Native Powwow Dancers

                               

 

  

Wisdom Of The Ages

Native American isn't blood. It is what is in the heart. The love for the land, the respect for it, those who inhabit it, and the respect and acknowledgement of the spirits and elders. That is what it is to be Indian.
White Feather, Navajo Medicine Man

Sacred Feathers...Feathers in hair for Native Americans had a spiritual meaning. They were worn by Native American Chiefs to symbolize their communication with the Spirit, and to show off their divine wisdom. 

Feathers also represented the power of the thunder gods, along with the power of air and wind. Sometime feathers were representative of courage during a battle or a successful hunt. — with Monica Colomar Sarrio.

There is an ancient Indian saying~ Something lives only as long as the last person who remembers it. My people have come to trust memory over history. 

Memory, like fire, is radiant & immutable while history serves only those who seek to control it, those who douse the flame of memory in order to put out the dangerous fire of truth. 

Beware these men for they are dangerous & 
unwise. Their false history is written in the blood of those who might remember & seek the truth.
Floyd 'Red Crow' Westerman

“Man’s law changes

with his understanding of man.

Only the laws of the spirit

remain always the same.”

“When you were born,

you cried and the world rejoiced.

Live your life so that when you die,

the world cries and you rejoice.”

Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way

Great Spirit, help me always to speak the truth quietly, to listen with an open mind when others speak, and to remember the peace that may be found in silence.

Strength

We smudge to clear the air around us. We smudge to clean our minds so that we’ll have good thoughts of others. We smudge our eyes so that we’ll only see good things in others. We smudge our ears so that we’ll only listen to good things about others. We smudge our mouths so that we’ll only speak of good about others. 
We smudge our whole being so that we may portray the good 
part of ourselves through our actions. -Native tradition

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”
 Michelangelo
This is what life does to us it keeps chipping away the unnecessary to reveal the essence.
Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were.

The Creator seldom, gives me what I want
But gives me what I need.
I ask for wealth, He gives me health-
For love, He gives me seeds.
"Go sow the seeds",
He seems to say,
And love will grow for you,
And health will be the wealth you need
To share the love you grew."

And when I pray for worldly goods
And comforts of a king,
He fills my heart with little joys,
For simple, common things;

And when I beg for things I see-
Of envy to my mind-
He guides my steps to happy souls
Who are completely blind.

So, now, I just come unto
Him In simple, humble prayer
with a faithful heart I ask
"what can i do for you?"

Prayer To Creator

As I walk the trail of life in the fear of the wind and rain,
Grant O Great Spirit that I may always walk like a man.

"Please forgive us and forgive our forefathers. Help us to live in peace and harmony once again. Oh Creator of All Things, take the violence and anger from our hearts."

There is a road in the hearts of all of us, hidden and seldom traveled, which leads to an unknown, secret place.

The old people came literally to love the soil, and they sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of being close to a mothering power.

Their teepees were built upon the earth and their altars were made of earth.
The soul was soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing.

That is why the old Indian still sits upon the earth instead of propping himself up and away from its life giving forces.

For him, to sit or lie upon the ground is to be able to think more deeply and to feel more keenly. He can see more clearly into the mysteries of life and come closer in kinship to other lives about him.

~ Chief Luther Standing Bear ~

Unity

You can take one arrow and break it in half.But if you take twelve arrows in a bundle,it is almost impossible to break any of them.There is strength in UNITY.

When we are together we are very powerful.This is the way the ancestors told us we need to be. STRONG.We need to unite ourselves.This is why the Elders say,when we make decisions,we must first consider the good of the people. If every person in the community thinks this way,then we will always make strong decisions.

Creator, let my decisions have the strength of the bundle.
~Tecumseh,Shawnee~

Living Elements

"My grandfather is the fire
My grandmother is the wind
The Earth is my mother
The Great Spirit is my father
The World stopped at my birth
and laid itself at my feet
And I shall swallow the Earth whole
when I die and the Earth and I will be one

Hail The Great Spirit, my father without him no one could exist because there would be no will to live

Hail The Earth, my mother without which no food could be grown
and so cause the will to live to starve.

Hail the wind, my grandmother for she brings loving, life giving rain nourishing us as she nourishes our crops.

Hail the fire, my grandfather for the light, the warmth, the comfort he brings without which we be animals, not men

Hail my parent and grandparents without which not I, nor you, nor anyone else could have existed.

Life gives life which gives unto itself a promise of new life.

Hail the Great Spirit, The Earth, the wind, the fire
praise my parents loudly for they are your parents, too.

Oh, Great Spirit, giver of my life please accept this humble offering of prayer this offering of praise

This honest reverence of my love for you."

"Pray for us Grandfather we have forgotten the instructions of how to live on earth."

Meditation For The Day

“The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.” Alden Nowlan

Doug Luzar
Take care of your Thoughts. Your Thoughts make paths in your Mind, and can lead you into dangerous areas. The thoughts we continually follow will eventually come out in words and actions, and become Habits. What do You want to be? Let Your thoughts lead you to the Paths that will take you there.

Watch Your Thoughts. Love Travels between the Worlds, like Sweetgrass and Music. Deepen Your Laugh and Smile lines, they are Beauty. Drink Deeply. 
Keep Dancin!!!

Doug Luzar
The Circle is a Wonderful symbol to represent the Great Mystery. Its' form represents One-ness and Whole-ness. It is the Path We walk, no beginning and no end...it holds everything in beginning and ending, Complete-ness...it is 
the Seed, the Bud, the Bloom....The Moon is a Circle, and it travels a Circle around the Earth... the Earth is a Circle traveling a Circle around the Sun, which is a Circle, traveling a Circle, a Spiral...an Eagles nest and an Ant Hill, a drop of Water, and a Rainbow...the Dancers in the Arbor Dance a Circle around the circular Drum...The opening in the Pipe that we 
fill with Prayer, the hole in the Stem we smoke Our Prayers thru...the Forms,Cycles and Seasons of Ceremonies...Nature LOVES a Circle....Love Travels, in Circles, between the Worlds, like Sweetgrass and Music. Deepen Your Laugh and Smile lines, they are Beauty. Drink Deeply. Keep Dancin!!!

Doug Luzar
Today is a new Adventure. Give Yourself Fully to this Day. You may have a plan for today, or an idea of what the day may bring, yet, however well we make our plans, things still happen that are not a part of our plans. We need to stay Attentive to a new direction, to the Voice of the Wind calling us, or the Scent of a Flower, or to the Child asking for our attention. Try to not be too busy, or rushed to take a side trail instead of the "main" road. 

Both will "get"us there, yet if we Slow down enough to notice what is trying to get our attention we may Learn more on one road than the other. 

Love Travels between the Worlds, like Sweetgrass and Music. Deepen Your Laugh and Smile lines, they are Beauty. Drink Deeply. Keep Dancin!!!!

Yancy Webb
Elder's Meditation of the Day
"Everyone has to find the right path. You can't see it so it's hard to find. 
No one can show you. Each person has to find the path by himself." 
--Charlie Knight, UTE

There are certain times in our lives when a voice whispers to us. The voice doesn't always talk. Usually we hear it best when we are sick and tired of being sick and tired. Inside every person is the knowledge that a Supreme Being exists. Sometimes a restlessness occurs and it makes me feel I need to be doing something or I need to be going somewhere or maybe I start 
wondering who am I? Often when this happens, I feel lost. Inside of everyone is the natural, built-in desire to be walking the Red Road, or to be seeking a relationship with the Creator. No one can force us to make this journey. 

We must make this journey because we want to. This journey is not on the outside. The path is inside of ourselves. It is inside that we must begin our search.

Oh Great Spirit, help me this day to look within myself. If trouble arises, let me realize that it's not what is going on but how I am looking at what is going on. Give me Your power this day to conduct myself according to Your way of life.

Yancy Webb
Elder's Meditation of the Day 
Look behind you. See your sons and your daughters. They are your future. 
Look farther and see your sons' and your daughters' children and their children's children even unto the Seventh Generation. That's the way we were taught. Think about it: you yourself are a Seventh Generation." 
--Leon Shenandoah, ONONDAGA

The Creator designed us with a free will. That means we function from choices and consequences. It is important that we practice thinking about consequences before we make decisions about choices. Every choice I make is 
like setting up dominos one after the other that produce consequences. Not just for me but also for my children and for the children that are unborn. 

My choices and decision today will have consequences for seven generations. 
For example, if I work on my own spiritual development and I walk the Red Road, the odds are that my children will. They will marry and their children will follow the Red Road and so will my grandchildren even up to the seventh 
generation. This will happen because of the choices and decisions that I make today.

Great Spirit, grant that the choices and decisions that I make today will honor Your laws and values. May I live in peace today that will ripple into the seventh generation.

Yancy Webb
Elder's Meditation of the Day 
"You want to know who's a real medicine man? He's the one who doesn't say 'I'm a medicine man.' He doesn't ask you to come to him. You've got to go and ask him. And you'll find he's always there among his own people." 
--Louis Farmer, ONONDAGA

The Medicine Man is a role model of what it is like to live in harmony and balance with the Creator. It takes a long time, a lot of sacrifice and discipline to become a Medicine Man. A Medicine Man is humble and never crass about anything. He knows he lives to do the will of the Great Spirit. 

He knows he is to help the people. He lives very low key - the more low key he lives, the more people seek him out - and such is life. The more one serves the people and is quiet about it, the more he is sought out. The quieter he is, the more powerful is his medicine.

Great Spirit, allow me this day to be humble. Allow me this day not to seek attention, but to live quietly and keep my focus and attention on serving You.

Yancy Webb
Elder's Meditation of the Day 
"A good heart and a good mind - those are what you need to be a chief." 

--Louis Farmer, ONONDAGA 
The combination of heart and mind is very powerful. The Medicine Wheel teaches that two worlds exist - the seen and the unseen. The seen world is the physical and the unseen is the spiritual world. Both of the worlds are necessary to discover true reality. The seen world is easiest seen by the 
male side. The unseen is easiest seen by the female side. The heart is the unseen and the mind is the seen. Blessed is the leader or person who has developed the heart and the mind. Truly, the person is of tremendous value to the Creator and the people. 

My Great Spirit, help me this day to develop both my female side and my male side. Let me know all the feelings of each, let me develop and grow my intuition and my mind. Let my development only serve You.

Yancy Webb
Elder's Meditation of the Day
"Let us put our minds together as one." 
--Irving Powless, Sr., ONONDAGA 

If we sat in a circle and put an object in the center of the circle and we all described what we saw, everyone would see different points of view from each other. Some would even see opposites because they would be sitting on opposite sides of the circle. In other words, you don't have to see what I see for you to be right. 

In fact, everyone in the circle is right based on 
their own point of view. If we are willing to listen to everyone's point of view, then we can get a more accurate description of the object in the center. This is one way to put our minds together. When we get the clarity from each other, we should give thanks and be grateful to each other. 

Grandfathers from the four directions, guide me today with Your wisdom from the east, from the south, from the west and from the north

Doug Luzar
Praying is all about Living. It is not only a prescribed Ritual of Words or Actions. It is how you Walk in this World, the things you Do. It is how you relate to the World, when you are Happy, or Sad, or Angry, or Overwhelmed. 
It is how you feel inside, how your Heart connects to the Heart of Spirit. 

Praying is Love. As you go into the World today...remember...remember the Joy and Awe and Wonder you felt with each new day as a child. Remember the pieces of the puzzle that you have forgotten. Love Travels between the 
Worlds, like Sweetgrass and Music. Deepen Your Laugh and Smile lines, they are Beauty! Drink Deeply of Life. Keep Dancin!!!

Yancy Webb
Elder's Meditation of the Day
"These are our times and our responsibilities. Every human being has a sacred duty to protect the welfare of our Mother Earth, from whom all life comes. In order to do this, we must recognize the enemy - the one within us. 
We must begin with ourselves..." 

--Leon Shenandoah, ONONDAGA
The outside is merely a reflection of our insides. My mind is designed to tell me that I'm not crazy for thinking what I am thinking. Even if I have angry thought, my mind is giving me excuses and reasons why it is OK to think what I'm thinking. I need to be knowledgeable about the laws of harmony and balance. I cannot twist the laws to serve me, but I can adjust 
my life to serve the laws. This is the law - I am here to serve the Earth. 
The Earth is not here for me to misuse and abuse.

Oh Great Spirit, allow me the insight and knowledge of how to live in harmony and balance with my surroundings. Grant me change from within.

Doug Luzar
Inside each of us, we know. We know how we should Live, there is a small voice that will tell us if we listen. When we choose not to listen, we do things not in our best interests, nor the best interests of our fellow creatures on this Earth. We, in the words of the song "follow the wrong gods home", and become selfish, and dishonest, which leads to frustrations and anger, and a lack of responsibility, and accountability, which is a downward 
leading spiral to more of what we don't want. However, if we do
listen to that inner voice, the quiet one, our own Heart Voice, it can lead us past the other voices, all loudly crying for more of what is on the other side of the hill. It can lead us to deeper places within our selves, where We can draw Water from Deep places, which lead to self-respect, Respect for Others, 
and All of Earths many Creatures, and Responsibility and Accountability. 
Love Travels between the Worlds, like Sweetgrass and Music. Deepen Your Laugh and Smile lines, they are Beauty. Drink Deeply from the Deep Waters. 
Keep Dancin!!!

UPON THE WINDS A VOICE WAS CAST,
WITH PRAYER A VOICE CRIED OUT,
VOICE SENT WITH SACRED SMOKE ,
FORGIVENESS IS ALL IT ASK.
EAGLE CAME FLYING VERY NEAR ,
HE SAW AND HEARD ,
UPON HIS WINGS CARRIED THIS PRAYER,
SOON CREATOR HEARD,
EAGLE COME FLYING AND CARRY OUR PRAYERS,
TO EAR'S OF CREATOR THAT HE MAY HEAR ,
WE HIS CHILDREN FOR HIS PITY ARE SENDING PRAYERS.

Prayer by Wanbli Nagi

Doug Luzar
While the Times change, Principles and Values do not. Living the Old Ways, doesn't mean we have to do away the things we have gained...electricity,
(convert from fossil fuels to alterNative sources), our homes, running water, it means to Live by the old Values...the Spirituality of our Ancestors, 

Respect for Each Other, the other Life on this Earth, and the Earth its self.

 Everything in Life is connected. To each other, to everything else and to the Unseen. This is what was known and Lived. This is what We need to Live, and Teach our Children to Live. The same Spirituality lived by our Ancestors 
is the same Spirituality that we need in todays World. Respect doesn't change. Accountability doesn't change. Responsibility doesn't change. Love Travels between the Worlds, like Sweetgrass and Music. Deepen Your Laugh and 
Smile lines, they are Beautiful. Drink Deeply. Keep Dancin!!!!

Doug Luzar
The Plants and Animals do not need us, we need them. Without us, the Earth would return to balance. All our Ancestors had this knowledge. It is time to return to Old Age Wisdom. Love is the not only the best, it is the only Medicine to heal the Earth today. Love Travels between the Worlds, like Sweetgrass and Music. Deepen Your Laugh and Smile lines, they are Beauty. 
Drink Deeply. Keep Dancin!!!

Doug Luzar
Look to your past, understand how it has shaped your present. Come to terms with the things that have hurt you in your own way...then let them go. Look then for the things in your life that build you up, and make you feel good about yourself. Spend your time doing those things, and in the company of people who like you you and enjoy you for who you are. As you are. Love 
Travels between the Worlds, like Sweetgrass and Music. Deepen Your Laugh and Smile lines, they are Beauty. Drink Deeply. Keep Dancin!!!

Doug Luzar
We must each of us take care with Our Words. Our Words carry Our Breath, and Our Intent. Words do have a Power. If we tell ourselves we can't do a thing, chances are we can't. If we tell ourselves we are ugly or no good, we will begin to believe it. If we tell Our Children negative things, they will believe them about themselves, and their self talk will reflect that. 
We should always build them and each other up, to Their, and Our best Potential. 

If We give them criticism they will reflect that, if We give them Love, they will reflect that, and Our future will reflect that. Our future will reflect what We feed the Young Ones today. Love Travels between the Worlds, like Sweetgrass and Music. Deepen Your Laugh and Smile lines, they are Love. Drink Deeply of the Beauty of Life. Keep Dancin!!!

The Breath

Oh Great Spirit, holder and giver of the breath of all that lives. The 
two-leggeds who walk the Turtle's back. The four-legged ones who share this 
place and teach us to walk gently, taking only what we need. The 
belly-crawlers who know every blade of grass and grain of sand. The winged 
ones who give us the ability to see above the clouds. 

The standing trees, the stone lodge people that can teach us of the history of the sacred earth beneath our feet. The water that nourishes and cleanses the body. The sun that warms our flesh. The moon that lights our way and controls the tides.

Great Spirit, all these things you have given to us ... and yet we still 
stumble and fall. And yet you continue to be as a gentle parent, always 
forgiving and always loving. You have always been and will always be ...

The four winds sing to us and touch us with the breath, that we may know our 
past and learn from the old ones.

Great Spirit, I stand before you as a child, one just learning how to crawl. 
Teach me the way to walk a path of balance, joy and may my eyes only know 
the beauty that resides in all things made by you. Aho.

Wanda S. Ruffner, Sacred Breath

Elder's Meditation of the Day August 14

"It's time Indians tell the world what we know... about nature and about God.
 So I'm going to tell you what I know and who I am. You guys better listen. 
You have a lot to learn. 
Mathew King, LAKOTA

A long time ago the Creator came to Turtle Island and said to the Red People, 
 "You will be the keepers of the Mother Earth. Among you I will give the wisdom about nature, about the interconnectedness of all things, about balance and about living in harmony. You, Red People will see the secrets of 
nature. You will live in hardship and the blessing of this is you will stay close to the Creator. The day will come when you will need to share the secrets with the other people of the earth because they will stray from their spiritual ways. The time to start sharing is today."

Oh Great Spirit, today I am ready for You to use me as a channel of Your peace. Let my walk today be visible so the people will say "There goes a Man of God." I want to know what He knows. If they ask, I will tell them to go out into the wilderness and pray for You to guide them.

We must take the lessons of life that are written upon the Whispers of the wind, and learn from them so that we may walk and grow in harmony with the Great One. We must learn to love all things, deny ourselves, and serve others so the Master will hear the greatness of our humbleness, as He walks in the Garden of Life. We must love our Earth partners, not in words, but in deeds and show that our spirit desires to be likened upon the Great Spirit. We must gain the courage to pray through all things and worship even when we feel that we have nothing to offer. 

Through trials, we will find our Wind Spirit will grow and either rise upon the currents or sink into the valleys if left unfed....we must learn the lessons of life through all things and then pass the gifts of life to those that follow in our footsteps, for they will need them even more, as Mother Earth and Father Sky continues to be darkened by the progress of the Nothing. So goes the Circle Of Life and in it's simplicity, contains all the vastness of the Universe.
 ONEIA (forever) 
Chief Dan George


Sacred Laughter

Sweet fragrance of the land, herbs and roots and medicines long lost to the 
general populace, are nonetheless as present as they always have been. We 
have been so taken with miracle cures, these things have been put away as 
folklore and not dependable. 

The simple people at one time had no other alternative - so runs the 
present-day popular notion. Hard-fought battles over who is to pay for the 
miracle medicines - and we are grateful for most of them - may turn a 
venturesome soul back to the soil and back to those things that heal a mind 
and body without being asked for proof of insurance. But one other thing far 
too ignored is the power of prayer. No Indian is remiss in blessing his body 
and soul and spirit because he knows they work together. His prayer is not 
now and again but regular and potent. 

~ The lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect 
for humans too. ~ 
LUTHER STANDING BEAR - LAKOTA

It is imperative that President Obama and his Administration, the Congress, all Native Americans, and the Public at large read James Anaya’s Investigative Report pertaining to Conditions of Native Americans in the United States.http://unsr.jamesanaya.org/statements/usa-indigenous-peoples-new-measures-needed-for-reconciliation-and-to-address-historical-wrongs Mr. Anaya is The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. As part of his research and information gathering he spent time among Native People and his report speaks to their deep concerns and the wrongs that have been perpetrated against them. 

This is a superbly written document. This report will be presented to the United Nations in Geneva on September 18, 2012. http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session21/A-HRC-21-47-Add1_en.pdf

OF SPECIAL NOTE >>>>>>>>>>

*****THE CASE OF LEONARD PELTIER IS AMONG INJUSTICES PRESENTED AND RECONSIDERATION FOR CLEMENCY IS URGED!! 

*****The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by President Barack Obama in 2010; making it in essence a part of both Domestic and Foreign Policy. (Former President George Bush refused to adopt the Declaration which was enacted by the United Nations in 2007). Although this has been adopted, clearly the United States is not taking to heart or acknowledging the Rights inherent in the Declaration! http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf 

*****In 2010 the Congress of the United States of America adopted a Resolution of Apology to the Native People. This apology somehow was not given much media attention and very few are aware of it.
*****InJustices against Native Peoples both past and present are well documented. (The FBI is not named specifically as an agency that has caused severe damage, but the Dept. of Justice and others have been called to task).

*****There are laws, policies, programs, agencies that have been enacted for the betterment of Native Conditions…However they have been misused and underused. Grievances done to Native Peoples are well documented. (Mr. Anaya does not go into the blatant corruption within agencies such as the BIA-Bureau of Indian Affairs, but it is alluded to).

The InJustices made against the Indigenous Peoples of America must be acknowledged, and honest efforts must be made to Right past and present wrongs that can be corrected if they as a People and the whole of America hopes to begin to heal!! CLEMENCY FOR LEONARD PELTIER…NOW!! In The Spirit of Crazy Horse. Thank You!

Techqua Ikachi - "For Land and Life!"

Whispers Of The Soul

"Great Spirit and all unseen, this day we pray and ask You for guidance, humbly we ask You to help us and fellow men to have recourse to peaceful ways of life, because of uncontrolled deceitfulness by human- kind. Help us all to love, not hate one another.

We ask you to be seen in an image of Love and Peace. Let us be seen in beauty, the colors of the rainbow. We respect our Mother, the planet, with our loving care, for from Her breast we receive our nourishment.

Let us not listen to the voices of the two-hearted, the destroyers of mind, the haters and self-made leaders, whose lusts for power and wealth will lead us into confusion and darkness. 

Seek visions always of world beauty, not violence nor battlefields.

It is our duty to pray always for harmony between man and earth, so that the earth will bloom once more. Let us show our emblem of love and goodwill for all life and land.

Pray for the House of Glass, for within it are minds clear and pure as ice and mountain streams. Pray for the great leaders of nations in the House of Mica who in their own quiet ways help the earth in balance.

We pray the Great Spirit that one day our Mother Earth will be purified into a healthy peaceful one. Let us sing for strength of wisdom with all nations for the good of all people. Our hope is not yet lost, purification must be to restore the health of our Mother Earth for lasting peace and happiness.
------------

Traditional people of Indian nations have interpreted the two roads that face the light-skinned race as the road to technology and the road to spirituality. We feel that the road to technology has led modern society to a damaged and seared earth. Could it be that the road to technology represents a rush to destruction, and that the road to spirituality represents the slower path that the traditional native people have traveled and are now seeking again? The earth is not scorched on this trail. The grass is still growing there.

Black Elk Speaks

"I can remember that winter of the hundred slain (1866) as a man may remember some bad dream he dreamed when he was little, but I can not tell just how much I heard when i was bigger and how much I understood when I was little. it is like some fearful thing in a fog, for it was a time when everything seemed troubled and afraid.

I had never seen a Wasichu (white man) then, and did not know what one looked like; but everyone was saying that the Wasichus were coming and that they were going to take our country and rub us all out and that we should all have to die fighting.

Once we were happy in our own country and we were seldom hungry, for then the two-legged and the four-leggeds lived together like relatives, and there was plenty for them and for us. But the Wasichus came, and they have made little islands for us and other little islands for the four-leggeds, and always these islands are becoming smaller, for around them surges the gnawing flood of the Wasichu; and it is dirty with lies and greed.

I was ten years old that winter, and that was the first time I ever saw a Wasichu. At first I thought they all looked sick and I was afraid they might just begin to fight us any time, but I got used to them.
I can remember when the bison were so many that they could not be counted, but more and more Wasichus came to kill them until there were only heaps of bones scattered where they used to be. The Wasichus did not kill them to eat; they killed them for the metal that makes them crazy, and they took only the hides to sell. Sometimes they did not even take the hides, only the tongues; and I have heard that fire-boats came down from the Missouri River loaded with dried bison tongues. You can see that the men who did this were crazy. Sometimes they did not even take the tongues; they just killed and killed because they liked to do that. When we hunted bison, we killed only what we needed."
- Black Elk Speaks

Cops Abuses Crippled Native Woman

Let us keep this piece of crap going and maybe we can come up with his name or detachment. Dragged a handicapped elder out of her car for a faulty tail light and threatened her passenger. Apparently been picking on this first nations family for years because they stand up for their rights!

A MUST READ of another chilling little known fact

These are actual tiny child handcuffs used by the U.S. government to restrain captured Native American children and drag them away from their families to send them to the Indian boarding schools where their identities, cultures and their rights to speak their Native languages were forcefully stripped away from them.

Haskell’s Cultural Center & Museum is located on campus at the Haskell Indian Nations University, and tells the full, and often cruel, story of Haskell’s painful past. Opened in 2002, the center features the permanent exhibit Honoring Our Children Through Seasons of Sacrifice, Survival, Change and Celebration, featuring artifacts, photos and letters from the school’s early days. Among the artifacts currently on display is a heavy lock and key from the small on site jail used to punish unruly students. Soon, perhaps, the handcuffs will be included among these artifacts, adding their own chilling testimony regarding the practices used by early educators to 'kill the Indian and save the child.'

Not much is known about the diminutive little handcuffs, which were donated to the Cultural Center in 1989 by a non-Indian man who described their use to Bobbi Rahder, former director of the Haskell Cultural Center & Museum. “He told us they were used to restrain captured Indian children who were being taken to boarding schools,” says Rahder. The middle-age white man said his father had the handcuffs for years but that he no longer wanted to have them in his possession. “He seemed relieved to get rid of them,” Rahder recalls. I made many phone calls, but was unable to track down the man, who is said to have lived in Lawrence. According to Rahder, he failed to respond to messages they had left him over the years, and he has not been seen at Haskell since the day he brought the handcuffs to the Cultural Center. “It was all very vague. He didn’t tell us how his father came to have the handcuffs. He just showed up one day and donated them to the Center."

Mysterious donations are common at the Cultural Center. The handcuffs, however, were much different, “I was shocked and afraid to touch them." A number of elders and leaders, conducted a modest ceremony the next day at the school’s medicine fire. Women from the Creek and Choctaw Nations, provided a tiny handmade quilt in which the handcuffs were reverently wrapped before being stored in the Cultural Center’s archives. The handcuffs remained in storage there for more than 20 years.

Although the Cultural Center displays a number of artifacts related to the harsh treatment of early Indian students at Haskell, the handcuffs were simply too painful to be addressed. Elders blessed the handcuffs and were further advised to put them away. The handcuffs languished in the archives of the center until this past summer.

As word of the handcuffs began to leak out over the past few years, students and faculty began discussing the importance of acknowledging their existence and putting them on display. For whatever reason, no one at the school has been willing to take the lead in the handling of this powerful artifact, but with the approval of Haskell administration, it was agreed to unwrap them for ICTMN.

The tiny handcuffs are a tangible example of the painful history between Native people and the U.S. The history of our genocide has been forever swept under the rug by the mainstream. People need to see the impact that these policies had on us. If those handcuffs could talk, they would tell some terrible chilling stories.

Steve Prue, spokesman for Haskell, says "there are no immediate plans regarding how the handcuffs will be presented to the public, nor how or even if they will ever be displayed." He does agree with the students that the handcuffs are an appropriate item and should be included in displays of other Haskell artifacts at the Cultural Center. “It’s good to have these sorts of things on display in the Cultural Center,” he says.

“They tell the REAL story of who truly paid the price for us to be here today.” There is no doubt, to any compassionate reader with a heart of this horrid and unspeakable history, just as to who were the REAL savages were.

Note: This is another example of abuse by the government against Native people and their children. Handcuffing innocent children as criminals.