Paging Gazhekwe

[Jimaz]

More Native Americans feeling the Bern. Sen. Sanders receives an honorary name from Coast Salish leaders:

https://youtu.be/Ffgd4Zab8F4

I couldn't resist looking for the spelling and pronunciation.

See "dxʷshudičup" [[pronounced dooh-s-who-dee-choop)

[Pam]

Where is Gazhekwe? Hope she is ok. Hope you don't mind all these Bernie related stories.
Here's another one.

http://www.adn.com/article/20160325/...tol-bay-tribes

[Jimaz]

Where is Gazhekwe? Hope she is ok. Hope you don't mind all these Bernie related stories.
Here's another one.

http://www.adn.com/article/20160325/...tol-bay-tribes

I'm sure Gazhekwe would approve.

I'm so happy to see Jane step up.

I recall being a bit disappointed when Michelle did not [[more than she did), despite her impressive background, although I'm sure she had good reasons.

“My job is to amplify those voices so that the rest of America can understand the impacts of the political and economic decisions we are making,” [Jane] Sanders said.

[gazhekwe]

I loved this picture, President Obama putting the Medal of Honor on Joseph Medicine Crow, August 12, 2009. Dr. Medicine Crow was 96.



May he walk forever in Beauty.

Home / Currents / Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow has Walked On at 102
DR. JOSEPH MEDICINE CROW HAS WALKED ON AT 102

BY LEVI RICKERT / CURRENTS / 03 APR 2016

Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Joseph Medicine Crow shows a drum to President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama during a reception for recipients and their families in the Blue Room of the White House, August 12, 2009. [[Official White House photo by Pete Souza)

Published April 3, 2016
BILLINGS, MONTANA — Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow, the last living Plains Indian war chief and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, walked on Sunday, April 3, 2016. Dr. Medicine Crow was 102.

Born on October 27, 1913 near Lodge Grass, Montana, Medicine Crow was a decorated World War II veteran and was the first member of the Crow Tribe to obtain an advanced degree when he earned a master’s degree. After World War II, he earned a Ph.D.

In 2008, Senator Jon Tester [[Montana-D), vice chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, nominated Dr. Medicine Crow to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. He was honored by President Barack Obama in August of 2009.

“TODAY, MONTANA LOST A TREASURE. JOE MEDICINE CROW WAS A SOLDIER AND A SCHOLAR, BUT ABOVE ALL HE WAS A FIERCE ADVOCATE FOR NATIVE AMERICAN FAMILIES. WHEN YOU SPOKE WITH JOE MEDICINE CROW, IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO BE INSPIRED. I KNOW HIS LEGACY WILL MOTIVATE GENERATIONS OF MONTANANS TO FOLLOW IN HIS FOOTSTEPS AND LIVE A LIFE DEDICATED TO SERVING OTHERS,” COMMENTED SENATOR TESTER TODAY IN A STATEMENT.

Dr. Joe Medicine Crow

During a White House ceremony in 2009, President Obama presented Dr. Medicine Crow with the Presidential Medal of Freedom and stated:

“Born just a generation past the Battle of the Little Big Horn, a grandson of a scout for General Custer himself, Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow was the first member of his tribe to attend college and earn a Master’s. Before completing his PhD, he left to serve in World War II. Wearing war paint beneath his uniform, and a sacred feather beneath his helmet, Joseph Medicine Crow completed the four battlefield deeds that made him the last Crow war chief. Historian, educator, and patriot — a good man, a bacheitche in Crow — Dr. Medicine Crow’s life reflects not only the warrior spirit of the Crow people, but America’s highest ideals.”

In 2015, the Billings schools named the new middle school in the Heights “Medicine Crow Middle School,” which is currently under construction. He attended the ground breaking of the school’s construction.

[Pam]

Welcome back Gaz. I was just coming to post about Joe Medicine Crow.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/c...d-age-38124505

[gazhekwe]

Michigan and Ontario Anishinabek to gather for Flint Water Ceremony


Posted on April 5, 2016 In News

Josephine Mandamin, Water Walker

By Jannan Cotto

To the first inhabitants of the Great Lakes Region, one of the most water privileged areas of the world, the water crisis in Flint, MI, a state bordered by all five Great Lakes, is unfathomable. As Anishinaabek, we recognize all of creation as sacred, especially our life-giving and sustaining water. Therefore, we are encouraged to engage in practices that help us live in respectful relationships of reciprocity with all things.

With this in mind, an intertribal group has organized to hold a water ceremony for Flint, MI. The event is an international and intertribal effort with support from the federally recognized tribes in Michigan, urban Native communities of Grand Rapids, Lansing, Detroit, and Chicago, relatives in Ontario, and the University of Michigan-Flint.

The water ceremony will be held on April 16th at the University of Michigan-Flint campus in Flint, Michigan. The intent is to show respect, honor, and acknowledge the water as a living being. The ceremony will be led by Grandmother Josephine Mandamin, an Anishinaabekwe who traversed over 10,900 miles around each of the Great Lakes in 2003 with her copper pail of water to raise awareness about how important our water is.

We would like to invite all nations to consider sending a delegation from their community to this gathering. If you would like to join us or have questions about how you can support, please contact Theresa Chingwa 231‐330‐5317 [[USA);
Donald Lyons 517‐204‐0274/ lyonsdon@gmail.com for Facebook questions [[USA);
Joanne Carey 231‐330‐5901 for water donations [[USA;
Patricia Shawanoo 226‐349‐1241 [[Canada).

- See more at: http://anishinabeknews.ca/2016/04/05....W8VyfCwt.dpuf

[gazhekwe]

This is last year's picture, since I am still in the land of summer.

Here is a little history of when they sprang over the years:

The original post telling the story of the Spring Beauties 3-7-10, Post #310

That year, they bloomed in my yard April 11, post #336.

The year after, they showed up April 27, 2011, post 665.

The next year, it was March 27, 2012, post 890.

Last year, it was April 20, 2013, post 1199.

April 23, 2014

April 18, 2015.

[gazhekwe]

Finally got the picture from hubby, taken this morning in the sun. They have been out three days now.

[gazhekwe]

A video of the meeting Saturday afternoon, 4-16-2016.m One hour, 12 minutes.

First 18 minutes -- Aaron Payment, Chair, Sault Ste. Marie Band of Chippewa
Aaron's presentation gives a lot of history and the relationship of the People to the Land and Water. Well worth hearing.

Following him --- Lon Johnson, Candidate for US Rep 1st District [[Still Listening) Outlines what individuals and communities can do to influence government action and advocate for shutting down Line 5. Protect the Great Lakes. 11 minutes, to 29:12

At one point, the City Councilman says he was taken aside by others for trying to introduce a resolution against Line 5, and he was called "Verna Lawrence." Verna Lawrence was a Sault Band member who was on City Council in the 1980s. She was very vocal and very stubborn. Once she had a position, she would not stop. So much so that here she is 40 years later, an icon of institutional change, not well perceived by those interested in a smooth process.

Q and A, clarifications on where is Line 5, who owns the land, Line 5 already violates easement agreement with State and State could shut it down.

At 59 minutes, some discussion of problems with the pipeline that are not being disclosed.
1:08:00 Pipeline worker speaks of his experience.

https://www.facebook.com/LonBJohnson/videos/795427143895390/

[gazhekwe]

Facebook site for Michigan Sharpshooters Company K, very interesting family histories, places to see, articles. It's a closed group, you can ask to be let in. If necessary, you can message me with your FB handle and I can invite you.

Company K 1st Michigan Sharpshooters Civil War Veterans
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1543...61602016052602

[Dumpling]

On April 21st my sister who lives in California now was visiting with the family
back in Michigan. We were talking about the genetics of male pattern
baldness. From there it was a small step to Mom's grandfather's thick black
hair. [[My Mom has very fine, still blond hair. It is the Danish great-grandmother
stuff. She wears it in a bun the size of a walnut on the top of her head.) From
there it was a small step to Mom's story of being with her grandfather at a
roadside stand selling Native American wares, and hearing her grandfather
saying to the salesperson that he had Native American ancestry. When Mom
tried to fact check this with her grandmother she was told no, and not to bring
the subject up again.
The subject is being brought up again. My California sister is going to pay for
a DNA analysis for my Mom [[Mom was rather against this at first so it still
may not happen). No, I will not try to pretend that I am Native American after
that, presuming that DNA appears as expect, but it would explain the deep
connection and comfort in the land, as well as my relative affinity for
Asian ways.

[Jimaz]

https://www.23andme.com/ looks like fun. I think their report shows what percentage of Neanderthal DNA is in the subject. Apparently we all have some.

[gazhekwe]

One problem with DNA ancestry checks is that the accuracy or depth of the information depends on what they have in the DNA lines to compare your DNA with. I have been holding back because the Native DNA data is still a bit sketchy. It will be interesting to hear what you find out. You can get the analysis on any children of your Mom if you can't get her to do it. If the DNA is in her it will show up in you, too.

There are other, more detailed ways to find information. Ancestry.com may be able to help. If you have your grandfather's birth name and birthplace, you may be able to find some record of his parents. You can check the census for that time and see who is listed in the family. You then have his parents' names if you didn't already, and can dig back with their names. The ancestry could have been from his mother or his father or both. The father will be easiest to trace back. I have gotten far enough back to find ancestors with Native names only. You may be surprised. If there is a tribal connection, you can contact the tribe to go back in their rolls. There was also an Indian Census, it would be worth it to check that for the area where the family lived to see if they are on it.

[Lowell]

I'm in the queue for one of these too. The one offered by ancestry.com has close to a million tests by now. Interesting that there are two genetic branches in the Americas. No matter what it's a long, long way from Omo Kibish.

[Jimaz]

I'm in the queue for one of these too. The one offered by ancestry.com has close to a million tests by now. Interesting that there are two genetic branches in the Americas. No matter what it's a long, long way from Omo Kibish.

Okay, that looks interesting but it's too small.

I found a larger version here. Click the image on that page for an even larger version.

[gazhekwe]

The map Lowell and Jimaz posted is interesting but note it relies on the tired old we-could-not-get-across-all-that-water-so-we-KNOW-those-primitives-couldn't Bering strait theory which is now being challenged on many fronts.

The primary purpose of this theory was to categorize humans according to the widely accepted racial construct, and the unintended result was to prevent study of evidence that points to other possibilities. Some of the suppressed evidence is finally coming forth, pushing the habitation dates farther and farther back.


How Linguists Are Pulling Apart the Bering Strait Theory

Alex Ewen

3/19/14

Over the past few weeks, new scientific discoveries have rekindled the debate over the Bering Strait Theory. Two of the discoveries were covered recently in Indian Country Today. The first “More Reasons to Doubt the Bering Strait Migration Theory,” dealt with the growing problem of “science by press release,” as scientific studies hype their conclusions to the point that they are misleading; and the second, “DNA Politics: Anzick Child Casts Doubt on Bering Strait Theory,” discussed how politics can influence science, and the negative effects these politically-based scientific results can have on Native peoples.

RELATED: More Reasons to Doubt the Bering Strait Migration Theory
RELATED:DNA Politics: Anzick Child Casts Doubt on Bering Strait Theory

It is generally assumed that the Bering Strait Theory has almost universal acceptance from scientists. So, for example, the New York Times, in an article on March 12, “Pause Is Seen in a Continent’s Peopling” stated unequivocally that

“The first migrations to North America occurred between 15,000 and 10,000 years ago,” with the new wrinkle that maybe on their way from Asia Indian ancestors laid over in the Bering Strait region [[Beringia) for thousands of years before traveling on to the Americas.

Therefore it is usually presumed that the primary critics of the theory must be anti-science, like the “creationists” who argue against evolution, or New Age pseudo-scientific conspiracy theorists. Thus in 1995, when the late Sioux philosopher Vine Deloria Jr. published Red Earth, White Lies: Native Americans and the Myth of Scientific Fact and challenged the Bering Strait Theory, he was savagely attacked by many scientists who lumped him in with those fringe groups.

The vitriol that poured from some of the harshest critics, such as John Whittaker, a professor of anthropology at Grinnell College, who referred to Deloria's book as "a wretched piece of Native American creationist claptrap,” seemed excessive.

The critics also demonstrated that they clearly did not comprehend Deloria’s argument. Red Earth, White Lies, embroidered by Deloria’s wry sense of humor and rambling musings, shows he was not anti-science, but rather anti-scientist. In particular, he was against those scientists who held narrow views of the world, who had no respect for other people’s traditions, who fostered a cult of superiority either for themselves or for their society, and who were afraid to search for the truth unless it already conformed with established opinion.

Deloria also argued that science, when studying people, was not neutral. In his view, some scientific theories harbored social and political agendas that were used to deprive Indians and other minorities of their rights. Many of the assumptions that underlay certain scientific principles were based on obsolete religious or social views, and he urged science to shed these dubious relics. The issue for Deloria was not science vs. religion [[or tradition), it was good science vs. bad science, and in his view, the Bering Strait Theory was bad science.

Nor was Deloria alone in this opinion. Since it was first proposed in the late 16th century, and especially in its most recent incarnations in the late 19th and the 20th centuries, the most vociferous critics of the Bering Strait Theory have been scientists. Even among archaeologists and physical anthropologists, generally the most dogmatic proponents of this theory, it has always been extremely factious. And the abuse they would heap upon each other was no less acidic than that they spewed on outsiders.

In 1892, when the geologist George Frederick Wright published his massive study, Man and the Glacial Period, which challenged some of the tenets of the Bering Strait Theory as it was then formulated, he was attacked, as David J. Meltzer pointed out in First Peoples in a New World, “with a barrage of vicious reviews which were unprecedented in number and savagery.” One critic of the book, William John McGee, the head of the Bureau of American Ethnology, “was especially bloodthirsty, labeling Wright’s work absurdly fallacious, unscientific, and an ‘offense to the nostrils,’ then dismissing him as ‘a betinseled charlatan whose potions are poison. Would that science might be well rid of such harpies.’”

To understand just one of the many scientific criticisms of the Bering Strait Theory, we go halfway around the world to the continental mass known as the Sahul, which includes Australia, New Guinea and surrounding islands. Like the Americas, it had long been assumed by archaeologists that the Indigenous Peoples who lived in that region had migrated there from Asia just a few thousand years ago. It then came as a massive shock to those same archaeologists when in 1968, near Lake Mungo in Southeastern Australia, the geologist Jim Bowler discovered the remains of a cremated woman who was subsequently radiocarbon-dated to be between 25,000 and 32,000 years old. Lake Mungo Woman, as she came to be known, was repatriated to the Aboriginal community in 1992.

Yet this discovery had already been anticipated by other scientists, for example, the linguists. The Sahul is one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world, home to more than 1,000 languages, about one-fifth of the world’s total. The linguists had already predicted that the “time depth” required to achieve this type of linguistic diversity was clearly not in the thousands of years, but in the tens of thousands of years. Subsequent archaeological finds have now pushed back the date of human occupation of Australia to a minimum of 45,000 years ago and possibly 60,000 years ago. ....

Read four more pages at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...063?page=0%2C1

[Pam]

Bernie Sanders visits Pine Ridge:

https://youtu.be/-rzsbTd6pZU

[gazhekwe]

There are no Native American reporters working at any of the television networks and none on the campaign trail

http://alldigitocracy.org/nativevote...=socialnetwork

You have to give Bernie Sanders credit for elevating American Indian and Alaska Native issues. He traveled across Montana, South Dakota, and North Dakota, and at every stop [[as he has been doing for months now) he called for a new relationship between the federal government and tribes.

At Pine Ridge, Sanders said: “The reason we are here today is to try to understand what is going on in Pine Ridge and other reservations,” Sanders said. “There are a lot of problems here. Poverty is much too high. There are not enough decent jobs in the area. The health care system is inadequate. And we need to fundamentally change the relationship between the U.S. government and the Native American community.”

Of course just bringing Native American issues to the surface is a good thing because it forces other candidates to talk about the same issues and come up with possible solutions.

Only that’s not what’s happening. Sanders is getting some press on Native issues, but it’s really limited.
A quick Google search tells the story. Search Bernie Sanders and Native Americans and there are some 771,000 hits, including videos of his speeches and a few news clips, mostly from regional newspapers.

There has not been a major story from any TV network. In fact if you use a TV network as a filter, such as NBC News, you are just as likely to get a story about a six-year-old who was removed from a temporary foster home and returned to her family. Actually the NBC story goes like this: “6-Year-Old Girl Removed From Foster Home Over Native American Heritage. Because Lexi is 1/64th Choctaw Native American, her case falls under the purview of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978.”

If you Google Native Americans plus Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump there are more results, and the stories being told range from Clinton’s ill-considered “off the reservation” remark to Trump’s attack of Sen. Elizabeth Warren and how her “phony Native American heritage” kept her from running for president.

This is why people hate politics. Instead of having a serious election discussion about Native American policy most of the campaign news stories focus on the headline grabbing click-bait. Sure, it’s okay to debate the Indian Child Welfare Act, especially if the news media adds historical context about why it’s a law. It’s even worth talking about Sen. Warren, tribal identity, and citizenship. But those debates only make sense if we pull back and look at the big issues, the relationship of tribes and the federal government.

Of course the news media has no way of knowing what’s important to American Indians and Alaska Natives. There are no Native American reporters working at any of the television networks and none on the campaign trail. There’s no one there to say, “this is a story, and here’s why …”

This is a story because no president can improve the relationship between tribes and the federal government. It takes a president, the Congress, the courts, the bureaucracy, and, the media, to help people understand the solemn promises they as Americans have made. It’s a story that requires research and history so that reporters can explain complex ideas. It’s a story because tribes are constitutional governments, not special interests. It’s a story because Native Americans deserve a say over what happens on our lands.

I like numbers so here are three: The number of Native Americans in Congress; 0.37 percent. Number of Native Americans on the federal bench; 0.11 percent. And, Native Americans working in the national media, 0.00 percent.

Note to editors and producers: It’s really bad when even politicians kick your ass.

[gazhekwe]

Our beloved Bill Birdsong Miller is very very sick, with a long and tricky recovery from a series of health crises.

If anyone who sees this would like to help, there is a GoFundMe page for him:

https://www.gofundme.com/helpbillmiller

[Pam]

This just popped up on Yahoo. I guess someone in the mainstream media finally noticed Bernie's travels :

https://gma.yahoo.com/why-bernie-san...opstories.html

From Minnesota to California, Sanders has met privately with Native American leaders from dozens of tribes in the past four months and spoken publicly, at each of his campaign stops, about the hardships their communities face.

[Pam]

Wow, this is cool. New ad for Bernie:

https://youtu.be/OT8F3oD2KLQ

[Pam]

Attack dogs and pepper spray used on Dakota pipeline protestors. Sickening.

https://youtu.be/kuZcx2zEo4k


https://www.gofundme.com/sacredstonecamp

https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/d19fAf

[Bobl]

Gazhekwe: Forgive me if I have already asked in the past. A friend leased a small cottage on Walpole Island First Nation in the 1980s, on the river. An elderly man would often walk by, stopping to look toward the back of the lot, where a few remains of an old dwelling sat, overgrown with vines and tall grass. One morning my friend came upon a semi circle of river stones, opening of the circle facing the river, with an open clam shell in mid circle. John avoided this display when mowing the lawn for the rest of the summer. Do you have any idea of what this meant? His neighbors, First Nation members, had no idea.

[Pam]

Interview with Ladonna Brave Bull at the pipeline protest camp:



https://youtu.be/bCKGmqw4FKQ

[Bobl]

Gazhekwe, are you still with us? We all miss your posts and wisdom. We hope you are well!