On June 25 and 26, 1876, warriors of the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho nations defeated Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer and the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Americans have always remembered the battle. What we often forget are the difficult decisions tribal leaders made afterward to ensure the safety of their people. The values that guided them then—generosity, perseverance, bravery, and wisdom—continue to serve the Lakota people today.
Ms. Archambault is a Hunkpapa and Oglala Lakota woman and former special assistant to the president for Native American affairs under President Barack Obama.
from The New York Times
The average age of Lakota and Dakota speakers is 70. We are running out of time to save them.
While events in Indian Country sometimes make the front page of major newspapers and online news outlets, many important items remain buried in the back pages or distributed only on specialized web sites. Here are just some of things that happened over the summer in the lives of indigenous people in the Western Hemisphere:
Tribal canoes converge on Tacoma for songs, stories and renewal of culture
The News Tribune of Tacoma, WA reports that the Puyallup Tribe of Indians welcomed some 120 canoes from a variety of tribal nations to the Salish Sea this July as part of the Tribal Canoe Journey event that takes place every year, featuring an itinerary that begins in the Puget Sound and ends at the Strait of Georgia in British Columbia.
Canoes from more than 108 tribes and nations make their way through Commencement Bay.
Since 1989, when only 20 boats participated, the event has grown steadily, representing the many tribes’ contributions to the region. This year canoe from as far away as Alaska made the trip to Tacoma. The theme of this year’s journey, “Honoring our Medicine,” was chosen to underscore the tribal communities’ efforts to heal both their own nations and the environment that share with non-Native peoples in the coastal Northwest.
“After more than two years of legal uncertainty, the U.S Department of the Interior on Friday found that it could not keep land in trust for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe “
TV Show ‘Anaana’s Tent’ Teaches Kids Inuktitut Language And Inuit Culture
“We did some research and thought maybe we could use it as a positive tool to help us strengthen language, knowledge and cultural identity.”
Amadeo García García fishing near Intuto. The Peruvian Amazon was once a vast linguistic repository, but in the last century at least 37 languages have disappeared in Peru alone. Credit Ben C. Solomon/The New York Times
The Taushiro tribe vanished into the jungles of the Amazon basin in Peru generations ago. Amadeo García García is now the last native speaker of their language.
