Native American Day

   What is Columbus Day in most of the country is Native American Day in South Dakota (It is Day of Indigenous Resistance in Venezuela and Nicaragua; and Day of Mourning for the Misery Diseases and Hunger Brought by the European Invasion of America in Bolivia – thanks to friend Steve Brouwer for noting these for us). In 1999 South Dakota was the 1^st and only state (until this year when it was joined by Vermont) to move to celebrate Native American Day instead of Columbus Day. In recent years there has been something of an awakening about this around the country and now dozens of cities also officially celebrate the 2^nd Monday of October as Native American Day.

   We were very pleased to be able to be part of a Native American Day celebration at Crazy Horse Memorial in Custer, which included a free bison stew lunch and an Indian dance performance. The Crazy Horse Memorial includes as its centerpiece a mountaintop carving of Crazy Horse, very close to Mount Rushmore. While the entire proposed sculpture is still unfinished (over 50 years since it was started), the face – which is finished - is 87 feet high/9 stories (the Mt. Rushmore faces are 60 feet). But it is controversial. It is controlled by the sculptor’s family and not Indians (Korczak Ziolkowski, the sculptor, did incredible work in envisioning and creating the sculpture but he died in 1982) and the museum attached to the memorial seems almost to be as much about Korczak as about Crazy Horse or Indian history and culture. Some Indians also question the wealth that family members have allegedly gotten from what has become a major tourist attraction; the untraditional depiction of Crazy Horse and even what they see as a desecration of the sacred Black Hills by cutting/dynamiting into it.

   Crazy Horse was a major resistance leader during the 1860s and 1870s, and was noted both for his military prowess and humility and for his unyielding opposition to U.S. imperialism and its efforts to seize Indian land and force the Indians onto reservations. He played a significant role, along with his ally Sitting Bull, in the Indian defeat of U.S. forces at the Rosebud and Little Bighorn battles in June 1876.  Within a year U.S. retaliation convinced Crazy Horse that military resistance was futile and he and his warriors agreed to cease hostilities. Three months later, however, fearing that Crazy Horse was about to resume his military activities he was arrested and in the struggle that ensued he was bayoneted to death by a soldier. He was 37 years old.

Crazy Horse memorial

Crazy Horse sculpture with memorial in background

Pine Ridge Reservation – The Rest of the News

   Pine Ridge Reservation, one of 9 Sioux reservations in South Dakota,  is and has been the poster child for Indian poverty, dysfunction and the failure of the reservation system for many years. While there is good reason for this narrative, there is also another story to be told. We learned this on our recent trip there as our host took us on an all day tour of the Rez, or at least parts of it (it is larger in size than Delaware & Rhode Island combined, but mostly arid prairie and only 30,000 or so residents). Here, as on other reservations in recent years, positive change is happening, though we don't always hear about it. 

 There is a huge need for positive change. Visiting one of the local cemeteries we saw stark evidence of this: the average life span of those interred there was very limited, not surprising for a reservation which has the lowest life expectancy anywhere in the western hemisphere apart from Haiti (48 for men; 52 for women). The reasons for this are perhaps obvious: over half of all families here live below the federal poverty level; unemployment exceeds 70%; astronomical rates of diabetes (half the population over 40), tuberculosis (8x national rate) and cervical cancer (5x national rate); high rates of alcoholism and fetal alcohol syndrome & its effects (1 in 4 infants); a high school graduation rate that is 45% or less; high teen and adult suicide rates.

   But here is the “rest of the news,” that we saw and/or learned about. There is a nascent local credit union (still no checking though) and an active community development financial institution (banks refuse to establish branches on the reservation, which as mentioned above is as large as Rhode Island and Delaware combined).

The K-12 education infrastructure is very impressive and performance is improving. Oglala Lakota College has 1,500 enrolled students and has a wonderful decentralized structure, including 11 college centers to serve all segments of the Rez as well as neighboring areas where tribal members also live. Attached to it are also over 20 campus-based head start centers. The Pine Ridge Girls’ School, the 1^st of its kind on an Indian reservation, seeks to connect all subjects to Lakota language and culture while preparing the girls for college. We saw many very decent looking small houses and trailers (though overcrowding is an issue as families double or triple up). The local government also has an active housing program. The cultural and spiritual life of the people has been invigorated with many powwows occurring locally (school or clan based), sun dances and an attempt to emphasize in the schools the use and learning of Lakota language. An assisted living/nursing home complex has just been built.  Much health care is free (Indian Health Service) and the 45d-bed hospital looked impressive and modern (with 2 regional clinics in other parts of the rez). There has been a growth in locally owned businesses including one grocery store we visited, a film institute and training center, and a beautiful Chamber of Commerce building.

 The positives we saw need to be celebrated. But in the end the people on the reservation are struggling mightily against enormous odds, including a dysfunctional system of land ownership/tenure, a sometimes frustrating and resistant bureaucracy, centuries of racial exclusion and cultural genocide, an economic stranglehold by forces like the banks, and ultimately without the federal resources needed to make a significant dent in the problems. 

The only Lakota owned grocery store

Mark St. Pierre and Tilda Long Soldiers Film Institute

Historical Marker at site

People praying at memorial and mass grave of Wounded Knee victims

“Come See the Crazy Indians”

   For over 30 years, until it was closed in 1933 when federal investigators cited abusive conditions, outdated and inhumane treatment and many sane Indians held there, Hiawatha Asylum for Insane Indians in Canton, Iowa was essentially a federal prison for Indians. There were no medical standards for commitment to the Asylum, little treatment for those that might have needed it, and once incarcerated Indians often had no possibility for parole or release.  Referrals of Indians deemed “troublesome” often came from BIA agents. Conditions were brutalizing, and they were there for life.  Money was to be made from them as well, as the Canton community advertised “come see the crazy Indians” , asking people to pay for the “show”.

   We visited the former site of the Indian Asylum. Mostly demolished, what remains, besides some old farm buildings, is a fenced in area encircled by the 4^th and 5^th fairways of the local golf course. This is where 121 Indians who died while at the facility were dumped in unmarked graves (stone markers were considered “too expensive”). Many multicolored Indian prayer cloths are affixed to the fence and, rather than grave stones, there is one memorial marker erected by family members some years ago. Across the highway here is also an historical marker erected by the State. The cemetery is now protected by the National Registry for Historic Places.

   A remarkable thing happened as we were viewing the marker.  A passing car did a u-turn and the driver jumped out and asked what we were doing. He then said we were the only people he had ever met who were interested in the institution, and that he in fact had just completed a Masters thesis on it. He was of course a fount of information and led us to the burial site in the midst of the golf course.

   Among the stories he related was about one Indian, a married mother with 6 children who was picked up on her reservation for drunkenness, deemed insane and shipped to the Asylum. Her husband went so far as contacting his U.S. Senator seeking her release but to no avail. The senator wrote a letter on her behalf, but the asylum administrators 'lost the letter'. She died at the asylum. Conditions were inhumane and lacking legal means to contest their confinement most of the Indians died there.

   He also told us that in the spring or early summer each year Indians from local Tribes as well as others from all over the country (374 Indians ages 2 to 80 from 53 tribes in 17 states were institutionalized at Hiawatha) come for a ceremony.  It is called an Honoring and Remembering Ceremony for Native Americans. At the ceremony this year there were prayers and then the name of each Indian buried there was called out and a prayer cloth for each affixed to the fence. At the conclusion a 21 arrow salute was given by members of the archery team from Nebraska Indian Community College.

Historical marker on highway

21 arrow salute

Prayer flags on fence with remaining farm buidings in distance

Reclaiming Sacred Sites: Black Elk, Bear Lodge, and the Black Hills

   “Defend the sacred” is one of the rallying cries at the Standing Rock pipeline protest. It has ignited a movement there and around the country and has drawn thousands of Indians from over 300 Indian Nations to the protest. It might be the largest political gathering and mass mobilization of Indians since the 1851 Horse Creek Treaty (when 10,000 Indians came) or the Plains Indian Wars themselves (fought collectively by a number of tribes)? 

   But such efforts at significant political change and reclaiming historic rights have been happening at the tribal level as well throughout the Plains, both recently and even since the early 1900s. For example, in August the Federal Board of Geographic Names overcame opposition from South Dakota state authorities to change the name of Harney Peak to Black Elk Peak. Some would have preferred that the name be Hinhan Kaga, its Indian name meaning ‘Making of Owls,’ but naming it after the famed Lakota holy man and national leader was still a major victory. Almost anything is better than using the name ‘Harney Peak’, the name imposed by colonialists in 1855. Harney was an American military commander in the Black Hills (sacred Lakota/Sioux land ceded them in various treaties) who led a military invasion of Sioux land in 1855 that among other things resulted in the massacre of more than 100 men, women and children at a village of Brule Sioux Indians in what is today Nebraska. We recently hiked 3 ½ miles to the top of Black Elk and in so doing stood at 7,242 feet, the highest summit in the United States east of the Rockies. Unfortunately weather conditions were not perfect, to say the least, and the peak was cloud covered so we were unable to get the full impact of being able to see 4 states, but it was still great.

   Indians are also campaigning to reclaim another spiritual and breathtaking site that we visited, Bear Lodge in NE Wyoming. Many 19^th century maps give it that name, but when Roosevelt made it the 1^st national monument in 1906 he used another name it was given by American forces, Devils Tower. A walk around the base of the mountain as well as exhibits at the visitor center highlight the spiritual nature of the site. Indians frequently go there to pray, engage in sweat lodges or sun dances.  Prayer offerings (colorful hanging cloths) are left there and are evident in many places along the trails as are signs informing visitors about the holy nature of the place. There are many Indian legends about the site, as a number of different tribes consider it holy.

   The beautiful and sacred Black Hills themselves, where we stayed for 5 days, have been the focus of an almost century long legal battle by the Oglala Lakota to reclaim their property and rights, or be provided just compensation. In one early decision, the Court of Claims rejected the Lakota claim while yet confirming the government’s intolerable treatment of the Indians there: “A more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealing will never, in all probability, be found in our history.” But the Indians persisted and in 1980 the Supreme Court affirmed a lower court decision that in 1877 the government’s seizure of the Black Hills from the Indian Nation was an “illegal taking or property” in violation of the 5^th Amendment. However, only a monetary award was provided ($106 million), not the return of the land itself (which now includes 6 national parks) and the Indians refused to accept this and have continued to refuse payment even as the amount awarded has risen (with interest now to more than $600 million).

Devils Tower

Painting in visitor center at Devils Tower of Kiowa Legend

Prayer flags on trees at the base of Devils Tower

Plaque on top of Black Elk Peak, formerly Harney Peak

Powwow

   Attending a powwow is fascinating. It explodes the myths and oversimplified images that I (Carl) had about these events.  Powwows are cultural and social gatherings for the Indian people who participate.  They bind them closer together with each other at the same time as they serve as opportunities to relearn and relive and be proud of their historic and cultural traditions. The word ‘powwow’ says it all: it is derived from the Narragansett language and refers to a gathering of Indians for the purpose of singing, dancing, celebration and socialization.

   And this is indeed what we witnessed at the 30^th annual Black Hills Powwow which coincidentally occurred in Rapid City, near where we were staying in Lead. The powwow brought 7 South Dakota Indian tribes together plus others from Minnesota, Montana and elsewhere. The singing, dancing, drumming – all of which involved competitions among groups from the tribes ($100,000 in total prize money!) – were incredible but no more so than the traditional elaborate and beautiful regalia that the performers wore (often sewn/produced by the families).  Ages groups represented went from “tiny tots” to “golden agers.” In the competitions males and females were in separate categories and age groups (including many juniors and teens). Probably hundreds of participants all together with family, friends and visitors watching from the arena seats. 

   There was a traditional opening ceremony (the “Grand Entry,” led by Indian military veterans, embodying the tradition of the Indian/Sioux warrior culture), and including all the dancers and other dignitaries or special guests. As part of this ceremony, the military participants would end by stomping on or symbolically stabbing or striking the flag of the 7^thCavalry (“counting coup” or striking an enemy, the highest honor traditionally won by Plains Indian warriors; the 7^thCavalry perpetrated the Wounded Knee massacre in 1890).  There were also athletic competitions held in a separate venue which we did not see; arts and crafts displays and a fashion show. This was a weekend long affair, with the 1^stday, Friday, being reserved for a youth symposium and education program attended this year by thousands of school children, white and Indian, from both reservation and non-reservation schools.

  Here is a beautiful quote from one of the participants: “There is a huge sense of pride. We hear our native language being sung.  We hear that heartbeat the drum, we shake hands and make acknowledgements of respect. There is a huge sense of pride. When I dance I can actually feel 4 grandmothers dancing behind me. My nagi, my spirit, feels so happy when they are with me…. There is no other place where I can actually feel their presence, except in that dance circle. This is why I believe that wacipi (powwow) is a sacred part of my life.”

Singing and Drumming Group

Parade of Veterans and Dignitaries

Another singing and drumming group

Dancers

“Every Buffalo Dead is an Indian Gone”

Bison (American Buffalo), an estimated 30 million in the early 19^th century, were central to Plains Indians lives, who used virtually every part of the bison to  provide food, clothing, shelter, tools, ceremonial objects, household items, fuel, even toys. At the Vore Buffalo Jump in northeastern Wyoming we learned the fascinating story of how even before the horse, Indians had created ways of trapping the bison. Vore is an archeological site that has produced much information about how in the centuries before 1800, Indian Nations working collectively developed techniques for essentially driving hordes of bison over cliffs and into a natural sink hole where they died or were killed, butchered and then “processed” leaving only the bones. Huge volumes of perfectly preserved bones are at the site.

   Beginning in the 17^th century when horses became available bison hunting opportunities expanded dramatically.  The Indians developed elaborate and skilled bison hunting techniques, creating one of the most renowned hunting cultures in history. The economic-cultural changes brought on by the horse have been called as significant for the Indian as changes wrought by the introduction of the automobile in early 20^th century America. The importance of the buffalo for the Indians in historical, material and cultural senses has come up repeatedly during our trip so far.

   The decimation of the bison coincided with the Plains Indian Wars which sought to subjugate the Indian Nations. It became a political-military strategy as articulated by U.S. Colonel Richard Dodge in 1867: “Every buffalo dead is an Indian gone.” But it was also economic, fed by the settler immigrants’ and eastern capitalists’ thirst for the resources that they could take from the Plains. So huge numbers of bison were killed by soldiers, farmers and ranchers (who needed space for their own animals), hunters feeding rich Americans and Europeans desire for bison hides, leather and coats or just killing the animals for sport.  In 1870 alone it is estimated that 2 million bison were killed on the southern plains with similar numbers in the following years. By 1883 nearly all the bison in the U.S. were gone.

   Today, the bison is returning to the plains and we were always excited to see evidence of herds in many places, including public and reservation lands. Bison meat is frequently available in restaurants.

Blackfeet Bison herd near Glacier

Bison next to our car in Yellowstone!

Building at base of sink hole housing and protecting the archeological dig.







Bison bones being excavated at base of sink hole. 

Little Bighorn: Victory Turned Into Defeat

Little Bighorn was the Indian Nations biggest victory in the wars that engulfed the Plains during the 3^rd quarter of the 19^th century.  But it was also a turning point.  It was really their last stand, not Custer’s. It was a last gasp effort to defend their land as the Black Hills gold rush in the mid-70s overran sacred portions of Sioux territory and destroyed any remaining Indian treaty rights (if they ever really had any). After Custer’s defeat in 1876 the government and army was relentless and overpowered Indian resistance.  Within a short time, most of the resisting Indians were back on the reservations or at the BIA Indian agencies, in either case under the control of the invaders. Others, like Crazy Horse, were killed, or like Sitting Bull, fled to Canada. The result remains with us today: “The Indians were no longer a proud, free roaming people, but starving ragtag refugees and prisoners in their own land.”

   Visiting the eerily beautiful Little Bighorn battlefield, now a National Monument, and seeing all the gravestones, memorials (including a new and beautifully done memorial to the Indian warriors) and imagining the horrific 2-day battle (June 25-26, 1876) is a somber experience. There were really multiple battles that took place as the Lakota and Cheyenne, fresh from a victory the previous week at Rosebud, were besieged by the U.S. Calvary. Their villages were under attack, and that meant the warriors’ wives, children, parents were at grave risk. They could do nothing else but protect them by counterattacking.

   The Indian Memorial at Little Bighorn was only approved due to pressure from Indians and a public protest at the site by the American Indian Movement in 1988. It commemorates the sacrifices there of the five Indian Nations that participated in the battles to protect their families, values and traditional way of life. It is the only memorial to the Native American experience mandated by Congress and constructed with federal funds. Authorized by Congress in 1991, it was not finished till 2013.

Indian Memorial

Little Bighorn Battlefield with white stones marking places where soldiers and warriors died.

Blackfeet Reservation – Glacier Natl Park, Denise Juneau and Blackfeet Community College

The Blackfeet reservation in northwest Montana is the 12^th largest in the country. Initially much larger, it was progressively reduced through a series of treaties, executive orders, sales, and allotments in the 19^th and early 20^thcenturies.  The transition from independence to reservation life historians call “harrowing” for the Blackfeet.  Two examples: in 1870 almost 200 men, women and children were massacred by the U.S. Army (Baker/Marias Massacre) ending their resistance to white encroachment on their land; in the last quarter of the century, the extermination of the bison led to famine and starvation killing 600 American Blackfeet (others died in Canada where portions of the tribe are also located).

   The town of Browning is the commercial and residential center of the reservation. Here we learned and experienced quite a lot about the Blackfeet.

1. Blackfeet territory historically included land east of the continental divide that is today part of Glacier National Park. An 1895 treaty allowed the U.S. to take that land for the park but the Blackfeet contest parts of that agreement claiming that it was only a lease not a sale and only covered mineral rights above tree line. The Blackfeet connection to the Park is nonetheless represented there by the flying of the Blackfeet Nation flag alongside those of Canada and the U.S. and through an exhibit in one of the visitor centers. Chief Mountain and Divide Mountain in the park are sacred spots for the Indians, and the park’s mountain ranges are considered to be the “backbone of the world.” The Indians have been denied permission to hold ceremonies in these areas of the park.

2. We saw Denise Juneau’s picture and campaign literature at Blackfeet Community College when we visited there. She is a woman of Blackfeet ancestry and a graduate of Browning H.S. who is running for Congress, seeking to become the first Indian woman in Congress and first LGBT elected from Montana. She is already the 1^st Indian to hold statewide office in Montana (elected Director of Public Instruction for two terms). (This may be a breakout year for Indians in politics. Eight indigenous candidates are running for Congress, up from two in 2014. Over 90 are running for state legislatures, again exceeding previous years.)

3. Our trip to Browning coincided with the 24^th annual “Days of the Piikani [Blackfeet]” a 3-day event at Blackfeet Community College that included research papers, talks, activities for school children and a community market. We were moved and impressed with what we saw there especially seeing the school’s focus on Blackfeet language/culture/history, as well as more traditional subjects.

4. We visited the Museum of the Plains Indian which is on the reservation but administered by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the Dept. of the Interior. Much smaller than the Plains Indian museum in Cody, it is in some ways better because of that. Perhaps the most fascinating part of the museum are the exhibits on Indian art forms with detailed descriptions of the artistic process involved. Included here: featherwork, carving, beadwork, quillwork, painting and hide dressing. In the 19^th century every adult engaged in some form of artistic productivity, but with practical intent: to supply the need for clothing, implements, shelter and protection.

At Logan Pass in Glacier National Park

The Black Hills - The Backbone of the world - Display in Glacier Park Visitor Center

Earnest Marceau Jr. - Blackfeet Artist