Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 132
• First woman in her tribe to earn a Medical Doctor degree • Honored with the name of Medicine Victory Woman by her Blackfeet Tribe Mary DesRosier states that she sees the face of God in her family, friends and neighbors she chooses to serve through Indian Health Services (IHS) on the Blackfeet Reservation, in Browning, Montana-in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains where she grew up. Interested in medicine since her youth, Mary joined the University of North Dakota's Ind...
You were chosen by God the Father long ago. He knew you were to become His children. You were set apart for holy living by the Holy Spirit. May you obey Jesus Christ and be made clean by His blood. May you be full of His loving favor and peace. 1 Peter 1:2 NLV When I was born they gave me a number. I was 643. That means I was the 643rd child born on Walpole Island Reserve in Ontario, Canada. I don't remember much about my early childhood. The only thing I do remember is that...
Over the course of the last five years I have had knee replacement surgeries on each of my knees. I had the surgeries because of chronic pain in the knee joints, arthritis in the joints and because the cushioning in the joints were gone. If anyone has had knee problems, you can relate to what I went through. Before I had those surgeries, I used a cane to help lessen the tension on those knees. Then, as I was recovering from those surgeries, I used a walker, then two crutches...
It is always refreshing to see or hear of a husband and wife team, especially Native American, in faith-based, Christian ministry. Such is the case of Josh (full blood Creek) and Ramona Harjo (full blood Choctaw). Because the non-Indian majority in the United States tend to regard all Native Americans as Reservation-based, they also regard them as practicing their own spirituality and traditions that are contrary to Christianity. Native Americans, however, are everywhere,...
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. -Romans 15:13 NIV Each of us is on a journey. It starts with the birth of a newborn baby and ends when that life is finished according to the will of God who gives us life. Along this journey, we all face different situations and yet we all face many of the same things. For instance, almost all of us have families, though our families...
• Activist • Author • Musician • Educator • Reformer *Co-composed the first Native American Opera* "For untold ages the Indian race had not used family names. A new-born child was given a brand-new name...for which she would not be required to substitute another's upon her marriage, as is the custom of civilized peoples." - Zitkala-Sa, from American Indian Stories Her Dakota/Sioux name (Zitkala-Sa, also spelled Zitkala-Sha) means "red bird," but she was renamed Gertrude...
A father to the fatherless, defender of widows, is God in His holy dwelling. -Psalm 68:5 NIV In 1998, my life hit rock bottom. An active member of a criminal organization, a drunk, a drug dealer, and an addict, I was a general menace to society. I was arrested for a major crime and it looked like I would be spending the next seven years in prison. God's grace was with me even when I didn't believe in His Son. Since I had gone to seek help through the Addictions Foundation and...
• Ordained Deacon • Conference Speaker • Head Pastor When the average person thinks of a deacon or head pastor, the image of a kindly white male generally comes to mind. Although it is true that more women are accepted in ministry today than in the past, a Native American woman in such roles defies the odds, which is exactly what Evelene "Tweedy" Sombrero Navarrete-a full-blooded Dine' (Navajo) woman from Inscription House, Arizona-does. She describes her ordination exper...
As you have put your trust in Christ Jesus the Lord to Save you from the punishment of sin, now let Him lead you in every step. -Colossians 2:6 NLV In the fall of 1986, my cousin Peter, my brother, Johnny, and I decided to go caribou hunting by canoe and motor. The caribou had come close to the coast and we only needed a couple hours to go and come back before dark. The weather was calm and clear. It took us no more than an hour to get to a good hunting location. We each shot...
• First Native American woman to direct a full-length film • Co-founder, Tribal Alliance Productions When Georgina Lightning was 18 years old, her father-who had displayed occasional violent outbursts-committed suicide. Georgina searched for reasons. Her quest for information was the incubating force, which resulted in an idea for a screenplay. Georgina, a Mushwatchees Cree member of the Samson Band of the Hobbema Indian Reserve near Edmonton, Alberta, remains an out...
Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. -Psalm 37:4-6 In the first ten years of my life, I had many happy yet lonely times. I was not sure as a kid who I wanted to be-as if I had a choice or I could pick. I saw no value in being Indian. I was afraid of that side of me. So many...
"So many of our people were told they couldn't be Christian and Indian; they had to choose," Fern Cloud discloses. Similar beliefs by Euro-Americans in the past have prohibited women and Native Americans as a whole from preaching the gospel. Only recently did Native women such as Reverend Fern Cloud dare to dream of pastoring a church-especially a mainline Christian church. Cloud, the great-great-granddaughter of Thaoyate Duta, "Little Crow," Chief of the Dakota...
I have told you these things so you may have peace in Me. In the world you will have much trouble. But take hope! I have power over the world! John 16:33, NLV "Rycki!" I shouted to my twenty-four-year-old son. "Rycki, relax! They're trying to intimidate you!" It was the summer of 1990, the height of the "Oka Crisis" when Mohawks squared off against the Canadian Army and the dreaded Sûreté du Québec (SQ), and the air was thick with tension. The mayor of Oka had announced pl...
* Five-time US National Ice Dance Champion * Two-time Four Continents champion * Olympian When Karuk tribal member Naomi Lang, at age six, first performed as a bonbon in The Nutcracker it was only a glimpse of the heights to which she would eventually reach. Born in Arcata, California to Jason Lang (Karuk) and Leslie Dixon (French/English/Irish heritage), Naomi began her ballet training in California at age three at the Redwood Concert Ballet. But Lang's interests took a turn...
The doctor who came from the valley into our log cabin in the hills looked at me, threw up his hands, and whispered to my father, 'You send him away. He doesn't belong in the valley community. He'll never learn like other children. He'll never speak like other children. You send him away.'" Those were some of the first words spoken over a newborn Chippewa infant in 1939. Don Bartlette was born into the world in rural North Dakota with fetal alcohol syndrome, resulting in a...
Raymond, you're not white. You shouldn't mark that box," one of my coaches told me in front of the whole team. I was quite embarrassed and very angry when I went home. My mom had always told me that when I was asked or had to fill out any papers, I needed to check the box that said I was white because I was Caucasian. When I got home that day, I asked my mom why she had me mark the box "white" when I really wasn't white. My mother finally told me the truth. "You are Hopi and...
Born in Miami, Oklahoma, (Edna) Moscelyne Larkin was one of the distinguished Native American ballerinas from Oklahoma dubbed "The Five Moons." She was the only daughter of a Peoria/Shawnee father (Rueben Francis Larkin) and Eva Matlagova-Larkin, a Russian ballerina who tutored Moscelyne herself until at age 15, when Moscelyne was old enough to continue her studies in New York City. Moscelyne joined the Wassily de Basil's Original Ballet Russe in Europe and the Americas. She a...
DURHAM, N.C.-Like many indigenous people in Canada, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson's family was disconnected from the practices of their ancestors. But as a young adult, Simpson, who is Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg, an Indigenous people with a homeland in what is now southern Ontario, returned to learn the language and traditions from the elders of her community. Among those practices is a rich tradition of storytelling, which she describes as "deeply relational and emotional,...
A miracle. That's how a person could describe my life. It's miraculous that I even survived my first day on earth. My mother didn't want me so the midwife took and wrapped me in some newspaper and put me outside in the garbage bin. I would have breathed my last there if it hadn't been for a curious next-door neighbor who was watching from her kitchen window. Wondering what was being thrown away, she went to the bin some time later to find a baby thrown away with the garbage....
I was born and raised in Fort St. John, BC, and I've worked in sawmills in the area for over 30 years. When I was 16 my "career" with alcohol began. I believe my habit of alcohol got out of control when I lost my best friend and my brother through carbon monoxide poisoning in 1977. At that time I didn't care if I lived. So I drank until I dropped, and I even thought about suicide. My life spun out of control. I drank, I fought and I survived numerous auto accidents....
It's so heavy. The loneliness one experiences in Ad Seg (the hole) presses its weight upon every person in here, causing a roller coaster of emotions. But God is faithful to those who put their trust in Him. One night, after the day dragged longer than normal, I asked my Father to remind me of all the ways He had shown His presence to me. I took out my pen and paper and began to list everything that came to mind. The list was long, which proved that I had absolutely no reason...
Wayne Leman, an Alaska Native, worked with the Cheyenne for many years. In his darkest hour, it was the Cheyenne who came to rescue him. "They were the ones with whom I felt safe. I shared my story and it was a breakthrough." Twenty-five years ago, our mission administrator told us he was requiring us to move from the Cheyenne reservation to one of our mission centers to get counseling. It was a shock to hear that, but we moved. Counseling sessions were confusing. I didn't...
I was speaking at a summer camp for aboriginal teens. The rule with teens is that if you get one of them by himself or herself he or she has many, many functioning brain cells. Put two teens together and the number of functioning brain cells is immediately halved. But these were great kids with great potential. Life is challenging for them, though. Drug and alcohol abuse is common. A father in their lives is not. Many have considered suicide. One told me, "Things are dark...
Arnold: We come here every fall around this time-end of September, beginning of October-to harvest fish and moose meat, most of which we bring back to Garden Hill to share. We also come here to reflect on God's creation, and it is also a time of prayer. We came to know Jesus Christ about 35 years ago. Before that we were living a life of sin. Things were not working out right for our family, and for our marriage, but God intervened. We didn't have anything to do with the...
Somewhere inside, my brain knew it was cold. I saw white puffs when I breathed. I heard the wind whipping the chains on the courthouse flagpole. But as I put my head against the frosty green Pinto, I didn't feel cold. It was a good thing-I didn't know where my coat was. If I had noticed the cold, I probably would have noticed the stink. My shirt was soaked with a regurgitated mixture of grain alcohol and orange juice. "What will we do with him this time?" I heard one of my...
