Paging Gazhekwe

[old guy]

Great photograph. Impressive story.

[Jimaz]

Seriously, that photo needs/deserves to be promoted more. I couldn't find a match for it in Google Images.

[gazhekwe]

This is where I saw the picture on FB, can you tell its origin from this?
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...levant_count=1


NOTE: He also gave the invocation after the parade.
Today is National Navajo Code Talkers Day – Parade to be Held in Window Rock

Native News Network Staff in Native Currents.

WINDOW ROCK, ARIZONA – Today is National Navajo Code Talkers Day. This date, August 14, was first designated as National Navajo Code Talkers Day by President Ronald Reagan.

President Ronald Regan Proclaimed August 14 as National Navajo Code Talkers Day. Navajo Nation President Shelly speaks at last year's celebration.

Today is a good day to educate your children and others about the major contribution code talkers made to assist the war effort during World War II. Furthermore, it is a day to remember those code talkers who have walked on and pay tribute to those who remain.
The code talkers were used during World War II utilizing the Navajo language as to confuse the enemy. These codes were never broken. The contributions made by code talkers during World War II were insurmountable and helped to save democracy.
Each year in Window Rock on the Navajo Indian Reservation, there is a parade and a program to recognize and honor Navajo Code Talkers.

Here is today's agenda:
9:00 am. Parade of Navajo Code Talkers – Navajo Nation Museum
10:00 am Invocation – Roy Hawthorne, Navajo Code Talker
Posting the Colors – United States Marine Corps
National Anthem – Miss Lil Central Navajo Nation, Latrisha Honie
Welcome Address – Honorable Ben Shelly Navajo Nation President
Navajo Code Talkers – Zonnie Gorman, Historian
Laying of the Wreath – Moment of Silence
Taps – Joey Robledo, UNM Band [[desendant of code talker Samuel H. Begay)
Honorable Timothy Hale New Mexico State Rep
Proclamation – Cabinet Secretary
Salute to the Honorable Johnny Naize,
Navajo Code Talkers - Speaker of the Navajo Nation
Proclamantion - Jonathan M. Nez, Chairman
Navajo County Board of Supervisors
Our Language Col. LaDaniel Dayzie
Our Heroes 4th MLG, US Marine Corps
Flag Ceremony – Young Marine of the Marine Corps League
Keynote Address – MajGen Lewis A. Craparotta
Director of Operations, J-3, United States Northern Command
Closing Remarks – Peter MacDonald, President Navajo Code Talkers Association
Marine Corps Hymm Bill Toledo, Navajo Code Talker
Benediction – Retire the Colors – United States Marine Corps
12 Noon LUNCH
Entertainment – Lil Miss Navajo Central, Rachelle James
Sister Nations Honor Guard
Chucki Begay and Ponee Stone
Arlene Tsosie, Hoop Dancer
posted August 14, 2013 8:30 am edt

http://www.nativenewsnetwork.com/tod...ndow-rock.html

[gazhekwe]

Not just for kids, in my humble opinion. These are some seriously yummy and ribsticking lunch ideas for brownbaggers everywhere.

Back-To-School Lunches: 7 Easy, Native-Inspired Meals To Keep Kids Alert, Energized

Dale Carson, September 09, 2013

At most public schools, the cafeteria options are pretty poor. And even the few healthy vegetable sides are undermined when they accompany fried chicken. And if pizza is on the table, you know what your kids are reaching for.

Bad lunches actually impede kids' ability to learn. According to a study of the eating habits of almost 2,000 students led by Dr. Arthur Agatston, a preventative cardiologist and creator of the South Beach diet, there is a direct correspondence between nutritional lunches and academic performance. When students' lunches were switched from their school's low-budget processed meals to healthier options, their grades significantly improved, particularly in language, science and math, reported
Examiner.com. Researchers also observed a 15 percent decline in student absences, which are most often linked to illness.

Especially for young students, lunch is what refuels their bodies and minds, giving them mental energy to concentrate—as well as run around the playground. Recess, after all, enhances academic ability. A recent survey of principals reveals that 30 minutes of spontaneous play outdoors improves students' attention-span and focus.

So for the sake of your kids' mental and physical health, pack them a nutritious meal.

Here are some recipes—that incorporate indigenous foods—to make packing lunches easy for you [[ahem, reinvent leftovers!) and delicious for them:

1. Wild Rice With Maple Syrup and Vegetables
Wild rice, calledmanoominby the Ojibwe people, is an indigenous grain to North America long harvested by the Menominee [[“wild rice people”) in the Great Lakes region.

This low-fat, high-fiber grain is easy to prepare in bulk and will keep your kids' stomachs full and content. It's packed with protein, B vitamins, zinc and magnesium to enhance their cognition and immune systems.

Try serving a container of wild rice, sweetened with just a little maple syrup. Add in some vegetables—boiled or pan-seared, or even microwaved.

Get creative with wild rice recipes [[merci-mama.com)

2. Peanut Butter and Honey on Whole Grain Bread
You can't go wrong with the classics. High-protein peanut butter is great fuel for kids, and a little honey is a healthy substitute for jelly. But if your kids like the basic PB&J, try finding [[or making your own) no-sugar-added jam made from grapes, strawberries, blueberries or blackberries. Complex carbohydrates like whole grain, as opposed to white bread, will give them more energy and not cause their sugar levels to rise and plummet—in the midst of learning how to multiple and divide!

Try adding some bananas on your peanut-butter-spread whole grain bread. [[Flickr/luftholen)

3. Smoked Salmon and Bow-Tie Pasta
Salmon is the lifeblood of our brothers and sisters in the Pacific Northwest. Salmon, whether roasted, pan-seared, smoked or cooked over an open alder-fire pit, is a nutritious meal.

Smoked salmon generally works best for packed lunches, which are generally served cold. [[That said, it's a good idea to invest in a thermos.) Smoked salmon also blends well with a light sour cream-based sauce that can be mixed with lemon juice and olive oil or white wine. Throw in some peas and any other vegetables you have on hand, like broccoli.

Experiment with the type of pasta—fettucine is an excellent substitute for the farfalle! [[Flickr/Venture Vancouver)

4. Succotash
A succotash is any combination of corn and beans. This is my favorite version. This recipe serves six, so prepare in bulk and divide up for the family.

1 cup fresh corn
1 cup fresh lima beans
½ cup chopped onion [[optional)
Heat together on stove top with broth or butter. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Succotash is delicious and filling.

5. Quinoa Salad
Quinoa is an ancient grain indigenous to Bolivia and Peru; the Inca called quinoa chisa mama, “mother of all grain” and they called corn “our life.” Quinoa contains nine of the amino acids that we humans need in our diet, plus a healthy supply of iron and potassium. In addition, it is a good source of zinc and many B vitamins.

2 cups of cooked quinoa, chilled
½ green or red bell pepper, sliced thin
1 medium tomato, chopped
2 stalks scallion, sliced thin
½ ripe avocado, sliced and cubed
¼ cup chopped cilantro
Optional for more crunch: chopped celery stalk or ¼ cup of chopped jicama or cucumber, a sprinkle of pine or walnuts

Southwestern quinoa salad [[Flickr/FashySoupCan)

6. Turkey Wraps
Get some fresh veggies into your kid's lunches with these yummy wraps that use pesto instead of mayo to reduce saturated fat.
Learn how to make fresh basil pesto at homehere.


Roll sliced turkey breast with romaine lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers into a whole wheat tortilla spread with pesto.

Turkey wraps are fast and easy [[Flickr/palmettocheese)

7. Soup and Sandwich
Here's when that thermos comes in hand. When the cold weather kicks in, there's nothing like a warm cup of soup for kids to take to school. They typically enjoy this savory recipe.

Askutasquash Soup
1 large, or 2 medium butternut squash
1 med-large sweet onion, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup sweet apple cider, or apple juice
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon curry powder
Salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Split squash lengthwise down the middle, remove seeds, and place on a baking sheet flesh side down. Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour, until soft. Cool to handle. Remove flesh to a bowl or processor. Saute onion in butter until translucent. Add to squash plus ½ cup chicken broth. Puree and add more stock as needed. Pour into a large saucepan, adding remaining stock, cider and seasonings.

Hearty butternut squash soup [[Flickr/fonticulus)

Dale Carson [[Abenaki) is the author of three books: New Native American Cooking, Native New England Cooking, and A Dreamcatcher Book. She has written about and demonstrated Native cooking techniques for over 30 years. Dale has four grown children and lives with them and her husband in Madison, Connecticut.

Read more http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...ergized-151199

[gazhekwe]

The Big Dipper that is part of the constellation Ursa Major also forms the fisher, called Ojiig in Ojibwe. The dipper’s ladle forms the curve of the fisher’s tail.

ST. CLOUD, Minn. [[AP) – When Annette Lee dims the dome and brings up the stars in St. Cloud State University’s planetarium, she adds a new layer of understanding to the night sky as she describes astronomical phenomena, traces Greek and Roman constellations with a red light and then overlays images corresponding to Native American constellations.

The Big Dipper that is part of the constellation Ursa Major also forms the fisher, called Ojiig in Ojibwe. The dipper’s ladle forms the curve of the fisher’s tail.

Lee, assistant professor of astronomy and physics, explained to a room full of teachers attending a summer conference at St. Cloud State, that in Ojibwe culture the fisher is a clever, fierce and brave animal and a good fighter. It climbed a pine tree and jumped through a hole in the sky to bring back the birds and, therefore, the spring. Fishers are constantly on the move, sleeping for only a few hours before returning to the hunt. Like the fisher, the Big Dipper is constantly on the move in the sky.

On the Dakota star map, the Big Dipper contains the Blue Spirit Woman, who helps newborns pass from the star world to Earth and back again.

Through the Native Starwatchers Project, Lee has introduced audiences in Minnesota and throughout the U.S. to some Dakota and Ojibwe constellations and the stories they carry, the St. Cloud Times reported. Minnesota teachers are tuning in because state science standards require instructors to show how people from other cultures, including the state’s American Indian tribes, have contributed to science.

“I think it’s important for people to understand that although the mainstream science uses European and Greek [[constellations), it’s important to know it comes from a certain culture,” Lee said later. “There are many ways of knowing, and that’s just one way.”

Her primary audience is Native American youth. Lee said learning about the constellations offers a source of pride amid a life that can be full of hardship.

“It’s really giving them another connection and a connection to something that’s scientifically and culturally and spiritually based. It’s a message of hope,” Lee said.
...
http://www.nativetimes.com/culture/h...can-indians-do

[gazhekwe]

In his book,The Racial Contract, Charles W. Mills states that only recently have scholars been confronted “with the uncomfortable fact, hardly discussed in mainstream moral and political theory, that we live in a world which has been foundationally shaped for the past five hundred years by the realities of European domination and the gradual consolidation of global white supremacy.”

Playing 'Indian' and Color-Blind Racism

Dwanna L. Robertson September 20, 2013

We all know it’s that time of year. I wrote about it around the same time last year. Since then, we’ve won some battles, but also lost some, too. Here are just a few examples: Paul Frank Industries is collaborating with Native Designers and Gap pulled its Manifest Destiny T-shirt, yet CBS refused to apologize for offensive dialogue on Mike & Molly and Dan Snyder, the owner of that Washington football team, said he will “NEVER” change the name. Just the other day, my daughter sent me this link depicting the “sassy squaw” tween costume for Halloween, copyrighted for 2013.

Since the mid 1990s, race scholars have argued that after the U.S. Civil Rights era overtly racist acts gave way to color-blind [[covert) racism. In other words, it was no longer socially acceptable to express blatantly racist views or use the n-word and call people other bad words in public. People now speak in coded language, utilizing “colorblind” language to discriminate. White folk claim that, since they don’t see color, so their actions can’t possibly be racist. This logic allows them to explain away education, income, and health disparities for people of color. Political and economic inequalities can be painted as the result of individual failings and cultural weaknesses.

Natives do experience the covertness of color-blind racism that limits life opportunities. Under the logic of colorblind racism, if I don’t make as much money as a white woman who does the same job, it’s because I’m not as experienced or competent. If Natives, on average, have less college attainment, it’s has nothing to do with the 500+ years of internal colonization and genocide or the eras of removal, relocation, reservation internment, and forced boarding school attendance. It’s because Indians are lazy drunks. No thought is given to historical context or constrained opportunities. Race scholars admit that marginalized groups still experience inequality, but argue that racism is expressed increasinglywithoutdirect racist terminology.

But this certainly does not hold true for Indigenous Peoples in the U.S. We also routinely experienceovertracismin the form of racial epithets likeredskin, injunorsquawand horribly distorted depictions of Natives as mascots, reminiscent of the propaganda used against black, Irish and Jewish people in the 19thand 20thcenturies. And this overt racism isnotconfined to hate groups, but is visible in everyday communication and throughout the media.

We still live under the prevalence of Native misrepresentations in the media, archaic notions of Indianness, and the federal government’s appropriation of Indian names and words as code for military purposes. Racist informal statements are common expressions—statements like being an “Indian-giver,” sitting “Indian-style,” learning to count through the “one little, two little, three little Indians” song, or getting together to “pow wow” over a business idea.

While minstrel shows have long been criticized as racist, American children are still socialized intoplayingIndian. Columbus Day celebrations, Halloween costumes, and Thanksgiving reenactments stereotype Indigenous Peoples as one big distorted culture. We are relegated to racist stereotypes and cultural caricatures.

Why is racism against Natives hardly recognized or pointed out by non-Native people, especially non-Native scholars? It’s important to remember that academics are people first, and scholars second, and just as susceptible to internalizing phrases like “it’s about time to circle the wagons” when feeling under scrutiny or vulnerable. Historically, Native Peoples were portrayed as savages, Native women as sexually-permissive, and Native culture as engendering laziness. Therefore, non-Native race scholars, influenced by hundreds of years of playing Indian, may fail to check their assumptions.

In his book,The Racial Contract, Charles W. Mills states that only recently have scholars been confronted “with the uncomfortable fact, hardly discussed in mainstream moral and political theory, that we live in a world which has beenfoundationally shaped for the past five hundred years by the realities of European domination and the gradual consolidation of global white supremacy.”

Finally, it’s important to note that Indigenous Peoples are not a race, of course. We belong to distinct, sovereign Native Nations. I often explain that lumping all of us together just because we’re from the same continent makes no sense. Non-Native people wouldn’t lump people from Germany with people from Italy on the continent of Europe or people from Russia with people from Vietnam on the continent of Asia. Geographic location, culture, and language matter. Yet, no matter how we identify culturally, it seems that, especially in the media, non-Natives still see us as all the same.

Make no mistake. Playing Indian is racist—in no way different from wearing blackface or participating in minstrel shows—because it collapses our distinct cultures into one stereotypical racialized group. Even worse, because playing Indian is deemed socially acceptable [[e.g., normal), any other racial or ethnic group may now participate—without ever recognizing the inherent racism in doing so.

Dwanna L. Robertson is a citizen of the Muscogee [[Creek) Nation, an Assistant Professor at Kansas State University, a writer for Indian Country Today Media Network, and a public sociologist.

Read more athttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...r-blind-racism

[gazhekwe]

by Sara Schwartzkopf September 21, 2013

Native Americans have long been noted for their athletic prowess, but relatively few make it so far as to be a professional in their sport. From professional fighters to snowboarders, here are some Native athletes to put on your radar.

Number Five: Tim Welch, MMA

MMA fights and promotions are on the rise in Indian Country, so it should be no surprise that some of the top fighters are Natives themselves. Welch grew up in Montana and is Assiniboine Sioux. While he is currently training in Phoenix, he can be seen on Spike TVs Fight Master, a competition with 16 other welterweights to see who is named the best fighter.

Number Four: Yovani Gallardo, Baseball

Courtesy Associated Press

Nicknamed “El Purepecha” by some Mexican writers, Yovani Gallardo is, you guessed it, Purepecha. Originally from Michoacan, Mexico, Gallardo and his parents moved to Texas when he was only 4 years old. He’s been with the Milwaukee Brewers since 2007 and earned both a spot in the All-Star game and a Silver Slugger Award in 2010. Gallardo is currently coming off of the disabled list to finish out the rest of the season.

Number Three: Daniel Ponce de Leon, Boxing

Courtesy Associted Press

A Tarahumara Indian from Chihuahua, Mexico, Daniel Ponce de Leon is the only one out of six siblings to live to adulthood. He also has an impressive professional boxing record with 44 wins and only 5 losses over the course of his career. Ponce de Leon is also a former WBO Super Bantamweight Champion, and the most recent WBC Featherweight Champion.

Number Two: Lonnie Kauk, Snowboarding and Rock Climbing

Courtesy XGames.ESPN.Go.com

Lonnie Kauk is one of the only professional snowboarders today who can cite Native American ancestry. He grew up in Yosemite Valley, right where his Ahwahnechee ancestor Chief Tenaya would’ve lived. Kauk spends his winters riding for big name sponsors like Monster Energy and Mammoth Mountain. If you Google him, you’re sure to turn up a slew of videos showing just how skilled he is.

Number One: Dan Hornbuckle, MMA

Courtesy SRC-Official.com

A member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Hornbuckle has an impressive record of 24 wins and 5 losses in MMA. He has said that being a positive role model on the reservation has been a good motivator for him to succeed. Currently the DEEP Welterweight Champion, Hornbuckle has his next fight on October 20th.

Read more athttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...-native-151382

[gazhekwe]

Posted by PBSpot Admin 22 September 2013

A group of Neo-Nazis have set their sights on a North Dakota Town in the U.S. Native Americans and other activists have formed a protest to speak out against this organized act of terrorizing non-white communities, and Indigenous peoples of the Dakotas in particular.

Native American activists and UnityND have released a statement “Caravan leaves at 1:30 pm central to Leith, ND.” The rally at 3 pm Sunday, September 22nd is “to prevent white supremacists from terrorizing” North Dakota. The statement issues by the group says the rally is “because our children deserve a life without bigots.”

The Neo-Nazis targeted the community of Leith because it is a mostly “white” county. But the hate group has plans to disintegrate the Leith “into an all-white enclave.”

Neo-Nazi Jeff Schoep said that this is not just about moving somewhere, but taking over all local offices to form an overtly white supremacist government. ”We have every intention of legally assuming control of the local government.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center, said that the group in question, the U.S. National Socialist Movement, is the biggest Neo-Nazi group in the United States.

The leader of the hate-group, Craig Cobb said in an interview with WXMB-TV in Bismarck, ”It’s fine for all these other minorities, but not us.” He said the town was a type of “little Europe,” not noting that there are many non-Caucasians in Europe and have been since Antiquity. He also did not explain why they did not simply migrate to Europe instead of colonized Native American land.

Protestors explained that they would be in Leith to raise their voices, ”We are planning a true grassroots peaceful protest to demonstrate that we are united in a stance against hatred, violence and prejudice,” UnityND said, “Join us as we take to main street rural America to fight against racism.”

Tax and property records show that this is a bigger move than one group. Other leading white supremacists have invested in the town. Such heavyweights of hate include Tom Metzger, the leader of the White Aryan Resistance, and Alex Linder, from the Vanguard News Network, online Nazi forums.

[[Article by Ari Simeon)

http://politicalblindspot.com/neo-na...vists-protest/

[gazhekwe]

[gazhekwe]

In an update to the story we ran yesterday on the town of Leith, North Dakota being taken over by Neo-Nazi racists, Michael Pugliese tells us from the ground that “Lakota, Dakota, Anishinabe, Apache, African, Irish, German, Norwegian, Spanish, and other anti-racist individuals stood together to fight against the attempted nazi takeover of Leith, North Dakota.”

Pugliese documents the activism “led by indigenous resistors” who are seen “making a presence to ensure that neo nazi/confederate fascists know they have no chance of taking over Leith.”

In the photos we see police protecting Neo-Nazis, “making sure they’re allowed to continue with their white power nonsense” according to Pugliese.



“In the end, it was people power that sent the supporters of these nazi cowards home.”

"Today,” Pugliese said, “anti-racist resistance made it quite clear that the attempted nazi takeover of Leith will be a total failure.”



Stay tuned for more updates on the critical situation in Leith, North Dakota. And SPREAD THE WORD about these clowns who are trying to run out Native peoples, African Americans and others from the small town of Leith.
[[Article compiled by Micah Naziri, with reporting and photos by Michael Pugliese; photo source here)

http://politicalblindspot.com/neo-na...ist-activists/

[gazhekwe]

Craig Cobb stands in an empty lot he owns on Main Street in Leith, N.D., where he envisions a park, perhaps with a swimming pool, dedicated to the late neo-Nazi and white supremacist activist William L. Pierce. Cobb, 61, a self-described white supremacist, has purchased about a dozen lots in Leith and over the past year he has invited fellow white supremacists to move there and help him to transform the town of 16 people into a white enclave. The community is mobilizing to fight out of fear that Cobb could succeed, and the mayor has vowed to do whatever it takes to ensure Cobb's dream remains just that. [[[[AP Photo/Kevin Cederstrom))
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sec...rld&id=9258517

September 23, 2013 [[LEITH, N.D.) -- The people of Leith, North Dakota, hoped for a peaceful Sunday night after hundreds came to protest the arrival of white supremacists in the tiny western north Dakota town.

The big surprise today? A sea of law enforcement officers who locked down the town and stood between those yelling at each other.

The day started peacefully on the sleepy and Sunday morning in Leith. Farm work ceased hours before any trouble was expected, as the state patrol and deputies from four departments set up a command post and shut down all entrances to Leith. Troopers guarded even the smallest field roads into town.
The proactive plan worked. Shortly after noon, those protesting the presence of white supremacists in Leith arrived, and the unrest began.

A strong showing of support for Leith came from North Dakota's Native Americans, who came there angry and ready to take on Craig Cobb and members of the National Socialist Movement.

They marched down the main street of Leith, mocking the white supremacists who stood watching from the many lots in town they now own, flags with Nazi swastikas were all over town on land they now own.
What a day for those who have lived in peace and quiet on these dusty town roads for decades. Confrontations broke out, most of it cussing and racial slurs. But always, a strong line of law enforcement separated those preparing to fight.

As things heated up with the protestors, the special response team could be seen approaching the unrest, at the ready.

Bagpiper Jimmy Marr of Oregon, a white supremacist, kicked off the town meeting.

There were few answers as to what will happen to those white supremacists living in Leith. Some got unruly and were removed. As Cobb and his followers left the town hall meeting, they were heckled and jeered. Then yelling from protestors. Close enough law enforcement moved them all back to avoid more confrontation.

Finally, the sheriff sent them all home, Bobby Harper, the only black man in Grant County, lives right behind the white power supporters, and said he couldn't believe the show of support.

Bagpipes from the white supremacists bid them all farewell, Cobb seeming to enjoy the attention.

By nightfall, everyone had left Leith, the mayor hopeful of one thing - getting his town back.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sec...rld&id=9258517

[gazhekwe]

Because they can, or think they can, apparently. Leith is a tiny town, population 24, about 50 miles as the crow flies southwest of Bismarck, about 20 miles due south of I-94.

If they can get 16 adult residents to fill those lots already owned by the man whose vision this is, they will definitely have a majority to achieve political power.

It is not an all white town now, as apparently there is a black family sharing a lot line with the man who conceived the whole idea.

They are in hitting distance of Fort Totten, Turtle Mountain, Standing Rock, Pine Ridge, Cheyenne River, Crow Creek and more. They had better watch out for those warriors anxious to defend the US flag.

[Wingnatic]

Good for them !

[Wingnatic]

I've been researching my uncle's Trudeau's of Michigan website , specifically my native background , didn't know what I was looking for so I enlisted an aboriginal in Ontario to look over the website , She chose the letter M in the A-Z listings and immediately found something .
Surname: Manitouabeouich [[ Abenaki/ Algonquin First Nations) Manitiouabeouich --means Great spirit /was a Shaman[[spirital leader)

Outchibahabanoukoueau [[wife of Roch Manitouabeouich) Huron First Nations and daughter of Huron Chief
The marriage of their daughter, Marie Olivier
to Martin Prevost was the first recorded between
a European and a north american native.
Children
Marie OLIVIER - Algonquin living with Huron

I knew my French Canada background but was certain I was Native American , but as it turns out I'm aboriginal/First Nation .
Now my next task will be to see if we blended in to become Metis , my ancestors above were in the mid to late 1600's . To say I'm pleased would be an understatement

[gazhekwe]

Canada has a weird way of assigning status. US has a different, but still weird way of assigning status. Regardless of our ancestry, we only have status based upon the laws of the invaders. It is my understanding that Metis were those natives who did not qualify to be First Nations because the wrong parent was native. I believe they had white fathers, so were not considered native. Here is a link that tries to explain the confusing terminologies.

https://www.itk.ca/note-terminology-...and-aboriginal

Your news is really exciting, and I am sure you will find many new teachings to explore.

We spell that name Manitowabi nowadays, sitting with spirit is close to what it means. I bet if you look for that name you will find some good contacts.

[gazhekwe]

Gale Courey Toensing September 26, 2013

The North Dakota Department of Health may flush a neo-Nazi out of a tiny village where he and a group of white supremacists have racist plans to establish an all-white enclave, the first of many across the country, they hope.

On Monday, September 23, one day after 300-plus Indians and non-Indians from all walks of life arrived in Leith, North Dakota, to rally against Craig Cobb and members of theNational Socialist Movement[[NSM) who invaded the village with the intention of taking over the local government,WDAY Newsreported that the statehealth departmentwas planning shut down Cobb’s home because of unsanitary conditions: The home lacks running water, indoor plumbing and a sewer system.

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...ut-town-151456

[Jimaz]

LOL! I love the flushing sewage metaphor. Thumbs up to the author of that title.

[gazhekwe]

During the administration of Governor William G. Milliken, the Legislature designated the fourth Friday of September as Michigan Indian Day [[Act 30 of 1974, Section 435.161).

Wondering how to celebrate Michigan Indian Day in Detroit?

Let's gather at Belle isle, hang out, drum and sing! Meet at Fishing Pier 9 behind the conservatory.

Bring Chairs, blankets, food to share, drums, singing voice, fishing poles, dancing feet, or just yourself!

Or Idle No More with these folks:

Friday, September 27, is Michigan Indian Day...Four tribal communites are displaying their Indianness with

Idle No More Rallies - Standing Our Ground for Veronica Brown:

FRIDAY - Idle No More - Standing Our Ground for Veronica Brown

Grand Rapids Community Blanket
7:30 pm
Grand Rapids Art Museum [[west side of building closest to Rosa Parks Circle)
101 Monroe Center
Grand Rapids, Michigan

Grand Traverse Bay Bands Ottawa & Chippewa Indians
12 Noon
GTB Parking Lot
2605 North West Bay Shore Drive
Peshawbestown, Michigan

Little River Band of Ottawa Indians
12 Noon
Aki Maadiziwin Community Center
2953 Shaw Be Quo-Ung
Manistee, Michigan

Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan
9:30 am
Tribal Operations
7070 Broadway
Isabella Indian Reservation
Mt. Pleasant, Michigan

[gazhekwe]

[gazhekwe]

This Date in Native History: The often misguided and misrepresented spiritual representation of traditional Native practices broke into mainstream media on October 8, 2009 when James Arthur Ray, a 53-year-old “self-help guru,” saw tragedy strike his latest retreat.

Ray, a controversial spiritual leader, offered sweats in a sweat lodge to those willing to shell out almost $10,000 for a week in Sedona, Arizona. Tragedy struck when three of the participants died, two in the lodge and one in a nearby hospital following a week in a coma.

Ray drew the ire of Indian country from the start as the ceremony he was selling bore little if any resemblance to an actual sweat lodge ceremony.

Indian Country Today Media Network West Coast Editor Valerie Taliman wrote an award-winning opinion piece where she stated, “It was a bastardized version of a sacred ceremony sold by a multimillionaire who charged people $9,695 a pop for his ‘Spiritual Warrior’ retreat in Sedona, Arizona.”

RELATED:Selling the Sacred

In June of 2011 Ray was found guilty of negligent homicide in the three deaths. The victims participated in the “Spiritual Warrior” retreat, where 18 people were hospitalized for burns, respiratory arrest, kidney failure, loss of consciousness and dehydration.

RELATED:James Arthur Ray Found Guilty of Negligent Homicide

Taliman was quoted by CNN following the tragedy as saying, “What right does Ray have to mimic, mangle, and manipulate Native ceremonies that have been carefully handed down among indigenous cultures over millennia? Ray does not own any rights to Native spirituality, because they are owned collectively by Indigenous Peoples and cannot be sold.”

Ray however is one of many who Taliman also referred to as a “huckster posing as the real thing” and was only found guilty of a crime when the loss of life occurred.

Following the guilty charge Ray was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay $57,000 in restitution to the families of the victims—he was released from prison on parole on July 12 of this year.

Read more http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...tragedy-151634

[gazhekwe]

ByJack O'Brien, Elford AlleyMay 15, 2012

When it comes to the birth of America, most of us are working from a stew of elementary school history lessons, Westerns and vague Thanksgiving mythology. And while it's not surprising those sources might biff a couple details, what's shocking is how much less interesting the version we learned was. It turns out our teachers, Hollywood and whoever we got our Thanksgiving mythology from [[Big Turkey?) all made America's origin story far more boring than it actually was for some very disturbing reasons. For instance ...

#6. The Indians Weren't Defeated by White Settlers

The Myth:
Our history books don't really go into a ton of detail about how the Indians became an endangered species. Some warring, some smallpox blankets and ... death by broken heart?

When American Indians show up in movies made by conscientious white people like Oliver Stone, they usually lament having their land taken from them. The implication is that Native Americans died off like a species of tree-burrowing owl that couldn't hack it once their natural habitat was paved over.

But if we had to put the whole Cowboys and Indians battle in a Hollywood log line, we'd say the Indians put up a good fight, but were no match for the white man's superior technology. As surely as scissors cuts paper and rock smashes scissors, gun beats arrow. That's just how it works.

The Truth:
There's a pretty important detail our movies and textbooks left out of the handoff from Native Americans to white European settlers: It begins in the immediate aftermath of a full-blown apocalypse. In the decades between Columbus' discovery of America and the Mayflower landing at Plymouth Rock, the most devastating plague in human history raced up the East Coast of America. Just two years before the pilgrims started the tape recorder on New England's written history, the plague wiped out about 96 percent of the Indians in Massachusetts.

In the years before the plague turned America into The Stand, a sailor named Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed up the East Coast and described it as "densely populated" and so "smoky with Indian bonfires" that you could smell them burning hundreds of miles out at sea. Using your history books to understand what America was like in the 100 years after Columbus landed there is like trying to understand what modern day Manhattan is like based on the post-apocalyptic scenes from I Am Legend.

Historians estimate that before the plague, America's population was anywhere between 20 and 100 million [[Europe's at the time was 70 million). The plague would eventually sweep West, killing at least 90 percent of the native population. For comparison's sake, the Black Plague killed off between 30 and 60 percent of Europe's population.

While this all might seem like some heavy shit to lay on a bunch of second graders, your high school and college history books weren't exactly in a hurry to tell you the full story. Which is strange, because many historians believe it is the single most important event in American history. But it's just more fun to believe that your ancestors won the land by being the superior culture.

European settlers had a hard enough time defeating the Mad Max-style stragglers of the once huge Native American population, even with superior technology. You have to assume that the Native Americans at full strength would have made shit powerfully real for any pale faces trying to settle the country they had already settled. Of course, we don't really need to assume anything about how real the American Indians kept it, thanks to the many people who came before the pilgrims. For instance, if you liked playing cowboys and Indians as a kid, you should know that you could have been playing vikings and Indians, because that shit actually happened. But before we get to how they kicked Viking ass, you probably need to know that ...

#5. Native Culture Wasn't Primitive
The Myth:
American Indians lived in balance with mother earth, father moon, brother coyote and sister ... bear? Does that just sound right because of the Berenstain Bears? Whichever animal they thought was their sister, the point is, the Indians were leaving behind a small carbon footprint before elements were wearing shoes. If the government was taken over by hippies tomorrow, the directionless, ecologically friendly society they'd institute is about what we picture the Native Americans as having lived like.

The Truth:
The Indians were so good at killing trees that a team of Stanford environmental scientists think they caused a mini ice age in Europe. When all of the tree-clearing Indians died in the plague, so many trees grew back that it had a reverse global warming effect. More carbon dioxide was sucked from the air, the Earth's atmosphere held on to less heat, and Al Gore cried a single tear of joy.

One of the best examples of how we got Native Americans all wrong is Cahokia, a massive Native American city located in modern day East St. Louis. In 1250, it was bigger than London, and featured a sophisticated society with an urban center, satellite villages and thatched-roof houses lining the central plazas. While the city was abandoned by the time white people got to it, the evidence they left behind suggests a complex economy with trade routes from the Great Lakes all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico.

And that's not even mentioning America's version of the Great Pyramid: Monk's Mound. You know how people treat the very existence of the Great Pyramid in Egypt as one of history's most confounding mysteries? Well, Cahokia's pyramid dwarfs that one, both in size and in degree of difficulty. The mound contains more than 2.16 billion pounds of soil, some of which had to be carried from hundreds of miles away, to make sure the city's giant monument was vividly colored. To put that in perspective, all 13 million people who live in the state of Illinois today would have to carry three 50-pound baskets of soil from as far away as Indiana to construct another one.

So why does Egypt get millions of dollars of tourism and Time Life documentaries dedicated to their boring old sand pyramids, while you didn't even know about the giant blue, red, white, black, gray, brown and orange testament to engineering and human willpower just outside of St. Louis? Well, because the Egyptians know how to treat one of the Eight Wonders of the World. America, on the other hand, appears to be trying to figure out how to turn it into a parking lot.

In the realm of personal hygiene, the Europeans out-hippied the Indians by a foul smelling mile. Europeans at the time thought baths attracted the black humors, or some such bullshit, because they never washed and were amazed by the Indians' interest in personal cleanliness. The natives, for their part, viewed Europeans as "just plain smelly" according to first hand records.

The Native Americans didn't hate Europeans just for the clouds of shit-smelling awfulness they dragged around behind them. Missionaries met Indians who thought Europeans were "physically weak, sexually untrustworthy, atrociously ugly" and "possessed little intelligence in comparison to themselves." The Europeans didn't do much to debunk the comparison in the physical beauty department. Verrazzano, the sailor who witnessed the densely populated East Coast, called a native who boarded his ship "as beautiful in stature and build as I can possibly describe," before presumably adding, "you know, for a dude." This man-crush wasn't an isolated incident. British fisherman William Wood described the Indians in New England as "more amiable to behold, though dressed only in Adam's finery, than ... an English dandy in the newest fashion." Or, with the bullshit removed, "Better looking than any of us, and they're not even fucking trying."

OK, now that we got that out of the way, we can tell you about the historical slash-fiction your history teacher forgot to tell you actually freaking happened.

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_19864...#ixzz2hZ7Cz6wx

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#4. Columbus Didn't Discover America: Vikings vs. Indians

The Myth:
America was discovered in 1492 because Europeans were starting to get curious about the outside world thanks to the Renaissance and Enlightenment and Europeans of the time just generally being the first smart people ever. Columbus named the people who already lived there Indians, presumably because he was being charmingly self-deprecating.

The Truth:
Here's what we know. A bunch of vikings set up a successful colony in Greenland that lasted for 518 years [[982-1500). To put that into perspective, the white European settlement currently known as the United States will need to wait until the year 2125 to match that longevity. The vikings spent a good portion of that time sending expeditions down south to try to settle what they called Vineland -- which historians now believe was the East Coast of North America. Some place the vikings as far south as modern day North Carolina.

After spending a couple decades sneaking ashore to raid Vineland of its ample wood pulp, the vikings made a go of settling North America in 1005. After landing there with livestock, supplies and between 100 and 300 settlers, they set up the first successful European American colony ... for two years. And then the Native Americans kicked their ass out of the country, shooting the head viking in the heart with an arrow.

So to recap, the vikings discovered America. They were camping off the coast of America, and had every reason to settle America for about 500 years. Despite being the biggest badasses in European history, one tangle with the natives was enough to convince the vikings that settling America wasn't worth the trouble. If you think the pilgrims would have fared any better than the vikings against an East Coast chock-full of Native Americans, you either don't know what a viking is or you're placing entirely too much stock in the strategic importance of having belt buckles on your shoes.

If the Indians had been at full strength in 1640, white people might still be sneaking onto the East Coast to steal wood pulp. That's as far as the vikings got in 500 years, and they were sailing from much closer than Europe and desperately needed the resources -- the two competing theories for why the viking settlements on Greenland eventually died out are lack of resources and getting killed by natives -- and, perhaps most importantly, they were goddamned vikings.
So why did your history teachers lie? This should have been history teachers' version of dinosaurs: a mostly unknown period of violent awesomeness they nevertheless told you about because they knew it would hook every male between the ages of 5 and 12 forever.

It turns out that many of the awesomest stories had to be paved over by the bullshit you memorized in order to protect your teachers and parents from awkward conversations. Like the one about how ...

#3. Everything You Know About Columbus Is a Calculated Lie

The Myth:
Columbus discovered America thanks to a daring journey across the Atlantic. His crew was about to throw him overboard when land was spotted. Even after he landed in America, Columbus didn't realize he'd discovered an entire continent because maps of America were far less reliable back then. In one of the great tragedies of history, Columbus went to his grave poor, believing he'd merely discovered India. Nobody really "got" America's potential until the pilgrims showed up and successfully settled the country for the first time. Nearly 150 years might seem like a long time between trips, but boats were really slow back in those days, and they'd just learned that the Atlantic Ocean went that far.

The Truth:
First of all, Columbus wasn't the first to cross the Atlantic. Nor were the vikings. Two Native Americans landed in Holland in 60 B.C. and were promptly not given a national holiday by anyone. Columbus didn't see the enormous significance of his ability to cross the Atlantic because it wasn't especially significant. His voyage wasn't particularly difficult. They enjoyed smooth sailing, and nobody was threatening to throw him overboard. Despite what history books tell kids [[and the Internet apparently believes), Columbus died wealthy, and with a pretty good idea of what he'd found -- on his third voyage to America, he wrote in his journal, "I have come to believe that this is a mighty continent which was hitherto unknown."
The myths surrounding him cover up the fact that Columbus was calculating, shrewd and as hungry for gold as the voice over guy in the Cash4Gold ads. When he couldn't find enough of the yellow stuff to make his voyage profitable, he focused on enslaving Native Americans for profit. That's how efficient Columbus was -- he discovered America and invented American slavery in the same 15-year span.

There were plenty of unsuccessful, mostly horrible attempts to settle America between Columbus' discovery and the pilgrims' arrival. We only hear these two "settling of America" stories because history books and movies aren't huge fans of what white people got up to between 1492 and 1620 in America -- mostly digging for gold and eating each other.

They also show us white Europeans being unable to easily defeat a native population that hadn't yet been ravaged by plague. It wasn't coincidence that the pilgrims settled America two years after New England was emptied of 96 percent of the Indians who lived there. According to James W. Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me, that's generally how the settling process went: The plague acted as a lead blocker for white European settlers, clearing the land of all the natives. The Europeans had superior weapons, but they also had superior guns when they tried to colonize China, India, Africa and basically every other region on the planet. When you picture Chinese or Indian or African people today, they're not white because those lands were already inhabited when the Europeans showed up. And so was America.

American history goes to almost comical lengths to ignore that fact. For instance, if your reading comprehension was strong in middle school, you might remember the lost colony of Roanoke, where the people mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind only one cryptic clue: the word "Croatan" carved into the town post. As we've covered before, this is only a mystery if you are the worst detective ever. Croatan was the name of a nearby island populated by friendly Native Americans. In the years after the people of Roanoke "disappeared," genetically impossible Native Americans with gray eyes and an "astounding" familiarity with distinctly European customs began to pop up in the tribes that moved between Croatan and Roanoke islands.

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_19864...#ixzz2hZFXJ8wF

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#2. White Settlers Did Not Carve America Out of the Untamed Wilderness

The Myth:
The pilgrims were the first in a parade of brave settlers who pushed civilization westward along the frontier with elbow grease and sheer grizzled-old-man strength.

The Truth:
In written records from early colonial times, you constantly come across "settlers" being shocked at how convenient the American wilderness made things for them. The eastern forests, generally portrayed by great American writers as a "thick, unbroken snarl of trees" no longer existed by the time the white European settlers actually showed up. The pilgrims couldn't believe their luck when they found that American forests just naturally contained "an ecological kaleidosocope of garden plots, blackberry rambles, pine barrens and spacious groves of chestnut, hickory and oak."

The puzzlingly obedient wilderness didn't stop in New England. Frontiersmen who settled what is today Ohio were psyched to find that the forest there naturally grew in a way that "resembled English parks." You could drive carriages through the untamed frontier without burning a single calorie clearing rocks, trees and shrubbery.

Whether they honestly believed they'd lucked into the 17th century equivalent of Candyland or were being willfully ignorant about how the land got so tamed, the truth about the presettled wilderness didn't make it into the official account. It's the same reason every extraordinarily lucky CEO of the past 100 years has written a book about leadership. It's always a better idea to credit hard work and intelligence than to acknowledge that you just got luckier than any group of people has ever gotten in the history of the world.

Nobody's role in settling America has been quite as overplayed as the pilgrims'. Despite famous sermons with titles like "Into the Wilderness," the pilgrims cherry-picked Plymouth specifically because it was a recently abandoned town. After sailing up and down the coast of Cape Cod, they chose Plymouth Rock because of "its beautiful cleared fields, recently planted in corn, and its useful harbor."

We're always told that the pilgrims were helped by an Indian named Squanto who spoke English. How the hell did that happen? Had he taken AP English in high school? The answer to that question is the greatest story your history teachers didn't bother to teach you. Squanto was from the town that would become Plymouth, but between being born there and the pilgrims' arrival, he'd undergone an epic journey that puts Homer's Odyssey to shame.

Squanto had been kidnapped from Cape Cod as a child and sold into slavery in Spain. He escaped like the boy Maximus he was, and spent his better years hoofing it west until he hit the Atlantic Ocean. Deciding that swimming back to America would take too much time, he learned enough English to convince someone to let him hitch a ride to "the New World." When he finally got back home, he found his town deserted. The plague had swept through two years before, taking everyone but him with it.

when the pilgrims showed up, instead of being pissed at the people from the Continent who had stolen his ability to grow up with his family, he decided that since nobody else was using it, he might as well show them how to make his town work.

This is especially charitable of him when you realize that, while the pilgrims were nicer than past settlers, they weren't exactly sensitive to Squanto's plight.

According to a pilgrim journal from the days immediately after they arrived, they raided Indian graves for "bowls, trays, dishes and things like that. We took several of the prettiest things to carry away with us, and covered the body up again." And yet Squanto taught them how to make it through a winter without turning to cannibalism -- a landmark accomplishment for the British to that point.

Compare that to Jamestown, the first successful settlement in American history. You don't know the name of the ship that landed there because the settlers antagonized the natives, just like the vikings who came before them. The Native Americans didn't have to actively kill them. They just sat back and laughed as the English spent the harvest seasons digging holes for gold. The first Virginians were so desperate without a Squanto that they went from taking Indian slaves to offering themselves up as slaves to the Indians in exchange for food. Enough English managed to survive there to make Jamestown the oldest successful colonial settlement in America. But it's hard to turn it into a religious allegory in which white people are the good guys, so we get the pilgrims instead.

#1. How Indians Influenced Modern America

The Myth:
After the natives helped the pilgrims get through that first winter, all playing nice disappeared until Dances with Wolves. Even the movies that do portray white people going native portray it as a shocking exception to the rule. Otherwise, the only influence the natives seem to have on the New World and the frontiersmen is giving them moving targets to shoot at, and eventually a plot outline for Avatar.

The Truth:
The fake mystery of Roanoke is a pretty good key for understanding the difference between how white settlers actually felt about American Indians and how hard your history books had to ignore that reality. Settlers defecting to join native society was so common that it became a major issue for colonial leaders -- think the modern immigration debate, except with all the white people risking their lives to get out of American society. According to Loewen, "Europeans were always trying to stop the outflow. Hernando De Soto had to post guards to keep his men and women from defecting to Native societies." Pilgrims were so scared of Indian influence that they outlawed the wearing of long hair.

Ben Franklin noted that, "No European who has tasted Savage Life can afterwards bear to live in our societies." While "always bet on black" might have been sound financial advice by the time Wesley Snipes offered it, Ben Franklin knew that for much of American history, it was equally advisable to bet on red.

Franklin wasn't pointing this out as a critique of the settlers who defected -- he believed that Indian societies provided greater opportunities for happiness than European cultures -- and he wasn't the only Founding Father who thought settlers could learn a thing or two from them. They didn't dress up like Indians at the Boston Tea Party ironically. That was common protesting gear during the American revolutions.

For a hundred years after the American Revolution, none of this was a secret. Political cartoonists used Indians to represent the colonial side. Colonial soldiers dressed up like Indians when fighting the British. Documents from the time indicate that the design of the U.S. government was at least partially inspired by native tribal society. Historians think the Iroquois Confederacy had a direct influence on the U.S. Constitution, and the Senate even passed a resolution acknowledging that "the confederation of the original thirteen colonies into one republic was influenced ... by the Iroquois Confederacy, as were many of the democratic principles which were incorporated into the constitution itself."

That wasn't just Congress trying to get some Indian casino money. The colonists came from European countries that had spent most of their time as monarchies and much of their resources fighting religious wars with each other. They initially tried to set up the colonies exactly like Western Europe -- a series of small, in-fighting nations stacked on top of each other. The idea of an overarching confederacy of different independent states was completely foreign to them. Or it would have been. But as Ben Franklin noted in a letter about the failure to integrate with one another:

"It would be a strange thing if six nations of ignorant savages should be capable of forming a scheme for such a union and be able to execute it in such a manner as that it has subsisted ages and appears insoluble; and yet that a like union should be impracticable for 10 or a dozen English colonies."

In 1987, Cornell University held a conference on the link between the Iroquois' government and the U.S. Constitution. It was noted that the Iroquois Great Law of Peace "includes 'freedom of speech, freedom of religion ... separation of power in government and checks and balances."

Wow, checks and balances, freedom of speech and religion. Sounds awfully familiar.

One of the strangest legacies of America's founding is our national obsession with the apocalypse. There's a new JJ Abrams show coming this fall called The Revolution about a post-apocalyptic America, and of course The Hunger Games. We go to a gift shop in Arizona and see dug-up Indian arrowheads, and never think "this is the same thing as the stuff laying around in Terminator or The Road or that part in The Road Warrior where the feral kid finds a music box and doesn't know what it is."

We love the apocalypse as long as nobody acknowledges the truth: It's not a mythical event. We live on top of one.

Jack O'Brien is the Editor in Chief of Cracked.com. You can follow him on Twitter.

Elford is a regular contributor to the music blog Riffraf and can be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_19864...#ixzz2hZFXJ8wF

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