The Native Blog

Dear Jack

Hello! My tribe just bought some land in Illinois

We sure could have used your lobbying

To get us a casino

 Just sixty miles from Chicago!

My tribe would have gave you a few million

They wouldn’t have cared if you called them names!

Hell, down in Kansas they call us

   ‘prairie niggers' anyway

So your names would not have hurt us!

‘cos we sure could have used your lobbying

To get us a casino

 Just sixty miles from Chicago!

My Two Brothers & I

They say the boarding schools did a job on us.

I guess they did:

They separated us…from our families!

 our culture and our language!

They beat the language out of us!

They washed our mouths out with soap

 every time we tried to use it!

There was a disconnect that followed…

There was a path of alcoholism

And generations of native people

 that didn’t know how to be parents!

My two brothers and I helped break that vicious cycle

 for one generation anyway!

Our sons and daughters grew up with the same parents

 we were always there for our children!

When my people have namings,

 dances, and deaths:

My two brothers speak Potawatomi for those ceremonies!

I don’t speak Potawatomi

 but two out of three ain’t bad!

Blood Struggle

I have been reading "Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations" by Charles F. Wilkinson. I got to page 293 and came across this passage when he was writing about the Navajo tribal courts and how the Navajo use a process call the peacemaker court to mediate disputes. This is a summary of "The Case of the Troubled War Veteran":

   "A man told a Navajo Nation peacemaker that since he returned from Vietnam he had been troubled. He couldn't sleep, he drank too much, and he had problems dealing with his family.

   The peacemaker knew of the special Navajo ceremony used for those who return from war to clease them of the evil they have experienced.

   Navajos believe that war is evil and that what warriors see during the war can affect their spirit. Today, we call it post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The ceremony exorcises the evil.

   The peacemaker told the man he should have the ceremony done, and he replied, "I couldn't afford one when I got back from Vietnam, and besides, I don't really believe in that traditional stuff." But he had the ceremony done anyway.

   The peacemaker followed up on the case, asking the man how he felt. He explained that he didn't know why, but the ceremony had worked. He could now sleep through the night without waking with bad dreams. He felt at peace.

   Navajos have traditional wisdom about what to do with returning warriors. They know the evil effects of war, and PTSD is considered a "monster" in the Navajo way of thinking. To the Navajos, it isn't a disorder--it's a evil that must be slain or weakened in ceremonies."

A Rose...

A rose placed at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in D.C. on father's day.

   

Native Angel

My sweet native angel, tells me of Ojibwe creation stories, and about the language class she is going to up north, as we go down that four-lane highway, under dark clouds, on up to the Hinckley powwow...

O my sweet native angel. I always want you close. I always want to hold you and whisper in your ear 'I will always love you!"

We pull off that highway that cuts through Indian Country, I go past the Casino, on down the road to the Powwow grounds. My sweet native angel and I are hungry for some native food. After we get our food we sit down next to a lady from the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe rez in Wisconsin, and we start up a conversation about beadwork, while eating Indian Tacos. That lady said she was looking for beadwork and a roach for her son!

I said my brother Eddie has been making roaches for over thirty years now and gave her my business card and said his website is on my homepage. I also said if she wanted a copy of my book, I'd send her one for free. Then my sweet native angel said her friend Lisa made the best beadwork and showed her a beaded cellphone case with floral designs on it that Lisa had made recently!

I guess you really do make new friends at powwows!

The dark clouds opened up, the rain begun to fall. My sweet native angel and I went to the casino to seek refuge. And at the end of the night my sweet native angel bailed me out of my gambling losses. O yeah!

O my sweet native angel. I always want you close. I always want to hold you and whisper in your ear "I will always love you!"

Hinckley PowWow

The Annual Grand Celebration Contest PowWow will be June 16th-18th in Hinckley, Minnesota which is an hour north of the Twin Cities. I am going to check out the powwow this Saturday with my wife, we are going to make a day out of it, watch the dances, check out the stands, check out the people walking by!

Maybe I will go to the casino to cool off and throw away twenty bucks. A few years ago there was one powwow we went to in Hinckley, I could not believe how hot it was then and how they could dance out there when it was so hot. It is suppose to be hot again tomorrow.

So the PowWow season begins for us!

About the Film "Trudell-The Movie"

I ordered Trudell-The Movie last week. It came in the mail yesterday, so I had a private screening of the film. The wife and I were the first ones on our block to watch the film on DVD. The movie was worth every penny I shelled out for it!

John Trudell is an outstanding native poet who deserves all the success he can get from his films and CDs. The film covers his life from his rez days in Nebraska, to his going into the Navy and serving two tours of duty in Vietnam, to his involvement in the American Indian Movement (in the over 17,000 pages the government has on him, there is a FBI memo that states "He is extremely eloquent...therefore extremely dangerous") the film covers the death of his five family members in Nevada and how he then put his poetry to music to cope with his loss.

The film ends with Kris Kristofferson singing an outstanding song he wrote about John Trudell. The song is called "Johnny Lobo" and the lyrics to the song are below.

                                Johnny Lobo

Once upon a dusty reservation...Somewhere in the land of Sitting Bull... Johnny Lobo played with fire and dreamed of open spaces...Locked inside a heaven gone to hell...All the dreams were gone but not forgetten...Murdered like the holy buffalo...But Johnny Lobo knew the rules and grew into a warrior...fighting for his people and his soul

Chorus: Oh.....Johnny Lobo/Oh......Oh Johnny Lobo

Loaded down with lessons that he carried...Home from Viet Nam to Wounded Knee...Johnny Lobo burned a flag he knew had been dishonored...Paid the price for thinking he was free...Someone set his house on fire, burned it to the ground...With his wife and children locked inside...Later when the bitter tears were falling to the ashes...Something good in Johnny Lobo died

Chorus: Oh...Johnny Lobo/Oh......Johnny Lobo

In a darkened corner of a tavern...Burning down old memories again...Johnny Lobo stares into the smoke and dreams of clouds...Running like wild horses with the wind...Holy Phoenix rising from the ashes...Into the circle of the sun...Johnny Lobo's warrior heart was burnished in the embers...And the battle's just begun.

Chorus: Oh.....Johnny Lobo/Oh......Johnny Lobo

From Native Blogs & Websites

Red Lake Nation starts Internet Radio Station

KC Native Community Native Troops Overseas

Native Woman eliminated on Canada's next Top Model

World Cup

World Cup Kicks off, And So Too Do The Blogs  Awhile back my friend in Germany sent me a World Cup T-shirt. It was an extra large shirt. I put it on and looked like Baby Huey! I am afraid...I may have to start going down to the Big and Tall store from now on or go on that Oprah diet! 

Fanfest in Stuttgart Slideshow of Stuttgart

Tim Ramirez: The '06 Honored Veteran

Tim Ramirez is the 2006 Prairie Band Potawatomi Honored Veteran. He will be honored at today's Powwow. Congratulations Timmy and Welcome Home!

'06 Prairie Band Potawatomi Powwow Video

Tim is on the right in the picture below.