Father dreaming...

Father, the protective force . . .

When I see our children dancing something inside of me moves, as I remember how blessed we are today because at one point it was forbidden to dance or make ceremonies in public. We dance and pray to bring the people together and to uplift our spirits and honor those who walked before us in the dream of the living, we will dance forever on this land we call our mother. It's in our blood. - Gianni Crow (April 9, 2017)   

Boy dancing for the People.

"When I was a kid my grandfather asked me this; if you can be anybody today who would you be? A superhero I replayed. He smiled and said, let your superpower always be kindness than." ~ Gianni Crow  

Cooking on old stone

When I was a child I use to wake up to the smell of coffee my grandmother use to make in the adobe kitchen, she was seating by the fire cooking corn tortillas...the fire would dance under the pan made of clay, the wood would crackled as she would sing her songs. She use to tell me: "grandson foods are the medicine for our bodies so it should always be treated with respect for all things are sacred." -Gianni Crow

Look at an NDN life.

Once on display at National Museum of the American Indian in New York, “For a Love of His People: The Photography of Horace Poolaw” will go on display this November at Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. The retrospective exhibition features works by photographer Horace Poolaw (Kiowa, 1906–1984), whose black-and-white images document Native people of rural Oklahoma with affection while providing insight into the values and community life of his time....

Poolaw photographed his friends and family and events important to them—weddings, funerals, parades, fishing, driving cars, going on dates, going to war, playing baseball. For more: http://nmai.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/item/?id=953 

Gus Palmer (Kiowa, at left), side gunner, and Horace Poolaw (Kiowa), aerial photographer, in front of a B-17 Flying Fortress. MacDill Field, Tampa, Florida, ca. 1944. (45UFL14) © 2014 Estate of Horace Poolaw

OUR Chiefs



Chief Plenty Coups, of the Absaroka People said these words . . .

Chief Spotted Crow of Pine Ridge, S.D. With his five months old granddaughter, Lena Lou White House, who was named by Vice President Curtis a few days before, 1929. Chief Spotted Crow was the intercessor of the Sun Dance in Pine Ridge of 1928.

 

A Creature Feared & Forgotten



Underwater Panther drawing when it was still on the bluff...

Underwater Panther

 This ancient animal being lived in the Great Lakes area and was encountered by the Oceti Sakowin and Ojibwe, it is just one of the historical beings our people knew along with the giants, giant snakes, giant turtles, giant bears, Bigfoot, stick people, dwarve people-little people, water monsters, and Star People just to name a few.

Known to the Ojibwe as the Mishibizhiw, or underwater panther, a creature of the underworld who lives in creeks and rivers, waiting to drown unsuspecting victims. According to a Sioux tale, the Mishibizhiw is covered in red hair. “Its body was shaped like that of a buffalo. It had one eye and in the middle of its forehead was one horn. Its backbone was just like a cross-cut saw; it was flat and notched like a saw or cogwheel.” Because of the creature’s characteristic dorsal fins and deadly, spiked tail, some have speculated that the Mishibizhiw is none other than the prehistoric stegosaurus.

 

An Ojibwe tale of an underwater panther reports that the creature lived on an island of mud in a lake that separated two tribal villages. The villagers usually avoided the island because of an evil spirit, but on one festival occasion, two girls crossing the lake came across the underwater panther. The creature flicked its tail at the boat as if to overturn it, so the girl took a swipe at it with an oar. The oar cut a piece right off the panther’s tail, which remained in the boat as a solid hunk of copper and brought them good luck in fishing and hunting for the rest of their lives.

If someone were to kill one or capture a part of it, they would attain great power and vitality as they were strong medicine; that's if they weren't eaten first!

Oceti Sakowin

On this subject, Khaŋǧí Thatéiyumni said, In Lakota/Dakota it's called "unktehi". The opposite if Wakinyan. They don't represent good and bad because we don't have that concept, but they represent order vs chaos. Lightning kills people but water drowns people. Wakinyan bring power and unktehi brings power and brought us the Wacipi Wakan ceremony. At one time more respected than Sundance, but put away in the early 1900s. "

Janna Flautt went further adding, "I was just doing some research on this two days ago. I grew up on the Mississippi River and there are many stories about these creatures there. This is a craving found in the Mississippi. We also have what is called the Piasa Bird. It is a painting now on a piece of metal It used to be painted on the bluffs themselves. I helped repaint it when I was young. They lost the rites to the spot on the bluffs where it was, to a barge line co. There are many theories about it. It is very interesting, if you go a chance, look it up..."

Underwater Panther drawing found in the Mississippi area.

 

TRIBUTE to my People

Crow Man 1883 

"It is hard to gauge where one fits if they are a visitor to Turtle Island. Most see the United States, and dismiss the spirit that formed the land, lives in the land and is the spirit of the land. Thousands of years of ceremonies, families, war, relationship, prayers, and rituals connecting body to spirit, spirit to the Great Spirit, animal people to the two-leggeds and the circles that we came from and taught from and relied upon to see the future, and understand the present preceded the visitors who came, saw and took. 

It is a helluva a thing to live with: being invisible in one's own country, but it is the Americans who cannot see us, and when they do are fond of the cliches that render us invisible or insignificant. 

Like every one of the four colors we belong together, and have a lot to contribute and have given many gifts to the worlds of people. We named ourselves it is thought, the People. It is what our tribal names often mean, but in truth we were named by the spirits that still live upon and with Turtle Island. . ." ~ Gregory E. Woods, (Alowan Chanteh Inyan Wichasha) 2.25.14  

Crow Children 1910 

Our Native Concern for our Collective Good!

Crow bate' known as Finds Them And Kills Them aka Jim 1928

Creek man circa 1868 

"It may be time, but do enough have the nerve to make that stand against all forms of evil, first within themselves, second around them and lastly on a global level?" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.26.14




"This problem was created as "we" moved from being ruled by nature, to being ruled by laws/government. How do you go back?" - Shawn Oxley

 Now that's some bullshit! 

"We stand to learn a lot from the Native Americans. It's time we ask and listen to their wisdom." 

- Hollie Jones 2.22.14 

You are correct, Hollie Jones. But, there is a deep concern many of us Native folks have. Osama bin Laden in an pre-9/11 interview said, "The President does not have the heart to hear words..." 

You take out the word, President, replace it with white Americans, and reflect upon the collective consciousness of Europeans and Euro-Americans throughout their histories, and something very clear and evident arises to the surface. It is other relative's job to point these things out to our white relatives, but receiving the truths, the self-truths has not been the best attribute of our white brethren. Up until this day all ceremonial work, circles of reconciliation, and diplomacy stalls at the point the late Osama bin Laden pointed out. Americans didn't listen to him, or the ramblings and legitimate complaints and concerns Arabs had about their relationship with the United States, and the affect of Western civilization upon their world, and look what had to happen on September 11, 2001!

Listening, like prayer, is related to talk. Talk, reaction and intimidating action are the strong points of the Americans. Listening requires vulnerability, and vulnerability is a strength masked under the skirts, and a primal element of the breath of women. Vulnerability is etched into the fabric of women's makeup, but it is culturally loathed by American men and women. As one people we are not. As one people united and truthful to ourselves and each other we are not. We, as Americans, have more fear than anything else and our actions are reactions to the revelation of our truths, and our truths are dealt with through war! That alone disqualifies us from creating long lasting and peaceful solutions! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.25.14

Crow & Hunkpapa dancers at Crow Agency, Montana 1886