Crazy Horse, Washington D.C., DC (2026)

06/22/2024

One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters!
Picture is showing a Sakha Man
with his baby, Siberia
The Sakhas (Yakuts) are a nomadic Turkic people indigenous to Sakha (Yakutia) in Northeast Siberia.
- In the 17th century Russia began to move into their territory and annexed it, imposed a fur tax, and managed to suppress several Sakha rebellions between 1634 and 1642.
Russian brutality in collection of the pelt tax (yasak) sparked a rebellion among the Sakha (Yakuts) and also Tungusic-speaking tribes.Russian forces, responded with a reign of terror: native settlements were torched and thousands of people were tortured and killed. The Sakha population alone is estimated to have fallen as a result by 70 percent in the 17th century. The discovery of gold and, later, the building of the Trans-Siberian Railway, brought ever-increasing numbers of Russians into the region. By the 1820s almost all the Sakhas had been forcefully converted to the Russian Orthodox church although they retained, and still retain, lots of shamanic practices...🙏

06/22/2024

American Indian Dog
It’s not a wolf, and it’s not a coyote; it’s an American Indian dog. known for its long, pointy ears, thick coat, intense stare, and impressive build.
These working companion animals were almost lost to history after our American Indians were segregated onto reservations, and often left without the resources necessary to maintain the ancient breed.
According to the experts at Animal Corner, the Native American Indian Dog is believed to be up to 30,000 years old. Yes, it's possible that the breed shared parts of North America with some of the earliest Native Americans to inhabit the land. Some specialists have theorized that the Native American Indian Dog breed could even be the missing link between wolves and the modern dog as we know it today

06/22/2024

Cherokee Women and Their Important Roles:
Women in the Cherokee society were equal to men. They could earn the title of War Women and sit in councils as equals. This privilege led an Irishman named Adair who traded with the Cherokee from 1736-1743 to accuse the Cherokee of having a "petticoat government".
Clan kinship followed the mother's side of the family. The children grew up in the mother's house, and it was the duty of an uncle on the mother's side to teach the boys how to hunt, fish, and perform certain tribal duties. The women owned the houses and their furnishings. Marriages were carefully negotiated, but if a woman decided to divorce her spouse, she simply placed his belongings outside the house. Cherokee women also worked hard. They cared for the children, cooked, tended the house, tanned skins, wove baskets, and cultivated the fields. Men helped with some household chores like sewing, but they spent most of their time hunting.
Cherokee girls learned by example how to be warriors and healers. They learned to weave baskets, tell stories, trade, and dance. They became mothers and wives, and learned their heritage. The Cherokee learned to adapt, and the women were the core of the Cherokee.

06/21/2024

We were told we would see America come and go. In a sense, America dies from the inside out, because they have forgotten the instructions to live on Mother Earth. This is the Hopi creed, it is our creed, that if you are not spiritually connected to the Earth, and you don't understand the spiritual reality of life on Earth, chances are you are not going to make it.
Everything is spiritual, everything has one
Spirit.
We are here on Earth only a few winters, then we go to the spirit world. The spirit world is more real than most of us realize.
The spirit world is everything. Most of our body is water. To stay healthy you need to drink pure water. Water is sacred, air is sacred. Our DNA is made from the same DNA as the tree, the tree breathes what we breathe out, we need what the tree expires. So we have a common fate with the tree. We are all of the Earth, and when the Earth and its water and atmosphere are corrupted, then the Earth will create her reaction. The Mother reacts.
In the Hopi prophecy it says that storms and floods will get bigger.
For me it is not negative to know that there will be big changes. It's not negative, it's evolution. When you look at it as an Evolution, you know it's time, nothing stays the same. You should learn to plant something. This is the first connection. You should look at all things as Spirit, realize that we are family. It never ends. Everything is life and there is no end to life.
🌹🐎🌵🦅🤍🐺
- Floyd " Red Crow " Westerman, musician, actor and activist native of South Dakota

06/21/2024

𝗦𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗡𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗔𝗠𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗡 𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗦 𝗧𝗢 𝗨𝗦 𝗔𝗟𝗟
On February 22, 1876, Thaté Iyóhiwiŋ, a Yankton Dakota woman living on the Yankton Indiana Reservation in South Dakota, and her European American mate, Felker Simmons, brought their daughter, Zitkála-Šá, into the world. Simmons would abandon mother and child, yet Zitkála-Šá describes the first 8 years of her life on the reservation as happy and safe. All that changed in 1884 when missionaries came to “save” the children.
Even though White's Indiana Manual Labor Institute was a Quaker project, it still forced the children who attended to adapt to the Quaker way of doing things, including taking new names. Zitkála-Šá was renamed Gertrude Simmons. In her biographies, Zitkála-Šá describes deep conflict between her native identity and the dominant white culture, the sorrow of being separated from her mother, and her joy in learning to read, write, and play the violin.
Zitkála-Šá returned to the reservation in 1887, but after 3 years she decided she wanted to further her education and returned to the Institute again. She taught music while attending school from 1891 to 1895, when she earned her first diploma. Her speech at graduation tackled the issue of women’s inequality and was praised in local newspapers. She had a gift of public speaking and music, and put both to good use during her life.
In 1895 Zitkála-Šá earned a scholarship to attend Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. While in college she gave public speeches and even translated Native American legends into Latin and English for children. In 1887, mere weeks from graduation, her health took a turn for the worse; her scholarship did not cover all expenses, so she had to drop out.
After college Zitkála-Šá used her musical talents to make a living. From 1897-1899, she played violin with the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. She then took a job teaching music at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, where she also hosted debates on the issue of Native American treatment. The school used her to recruit students and impress the world, but her speaking out against their rigid indoctrination of native children into white culture resulted in her dismissal in 1901.
Concerned about her mother’s health, Zitkála-Šá returned to the reservation. While there she began to collect the stories of her people and translate them into English. She found a publisher in Ginn and Company, and they put out her collection of these stories as Old Indian Legends in 1901. Like most authors, she took another job at the Bureau of Indian Affairs as her principal support. It was at this job in 1902 that she met and married Captain Raymond Bonnin, a mixed-race Nakota man.
The couple moved to work on the Uintah-Ouray Reservation in Utah for the next 14 years. They had one son, named Ohiya. Zitkála-Šá met and began to collaborate with William F. Hanson, a composer at Brigham Young University. Together they created The Sun Dance, the first opera co-written by a Native American. The opera used the backdrop of the Ute Sun Dance to explore Ute and Yankton Dakota cultures. It premiered in 1913 and was originally performed by Ute actors and singers. Choosing such a topic for the opera would have been a way to strike back at forced enculturation, because the ritual itself had been outlawed by the Federal Government in 1883 and remained so until 1933. Much later, in 1938, The Sun Dance came to The Broadway Theatre in New York City.
From 1902-1916, Zitkála-Šá published several articles about her life and native legends for English readers. Her works appeared in Atlantic Monthly and Harper’s Monthly, magazines with primarily a white readership. Her essays also appeared in American Indian Magazine. While these pieces were often autobiographical, they were still political and social commentary that showed her increased frustration with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which fired the couple in 1916.
In 1916, the couple moved to Washington D.C., where Zitkála-Šá served as the secretary of the Society of the American Indian. In 1926, she founded the National Council of American Indians, an organization that worked to improve the treatment and lives of Native Americans. By 1928, she was an advisor to the Meriam Commission, which would lead to several improvements in how the Federal Government treated native peoples.
Zitkála-Šá continued writing, and her books and essays became more political in such works as American Indian Stories (1921) and “Oklahoma’s Poor Rich Indians,” published in 1923 by the Indian Rights Association. She spoke out for Indian’s rights and women’s rights up until her death in 1938 at the age of 61.

06/21/2024

In 1855 the Battle of Hungry Hill....... happened where a 13 or 14 year old "Rogue River Mary" rode her horse along a mountain ridge, hollering and taunting the U.S. Army, citizen militia and volunteers who were down below organizing to attack and probably massacre this "hostile" band of Rogue River Indians. There were about 100 of them and about 400 of the Army soldiers. According to Army documents, she screamed and hollered like a wild animal throughout the night. The next morning Rogue River Mary organized, coordinated and led her people to victory at the Battle of Hungry Hill. This battle compares to the Battle of the Little Big Horn (Custer's demise) and her techniques, fierceness and leadership are used at West Point when discussing military strategy. The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, where Mary's people ended up, have applied for historical battlefield status for this area; a first for any tribe in the west. Talk about girl power!

06/20/2024

Cradleboards are used for the first few months of an infant's life, when a portable carrier for the baby is a necessity. They were used during periods when the infant's mother had to travel or otherwise be mobile for work, and needed to protect the infant. The cradleboard could be carried on the mother's back, using support from "tumplines", or "burden straps" that would wrap around her forehead, chest or shoulders; if she carried a pack as well as the cradleboard, the pack strap would go around her chest and the cradleboard strap would go around her forehead. The cradleboard can also be stood up against a large tree or rock if the infant is small, or hung from a pole, or even hung from a sturdy tree branch. They were also used when longer travel was required, as the cradleboard could be attached to a horse for transportation. The inside of the cradleboard is padded with a lining of fresh plant fibres, such as sphagnum moss, cattail down, or shredded bark from juniper or cliffrose. The lining serves as a disposable diaper, although the Navajo could clean and reuse the lining made of shredded juniper or cliffrose bark. (via wikipedia)
Some cradleboards are woven, as with the Apache. The cradleboard is dyed yellow from the root of the Yucca Cactus, a color traditional to the Apache.
Edward S. Curtis originally named this photo “Apache girl and Papoose”. Papoose (from the Algonquian ‘papoose’, meaning "child") is an American English word whose present meaning is "a Native American child" (regardless of tribe) or, even more generally, any child, usually used as a term of endearment, often in the context of the child's mother. Cradleboard could sometimes be referred to as the papoose. However, the word “papoose” is considered offensive to many Native Americans whose tribes did not use the word.
This woman and her babe belonged to one of the many Apache Native American tribes that are in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño and Janero), Salinero, Plains (Kataka or Semat or "Kiowa-Apache") and Western Apache (Aravaipa, Pinaleño, Coyotero, Tonto).
Historically, the Apache homelands have consisted of high mountains, sheltered and watered valleys, deep canyons, deserts, and the southern Great Plains, including areas in what is now Eastern Arizona, Northern Mexico (Sonora and Chihuahua) and New Mexico, West Texas, and Southern Colorado. These areas are collectively known as Apacheria.

06/20/2024

Native American actress and model Brandon Merrill was born in Colorado and raised on a ranch in Wyoming.
After she was featured in a "W" magazine article about the Cheyenne Rodeo (part of the Cheyenne Frontier Days) this five foot ten beauty caught the eye of DNA Models and did some print work for "Vogue" and the Abercrombie & Fitch catalog.
Brandon also worked for Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, and the Limited before landing a role in the Owen Wilson, Jackie Chan movie Shanghai Noon (2000) where she played Jackie's Indian wife.

06/20/2024

The forced relocation of American Indians began with the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
In 1838, the Cherokee Indians became the fifth major tribe to experience forced relocation to Indian Territory. The Cherokee Nation moved from its ancestral homeland in parts of North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama to land set aside for them in what is now the state of Oklahoma.
More than 15,000 Cherokee Indians were removed by the U.S. Army.
The Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes were the other tribes that were forced to relocate. Over 100,000 Native Americans from the five tribes were forced to move.
These people were held in concentration-like camps through the summer, then they were then forced to travel over 1,000 miles, under very hard conditions to Indian Territory.
Along the trail, nearly 4,000 Cherokee died of starvation, exposure, or disease.
The Cherokees came to call this forced move “Nunahi-Duna-Dlo-Hilu-I” or “Trail Where They Cried”.
The result of the U.S. Government’s American Indian Removal Policy devastated American Indian cultures. The Native Americans had been a strong and vibrant part of North American history , but what the government did to these people is difficult to understand and accept.
In 1987, Congress passed Public Law 100-192, designating two of the routes taken by the Cherokee people in their removal as a National Historic Trail within the National Trails System. Today, it is best know as “The Trail of Tears”.
The forced removal of the Indians remains a black mark on American history, and reminds those who desire freedom, that all people deserve a life of liberty regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity.

06/19/2024

Photograph of Red Tomahawk, who shot Sitting Bull.
On Dec. 15, 1890, just before daybreak, thirty-nine Sioux Indian policemen entered the camp of Sitting Bull, on the Grand river, with orders to arrest the Chief and bring him to the crossing of Oak Creek, about fifteen miles to the north where they were to meet two troops of cavalry. From here the Prisoner was to be es**rted to Fort Yates.
Sitting Bull was the virtual leader of the so-called ghost-dancing Sioux who believed that all white man were about to be exterminated and the good old hunting grounds restored to the Indians so they would be free to hunt, dance and make war on their old enemies, the Rees, forever unmolested by the white people wh wanted them to farm and draw rations instead of drawing the bow for a living.
Bull Head, Shave Head and Red Tomahawk were the ranking members of the police force, and they were bringing Sitting Bull from his cabin when they were attacked by nearly two-hundred hostile Sioux. Bull Head and Shave Head fell at the first shot, but as he went down Bull Head fired into Sitting Bull's side. Red Tomahawk was directly behind the group and carried a small revolver that he had taken from the chief. With this he shot Sitting Bull in the head. Thus Red Tomahawk is given the credit for killing the most famous of Sioux Chiefs, and ending for all time the long standing warfare between the Indians and the white people.
When Red Tomahawk enlisted as a policeman, the government gained a valuable man for in his younger years he had won for himself glory in meeting the hereditary foes of the Sioux far out on the prairies to the west and north. But with the end of Sitting Bull a permanent peace came to abide in the Sioux country and fighting became a lost art.
Residing near Cannon Ball, N D Red Tomahawk often meets famous personages who visit the state before whom he is called to represent his people as a prominent type of the old time Sioux. The silhoette of his profile adorns the road markers of the state in honor of the man who served the government magnificiently.
For these reasons the Hokanson's Store at Fort Yates, N. Dak present this calendar that we may not forget that to be brave, competent and faithful is a trait exemplflied as of the Sioux by Red Tomahawk - who killed Sitting Bull.

06/19/2024

CHULA (AKA: Bull Head, Little Chief & Stamixo'tokan). He was the head chief of the Tsuu T'ina at the signing of Treaty 7 in 1877. Chief Bull Head was born in 1833 to a long lineage, and a fine tradition of Tsuu T'ina chiefs. The Tsuu T'ina were originally from a northern Deane tribe (Beaver people) who split hundreds of years ago. Oral tradition story tellers recall that after a disagreement between two of the chiefs brothers (possibly over the accidental death of a prized dog). An estimated two hundred members of the tribe led by one of the brothers moved into the territory of the Niitsitapi (Siksika/Blackfoot).
Here is the Tsuu T'ina's own creation story:
About 3,000 years ago when the Athabascan were one Nation (Tsuu T'ina means ‘a great number of people’), a great separation occurred in the north.
As the People were crossing a frozen lake in the deep cold winter, a small child noticed a horn sticking up from under the ice. He cried for the horn to play with, and to stop the child from crying, his grandmother took out her stone axe to try pry the horn free, thinking that someone ahead of them had dropped the horn.
What she did not realize was the horn was attached to the head of a monster sleeping under the ice. The grandmother unknowingly woke up the monster and it stood up, busting through the ice and separating the People.
Instead of re-grouping, the Athabascan branched out and settled to our present day locations.
This story of separation is similar in all Athabascan history. For example, The Dene say the horn was an Elk horn attached to a frozen carcass. Their story says that the weight of the carcass, combined with the grandmother chipping the ice and the weight of the People crossing, was the reason the ice broke through. The Navajo have the same story, except the horn was on a Buffalo carcass. The moral of the story is ‘ never spoil the children.
After the great separation, the Tsuu T ’ ina travelled south with a smaller population and came into Blackfoot territory. This area covered the North Saskatchewan river south to the Yellowstone river in Montana, and from the Rocky mountains east to the Cypress Hills and on into Manitoba.
Previous historical sources refer to the group as the Sarcee. "Sa arsi" is a Blackfoot word meaning "not good", often interpreted as "Stubborn", perhaps referring to the Tsuu T'ina's resolve not to be displaced despite raids and battles. Over time the Tsuu T'ina were adopted by the Blackfoot as part of their confederacy. During that time they lived in the area of Great Slave Lake and the edge of the Rocky Mountains. In 1865 Bull Heads older brother was killed by the Cree, by 1870 he had adopted his brothers name "Bull Head" and became chief. Described as a wiley warrior his war tally includes thirty battles, five enemy kills, three scalps, and numerous horses, and war trophies captured. As chief Bull Head promoted a nomadic and traditional lifestyle and is remembered for his abiding and steadfast dedication to his people.
By November 1880 Bull head and his people were starving, the buffalo were long gone, and his tribe aimlessly wandered the plains. Bull Head and his warriors approached Fort Calgary and told the four guards that if the tribe was not given food they would take over the Fort, Hudson Bay store and the I.G. Bakery. Thirty two soldiers responded from Fort Macleod to quell the unrest and find a resolution. As a result the Tsuu T'ina were allowed a winter camp at Fort Macleod, and in spring 1881 Bull Head and his followers moved to a temporary reserve S.W. of Fort Calgary.
When the government and Chief Crowfoot settled on a permanent reserve for the Blackfoot in southern Alberta the Tsuu T'ina initially went along and they shared a reserve near Gleichien, but there were problems. Bull Head, using his persuasive skills, lobbied the federal government for a reserve located next to Fish Creek, southwest of Calgary. He wrote a letter to Ottawa outlining the problems encountered at Blackfoot Crossing, and explained that since the Tsuu T'ina had a distinct language, culture and tradition they deserved to be treated as a sovereign nation with its own land.
On June 27, 1883 the Tsuu T'ina were given their own reserve near Elbow River and Fish Creek, the reserve was 108 square km. in the rolling foothills along the mountains. Although the land was difficult to cultivate, and the Tsuu T'ina initially did not take to farming Bull Head inspired willingness in his people to succeed. Being next to the town of Calgary brought drinking, prostitution, and grifters to influence the first nations people. Bull Head himself made the paper several times with alcohol getting the better of his considerable size and strength, although his warrior nature was generally unaffected. At the same time he also protected his people. Once when a wash basin was taken to be turned into a drum for a ceremony he confronted the arresting officers looking for the thief by telling them "(His people) need a drum more than the town folk need a wash basin" and that was the end of that.
By 1895 the Tsuu T'ina were devastated, indian agent Samual Bringham Lucas observed "Until recently they considered themselves doomed to extinction in the near future and did not appear to wish to exert themselves to avoid what they considered their inevitable fate." Although Bull Head was described by Superintendant McIllree as "...a very bad man who exhibits a most pernicious influence over people", it was that attitude which saved his tribe and his land. Despite the struggle and starvation the Tsuu T'ina never gave up, and continued to survive and adapt. They also resolved to never give up their land, and to this day a carin of stones on the reserve has grown over time added to by the tribal members in rememberance to always keep their bit of land. Bull Head always maintained his traditional religion and values. Bull Head is to be remembered as an outstanding leader and pivotal player in Tsuu T'ina culture and history. He succumbed to consumption in 1911 and his successor was Jim Big Plume. ▪️

06/19/2024

Running Antelope.
When Running Antelope was born near the Grand River, presently South Dakota, in 1821, few white men were in the area. Consequently, he grew up in the old traditions of his people. He learned to ride and hunt, and later went on horse-stealing expeditions and war parties and joined the secret societies. By the time he reached manhood things had changed. The whites were more numerous, and the Indians were forced to adapt to the new conditions. Many Sioux took up arms and became strong in warfare; the Hunkpapas, one of the smaller bands of the Tetons, became one of the strongest. Running Antelope, however, was one of the first Hunkpapas to reject the warpath and become a friend of the whites. Running Antelope, in his earlier years, was closely allied with Sitting Bull, who was eleven years his junior. Running Antelope, a band chief, was prominent among the Lakota. In 1851, Running Antelope was elected one of four "shirt wearers" of the Hunkpapa. A shirt wearer served to intercede between the council and the headmen and akicita who carried out tribal policy and decisions. He was a brave warrior and accomplished diplomat. A great council with the Sioux was called at Fort Laramie and Fort Rice in 1868. Running Antelope signed the Treaty of 1868 at Fort Rice. It was often said that Running Antelope was the greatest orator of the Sioux Nation. He attended the Fort Laramie, Fort Rice and Fort Peck treaty councils. Under the influence of James McLaughlin, he became a dominant leader of the reservation Hunkpapa people at the Grand River Agency. He was enrolled in 1868 at Grand River Agency, later part of Standing Rock reservation in North and South Dakota. After the allotment period, Running Antelope established a settlement of about sixty families in the Grand River valley and opened a store. In his later years, he regretted signing the 1868 Treaty and longed for the time when the Lakota were free, and realigned with Sitting Bull. Late in 1880, the followers of Sitting Bull began to return from exile in Canada and in the spring of 1881, Running Antelope was enlisted as a scout in the army to go to Fort Buford to es**rt Gall and his followers to Standing Rock. He was chosen to lead the last great Sioux buffalo hunt in June, 1882. A large herd was sighted about a hundred miles west of Fort Yates, and a hunting party of 2,000 men, women and children left the fort on June 10. The next morning the herd numbering approximately 50,000 buffalo was sighted and the hunt was on. About 2,000 were killed the first day, and the camp moved up to the scene of the hunt and the butchering began. The next day another 3,000 were killed and the camp settled in near a creek to jerk the meat and prepare pemmican. As usual when meat was plentiful, the labors of the Indian camp were lightened by feasting. In 1899, Running Antelope was pictured on the Five-Dollar Silver Certificate. He died between June 30, 1896 and June 30, 1897. He is buried at the Long Hill Cemetery east of Little Eagle, South Dakota. On the 1885 Standing Rock ration list He had 10 lodges and 42 people in his care.

Crazy Horse

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