kids, funny kids, guys, band guys, whatever. There were so many Indians I grew up with, adopted, not adopted, Rez, "Urban" - quite a stretch in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan - and I only lately began to realize it. I remember going to the reservations with my adoptive mother and her friends doing "charity". I remember going into a house on a rez with my adoptive mother in the winter. It was freezing outside and the same temperature inside. No windows, no heat. Having been "raised" to be polite, I waited until we were in the car and the doors were closed and the windows were rolled up and the car was started. Then I asked, "Why didn't they have windows? Why didn't they have heat? It's so cold!" I guess she said something to the effect that they were poor. She didn't buy them windows or a furnace and fuel. That's what Indians do. But at LEAST I don't remember her saying they were drunk or lazy and it was their fault.
However, I do remember another winter day, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, before global warming, high snow, below zero. Riding in a car with my adoptive mother. We saw, I am crying again and again and again as I write this, this time in shame, we saw an Indian man, unconscious in a snowbank beside the street. My instinct - a human instinct - the ONLY instinct I can understand, like getting windows and a furnace and fuel for that freezing family - was to stop the car, try to help him, and call an ambulance. I said something to her, to my adoptive mother. There's a man in the snow! He's sick or hurt! I assumed that she would stop and help him and call an ambulance. She kept driving. I was scared for him, confused by her. But there's a man! In the snow! He's sick or hurt! And she kept driving. I was under nine years old at the time because we still lived in Sault Ste. Marie, and we moved from there when I was nine. I couldn't - I didn't think - do anything myself. She was abusive. One did not disobey her. One did not do things without her permission. But I did WRONG that day. I did WRONG. My relative, wherever you are, please hear me when I say that I KNOW now, as I KNEW THEN, that I was doing WRONG by letting her keep driving. I KNEW BETTER. I KNEW YOU NEEDED HELP. I did WRONG AND I FEEL SHAME TO THIS DAY. Our people do not apologize. We do not ask for forgiveness. We just do not do it again. So, my relative, maybe you know, if you were in the Spirit World when this happened, if you are there now, that I did not do that again. I was in the back seat of the car, my adoptive father was driving, my adoptive mother in the front seat, and we passed an accident: a man and his motorcycle down on the highway, he was unconcious, it was the middle of the night, dark. I waited for my father to slow down and stop. He was not slowing down. I knew I would pay for this but I dared to tell my adoptive parents to do something. "Stop!!!! Stop!!!!" Nothing. So I opened the car door in the back seat. Yelling yelling: what do you think you're doing???? Shut that door!!!! Anger, anger. I put my foot out the door. A highway, 55 mies per hour. My father, confused, is starting to slow the car down. He is hurt, he needs help!!! Stop the car!!!! Back and forth the yelling, I keep the door open slowly moving to jump out of the car, my adoptive father slowly slowing the car down and I jumped out. I ran back to the man, and did the things I learned about accidents, unconciousness, don't move them, check for a pulse...someone else called an ambulance. I kept people away from the man. My adoptive father kept traffic away from the middle of the road where he and his motorcyle lay. I did this, my relative, because we do not apologize - I had not had that teaching yet, but my Ancestors were teaching me - we do not do it again.
So, many years later, I am on the Red Road. Wopila!!!! I can't find my "blood tribes" because the whites have gone to extremes to hide the fact that there were any Indians in my ancestry, much less half of my Ancestors, or my birth mother's ancestry. "English. Protestant." That is how both of my blood parents were described to my adopive parents. I could laugh at what a joke that is. How far from the truth. The lies, the trail of broken laws: the birth certificate without the name of my grandfather, illegal in Canada at least at the time, because he was a FULL BLOOD and I AM PROUD, the illegal adoption across the border from Canada, no record, no papers. The ancestry of my blood father, for whom I was not searching, came back in the papers, mixed blood, like me - I AM PROUD AGAIN - MORE INDIAN BLOOD IN ME. I am still trying to find "my blood tribes" so I can "get enrolled" and be an Indian in the eyes of the illegal occupation government of Turtle Island. I don't need to know. By this time I have a tribe, a people, a tiospaye, extended family. But one of them wants to know, because of her experiences as an Indian woman. So I have been spending many years researching my genealogy to find two things: my mixed blood father whom I have been told officially is a mixed blood, and who, in the photo I receive, has BLACK hair, BLACK eyes, DARK skin, is "officially" Scottish. His mother and father list themselves, on two censuses, as "Scottish". And with his mother and father, my grandmother and grandfather, the trail of lies goes cold. They disappear. They have no ancestors. She has come from Canada to the United States, "Scottish" nationality, "English" language. He has come from either Indiana - where Natives were not forced on trails of tears and broken treaties forced marches onto concentration camps in the West, because they are intermarried and they OWN property and stores and their white relatives OWN property and stores. But there is no record of someone of his name and birthdate being born in Indiana. Or even of his name. Or his birthdate. Or, he has come from Wisconsin. Again, if he was born in Wisconsin, there is no record. I am still looking. But the second thing I found is that they don't list tribes in any records, they list "nationality" and if you are an "Indian" they list you as an "Indian". But, I have started this search and I will continue. I am learning much along the way, so it is a good journey.
My name. Yesterday, after years of the rage, and the pain only people who have been hated, and killed for 514 years, physical genocide, cultural genocide, spiritual genocide, emotional genocide, intellectual genocide can feel, I was at a meeting, and a camp, where we are fighting an important battle, over Creator's most Wakan place, that we need to use for prayer and Ceremonies, that wasicus are destroying and desecrating - as always, for gold: the most Wakan Mountain in the Black Mountains, Wakan Mato Paha, Sacred Bear Butte, in the Wakan He Sapa. As I listened in the sun I cried with my Elders, with the Chiefs, who spoke powerful words of truth, tears of RAGE, tears of PAIN, tears of MOURNING, tears of GRIEF, tears of wanting to fight, Hoka he!!!! It is a good day to die!!!! Hoka he!!!! It is a good day for you to die. My three fires, spirit, mind, heart, were being expressed by my Elders by the Chiefs: they stole these lands, our cultures, our ways, our children, they killed 95% of us, now they want to destroy this most Sacred Mountain and today we say ENOUGH. Today we begin to fight back. Today is a battle in a war over this land, Creator's land, loaned to us by Creator, and by our childreen, as Crazy Horse says. You cannot sell land, as Crazy Horse says. So you cannot buy it. Or own it, but you can steal it, and misuse it and destroy it. Like you destroy a people. OR TRY TO DESTROY A PEOPLE.
So, I sat, a half BLOOD INDIAN RED RED, crying in grief and mourning, making my face RED, crying in RAGE, making my face RED, sitting long in the heat and sun, making my face RED, I gave myself a new name. Last night it was longer. Last night is was ENRAGED, MOURNING RED WOMAN. Then, I shortened it so it would stand for more. RED WOMAN. WINYAN LUTA. That is my newest name. It is male language to say hoka he! I will borrow it, for with this battle in this war, we are the attackers, after 514 years and tears, and trying to defend our selves, our cultures, our children, our lands, WE are beginning the battles, WE are rekindling our lives, our cultures, our traditions, our languages, our ways, our children, this WAR. We will win the ongoing "Indian Wars". ENOUGH. HOKE HE!!!!
Mitakuye Oyasin, Winyan Luta, RED WOMAN

The 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie: Preface

The 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie

The full text of the 1851 Treat of Fort Laramie is below. First, I want to say a few words of explanation and thanks - and some fighting words, too. At the moment I am part of a struggle to defend the most Sacred Mountain of all of Creator's Wakan He Sapa (Sacred Black Hills), Wakan Mato Paha, Sacred Bear Butte, from utter desecration and destruction at the hands of one or two or three illegal Capitalists who "own" land at the base of the most Sacred of these Sacred Mountains, and five illegal "County Commissioners" in "Meade County" "South Dakota" who have given them "permission" to do so. We are coming from all over Creator's land under U.S. control to protest this most Sacred of the most Sacred land for prayer and Ceremonies, the Heart of the Heart, of what we call Turtle Island. I know that these struggles must ultimately lead to the ultimate struggle, the ultimate problem: the fact that the U.S. took all of our land, including the land we need to support and sustain ourselves with sedentary and nomadic cultivation and hunting, and including the land we need because it is Spiritually Sacred for us, and as we need food, and clothing, and shelther, we need to pray, and have Ceremonies, and be alone with Nature, and Creator, and Creator's Creations.

I am posting the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie for several reasons. First, Mita Sic' Esi, My Brother, posted a comment reminding me to do so. Wopila, Sic' Esi, Great Gratitude, My Brother. This is a most critical Treaty. It is most critical because, like the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie it is still legal, still in effect, in law if not in fact. Why then, was the later Treaty of Fort Laramie signed? It is very easy to see, if you read the descriptions of land in the two Treaties, or look up the maps at the Canku Luta (Red Road) Website that provided this Treaty, and the address to which is provided here. In The 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, the United States Government still "gives" the He Sapa (Black Hills) including Mato Paha (Bear Butte) to Native Peoples ("Indian" "Nations"). However, the amount of land the United States Government "gives" to Native Nations in the Treaty of 1868 is FAR FAR LESS than the amount of land the United States Government "gives" to Native Nations in 1851. Still, BOTH Treaties are still legal and binding - in and of themselves. In addition, the United States Congress passed an Act in 1871, which ended the practice of making Treaties with Native Nations - beginning our treatment as "Domestic Dependent Nations" or Internal Colonies. However, this same Act of Congress also ratified, in perpetuity, ALL TREATIES BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND NATIVE NATIONS. Why did Congress do this? Why did it give the "rich" - for Capitalists - Black Hills to Natives? Why does the United States and Capitalists now "own" the most Wakan He Sapa, Sacred Black Hills, despite these two legal, binding, and permanent Treaties, and this legal, binding, and permanent Act of Congress?

General George Armstrong Custer was not content to battle and massacre Natives. In 1874, AFTER the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie and the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie and the 1871 Act of Congress made them permantent International Treaties, which included the stipulation that "no white man" could enter the land the United States had "given" to Natives, General George Armstrong Custer led an illegal expedition into the Wakan He Sapa, the Sacred Black Hills, to seek and find gold. GOLD. The reason Columbus came here 514 years ago. The reason 95% of the original inhabitants of the two continents named after a European mapmaker were killed A.C. After Columbus, After Contact, After Conquest, After Colonization, After Capitalism. When Custer found gold in the Wakan He Sapa, the Sacred Black Hills, he found the only thing Capitalism and Capitalists find sacred. He started an illegal gold rush into the Sacred Black Hills. An illegal gold rush into the Sacred Black Hills that began in 1874, and continues to deprive us of the land the United States "gave" us in the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, and the 1871 Act of Congress, an illegal gold rush that continues to desecrate and destroy these Spiritually Sacred Black Hills for gold, coal, uranium, tourism, an annual weeklong motorcycle rally with half a million or more participants - which would be fine, but now three men "own" land at the base of the most Sacred Black Hill, and they intend to build there, where we must pray and have Ceremonies in silence, along with Creator's Nature and Creator, and the Meade County Commission has "given permission" for them to do these things at the base of the most Sacred Black Hill: bars, selling beer and liquor and featuring strip contests, one 22,000 square feet; parking lots for cars and motorcycles, one the same size as that bar; two concert arenas, the "biggest in the Black Hills" - to seat 40,000 people...within a mile across the silent prarie and farm lands from the most Sacred Black Hill.

This is where I have been. This is what I have been doing. And, Wakan Tanka, the Wakan Spirits, and my Elders and our people willing, what I will be doing from now on, is struggling to compel the United States to enforce its own Treaties, its own Act of Congress, and let us use Creator's land for our material survival, for our cultural survival, and for our Spiritual Survival.

Mitakuye Oyasin, Hante Unpan Winyan (Cedar Elk Woman)

1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie

TREATY OF FORT LARAMIE

September 17, 1851

Articles of a treaty made and concluded at Fort Laramie, in the Indian Territory, between D. D. Mitchell, superintendent of Indian affairs, and Thomas Fitzpatrick, Indian agent, commissioners specially appointed and authorized by the President of the United States, of the first part, and the chiefs, headmen, and braves of the following Indian nations, residing south of the Missouri River, east of the Rocky Mountains, and north of the lines of Texas and New Mexico, viz, the Sioux or Dahcotahs, Cheyennes, Arrapahoes, Crows, Assinaboines, Gros-Ventre Mandans, and Arrickaras, parties of the second part, on the seventeenth day of September, A.D. one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one. (a)

ARTICLE 1. The aforesaid nations, parties to this treaty, having assembled for the purpose of establishing and confirming peaceful relations amongst themselves, do hereby covenant and agree to abstain in future from all hostilities whatever against each other, to maintain good faith and friendship in all their mutual intercourse, and to make an effective and lasting peace.

ARTICLE 2. The aforesaid nations do hereby recognize the right of the United States Government to establish roads, military and other posts, within their respective territories.

ARTICLE 3. In consideration of the rights and privileges acknowledged in the preceding article, the United States bind themselves to protect the aforesaid Indian nations against the commission of all depredations by the people of the said United States, after the ratification of this treaty.

ARTICLE 4. The aforesaid Indian nations do hereby agree and bind themselves to make restitution or satisfaction for any wrongs committed, after the ratification of this treaty, by any band or individual of their people, on the people of the United States, whilst lawfully residing in or passing through their respective territories.

ARTICLE 5. The aforesaid Indian nations do hereby recognize and acknowledge the following tracts of country, included within the metes and boundaries hereinafter designated, as their respective territories, viz;

The territory of the Sioux or Dahcotah Nation, commencing the mouth of the White Earth River, on the Missouri River; thence in a southwesterly direction to the forks of the Platte River; thence up the north fork of the Platte River to a point known as the Red Buts, or where the road leaves the river; thence along the range of mountains known as the Black Hills, to the head-waters of Heart River; thence down Heart River to its mouth; and thence down the Missouri River to the place of beginning.

The territory of the Gros Ventre, Mandans, and Arrickaras Nations, commencing at the month of Heart River; thence up the Missouri River to the mouth of the Yellowstone River; thence up the Yellowstone River to the mouth of Powder River in a southeasterly direction, to the head-waters of the Little Missouri River; thence along the Black Hills to the head of Heart River, and thence down Heart River to the place of beginning.

The territory of the Assinaboin Nation, commencing at the mouth of Yellowstone River; thence up the Missouri River to the mouth of the Muscle-shell River; thence from the mouth of the Muscle-shell River in a southeasterly direction until it strikes the head-waters of Big Dry Creek; thence down that creek to where it empties into the Yellowstone River, nearly opposite the mouth of Powder River, and thence down the Yellowstone River to the place of beginning.

The territory of the Blackfoot Nation, commencing at the mouth of Muscle-shell River; thence up the Missouri River to its source; thence along the main range of the Rocky Mountains, in a southerly direction, to the head-waters of the northern source of the Yellowstone River; thence down the Yellowstone River to the mouth of Twenty-five Yard Creek; thence across to the head-waters of the Muscle-shell River, and thence down the Muscle-shell River to the place of beginning.

The territory of the Crow Nation, commencing at the mouth of Powder River on the Yellowstone; thence up Powder River to its source; thence along the main range of the Black Hills and Wind River Mountains to the head-waters of the Yellowstone River; thence down the Yellowstone River to the mouth of Twenty-five Yard Creek; thence to the head waters of the Muscle-shell River; thence down the Muscle-shell River to its mouth; thence to the head-waters of Big Dry Creek, and thence to its mouth.

The territory of the Cheyennes and Arrapahoes, commencing at the Red Bute, or the place where the road leaves the north fork of the Platte River; thence up the north fork of the Platte River to its source; thence along the main range of the Rocky Mountains to the head-waters of the Arkansas River; thence down the Arkansas River to the crossing of the Santa Fe' road; thence in a northwesterly direction to the forks of the Platte River, and thence up the Platte River to the place of beginning.

It is, however, understood that, in making this recognition and acknowledgement, the aforesaid Indian nations do not hereby abandon or prejudice any rights or claims they may have to other lands; and further, that they do not surrender the privilege of hunting, fishing, or passing over any of the tracts of country heretofore described.

ARTICLE 6. The parties to the second part of this treaty having selected principals or head-chiefs for their respective nations, through whom all national business will hereafter be conducted, do hereby bind themselves to sustain said chiefs and their successors during good behavior.

ARTICLE 7. In consideration of the treaty stipulations, and for the damages which have or may occur by reason thereof to the Indian nations, parties hereto, and for their maintenance and the improvement of their moral and social customs, the United States bind themselves to deliver to the said Indian nations the sum of fifty thousand dollars per annum for the term of ten years, with the right to continue the same at the discretion of the President of the United States for a period not exceeding five years thereafter, in provisions merchandise, domestic animals, and agricultural implements, in such proportions as may be deemed best adapted to their condition by the President of the United States, to be distributed in proportion to the population of the aforesaid Indian nations.

ARTICLE 8. It is understood and agreed that should any of the Indian nations, parties to this treaty, violate any of the provisions thereof, the United States may withhold the whole or a portion of the annuities mentioned in the preceding article from the nation so offending, until, in the opinion of the President of the United States, proper satisfaction shall have been made.

In testimony whereof the said D. D. Mitchell and Thomas Fitzpatrick commissioners as aforesaid, and the chiefs, headmen, and braves, parties hereto, have set their hands and affixed their marks, on the day and at the place first above written.

D. D. Mitchell
Thomas Fitzpatrick
Commissioners.
Sioux:
Mah-toe-wha-you-whey, his x mark,
Mah-kah-toe-zah-zah, his x mark,
Bel-o-ton-kah-tan-ga, his x mark,
Nah-ka-pah-gi-gi, his x mark,
Mak-toe-sah-bi-chis, his x mark,
Meh-wha-tah-ni-hans-kah, his x mark,

Cheyennes:
Wah-ha-nis-satta, his x mark,
Voist-ti-toe-vetz, his x mark,
Nahk-ko-me-ien, his x mark,
Koh-kah-y-wh-cum-est, his x mark,

Arrapahoes:
Be-ah-te‚-a-qui-sah, his x mark,
Neb-ni-bah-seh-it, his x mark,
Beh-kah-jay-beth-sah-es, his x mark,

Crows:
Arra-tu-ri-sash, his x mark,
Doh-chepit-seh-chi-es, his x mark,
Assinaboines:
Mah-toe-wit-ko, his x mark,
Toe-tah-ki-eh-nan, his x mark,
Mandans and Gros Ventres:
Nochk-pit-shi-toe-pish, his x mark,
She-oh-mant-ho, his x mark,

Arickarees:
Koun-hei-ti-shan, his x mark,
Bi-atch-tah-wetch, his x mark,

In the presence of---

A. B. Chambers, secretary.
S. Cooper, colonel, U. S. Army.
R. H. Chilton, captain, First Drags.
Thomas Duncan, captain, Mounted Rifiemen.
Thos. G. Rhett, brevet captain R. M. R.
W. L. Elliott, first lieutenant R. M. R.
C. Campbell, interpreter for Sioux.
John S. Smith, interpreter for Cheyennes.
Robert Meldrum, interpreter for the Crows.
H. Culbertson, interpreter for Assiniboines and Gros Ventres.
Francois L'Etalie, interpreter for Arickarees.
John Pizelle, interpreter for the Arrapahoes.
B. Gratz Brown.
Robert Campbell.
Edmond F. Chouteau.

(a) This treaty as signed was ratified by the Senate with an amendment changing the annuity in Article 7 from fifty to ten years, subject to acceptance by the tribes. Assent of all tribes except the Crows was procured (see Upper Platte C., 570, 1853, Indian Office) and in subsequent agreements this treaty has been recognized as in force (see post p. 776).

Map Legend:

Lakota Nation: Reserved by the 1868 Treaty for the unreserved use of the Lakota people

1876: Lakota reservation after the US stole the Black Hills

Lakota reservations after 100 years of court actions

Cankú Lúta, a national 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded by Tokalas, is committed to education, service, and preservation of American Indian Culture.
http://www.canku-luta.org/PineRidge/laramie_treaty/html

To see the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie:
http://www.canku-luta.org [or in another Blog entry in this Blog]
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