Compromise to Live

Oceti Sakowin 

Chief Big Foot (Spotted Elk), with his wife White Hawk in1872. Big Foot was born in the northern Great Plains. He traveled to Washington, D.C., as a tribal delegate. One of the first to raise a corn crop on the Cheyenne River.

As I look closely at this photograph thoughts come to me.
Most of the compromise was made by the Native people in our relationships with the whites. Evidence, this is, in the short narrative above. Two accomplishments Chief Big Foot made important to whites of the time were the warrior planting corn and converting in any form to Christianity. Were these strikes against a culture? Yes and no they were not. They were strategies that kept The People alive and relevant as much as history, the times and the will to live as the People allowed us to live. To say the white man kept us alive is not true. Our negotiation and our capacity for war and intelligent intercourse kept us alive. . . - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4.6.16





Corn

Oceti Sakowin