2016-12-01
It Can Only Be Described as Evil
I rarely use the word evil. It’s a word best left to the Christian fanatics to pepper their fire and brimstone speeches with. Still, what we’ve all witnessed in person, as well as on social media video shared from Standing Rock, can only be described as evil. The Indigenous people of Turtle Island were not supposed to survive. The evil […]
Our Coaches Deserve Better
When writing about community news it gets very difficult to not be affected by the stories we are sometimes forced to cover. For me the one constant that has prevented me from getting burnt out is the opportunity to cover high school basketball during the winter months. Although the coming of the basketball season does not always signal a change […]
The New America – Ignoring People, Ignoring Issues
There’s a certain irony – and sense of vindication – to seeing karma in action. Case in point: plans by the VA Black Hills Health Care System’s administrators to relocate services from their Hot Springs medical facility to Rapid City versus plans by a Texas billionaire to construct the Dakota Access Pipeline across the Missouri River just north of the […]
Sacred Hoop Okh’olakichiye (Society)
Hau Kh’ola (Hello friend), toh niktuka hwo (how are you)? Le Anpetu kin (Today is) Anpetu Th’okahe (Monday). Waniyetu Wi (Moon of Winter – November) Wikchemna Nunpa ahke Shaglog’an (28th), Kh’oktopawing’e Nunpa sam Ahke Shakpe (2, 016). Th’ankal mashteshte (Outside it is sunny), eyaish (but) Th’ate osni yelo (is a cold wind). Yupiyakel (Nicely) Wopila-eyapi (Thanksgiving) unkpaptab (is beyond us) […]
Potato Creek and the Wablenica Crisis
The common definition of an orphan is a child whose parents, both mother and father are dead. A less common use of the word is when one parent dies. In our Lakota culture, where many times I have heard reference to the most pitiable children, and the word used is always wablenica. Today, when a parent stops caring for that […]
Water protectors at Standing Rock
As a fan of President Barack Obama, I am at a loss to even guess why he or anyone in his Administration are not speaking out against the outrages being committed against the people who within their Constitutional rights are demonstrating against the Dakota Access Pipeline that is being trenched across North Dakota, engorging pristine prairie lands, traditional homelands of […]
CAIRNS ETANHAN WOTANIN
This week we’d like to share some thoughts about a spelling convention that CAIRNS employs in all of its undertakings. This convention is to pluralize the names of American Indian nations. This contrasts with the typical usage of the collective singular when referring to American Indians. Take for instance this sentence that could appear in almost any text: “The Lakota […]
The Elders “Request”
In the respectful ways of the Sioux culture, when an elder requests you to do something, you do it. This editorial is from a request by elders from both Standing Rock and Pine Ridge Reservations regarding the camp at Cannonball. This camp started as a spiritual camp whose purpose was to pray for good water for the people. The next […]
