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Do you remember the well-known song He Touched Me written by Bill Gaither? I will quote the words to the chorus and explain how these words, when combined with the Word of God, will help you as you go on a journey of healing your heart and soul. He touched me, Oh He touched me, And oh the joy that floods my soul! Something happened and now I know, He touched me and made me whole. We all have had painful experiences in our lives, no matter who we are or where we are from, or...
There is no earthly treasure, human accomplishment, or enthralling romance that can compare with the joy of walking with our Creator. No money can buy His presence or His friendship. No cultural or religious tradition can compare with His truth and authority. He is, after all, the Creator of the universe. I finally finished my book, Walking with the Creator Along the Narrow Road (available through Indian Life). I worked on it for 20 years. I started out writing some...
Taking Advantage of Popular Farm Stands Dear Friends (Nidobak), This summer has been very lush and beautiful as a growing season, all the trees even seem taller and fuller. Farm stands are growing in popularity which means people are a bit wiser about eating local grown nutrition instead of a lot of processed additive-added store-bought food. With garden produce at its height about now, I hope you have tons of beans, tomatoes and squash to prepare for yourselves, family and...
Sue Carlisle says she doesn’t know a single person whose life is perfect. And she’s right. She says we all “have had heartaches of one sort or another—painful physical or environmental circumstances, hurtful actions from other people or regrets over their own choices.” Perhaps like Sue, you’ve sifted through broken dreams and shattered trust trying to find something solid on which to stand. Maybe you’ve struggled to find your footing, but kept slipping on fear, anger, confusion, and shame. Just as God was there for Sue, He i...
It seems like all Native America wanted to talk about this summer was “The Lone Ranger” and whether it honored or offended Native Americans. I’ve read articles from Native people on both sides, so I’ll let my words be few on this topic. Frankly, I expected it to be worse. It makes some honest, if clumsy and possibly misguided, attempts to honor Native peoples. Its greatest sin is that it relegates Native Americans to the past. Tonto appears to be the last living Indian,...
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA—Young people in an Aboriginal village in Australia have developed their own language, The New York Times reports. Warlpiri rampaku includes features of Walpiri, an indigenous language, English and Kriol, a language based on English that’s used by different groups of Aboriginal people. But linguists say the young people in the village of Lajamanu created their own words and grammar that make Warlpiri rampaku an entirely new language. “These young people have developed something entirely new,” linguis...
OGLALA, SD—Students at Oglala Lakota College in South Dakota are learning about solar energy. It started with a spark—an interest in green energy. This glimmer of curiosity led Lyle Wilson, an instructor at Oglala Lakota College in South Dakota and U.S. Army veteran, to start researching renewable energy technologies such as solar, wind and geothermal. Now sparked by Lyle’s interest, members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation are finding new possi...
WASHINGTON, DC—The winners of the Holland & Knight Charitable Foundation’s 2013 Young Native Writers Essay contest have been announced. They include five Native Americans from Montana, Texas, California and North Carolina. Their tribal affiliations are Blackfeet Nation, Choctaw Nation, the Round Valley Indian Tribe, Chickasaw Nation and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The contest is open to high school students from all tribal communities throughout the U.S. This con...
Summer time is a time for adventure. Vacations, trips, visiting family, and reading. Some of our best times of reading are when we are on holidays. I discovered this to be true when my family and I spent a few days in the Cypress Hills of southwestern Saskatchewan in August. The Cypress Hills are sacred to North America’s Indigenous Peoples. Sacred because it was on this ground that innocent blood was shed in what has become known as the “Cypress Hills Massacre.” So what better way to spend several hours than to read some Nat...
I’m not a prophet. Or the son of one. But once I allowed someone to think I was. Well, allow me to explain... Ad-seg (the Hole), by law, must give each inmate the opportunity to go outside for exercise. However, in order to do this and yet keep security in place, the yard is no more than a basketball court-sized concrete slab, with 20 zoo-like cages. Four rows of five cages form the solution to the legal requirement. The staff calls them dog runs. Each cage is perfectly s...
This summer was the best I had I got to go fishin’ with our Dad. Dad put the worm on my hook I didn’t like that so I just never looked. Fished by the lake, side by side Then we went for a long boat ride. Sat by the fire late at night Big yellow moon was shining bright Looked up at the sky, tried counting the stars, Saw the Big Dipper maybe Mars! Sang camping songs, what a fun week! Even watched lightning bugs, play hide and seek. Little sis never made any fuss at all In her sl...
It is early in the morning but already Bright Sun feels hot. I look up at the vast prairie sky. “Thank You, Creator,” I say as Summer Wind blows cool, refreshing air on my neck. I help Mama water the thirsty vegetables in our garden. I wish I could see Summer Wind but it is invisible so I smile knowing it is there. After my chores and breakfast, Mama packs me a lunch, and I ride my bike to my friend’s house. Everything is quiet along our country road. Summer Wind gives me a...
I am a Native American and a prisoner for Jesus. I want to encourage fellow inmates and families of inmates. I’ve been a prisoner for Jesus for years, preaching and teaching the Good News of Jesus, His precious grace to inmates, guards, and all who will listen. I am bold, fearless, and all about my Father’s business. I know who I am in Jesus. I’ve been persecuted, denied, hated, and bruised. But it doesn’t matter because its only for a moment and soon I will return back to my...
My Tribal Prayer Journey started in the Spring of 2009 after my Dakota nephew Seth Cloud Chief Eagle passed way from huffing “computer dust-off spray”. This led me to visit and gift every tribe in Arizona, bringing gifts for elders and asking their permission to offer prayers about the curses of Drug Abuse, Alcoholism and Suicide. Then I offered prayers of blessing and healing on the land and peoples. On the first weekend of this Arizona Tribal Prayer Journey, I was led to...
Each one of us has positive and negative factors that shape our lives—age, gender, health, appearance, personality, families, national cultures, religious backgrounds, finances, and education, to name a few. Each of us functions within these. The Creator of the universe wants us to use these temporary variables; yet, He invites us to live beyond them. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to know Jesus. For decades, I knew that the Bible was true and that Jesus was the So...
The office of the chief medical officer reports that during the 10-year period between 2003 and 2012, the office of the chief medical officer has recorded 154 deaths by suicide among children and youth between the ages of 12 and 17. Not that there weren’t even younger children—and older youths—who tried and succeeded. In 2011, when 10 kids who died by suicide—the lowest number in that decade-long period—another 11 youths, aged 18 and 19, also died by suicide. The medical e...
RIVERSIDE, CA (ANS) In a coordinated operation, the FBI rescued more than 100 teen sex trafficking victims—one victim was just 9 years old. The majority were girls between 13 and 17. The raids, which included the arrest of 150 pimps point to the growing trade in human sex trafficking in the United States. The raids took place in 70 cities around the U.S. It is the largest recovery operation of sexually exploited children. But according to one expert, this is just the tip of the iceberg. According to Kathi Macias, the a...
A Cherokee from South Carolina, Michael E. Thornton’s Cherokee Indians can trace their history back more than one thousand years. Their society was based on hunting, trading, and agriculture, living in towns until they encountered the first Europeans in 1540, when Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto led an exploration through Cherokee Indian territory. By the time European explorers and traders arrived, Cherokee Indian lands covered a large part of what is now the s...
Tui Moliga, a member of the Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho, caught a rainbow trout that appears to break the record books. Moliga’s trout weighed 28 pounds, 9 ounces. That’s heavier than a prior record set in the state. “Right away I knew it was a good one,” Moliga, who works for his tribe’s hatchery, told The Lewiston Tribune. Genetic tests will confirm whether the fish is a “pure” rainbow trout. But since Moliga is a tribal member and the rules for fishing in Idaho are different...
SENECA, MO—The Wyandotte Nation will be opening a Sonic Drive-In in Seneca, Missouri. The tribe’s economic development corporation expected to break ground on the eatery in August, with an opening expected in early October. The business will create 30 to 35 full and part-time jobs. “It creates another direction, another diversified enterprise for the Wyandotte Nation,” Kelly Carpino, the CEO of the corporation, said in a press release that was posted by The Native America...
WINNIPEG, MB—Among the many gifts that the new prince will receive will be a pair of baby moccasins sewn especially for Prince George Alexander Louis by Winnipeg’s Edna Nabess. Also, his parents, Prince William and Duchess of Cambridge Katherine, received a pair of mukluks. The tiny traditional moccasins were sent to Windsor Castle by Assembly of First Nations Grand Chief Shawn Atleo. “Definitely it’s a big deal,” Nabess told the Winnipeg Free Press. “I’m excited to be...
WHITEHORSE, YK—First Nations are in a “perpetual state of crisis” and conditions will not improve if Canada’s First Nations splinter into factions, National Chief Shawn Atleo told the Assembly of First Nations’ annual meeting in Whitehorse in July. More than 200 chiefs gathered in Yukon for the meeting. AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo is defending the AFN’s relevance, as a splinter group attempts to form in the Prairies. Some chiefs from Alberta and Saskatchewan have united...
BATOCHE, SK—The longstanding mystery surrounding the whereabouts of a bell stolen 128 years ago, was explained on July 20, when the man who stole it came forward. According to the Canadian Press, Billyjo Delaronde, Métis, from Manitoba, told his story as he gave the Bell of Batoche back to the Catholic Diocese of Prince Albert. The Bell of Batoche was seized from Batoche’s church as a trophy of war by federal troops who put down the Northwest Rebellion of 1885, crushing the...
NEW YORK, NY—On August 9, Google invited Indigenous people across the world to take time to add local geographic and commercial features to its online maps. The company, in partnership with the National Congress of American Indians, made the day its first-ever Indigenous Mapping Day. Participants had to have a Google account in order to edit or add to maps represented on the popular Google Maps and Google Earth. Participants also needed to be affiliated with the tribe whose community they planned to map. Many U.S. tribal c...
WASHINGTON, DC—Michael L. Connor, a descendant of Taos Pueblo, will be nominated as deputy secretary of the Interior Department. Connor has served as Commissioner for the Bureau of Reclamation since 2009. He has worked on negotiating and implementing several tribal water rights settlements. “Mike will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the position after two decades in public service working on energy, conservation and water issues,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewel...
