The man who became a national celebrity with the name "Chief Joseph"
was born in the Wallowa Valley
in what is now northeastern Oregon in 1840. He was given the name Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt,
or Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain, but was widely known as Joseph,
or Joseph the Younger, because his father had taken the Christian name
Joseph when he was baptized at the Lapwai
mission by Henry Spalding in 1838.

Joseph the Elder was one of the first Nez Percé converts to Christianity and an active supporter of the tribe’s longstanding peace with whites. In 1855 he even helped Washington’s territorial governor set up a Nez Percé reservation that stretched from Oregon into Idaho. But in 1863, following a gold rush into Nez Percé territory, the federal government took back almost six million acres of this land, restricting the Nez Percé to a reservation in Idaho that was only one tenth its prior size. Feeling himself betrayed, Joseph the Elder denounced the United States, destroyed his American flag and his Bible, and refused to move his band from the Wallowa Valley or sign the treaty that would make the new reservation boundaries official.

When his father died in 1871, Joseph was elected to succeed him. He inherited
not only a name but a situation made increasingly volatile as white settlers
continued to arrive in the Wallowa Valley. Joseph staunchly resisted all
efforts to force his band onto the small Idaho reservation, and in 1873
a federal order to remove white settlers and let his people remain in
the Wallowa Valley made it appear that he might be successful. But the
federal government soon reversed itself, and in 1877
General Oliver Otis Howard threatened
a cavalry attack to force Joseph’s band and other hold-outs onto the reservation.
Believing military resistance futile, Joseph reluctantly led his people
toward Idaho.

Unfortunately, they never got there. About twenty young Nez Percé warriors, enraged at the loss of their homeland, staged a raid on nearby settlements and killed several whites. Immediately, the army began to pursue Joseph’s band and the others who had not moved onto the reservation. Although he had opposed war, Joseph cast his lot with the war leaders.

What followed was one of the most brilliant military retreats
in American history. Even the unsympathetic General
William Tecumseh Sherman could not help but be impressed with the
1,400 mile march, stating that "the Indians throughout displayed
a courage and skill that elicited universal praise… [they] fought with
almost scientific skill, using advance and rear guards, skirmish lines,
and field fortifications." In over three months, the band of about
700, fewer than 200 of whom were warriors, fought 2,000 U.S. soldiers
and Indian auxiliaries in four major battles and numerous skirmishes.

Read the Rest

Remember, the struggle for the liberation of our people is not a fight that takes place in the native lands of other tribes on the other side of the world. It is right here in our own indigenous lands. Warriors, come home. We need you here. US Imperialism began with forts in Indian Country.

Means explains how American Indians have been enslaved within de facto prisoner of war camps as a result of the federal government’s restriction of their food supply and the application of colonial tactics, a process that has now also been inflicted on the United States as a whole which has turned into, “one huge Indian reservation,” according to Means.

Means warns that Americans have lost the ability of critical though, and with each successive generation become more irresponsible and as a consequence less free, disregarding a near-perfect document, the Constitution, which was derived from Indian law. Means chronicles the loss of freedom from the 1840′s onwards, which marked the birth of the corporation, to Lincoln’s declaration of martial law, to the latter part of the 19th century and into the 20th when Congress “started giving banks the right to rule,” and private banking interests began printing the money.

Hat tip to Occupy Secession

If you look at the top 20 tweeted stories from 2011, a dark picture is painted for NDN country. Most news stories were dominated by reports of the result of 519 years of Colonization: hate crimes, police brutality, racist stereotypes, the horrors of the residential schools, reservation poverty, domestic abuse, struggles to save sacred sites, sexual oppression, struggles to save sacred sites, culturally insensitive and paternalistic media and the homicidal results of New Age frauds. But there’s another way of looking at it. 2011 was a year of resistance for NDN Country – a year of standing up to fight for the preservation of a way of life, world view and sacred spaced threated by greed and ignorance.

2011 was also a year of making connections in cyber space. Twitter was instrumental in getting the word out about what’s happening in Turtle Island and several new indigenous bloggers came on the scene to offer insight and analysis from their unique perspectives. Some of the most insightful bloggers this year were:

Censored News
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Unsettling America: Decolonization in Theory and Practice http://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com

American Indian Alaskan Native: Attack the System
http://aianattackthesystem.wordpress.com

American Indians in Children’s Literature (AICL)
http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/

Native Appropriations by Adrienne K. (Cherokee)
http://nativeappropriations.blogspot.com

My Culture is Not a Trend
http://mycultureisnotatrend.tumblr.com/

Top 20 Tweeted News Stories in NDN Country in 2011

1.) Geronimo EKIA controversy http://is.gd/CoOrSr

2.) James Arthur Ray convicted of negligent homicide in Arizona http://is.gd/QJ1J7w and http://is.gd/5nFlfC

3.) Klee Benally chains himself to heavy machinery to Save the San Francisco Peaks http://is.gd/e2ieTe

4.) Protest to preserve Glen Cove / Segora Te http://protectglencove.org

5.) The Cobell Settlement http://is.gd/S0PAb9

6.) MTV the Dudesons and racism on the Findians show http://is.gd/DcnMSm

7.) Racist bake sale http://is.gd/p9WiPK

8.) Canadian residential schools inquiries and apologies http://is.gd/eYgYGJ

9.) The Dateline report on poverty on the Pine Ridge reservation http://is.gd/bS1kG1

10.)Longest Walk III to fight diabetes among Native Americans http://is.gd/fROs9Q

11.)Leonard Peltier, political prisoner ignored by president Obama http://is.gd/qCqOVL

12.)Movement to rescind the Wounded Knee medals of dishonor http://is.gd/ppQCkL

13.)Native American protest of the XL pipeline in Washington DC http://is.gd/9m9sMU

14.)John T. Williams, deaf American Indian wood carver murdered by a police officer http://is.gd/vCN9YK

15.) Kiesha Crowther exposed as a fraud, AIM West protest in Palm Springs, CA http://is.gd/N7Bz5m http://is.gd/lSpvE6

16.)Hate crimes against Native Americans in the Southwest http://is.gd/OvxfVu

17.)(Un)Occupy / Decolonize Wall street movement http://is.gd/Wh4dub

18.)Aboriginal poverty on Canadian reserves – Donations sought for Attawapiskat http://is.gd/WOFrb4 and http://is.gd/88woEr

19.)Missing and murdered women in Canada, Aboriginal feminism, fighting domestic abuse and abolishing prostitution http://www.missingjustice.ca

20.)Protest against racist Halloween costumes http://is.gd/Y6bzOf and http://is.gd/Bh3sVq

Indigenous Tweeters on Twitter:

AboriginalPress AboriginalNewsGroup http://www.twitter.com/AboriginalPress

beadb8bybead Carrie http://www.twitter.com/beadb8bybead

BJTuininga http://www.twitter.com BJTuininga
burnssweetgrass Maria Myers http://www.twitter.com/burnssweetgrass

Cuckfuster Jim B http://www.twitter.com Cuckfuster
CreativeCrip TheCreativeCrip http://www.twitter.com CreativeCrip

debreese Debbie Reese http://www.twitter.com/debreese

DecolonizeWS Mary L Adams http://www.twitter.com/DecolonizeWS

gr8tefulred Doug Self http://www.twitter.com/gr8tefulred

Elohi_Unitsi Earth Mother http://www.twitter.com/Elohi_Unitsi

fancyshawl48917 Lucy Alvarez http://www.twitter.com/fancyshawl48917

Greenthoughtbox Theresa Marinez http://www.twitter.com/Greenthoughtbox

greyhoundgerry Gervasio Morales http://www.twitter.com/greyhoundgerry

IAMNotAMascot Simon Moya-Smith http://www.twitter.com/IAmNotAMascot

indigenousissue Peter N. Jones http://www.twitter.com

IsumaTV IsumaTV http://www.twitter.com/IsumaTV

joanie399 joan rodriguez http://www.twitter.com/joanie399

JarridSmith Jarrid Smith http://www.twitter.com/JarridSmith

loveandfriction Helen Kuveke http://www.twitter.com/loveandfriction

jpmontano JohnPaul Montano http://www.twitter.com/jpmontano

mediaINDIGENA MEDIA INDIGENA http://www.twitter.com/mediaINDIGENA

Megawitch Lynda Kitchikeesic http://www.twitter.com/Megawitch

militantoutside John Claw http://www.twitter.com/militantoutside

NATIVObserver http://www.twitter.com/NATIVObserver

mz_chief mz chief http://www.twitter.com/ mz_chief

ndeertrack Vincent Rinehart http://www.twitter.com/ndeertrack

nikkealexis Diné Bikeyah http://www.twitter.com/nikkealexis

Nishwilguno1 Terrance H BoothSr http://www.twitter.com/Nishwilguno1

OccupyIthaca Occupy Ithaca http://www.twitter.com/OccupyIthaca

Ojibray Raymond http://www.twitter.com/Ojibray

Okie Bowl (MKG) http://www.twitter.com/okiebowl

realndntm C T Harper http://www.twitter.com/realndntm

realtucsonn8tiv Maya G http://www.twitter.com/realtucsonn8tiv

redroadcollect Marie Aqiiaqwak http://www.twitter.com/redroadcollect

robohontas Robohontas http://www.twitter.com/robohontas

smartassNDN J Skenadore http://www.twitter.com/smartassNDN

squashblossomgr Irene A http://www.twitter.com/squashblossomgr

swskeptic Rose Garcia http://www.twitter.com/swskeptic

TheAngryindian Abiyomi Kofi http://www.twitter.com/TheAngryindian

tommy_hawk Tommy Hawk http://www.twitter.com/tommy_hawk

UBCIC UBCIC Union of British Columbian Indigenous Chiefs http://www.twitter.com/UBCIC

waytooindian Tom http://www.twitter.com/waytooindian

werhumanbeings Rachel in Owosso, Michigan http://www.twitter.com/werhumanbeings

WillowsHowl Jacelyn http://www.twitter.com/WillowsHowl

slow_ro RPS http://www.twitter.com/slow_ro

UpliftingWoman Sherry Dion http://www.twitter.com/UpliftingWoman

Read the rest at Don’t Pay to Pray

Most tribes integrate some form of cultural education into the lives of their children. In my tribe, the Tlingit, we have summer culture camps across our nation. I am also half Taos Pueblo Indian. Taos has its own, rigorous cultural education that entails children taking time off from school to learn who they are, and where they come from. These are important lessons for our children to learn. It grounds us and gives our people cohesion. It gives our lives meaning and richness that can’t be found elsewhere.

Below are some examples of language nests that represent informal get-togethers to formal classes.

Tiwahe (Family) Nesting

We are working toward a time when Dakota families and communities again have intergenerational fluency – can sing, talk and laugh together in Dakota. A time when they are healthy and sustainable, grounded in Dakota culture and history, and connected to each other through tiospaye (kinship).

One of the components of language learning is to integrate language and life ways revitalization into the family. This method is about healing families – language being a vehicle for renewing of kinship and life ways. Families committed to language and life-long learning are supported through language and family gatherings, a nurturing and safe environment for language learning, and a neutral circle, not defined by tribal or political boundaries but one defined by kinship. Our ancestors tell us that to be a good Dakota is to be a good relative. Dakota Wicohan believes that the renewing of family is key to healing our communities. Mitakuye Owasin – We are all related.

Looking For a Nanny: Working on the Tlingit Language

“There’s not a lot of Native speakers out there to talk with. So I’m saying to the Native speakers right now: you need to be willing to take people into your life. This Master-Apprentice program sets aside a little bit of time, but really the most successful way to do it is to live together. I know that sounds weird. But sometimes you need to adopt someone into your family, and wake up with them and talk with them and argue about politics with them. Just do everything together, all the time. It’s hard. I know you. I know so many of you, you’re kinda elderly, you’re feeling tired. But, if you care, if you really want to, then take somebody young that’s really eager, and live with them. Live with them. And live in the language with them. That’s the best way to learn.”

Government death squads in training. Remember, it was a government death squad that executed Fred Hampton in his bed. Fred Hampton was a black nationalist and rebel leader. Remember that it was the FBI that attacked and dismantled AIM. Remember that these are the thugs holding together the empire.

A convenience store in the town I grew up in getting robbed by over 50 teenagers marks one of several flash mob incidents that have taken place in East Coast cities ranging from Philadelphia to Washington, DC. The incidents have sparked several legal measures taken against gatherings of large groups youth in these cities, both from the local government and private merchants.

Very few people have spoken in support of the flash mobs, and it’s hard to argue against the reasons if you’re sympathetic with the employees or business owners dealing with mischevious teens. Not to mention that they probably cause a nuisance for bystanders. The targeted areas of the flash mobs range from simple convenience stores like I mentioned earlier to more gentrified areas like Dupont Circle in the DC area. Several people on the libertarian right are predictably writing off the kids as dead-end losers:

It goes without saying that there are just bad kids out there too. The kinds of kids that grow up to be criminals or asking if you’d like to upsize your Wendy’s value meal. Basic evolution tells you that some people just aren’t going to reach that next rung on life’s ladder. Of course this is not to suggest that we should just stand back and watch these kids ruin their lives but we should stop trying to have “conversations” and find “solutions” when these acts are really the fault of a few things: lack of personal responsibility, terrible parenting and basic Darwinism.

Ouch. Rebels, even ones without causes, are automatically useless? Even the morally rigid Nation of Islam recognizes the recruitment potential of convicts. I always scratched my head at libertarians being so quick to associate petty criminals as “the enemies.” After all, several of America’s most important rebels began behind bars or doing petty crimes. Malcolm X was serving a sentence for robbery before he converted to the NOI and began speaking out against the effects of colonialism. Several members of the Black Panther Party were street vagrants before being recruited to the cause for Black liberation. The fact is, especially for such a political movement that cries ‘anti-state’ like libertarianism or anarchism, radicals need to recruit from the State’s most oppressed victims which includes the criminal class.  Otherwise, which demographics of the population will wish to end the State besides those who just happen to read alot of Libertarian literature?

The Uhuru Movement has quickly realized the potential that exist in these kinds of flash mobs:

These large groups of African youth are actually rising up, coming together to show their unity and resistance against a city [Philadelphia] that attacks African people.

Reports state these defiant youths are organized primarily through cell phone text messaging, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. One message sent travels through thousands of cell phones—resulting in thousands of African youth converging on a central location in the city.

Wow. How does anyone read this passage and not think to themselves the tools that the use are using are identical to the ones utilized in contemporary revolutionary movement ranging from the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street? I do. It’s clear as day that these kids are waging open source warfare to get what they want. Sure, it’s nothing close to a valiant cause for “freedom” but it’s a successful tactic nonetheless.

Regardless of whether or not one sees any kind of positives within the flash mobs, it’s hard to argue with the Uhuru Movement’s claim that these East Coast’s cities’ funds don’t favor the city’s indigenous population:

Starting this fall, the District will have $1.25 million to offer new or existing retail businesses that are “small and unique” along H Street. A grant application, currently in development, will be available in September… Retail shops are eligible, excluding liquor stores, restaurants, bars, barbershops, hair salons and phone stores.

Similar public-private relationships exist throughout the country in countless urban cities to bring about the urban liberal utopia against the economic progress of the city’s indigenous population.  It’s not a surprise, though. We all want the perfect urban landscape of diverse stores with peaceful residents. Yet, the reality in America is that the city is the site of some of the most disastrous policies that have created scarcity of capital. Redlining, blockbusting, zoning laws, licensing fees, expressways, etc. have all pushed the increases of black/grey markets in marginalized Black communities. This means a push for gaining capital through means that have low capital investment and high profits. Drugs, DVD piracy, prostitution, burglary, and when the realization that a higher number of participants can yield a better possibility, flash mob store robbery.

By all means, necessary actions need to be taken to defend one’s property or means of providing for themselves. However, those serious about organizing urban insurrection should pay attention to the tactics, not the misguided ideology of fast money, of youth engaging in criminal activity.

Reposted from The Daily Attack

In 1887 Congress mounted a multi-pronged attack on Indigenous life through Senator Henry Dawes’s General Allotment Act. First, the law mandated the largest American property transfer in history. In less than half a century Indigenous Americans lost two thirds of what they still owned — 90,000,000 acres of land. Almost a hundred million people became landless peasants in the home of their ancestors. Though some plots passed to eager white homesteaders the largest gainers were railroad builders and unscrupulous speculators.

How Not to Celebrate an Anniversary
From the Declaration of Independence to the NDAA
by WILLIAM LOREN KATZ at Counter Punch

As 2011 ended the U.S. Senate voted 92 to 6 for the McCain-Levin amendments [S 1867] to the National Defense Authorization Act, and President Obama signed it. In the name of fighting terrorism, an astounding majority of Democratic and Republican leaders granted unlimited authority to the President [and future Presidents] and the Army to arrest anyone, citizen or foreigner, here or abroad, and imprison them in Poland, Pennsylvania, or Guantanamo or anywhere else — indefinitely. 92 of our Senators agreed the detained could be denied access to attorneys and loved ones, and “enhanced interrogation” rather than legal procedures would determine if they are guilty of terrorist plots. True, some rigid Constitutionalists and Libertarians from Senator Rand Paul on the right to the ACLU on the left have condemned S 1867 as a threat to our core beliefs and democratic system. But S 1867 swept through with the President’s signature on the 135th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence.

Actually celebrating our founding document while undermining of its principles also marked the Declaration’s Centennial year of 1876. That year what might be called a federal-state task force that included a majority of members of Congress and the Supreme Court, and the President chose to override the Declaration’s bold assertion of liberty, the Constitution’s “more perfect Union” and Abraham Lincoln’s “new birth of freedom.” They did so to serve an unholy alliance of northern railroad builders and land speculators, unrepentant former slaveholders and assorted white supremacists — and their obedient lobbyists and media. What followed was a severe and simultaneous assault on the basic rights of Native Americans and African Americans that sent the country careening in a new direction.

It all began in late June 1876 as Americans prepared a massive coast to coast July Fourth celebration. But as the bunting went up, bands rehearsed and corks began to pop, shocking news came from the Little Big Horn.

2000 Lakota and Cheyenne commanded by Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Rain In the Face surrounded a dashing, brilliant and somewhat arrogant George Armstrong Custer and the 226 men in his Seventh Cavalry. Not one Bluecoat survived.

Custer was not on a peaceful mission but seeking to open the Black Hills to white gold prospectors, teach the Indians a lesson, and make a media splash during the summer’s Presidential nominating conventions. If logic had ruled government officials would have exploded in anger at Custer. On his own he choose to ignore the U.S. Treaty of
1868 stating “no white person or persons shall be permitted” to “enter” the Black Hills. He knew the Lakota loudly proclaimed this was their sacred ground. He was aware that President Grant publicly pledged, “it is secured to the Indians.” And he chose to ignore Sitting Bull’s flat warning, “If the whites try . . . I will fight.”

Read the rest at Counter Punch