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I am 36 years old, incarcerated at the South Dakota Women's Prison. I am serving a 10 year sentence at 40%. I have two years left before I am released on parole. I have lived a life of self-destruction, sin and chaos; however my life has not always been so corrupt. I was raised by my grandmother in a God-loving home, attending church at the Lakota Wesleyan chapel on the reservation. I had a good upbringing. In my teens, I rebelled against my family and society falling into a...
Last month, I read a lot of news stories about the Canadian government's most recent attempts to somehow bring justice and comfort to those who suffered in residential schools. And my heart cried. I also read stories on the anniversary of Standing Rock. I read once again the recap of the rubber bullets and hypothermia suffered by those who were sprayed with cold water in the freezing weather. And to add insult to injury, I read the investigative report of how people gave $1.4...
My son, Gardner, is a college student who works at a movie complex. Unfortunately for a bunch of teenagers, last night he was collecting tickets at a section of the theater that was showing a new R-rated movie about sexual abuse and violence, supposedly in the name of romance. When the kids tried to get into the R-rated movie, Gardner sent them to their movie on the opposite side of the complex. It's sad that teens would try to see a basically pornographic movie teaching that...
Since last fall, North America has been shocked by revelations of sexual sins of Hollywood bosses, comedians, and politicians. Recently, almost every day, women and a few men have come forward to accuse the rich, famous and powerful of their carnal wrongdoings. In responding to the accusations against her friend and co-host, Charlie Rose, Gayle King requested that men come forward in the fight against sexual harassment and sexual abuse, especially against girls and women. Well, I want to be one of those men who will come...
"Hey, there. How are you doing?” As my former co-worker walked up, I smiled, ready for a good chat. But after a while, the conversation went there. He started talking about the charismatic, but truly evil person we had both worked for. This boss was the first person I’d ever known who actually plotted to emotionally hurt people and try to destroy their jobs (telling me they deserved it). I had been naïve and trusting…and I had ended up burned badly with my professional confidence shaken and my trusting heart shatte...
Thank you for showing me who I was in the article "I Loved a Girl" from the July/August 2017 issue. It's just what I was. On line 15 it says, "'You shall not commit adultery,' does not apply in my case." Galatians 5:19 tells just how wrong as a young man I was. Matthew 5:28, "Jesus said that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." I could go on and on, but I won't. This article touched my heart in a way no one...
"This is for you,” my co-worker said as he lifted the cork lid to the ceramic jar marked “Unsolicited Advice” that I keep filled with chocolate on top of my filing cabinet. He stuffed something in there and added. “My wife and I want to do this. It’s to help you through a hard time.” Then he dashed off before I could say anything. What was that all about? I wondered. I’d known Larry for many years and always felt I could be honest with him. So when he’d asked about my family, I’d told him This time two years ago, my hus...
Indian Life has changed my life in so many ways. Digital media would do me no good as we are not allowed to use any kind of devices. [ILM Correspondence Coordinator] Sister Rilla has been such an inspiration in my life. No one has ever been that dedicated to me as she has been.... W.A. My name is F.C. and I've been reading The Sacred Road book, given to me by [Rilla Unger, ILM Correspondence Coordinator] some 25 or more months ago. I'm new at this belief and since that day,...
The Indian Life Ministries staff and Board of Directors wishes to express our extreme gratitude and best wishes to our long-time, faithful editor, Jim Uttley, Jr., upon his retirement from Indian Life. Jim has served the Lord as editor of the Indian Life newspaper for over 20 years sharing his giftedness and heart in the production of this award-winning publication. His love for the First Nations people of North America has been evident through his work on the newspaper and...
It's with a lot of excitement and not a small amount of angst that I put pen and ink to this issue of the Indian Life newspaper, our first in the partnership and merger of Indian Life Ministries and the Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada Inc. It's a huge step for both organizations! In case you are not too familiar with NEFC, we are a Canadian association of Native churches and have been operating since 1971. There are 17 churches affiliated with us at present. They are...
WHILE IT LASTED Though an Atheist, having spent 26 years in Nevada's Supermax, the last 10 years in its hole, I'm now in a mental health unit. A place where the squirrels had stashed all their nuts.... Rhetoric aside. I'm a 55-year-old Shoshone-Sioux mixed with a lot of Mediterranean ethnicity, who just wanted to say thanks for Indian Life while it lasted. I'll have received four copies of it before, like the end of life itself, it becomes extinct and out of reach to those...
My Native Brothers, do you believe you can honor your tribe and treat the women in your life with less honor? Do you believe you can honor our ceremonies and teachings and treat the women in your life with less honor? Do you believe you can honor Turtle Island and treat the women in your life with less honor? Do you believe you can honor your brothers in the faith and treat the women in your life with less honor? If your children or grandchildren, dog or cat (if they could talk), had to testify under oath, would you be...
INDIAN LIFE was awarded First Place in the category of Excellence for National Newspapers at the Canadian Church Press Conference in Quebec City, June 22. We also placed third in the Biographical Category for the First Person article "Witness to the Truth". This article appeared in our November-December 2016 issue and recounts the horrendous story of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of church clergy in the American southwest. Congratulations to our writers and...
Crazy things are happening in our world these days. Strange attacks on populations in the United Kingdom and closer to home in Flint, Michigan. To say nothing of the attacks that happen almost every waking hour in homes and communities across Turtle Island. These are powerful and heartbreaking reminders that life is uncertain and we never know when the end will come. Back in April, when the Board of Intertribal Christian Communications, publisher of Indian Life, announced that this issue (July-August 2017) would be the last...
I have spent a lot of time recently thinking about honesty and I still struggle because even within the past day, there is still a degree of a lack of honesty. And discernment through reading someone is a gift but it's also a hindrance and then one wonders why there is no trust when through discernment it's obvious there is no honesty and then a lack of trust follows. Honesty is a huge part of self-improvement and overcoming delusional thinking. If we aren't honest with...
Our world is a mess. Nations are warring against nations, our leaders don’t seem to know which direction to go, some of our communities are ransacked by violence and terrorist acts, families are broken, and people are searching, longing for elusive solutions to their problems. Since the beginning of the human race, people have asked “where did we come from?” “Why are we here?” “Who am I?” or “Why am I different?” While some may not agree, what everyone is searching for—whether it is children, adults, communities, leader...
Love is so attracted to goodness that it automatically rejects evil. Love always and only recognizes evil as a corruption of the world. When we fill our minds and our lives with what is good, evil will have no place. For this is the power of love’s goodness, when goodness comes into action, evil is buried by it. Love brings the knowledge of God and when God is known, other things are made clear....
STANDING ROCK I have subscribed to Indian Life for many years and share it with my Indian and “white” friends as well as folks in jail. It has been a real encouragement to all. Your last issue (Jan-Feb 2017) is informative and interesting. However, the article “Standing Rock water protectors wait and see after huge victory” concerned me very much. Most of it [the protests] was political and for “show”. Most of the people were bussed in and paid to protest. They not only closed a bridge, but made a royal mess of the area. A...
My friend Matt Hyde lives in Boise, Idaho, a city that is 89 percent white. After he became the pastor of Discovery Church in 2013, he learned that refugees from many countries were living in Boise. They are from Bosnia, Serbia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Nepal, Bhutan, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Congo, Togo and Sudan. Most of them had fled political oppression or civil war. Many spent time in crude refugee camps before they were granted permission to move to the United States. Almost...
I wish I could have been there when the first ship rolled in Too bad we had to wait so long for knowledge we needed when they decided to take their newly discovered land, no matter what the cost.... -Three Feathers These lines are from a poem I discovered in some old Indian Life files. Ever wondered what it was like for the Indigenous peoples of this land to stand on the shores of North America or the islands of the Caribbean, and watch the first European settlers sail in?...
Years ago I knew two brothers who farmed their land together. One of them had lost both legs fighting in the Korean War. The other brother had lost an arm in a farm-machinery accident. They worked hard and never complained about their lot in life. Neither did their wives and children. They were committed Christians, and I can still see those brothers and their families sitting in the first two rows of their little country church. They worshiped God, trusted Him for guidance...
10 began like the last day of 2016. The sun rose and life seemed to go on pretty much as before. While we're accustomed to dire predictions for the future at the end of each year, it seems that this year, people's fears over future uncertainties were heightened more than in previous years, with the possible exception of January 1, 2000. Perhaps this year's tensions are due to the surprising results in the U.S. presidential election with many North Americans upset over who...
I sit on my bunk, lights off, tears flowing uncontrollably. My mind races back and forth, making it next to impossible to focus on a single thought. Loneliness smothers me from neck to toes, my head just above it. I’ve been like this for a few weeks. It’s become normal for me this time of year. I’m exhausted. Tired. Sore. The last two months of the year weigh heavily on me. The heaviness becomes cold as steel. My emotions cramp. My faith has shortness of breath. Year after...
After almost two years of non-stop political talk and TV, radio and newspaper advertising filling the media, it is finally over. The voters have spoken and the American people have a new president and vice president-elect. And along with this new leader, thousands of government leaders and representatives were elected or reelected across the United States. One characteristic of this particular election was that the extremists on both sides of whatever issue, seemed to control the agenda and steer the conversation in their...
Evangelicals or those we like to refer to as “followers of Jesus” are sensitive to what we call “God moments”—when circumstances fall together in a way that suggests God is at work in our lives in a fresh way. These believers who are part of North America’s dominant society have experienced collective “God moments.” In the 1970s, few churches concerned themselves with the relief of world hunger. Then Ron Sider wrote Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, and before long, we just assumed that Jesus followers should be conce...
