Paging Gazhekwe

[gazhekwe]

Ah, yes, the Lily of the Mohawks. Our mission church at Bay Mills, formerly St. Catherine's, was renamed for Blessed Kateri in the 1980. Here is the story of the Mission:

http://www.dioceseofmarquette.org/pa...p?parishID=204

I always found it sad that she [[or anyone) had to go to such painful extremes to be recognized for her devotion.

[Pam]

Ah, yes, the Lily of the Mohawks. Our mission church at Bay Mills, formerly St. Catherine's, was renamed for Blessed Kateri in the 1980. Here is the story of the Mission:

http://www.dioceseofmarquette.org/pa...p?parishID=204

I always found it sad that she [[or anyone) had to go to such painful extremes to be recognized for her devotion.

There will be a special mass in honor of Kateri Tekakwitha on Sunday July 31st at 11:00 am at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Detroit.

[Gannon]

I learned a day or so ago about a Pipe Ceremony and attended it today...out in Harrison Township in a park on the lake.

As with the other Native Ceremonies I've partaken, during these past couple of years' of finally responding to a longtime inner drawing, I knew nearly nothing about what I was getting into, but was completely open and without judgement.

It was beautiful.

Apparently, a few years ago, a gentleman named Jim Medicine Tree was chosen as the keeper of a turtle pipe which originally was presented and used at the UN in NYC for seven years in the late-70s and early-80s. He gave us the background of it, but mostly discussed his understanding of the spiritual power of the pipe, and also living with a personal ceremonial pipe. He has written a book about his understanding of Pipe Spirituality, which I'm already mostly through.

In it I learned that this Pipe has contacted some very famous and influential lips...and wreaks a wonderfully harsh path of Truth and Healing and Peace where-ever it travels!


It was a VERY sparsely attended ceremony...and was sponsored by a Yoga center and bookstore in Mt. Clemens. His heritage was Cherokee, and he is on the council of pipe holders who are meeting this coming weekend in Minnesota.

Sorry to not have posted before going, I only heard about it a few days ago...


Cheers and more,
John

[gazhekwe]

I'm so glad you got to attend that Pipe Ceremony, John. A good man, by all accounts, Jim Tree follows the path of teacher. We will never know how much was taken from us through the genocide of war and disease, but his teachings open the way for those who are ready to hear and learn. Here is his website: http://www.wayofthepipe.com/


Pam, thank you for the information on the special mass for Tekakwitha.

[Gannon]

Gazhekwe,

I am constantly amazed on this path I have taken. My girlfriend, her best friend, and myself all had very powerful and distinct answers to our prayers offered up during this ceremony. We were comparing notes last night.

His new website is www.JimTree.com . Sorry I didn't put up those links...I'm forgetting my on-line protocol, heh. I nearly read through his book in one evening...although I KNOW it will be re-read often. This is SUCH a treasure, I almost cannot contain my enthusiasm. I even have a few found rocks that seem to be crying out to be carved and drilled into greater Spiritual usefulness.


One neat anecdote from the ceremony...while Jim Tree was blessing our youngest participant, an adorably shy toe-headed young lady of maybe seven or eight, a yellow butterfly flew twice around her head. Both she and her father missed it, because their eyes were closed. Once the concept of a spirit guide animal was presented to them, the dad had to laugh because she has butterfly's EVERYWHERE in her room!

Sometimes it is obvious...but we westerners are SO disassociated from nature and Spirit, and need the ethereal explained to us. How proud that we think we can understand all that happens in the Universe! [[I am quite guilty of this...LOL!)


This weekend is the annual Pipe Keeper's meetup in Pipestone, MN. I have decided to hold them up in prayer for the duration. May any and every who are led please join me?!


Cheers and more on this lovely warm morning,
John


P.S.: I know this is bold, but I fully believe that we no longer have to lament over what may have been lost. I do not think the Spirit will ever let us lack anything we need. Jim tells the story that he never learned how to respect the Pipe, and when he was invited to pack and light it during the first Pipe Holder's meeting in Pipestone...he was a bit frightened to do it in front of the elders. But his 'natural' intuition resonated with the Spirit, he trusted it enough, and he was spot-on. I believe there are others who are naturally and somewhat 'automatically' understanding of the depths of the Spirit...even if they don't yet fully know the language and history and tradition...and don't have even a DROP of Native Blood in their heritage.

[gazhekwe]

Gannon's comments about participation in ceremonies being a matter of heart made me think some about Indian identity. The debate over Blood Quantum rages in Indian Country. Is is better to be a fullblood? Is it even possible to maintain fullblood status in a community? Does blood quantum really define anything? Whose idea was it anyway? What is in your heart matters, doesn't it? Is a non-Indian who wants to participate in ceremonies a member of the Wannabe Indian Tribe, to be avoided, or to be welcomed as a friend. What if the person marries a tribal member? What were the old ways?

Here is an article discussing the issue, from BBC News, Paul Adams, North Dakota:

Blood quantum might sound like an action movie, but to the country's Native Americans it's all about identity.

First introduced in colonial Virginia in the early 18th Century as a means of restricting the rights of anyone deemed to be more than 50% Native American, the term only became widespread after the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.

By then, it had become a mechanism for calculating the amount of federal benefits a tribe could expect to receive, based on its population.

Over time, different tribes have adopted different levels of blood quantum. Florida's Miccosukee Tribe is among a handful which require members to have 50% tribal blood - or the equivalent of one full blood parent.

At the other end of the spectrum, some Cherokee and Apache tribes require just 6.25% blood quantum. The largest number of tribes, however, require 25% or 12.5%.
Some, including the bulk of the Cherokee Nation, have abandoned the strict criteria of blood quantum in favour of simple ancestry, based on rolls drawn up by a congressional commission in 1893.

The majority of tribes require their members to have 25% or 12.5% blood quantum
It's a move sometimes derided by other Native Americans, who say the Cherokee have thrown the doors open so wide that practically anyone can claim membership.

Heading towards oblivion
For many, particularly the older generation, the issue of blood can be a matter of pride - a simple, incontrovertible measure of Indian identity.

But since Native Americans intermarry more than practically any other population in the nation, among the different tribes and with non-Native Americans, simple mathematics tells you that blood quantum is also a route towards oblivion.

It's also fiendishly complicated. When I met Scott Davis at home in Bismarck in North Dakota to discuss the system, he brandished a piece of paper covered in fractions representing the blood quantum of his family.

Scott, executive director of the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission, is 44% Lakota Sioux, with French and Chippewa blood.
His wife, Lorraine, is 36% Dakota Sioux, from the Sisseton-Wahpeton tribe.

When their daughters were born, his own Standing Rock tribe, which requires 25% blood quantum, did not recognise his wife's blood.
As a result, the girls were enrolled with the Sisseton-Wahpeton tribe, which had the same 25% requirement but accepted Scott's Dakota blood.

The girls enjoy 39.8% blood quantum.
Sometimes, it seems you have to be a quantum physicist to figure it out.

Facing extinction
Faced with this gradual process of ever-diminishing fractions, tribes are looking at ways to prevent their gradual extinction.
These include reducing blood quantum requirements, the lineage route favoured by the Cherokee and the pooling of blood lines among tribes.

But others say it's time to do away with percentages and fractions altogether.
One possible solution is for tribes to adopt some form of citizenship act, with requirements to know your language and culture and to visit home.

For Jesse Taken Alive, councilman at large on the Standing Rock tribal government, it's important to stop thinking in terms of numbers.

"What's important is to focus on a way of life," he says.

Scott Davis would be only too happy.

"I don't believe in the system," Mr Davis says.
"In my heart and my mind, I'm full blood. I always will be full blood," he adds.

[Pam]

and the pooling of blood lines among tribes.

I'm surprised they don't all do that already.

[gazhekwe]

It's complicated, Pam. There is a lot of tribal culture that people hesitate to mix. The Pan-Indianism that began in the 70s has been responsible for a lot of melding of the cultures however. We lost so much through genocide that people took some mores from plains cultures, some from pueblo, some from woodlands.

Here is a good argument for tribal fusion, Tony Duncan, Apache Hidatsa Mandan Arikara, 2011 Hoop Dance Champion. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS0Qs...layer_embedded

[Pam]

Here is a good argument for tribal fusion, Tony Duncan, Apache Hidatsa Mandan Arikara, 2011 Hoop Dance Champion. Enjoy!

I see he plays music also. A multi-talented guy.

http://youtu.be/HvgkoSulyKE

[gazhekwe]

Aaah, beautiful! Thanks, Pam. Here he is with more fusion music [[note how he talked about Plains Flute style, Apache Cane Flute style, and here he incorporates the Spanish guitar):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6efoZ...eature=related

I was thinking some more about the idea of "pooling blood lines." You know, the whole blood quantum thing was devised as a way of distributing resources. Treaties provided retained or redistributed lands and certain goods and services to the tribes, and yet, there was never enough to go around. The good agents divised this method to parse things out. Full bloods got first dibs on everything. "'Breeds" shared relative to their blood quantum. Even now, we are divided by blood quantum. Tuition waiver, for instance, is limited to those who have 1/4 or more Indian blood. I feel like the man in the article. Damn it! All my blood is Indian, it's all my blood, ennit?

Yet, before this all became so entrenched, people in the family were all people in the family. Maybe they were mixed blood, and maybe there were people who cared about that, but for the most part, they were community members. The whole stigma about being a "'breed" came from whites, anyway. It got transferred and internalized like a lot of discriminatory negatives do.

I like the idea of ancestry, citizenship and participation. According to US policy, the ways a person could be determined to be Indian was [[1) Tribal membership, [[2) BIA certification [[ancestry based), and [[3) community recognition. That works for me.

[Gannon]

Gazhekwe,
Thank you for the knowledge. I didn't intend on triggering such dialogue, as my comments were of a mystical or spiritual bent, but am staggering under the deluge from both you and some quick searches on-line.

I found a good deal of information on a page called: Indigenous AmerIndian Genetics, and was ready to wonder [[in my free-associative ways) if they only considered the Mitochondrial DNA, since I only recenly learned Native society had always been matriarchal. Doing some reading this morning, since I can do little else after yesterday's silliness with heatstroke, I found this little ditty. It seems to be a wee bit damning of the Euro invasion of Native DNA.

Genetic history of indigenous peoples of the Americas primarily focus on Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups and Human mitochondrial DNA haplogroups. Autosomal "atDNA" markers are also used, but differ from mtDNA or Y-DNA in that they overlap significantly.The genetic pattern indicates Indigenous Amerindians experienced two very distinctive genetic episodes; first with the initial peopling of the Americas, and secondly with European colonization of the Americas.The former is the determinant factor for the number of gene lineages, zygosity mutations and founding haplotypes present in today's Indigenous Amerindian populations.

From my reading, it seems as if they ignore the dilution caused by the United States' fore-father's dalliances with the daughters of the keepers of the land...when they say "the former is the determinant factor". Kinda seems screwed up. One generation after the dalliance cuts it by 50%, it has been many since this bloodline dilution began.


And I found couple of a nice charts, too. Here is the one from another site:

[Gannon]

That shows the divisions between the whole gene pool, but I've never seen any attempt to graph the interweavings over time between these divisions, that might be a curious indicator.

Regardless, I'd prefer they capitalize the I in AmerIndians...heck, they've been capitalizing on y'all from the very beginning.

Cheers,
John

[Gannon]

Oddly, in that graph, the Europeans [[my ancestors, LOL) are exactly in the middle finger...which is appropriate, or at least in accurate agreement with true history.

Cheers!

[Gannon]

This is a curious graphic animation. You can almost feel the splash of those tears.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...-1750-2008.gif

[gazhekwe]

These kind of things make my eyes cross. I see things like the first chart as America trying to prove Indians aren't really Indians, or the 'two wrongs make what they did OK' theory. Wrong! The people they found here were already the way they were for a thousand years. Of course there were differences in their make-up, it matters not a jot to the history of what happened once the Europeans arrived. No one can prove how the mixing happened, but history showed that most tribes happily intermarried with those who came into their circle in a friendly way. Of course, European historians assume it was all a blood bath based upon their own tendencies.

The graphic animation was confusing because it had colors that were not shown on the key. I guess it does show the steamroller effect pretty well.

I have some news items I will be posting soon on a couple of different topics, Kennecott Mine and the curious ignorance of corporate America and American justice, and another hate crime in Indian Country.

[gazhekwe]

Kennecott to Begin Blasting at Eagle Rock
Some sacred sites are threatened, and others are on the road to recovery; Eagle Rock, on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, awaits its scheduled end like a convict on death row.

Rio Tinto, a UK-based mining company, plans to demolish Eagle Rock for the sake of mining primarily nickel and copper, but also gold and other precious metals. Eagle Rock is sacred to the Anishinaabe people, who call it Migi zii wa sin.

A year ago, activists camped out on Eagle Rock for a month, but were eventually forced off by Michigan police, and two of them were arrested. Defenders of Eagle Rock have been fighting a legal battle against Rio Tinto and Kennecott Eagle Minerals Co.; as things currently stand, according to the activist blog StandForTheLand.com, Rio Tinto says it will not begin blasting at Eagle Rock earlier than September 14.

Indian Country Today Media Network June 21, 2011

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...rock-michigan/

Kennecott Responds, July 21, 2011
To the editor:
The posting on your site regarding Eagle Rock, Michigan [[June 21) prompts this clarification of potential interest to your readers.

Kennecott is mindful of the connection Native American communities in the region have with the rock. We are committed to ensuring the rock remains protected from current construction and future mining activities and safely accessible to those who wish to utilize the rock for cultural interests. In fact, the rock will remain protected as it is, as is required by permit conditions governing our project.

We also want to be straightforward about our plans. The tunnel that will be created to enable workers to access the underground mine will start into the ground approximately 100 yards to the west of the rock, not into the rock face itself as the blog and photo caption mischaracterize.

The tunnel will travel under the ground’s surface before reaching the rock, and will travel through the part of the rock that is underground, maintaining the rock’s current above ground condition.

We appreciate the opportunity to provide this clarification, and welcome your questions anytime.

Sincerely,
Daniel Blondeau
Advisor, Communications & Media Relations
Kennecott Eagle Minerals

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...ng-eagle-rock/

Meantime, Eagle Rock is fenced off and posted No Trespassing. Those who wish to visit to commune with the spirits may not approach or climb on the rock as they have in the past.

The issue of Kennecott and Rio Tinto's desecration of a place of worship remains, though they state they intend not to disturb the surface of the rock. Their operation also threatens the Salmon Trout River which they plan to dig under, the Yellow Dog River and the Yellow Dog Plains, and from their into the waters of the Shining Great Water itself, Lake Superior. -- Gazhekwe

[gazhekwe]

Post 690 a couple weeks ago told the story of an attack on an Indian family in a small town in Nevada in May.

Now here we have another attack, this time in California. The stories are chillingly similar. Serious injuries, no real action by authorities, poor access to treatment for the injured.

Native Mother Attacked and Beaten
By Valerie Taliman July 21, 2011
CLOVIS, Calif. – On June 14th, also known as Flag Day, Patty Dawson dropped her Apache uncle off at the Fresno train station after a family visit, and headed for home around 2:30 p.m.

What happened next she will never forget.
Dawson, who is Navajo and San Carlos Apache, said she was at a stop sign in the small town of Clovis when a car behind her bumped into her lightly. She glanced in the rearview mirror and saw three people in the car, and decided to keep going.

As she continued down the two-lane highway, the car behind her sped up alongside her and tried to force her off the road. Dawson said she tried to evade them, but the car then tried passing her on the right dirt shoulder of the road, forcing her into the oncoming traffic lane.

Fearful of their intentions, Dawson headed for the next business she saw, an Arco station with people in the parking lot where she thought she’d be safe.

Before she could get out of her car, she was attacked by one of three people, who she described as “skinheads,” that had followed her into the parking lot.

Witnesses told police they saw a white woman and two men with swastika tattoos and shaved heads kick and beat Dawson, leaving her unconscious and bleeding in the parking lot.
Dawson, a mother of a young family, said all she remembers is a woman covered in tattoos spitting on her, then hitting her so hard she blacked out. Two men – one with a swastika tattoo on his face and the other with a shaved head – joined in the beating, but it was mainly the woman attacking her, according to witness statements to the local police.

Cindy Dawson, the victim’s sister, said Patty woke up in a Fresno emergency room, in shock and pain, and unable to remember her name.

“She had a broken nose and a concussion when she was released,” said Cindy. “I don’t think they should have let her go without a thorough exam. I think she also had a broken rib, and now she may have to have surgery for her injuries.”

Cindy Dawson also said her sister is having a hard time coping with the trauma of an inexplicable and random attack. “She has no idea why anyone would do this to her, and she’s trying to recover from her injuries.”

Because of a lack of federal funding to Indian Health Service facilities, Dawson was told that if her injuries required rehabilitation or surgery, she would have to travel to the nearest IHS facility in Phoenix, Arizona for medical care.

“My sister is a kind and quiet person who did nothing to deserve this,” said Cindy. The family has no insurance, so treatment for trauma or counseling is out of reach, and she worries how this will affect them in the long term.

“Her head injuries are still causing vomiting and other problems, and there’s damage to her upper cheek. The doctor told my sister she’s not to be working and she was the sole source of income for her family. We’re still waiting to hear from victim’s services to see if we can get some assistance.”

She speculated that ongoing racial tensions and “deep-rooted hatred for Indian people” in the region was part of the motive for the attack on her sister.

The family has been concerned that they were not getting a response from local police, despite repeated calls by family and community members.

“My dad and I started contacting people because we couldn’t believe something like this could happen without being noticed. People need to be aware of this, and the fact that no one was punished,” said Cindy.

ICTMN left messages at the Clovis Sheriff’s Department for the detective assigned to the case, but calls were not returned. Another staff member said he was on vacation.

“Detective Tuscano from the Sheriff’s Department assured my sister that they will find the people who did this to her,” said Cindy. “I’m told they may know who the assailants are because witnesses reported the license plate number.”

In the meantime, the family is trying to get on with life and seeking treatment for Patty’s physical and emotional trauma.

A fund has been set up to help the Dawson family. Those who wish to help may contribute at any Wells Fargo Bank, to the Patty Dawson One Love Fund.

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...ed-and-beaten/

[Pam]

Before she could get out of her car, she was attacked by one of three people, who she described as “skinheads,” that had followed her into the parking lot.

Skinheads are still around? I remember hearing more about them in the 80s. Did none of the bystanders help this woman? What a sad story.

[gazhekwe]

Yes, there are a lot of questions, reading that article. Skinheads seems like an easy catchall term, but really these nutcases are really just haters. They know who it is because a witness gave their license plate number? There are a lot of witnesses? Someone called for an ambulance, and the victim was alive to be taken to the hospital, so maybe someone did help.

[gazhekwe]

The most common kind of headdress most people know about is the Plains feather war bonnet, a beautiful construction of feathers fastened to a band that goes around the forehead and back to the base of the skull. My father, an Ojibwe, had one in the 50s that he wore for ceremonial occasions in Detroit. It was a Kiowa war bonnet. The most common headdress in the Great Lakes area is the fur roach. That one was hardly recognized as "Indian" in the 1950s around here, but you see them quite commonly these days.

Native American Encyclopedia
http://nativeamericanencyclopedia.co...upine-roaches/

Roach Headdresses [[Porcupine Roaches)
Published on July 25, 2011 by Amy


Caddo warrior’s roach
Feather warbonnets are better-known to popular culture, but roach headdresses [[also called porcupine roaches or artificial roaches) were the most widely used kind of Indian headdress in the United States. Most Native American tribes east of the Rocky Mountains were familiar with some form of roach headdress. These headdresses are made of stiff animal hair, especially porcupine guard hair, moose hair, and deer’s tail hair. This hair was attached to a bone hair ornament or leather base so that it stood straight up from the head like a tuft or crest. Often the hair was dyed bright colors and feathers, shells, or other decorations were attached. In some tribes, men wore their hair in a scalplock or crested roach style [[frequently given the name Mohawk or Mohican after two tribes in which roached hair was common), and the artificial roach was attached to the man’s own hair. The Caddo man in the first picture is wearing his roach headdress this way. In other tribes, porcupine roaches were attached to leather headbands or thongs and worn over long hair or braids. This is how they are most commonly worn today.

Roach headdresses were usually worn by warriors and dancers. Like warbonnets, the porcupine hair roach is traditionally men’s headwear, not worn even by female warriors. Their use varied from tribe to tribe. In many tribes, roaches were worn into battle, while more formal tribal headdresses [[like warbonnets, otter-fur turbans, or gustowah caps) were worn to ceremonial events. In other tribes, roaches were worn primarily as dance regalia or sports costume. In some tribes, individual men chose to wear porcupine roaches while other men did not. Like other clothing styles, roaches sometimes went into and out of fashion. They were not generally as spiritually meaningful as warbonnet headdresses, though a boy earning the right to wear a roach for the first time was an important ceremony in some tribes. Today, porcupine roaches can be commonly seen at powwows, where they are still worn as regalia by male dancers from many different tribes.

Source: native-languages

[gazhekwe]

Feather Warbonnets

Published on July 25, 2011 by Amy

Feather Warbonnets

Warbonnets [[or war bonnets) are the impressive feather headdresses commonly seen in Western movies and TV shows. Although warbonnets are the best-known type of Indian headdress today, they were actually only worn by a dozen or so Indian tribes in the Great Plains region, such as the Sioux, Crow, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, and Plains Cree. Some are trailer warbonnets [[headdresses with single or double rows of eagle feathers descending in a long ‘tail’ all the way to the ground). These warbonnets were made from the tail feathers of the golden eagle, and each feather had to be earned by an act of bravery. Sometimes a feather might be painted with red dye to commemorate a particular deed.

Besides the feathers, Plains Indian warbonnets were often decorated with ermine skins and fancy beadwork.

Warbonnets were important ceremonial regalia worn only by chiefs and warriors. Also, only men wore warbonnets. [[Women sometimes went to war in some Plains Indian tribes, and there were even some female chiefs, but they never wore these masculine headdresses.)

Plains Indian men occasionally wore warbonnet headdresses while they were fighting, but more often they wore roach headdresses into battle and saved their war bonnets for formal occasions. In particular, long feather trailers were never worn on the battlefield. It would be impossible to fight while wearing them!

In the 1800′s, Native American men from other tribes sometimes began to wear Plains-style warbonnets. Partially this was because of the American tourist industry, which expected Native Americans to look a certain way. Partially it was because many Native American tribes were forced to move to Oklahoma and other Indian territories during this time in history, so tribes that used to live far apart began adopting customs from their new neighbors. In most cases, the feather warbonnet did not have the same significance among the new tribes that adopted it. For them, it was a matter of fashion or a general symbol of authority. But for the Plains Indian tribes, feather warbonnets were a sacred display of a man’s honor and courage, and each feather told a story. Eagle feathers are still sometimes awarded to Plains Indians who serve in the military or do other brave deeds today.

Source: native-languages

http://nativeamericanencyclopedia.co...er-warbonnets/

[gazhekwe]

Steve Russell has written a book about the ways in which tribal people have been forced into artificial ways of identification. Race, Blood Quantum, Direct Descent, Culture and Tradition are all ways that have been imposed upon us be the colonial superstructure as it sought to identify eligibility and parse distributions, and otherwise deal with the mess it made in crushing a huge variety of populations.

Example:

Citizenship by Blood Quantum
Citizenship by blood quantum alone is a guarantee of physical extinction. Know the tribal population, the required blood quantum, birth and death rates, rate of exogamous marriage, and the date of extinction is easily calculated. This is not opinion. This is arithmetic.

The reality of blood quantum extinction has swept North America generally east to west, although the genocide of the California tribes was so spectacularly successful that most of the least touched tribal groups are west of the Mississippi but east of the Rockies. Indian policy in the United States has always been marked by differences of opinion about the proper route to the goal of extinguishing the aboriginal peoples.

The conservative position was the military option that lost political traction when the advent of photography caused the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 to be perceived as a massacre. The liberal path to extermination was less barbaric but probably had more impact. The process was directed less to physical existence and more to Indian cultural identity. For white liberals, deculturation was in our best interests, as expressed in the dictum “kill the Indian in him to save the man.”

Separating Indian children from their heritage was done with the best of intentions. Whatever the stated motive, the results were the same from the reservation years until 1933: traditional religious ceremonies banned, Indian boys forced to cut their hair, Indian adults “converted” to Christianity by withholding rations, Indian children kidnapped and forced into boarding schools where Indian languages were banned, Indian adults forbidden to criticize the government and required to obtain passports to travel from one concentration camp, I mean reservation, to another. Language rebounds with difficulty, but more easily than religion, which rebounds more easily than clan organization. Some aspects of culture are simply gone.

SEQUOYAH RISING: Problems in Post-Colonial Tribal Governance by Steve Russell, copyright 2010 by Steve Russell.

A nice long excerpt including the quote above is presented here at Indian Country Today:

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...quoyah-rising/

[gazhekwe]

Ho-Chunk Nation [[Winnebago) Powwow, live streaming from Little Priest Tribal College:

http://www.live365.com/index.live

They are honoring the veterans right now [[2:40 Saturday)

The 145th Annual Homecoming Celebration, which runs from July 28 through 31, is celebrated as the oldest continuous memorial pow wow in Indian country. What’s new this year is that the ceremonies will be streaming live on the radio [[www.live365.com from Little Priest Tribal College) from the time the observance starts with raising the veterans’ flag at 6 a.m., Thursday in Veterans Memorial Park, US 75, east of Winnebago, Nebraska.

Veterans play a unique role in the history of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska [[Ho-Chunk Nation). The 145th Annual Homecoming Celebration commemorates the return of Chief Little Priest and the Fort Omaha Scouts, Company A, 34th Nebraska Volunteers, of the tribe. It also honors all of the tribe’s veterans and servicepeople, past and present.

The four-day pow wow features traditional songs and dances and traditional food. Open to the public, it draws 20 to 25 drum groups, and 500 to 700 dancers from all over the country, said Claudine E. Farmer, Communications/Public Relations for the tribe.

Since July of 1866, the Winnebago people have held the pow wow to honor their last great War Chief. Little Priest’s actions resulted in a permanent home for the people, who had suffered forced moves time after time due to American settlement and government interference.

“The blood that he spilled is the reason we are still on the reservation today,” writes Tribal Historian David “Tim” Smith, who is a UCLA graduate and Director of Indian Studies at Little Priest Tribal College.

During one of the forced moves in 1863, when the Winnebago were shipped down the Mississippi and up the Missouri rivers, Little Priest ordered two men to fall off the boat and swim to the Omaha tribe and ask if the Winnebagos could buy some land in the northern part of the Omaha’s territory, in Nebraska. The Omahas granted the request – but meanwhile many of the Winnebagos who had just been moved to Fort Thompson were dying in harsh conditions.

U.S. Army General Alfred Sully made an agreement with Little Priest. If the war chief would help him against the Western Sioux, then he would use his influence to help relocate the Winnebago to Nebraska, Smith’s research recounts.

“Little Priest knew it was wrong to fight against his own brothers,” says the history detailed on the tribe’s web site, “but in order to save his people, he joined General Alfred Sully.”

He was finally wounded in 1866 outside of Deer Creek Fort in Wyoming by a band of Oglala Lakota and some Northern Cheyenne warriors. His horse was shot out from under him, but he is said to have fought for hours more, holding his ground as a grizzly bear would. His wounds proved fatal after he was taken home to the newly bought Winnebago Reservation. He died on Sept. 12, 1866.

Ho-Chunk/Winnebago history inspired another native son to write a book that was published in October 2010. Alan Walker is the great-great gandson of William Hatchett, one of the original 75 warriors who volunteered to scout for the U.S. Army in 1863. Every Warrior Has His Own Song concludes with Walker’s own service as a Marine in the Vietnam War.

The 2011 pow wow honors one of the tribe’s servicemen who is retiring after 22 years in the Air Force, Technical Sergeant Jay Kyle Jacobs.

“The pow wow is about honoring our veterans and also entertaining them, too,” added Jerome LaPointe, Sr., editor of Winnebago Indian News. Certain dances and programs “hopefully will put a smile on the faces of our veterans.”

Head Man Dancer is John Hunter, Jr., a member of the Eagle Clan. Head Woman Dancer is Thelma “Chickie” Whitewater, a descendant of Whitewolf, who served in Company A.

“I dance for those who have passed on and those who are unable to dance,” she said. “I pray while I am in the arena, because I believe the pow wow arena is a place of healing.”

For tribal member Benny Eagle, it certainly will be. Eagle, 72, has danced in the pow wow since he was seven years old. He had open heart surgery last October 4, but two weeks before this pow wow, he was cleared by doctors to dance.

“You should have heard me hollering around in that hospital – I was war whooping,” Eagle described getting the good news.

“It’s a healing process for me when I get into the circle. Once I do that, I’m happy.”

[Pam]

There will be a special mass in honor of Kateri Tekakwitha on Sunday July 31st at 11:00 am at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Detroit.

I went to this today. Very interesting. They had native dancers and music and a native priest-Father Henry Sands. I think he said his home parish was in Taylor. The performers were the Ogichidakwuk Singers and the Ballet Folklorico Moyocoyani Izel. Before the Eucharist they had burning of sage, cedar, sweet grass and tobabco and the priest waved an eagle feather over it. They also had a relic of Blessed Kateri.

[gazhekwe]

I'm glad you got to go to the celebration, Pam. We were at Concours D'Elegance instead, which was nice, but...

I love hearing how they incorporated some of the Anishinaabe rites into the Mass, and featured the indigenous singers. Trying to translate the name of the group, Ogichidakwuk. The root word Ogichida is warrior. The ending -uk pluralizes it. I am pretty sure the -kw- is one of those links to make the word fit together better.

...burning of sage, cedar, sweet grass and tobacco and the priest waved an eagle feather over it

Sage, cedar, sweetgrass and tobacco are the four sacred herbs. When burned, their smoke carries our prayers to the Creator. Each one represents a different direction and phase of life.

Tobacco - sema - represents the eastern direction and the mind. Its roots go deep and its smoke rises high to connect the earth world with the spirit world. Using it in ceremonies invokes this deep relationship between the earth and the sky, a sacred bond which must never be broken. Using tobacco as a drug dishonors it and the person using it. The power of the tobacco is lost.

Cedar - Giishik - represents the southern direction and the spirit. When burned, it purifies, cleanses and heals. It attracts good energy.

Sage - Mskwodewashk - represents the western direction and the emotions. It is used in smudges for purification and to clear the area of negative thoughts. It is not just an incense, but a powerful invocation that must be treated with respect.

Sweetgrass - Wiingashk - represents the northern direction and the body. It is the hair of our Mother Earth, Aki, stronger braided than as a single strand. Each of the three sections has meaning, mind, body and spirit. When burned in ceremony, the smoke cleanses, purifies, and removes negative thoughts.

As a child I attended St. Isaac Jogues Indian Mission in the Soo. I recently went back for a visit and went to Mass. In addition to using the sacred herbs in the smudge pot, and wafting them with the Eagle feather, many of the prayers to the Creator were given to the four directions. The congregation turned and faced in each of the directions during the prayers. Some of the songs were translated into Anishinaabemowin for us to sing. It was very interesting. Took me back to some of the teachings I had as a child. There were many aspects of Catholicism that made sense to the Anishinaabek. The idea of blood sacrifice, and eating a part of the body of the fallen out of respect, the idea of the body of Christ being a spirit that is in everything. It's when you get into the social aspects that things went awry, trying to dictate "morals" over things that were completely out of such a scope.