New Title: The Mahkato Reconciliation and Healing Ride

January 13, 2025January 13, 2025 / aztec8888 / Leave a comment

From acknowledging the winter solstice to celebrating mainstream society’s holiday season, this time of year has always brought together gatherings of family and friends throughout Turtle Island. And every December, reminders of our history add to the difficulties faced by many families, and tribes, as some of their people’s most tragic memories all occurred during this month — the assassination of Chief Sitting Bull, Wounded Knee Massacre, and the Dakota 38 Hanging.

The day after Christmas is more widely known as “Boxing Day,” especially outside of Indian Country, but in the last several years there has been growing momentum for mainstream society to acknowledge the day after Christmas as the day when 38 Dakota “Sioux” men were hanged in Mankato, Minnesota in 1862. The hanging, the largest mass execution in United States history, was carried out in front of an estimated 4,000 people in downtown Mankato and remains largely hidden from classrooms and public knowledge.

As the year ends, and millions gather to celebrate and acknowledge the holiday season, some Indigenous communities acknowledge its tragic past through memorial ceremonies aimed at teaching and healing while building community.

The hangings were approved by former President Abraham Lincoln as a result of conflict between Dakota people and settlers in southwestern Minnesota. Dakota people were promised food and safety in exchange for ceding their lands, but they received neither, leading to attacks on white settlements in August 1862. The resulting widespread war in Minnesota lasted for five weeks, culminating in the hanging of 38 Dakota men in Mankato on Dec. 26, 1862.

Some say the Dakota War officially ended after the hanging, but the U.S. government’s oppression of the Dakota people, as well as other Indigenous groups, did not end with that atrocity. After the mass hanging, Dakota people were exiled and forcibly removed from Minnesota. Many sought refuge in Canada, South Dakota, Nebraska, and other communities willing to take them in. Memorializing such a painful history involves more than riding on horseback through blizzard-like conditions. While it remains a painful and tragic past, many have undertaken healing and positive efforts to repair relations with those in the places where history unfolded, hoping that such history will not repeat itself.

The movement to pay tribute to tragic times past is active healing in Indian Country. While memorials take time and tremendous effort, the initial memorial horse ride has caused great positive ripple. Today there are additional horse rides and a memorial run that begins at Ft. Snelling, the military fort where thousands of Dakota people were imprisoned during the Dakota War, and all convene at Reconciliation Park in Mankato, MN on Dec. 26. Many other Indigenous communities have begun to host memorial rides, runs, or walks, to pay their respects to their past, as well as to the land in hopes we continue to heal beyond times past.

Beginning in 2008, an annual memorial horse ride was organized to begin on the Lower Brule Reservation in central South Dakota and ride for 16 consecutive days, convening in Mankato, MN on Dec. 26. Their ride and ceremonial arrival to memorialize the Dakota 38 continues to this day — now under a new name — Mahkato Reconciliation and Healing Ride.

Forever riding forward, while sometimes looking back, is magic we all have to embrace in this work. We’re grateful and gain strength as we join together to honor the pain and sacrifices of the past by celebrating and supporting these ongoing healing movements.

Miigwech — thank you, always, for remembering with us!
Darren Thompson
Director of Media Relations
Lakota People’s Law Project
Sacred Defense Fund

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Lakota People’s Law Project
P.O. Box 27
Santa Fe, NM 87504

29th Annual Fort Robinson Outbreak Spiritual Run

January 13, 2025 / aztec8888 / Leave a comment

Warm greetings to you from the sacred (and chilly) He Sapa (Black Hills)! I’m here to witness and celebrate many young, Native runners on route from Fort Robinson, Nebraska to Busby, Montana, where — in solidarity with our Northern Cheyenne relatives, and on behalf of Lakota Law, Sacred Defense Fund, and the Standing Rock and Oglala Tribal Nations — I’m bringing you along for this year’s 29th Annual Fort Robinson Outbreak Spiritual Run.

I encourage you to watch my short video introduction to this important and deeply meaningful yearly event. It honors — with a 400-mile run over six days through subzero temperatures and some of the most beautiful, wild, and sacred territory in all of Turtle Island — Northern Cheyenne ancestors who broke free from captivity in Fort Robinson on January 9th, 1879. The run retraces their steps and allows their descendants to complete the journey they were unable to finish to their homelands nearly a century and a half ago.

Watch: Here I am at the Fort Robinson barracks. In my new video, I discuss the history behind this run, which promotes healing through acknowledgment of generational trauma and taking healthful action.

I want to give recognition to the Two Bulls family and Yellow Bird Foundation for hosting this powerful event. The runners — mostly youth from many tribal nations — began with an orientation on Thursday before hitting the trail yesterday from Fort Robinson to Hot Springs, SD. After crossing though the He Sapa into Deadwood today, they’ll have three remaining legs before reaching their final destination in Busby.

Our participation here — and yours, through your support — is important, not least because it raises more awareness (both within our communities and without) of how colonization and imprisonment in “frontier” forts impacted our Northern Cheyenne relatives. In some ways, being present for and supporting this run embodies what our work is all about. It gives us a real opportunity to acknowledge the painful past while alchemizing generational trauma through healthy activity to empower the next generation.

Wopila tanka — my gratitude for your solidarity with our youth and ancestors!
Tokata Iron Eyes
Spokesperson & Organizer
Lakota People’s Law Project
Sacred Defense Fund

P.S. A second reminder: We remain deeply grateful to all of you who give of yourselves to make the ongoing work of Lakota People’s Law Project possible under our new home at Sacred Defense Fund. For those of you who donate through checks, please send them to our new mailing address, listed below, and kindly make out your checks to: Sacred Defense Fund. Thank you so much!

Note our new mailing address (and please make any checks payable to: “Sacred Defense Fund”)

Lakota People’s Law Project
c/o Sacred Defense Fund
PO Box 27
Santa Fe, NM 87504

December 19, 2024 / aztec8888 / Leave a comment

Apologies for the incorrect subject on this message a few minutes ago. I hope that won’t detract from this important content.

I wish you a happy holiday season! When most people think of December, what comes to mind might be the holidays we celebrate, gathering with family, and the turning of the page to a new year at month’s end. In Lakota Country, unfortunately, the end of the Gregorian calendar year is also inextricably linked with a pair of troubling anniversaries. In solidarity with us, I hope you’ll make a little room to remember them with me today.

First, Dec. 15 was the 134th anniversary of the assassination of the great Hunkpapa Lakota Chief, Thatanka Iyotake, or Sitting Bull. I, too, am Hunkpapa Lakota, and I’ll say that Sitting Bull is one of our most celebrated ancestors for good reason. To learn more, I urge you to read (or reread) this blog, which I penned last year to give you more about Sitting Bull’s life, the context of his death, and an action you can take and share to rescind Medals of Honor granted to U.S. soldiers responsible for the second anniversary I referenced: the massacre of hundreds of Natives at Wounded Knee just days later, on Dec. 29, 1890.

Photograph of Sitting Bull by David Francis Barry, circa 1883.

Tied to both of those anniversaries, I’ve been doing research and thinking a lot about the unique, historic nature of policing in Indian Country. In general, cops have never been especially friendly to us — even when they are from our communities. They have always been in direct correspondence with and there to enforce rules made by American governmental officials and corporate institutions that we all face together, even today. In turn, those entities have frequently displayed genocidal intentions and undertaken endeavors, from the Wounded Knee Massacre and the murder of Sitting Bull to railroading pipelines through our sacred lands, meant to degrade or eliminate tribal nations (or, potentially, anyone demonstrating the will to defend American lands and waters).

In our last message to you, my father thanked U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Pueblo of Laguna) for her service over the past four years. Let it not be lost on anyone the importance of a Native woman occupying that seat, because for many years, her department was (and sometimes still is) a great nemesis to our communities.

And that brings us back to Sitting Bull. In 1890, the Indian agent James McLaughlin, overseen by the U.S. military and the Secretary of the Interior, ordered him taken into custody. As 43 policemen and volunteers arrived that sad morning at the chief’s house and announced his arrest, a crowd of community members gathered at the commotion and began to protest. 150 Lakota arrived to protect him, and his son then led a group who attempted to free Sitting Bull from police custody.

Bureau of Indian Affairs police lieutenant Henry Bullhead and police sergeant Charles Shavehead, who bracketed Sitting Bull to prevent his escape, were shot. Mortally wounded, Bullhead then murdered Sitting Bull, shooting him in the ribs. Indian agent Red Tomahawk, who’d been behind Sitting Bull, then assumed command of the police. The ensuing fight resulted in the deaths of six police and eight Lakota protectors. After Thatanka Iyotake’s assassination, his people fled to join Spotted Elk (the brother of Iron Eyes, from whom my family takes its name). Then the band fled toward Red Cloud and the Oglala at the Pine Ridge Agency — and soon thereafter came the massacre at Wounded Knee.

These events live on with us — not just, unfortunately, as histories. As an Oglala who lives on Pine Ridge, I have witnessed police abuse in the modern day. And I have heard direct testimony and firsthand accounts of abuse of power and undue violence by Indian police over the past few decades. One example, and this is something I plan to expand on for you in subsequent messages, was the Reign of Terror on Pine Ridge in the early 1970s, which ultimately laid the foundation for the American Indian Movement’s occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973.

There is much more to say about that, and there’s so much more we can do moving forward. I promise you’ll hear more from me again soon. In the meantime, please hold us close, as you would all your loved ones at this time of year. I’m so grateful to be able to share with you, and I know that, together, we can continue to make progress. We can and we must use the often harsh lessons of the past to understand the present and create a future we can be proud of for all human beings.

Wopila tanka — thank you for your friendship!
Tokata Iron Eyes
Spokesperson & Organizer
Lakota People’s Law Project
Sacred Defense Fund

Action for Leonard Peltier

December 18, 2024 / aztec8888 / Leave a comment

Take Action

Good Thinking: Return it All

December 17, 2024 / aztec8888 / Leave a comment

California land to be returned to Yurok Tribe

Rosie Clayburn is a descendant of the Yurok Tribe, which had its territory — called ‘O Rew in the Yurok language — ripped from them nearly two centuries ago.

“As the natural world became completely decimated, so did the Yurok people,” she said.

That decimation started when miners rushed in for gold, killing and displacing tens of thousands of Native Americans in California and ravaging the redwood trees for lumber.

1734393805389.png© Credit: CBSNews

“Everything was extracted that was marketable,” Clayburn said. “We’ve always had this really intricate relationship with the landscape. We’ve hunted, we’ve fished, we’ve gathered. And those are all management tools. Everything that we do has been in balance with the natural world.”

Now, generations later, 125 acres bordering Redwood National and State Parks will be handed back to the Yuroks.

The nonprofit Save the Redwoods League purchased the land in 2013 from an old timber mill, with the original goal of giving it to the National Park Service.

“As we continued conversations about the transfer of this land to the National Park Service, we began to realize that perhaps a better alternative would be to transfer the land back to the Yurok Tribe,” said Save the Redwoods League’s Paul Ringgold. “No one knows this land better. They’ve been stewarding this land since time and memorial”

Ringgold said that stewardship includes controlled burns to clear dead vegetation — a native practice once outlawed, but now recognized as essential in preventing catastrophic wildfires.

“Indigenous populations have been using fire as a management tool,” he said. “We’d like to see that kind of practice return.”

Redwoods serve as some of the largest stores of carbon on the planet. A single tree can capture up to 250 tons in its lifetime, the equivalent of removing nearly 200 cars from the road for an entire year.

But between logging and fires, 95% of California’s redwoods have been destroyed. Over the past decade, the Yurok have been helping restore the land.

Another forgotten jewel of the ecosystem is salmon. The fish were once so plentiful, they were eaten with most meals. The Yurok word for salmon even translates to “that which we eat.” But the salmon population has dwindled to about one-quarter of what it was 20 years ago, according to a coalition of state and federal agencies.

The tribe is working to bolster the fish’s population by building a stream channel, two connected ponds and about 20 acres of floodplain.

“You have salmon who provide for humans, but they also provide for other animals,” Clayburn said. “And then when they spawn and die, they put nutrients back in the ground. And so, everything just has this, this balance and this reciprocal way.”

That balance is returning. There’s been a rebound in the salmon population and the Yuroks also recently reintroduced the California condor — a scavenger that’s important to the ecosystem — back into the wild for the first time this century.

“It tells us that our land’s healing and that our people are gonna heal,” Clayburn said.

The Yuroks will take full control of ‘O Rew in 2026 and, in a first-of-its-kind partnership, receive help managing it from the Save the Redwoods League, California State Parks and The National Park Service.

“We understand some of the mistakes we made as a federal government, and it’s a chance to begin that healing with the native tribes all across the United States,” said National Park Service Director Chuck Sams.

For Sams, the first Native American to lead the agency, the partnership is personal.

“We’ve been writing our histories separately. There’s been the native history and then the American history. This is a chance when we’re doing co-stewardship and co-management to write history together,” he said.

Of the 431 parks managed by the National Park Service, 109 of them now have formal co-stewardship agreements with indigenous tribes, with 43 more on the way.

In addition to restoration work, plans for ‘O Rew include the creation of new trails, the construction of a traditional Yurok village and a state-of-the-art visitor center. The visitor center will display Yurok artifacts and highlight the tribe’s history and culture, with the goal of educating new visitors on the land’s history and significance from the perspective of those who have lived on it the longest.

“I really hope ‘O Rew symbolizes a coming home of the Yurok people and reconnecting with our landscape,” said Clayburn.

Action: Deadline Approaching for a Journalism Fellowship December 9th

December 4, 2024 / aztec8888 / Leave a comment

December 4, 2024

Deadline: Montana Free Press/ICT fellowship Applications are being accepted through Dec. 9, 2024, for a full-time, paid fellowship position with ICT and the Montana Free Press to cover Indigenous issues in the upcoming 2025 Montana legislative session. The internship will be based in Helena, Montana, and will run from January through May 2025. A salary and housing allowance will be provided. The Montana Free Press, Montana’s premier independent nonprofit news organization, in partnership with ICT (formerly Indian Country Today), has an immediate opening for an Indigenous Montana Legislative Fellowship in our Helena, Montana, newsroom. The paid fellowship is open to undergraduate or graduate college students and early career journalists who want to develop statehouse and political reporting skills in service of impactful community coverage. Knowledge of Indigenous communities, issues and policies will be considered a plus. The fellowship is an opportunity to deepen and broaden reporting skills while learning from and collaborating with experienced statehouse journalists and news industry professionals.

FIND DETAILS HERE [Eliza Wiley/Montana Free Press] Read the work of JoVonne Wagner, the 2023 fellow, from her time in Helena!

Email Dianna Hunt at dianna@ictnews.org for any questions. SUPPORT INDIGENOUS JOURNALISM Donate now To sponsor ICT, please contact Heather Donovan at (315) 447-6145 or hdonovan@ictnews.org

Take Action: Free Leonard Peltier

December 4, 2024 / aztec8888 / Leave a comment

ACTION ALERT: Calling all supporters of Leonard Peltier to sign this petition to urge President Joe Biden to grant Leonard Peltier executive clemency. #FreeLeonardPeltier

Background

“The fight has not ended for me” – Leonard Peltier

Leonard Peltier, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, is in his 50th year of imprisonment. Leonard is 80 years old and his health is rapidly declining. He stands as a symbol of the ongoing racism and oppression against Native Americans in the United States criminal justice system, issues that Leonard fought against in the 1970’s and throughout his incarceration.

On July 2nd, millions of people across Indian Country were devastated to learn that Leonard Peltier, an activist and member of the American Indian Movement, had been denied parole by the United States Parole Commission. The Commission issued the decision after a parole hearing on June 10th at the United States Penitentiary Coleman I in Florida, where Mr. Peltier is currently incarcerated.

“They denied parole to a survivor of genocidal Indian boarding schools as he struggles to survive this unjust incarceration, they insist on holding him for a crime for which they have no physical evidence against him. Clearly, the Parole Commission – which is supposed to be an independent body – was influenced by the FBI. The FBI continues to abuse its power, promote false narratives, and engage in counterintelligence activities. The FBI has no regard for the Constitution or the laws they have sworn an oath to protect.” – Nick Tilsen, President and CEO, NDN Collective

The FBI director at the time J. Edgar Hoover was waging a war against anyone he perceived as a threat. His violent and illegal tactics under COINTELPRO — the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program (1956 to 1971) — were a direct assault on the American Indian Movement, the Black Panther Party, and the Women’s Liberation Movement. “Hoover’s FBI did everything it could to consciously and deliberately derail the Civil Rights Movement,” said Stevie Van Zandt

While Leonard’s attorneys file an appeal of this decision, we call on President Joe Biden to grant executive clemency to #BringLeonardHome. President Biden promised to be a friend and ally of Indigenous Peoples.

Will Biden release the oldest living Indigenous political prisoner in American history, or will he simply allow Peltier to die in prison?

President Biden, you have the power to do what’s right we are demanding that you #FreeLeonardPeltier NOW via Executive Clemency. The whole world is watching.

Sign the petition today to let President Biden know we will not stop fighting for Leonard’s freedom. We are all not free until Leonard is free.

Truthsgiving

November 28, 2024 / aztec8888 / Leave a comment

Happy Truthsgiving to you and yours! If that term is new to you, I refer you here, to a “debate” I had with Sean Sherman, known as the Lakota Chef, last year at this time, published in The Nation Magazine. I put “debate” in quotes, because — truthfully — Sean and I agree on many things. For instance, we both talk about how traditional Thanksgiving mythology fails to recognize the steep price paid by our people after colonizers came to our shores, the land that was stolen from us, and the variety of indispensable foods contributed by Indigenous cultures now enjoyed around Thanksgiving tables.

In my section, I expand on those thoughts by suggesting a rebrand of this deeply problematic holiday. Some in my community have called it “Thankstaking,” highlighting the many unwilling sacrifices Indigenous peoples have made over the centuries. Personally, I prefer Truthsgiving — which, while keeping with the traditional holiday spirit of sharing and gratitude, also calls for a necessary truthtelling component. And as a reminder to you: I invite you to stay in a space of gratitude and openness next week, when you’re invited to RSVP and join us online for our fourth annual Wopila Gathering, beginning at 4 p.m. PST on Giving Tuesday, Dec. 3.

Lakota LawPeople engage in a National Day of Mourning ceremony in front of a statue of Chief Massasoit, leader of the Wampanoag tribe, in Plymouth, Mass. on Thanksgiving Day in 2021. (Bryan R. Smith / Getty Images)

Between Truthsgiving and our Wopila Gathering, on Friday the U.S. also celebrates Native American Heritage Day, at the conclusion of National Native American Heritage Month. I’m grateful that each November is designated as a time to celebrate the history, culture, and achievements of Turtle Island’s Indigenous nations. If you’re Native, I hope you’re able to take some extra time to commune with your relatives and acknowledge your ancestors this weekend. And if you’re non-Native, I hope you’ll make room to appreciate all we have given.

And then, everyone, please attend the Wopila Gathering on Giving Tuesday. This annual event provides an excellent opportunity for us to gather around an even larger table to share stories, priorities, music, and all we have to give to one another. It’s going to be a wonderful couple hours of togetherness, generosity, and joy, so I hope you’ll bookmark this page, RSVP, and Zoom in with us for the festivities!

Wopila tanka — thank you for hearing us, and I hope to see you on Tuesday.
Chase Iron Eyes
Director and Lead Counsel
Lakota People’s Law Project
Sacred Defense Fund

Lakota People’s Law Project

Lakota People’s Law Project
547 South 7th Street #149
Bismarck, ND 58504-5859

Wopila Gathering 2024 – December 3rd

November 22, 2024 / aztec8888 / Leave a comment

Today, I’m excited to announce that our fourth annual online Wopila Gathering is coming right up on Giving Tuesday, Dec. 3. It’s going to be a super incredible event this year — and you’re invited! Not only that, I hope you’ll extend the invitation to your friends for this special annual celebration of gratitude and Indigenous culture.

I’ll be hosting this year, and I urge you to come and spend some time online with me, Lakota Law leaders Darren Thompson and Chase and Tokata Iron Eyes, young leaders from the Native American Youth Organization (NAYO), and an incredible lineup of Indigenous performers and special guests. Please RSVP here, mark your calendar for Giving Tuesday, Dec. 3 from 4-6 p.m. PDT (7-9 p.m. EDT), then bookmark this page and return to it for the event in a couple weeks.

RSVP for Wopila Gathering

Watch: our short introductory video for more details on the big event — and RSVP to save the date!

I’m very much looking forward to seeing you at this yearly Giving Tuesday celebration, designed to share the spirit of wopila (deep gratitude), so we can honor, inspire, and activate as one in this movement for Indigenous and environmental justice. In addition to updates on our program priorities from Chase, Tokata, and NAYO, you’ll hear incredible music from talented Indigenous artists like Sage Bond and AntoineX and Miracle Spotted Bear of ALLSZN.

The Wopila Gathering is one of the highlights of our year at Lakota Law. Rather than simply ask for donations on Giving Tuesday like nonprofits across Turtle Island (though every donation is huge, and our allies at Nomadics Tipi Makers are generously matching the first $10,000 we receive this year), we want to use this day to give back to you and all our supporters.

We love to feel the energy when thousands of our friends gather with us throughout the day to share space, stories, and culture. So I encourage you to be there, take it in, and use the opportunity to interact with us! Join the chat during the event, and we’ll post and read comments over the course of the livestream.

Again, please RSVP to let us know you’re coming, extend the invite to those you love by clicking the social share icons on our Wopila Page, then join the celebration on that same page on Dec. 3. I very much look forward to seeing you there! It promises to be a memorable and inspiring day of conversation, music, and celebration.

Wopila tanka — thank you for being a part of our circle!
Henry “Ozuya” Crow
Director of Community Empowerment & Cultural Health
The Lakota People’s Law Project
Sacred Defense Fund

From a Different Perspective

November 5, 2024November 5, 2024 / aztec8888 / Leave a comment

This is a very informative video that puts our current situation into a historical perspective. Watch the video, research the information, and make plans to prepare to change what is happening.