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A kid of nine or ten came up to me and told me a joke: "I went to buy some camouflage clothing. But I couldn't find any." It took me a second or two, but finally I laughed. Here's another joke you may want to tell to absolutely no one: "Last week I bought some camouflage clothing, but nobody seemed to notice." All right, let's move on. Here are five of the most expensive clothes ever sold at auction. • In 2008, Queen Victoria's Bloomers sold for $9,000. According to the LA T...
• Seminole Palmetto Doll Artist • Folk Historian Judy Baker learned the craft of Seminole palmetto doll-making from her grandmother and mother, and began crafting the dolls herself when she was around ten years of age. "Palmetto dolls are made from fiber found in the middle of palmetto bark," she explains. "It's brown in color, stretches after being cut, and after it is dried, it can be fashioned into dolls. Palmetto grows in thickets, and is harvested with tools inc...
One of the things we have accepted today in our world is that we live in a pluralistic society. This is more noticeable in the larger cities where you see a multiple of people everywhere with different cultural backgrounds, different religious beliefs and who keep their own traditions. In a pluralistic society there is racism by the mainstream society towards a minority or marginalized people. Native people in the past, and even today, have been marginalized along with immigra...
Lumberton, N.C.-In June, the Native American Fellowship of the Assemblies of God recognized the Klaudt Indian Family for 100 years of ministry. The event happened at the Native American Fellowship Conference, which was held in Lumberton, North Carolina at PowerPoint Church. Melvin Klaudt one of the original members of the Klaudt Indian Family Singers received the certificate of appreciation. Back in the 1920s, Reverend Reinhold Klaudt married Lillian White Corn Little Soldier...
I've always been in love with the moon. I couldn't count the hours I've spent looking at the moon, it could be tens of thousands. I've watched the moon all my life. When I was a young girl and saw the New Moon, I would say, "New Moon, New Moon, pray tell me, who my own true love will be. The color of his hair, the clothes he will wear and the happy day he'll wed me." Before going to bed, I'd "dip" my pillow in the moonlight shining through the window so I would have sweet...
WASHINGTON, D.C.-Middle school students from three tribes in Oklahoma have been chosen to work with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on a program called the "Native Earth/Native Sky"(NENS) program. The objective is to build culturally-relevant earth-sky STEM programming for middle schoolers in three Oklahoma Native American nations that will increase the students' understanding of and interest in earth and space science, technology, engineering and math...
DENVER, Colo.-In early July, Colorado governor Jared Polis signed two bills that affect Native American young people and culture in Colorado. The first bill, the Native American tuition classification bill, ensures that Native American students from 46 tribes whose ancestors were relocated from their Colorado homelands by the U.S. government during the 1800s will receive in-state tuition to Colorado public colleges and universities next year. Colorado joins a growing list of...
WOLFVILLE, N.S.-As Leah Creaser, a student at Acadia University and member of the Acadia First Nation, sat in her biology classes, she ended up being bewildered. It wasn't the materials being taught that confused her, but the materials she felt were being left out. For instance, in her first-year lab about plant identification, she wondered why the professor didn't mention how those plants had been used by the Mi'kmaq for centuries. In class after class, the Indigenous...
One of our goals at Indian Life Ministries is to make you aware of ministries and organizations through which Indigenous Christians are reaching others. This issue, we're pleased to introduce you to Indian Bible College (www.indianbible.org), based in Flagstaff, Arizona, and the Director of Admissions, Daniel Esplin. Can you tell us a little bit about Indian Bible College? What is the history? What is the purpose? Indian Bible College exists to disciple and educate Indigenous...
When you read Beyond the Sixties Scoop by Deborah Ironstand you'll be taken on a journey of brokenness, healing, and resiliency. Deborah writes about childhood memories of living off the land with her mother, grandma, and grandpa in a traditional Anishinaabe and Ojibway household. Then came the foster care system. With her mother experiencing the Residential School System and Deborah being from what has been called the Sixties Scoop generation, life was hard. Although she had...
LAC DU FLAMBEAU, Wisc.-Bruce LaMere, a Ho-Chunk tribal member who lives in Tomahawk, has spent many years participating in motorcycle rides with a purpose, and also happens to be a skilled event organizer. In February 2021, the Wisconsin Indigenous Riders officially formed. After months of planning, a MMIW/MMIP Awareness ride throughout several Wisconsin tribal communities recently took place. The MMIW/MMIP Awareness Ride included Lakota, Stockbridge-Munsee, Menominee, Mole...
Praise the Lord, 0 my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. (Psalm 103:1, NIV) I was about five years old when I got sent on a bus to residential school. I don't remember much before that, and I don't remember much about the school either. I stayed at the residential school until it burned down when I was 13 or 14. That was the year I started drinking. When I got home from residential school, I was sent to a training school because I was a minor with a drinking...
I once heard a man wiser than me say that looking at someone's worldview is like looking at an iceberg. There is what you initially see on the surface of the water and then most of the iceberg is under water. The same is true with an Indigenous person's worldview. You see the behaviors on the surface of someone's life, but there are the reasons for these behaviors that the average person does not know about unless they understand that person's worldview, such as the unseen...
Question: When I was four years old I was left by my parents and put in a foster home. My foster family cared for my physical needs but they never loved me. I felt like I didn't belong anywhere. I've been drinking since I was 17, trying to fit in with others, but it doesn't work for long. My drinking buddies are only friends when I've got money. A few months ago someone at work started talking to me about God and inviting me to church. I would like to believe what he says but...
I'm saying good-bye to a Gospel Musician friend of mine today. We're singing a few songs at his wake and then the funeral is tomorrow. I'm really going to miss the guy! I'll remember him as one who lived his life victoriously! Attending a funeral brings to mind our own mortality-something that most of us try to avoid thinking about till the harsh reality of it slaps us in the face! Like the milk carton in your fridge, you and I have an expiry date. The biggest difference is...
I love life. Allow me to be more specific. I love to look around me and see the lush trees, bushes, leaves and plants, teeming with life. It amazes me to see the variety of places the 'life' grows from. Sometimes it is planted in rich dirt, and sometimes the roots are forced to push through rocky soil. Often times, when I see something growing where I can't imagine how it does, I need to stop and ponder. Lately, I have been reminded of a passage in Deuteronomy that says:...
Being thankful is a powerful emotion. It keeps our focus on that which is positive, and allows us to think about things that are lovely, admirable, pure and worthy of praise. But let's be honest, it seems to be a lot easier to focus on those things that are challenging and difficult. So, it takes intention, and a ton of practice. Someone once told me that faith is like a muscle. The more you work and train it, the easier it becomes to use. The same principle can be applied to...
WASHINGTON, D.C.-In late June, the federal appeals court confirmed that the Yakama Nation has been right all along about its treaty lands in Washington state. In a unanimous decision, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the 1.4-million acre Yakama Reservation includes a parcel known as Tract D, which was set aside by treaty more than 150 years ago. "The Ninth Circuit's decision is a resounding victory for the rights that our ancestors reserved in the Treaty of 1855,"...
COWESSESS, Sask.-In early July, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed a landmark agreement to return child welfare responsibilities to Cowessess First Nation, which he says is critical in reducing the number of Indigenous children in the foster care system. "Never again should kids be taken from their homes, families and communities," Trudeau said at the ceremony to commemorate the agreement. "Kids need to be kept by, protected by, supported by, and taught by their...
OTTAWA-RoseAnne Archibald has been chosen as the new national chief for the Assembly of First Nations. She is the first women and the first person from Ontario to hold the post. The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) is an assembly of First Nations chiefs, modelled on the United Nations General Assembly. The AFN was established in 1982, emerging from the dissolved Canadian National Indian Brotherhood of the late 70s. The goals of the organization are to protect and advance the...
OTTAWA-When Pope Francis first learned of the graves found at the sites of Canadian residential schools, he expressed sympathy and sorrow, but offered no plans to go further. However, Canadian and Indigenous outcry rose for at least an apology for the Catholic Church's role in the abuse and death of thousands of Indigenous children. In recent weeks, investigators using ground-penetrating radar found hundreds of unmarked graves at the sites of two residential schools for...
WASHINGTON, D.C.-In an important move to restore Tribal homelands, the Department of the Interior announced in late June the transfer of all lands comprising the National Bison Range (NBR), approximately 18,800.22 acres, to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to be held in trust for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) of the Flathead Reservation in Montana. The lands, which are within the boundaries of the reservation, were transferred to the Bureau from the...
WASHINGTON-Tribal police have the authority to detain non-Natives traveling through reservation land if the officer has a reasonable belief that the suspect violated state or federal law, the Supreme Court ruled in June. The unanimous ruling overturned lower courts that said a Crow police officer should not have held a nontribal member who was found to have drugs and weapons in his truck. The Supreme Court said that the lower courts' rulings would "make it difficult for...
OTTAWA-Inuk leader and former ambassador Mary Simon has been chosen as the next governor general. She is the first Indigenous person ever to be appointed to the role. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the Queen has accepted his recommendation to appoint Simon-a past president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national Inuit organization-as the 30th governor general. Simon is an Inuk from Kuujjuaq, a village in northeastern Quebec. Her mother was Inuk and her father was a w...
