Paging Gazhekwe

[Pam]

With the Lumbees, the Natives don't want them because they are really white. Go figure.

Or white and African like the Melungeons. One of the comments on this link says that.

http://geneablogie.blogspot.com/2007...e-problem.html

[gazhekwe]

Interesting article, and yes, that arises too. The Lumbees I know here are pale redheads. These surnames mentioned in the article also appear in our Native community here, but the people do not claim Lumbee descent:

Oxendine, Chavis, Locklear, Lowry.

I don't mean to imply that a pale redhead could not be native, just that some in the community, at least in the past, seemed to take that position. I have some pale blonde native relatives.

This does bring up the same confusion as the Depp adoption, what actually makes an Indian? Is it political, as in citizenship in an Indian nation? Can citizenship be conveyed by the Nation to persons who are not genetically members of that group? Does DNA control? But what of people who have lived in the community, taken part in all community functions, raised their children to be members of the community, versus those who grew up in the non-Indian world with the DNA but none of the mores?

And then we have this attempt by the US to "Kill the Indian, Save the Man" by way of forced internment in boarding schools. That didn't work:

[gazhekwe]

Of course we honor and respect those who gave some and those who gave all in service to our country, and we honor their loved ones who sacrificed so much. Native Americans have served in disproportionate numbers throughout our history, in spite of the Indian Removal Act and other harmful legislation.

Memorializing the Indian Removal Act of 1830

By ICTMN Staff May 28, 2012

Memorial Day in the Osage is a big deal, and deservedly so. Along with remembering the many Osages who have sacrificed their lives in military service to the United States [[the original purpose of the holiday), people back home lovingly decorate graves as extensively as any community of people in the United States. I don’t often get to be there on Memorial Day, but when I do I treasure the opportunity to feel the weight of memory as it exists for our reservation community. [This is true in Michigan, as well, among the Ojibwe, Potawatomi and Odawa communities -- Gazhekwe]

One thing few of us Osages and few Native people I know remember this time of year is the anniversary of the signing of the Indian Removal Act by U.S. President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830. Memorial Day and that anniversary are on the same day this year, and I’d like to suggest that all of us from the Native world increase the honor to those we memorialize when we understand their sacrifice in the light of Removal, the federal policy whose cascading effects have ended up impacting all of us.

It would be easy to say, “The Osages, Mohawks, Hopis, and Ojibwe have plenty else to remember. Let the Cherokees, Creeks, Shawnees, and others who were force-marched across the continent keep alive the chilling stories of losing land and life before the crashing waves of white settlement.”

That sentiment makes a lot of sense, especially for people from a family like mine. Robert Warrior, the grandfather after whom I was named, was killed in Normandy in World War II, and his death has defined and shaped each generation of his family ever since. His mother, my great-grandmother Mamie Bolton, died just a few years after him, many say of a heart that his death broke. I have heard stories of her going to movies to watch newsreels in hopes of catching a glimpse of her beloved son, whom she apparently could not bring herself to believe had actually died. My aunt, Mary Frances Patterson, was not even born when my grandfather, her father, died, and I have been moved to watch Osage veterans give her a place of honor to recognize her loss on Memorial Day.

My great-grandfather, the first Robert Warrior, served in World War I in France, and he is among those honored every Memorial Day by a twenty-one gun salute at the little family cemetery outside of Pawhuska where he is buried. Many Native men of his generation, of course, served in the U.S. Armed Forces in an era in which they were not able to be U.S. citizens. They were worthy to fight, worthy to die, but not to belong.

My great-grandfather, grandfather, and the hundreds of thousands of Native men and women who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces did so for a variety of reasons, but a major impact of their service has been a clear and sustaining demonstration of the willingness of many Native people to stake a profound sort of claim to the promises and ideals of the country that has come to dominate and control the lands that once were Native lands from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They have, in a way, made a decision to live in a country that exists more as an idea than as a reality.

Most of those in the Osage and other Native communities do not need a reminder of how far from being fulfilled those promises are or how often the United States—its government and its people—have failed to live up to its own ideals, but recalling the anniversary of the Removal Act and the history that unfolded in its wake provides valuable counterpoint to the moment at hand.

For the initiation of Indian Removal was more than a terrible moment in which tens of thousands of Native people lives lost live, lands, family, ceremony, and tradition. It also signaled a tipping point in U.S. history after which none of us as Natives would be secure again in our homelands. And, of course, Removal meant for many of us new arrivals and new tensions on the other end of the various trails of tears. Removal was as brutal as any massacre and, as such, served as evidence of the lengths to which the United States would go in realizing its expansionary goals. [The Potawatomis and Odawas were swept out of southern Michigan, leaving only a few, and those were denied their identity and community. Some fled to Canada, some to Northport, some to the UP. All were affected., yet when their country called them, they mustered to fight in the Civil War just 30 years later -- Gazhekwe]

The stain of Removal, though, does not just effect Native people. It is, regardless of whether anyone remembers it or not, a stain that gives us insight into the whole of the American experience, a reminder of the immensity of the distance between what the U.S. actually is and what many Americans, including many Native Americans, hope it can be in the future. Indeed, I often wonder how much the U.S. propensity to put off dealing with big economic, social, geopolitical and other problems relates directly to the callous impulse toward pushing issues away to somewhere else that the Removal Act exemplifies.

One reason we as Natives should remember our dead—those like my grandfather who died in the U.S. Armed Forces and those who paid the ultimate price for Removal—is because if we don’t, no one else will. As we join others in the U.S. to remember those from our families and communities who have served in the U.S. military with honor, distinction, and sacrifice, contributing at great risk and great cost to our collective Native future, we do well amid the flags, bunting, and parades to also recall that moment on this day in 1830 when the game changed forever, for all of us.

Robert Warrior, Ph.D. [[Osage), is the author of several books, including Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee [[with Paul Chaat Smith). He is a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he directs the American Indian Studies Program.

Read more:
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...#ixzz1wB8NuEmW

[gazhekwe]

American Indian Medal of Honor Recipients

By Konnie LeMay May 28, 2012

Memorial Day is a time to remember those serving in the United States military for their courage, bravery, selflessness and warrior ways. As American Indians serve in the armed forces at the highest per capita rate of ethnicity based on population it’s no wonder some of them have received the military’s highest honor. The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in action against an enemy force that can be bestowed upon an individual serving in the U.S. Armed Services, and is generally presented by the U.S. President. The following 27 recipients are listed by the Department of Defense as American Indian according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Army.

Medal issued March 3, 2008
Master Sgt. Woodrow W. Keeble, [[Standing Rock Lakota Sioux), born May 16, 1917 Waubay, South Dakota, served with the North Dakota National Guard’s 164th Infantry Regiment and G Company, 2nd Battalion, 19^th Infantry Regiment. He received the medal for his actions on October 20, 1951, near Sangsan-ni, Korea, when he was an acting platoon leader for the support platoon in Company G during an attack on Hill 765, a steep, rugged position well defended by the enemy. Keeble saw that the platoon members had become pinned down on the slope by heavy enemy fire from three well-fortified, strategically placed enemy positions. With complete disregard for his own safety, Keeble dashed forward and joined the pinned-down platoon. Hugging the ground, he crawled forward alone until he was close to one of the enemy machine-gun emplacements. Ignoring heavy fire trained on him, Keeble threw a grenade with great accuracy, destroying the position. Continuing his one-man assault, he moved to the second enemy position, destroying it with another grenade. Despite the machine gun fire and a shower of grenades directed in a frantic attempt to stop him, Keeble moved on a third emplacement and neutralized it. As his comrades moved to join him, Keeble continued to fire against nearby trenches, inflicting heavy casualties. “Inspired by his courage, Company G successfully moved forward and seized its important objective. The extraordinary courage, selfless service, and devotion to duty displayed that day by Master Sergeant Keeble was an inspiration to all around him and reflected great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.”

Medal issued October 15, 1973
Lt. Michael E. Thornton, [[Cherokee), born March 23, 1949, Greenville, South Carolina, entered service in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and served as a U.S. Navy SEAL. He received the medal for his participation in a daring operation against enemy forces in the Republic of Vietnam on October 31, 1972. Thornton, an assistant U.S. Navy advisor, along with a U.S. Navy lieutenant serving as senior advisor, accompanied a three-man Vietnamese Navy SEAL patrol in a rubber boat launched from a junk against an enemy river base on an intelligence gathering and prisoner capture operation. After reaching shore, they approached their objective on foot and came under heavy fire from a numerically superior force. The patrol called in naval gunfire support and then engaged the enemy in a fierce firefight before moving back to the waterline to prevent encirclement. Upon learning that the senior advisor had been hit by enemy fire and was believed dead, Thornton returned through a hail of fire to the lieutenant’s last position, quickly disposing of two enemy soldiers and removing the seriously wounded, unconscious senior naval advisor. At water’s edge, he inflated the lieutenant’s life jacket and towed him seaward for about two hours until they were picked up by a support craft. “By his extraordinary courage and perseverance, Petty Officer Thornton was directly responsible for saving the life of his superior officer and enabling the safe extraction of all patrol members, thereby upholding the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”

Medal issued May 14, 1968
Boatswain’s Mate First ClassJames E. Williams, [[Cherokee), born June 13, 1930, in Rock Hill, South Carolina, entered service at Columbia, South Carolina, and served in River Section 531, U.S. Navy. He received the medal for his actions October 31, 1966, on the Mekong River in the Republic of Vietnam when he was serving as boat captain and patrol office on River Patrol Boat 105. Two enemy sampans fired on his boat and another patrol boat. Williams ordered return fire, killing the crew of one sampan and causing the other to take refuge in a river inlet. Pursuing the fleeing sampan, the U.S. patrol encountered a heavy small-arms fire at close range from well-concealed positions along the riverbank. Maneuvering through this fire, the patrol confronted a numerically superior enemy force aboard two junks and eight sampans, augmented by heavy automatic weapons fire from shore. “In the savage battle that ensued, Williams, with utter disregard for his own safety exposed himself to the withering hail of enemy fire to direct counter-fire and inspire the actions of his patrol.” Williams then deployed his patrol to await arrival of armed helicopters, but in the course of this movement discovered an even larger concentration of enemy boats. Not waiting for the armed helicopters, he boldly led the patrol through intense enemy fire and it damaged or destroyed 50 enemy sampans and seven junks. When the armed helicopters arrived, Williams directed the attack on the remaining enemy force. In the dark, although it meant the boats might become better targets, Williams ordered their searchlights turned on to illuminate the shore and moved the patrol perilously close to press the attack. Despite waning ammunition, the patrol successfully routed the enemy force. “Under the leadership of PO 1 c. Williams, who demonstrated unusual professional skill and indomitable courage throughout the three-hour battle, the patrol accounted for the destruction or loss of 65 enemy boats and inflicted numerous casualties on the enemy personnel. His extraordinary heroism and exemplary fighting spirit in the face of grave risks inspired the efforts of his men to defeat a larger enemy force, and are in keeping with the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.”

Read more:

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/05/28/american-indian-medal-of-honor-recipients-115339#ixzz1wBHIEJil

[gazhekwe]

Medal issued March 18, 1954
Pfc. Charles George, [[Cherokee) born August 23, 1932, in Cherokee, North Carolina, entered service at Whittier, North Carolina and served with Company C, 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division, U.S. Army. He received the medal for his actions on November 30, 1952 near Songnae-dong, Korea. Pfc. George was a member of a raiding party committed to engaging the enemy and capturing a prisoner to interrogate. Forging up the rugged slope of the key terrain feature, the group encountered intense mortar and machine-gun fire and suffered several casualties. George fought valiantly and at the crest of the hill leaped into the trenches and engaged the enemy in hand-to-hand combat. Upon completion of their assignment when the troops were ordered back, George and two others remained to cover the withdrawal. While they were leaving the trenches, an enemy soldier hurled a hand grenade into their midst. George shouted a warning to one comrade, pushed the other out of danger, and, despite the consequences, unhesitatingly threw himself upon the grenade, absorbing the full blast. Although seriously wounded, he refrained from any outcry that would divulge the position of his companions. The two soldiers evacuated him to an aid station, but he died shortly thereafter. “Pfc. George’s indomitable courage, consummate devotion to duty, and willing self-sacrifice reflect the highest credit upon himself and uphold the finest traditions of the military service.”

Medal issued April 25, 1951
Cpl. Mitchell Red Cloud, Jr., [[Winnebago), born July 2, 1924, in Hatfield, Wisconsin, entered service at Merrilan, Wisconsin, and served with Company E, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, U.S. Army. He received the medal for his actions November 5, 1950, near Chonghyon, Korea. From his position on the point of a ridge immediately in front of the company command post, Red Cloud was the first to detect the approach of Chinese Communist forces and gave the alarm as the enemy charged from a brush-covered area less than 100 feet from him. Springing up, he delivered devastating pointblank automatic rifle fire into the advancing enemy. His accurate, intense fire checked the assault and gained time for the company to consolidate its defense. With utter fearlessness he maintained his position until severely wounded. Refusing assistance, he pulled himself to his feet, wrapped his arm around a tree continued to fire until he was fatally wounded. “This heroic act stopped the enemy from overrunning his company’s position and gained time for reorganization and evacuation of the wounded. Cpl. Red Cloud’s dauntless courage and gallant self-sacrifice reflects the highest credit upon himself and upholds the esteemed traditions of the U.S. Army.”

Medal issued August 2, 1951
Capt. Raymond Harvey, [[Chickasaw) born March 1, 1920, in Ford City, Pennsylvania, entered service at Pasadena, California, and served with Company C, 17th Infantry Regiment, U.S. Army. He received the medal for his actions on March 9, 1951, in the vicinity of Taemi-Dong, Korea, when his company, pinned down by a barrage of automatic weapons fire. Harvey braved a hail of fire and grenades to advance to the first enemy machine-gun nest, killing its crew with his grenades. Rushing to the edge of the next emplacement, he killed its crew with carbine fire. He then moved the First Platoon forward until it was halted by automatic fire from well-fortified positions. Disregarding the hail of fire, he charged and neutralized a third emplacement. “Miraculously escaping death from intense crossfire,” the citation states, “Harvey continued to lead the assault.” Spotting an enemy pillbox camouflaged by logs, he moved close enough to sweep it with carbine fire and threw grenades through the openings, killing its five occupants. Though wounded, he ordered the company forward, and, despite agonizing pain, continued to direct the reduction of the remaining enemy positions. He refused evacuation until assured that the mission would be accomplished. “Capt. Harvey’s valorous and intrepid actions served as an inspiration to his company, reflecting the utmost glory upon himself and upholding the heroic traditions of the military service.”

Medal issued October 19, 1945
Pvt. 1^st Class John N. Reese Jr., born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, enlisted at Pryor, Oklahoma, and served with Company B, 148th Infantry, 37th Infantry Division. He received the medal for his actions on February 9, 1945, while his platoon was attacking Paco Railroad Station, in Manila on the Philippine Islands. The station was heavily defended by 300 enemy soldiers with machine guns, rifles and large artillery and in several pillboxes. The platoon was stopped about 100 yards from the station by intense fire. On their own initiative, Reese and Pvt. Cleto L. Rodriguez, left the platoon and continued forward to a house about 60 yards from the station. Remaining there about an hour, the two fired at “targets of opportunity, killing more than 35 Japanese and wounding many more.” Moving closer to the station, they discovered Japanese replacements attempting to reach the pillboxes and the two opened fire, killing more than 40 and stopping all attempts to man the emplacements. Enemy fire became more intense as they advanced to within 20 yards of the station. From that point, Reese provided cover fire and courageously drew enemy fire to himself while Rodriguez killed seven Japanese soldiers and destroyed a 20-mm gun and heavy machine gun with hand grenades. With their ammunition low, the two started back to the American lines, alternately providing cover fire for each other. During this return, Reese was killed by enemy fire as he reloaded. During the 2 ½ hours they undertook their attack, Reese and Rodriguez killed more than 82 Japanese soldiers, disorganized their defense and paved the way for the defeat of the enemy at this strong point. “By his gallant determination in the face of tremendous odds, aggressive fighting spirit, and extreme heroism at the cost of his life, Pfc. Reese materially aided the advance of our troops in Manila and providing a lasting inspiration to all those with whom he served.”

Medal issued January 15, 1945
1^st Lt. Jack C. Montgomery, Cherokee, born in Long, Oklahoma, enlisted at Sallisaw, Oklahoma, and served with the U.S. Army, 45th Infantry Division Thunderbirds. He received the medal for his actions on February 22, 1944, near Padiglione, Italy. Two hours before daybreak, enemy infantry established itself in echelons 50 yards, 100 yards, and 300 yards in front of 1^st Lt. Montgomery’s rifle platoons. The closest echelon, with four machine guns and a mortar, threatened the U.S. platoons. “Seizing an Ml rifle and several hand grenades,” CMHS records, “1st Lt. Montgomery crawled up a ditch to within hand grenade range of the enemy. Then climbing boldly onto a little mound, he fired his rifle and threw his grenades so accurately that he killed eight of the enemy and captured the remaining four. Returning to his platoon, he called for artillery fire on a house, in and around which he suspected that the majority of the enemy had entrenched themselves. Arming himself with a carbine, he proceeded along the shallow ditch, as withering fire from the riflemen and machine gunners in the second position was concentrated on him.” Lt. Montgomery attacked the second echelon “with such fury that seven of the enemy surrendered to him, and both machine guns were silenced” and continued to the house where the remaining forces surrendered. A total of 11 enemies were killed, an unknown number wounded and 32 prisoners taken. That night, aiding an adjacent unit against a counterattack, he was struck by mortar fragments and seriously wounded. “As a result of his courage, Montgomery’s actions demoralized the enemy and inspired his men to defeat the Axis troops,” according to the U.S. Navy website.

Read more:
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...#ixzz1wBI6CNC0

[gazhekwe]

Medal issued posthumously [[1944)
Cmdr. Ernest Edwin Evans, Cherokee/Creek, born August 13, 1908, in Pawnee, Oklahoma, and Naval Academy graduate. He received the award for his actions October 24, 1944, while he was lieutenant commander on the USS Johnston in the battle off Samar Island in the Philippines. The Johnston, under Cmdr. Evans, was the first to lay a smokescreen and to open fire as a superior Japanese enemy force of battleships, destroyers and heavy and light cruisers engaged them. “In spite of the odds,” according to the U.S. Navy, “Evans gave orders to close the range and prepare for a torpedo attack, informing his crew that ‘survival cannot be expected.’” Cmdr. Evans diverted hostile gun blasts away from the lightly armed and armored carriers under his protection, launching the first torpedo attack when the Johnston came under Japanese shellfire. Outshooting and outmaneuvering the enemy as he interposed his vessel between the hostile fleet and the U.S. carriers, and despite a crippling loss of engine power and communications with steering aft, he shifted command to the fantail, shouting orders through an open hatch to men turning the rudder by hand, according to the CMHS. After unloosing a spread of torpedoes and three hours of battle, the Johnston was so badly damaged that Evans ordered his crew to abandon ship. “It is uncertain whether Evans died of wounds on board his ship or drowned after jumping into the water, but he was not among the Johnston‘s crew who were rescued,” according to the U.S. Navy records. CMHS concludes that “Comdr. Evans, by his indomitable courage and brilliant professional skill, aided materially in turning back the enemy during a critical phase of the action. His valiant fighting spirit throughout this historic battle will venture as an inspiration to all who served with him.”

Medal issued May 8, 1944
2^nd Lt. Ernest Childers, Creek, born in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, served in the U.S. Army, 45^th Infantry Division. He received the medal for an action on September 22, 1943, at Oliveto, Italy. Although 2d Lt. Childers previously had just suffered a fractured instep, he, with eight enlisted men, advanced up a hill toward enemy machine-gun nests. The group advanced to a rock wall overlooking a cornfield and 2nd Lt. Childers ordered a base of fire laid across the field so that he could advance. When two enemy snipers fired on him from a nearby house, he killed both of them. He moved behind the machine-gun nests and killed all occupants of the closer one. He continued toward the second and threw rocks into it. When the two occupants rose up, he shot one. The other was killed by one of the enlisted men. Second Lt. Childers continued his advance toward a house farther up the hill, and single-handed captured an enemy mortar observer. “The exceptional leadership, initiative, calmness under fire, and conspicuous gallantry displayed by 2nd Lt. Childers were an inspiration to his men.”

Medal issued September 28, 1944
2^nd Lt. Van T. Barfoot, Choctaw, born June 15, 1919, in Edinburg, Mississippi, served in the U.S. Army, 157th Infantry, 45th Infantry Division. He received the medal for action on May 23, 1944, near Carano, Italy, where Tech Sgt. Barfoot, with his platoon heavily engaged during an assault against forces well entrenched on commanding ground, moved off alone upon the enemy left flank. He crawled near a machine-gun nest and made a direct hit with a hand grenade, killing two and wounding three German soldiers. He continued along the German defense line to another machine gun emplacement, and, with his Thompson submachine gun, killed two and captured three soldiers. Members of another enemy machine-gun crew then abandoned their position and gave themselves up to Sgt. Barfoot. Leaving the prisoners for his support squad to pick up, he proceeded to mop up positions in the immediate area, capturing more prisoners and bringing his total count to 17. Later that day, after he had reorganized his men and consolidated the newly captured ground, the enemy launched a fierce armored counterattack directly at his platoon positions. Securing a bazooka, Sgt. Barfoot took up an exposed position directly in front of three advancing Mark VI tanks. From a distance of 75 yards, his first shot destroyed the track of the leading tank, effectively disabling it, while the other two changed direction toward the flank. As the crew of the disabled tank dismounted, Sgt. Barfoot killed three with his machine gun. He continued onward into enemy terrain and destroyed a recently abandoned German fieldpiece with a demolition charge placed in the breech. While returning to his platoon position, Sgt. Barfoot, though greatly fatigued, assisted two seriously wounded men to get 1,700 yards to safety. “Sgt. Barfoot’s extraordinary heroism, demonstration of magnificent valor, and aggressive determination in the face of pointblank fire are a perpetual inspiration to his fellow soldiers.”

Medal issued May 1890
Sgt. Rowdy, born in Arizona, served in Company A, Indian Scouts, received the medal for “bravery in action with Apache Indians” during an incident in Arizona on March 7, 1890.

Medal issued October 13, 1875
Pvt. Adam Paine, born in Florida, entered the Indian Scouts at Fort Duncan, Texas, received medal after he “rendered invaluable service to Col. R.S. Mackenzie, 4^th U.S. Cavalry, during this engagement” at the Canyon Blanco tributary of the Red River in Texas on September 26-27, 1874.

Medals issued May 28, 1875
These members of the 24^th U.S. Infantry Indian Scouts were given the medal for an April 25, 1875, event along the Pecos River in Texas when they “participated in a charge against 25 hostiles while on a scouting patrol”: Pvt. Pompey Factor, born in Arkansas; Isaac Payne, born in Mexico and served as trumpeter; Sgt. John Ward, born in Arkansas, and entered service at Fort Duncan, Texas.

Medals issued April 12, 1875
These members of the Indian Scouts were all given the medal for “gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apaches” during the winters of 1871-73: Sgt. Alchesay, born in 1853 in the Arizona Territory and entered service at Camp Verde, Arizona; Blanquet, born in Arizona; Chiquito, born in Arizona; Cpl. Elsatsoosu, born in Arizona; Sgt. Jim, born in Arizona Territory; Kelsay, born in Arizona; Kosoha, born in Arizona; Pvt. Machol, born in Arizona; Nannasaddie, born in Arizona; Nantaje [[Nantahe), born in Arizona.

Medal issued August 24, 1869
Co-Rux-Te-Chod-Ish [[Mad Bear), born in Nebraska. A sergeant in the Pawnee Scouts, U.S. Army, Co-Rux-Te-Chod-Ish was given the medal for his bravery at the Republican River in Kansas on July 8, 1869, when he “ran out from the command in pursuit of a dismounted Indian; was shot down and badly wounded by a bullet from his own command.”

Michigan Medal of Honor story about Company K Civil War from earlier in this thread: Antoine Scott, who might have been also named Wiiyaabimind ... is the one who died before being nominated for the Medal of Honor. There is a story about him repeatedly dancing on the embankments of The Crater to draw Confederate fire and give the trapped Union troops time to scramble out of there. He was not hit, and of course that leads to the story of the big medicine protecting him from bullets. He survived the war and died near Muskegon in his 40s.

Raymond Herek, [Company K's] modern-day historian, has pieced together an account of their last moments in the Crater. "Some of the Sharpshooters," Herek wrote, "among them Pvts. Sidney Haight, Antoine Scott, and Charles Thatcher, covered the retreat as best they could before they pulled out. Scott [[Co. K) was one of the last to leave the fort….Thatcher, Haight, Scott and [Charles H.] DePuy all were cited for the Medal of Honor for their exploits that day." Thatcher, Haight and DePuy, all white, received their medals in 1896. Scott, the Pentwater Chippewa, died in 1878—probably never knowing that his exceptional bravery had been recognized. http://www.historynet.com/american-i...the-crater.htm

Read more:
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...#ixzz1wBIhvJJ1

[gazhekwe]

Listen while reading some of the four Memorial Day posts above:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOtrqq8qN1w&feature=share

Here is one to honor those who are fighting in foreign lands:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=GW26cXHfo-c

[gazhekwe]

Mmmm, strawberries, Odemanak in Anishinaabemowin. Heart berries. If you cut them just so, you see the heart shape. We took a ride out North Territorial and stopped at a strawberry farm at Tower Road. We bought a quart already picked and yummed them down as we drove along. So perfect for a beautiful Spring day. We just got back and I found this story waiting for me, something to watch for in the night, before dawn tomorrow.




Mother Earth Takes Bite Out of Strawberry Moon in Partial Lunar Eclipse

By ICTMN Staff June 3, 2012

It’s no transit of Venus, but the so-called strawberry moon will be an eye-catching sight as Mother Earth’s shadow falls across it in a partial lunar eclipse just before sunrise on June 4.

The Strawberry Moon is supposedly so named in Algonquin lore because it signals the start of the short harvest season of the oxidant-rich fruit, according to the Farmers’ Almanac.

This eclipse will be visible in North and South America, Australia, eastern parts of Asia and across the entire Pacific Ocean, NASA said in a media release. Atlantic viewers in the United States will see the eclipse just as the moon is setting, which will give it that uber-plump, bigger-than-life look against the horizon.

This will occur at about 3:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, NASA said, meaning about 6 a.m. on the East Coast of Turtle Island, with the maximum effect occurring about 7:04 a.m. EDT, when 37 percent of the moon’s surface will be darkened by Mother Earth’s shadow.

That aside, everyone’s waiting with bated breath for the transit of Venus that’s taking place on June 5–6, which will be visible all over Turtle Island. So stay tuned. Meanwhile, whet your moon appetite with this video explaining the phenomenon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=aszUiI6J-L8

Read more:
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...#ixzz1wmYz3XLx

[gazhekwe]

I'm posting this not about the acting captain and his problems so much as about Seattle's plans to work with the Justice Department to clean up its act after being found to use force excessively and improperly in the wake of the murder of native woodcarver John T. Williams by officer Ian Birk in 2010. It is odd that he was selected to lead part of the effort when he has such a murky record.

SPD official involved in reform effort arrested in alleged domestic violence

Steve Miletich,
Seattle Times staff reporter
Originally published Sunday, June 3, 2012 at 6:52 PM

An acting Seattle police captain who was recently given a key role in the city's plan to address federal findings of problems in the Police Department was booked into jail early Sunday after being arrested in an alleged domestic-violence incident.

Donnie R. Lowe, who officially holds the rank of lieutenant, has been removed from his role in the reform effort, officials said in a statement Sunday night.

Lowe was one of 32 sworn and civilian members in the department assigned to carry out the so-called "20/20" plan, created after the Justice Department found in December that Seattle police too often use excessive force.

He was put in charge of a small, second-level group assigned to deal with leadership aspects of the plan, which calls for 20 initiatives in 20 months. It also includes measures to deal with evidence of biased policing cited by the Justice Department. In addition to the group Lowe led, others include operations, community relations and values.
Details of what led to Lowe's off-duty arrest by South Precinct officers were not immediately available, said Sgt. Sean Whitcomb, the department's chief spokesman.

Lowe, 45, has a checkered history with the department, including an arrest in 2008 on suspicion of driving under the influence [[DUI). He has received internal reprimands for inappropriate dealings with his son in a holding cell and over his effort to retrieve nude photographs of a relative.

Lowe, who joined the department in 1992 and earned $148,127 in regular and overtime pay last year, was booked into the King County Jail shortly after midnight on suspicion of assault tied to domestic violence, jail records show.

His arrest comes as city officials and federal attorneys are engaged in delicate, final-stage negotiations to determine if they can reach a mutually acceptable, court-enforced consent decree to resolve the Justice Department's concerns without a lawsuit.

The city unveiled the "20/20" plan in late March, a day before the Justice Department gave the city its proposed solutions — including more sergeants and enhanced training. Mayor Mike McGinn introduced the 32-member "20/20" team of commanders, officers and administrators at a news conference May 10.

McGinn, who has expressed deep concerns about the cost and scope of the federal proposals, submitted the city's formal counterproposal to the Justice Department on May 16. It has not been made public because of a confidentiality agreement between the two sides.
U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan in Seattle has called the "20/20" plan a "framework" lacking in details.

The assistant Seattle police chief assigned to oversee the plan, Mike Sanford, was cleared by King County prosecutors May 8 of criminal-misconduct allegations that grew out of his handling of a traffic accident involving his daughter, donations he solicited for a charity and preparations for a promotion exam for prospective sergeants. The department then opened an internal investigation into the matter.

Investigations ahead
Lowe was arrested Saturday night after officers responded to a report of a domestic-violence incident, the Seattle police statement said.
At the direction of Deputy Chief Nick Metz, Capt. Neil Low went to the scene, relieved Lowe of duty and took his badge and gun.

Although the preliminary investigation was conducted by Seattle police, Police Chief John Diaz has directed that an outside agency — still to be determined — conduct the criminal investigation, according to the statement. The department's Office of Professional Accountability [[OPA) will monitor the criminal investigation and, once it concludes, begin its own internal inquiry.

Lowe, who has not been charged, is likely, under normal procedures, to make a court appearance Monday to determine whether he will remain in custody.
His 2008 DUI arrest attracted attention because he was allowed to supervise a Seattle police security detail at President Obama's inauguration in January 2009, even though the arrest had taken place Nov. 23, 2008.

Lowe had been stopped on Interstate 5 in South Seattle by a State Patrol trooper. A blood-alcohol test administered to Lowe about an hour after the stop registered 0.113 percent, above the state's legal limit of 0.08 percent for those over 21, according to a State Patrol report.
Lowe pleaded guilty to an amended charge of reckless driving in June 2009. Under a deferred sentence, that charge was dismissed in 2011 after he completed alcohol-information school, probation, community service and other terms.

It was not clear Sunday how the Police Department dealt internally with the case.

At the time of the DUI arrest, Lowe worked in the department's Homeland Security Bureau, overseeing planning for special events and disaster management. He began working on the inauguration assignment before the incident and supervised a 42-member police detail that assisted in inaugural security.

Past reprimands
In another matter, Lowe received a written reprimand after the department found he entered a jail cell in June 2006 and made inappropriate physical contact with his son, then 13, who had been arrested for allegedly obstructing officers and was handcuffed.
The boy alleged his father punched him and pushed him against a wall. Lowe told internal investigators he grabbed the boy by his sweatshirt and pulled him up from a bench in a way that was "not gentle," police records show.

The City Attorney's Office declined to bring charges, citing proof problems and a parent's right to discipline a child, according to the records.

Also, Lowe received an oral reprimand after entering a private home in 2002 to try to recover nude photographs of a female relative from a man who reportedly had been romantically involved with her.

In 2007, a citizen-review-board report cited that case as one of several in which then-Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske reduced disciplinary findings.
The OPA'scivilian director at that time had recommended findings of misuse of authority and violation of rules, regulations and laws, the board said. Kerlikowske reached a lesser finding, concluding that the officer engaged in conduct unbecoming an officer, the report said.

Staff reporter Jennifer Sullivan and news researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report, which includes information from Times archives.

Steve Miletich: 206-464-3302 or smiletich@seattletimes.com

[gazhekwe]

Somehow, the media wants to make this an issue of "character," apparently suggesting that someone who claims to be Native American but can't prove it is lacking in the character needed to serve in the US Senate. After thinking about this for some time, reading numerous opinions from Natives and non-natives, I have finally come up with a way to present my position on this matter.

There are a number of issues roiling at the top of this to-do, all of recent development.

1) Somehow it is a wonderful thing to be Native American
2) One who claims it gets big advantages
3) One who claims it has to be able to prove it

Elizabeth Warren was born in 1949 in Oklahoma, and she was raised in Oklahoma. Both the time and the place have a lot to do with shaping her family beliefs about their heritage. Through the 40s, 50s and 60s, being Native American was not a good thing, particularly in areas with large Indian populations. Discrimination was rampant, perception was that Indians were lazy and drunk, with the women being single parent baby machines with children by many different absent fathers. A lot of people with Indian heritage kept it to themselves through that time, yet there were many who wanted their children to know that Indian heritage could be something to be proud of.

Being raised in a city with a majority white population rendered Indian heritage completely irrelevant in society, in school. If you could fit in by ignoring your heritage yourself, it was a lot easier to get along.

This is the kind of societal pressure that Warren no doubt grew up with. There was no reason for her family to seek community recognition as Indian, no reason to pursue enrollment. Historically, it was not that important. In the 30s, my Dad had to be a quarter to go to Haskell, and that is what he claimed. In truth, he was 3/4. I had trouble with his claim when I applied for BIA loans, and had to get the background straightened out. Enrollment was still not that sought after at that time. After the state passed Michigan Indian Tuition Waiver in 1976, many who had been in the same condition sought and achieved tribal enrollment. I counseled many people about proving their tribal membership through the 70, 80s and 90s. In our black community there are still many who have this heritage but have not sought enrollment.

Because of the history of American Indians' relations with the US and mainstream society, I see Ms. Warren's views on her heritage as quite common. How and why she claimed it at Harvard might be interesting, but she has been there since 1992. No one has been able to show that Warren got anything for claiming her family heritage.

If Harvard got any advantage from it, they might need to look at their recognition methods. Self-identification is really not sufficient. These days, in order to claim Native American status to qualify for specific grants or programs, a person must prove tribal membership, BIA recognition, or community recognition.

There has been a lot of development in Indian country in the past 20 years that might impact how someone feels about this, but the historic past is really at the root of it. It should not adversely reflect on her character in the way the political communities are trying to show.

[gazhekwe]

MINING Decision postponed on halting U.P. project A federal judge has postponed a decision on whether to halt construction of a nickel and copper mine in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. A lawsuit by the private Huron Mountain Club contends Kennecott Eagle Minerals didn’t get needed federal permits to build the Marquette County mine. The suit also faults the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies for failing to require the permits. Kennecott got state approval for the project and says federal permits are unnecessary. The company has begun drilling and plans to start extracting minerals next year. U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell in Grand Rapids heard arguments Wednesday on the club’s request for an injunction to halting mine work the case is decided. Bell says he’ll consider the matter and rule later.
Significant damage has been done, however.

[gazhekwe]

This has been in progress a while and today,

Navajo President Ben Shelly just endorsed the Navajo-Hopi Little Colorado River Water Settlement...against mass opposition from grassroot Navajo community...see guest commentary ....story tomorrow

This guest commentary from April explains the various ins and outs:

Senate Bill Seeks to Extinguish Navajo and Hopi Water Rights - NativeNewsNetwork
www.nativenewsnetwork.com

TUBA CITY, ARIZONA – Senators Jon Kyl, Arizona - R, and John McCain, Arizona - R, will be in Tuba City on Thursday, April 5, 2012, to persuade Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribal leaders to give up their peoples' aboriginal and Treaty-guaranteed priority Water Rights by accepting a "Settlement Agreement" written to benefit some of the West's most powerful mining and energy corporations.

Senate Bill 2109 45; the "Navajo-Hopi Little Colorado River Water Rights Settlement Act of 2012" was introduced by Kyl and McCain on February 14, 2012, and is on a fast track to give Arizona corporations and water interests a "100 th birthday present" that will close the door forever on Navajo and Hopi food and water sovereignty, security and self-reliance.They are doing so by trying to persuade the Navajo Nation and Hopi leaders to support and endorse Senate Bill 2109.

S.2109 asks the Navajo and Hopi peoples to waive their priority Water Rights to the surface waters of the Little Colorado River "from time immemorial and thereafter, forever" in return for the shallow promise of uncertain federal appropriations to supply minimal amounts of drinking water to a handful of reservation communities.

The Bill - and the "Settlement Agreement" it ratifies - do not quantify Navajo and Hopi water rights - the foundation of all other southwestern Indian Water Rights settlements to date - thereby denying the Tribes the economic market value of their water rights, and forcing them into perpetual dependence on uncertain federal funding for any water projects.

Senators Kyl and McCain know well that without water, life is not possible. Yet, their Bill and the "Settlement Agreement" close the door forever to any possibility of irrigated agriculture and water conservation projects to heal and restore Navajo and Hopi watersheds [[keeping sediment from filling downstream reservoirs) to grow high-value income and employment-producing livestock and crops for Navajo, Hopi and external markets; and to provide once again for healthy, diabetes - and obesity-free nutrition and active lifestyles for all future generations of Navajo and Hopi children.

Senators Kyl and McCain demand that the Navajo and Hopi people waive and give up all their rights to legal protection of injury to surface and ground water supply and quality in the past, present, and future - yet the Navajo and Hopi peoples do not even know the full extent and nature of the rights they are being pressured to waive because the details of the "Settlement Agreement" are not being shared with the public.

This is wrong.

Navajo and Hopi water and public health have already been damaged severely by past uranium and coal mining in and upstream of Navajo and Hopi communities. Senators Kyl and McCain are trying now to take away all rightful legal protections against the present and real danger of such contaminations occurring again.

S.2109 and the "Settlement Agreement" deny the Navajo and Hopi people the resources and means to assess comprehensive long-term water needs of every community, village, and watershed; and deny the resources and means to plan for, and develop sufficient domestic, municipal, industrial and agricultural "wet water" projects essential to the permanent well-being, prosperity and health of their homelands and children's children. This is absolutely counter to the U.S. Supreme Court's 1908 Winter's Doctrine that explicitly reserves and safeguards the water needed for that permanent well-being and prosperity.

S.2109 and the "Settlement Agreement" deny the Navajo and Hopi people the resources and means to bank their own waters, or to recharge their aquifers depleted and damaged by the mining and energy corporations that S.2109 benefits. S.2109 and the "Settlement Agreement" require Navajo and Hopi to give Peabody Coal Mining Company and the Salt River Project and other owners of the Navajo Generating Station [[NGS) tens of thousands of acre-feet of Navajo and Hopi water annually - without any compensation - and to force the extension of Peabody and NGS leases without Navajo and Hopi community input, or regard for past and continuing harmful impacts to public health, water supplies and water quality - as necessary pre-conditions to Navajo and Hopi receiving Congressional appropriations for minimal domestic water development.

This is coercive and wrong.

Ed Becenti, Navajo, has lived on the Navajo Reservation his entire life. He grew up on tradition and culture taught by his elders in the Navajo language. Mr. Becenti serves as a spokesperson Navajo people in the political environment challenging sensitive Native issues in local, state, and national government. Presently, protecting sacred tribal water rights has become personal priority for him; not only on behalf of Navajo people, but for the neighboring Hopi Nation. He resides in Window Rock, Arizona.
posted April 4, 2012 7:57 am edt

[gazhekwe]

Another Notch for Garden River's Belt
James Anthony for local2 sault ste. marie
June 18th, 2012 | Last Updated at 9:28pm

---

Nolan and Zack not only talent in Garden River
[Before the Great Border installation, Garden River inCanada, Bay Mills, Bawating and Sugar Island in
Michigan were all one tribal group. In fact we still have blood relatives across the communities. Therefore I call a Michigan connection to a Stanley Cup winner. One of my teachers is a Nolan, I believe an aunt to Jordan. Gazhekwe]


Jordan Nolan with father Ted Nolan and mom after winning the Stanley Cup
Credit: supplied
Jordan Nolan winning the Stanley cup shouldn’t be that big of a surprise to anyone. Garden River, which has a population of around 1000 people, has produced top athletes for years with the likes of Darren Zack and Ted Nolan, who have each reached the pinnacle of their respective sports.

Darren Zack won 4 gold medals, 2 silver and 4 World Championships in International Softball. Ted Nolan won the Memorial Cup, the Jack Adams award for Best Coach in the NHL and the Calder Cup playing for the Adirondack Red Wings. Nolan also coached 4 years in the NHL [[2 with Buffalo and 2 with the New York Islanders).




That isn’t the only talent from Garden River however. With the rise of Jordan Nolan and his Stanley Cup Victory it's appropriate to look into the talent pools that Garden River has:

• Dan Tice, while playing hockey in the Soo, won a scholarship to play Division 2 hockey at Fair State. From there he went on to play professionally in Quebec, as well as have 4 professional boxing bouts in the cruiserweight division where he went 2-2 with both victories being TKO’s.

• The Solomons also find themselves being involved in the hockey spotlight, with sons Jeremy and Trevor. Trevor played 7 years in the OHL, 2 of those years with hometown team Soo Greyhounds. Jeremy finds himself recently helping the Soo Thunderbirds to the most Successful season in franchise history, winning the NOJHL title as well as the Dudley cup.

• Grant Syrette is the most recent from Garden River to crack the OHL, making his debut this year with the St. Michaels Majors after being selected in the 4th round 77th overall in 2010. Grant went on to pitch in with 2 points and 74 penalty minutes throughout the season.
  

• Brandon Nolan is another kid from Garden River to crack an NHL lineup, in 2008 with the Carolina Hurricanes, before his career was ended due to a concussion.

• Allen Nolan also played in the OHL as well as the Central Hockey League. Allan commented saying that “The support from the community is unbelievable. No matter where you’re playing if it’s in the Soo or down in Toronto there is always someone who comes out to watch you, they may not be immediate family but you know who they are and you know they’re there.”

During the Stanley Cup Finals this support was shown at the Garden River Recreation Centre. The Rec center set up a projector and had the game playing in the main gym. Fans packed into the gym with homemade signs, popcorn and pride; as they were about to witness Jordan have his dream come true and win the Stanley Cup.

Jordan’s Stanley Cup Victory is just another trophy on the shelf for Garden River and another example of the immense talent this community has to offer.

http://www.local2.ca/ssm/m/view.php?id=6355

Jordan Nolan [[born June 23, 1989) is a professional Canadian ice hockey player who is currently playing for the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League [[NHL). He was selected by Los Angeles in the 7th round [[186th overall) of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Nolan

[gazhekwe]

It seems Keweenaw Bay Indian Community [[KBIC) wants to have land it owns in Marquette put trust, then open an American Indian owned gas station. If the land is put in trust, the KBIC will not have to pay the state taxes. [Note: At Bay Mills, only tribal members of BMIC can get that discount. At Saginaw Chippewa in Mt. Pleasant, members of any tribe can get the discount.] The other gas station owners and operators have been putting up a huge opposition to the trust status.

Here is an article explaining in some detail: http://www.miningjournal.net/page/co...id/576576.html

The Mining Journal came out with an Editorial on June 5 advocating for the KBIC gas station, saying Marquette has basically been held hostage to the current station owners and has the highest prices in the state. They used the word "Gouging" to describe what the current owners are doing. The editorial suggested that the KBIC station would add some healthy competition and hopefully bring prices down.

Editorial: http://www.miningjournal.net/page/co...w-station.html

In response to the editorial, the existing stations all pulled the Mining Journal from their racks and refuse to sell it. Krist Atanasoff, VP of one of the larger suppliers, Krist Oil, came out with this priceless statement when the paper asked why he won't sell it:

"We're not going to do business with your company anymore because all you can say is bad things about us," Atanasoff said while returning an earlier phone call for comment from The Mining Journal. "You're supporting these Indians. They're thieves, they're convicted felons and they're tax evaders."

Here is the June 14 news article about the owner retaliation against the Mining Journal:

http://www.miningjournal.net/page/co....html?nav=5006

In response, a boycott of Krist Oil has been called from northern Wisconsin through the UP.

Indians are Thieves, Felons & Tax Evaders..

By DaElmersBack | Posted 19 hours ago | Michigan

Was this an irresponsible statement made by a oil company vice president? Is this a form of Racism? These were the comments made by Krist Oil Company Vice President Krist Atanasoff, who helps run over 65 Convenience Stores in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota.

He made them to a newspaper in Upper Michigan

http://www.miningjournal.net/page/co....html?nav=5006

There are many people upset in Upper Michigan, there is even a Facebook Page called, "Avoid [[Krist) Citgo Gas Stations in Upper Michigan & Wisconsin" where over 300 people have joined after Krist made those statements.

https://www.facebook.com/AvoidCitgoGasInUP

One thing is for certain- RACISM MUST END!!!

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-806165

[gazhekwe]

This is the 136th anniversary of the defeat of General George Armstrong Custer of the US 7th Cavalry by assembled troops of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho led by war chiefs Crazy Horse and Gall on the plains of the Greasy Grass River, aka Little Big Horn.

Casualties of the five defeated companies of the 7th Cavalry were 268 dead, 55 wounded. Among the dead were General Custer, two of his brothers, a nephew and his brother-in-law. Indian casualties have been reported between 36 dead to 300 dead. Lakota chief Red Horse reported at the time there were 136 dead, 160 wounded. Later, in a drawing, he depicted fewer, but it must be said that statistical accuracy of the drawing was not a recognized goal.

Sitting Bull, Tatanka Yotanka, was not in the fight, though his visions and teachings inspired and guided the Lakota into the fight. In early June, 1876, during a Sun Dance ceremony, he had a vision of soldiers falling into his camp like grasshoppers from the sky.

At that time, the military had undertaken a summer campaign designed to force the Lakota and Cheyenne back to their reservations using a three pronged approach.

On June 17, 1876, General Crook was defeated by a surprisingly large number of warriers at the Battle of the Rosebud. This caused him to be late for assembly with other regiments of the 7th along the Big Horn and Little Big Horn. While on his way to the rendezvous point, at dawn on June 25 Custer learned of an encampment in the vicinity. Although scouts warned him it was a very large encampment, the largest ever seen, none of the soldiers, nor Custer could tell its size. Custer planned a surprise attack the following morning, but later decided to attack immediately when he learned that his presence had been exposed. They began their move at noon.

Custer's main fear was that the encampment would break up and the Indians would scatter, making it difficult to catch them all.

The result is widely understood to be a complete massacre of the soldiers with Custer making a last stand before being killed himself. Archeologists and historians interviewing survivors of the Battle are suggesting that the troops were overwhelmed by Crazy Horse's first charge rather than surrounded and picked off. However it happened, Custer and his men all died. Survivors were from the troops of Reno and Benteen, who were attacked after Custer was out of the way. That fight continued into the night and most of the next day. Terry's troops approaching caused the Indians to withdraw.

Knowing they would be subject to retaliation on a terrible scale, the Indians withdrew, broke camp and disbursed within 48 hours. They were right about the retaliation. In 1876, after news of Custer's fate, Congress approved a measure to add up to 2500 more troops to the army, and to increase the size of cavalry companies to 100 enlisted men. Indians believe the killing of 146 men, women and children by the 7th Cavalry at Wounded Knee in 1890 was the final strike that ended their resistance to subjugation to the US.

[gazhekwe]

By Dr. Beau Washington, coyotethoughts.com.

The basic belief in evidence-based psychology is that thoughts cause feelings in most cases.Let’s say that a mountain lion came into the room where we are. For most of us, we would think of danger and our heart rate would increase, pupils would dilate, we would start to sweat, some would run and perhaps worse. Our minds are connected to our bodies.

However, if we knew the mountain lion was raised and trained by the kindest person we know, our heart rates would slow down, we would feel at ease and we would probably want to pet the mountain lion. Still it’s a mountain lion, but different ways of thinking about that animal gives us different responses. If we think of danger, we feel fear. Thinking of safety, we feel calm. Makes sense, eh?

Seeing problems accurately is important to good mental health. In the introductory Coyote Thoughts, we learn about Trickster Thoughts, the thoughts that are possible but not accurate. They trick us into believing they are true. For instance, I want to drive to town to go to work, and I see that I have a flat tire. My first thought is, “Crap, a flat tire!” Then I think, “It will take 15 minutes to change it. I will call them and let them know I will be late.”

It does not control my day or thoughts.But if I get depressed from time to time, I will think things like, “Crap, a flat tire! This always happens to me. I can’t do anything right. I am so stupid. I am such a loser. They will fire me for being late.” And it will be a start of a bad day.

Those are trickster thoughts that are ganging up on me. All of those thoughts can make me angry, frustrated and/or depressed. I would be letting a 15-minute flat tire control my day. “This always happens to me” is not true; it is a trickster thought. I haven’t had a flat tire in years, yet I get tricked into believing it is true.

Same way with those other thoughts, a flat tire has nothing to do with my intelligence or whether I am a loser or not. It’s a flat tire, nothing more or less.The interesting thing about Trickster Thoughts is that everybody who thinks has them; they are part of thinking. The problem comes when we keep and believe the trickster thought, the thought/option that is wrong. When we think about something, we may think is it option A) “This always happens to me”; or B) I haven’t had a flat tire in a while. I wonder what I ran over.” If we stick with Option A and think no further, it could lead to a bigger problem.

In this case, it is a trickster thought called “Over Generalization,” which is stereotyping that this always happens. The truth is that I don’t always get a flat tire, but the trickster wants me to believe the thought that is misleading me. If I start to believe the first trickster, it will call in other tricksters like “Labeling” which is calling myself stupid or a loser and “Magnification” that makes the problem bigger than it actually is by thinking I will get fired. Getting fired is possible, but since I am usually close to being on time, most likely, it won’t happen.

The more tricksters I believe, the more miserable my day becomes. The ability of being able to spring back from problems comes from chasing away the trickster thoughts and looking at what is accurate, that is: The flat tire is just a 15 minute “pain in the neck” [[my wife would be proud I used the word “neck”).

We have never liked others lying to us, so why should we allow ourselves to believe trickster thoughts and thus lie to ourselves? The trickster thoughts, also called Cognitive Distortions, have names like “Over Generalization,” “Labeling” and “Magnification.” We can bring the tricksters out of the shadows by recognizing them for what they are. One thought can, and often does, fit into several cognitive distortion [[trickster) categories. Listen for them in others.

Tricksters are sly and not always harmful. Sometimes having trickster thoughts is good for our mental health. For instance, it’s been jokingly said to, “Hire a teenager while they still know everything.” Teens often think they know everything; it helps their self-esteem. They may be overwhelmed and feel stupid if they actually realized the amount of knowledge that they know pales in comparison to what an elder knows. Learning is a lifelong process.

Hunting tricksters and chasing them away will pay off in helping you feel better. I enjoy thinking about thinkin, and I hope you will too. It is easier to think about thinking when we have names for the types of thoughts we have. Happy hunting!

Related: “Coyote Thoughts: A Native Explains Mental Health”

Read more:
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...#ixzz1zyPLL6uG

[gazhekwe]

Vernon Traversie, a legally blind Cheyenne River Sioux tribal elder who lives in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, believes he was the victim of a hate crime while in the hospital for surgery and fears reprisal for his attempts to bring the incident to the attention of authorities.

After having heart surgery at Rapid City Regional Hospital [[RCRH) in Rapid City, South Dakota, Traversie had scars on his abdomen described by several eyewitnesses as “carvings” or “brandings” of the letters KKK. After his wounds were documented by photographs and in a video posted on YouTube in April, his case has evoked outrage from Native Americans across the country.

In a recent written statement he said, “I feel hopeful that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is beginning an investigation into what happened to me at the Rapid City Regional Hospital last September. I continue to call for a full law enforcement investigation and for protection because I am afraid.”

Traversie’s case has generated a great deal of controversy in the Rapid City area. Many South Dakota Natives, who utilize Indian Health Service [[IHS) Aberdeen Area services, support Traversie. These tribal members are sent to RCRH for major surgery, obstetrics or complicated cases that have been referred from IHS. Many claim they have received substandard care at the facility.

But his accusation has also drawn a great deal of criticism, largely from those who claim he is trying to stir up racial tensions between the local tribes and the mainstream community. Some have questioned his integrity, character, and motivation. He has been called a “whiner,” “moron” and “ingrate” by some who say he should be thankful that the surgical team at RCRH saved his life.

Traversie says he feels intimidated by the negative attention and is reluctant to speak publicly on his own behalf. That’s why his pastor, the Reverend Ben Farrar of the First Baptist Church of Eagle Butte, South Dakota has stepped forward to, he says, “set the record straight.” Farrar says the elder’s concern for other RCRH patients who may face similar victimization is what motivated him to speak out about the incident.

Farrar, who has been the pastor at the Eagle Butte church since June of last year, says he has been at Traversie’s side since the beginning of the ordeal, says he knows Traversie to be an honest man. He recalls that Traversie was having a checkup in the office of his cardiologist in Rapid City when he experienced his heart attack. He was immediately transported to RCRH, where he was first stabilized and then underwent double-bypass surgery on August 26, 2011.

Farrar says he visited Traversie in the hospital that day and the next, bringing cards and well-wishes from the congregation. He says Traversie told his companion, Karen Townsend, and Farrar that he had been having increasingly confrontational exchanges with a male attendant, who, at one point, Traversie told them, swore at him after he requested his pain medication.

The next time Farrar visited, he says Traversie told him that “20 people, in pairs and small groups,” had come in and asked to see his surgical scars. “These people did not dress the wounds, or treat or touch him in any way,” Farrar recalls him saying. “They just looked at the wounds and left. He had no idea why they were looking, but he heard a lot of whispering after they looked.”

A few days later Traversie told Farrar that as he was preparing to be discharged, a female nurse came to his bed and told him quietly that her conscience was bothering her.

“I can’t stand it any longer,” Traversi says she said. “They did something bad to you. When you get home, have someone take photos of your front and back right away.” According to Traversie, she then told him she did not want to be involved. “This is the last time you’ll ever hear from me,” she told him.

“When he got home, Karen looked at the scars and was alarmed,” says Farrar. “She called the Eagle Butte Police Department and they came out to have a look. After viewing the K-shaped cuts, their first reaction was to question Karen, since her name begins with a K. They soon realized, however, that she could not have made the marks.

“I viewed the scars myself the following day, when Vern went to the Eagle Butte IHS clinic,” Farrar says. “When they opened up his robe, I was floored. There was the obvious surgery scar running down his upper chest; then a scar at an exact right angle, clearly for a drainage tube, was visible. But then all over his torso there were other cuts. At first they seemed haphazard and clumsy, but as I looked closer, I could clearly see the letter K on either side of his abdomen.”
Farrar says he was puzzled by these marks.

“But then we saw a smaller K in the middle, and we were shocked,” he recalls. “I am used to the idea of the KKK showing up and doing crazy things through the pages of history,” he says. “You just don’t expect to see it in the here and now.”....

The staff at the Eagle Butte IHS clinic doesn’t think the scars are the work of a Klan member. They told Traversie the scars were made by an allergic reaction to surgical tape; a suggestion that does not sit well with Farrar. “Vern has had a number of surgeries before this and has never had an allergic reaction to tape, and to my knowledge, they don’t make surgical tape in the shape of letters.”
Farrar says he was with Traversie when an IHS doctor examined the scars. He says the physician spoke frankly, yet insisted on anonymity.

“Off the record,” he says the doctor told them, “This looks exactly like what you think it is. On the record, I can’t imagine a person who has taken an oath to serve, protect, and heal the population could commit such an atrocity.”
...
Robert Perry, Supervisory Senior FBI Resident Agent in Rapid City, confirmed that the FBI was contacted.

“In conjunction with the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, we have conducted an investigation into the allegations made in this case,” he says, adding that the findings have been turned over to the U.S. Attorney General’s Office. “We are now awaiting the Attorney General’s decision as to whether the matter needs further investigation or if other actions may be taken,” he says.

Farrar says he also contacted RCRH within a week of Traversie’s discharge and claims they promised an investigation. “They turned the matter over to the Rapid City police, but the police never interviewed Vern, Karen, or me. They just went by whatever information they were given by the hospital.”
...
In May 21, after hundreds gathered at RCRH in support of Traversie, hospital administrators released a statement that read, in part, “We are deeply committed to providing excellent care to everyone, regardless of race. No one at RCRH would stand by idly and allow abuse to occur in this hospital.”

In a May 15 letter to Traversie, Velveta Howell, a regional manager of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights, stated that the agency would initiate an investigation into Traversie’s claims, and would also refer his complaints of physical abuse to the U.S. Department of Justice and the regional office of the FBI.

A week later, the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association [[GPTCA), an affiliation made up of the 16 tribal presidents and chairpersons in the states of North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska, met at Shakopee, Minnesota, where they passed a resolution in support of Traversie and for a request for justice. The GPTCA resolution calls for an investigation into the matter, pointing to increased racial tension in Rapid City in the last few years, and asserting that the medical care provided to American Indians at RCRH has been “notoriously substandard.”
...
“A primary concern for Vern is that if a hate crime was committed, the perpetrator is still working somewhere in the hospital system, and if not stopped, may try it again.

“There is also the matter of justice for Vern,” [Farrar] adds. “His scars are healing, but he deserves peace of mind. The people of Rapid City as well as the Lakota people who use these services [at RCRH] deserve the confidence that comes with knowing that they are safe and secure in the hands of their healthcare providers.”

Read more:http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...#ixzz20Ef1mKSH

[gazhekwe]

I just love this article. It's from 1999, but timely to revive it for the latest eating-to-your-origins theory of health. Here's a taste, click the link to read the whole thing.

http://www.westonaprice.org/traditional-diets/guts-and-grease

Written by Sally Fallon Morell and Mary Enig

December 31 1999

The hunter-gatherer's dinner is front page news these days. Drawing from the writings of Dr. Boyd Eaton and Professor Loren Cordain, experts in the so-called Paleolithic diet, columnists and reporters are spreading the word about the health benefits of a diet rich in protein and high in fiber from a variety of plant foods ^1,2.

It's actually amusing to see what the modern food pundits come up with as examples of the "Paleolithic Prescription." Jean Carper offers a Stone Age Salad of mixed greens, garbanzo beans, skinless chicken breast, walnuts and fresh herbs, mixed with a dressing made of orange juice, balsamic vinegar and canola oil.³

Elizabeth Somer suggests wholewheat waffles with fat-free cream cheese, coleslaw with nonfat dressing, grilled halibut with spinach, grilled tofu and vegetables over rice, nonfat milk, canned apricots and mineral water, along with prawns and clams. Her Stone Age food pyramid includes plenty of plant foods, extra lean meat and fish, nonfat milk products, and honey and eggs in small amounts.⁴

Above all, the food writers tell us, avoid fats, especially saturated fats. The hunter-gatherer's diet was highly politically correct, they say, rich in polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids but relatively low in overall fat and very low in that dietary villain-saturated fat. This is the one dietary factor that health officials tell us is responsible for all the health problems that plague us-everything from cancer and heart disease to obesity and MS.

....

Fermented Foods

Use of sour-tasting fermented foods was widespread. The Cherokee "bread" consisted of nixtamal wrapped in corn leaves and allowed to ferment for two weeks.²³ Manzanita berries and other plant foods were also fermented.

The Indians also enjoyed fermented, gamey animal foods. The Coahuiltecans, living in the inland brush country of south Texas set fish aside for eight days "until larvae and other insects had developed in the rotting flesh.²⁴They were then consumed as an epicure's delight, along with the rotten fish."

Samuel Hearne describes a fermented dish consumed by the Chippewaya and Cree: "The most remarkable dish among them. . . is blood mixed with the half-digested food which is found in the caribou's stomach, and boiled up with a sufficient quantity of water to make it of the consistence of pease-pottage. Some fat and scraps of tender flesh are also shred small and boiled with it. To render this dish more palatable, they have a method of mixing the blood with the contents of the stomach in the paunch itself, and hanging it up in the heat and smoke of the fire for several days; which puts the whole mass into a state of fermentation, which gives it such an agreeable acid taste, that were it not for prejudice, it might be eaten by those who have the nicest palates."²⁵

A number of reports indicate that broth and herbed beverages were preferred to water. The Chippewa boiled water and added leaves or twigs before drinking it.²⁶ Sassafras was a favorite ingredient in teas and medicinal drinks.²⁷ Broth was flavored and thickened with corn silk and dried pumpkin blossom. California Indians added lemonade berries to water to make a pleasantly sour drink.²⁸ Another sour drink was produced from fermented corn porridge.²⁹ In the Southwest, a drink called chichi is made with little balls of corn dough which the women impregnate with saliva by chewing. They are added to water to produce a delicious, sour, fizzy fermented drink.³⁰

Guts and Grease in a Glass

Modern food writers who assure us we can enjoy the superb health of the American Indian by eating low fat foods and canned fruits have done the public a great disservice. The basis of the Indian diet was guts and grease, not waffles and skimmed milk. When the Indians abandoned these traditional foods and began consuming processed store-bought foods, their health deteriorated rapidly. Weston Price vividly described the suffering from tooth decay, tuberculosis, arthritis and other problems that plagued the modernized Indian groups he visited throughout America and Canada.

Modern man has lost his taste for the kinds of foods the Indians ate—how many American children will eat raw liver, dried lung or sour porridge? How then can we return to the kind of good health the Indians enjoyed?

Price found only one group of modernized Indians that did not suffer from caries. These were students at the Mohawk Institute near the city of Brantford. "The Institute maintained a fine dairy herd and provided fresh vegetables, whole wheat bread and limited the sugar and white flour."³¹

So the formula for good health in the modern age begins with the products of "a fine dairy herd"—whole, raw, unprocessed milk from cows that eat green grass, a highly nutritious substitute for guts and grease and one that every child can enjoy, even native American children who are supposedly lactose intolerant. Add some good fats [[butter, tallow and lard), aim for liver or other organ meats once a week [[but don’t fret if you can’t achieve this with your own children), make cod liver oil part of the daily routine, eat plenty of meat and seafood, and augment the diet with a variety of plant foods properly prepared, including a few that are fermented. Keep sugar and white flour to a minimum. It's a simple formula that can turn a nation of hungry little wolves into happy campers.

Meanwhile, be skeptical of government guidelines. The Indians learned not to trust our government and neither should you.

NOTE from Gazhekwe:

The article refers to Weston A. Price without explanation [[of course, the article is on the Weston A Price Foundation site). Dr. Price was a Cleveland dentist who wanted to find out the effect of modern diet on teeth. He was concerned about the amount of cavities and malformed teeth he was seeing in the 1930s. The following is from Amazon regarding the 8th edition of his book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, originally published in 1939:

An epic study demonstrating the importance of whole food nutrition, and the degeneration and destruction that comes from a diet of processed foods.

For nearly 10 years, Weston Price and his wife traveled around the world in search of the secret to health. Instead of looking at people afflicted with disease symptoms, this highly-respected dentist and dental researcher chose to focus on healthy individuals, and challenged himself to understand how they achieved such amazing health. Dr. Price traveled to hundreds of cities in a total of 14 different countries in his search to find healthy people. He investigated some of the most remote areas in the world. He observed perfect dental arches, minimal tooth decay, high immunity to tuberculosis and overall excellent health in those groups of people who ate their indigenous foods. He found when these people were introduced to modernized foods, such as white flour, white sugar, refined vegetable oils and canned goods, signs of degeneration quickly became quite evident. Dental caries, deformed jaw structures, crooked teeth, arthritis and a low immunity to tuberculosis became rampant amongst them. Dr. Price documented this ancestral wisdom including hundreds of photos in his book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.

[gazhekwe]

Rio Tinto wins again.

A federal judge ruled that the Huron Mountain Club failed to convince him their suit alleging Rio Tinto did not get federal permits would be successful. HMC alleged the federal permits should have been required.

HMC alleges the mine will damage the Salmon Trout and Yellow Dog Rivers and surrounding wetlands. State regulators and Rio Tinto claim the mine can be operated safely.

NOTE by Gazhekwe: In prior reports the state permitting process was examined and found to be very lax based upon the state's inability to monitor what Rio Tinto was proposing. In addition a tribal claim that Eagle Rock is a sacred spot was thrown out because the area is not a building, and a church has to be a building.

[Pam]

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/sto...ns/1202974.htm

With the beat of a drum sounding and the scent of burning sage and sweet grass permeating the hot, humid air, Native American Catholics honored a woman they already consider a saint July 14, her feast day.

This year's celebration was special, because in October the Algonquin-Mohawk woman who died more than 400 years ago will at long last become a saint.

[gazhekwe]

Thank you for posting that, Pam. Our village is very excited, as our St. Catherine's Catholic Church was renamed for Blessed Kateri when it was rebuilt after a fire. We are raising money to send some folks to the ceremony.

[gazhekwe]

July 31, 1763: Captain James Dalyell, and 280 soldiers attack Pontiac’s village at 2:30 am this morning. Pontiac is informed of Dalyell’s plans, so he sets up an ambush at the Parent’s Creek bridge with 400 Indians. When Dalyell’s troops approach the bridge, the Indians attack. Twenty soldiers, including Dalyell, and seven Indians are killed in the fighting. The creek, near Detroit, is now called Bloody Run. Major Robert Rogers helps Dalyell’s survivors to escape.

[gazhekwe]

Restoring Heritage Cuisines and Indigenous Agroecosystems to Address Obesity, Malnutrition and Trauma

By Devon G. Peña, Ph.D. August 1, 2012

One of the consequences of the conquest and settlement of North and South America by Europeans was the displacement and destruction of native biological and cultural diversity. The environmental historian Alfred Crosby has called the European invasion of the Americas [sic] a biological conquest and a form of “ecological imperialism.”

No space or native habitat touched by colonialism was spared the effects of this bio-invasion. Indigenous plants and animals were diminished by the violence and displacement associated with the arrival of European colonizers and their biotic baggage. Cattle displaced bison; sheep replaced native deer; wheat displaced maize and amaranth.

Europeans and others benefited from the arrival of the crops of Native America including amaranth, agave, avocado, bean, bell pepper, cashew, cassava, chili, cocoa [[for chocolate) corn, guava, peanut, potato, pumpkin, tomato, vanilla, wild rice, and many more.

A demographic catastrophe resulted and native populations declined by 70 to 98 percent. This was caused by genocide through war, enslavement and forced labor, introduced disease [[smallpox, measles), and widespread hunger and malnutrition. Many people were worked or starved to death in mines, plantations, and sweatshops.

Historical trauma and native foods
Recently, we have become more aware of the peculiar form of death facing Native peoples as a result of processes that Russel L. Barsch calls ecocide, or death caused by destruction of indigenous ecosystems including the agricultural and food systems of entire cultures and civilizations.

Research demonstrates that access to traditional foods—the nutritional substances a given people co-evolve with over generations of living and adapting to place—is essential to our health. Thus, eating poorly is not a case of persons making “poor personal choices” or engaging in “bad individual behaviors;” it is a matter of systematic discrimination and structural violence when people are denied access to the resources they need to maintain their own indigenous food traditions, cuisines, and diets.

Barsh and Gary Paul Nabhan, and others have documented the devastating effects of nutritional genocide in their studies of Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest and Southwest. The health effects are still being amplified by institutional racism and colonial domination and the ecological wreckage left in the wake of conquest, enclosure, and domination.

This peculiar form of barely visible structural violence proceeds from the destruction of ecosystems and indigenous farming and heritage cuisines. A principal consequence of this form of ecocide are increased morbidity, reduced life spans, and the greater incidence of chronic conditions related to diseases like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes linked to malnutrition, hunger, and culturally inappropriate non-traditional diets.

Trauma studies emerged after the Nazi Holocaust, but the concept was applied to Native American communities for the first time in the 1980s as a result of the work of Maria Yellow Horse Braveheart and her colleagues. The basic idea involves recognition that “Historical trauma is cumulative emotional and psychological wounding over the lifespan and across generations, emanating from massive group trauma. Native Americans have, for over 500 years, endured physical, emotional, social, and spiritual genocide from European and American colonialist policy.”

It is a recurrent form of trauma that affects entire communities because the violence and discrimination is directed at the collective and not just individual members of the culture. The effects of historical trauma include alcoholism and substance abuse, domestic violence and child abuse, malnutrition, obesity, and cardiovascular illness.

Perhaps the most pernicious form of structural violence is that which proceeds through silent erasure. The forced eradication of Native foods, foodways, and farming traditions has caused grave damage to people and the land. But the silent killer of nutricide is being challenged.

Deep food: Healing through heritage cuisine
Native peoples are resilient. We are organizing to reverse the damage produced by centuries of historical trauma and structural violence. Today, we are witnessing the emergence and florescence of a pivotal movement involving the recovery of ancestral food crops, wild plants, and heritage cuisines.

This is what I call “deep food” to distinguish it from the “local” and “slow” food because this is about the recovery of the deeply rooted ancestral foods and food ways of the First Peoples.

This indigenous movement focuses on improving health through heritage cuisines. It also ties together respect for and assertion of treaty rights as civil rights and the restoration of traditional hunting, foraging, and farming methods and principles. An important part of this work involves establishing community gardens, home kitchen gardens, agro-forestry mosaics or “food forest” projects, and many other innovative campaigns. Here are two examples from the Pacific Northwest.

Read more: http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...#ixzz22IMxQHAJ

Case studies in Part 2

[gazhekwe]

Restoring Heritage Cuisines and Indigenous Agroecosystems to Address Obesity, Malnutrition and Trauma

By Devon G. Peña, Ph.D. Continued from Part 1

Skokomish First Foods Sovereignty
The Skokomish community garden and elder/youth mentoring project will reintroduce traditional native plants, game, and vegetables such as camas and medicinal herbs to a community actively seeking physical, mental, and spiritual healing from the effects of intergenerational trauma caused by colonization and forced assimilation policies of the U.S. government. The project works at improving tribal health through traditional tuwaduq first foods.

Numerous clinical and ethnographic studies confirm a strong association between the decline of traditional foodways and the higher incidence of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular illnesses. New studies in nutrition science and anthropology of food are demonstrating that we can eliminate the debilitating negative health outcomes for the community by promoting first foods, and heritage cuisines.

First Foods Sovereignty Project: From Shoreline to Mountain Tops engages tribal elders in mentoring relations with tribal youth. The elders have wisdom and knowledge of the medicinal herbs and plants and wild game and foraged species and are guiding and mentoring Skokomish youth.

Young people will provide the creative labor and learn the deeply rooted traditions and practices of gathering, foraging, hunting, and gardening that will revitalize connections to landscape. Delbert Miller [[sm3tcoom), elder leader and organizer of the project, describes the work in eloquent terms:

Our elders will instruct youth in food and place from shoreline to mountaintop. There is a phrase in the Skokomish native language that captures the ultimate goal of this project: Sqa hLab hLits hLa Wa Wa. This means the food for future children.

Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Project
A similar effort is underway in a collaborative project uniting three first nations from the Puget Sound bioregion through the Northwest Indian College. A report from the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission explains that this project works to assist “tribal members incorporate more traditional foods in their diets.”

The Muckleshoot project joins teaching with harvesting and farming. It also makes a very clear argument that food sovereignty is a matter of environmental and social justice. We cannot separate access to local, fresh, organic, and culturally-appropriate foods from the struggles to overcome decades of environmental racism that have polluted our waterways, soils, air, and bodies.
Billy Frank, Chair of the Fisheries Commission explains the history and objectives of this project:

The Food Sovereignty program helps tribal members make those foods – such as nettles, camas, huckleberries, salmon and wild game – part of their everyday lives. The project reminds us that to have traditional foods, we must continue to be good natural resources managers…[We] are sovereign nations, and part of that sovereignty includes access to the traditional foods needed to keep our communities and ourselves healthy and strong.

The production of food is as much about taking care of the land. Taking care of creation is the first step toward taking care of each other and our homes.
Muckleshoot’s community nutritionist is a young scholar activist by the name of Valerie Segrest. Ms. Segrest recently published a book intended for Native American readers entitled Feeding the People, Feeding the Spirit. With her co-author [[Elise Krohn), she offers a set of eight Traditional Food Principles they developed from the experience of working with the tribal elders in their food sovereignty project:

1. Food is at the center of culture
2. Honor the food web/chain
3. Eat with the seasons
4. Eat a variety of foods
5. Traditional foods are whole foods
6. Eat local foods
7. Wild and organic foods are better for health
8. Cook and eat with good intention

These principles are based on daily lived practices that can help persons take responsibility for restoring their own health and well-being. I am reminded of Taiaiake Alfred’s suggestion that we do not preserve our traditions, we live our traditions.

The principal lesson I have learned from these inspirational projects is perhaps best expressed by Mohawk scholar, Taiaiake Alfred : “The time to blame the white man, the far away and long ago, is over. People should recognize that the enemy is close enough to touch,” and to eat, I will add.

The colonizer’s food is slowly killing us. Food is the weapon of self-destruction the colonizer placed in our hands and sells to us at fast food joints and convenience marts. But food is also the solution. It is our tool for liberation, health, and spiritual healing. Deep food is the means to move toward autonomy and the renewal of a living traditional community.

Devon G. Peña, Ph.D. [[Chicano/Creek) is a Professor in American Ethnic Studies, Anthropology and Environmental Studies at the University of Washington and a widely published scholar and activist in the environmental justice and sustainable agriculture movements. He is co-founder and president of The Acequia Institute and manages the Institute’s 200-acre farm in Colorado’s San Luis Valley where he is a plant breeder and seed saver.

Read more:

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ict_sbc/restoring-heritage-cuisines-and-indigenous-agroecosystems-to-address-obesity-malnutrition-and-trauma#ixzz22IPY5d4J

[gazhekwe]

Namewin [[Prayer)

Charlotte Johnston McMurray was born in 1806 in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. She was the fifth child of Ozhaawshcodaewikwe [[Green Prairie Woman) and fur trader John Johnston. Her Anishinaabe name was Ogenebugoquay which has been translated by some as The Woman of the Wild Rose, but may have other meanings for fluent speakers. She began doing missionary work when she was 21 years old.

From 1828-1829, she worked as interpreter for the Rev. Abel Bingham, a missionary at the Sault. Her work for Bingham included translating sermons to Anishinaabemowin. Charlotte continued to do missionary work in Sault Ste. Marie, both independently and in conjunction with other missionaries who came to the area.

In 1833 Charlotte married the Rev. William McMurray. Following several years spent on the Canadian side of the Sault, they moved to Dundas, Ontario in the late 1830s. Charlotte spent her entire adult life sharing Christianity with her Anishinaabe communities through the medium of Anishinaabemowin.

Charlotte wrote this prayer in 1828, and it survives as a written example of her teachings. University of Michigan History and Native Studies student, Kayla Gonyon, has been conducting historical research on Charlotte and other members of the Johnston family. She coordinated the transcription and translation of the prayer with assistance from Howard Kimewon, Alphonse Pitawanakwat and Margaret Noori. The prayer is currently located with other Johnston materials in the manuscript collection of the Chippewa County Historical Society.

Reading the prayer: The first line is the text as Charlotte wrote it in her notebook. Keep in mind she was not using a standard orthography but was transcribing Anishinaabe and English sounds to the best of her ablity. The second line is how we would write in Anishinaabemowin today. The third line reflects the literal meaning which does not always sound like today's spoken English, but helps us understand the Anishinaabemowin better.

Ge-zha-mon-e-do!	Wa-wo-se-me-go-yun,	keen kah o-zhe-to-yun	Ak-ke,
Gizhemanido!	Wawaasamigoyan	giin igo ozhitooyan	Aki
Creator! You made light for us you made Earth

Ge-zhig-ge-ge-zis,	Tib-bik-ge-zis,	Ah-nung-wug
Giizhik giizis,	Dibik giizis,	Anongog
The daily sun,	The nightly sun,	The stars

giya	kok-kin-nuh	ba-mah-de-ze-jig,
gaye	e-gakina	bimaadizijig,
and all		the ones living,

keen gah-o-zhe-to-yun	No-din-noan giya	Je-an ne-me-ke-kahg.
giin gaa ozhitooyin	noodinon gaye	ji-animikiikag.
you made it	the wind and	thunderers.

keen-ge-ge-ken-don	wa-go-nen wa-ne-zhe shing	ka-de-zhe-wa-be-ze-yon.
giin ga gikendaan	wagonen waa nizhishing	ga da zhewebziiyaang.
you know it	what will be beautiful	in what we do.

Me-zhe-shin	a-zhe-me-no-ain-dah-mun
Miizhishin	ezhi-minonendaamaan
Give me	how to think good about myself

giya me-zhe-shin	je-min-no-be-mah-de-ze-yon.
gaye miizhishin	ji-minobimaadiziyaanh.
and give me	[[how) to live my life well.

ah-pe-dush ne-bo-yon	shah-wa-ne-me-shin	che-ah-we-o-dis-se-non.
apii dash niboyaanh	zhaawenimishin	chi'aawe'odesiinoon
until I die	forgive / bless me	for how I have not been like you

Zhah-wa-nim ain-nah-wa-mah-gig	giya kok-kin-nuh	ba-mah-diz-ze-jig
Zhaawenim inaawaamagog	gaye kakina	bimaadizijig
Forgive those who trespass against you	and all	the ones living

ah-pe-ta-ne-mud	ke-ba-zhik-go-kegwis.
epiitenimaad	g' bezhig igo g'gwis
how you respect that person [[in the name of)	your only son

Kun-nuh-ga! kun-nah.!

Kina go! Kina!

Everyone all together!

http://www.umich.edu/~ojibwe/communi...-THtl.facebook

Charlotte's sister, Jane married Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Indian agent, and she assisted him in his writings, including Algic Researches and the Hiawatha Legends, which inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha.

One of her brothers fought with Commodore Perry in Lake Erie during the War of 1812.