Native American History, 1942 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80302 (2024)

28/03/2024

Jay Silverheels (born Harold Jay Smith; May 26, 1912 – March 5, 1980) was an Indigenous Canadian actor and athlete. He was well known for his role as Tonto, the Native American companion of the Lone Ranger in the American Western television series The Lone Ranger.

28/03/2024

A SQUAD OF FOUR CHEYENNE DOG SOLDIERS:
These "Dog Men" were a Southern Cheyenne military organization. One of six Cheyenne warrior societies, Dog Soldiers were responsible for both the tribe's internal and external security. Bravest of the brave, their dedication to this way of life had a monk like immersion. Their bodies were simply a vessel to deliver what was necessary to protect the tribe. Renown for staking themselves to dead ground (can neither advance or retreat) during battles, they could not unpin themselves; could only be relieved by another DS, or their party had left the scene completely. With eagle bone whistles in their mouths, they would blow them during the fight. When a whistle went silent in a certain section of the battlefield, the others would know that warrior X had fallen. He would have sung his death song, well in advance of that moment and no longer thought of home.
Meanwhile, in terms of internal security, they were dispatched in the camp to get straddlers up to speed on moving day. Families who dragged their feet in the packing up process would receive a visit. Their mere appearance would get the message across. Step on it. Likewise, before a big hunt they would check up on the young warriors, to make sure none of them sneaked away to get the first kill and stampede the herd. Imagine the US national interdiction team and you will have an idea as to the level of responsibility they bore. Feared by reputation, they numbered no more than 500 at their peak.

28/03/2024

Short Bull
(1845 – 1923)
Tataŋka Ptečela or Short Bull was born around 1845 at Pass Creek on today's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. His family - nothing else is known about his parents - belonged to the Brulé Wazhazha band of chief Lips. By reservation workers and ethnologists Short Bull, is described as a friendly, gentle and benevolent personality. Nevertheless, as a reservation Indian, he always represented traditional values of Lakota culture.
1888 and 1889 were hard years for the Lakota. The reservation was haunted by droughts and epidemics, and the Washington government had passed the "General Allotment Act", and the Lakotas lost to two-thirds of its land base. In addition, food rations had been cut. At the beginning of 1889, the Lakotas heard of a prophet and his new religion. For the first time the desperate Lakota drew hope. In March 1889, a council meeting, attended by the chiefs of the Pine Ridge, the Rosebud and the Cheyenne River Reservation, determined eleven scouts who were sent to Wovoka to get to know his teachings. Among the pilgrims who made their way to Nevada in the fall were Short Bull and his friend and brother-in-law Kicking Bear, a cousin of Crazy Horses. After their return in March 1890, Short Bull and Kicking Bear were invited by many Oglala, Hunkpapa and Brulé chieftains to introduce Wovoka’s teachings to their camps. The Brulés Crow Dog and Two Strike were among the first to be introduced into the new religion by Short Bull. Big Road and Little Wound, two prominent Oglala leaders, also supported the new religion.
After the tragic events at Wounded Knee Creek in December 1890, Short Bull, Kicking Bear and another 25 Ghost Dancers were imprisoned in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, in January 1891. In the following weeks, the causes of the events as well as the sanctions for the Lakotas were publicly discussed. William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, who had very good relations with General Miles, smelled a chance for his "Wild West" company. Cody offered to take the Ghost Dancers on a European tour. When the imprisoned Indians were offered the alternative "detention or Wild West Show", 23 declared ready to go with Cody. On April 1, 1891 Buffalo Bill left with his "Indians" on the steamship S.S. Switzerland the United States to tour Europe.
From the daily life of Short Bull during this time hardly any details are known. However on this tour, the first detailed report about the Ghost Dance from the perspective of a participant emerged. Short Bull dictated a twenty-page text to the Lakota interpreter George C. Crager (or Craiger), provided by Crager with the title "As Narrated by Short Bull." According to Crager and a census in 1891/92 Short Bull had at that time two wives (Plenty Shell and Comes out) and 5 sons and a daughter living near Wounded Knee. One of his sons was John Short Bull(in 1911: 24 years old). His native Name was Shot-to-Pieces (--> Wounded Knee?)
At the beginning of 1892, some of the Lakota prisoners of war found that the eleven-month absence of their family was punishment more than enough. On March 4, 1892, Cody and 24 Indians, including Short Bull and eleven other Ghost Dancers, sailed on the S.S. Corean home. When Short Bull and Kicking Bear had hoped that they could return to their families, they saw themselves deceived. When the ship docked at Brooklyn Harbor on March 18, soldiers marched up and arrested the 12 Ghost Dance prisoners again. After long public discussions the two "fathers of the Lakota Ghost Dances" were released in October 1892.
Short Bull returned to South Dakota where he settled at Pass Creek. Because of a border clearance, this land was part of the Pine Ridge Reservation since 1890. From then on Short Bull - although Brulé Lakota – was considered an Oglala by outsiders.
About 1902 Short Bull and Kicking Bear visited Wovoka again. In the same year they travelled to Poplar to teach the Assiniboine Fred Robinson the Ghost Dance religion. What makes the conclusion, that both have remained true to the ghost dance.
In 1913 he met his old employer William Cody again, who had founded the "Col. Wm. F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) Historical Picture Co.". This company filmed in 1913 the film “The Indian Wars”. Cody also wanted to film the massacre at Wounded Knee Creek at the original battlegrounds. This encountered the resistance of Oglalas. But Cody solved the problem. Over his old employees, including Iron Tail, No Neck and Short Bull, he invited the most ardent people to a meeting and after a big feast he got their consent. Today no complete copy of the movie is known.
In his later years Short Bull was known as Arnold Short Bull. On July 6, 1923 he died in his home on Pine Ridge. Even though he turned to the Protestant Congregationalists in his last years, Short Bull remained faithful to the doctrine of Wovoka all his life

27/03/2024

Daughters of a Navajo silversmith. ca. 1930-1940. Photo by Frasher's Fotos

27/03/2024

Chief Hollow Horn (Matȟó Héȟloǧeča). Brulé Lakota. ca. 1900. Photo taken in Washington, DC. Source - University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center.

27/03/2024

Ernie LaPointe is a Lakota Native American who claimed to be the great-grandson of the legendary Sitting Bull - the Hunkpapa Lakota leader who routed General Custer and 5 of his companies at the battle of Little Bighorn. His claims were proven true by a DNA analysis, which compared Laponte's DNA with that found on Sitting Bull's scalp lock. Finding a way to extract usable DNA from the scalp lock took 14 years, as the specimen was extremely degraded. This was the first time in history that ancient DNA confirmed a familial relationship between a living and historical individual. LaPointe based his claims on birth and death certificates, as well as his family tree. Ernie is now looking to further his efforts towards the reburial of Sitting Bull, who he believes to be buried in Mobridge, South Dakota, a place which he claims has no historical relation to Sitting Bull.

26/03/2024

En el mundo prehispánico, los tatuajes eran considerados un símbolo de valentía, pues en aquellos tiempos se hacían con espinas de cactus. Los tatuajes, además, contaban historias, leyendas y hazañas y, cuando se veía a una persona con un tatuaje, de inmediato se sabía que tenía algo que contar. La Iglesia Católica trató de “satanizar” el uso de tatuajes y, si bien aún hay mucha gente que asocia el tatuaje con la delincuencia, los mexicanos no le tememos a llevar historias escritas en nuestra piel.
Bañarse 2 veces al dia
Al llegar los españoles a nuestro continente notaron que la población era extremadamente limpia y que, además de bañarse dos veces por día en ríos y arroyos, todas las casas contaban con un temazcalli (una casa donde se suda, en náhuatl). Y que ambas cosas eran parte de la rutina diaria de aseo personal. Cabe destacar el contraste con las costumbres de los españoles, que casi ni se bañaban.
Lavarse los dientes después de cada comida.
Es bien sabido que los nativos del continente americano siempre fueron muy limpios, y el cuidado de los dientes no fue la excepción. Para ello usaban una mezcla de miel y cenizas de tortilla, ya que la miel es antibacteriana y las cenizas funcionan como un pulidor para los dientes. Los españoles se mostraron muy sorprendidos al notar las sonrisas blanquísimas de los indígenas quienes, además, conservaban su dentadura hasta la muerte.
Llama “escuincles” a los niños.
El Xoloitzcuintle es una raza de perro nativa de México. Estos perritos carecen de pelaje y pueden tener tres tamaños distintos. Son perros que de pequeños son muy inquietos, celosos y hasta groseros con los desconocidos, aunque muy cariñosos con su dueño.
Comer raspados.
Se cuenta que el Señor Motecuhzoma II, Señor de Tenochtitlan, ordenaba traer nieve desde el volcán Popocatépetl solo para que le fuera preparado un manjar hecho de nieve, jarabe de frutas, flores, vainilla o miel. Era un postre tan exclusivo que solo la nobleza podía consumirlo. En nuestros días, y aunque siguen siendo un manjar de reyes ¡todos podemos acceder a los deliciosos raspados!.
Hablar en diminutivo.
Los pueblos originarios se expresaban con los niños de una manera más cariñosa que con el resto de la gente, llamándolos con apodos tiernos como cocoton (migajita en náhuatl), o nishi (pequeño en hñahñu). Esta es una costumbre ha sobrevivido hasta nuestros días, no solo en nuestro trato a los más pequeñitos, sino en el uso que hacemos de los diminutivos en nuestro día a día. ¡Ahorita ya sabes de dónde viene esta costumbre!
Beber agua de frutas.
Esta costumbre les resultó muy extraña a los europeos, puesto que allá no se conocía la enorme variedad de frutas que hay en México. Era (¡y es!) tal la abundancia de frutos que, además de comerlas, nos podemos dar el lujo de mezclarlas con agua o con miel para tomarlas.
Comer tortilla y picante.
Los mexicanos no podemos pasar un día sin comer tortilla o picante. Lo hemos heredado de nuestros padres y ellos de sus ancestros. La comida nativa no sufrió grandes transformaciones desde la invasión europea y solo se le agregaron nuevos ingredientes llegados de otros continentes. Estas adiciones mejoraron los sabores y, aunque crearon algunos alimentos nuevos, la esencia es la misma hasta nuestros días. Creéme que la historia de nuestro pueblo se podría contar a través de la tortilla y el picante…

26/03/2024

A VERY WORTHY READ!
Keanu Reeves was abandoned by his father at 3 years old and grew up with 3 different stepfathers. He is dyslexic. His dream of becoming a hockey player was shattered by a serious accident. His daughter died at birth. His wife died in a car accident. His best friend, River Phoenix, died of an overdose. His sister has leukemia.
And with everything that has happened, Keanu Reeves never misses an opportunity to help people in need. When he was filming the movie "The Lake House," he overheard the conversation of two costume assistants; One cried because he would lose his house if he did not pay $20,000 and on the same day Keanu deposited the necessary amount in the woman's bank account; He also donated stratospheric sums to hospitals.
In 2010, on his birthday, Keanu walked into a bakery and bought a brioche with a single candle, ate it in front of the bakery, and offered coffee to people who stopped to talk to him.
After winning astronomical sums for the Matrix trilogy, the actor donated more than $50 million to the staff who handled the costumes and special effects - the true heroes of the trilogy, as he called them.
He also gave a Harley-Davidson to each of the stunt doubles. A total expense of several million dollars. And for many successful films, he has even given up 90% of his salary to allow the production to hire other stars.
In 1997 some paparazzi found him walking one morning in the company of a homeless man in Los Angeles, listening to him and sharing his life for a few hours.
Most stars when they make a charitable gesture they declare it to all the media. He has never claimed to be doing charity, he simply does it as a matter of moral principles and not to look better in the eyes of others.
This man could buy everything, and instead every day he gets up and chooses one thing that cannot be bought: To be a good person.
Keanu Reeves’ father is of Native Hawaiian descent

26/03/2024

A LAUGH FOR TODAY❤
When NASA was preparing for the Apollo moon landings of the late 60s and early 70s, they did some astronaut training along a Navajo Indian reservation in the SW. One day, a Navajo elder and his grandson were herding animals and came across the space crew. The old man, who only spoke Navajo, asked a question, which the grandson translated: "What are the guys in the big suits doing?" A member of the crew said they were practicing for their trip to the moon." Then, recognizing a promotional opportunity for the spin-doctors, added, "We will be leaving behind a special record with greetings in many languages and such. Would the old man be interested in giving us a greeting to include?"
Upon translation, the old man got really excited and was thrilled at the idea of sending a message to the moon with the astronauts. The NASA folks produced a tape recorder and the old man recorded his message at which the grandson fought back the urge to laugh... but he refused to translate.
After Apollo 11 had successfully landed on the moon and brought its astronauts homes, a new group were training in the desert when one of the NASA officials recognized the Navajo elder and his grandson and went to tell them that the old man's message was indeed on the moon which was met with laughter.
Finally, the NASA rep caught on that not everything was as simple as he had originally thought and asked for a translation. With a chuckle the youngster replied: "Beware of white man; they come to steal your land!"

25/03/2024

This is Jim Thorpe, the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for his country. Looking closely at this photo, you can see he wear different socks and shoes. Not because of his fashion sense. This photo was taken in 1912, when Jim, a Native American from Oklahoma, represented the United States in athletics at the Olympics that summer.
On the morning of the match, his shoes were stolen. Luckily, Jim found two different shoes in a trash can. Those are the two shoes he is wearing in the photo. But one of those shoes was a little too big, so he had to put on a few more socks.
Wearing these clunky shoes, Jim won two gold medals that day. The person who stole the shoes must have not expected that instead of causing him to fail, they would bring him glory. This is a reminder to all of us that we can overcome any difficulty in life if we try.

25/03/2024

Rodney Arnold Grant (born March 9, 1959) is an American actor.
Rodney Arnold Grant, a Native American, was raised on the Omaha Reservation in Macy, Nebraska. He is probably most well known for his role as "Wind In His Hair" in the 1990 film Dances with Wolves. He has also appeared in other films such as John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars, Wild Wild West, Geronimo: An American Legend, White Wolves III: Cry of the White Wolf, Wagons East!, The Substitute, War Party, and Powwow Highway. In television, he played the part of "Chingachgook" in the series Hawkeye that aired in 1994-1995. He has also had guest roles in a television series such as Due South, Two, and the Stargate SG-1 episode "Spirits". He also portrayed the famous warrior Crazy Horse in the 1991 television movie Son of the Morning Star.
Rodney Arnold Grant is a member of the Omaha tribe of Nebraska. He has been very active in youth activities and had served on the Native American Advisory Board for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. He has five grown children, three from a previous marriage, and two from previous relationships. He currently resides in southern California.
Mr Grant illustrates a clash of cultures here at an awards ceremony, by appearing in both the customary evening attire and a traditional headdress. Blessed are those who know themselves, and remember where they came from.

25/03/2024

“Before I was six years old, my grandparents and my mother had taught me that if all the green things that grow were taken from the earth, there could be no life. If all the four-legged creatures were taken from the earth, there could be no life. If all the winged creatures were taken from the earth, there could be no life. If all our relatives who crawl and swim and live within the earth were taken away, there could be no life. But if all the human beings were taken away, life on earth would flourish. That is how insignificant we are.”
Russell Means, Oglala Lakota Nation (November 10, 1939 – October 22, 2012).

24/03/2024

In Loving Memory of our Brother Larry Sellers 1949– 2021. Best Known for Dr Quinn Medicine Woman. RNCI Board member from 1995 – 2021.
‘My deepest condolences to Larry’s family. I have known Larry since the late 70’s. He was a dear friend and brother to me. Larry served on our RNCI Board of Directors since the beginning and and most recently moved to serve on RNCI Advisory Board. He was a Sundancer and Chanunpa carrier.’ 🙏🏾 Joanelle Romero.
(1949 – 2021)
Osage, Cherokee, and Lakota. Traditional ceremonial leader, actor and stuntman who played the leading Indian role Cloud Dancing (for which he received an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor) in the popular series “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman”. While on Dr. Quinn, Sellers is credited as the show’s Native American Consultant!

24/03/2024

Actor, film director, film producer and musician Keanu Charles Reeves (Keanu Charles Reeves),
Missed the first 20 minutes of the party dedicated to the end of filming of his new film in one of the clubs in New York.
He waited patiently in the rain to be let in.
No one recognized him.
The club owner said: "I didn't even know Keanu was standing in the rain waiting to be let in - he didn't say anything to anyone."
"He travels by public transport".
"He easily communicates with homeless people on the street and helps them".
- He is only 58 years old (September 2, 1964)
- He can just eat a hot dog in the park, sitting between ordinary people.
- After filming one of the "Matrix", he gave all the stuntmen a new motorcycle - in recognition of their skill.
- He gave up most of the fee for the salaries of costume designers and computer scientists who draw special effects in "The Matrix" - decided that their share of participation in the budget of the film was underestimated.
- He reduced his fee in the film The Devil's Advocate" to have enough money to invite Al Pacino.
- Almost at the same time his best friend died; his girlfriend lost a child and soon died in a car accident, and his sister fell ill with leukemia.
Keanu did not break: he donated $5 million to the clinic that treated his sister, refused to shoot (to be with her), and created the Leukemia Foundation, donating significant sums from each fee for the film.
You can be born a man, but to remain one..
Also Read About Keanu
Keanu Reeves’ father is of Native Hawaiian descent...
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24/03/2024

"Sioux Chief Long Wolf & Family", ca. 1880.
~ “A Stranger Hears Last Wish of a Sioux Chief
Long Wolf went to London with Buffalo Bill's show and died there in 1892. Thanks to the struggles of a British homemaker, his remains will be returned home.”
May 28, 1997 |WILLIAM D. MONTALBANO
TIMES STAFF WRITER
BROMSGROVE, England — “After a restless century in a melancholy English graveyard, the remains--and the spirit--of a Sioux chief named Long Wolf are returning to his ancestral home in America because one stranger cared.
The stranger is a 56-year-old English homemaker named Elizabeth Knight, who lives in a small row house with her husband, Peter, a roof repairer in this Worcestershire village near Birmingham.
"I am a very ordinary sort of person," she said.
The sort who writes letters, not e-mail, who makes no long-distance phone calls, has no fancy degrees, has little worldly experience, who never gets her name in the papers. The sort who turns detective and historian and raises a transatlantic fuss because her heart is moved and her sense of fair play is outraged.
This is the story of how heirs of Middle England and the Wild West have joined forces to fulfill a dying wish made more than a century ago.
For Knight, the story began the day in 1991 that she bought an old book in a market near her house. There was a 1923 story by a Scottish adventurer named R. B. Cunninghame Graham that began this way: "In a lone corner of a crowded London cemetery, just at the end of a smoke-stained Greco-Roman colonnade under a poplar tree, nestles a neglected grave."
In the grave, under a stylized cross and the howling image of his namesake, lies Long Wolf. He died at 59 in a London hospital on June 11, 1892, the victim of bronchial pneumonia contracted in what was then a crowded, dark, gloomy, industrial city as far as anywhere on Earth from the Great Plains of North America.
"I was moved. I kept taking the book down, imagining Long Wolf lying there amid the ranks of pale faces

24/03/2024

American Indian Dog
It’s not a wolf, and it’s not a coyote; it’s an American Indian dog. These working companion animals were almost lost to history after our American Indians were segregated onto reservations, and often left without the resources necessary to maintain the ancient breed. There is now growing interest in restoring the old lines of these beautiful canines.

23/03/2024

The well-known Comanche elder Post Oak Jim (Tahkahper) was born in1865 and passed away in 1950.
In his long life, Post Oak was known as an excellent singer of Comanche songs, a storied dancer, a pe**te leader, and a very fine horseman.
As a youngster, he had arrived at the KCA reservation with other Comanches. From the 1880's onward, tribal members recalled Post Oak Jim as a man of strength. As a cattleman and farmer, Jim lived in his home located around a half-mile west of Cache Creek. He was a cousin to Topay. Topay was the last surviving wife of Chief Quanah Parker.
The Texas born Knox Beal, who served as an Indian Agency interpreter, shared the following about Post Oak Jim:
"In the young days, he was quite a horseman. Many times he has held wild horses for me while I got on. He would ride them with ease." Knox added "He was liked by all and everyone who knew him."
Even though Post Oak Jim lived the final three years of his long life in blindness at his home, he still faced life with much courage.
Wonderful picture of the full-blooded Comanche elder Post Oak Jim. In his younger years, he held great skill with his rope and horse. As Jim had worked as a tribal policeman at the sub-Indian Agency in Cache, Oklahoma, he nearly lived all year in his teepee. Photograph courtesy of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas. Additional information from the Lawton Morning Press, Times Record News, Wichita Falls, Texas, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

23/03/2024

Chief Running Rabbit
Aatsista-Mahkan or Running Rabbit (c. 1833 – probably 24 January 1911) was a chief of the Siksika First Nation. He was the son of Akamukai (Many Swans), chief of the Biters band, and following the death of his father in 1871, Aatsista-Mahkan took control of the band. He was known for his generosity and kindness, and for his loyal protection of his family.
In 1877 , he was a signatory to Treaty 7, but he and his people continued to follow the bison until 1881, when he and his people were designated to settle on a reserve, 60 miles east of today's Calgary, Alberta.
Running Rabbit was born into a prominent family. His older brother Many Swans, who took their father's name, was chief of Biters band of Siksikas to which they belonged. As a teenager and young warrior, Running Rabbit had not performed any great deeds worthy of recognition until his brother lent him an amulet said to have spiritual powers made from a mirror decorated with eagle feathers, ermine skins, and magpie feathers. Running Rabbit was successful during his first ever raid as a warrior, gaining himself two enemy horses which he captured and gifted to Many Swans. Similar success during following expeditions resulted in Many Swans giving Running Rabbit the amulet as a gift. Word of Running Rabbit's success spread throughout the Biters band and many referred to him as the "young chief" before he earned or was appointed any leadership position in the band.

23/03/2024

The Texas state legislator and Indian agent Robert Simpson Neighbors had been seen as a principled and honorable protector of native rights given by treaty. In the 1840's, he visited with Comanches in their homelands and spent time to understand them. In 1847, he became a special Indian agent with a federal appointment and participated in several councils with Comanches. Neighbors observed that Comanches had a high-spirited way about them and seemed to approach life with passion. In 1853, the Indian agent Robert Neighbors also penned the following about the generosity of the Comanche people:
"From the liberality with which they dispose of their effects" on ceremonial occasions, "it would induce the belief that they acquire property merely for the purpose of giving it to others."
Unique hand colored cabinet photograph. It is entitled "Two Comanche Women, Fort Sill, Oklahoma Territory, circa 1890. By George A. Addison, Fort Sill photographer

22/03/2024

Crazy Horse – A Sacred Hero
Crazy Horse was born on the Republican River about 1845. He was killed at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, in 1877, so that he lived barely thirty-three years.
He was an uncommonly handsome man. While not the equal of Gall in magnificence and imposing stature, he was physically perfect, an Apollo in symmetry. Furthermore he was a true type of Indian refinement and grace. He was modest and courteous as Chief Joseph; the difference is that he was a born warrior, while Joseph was not. However, he was a gentle warrior, a true brave, who stood for the highest ideal of the Sioux [Lakota.] Notwithstanding all that biased historians have said of him, it is only fair to judge a man by the estimate of his own people rather than that of his enemies.

22/03/2024

RARE and magnificent hand-tinted portrait of Northern Cheyenne Chief Two Moon, circa 1879. A headdress of 80 or so feathers would be worn only by a respected warrior. An eagle has 12 tail feathers, and probably only the longest four feathers were utilized. Two Moon led his band at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in June 1876. In April 1877, he surrendered to Col. Nelson A. Miles, commander of Fort Keogh in eastern Montana.

22/03/2024

Frank Howling Wolf. Cheyenne? 1913. Photo by Williams. Source - Princeton Digital Library.

21/03/2024

Herman Asenap (Grey Foot) was a respected tribal leader. He was a skilled interpreter for the Post Oak Mission and the U.S. Indian Service. He shared that his father was a Mexican captive who was believed taken as a young child in the mid-1860's. Herman's mother was a full blood Kwahada Comanche named Tahchockah who was born around 1858.
Similar in a way to the history of Herman Asenap's father, the remarkable Comanche elder Herkeyah (Carrying Her Sunshade) was captured as a young girl in old Mexico. She had also lived an incredible and fascinating life as a Comanche captive and Comanche woman.
With regard to Herkeyah's memory of an intense encounter between Herman's mother Tahchockah and the Tonkawas, she recounted that his mother was running away from several Tonkawa scouts who were in high pursuit of her. In the tail of her horse, Tahchockah effectively tied a knot and drove her horse into the water. As the Tonkawas were closing in, she held strongly onto the tail and made her way safely across the flooded creek. The encounter is very much indicative of the strength and character of Comanche women.
Amazing picture entitled "Two Comanche Women and a small child" by George Addison, ca. 1890-1895. Photograph courtesy of the Missouri History Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri.

21/03/2024

Chief Sitting Bull of the Hunkpapa Lakota and his family at Ft. Randall, South Dakota. 1883. Rear L–R Good Feather Woman (sister), Walks Looking (daughter) front L–R Her Holy Door (mother), Sitting Bull, Many Horses (daughter) with her son, Courting a Woman

21/03/2024

This is written by Chief Dan George,
In the course of my lifetime I have lived in two distinct cultures. I was born into a culture that lived in communal houses. My grandfather’s house was eighty feet long. It was called a smoke house, and it stood down by the beach along the inlet. All my grandfather’s sons and their families lived in this dwelling. Their sleeping apartments were separated by blankets made of bull rush weeds, but one open fire in the middle served the cooking needs of all. In houses like these, throughout the tribe, people learned to live with one another; learned to respect the rights of one another. And children shared the thoughts of the adult world and found themselves surrounded by aunts and uncles and cousins who loved them and did not threaten them. My father was born in such a house and learned from infancy how to love people and be at home with them.
And beyond this acceptance of one another there was a deep respect for everything in nature that surrounded them. My father loved the earth and all its creatures. The earth was his second mother. The earth and everything it contained was a gift from See-see-am…and the way to thank this great spirit was to use his gifts with respect.
I remember, as a little boy, fishing with him up Indian River and I can still see him as the sun rose above the mountain top in the early morning…I can see him standing by the water’s edge with his arms raised above his head while he softly moaned…”Thank you, thank you.” It left a deep impression on my young mind.
And I shall never forget his disappointment when once he caught me gaffing for fish “just for the fun of it.” “My son” he said, “The Great Spirit gave you those fish to be your brothers, to feed you when you are hungry. You must respect them. You must not kill them just for the fun of it.”
This then was the culture I was born into and for some years the only one I really knew or tasted. This is why I find it hard to accept many of the things I see around me.
I see people living in smoke houses hundreds of times bigger than the one I knew. But the people in one apartment do not even know the people in the next and care less about them.
It is also difficult for me to understand the deep hate that exists among people. It is hard to understand a culture that justifies the killing of millions in past wars, and it at this very moment preparing bombs to kill even greater numbers. It is hard for me to understand a culture that spends more on wars and weapons to kill, than it does on education and welfare to help and develop.
It is hard for me to understand a culture that not only hates and fights his brothers but even attacks nature and abuses her.
I see my white brothers going about blotting out nature from his cities. I see him strip the hills bare, leaving ugly wounds on the face of mountains. I see him tearing things from the bosom of mother earth as though she were a monster, who refused to share her treasures with him. I see him throw poison in the waters, indifferent to the life he kills there; and he chokes the air with deadly fumes.
My white brother does many things well for he is more clever than my people but I wonder if he has ever really learned to love at all. Perhaps he only loves the things that are outside and beyond him. And this is, of course, not love at all, for man must love all creation or he will love none of it. Man must love fully or he will become the lowest of the animals. It is the power to love that makes him the greatest of them all…for he alone of all animals is capable of love.
Love is something you and I must have. We must have it because our spirit feeds upon it. We must have it because without it we become weak and faint. Without love our self esteem weakens. Without it our courage fails. Without love we can no longer look out confidently at the world. Instead we turn inwardly and begin to feed upon our own personalities and little by little we destroy ourselves.
You and I need the strength and joy that comes from knowing that we are loved. With it we are creative. With it we march tirelessly. With it, and with it alone, we are able to sacrifice for others.
There have been times when we all wanted so desperately to feel a reassuring hand upon us…there have been lonely times when we so wanted a strong arm around us…I cannot tell you how deeply I miss my wife’s presence when I return from a trip. Her love was my greatest joy, my strength, my greatest blessing.
I am afraid my culture has little to offer yours. But my culture did prize friendship and companionship. It did not look on privacy as a thing to be clung to, for privacy builds walls and walls promote distrust. My culture lived in a big family community, and from infancy people learned to live with others.
My culture did not prize the hoarding of private possessions, in fact, to hoard was a shameful thing to do among my people. The Indian looked on all things in nature as belonging to him and he expected to share them with others and to take only what he needed.
Everyone likes to give as well as receive. No one wishes only to receive all the time. We have taken something from your culture…I wish you had taken something from our culture…for there were some beautiful and good things in it.
Soon it will be too late to know my culture, for integration is upon us and soon we will have no values but yours. Already many of our young people have forgotten the old ways. And many have been shamed of their Indian ways by scorn and ridicule. My culture is like a wounded deer that has crawled away into the forest to bleed and die alone.
The only thing that can truly help us is genuine love. You must truly love, be patient with us and share with us. And we must love you—with a genuine love that forgives and forgets…a love that gives the terrible sufferings your culture brought ours when it swept over us like a wave crashing along a beach…with a love that forgets and lifts up its head and sees in your eyes an answering love of trust and acceptance.
This is brotherhood…anything less is not worthy of the name.
I have spoken. 🙏

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