Young Indigenous women are some of the most invisible and unrepresented people on Earth. That is one reason to read Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog, nowBrave Bird, with Richard Erdoes even though it was published in 1990. Another reason is that it won the American Book Award in 1991. Yet another reason is for the insight it provides into some of the tough issues young women on reservations continue to confront: violence, rape, alcoholism, drug abuse, racism, exploitation, poor education, grinding poverty. This is not a calm, quiet memoir of a certain time and place written by a woman looking back in nostalgia with some polite veneer of wisdom gained by mature hindsight. Lakota Woman offers the perspective of a very candid, blunt spoken, tough, and passionate young woman who makes no apologies for anything. This is a woman who now knows who she is, where she came from, and why. Part of her story includes giving birth to her first child during the siege at Wounded Knee in 1973 after refusing to leave in spite of the increasing danger. While Lakota Woman does not offer any in-depth analysis of the American Indian Movement, the Trail of Broken Treaties or the Native American Church, it does offer a no punches pulled, first person female perspective based on direct experiences with all of them– a young Lakota female perspective seldom encountered in the mainstream American culture.
I am a iyeska, a breed, that’s what the white kids used to call me. When I grew bigger they stopped calling me that, because it would get them a bloody nose. I am a small woman, not much over five feet tall, but I can hold my own in a fight, and in a free-for-all with honkies I can become rather ornery and do real damage. I have white blood in me. Often I have wished to be able to purge it out of me. As a young girl I used to look at myself in the mirror, trying to find a clue as to who and what I was. My face is very Indian, and so are my eyes and my hair, but my skin is very light. Always I waited for the summer, for the prairie sun, the Badlands sun, to tan me and make me into a real skin. (p.9)
Such are the words of Mary Brave Bird of the Brule Tribe from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Consider the memoirs current teenaged women of Rosebud, Pine Ridge, Standing Rock and the Cheyenne River Reservations might share–if anyone dared put them into print. Lakota Woman might offend some, might make some very uncomfortable, and distress others. It certainly won’t bore anyone. It definitely offers a great deal to think about regarding women, culture, family, history, spirituality, politics, and values.
Maze of Injustice, the failure to protect Indigenous Women from sexual violence in the USA, PDF file of Amnesty International http://www.amnestyusa.org/pdfs/MazeOfInjustice.pdf Perhaps this report offers one explanation for the legistative difficulties faced by the VAWA. Why would non-Native men want to start allowing arrest and prosecution of the non-Native men who rape Indigenous women on reservations? No rocket science required.
The letter following my comments is from the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary pages on Facebook. Please help spread the news. I think they could use some major support. They’re fighting uranium mining. This post is my tiny effort to raise awareness. Thanks to Earth Tribe for its support.
Powertech Exposed –and the difficulty of commenting via a malfunctioning website: http://www.powertechexposed.com/ The uranium mining industry is not playing “fair”–because they know their mining is not wanted in the Black Hills -or anywhere else where the population is informed about the dangers of uranium mining and the environmental dangers it produces. Clearly some people learned nothing from the Fukushima disaster.
Please consider the dangers and consequences of the Dewey-Burdock project – From the desk of IRAM Program Director, Susan Watt
From the desk of IRAM Program Director, Susan Watt
January 1, 2013
Please, I would ask all of you to read and understand what is going on in the arena of the Uranium Mining.
This proposed project affects all of us. Please support our efforts by joining us and the community on Thursday Night, January 10, 2013 at the American Legion in Hot Springs, So Dakota for a Community Meeting at 6:30 pm.
- SW
# # #
REPOST – December 30, 2012
Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules, Announcements and Directives Branch
Division of Administrative Services
Office of Administration, Mailstop TWB-05-B01M
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, D.C. 20555-0001
Docket NRC-2012-0277, the proposed Dewey-Burdock project, comments on the SEIS
Dear Ms. Bladey,
Twenty five years ago I founded the Institute of Range and American Mustang (IRAM) a 501 c 3 non-profit corporation. IRAM’s Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary is home to more than 600 wild horses on 13,000 acres of private range in South Dakota.
On this location one can find; 60 million year old remains from the Pleistocene era of plants and animals, Ancient Petroglyphs that date back hundreds of years, Native American Ceremonial Sites, Historic Pioneer homesteads, and hundreds of native species of plants and animals. IRAM is supported by the thousands of visitors that come to South Dakota each year to see the natural history of the local area. Besides a Wild Horse Sanctuary the historic significance of this region brings people and scientists from all over the world.
For hundreds of years, the Cheyenne River that runs through the Sanctuary was the first source of water for the wildlife that lived on the grassy prairies. Ancient man and the dinosaurs of the past traveled this waterway. Native Americans hunted the buffalo and then held their sacred ceremonies on this land.
Along with IRAM’s Board of Directors, I am greatly concerned over the proposed Powertech Dewey-Burdock project that is located within twenty miles of the Sanctuary. We feel that the SEIS was issued before all the relevant information was available.
The Cultural and Historic impact that will result from this proposed project have not been considered properly. The relevant information is still not available. The SEIS should not have been issued until a thorough study of the cultural and historical sites on the proposed project area was completed.
The SEIS “dilutes” impacts by saying that the impacts are “small” because only part of the project area is involved. The impacts are large to the affected areas, and that is what should be considered. The Cheyenne River and its water shed are within a few miles from the proposed mining area. Our house wells and livestock wells all share the same aquifer that is to be used to inject the waste water from the project.
The SEIS only includes the impacts of a 100-year flood, and some facilities are allowed within the 100-year flood boundaries. A 500-year flood should be considered. No facilities should be allowed within the 100-year flood boundaries. Vigorous, overland and stream flooding is common in the Black Hills.
The SEIS says that impacts are “small” in a number of instances because Powertech Uranium has said it will do certain things if problems develop. The SEIS should not consider only the “best case” impacts, but should consider impacts if the problems found at other ISL projects develop. The public and the environment should be protected from worst case impacts.
Besides over 600 wild horses, IRAM also has a herd of Red Angus Cattle and over 100 domestic horses, chickens, turkeys, and peacocks. We are greatly concerned over the potential exposure to radiation for all of these animals.
The SEIS lists a number of things that Powertech should do before it starts its operation, such as air dispersion modeling, livestock radiation sampling, pump testing, creating well field operational plans, and setting up emergency procedures for truck accidents. These activities should be completed before a SEIS is issued, so that the public can have full information on which to base its comments, and so that the NRC can have full information on which to base its ratings of various impacts.
Due to the high desert environment, this area is very susceptible to lightning strikes and wild fires. This summer alone there were months of fires in the local area of the proposed mining.
The environmental impacts of wildfires, which are common in the immediate area of the proposed project, should be considered, including potential impacts if a fire strikes mining, pipelines, overhead power lines, and processing buildings.
The SEIS does not acknowledge environmental justice, cultural, and historical concerns that include Lakota treaty rights to the proposed project area and the fact that a number of Native American tribes consider the Black Hills to be sacred.
Bald eagles, sage-grouse, whooping cranes, and black-footed ferrets are all threatened or endangered wildlife species that could be negatively impacted by the proposed project. Wildlife is simply expected to disperse and go elsewhere. This creates undue hardship on sensitive species.
All ponds, including radium settling ponds, and areas where wastewater is applied to the land are threats to wildlife, particularly birds.
Public hearings should be held after full information is available on the proposed project. Hearings held elsewhere during the writing of the NRC’s Generic Environmental Impact Statement are not adequate to this specific project.
Because the state no longer has regulatory authority over ISL mining, the federal government’s plans for monitoring the project should be clearly explained in detail, so that the public can determine whether monitoring will be adequate.
All data provided by Powertech Uranium should be independently verified. It is not in the public interest to have the proposed project’s benefits and problems judged based almost entirely on data provided by the company seeking a permit.
The applicant has never mined uranium. They do not have anything close to the resources necessary to create a mine. The inexperience of the company and its lack of funding are important variables in the company’s ability to manage the environmental aspects of the proposed project and should be discussed in the SEIS.
The SEIS indicates that 30% of the water treated through the reverse osmosis process will become waste. The impacts of the removal of this water from local aquifers should be discussed much more clearly.
All of the above facts about the Dewey Burdock project and the SEIS clearly affect the Institute of Range and American Mustang Programs and Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary. The Uranium Mining would endanger the wildlife, the mustangs, the water supplies, the land and all the people that are on the land.
This matter of allowing Uranium Mining and using the water from an already delicate ecosystem must be considered and analyzed from all dangers and risks. Science tells us what a situation is but it is up to the humans involved to make the decisions. Once this area is exposed the Uranium Mining there is no turning back the clock to undo the mistakes.
Our policy at IRAM is that man is the caregiver of the Earth and all of its beings and no one has the right to contaminate or pollute the environment. There are no second chances at life if the water, land, wildlife, people and history of an area are destroyed by Corporate Greed.
There is something very great at stake here in the Black Hills of South Dakota and we ask you please to consider the dangers and consequences of the Dewey-Burdock project of what it can and might to do to the very water we drink and the land we live on.
Sometimes in life the risk is just not worth taking. Please help us keep our land and water safe.
Lovely how one thing leads to another and another and then again another–and they’re all connected back and forth along the spider’s steel webs. Being the curious cat that I am watching one video on the Wild Horse Channel just wasn’t enough. Had to ear sniff more of them. O those Spanish mustang are so engaging! Well, eventually my ears caught wind of Michael Bucher’s music video on the channel. That discovery led to more cyberswamp exploration to Bucher’s website http://www.michaelbucher.com/ where there’s more for your ears’ feasting. O and if you tweet there’s a free music download. Yep, there is. So today my flow has gone from Facebook to Horses to Film to Music and it all traverses sacred ground in some form. I was going to save this post for another day until I viewed the “You’re Not Alone” video and considered some of the content. Figure it’s best to not save it for another day. There’s music and videos on Bucher’s website and links to “You Are Not Alone” for suicide prevention connections. Everything needed for connecting is provided http://www.michaelbucher.com/links .
Bucher’s connections include history, sacred sites, Indian graves, suicide, healing and –got the drift? Pay it forward.
Idle No More was formed by Nina Wilson, Sylvia McAdam, Jessica Gordon and Sheelah McLean to oppose C-45 and other Canadian legislation (in violation of treaties) that will adversely affect the environment and Indigenous people.
Mission Statement”
Idle No More calls on all people to join in a revolution which honors and fulfills Indigenous sovereignty which protects the land and water. Colonization continues through attacks to Indigenous rights and damage to the land and water. We must repair these violations, live the spirit and intent of the treaty relationship, work towards justice in action, and protect Mother Earth. On December 10th, Indigenous people and allies stood in solidarity across Canada to assert Indigenous sovereignty and begin the work towards sustainable, renewable development. All people will be affected by the continued damage to the land and water and we welcome Indigenous and non-Indigenous allies to join in creating healthy sustainable communities. We encourage youth to become engaged in this movement as you are the leaders of our future. There have always been individuals and groups who have been working towards these goals – Idle No More seeks to create solidarity and further support these goals. We recognize that there may be backlash, and encourage people to stay strong and united in spirit.
Hi folks. What’s your weather doing today? Yes, I really want to know. If you’re inclined please drop a link to your weather conditions in the comments. If you’re living on a nice clean beach near clean water then color me green with envy. As for mine, it’s thinking about stretching to a chilly 29 degrees C.
While doing this post the temperature at Pine Ridge, South Dakota is 21 degrees, C. A little nippy to be outdoors without a hat or coat (more about coats coming up). If you share a stocking cap consider yourself well thanked.
Definition: A close-fitting knitted cap.
Yeah, these things.
One Spirit could use a few of these for the Future Generations Riders.
If you’re sick and tired of all the climate change denial spin, thank you Koch Bros et al, Bolivia’s statement at the climate talks offers issues to think about–such as accountability and responsibility on the part of those who have created the problems. When considering the current state of all things climate and environment related keep in mind this recent Truthout op/ed article by Dr. Brian Moench, “Schizophrenics, Psychopaths Holding America Hostage.”
I’m not surprised at the notion that America’s business leaders and politicians have certain unsavory elements in their midst who “lead” the charge into denial. If you’re unsure where to take a stand on climate change consider this–If all the scientists who support the reality of climate change are wrong then all will be honky dory forever for the doubters. But if all the scientists are correct regarding the reality of climate change and we do nothing–well then, “Good bye, Homo Sapiens, you’ve made your toxic mess now die in it.”
And,
To the tune of, “How about those _______ (insert NFL team of your choice)? How about those Tar Sands Blockaders in Texas plugging those pipes with their bodies? $65,000 bail for them. Wow, someone takes pipeline protestors very seriously.”
Now onto today’s blogcasa main feature:
With much appreciation to Frederico Fuentes who maintains Bolivia Rising — in English– for posting this statement.
Bolivia’s address to UN climate talks: Our climate is not for sale
The following statement was made Wednesday by Jose Antonia Zamora Gutierrez, Minister of Environment and Water for the Plurinational State of Bolivia, at the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP18). DOHA, Qatar — Mr. President of the COP, distinguished Heads of State of countries of the world, Ministers, Officials, delegates and representatives of social organizations, indigenous peoples and communities and farmers of the world, receive a greeting from the Plurinational State of Bolivia and our President Evo Morales Ayma.
The planet and humanity are in serious danger of extinction. The forests are in danger, biodiversity is in danger, the rivers and the oceans are in danger, the earth is in danger. This beautiful human community inhabiting our Mother Earth is in danger due to the climate crisis.
The causes of the climate crisis are directly related to the accumulation and concentration of wealth in few countries and in small social groups, excessive and wasteful mass consumption, under the belief that having more is living better, polluting production and disposable goods to enrich wealth increasing the ecological footprint, as well as the excessive and unsustainable use of renewable and non-renewable natural resources at a high environmental cost for extractive activities for production.
A wasteful, consumerist, exclusionary, greedy civilization generating wealth in some hands and poverty everywhere, has produced pollution and climate crisis. We did not come here to negotiate climate. We did not come here to turn the climate into a business, or to protect businesses of them who want to continue aggravating the climate crisis, destroying Mother Earth. We have come with concrete solutions. The climate is not for sale, ladies and gentlemen. Mr. President, the withdrawal of some developed countries of the Kyoto protocol and avoiding of their commitments is an attack on the Mother Earth and to life. The problem of climate crisis will not be solved with political declarations, but with specific commitments.
We will not pay the climate debt of developed countries to developing countries. They, developed countries, must fulfill their responsibility. While some developed countries do their best to avoid their commitments to solve the climate crisis, developing countries are making greater efforts to reduce emissions, and paying the price of a climate crisis and that everyday leaves droughts, floods, hurricanes, typhoons, etc.
The climate crisis leaves us poorer, deprives us of food, destroys our economy, creates insecurity, and creates migration. Climate change will make the poor poorer. Poor and developing countries have a great challenge: the eradication of poverty. And we’ll have to face a climate crisis for which we are not guilty.
In addition to adapting to climate change we must ensure security, education, health, energy for the population, provision of water and sanitation services, delivery communication and infrastructure services, job creation, provision of housing, reconstruction due to loss and damage caused by extreme weather events, adaptation actions, among others.
Mr. President, We denounce to the whole world the pressure from some countries
for the approval of new carbon market mechanisms, although these have shown to
be ineffective in the fight against climate change, and that only represent
business opportunities. This is a climate change conference, not a conference
for carbon business. We did not come here to do business with the death of
Mother Earth betting on the power of markets as a solution. We are here to
protect our Mother Earth, we came here to protect the future of
humanity.
Yesterday forests were turned into carbon markets businesses,
and the same was done with the land, they tried to oceans and, worse, to
agriculture. Agriculture is food security, employment, life, and culture.
Agriculture is along with the land, mountains and forests, the house and the
food of our indigenous and peasant communities.
We will not allow the
replacement of the obligations of developed countries with carbon markets. The
planet is not for sale, nor our life.
It is essential that developed
countries take the lead with mitigation actions with concrete results and high
ambitions and that developing countries do their part within their respective
capabilities, and according to financial and technological transfers, solving
problems of poverty.
Mr. President, In Bolivia we have the vision of
Living Well as a new approach for civilization and cultural alternative to
capitalism, and in this context we focus our efforts to create a balance and
harmony between society and nature.
Bolivia, presented here concrete
proposals to strengthen the global climate system. We have proposed the creation
of the Joint Mechanism for Mitigation and Adaptation for integrated and
sustainable management of forests, not based on markets, to strengthen
community, indigenous and peasant management of our forests, which can promote
climate mitigation actions without transferring the responsibilities of
developed countries to developing countries.
Also, we promote
consistently the creation of an international mechanism to address loss and
damage resulting from natural causes and impacts of climate change in developing
countries. Our country will not promote carbon market mechanisms such as REDD,
and will respect and strengthen community management of forests.
Mr. President, We will not allow the people of the world to pay the bill for the irresponsibility and greed. It’s time to give concrete answers to humanity and Mother Earth. Let’s be careful of the intentions of some developed parties to make us feel resigned in front of this terrible reality, and admit the inertia and inaction of those countries that are historically responsible of global warming, sending us a message that is better to have a “pragmatic” attitude, which of course will condemn to cook planet and the extinction of the humanity.
Mr. President, brothers and sisters of the world, take these words as a commitment to life and Mother Earth. With this conviction we will be guided to meet the challenge we have in this conference, the challenge of saving the planet, and not to negotiate our climate. Thank you Mr. President.
Mr. President, brothers and sisters of the world, take these words as a commitment to life and Mother Earth. With this conviction we will be guided to meet the challenge we have in this conference, the challenge of saving the planet, and not to negotiate our climate. Thank you Mr. President.
Detect a “theme” developing here in my blogcasa in regard to December 10, 2012? What were you expecting– Maya Calendar World Ends fear mongering? Hmm, maybe the world — as we know it– will undergo an important change. Is it possible some Big Oil CEOs will decide to clean up their toxic messes around the globe? Could all military conflicts suddenly come to standstill? Maybe a fracking operation will send an underground fault line into motion that will divide a continent? Perhaps China will end its occupation of Tibet? A natural disaster could strike the Tar Sands operation in Canada? Monsanto will give up its quest for world domination via the food supply? I suspect blue and pink piggies will sprout wings and fly first. Then again, something seems to be in the air lately . . . . It’s possible to save the Awa’ people and their forest. All that’s required is the will to do so.
Violating copyright births bad karma---imagine a mad hacker you'll never see coming--nor catch going. Respect = my work is my work and your work is your work.
Everything posted here is my work, copyrighted, unless otherwise noted. Comments aside. Om
Streaming Online
For Kili 90.1 fm, Pine Ridge, SD, click the image below for The Voice of the Lakota Nation.
Kili 90.1 fm The voice of the Lakota Nation
Native America Calling ~ Native Voice
Native America Calling on Native Voice
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Pantry Goods
Cemetery Hill, Wounded Knee, Mugged by a Squirrel for a plum, Ed's driving, Art for Art's Sake, painting nudes, Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, KKFI, Crazy Horse, Reading, Marry, Critical Path, Political Missionary, White Wolves, teaser (1), We Shall Remain Shallow, Winter Fox Frank, Wes Studi, The Only Good Indian, Spotted Elk, naked woman centered, devotees (Crazy Horse), Blue Heron, Critical Path, An Adaptable Woman, and other plums ripening and Tanka Bars.
Young Indigenous women are some of the most invisible and unrepresented people on Earth. That is one reason to read Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog, nowBrave Bird, with Richard Erdoes even though it was published in 1990. Another reason is that it won the American Book Award in 1991. Yet another reason is for the insight it provides into some of the tough issues young women on reservations continue to confront: violence, rape, alcoholism, drug abuse, racism, exploitation, poor education, grinding poverty. This is not a calm, quiet memoir of a certain time and place written by a woman looking back in nostalgia with some polite veneer of wisdom gained by mature hindsight. Lakota Woman offers the perspective of a very candid, blunt spoken, tough, and passionate young woman who makes no apologies for anything. This is a woman who now knows who she is, where she came from, and why. Part of her story includes giving birth to her first child during the siege at Wounded Knee in 1973 after refusing to leave in spite of the increasing danger. While Lakota Woman does not offer any in-depth analysis of the American Indian Movement, the Trail of Broken Treaties or the Native American Church, it does offer a no punches pulled, first person female perspective based on direct experiences with all of them– a young Lakota female perspective seldom encountered in the mainstream American culture.
om mani padme hum jewel in the lotus wahupa qi prana universal life energy
