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RAPID CITY, S.D. – As gunfire broke out, the nine-year-old boy began to run. Temperatures were below freezing. All he had were the clothes on his back and a knife as he ran through the open hills of the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Frank Sits Poor, part of Chief Spotted Elk’s (nicknamed Big Foot by the military) band of Mniconju Lakota, was out of his element. His family had traveled south seeking safety in the Badlands. Instead, the United States military moved the band to a small creek in the southern part of the Pine Ridge Reservation, Wounded Knee Creek, awaiting further relocation.
The boy ran over bodies of dead relatives, babies and mothers, and didn’t stop running until night came. One of the bodies he ran past was a mother with a baby in a cradleboard. A hand reached up, but he didn’t know what to do.
“His only thought was how to get out of the cold,” said his granddaughter Genevieve Chase In Sight-Ribitish. “He saw a buffalo lying there and he cut it open, gutted it, climbed in and fell asleep. When he woke up the carcass was frozen solid, he had to pry himself out. After that, he kept running again.” READ MORE — Ameila Schafer, ICT + Rapid City Journal
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Todd County, South Dakota Middle School teacher Albert “Bobber” Her Many Horses, Sicangu Lakota, was surprised Wednesday, December 20, with a $25,000 cash prize and the national Milken Educator Award.
Her Many Horses is a Lakota language teacher and music teacher in Mission, S.D. Born and raised in Mission on the Rosebud Reservation, Her Many Horses is an active member of his tribal community.
The teacher was presented the award for his innovative teaching methods. Her Many Horses works to find different ways of incorporating technology in the classroom and worked hard to engage students in 2020 while learning from home.
Her Many Horses was also honored for being active in helping students outside of the classroom. In addition to his teaching, he also tutors students in math and science, sponsors an in-school wellness group and teaches summer classes at Sinte Gleska University. READ MORE — Amelia Schafer, ICT + Rapid City Journal
Alaska is the only state with its own chapter in a report on missing and murdered Indigenous people that describes a failure of the federal government to fulfill its trust responsibilities to tribal nations, resulting in a public health, public safety and justice crisis nationwide.
The report was written by the Not Invisible Act Commission, a cross-jurisdictional advisory body that makes recommendations for how to address public safety in Native American communities. Report authors included the chapter to detail the specific challenges to addressing the MMIP crisis in Alaska, such as distance, governmental structures and lack of technology or transportation.
Michelle Demmert, a University of Alaska Fairbanks professor and mostly retired tribal judge and attorney, serves on the commission. She said Alaska tribes face unique challenges and have not had the same resources as tribes in the Lower 48.
“We felt that the issues in Alaska are so unique, and the historical experience that we’ve had in comparison to the Lower 48 tribes has really put a disadvantage on some of the resource and access issues that we have,” she said. READ MORE — Alaska Beacon
BISMARCK, N.D. – Holding hands while sidestepping in a circle to hand drum songs, students and residents connected with Bismarck’s Native community late into the freezing night of Dec. 9.
More than 70 people came to United Tribes Technical College’s first “Rock the Thunderdome” in the James Henry Gymnasium — otherwise known as the “Thunderdome” – to celebrate the end of finals and fall semester with a series of round dances, hand drum songs, a variety of contests and potato soup. The school’s Thunder Society, Maza LLC, Sacred Pipe Resource Center and all the student clubs sponsored the celebration.
Ahiticia Tasso, a criminal justice major at the college and president of the Thunder Society, a student club focused on embracing culture, got together with a group of student and local organizations to host the event to bring local families and communities together. Originally, the goal was to host the dance around Thanksgiving, but it was postponed due to basketball season.
Fortunately, they were able to hold the event after the last day of finals. “We needed this dance after a tough and harsh semester that everyone was having,” Tasso said. READ MORE — Indigenous Democracy Reporter
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Ancient traditions are growing strong again in Wabanaki Territory. For nearly six decades, Passamaquoddy Days has been an annual touchstone for their culture and lifeways. ICT’s Stewart Huntington has this report.
The Upper Mattaponi Tribe fought for two decades to gain federal recognition. ICT’s Stewart Huntington visited with Chief Frank Adams about resilience.
Crew members from the Polynesian Voyaging Society are embarking on a new and major journey throughout the Pacific Ocean. Their mission is to ignite a movement, and build an educational campaign, bringing urgent awareness to caring for mother earth. ICT’s Aliyah Chavez has the story of this extraordinary mission.
Hud Oberly grew up in Norman, Oklahoma, but has found a home in a New York City. Always staying busy, he spent some time at the Sundance Film Institute’s Indigenous Program and serves on the board of the country’s largest Native scholarship organization. ICT’s Stewart Huntington caught up with him recently just as the designer is preparing to launch a new fashion line.
WATCH
The Choctaw Nation, Cherokee Nation and College of the Muscogee Nation received a total of $24.1 million in federal assistance grants for education initiatives and high-speed internet.
The awards issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture were announced Tuesday, December 19, by Kenneth Corn, Oklahoma state director for the USDA’s Rural Development agency.
Most of the funding, $22.3 million, will help deliver high-speed internet throughout the Choctaw Nation.
Smaller awards will go toward education initiatives, including $558,000 for free Choctaw language courses. The online courses are open to the public through Chahta Anumpa Aiikhvna – the School of Choctaw Language.
Cherokee Nation STEM and languages courses received $1 million to assist the Cherokee ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ ᎠᏂᏫᏒᏍᎩ (language department) with its classes and programs.
The College of the Muscogee Nation in Okmulgee, serving tribal and nontribal students while emphasizing Native culture, received $334,000.
“Recently, President Biden reaffirmed his commitment to our Tribal Nations in Oklahoma and across the nation, that the administration is prepared to deliver historic executive action to strengthen the understanding and respect for tribal sovereignty,” Corn said.
He encouraged tribes to partner with the USDA to assist in meeting their needs.
“Contact (the) state office at 405-742-1070 to sign up for our upcoming Oklahoma Tribal Opportunity Partnership Summit. I want every tribal nation in Oklahoma to have the opportunity to share in this historic level of investment and opportunities of economic growth, as well,” Corn said. — Felix Clary, ICT + Tulsa World
- Indigenous communities face health-related triple threat: Three respiratory illnesses – RSV, the flu and COVID-19 – are on the rise in Indian Country
- Tribal college memorializes Japanese Americans’ WWII trauma: United Tribes Technical College is acknowledging its past as a WWII-era concentration camp through the creation of the Japanese American Internment Memorial Courtyard
- Youth shine at Lakota Language Bowl: The annual Lakota Language Bowl encourages language learning through competition
- St. Paul to revitalize on-island reindeer meat processing
- Cocoa grown illegally heads to companies that supply major chocolate makers
- States are trashing troves of masks and pandemic gear
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