Conversations on Native American Cultural Sovereignty
Getting them returned from an obscure museum outside Boston hasn’t been easy for the descendants of those slain during the 1890 massacre in South Dakota.
Source: Native Americans fight for items looted from bodies at Wounded Knee
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.
Source: 144 Years after the Battle of Little Bighorn, Lakota Values Endure
Kimberly Blaeser, author of Copper Yearning, and Wisconsin Poet Laureate 2015-16, writes that “Lydia Whirlwind Soldier’s Survival Songs opens and closes with echoes, reminding the reader of the whisper of ageless prairie grasses and all that is left in the wind. Filled with remembrances of family and with the voices of Lakota history, Whirlwind Soldier’s book becomes a strong heart song for survivors of boarding schools, federal mandates, the shadows of war, and ghosts everywhere. It weaves together an intimate knowledge of the landscape with traditional stories, showing through the craft of poetry their conjoined reality. She invites us into her homeland – an island of refuge in an alien world where eagles’ shrill cries still resound, sacred like Sundance whistles.”
Craig Howe (Lakota), who is the director of CAIRNS, writes, “Thank You, Lydia! Special thanks also to Charles Woodard, CAIRNS board member, for his careful and insightful editing of the book.”
Survival Songs is available on the CAIRNS website by clicking here.
From the New York Times
At Pine Ridge Reservation, Milo Yellow Hair is growing seedlings of hearty corn to plant in people’s yards. Milo Yellow Hair.
As the coronavirus limits access to food, many are relying on customs, like seed saving and canning, that helped their forebears survive hard times.
During American Indian Heritage Month, it is good to remember all of the excellent Native-run museums, archives, and galleries across the country that work hard to preserve cultural heritage and to educate the general public. The Heritage Center at the Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Reservation is a great example.
In October of this year, The Heritage Center announced the acquisition of new work by Bobby C Martin (Creek), an artist, curator, and educator from Oklahoma, the Lakota artist James Star Comes Out, Tasha Abourzek (Mandan/Hidatsa), and Aloysius Dreaming Bear (Lakota), of Pine Ridge.
For those who love Native art, discovering The Heritage Center is like discovering a hidden gem. Located in the rolling hills of the Pine Ridge Reservation on Red Cloud’s historic campus—more than 100 miles from any major urban center.
From The Heritage Center’s website:
The Heritage Center collection began with the purchase of three prize-winning pieces from the Red Cloud Indian Art Show in 1969, and has grown today to include nearly 10,000 pieces of the Native American contemporary and historical Lakota art (all recently catalogued thanks to generous funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services and the Bush Foundation). The collection includes paintings, textiles, traditional art, historical items, pottery and sculpture, as well as a library and historical archives.
The Heritage Center is one of the oldest such archives located on a U.S. reservation. It is a model of Native-centered cultural sovereignty, promoting contemporary Indian artists and crafts people, and providing a space for visitors to discover the connections between time-honored Lakota creative traditions and their 21st-century forms.
James Star Comes Out “Buffalo Doll,” Northern Plains Indian Art Market, 2015.
Directions: The Heritage Center is located on the campus of Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota.
The Heritage Center at Red Cloud Indian School 100 Mission Drive
Pine Ridge, South Dakota 57770
