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Ya'at'eeh. My name is Mark Charles and I am the son of an American woman of Dutch heritage and a Navajo man. After living on the Navajo reservation for more than a decade, last summer my wife and I packed up our belongings and moved with our three children to Washington DC. Living in our nation's capital has been quite an adjustment from our quiet, simple life on the Rez. But one of the best parts of living in such an urban center is the numerous opportunities we have had to...
I love your publication and what I like is that it gives me ideas on how to help my son who has an addiction he is trying so hard to battle with. As a Mom, I will never give up on him, so I try to help in showing him the stories your newspaper has to share and I find very uplifting…keep up the great work…. It was so nice hearing from you. I’m blessed by your card and letter. My mom’s surgery went well and she can see real well but now she has had a massive stroke and is in a nursing home to be rehab. So please pray for div...
America has been in mourning for days. We’ve cried for the 49 victims of the senseless Orlando shooting. We’ve prayed for the families and friends of the innocent people who died in the Pulse nightclub, and the 53 others who were wounded in the massacre. We’ve shaken our heads in disbelief that the deadliest terrorist attack since 9/11 occurred in a nice town known for its theme parks, palm trees, and carefree attitude. We’ve also listened to countless theories about why Omar Seddique Mateen, the 29-year-old Muslim-...
We were shocked to wake up that Sunday morning in June to hear of the horrific shootings in Orlando that killed 49 people. Our expressions of sympathy go to the families and friends of all those gunned down in another senseless act of violence. In the case in Florida, a particular group was targeted—gay, lesbians, and other sexual minorities—and so our prayers are with this community. This particular tragedy was again time for the family who call themselves followers of Jesus to shine His light and share His love. Yet thi...
It was routine by now. I’d gone through the same steps many times. No nerves. No worries. Very relaxed. I knew what to expect and I was ready to get it over with. It was time to remove my toenail again and I wanted no part in others’ business. A group of five of us were taken to the medical facility, a few miles away from our facility. All five had different reasons to be there, but at this time I truly didn’t care. I was there for me and my toe, not them. When we arriv...
Life has dealt a series of crises in North America, if not the world. In recent days Canadians attention has been fixed on the states of emergencies declared in Pimicikamak Cree Nation, also known as Cross Lake, Manitoba, and Attawapiskat, Ontario, due to a rash of suicides. In the United States, we have the horrifying kidnapping of a nine-year-old Navajo boy and his eleven-year-old sister and the eventual discovery that the young girl was murdered. The community and nation...
Have you been watching the political ads or the debates on TV or following election results recently? Better yet, have you been voting? In the United States, the battles have gone from small skirmishes to major battles, literally destroying candidates. Canada came through a bruising election last fall and the new government is being tested and judged on the campaign promises it made. Now it's the United States' turn and it seems to go on forever. In each of these arenas,...
What a year 2015 was. With its highs and lows, good and evil, many are glad that we have closed the door on one of the most volatile years in recent memory. As we stepped across the threshold of a new year, there was a lot of fear, anxiety, and yes, trembling. Not only are we confronted with the fear of the unknown but also we're trying to do battle against what Judith Herman calls "The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud...."1 There are those who say that we must forget the...
The fact that you are alive and reading this at this moment is proof that Creator has a plan and purpose for your life. God put you on a path. Perhaps you aren’t walking on that path and maybe you don’t even know what that path is. But He has a path and He will show you. As the wolf is a hunter and provider, so our men need to provide for their families and give them knowledge. We just celebrated Winter Solstice. Non-Native people call this day—the first day of winter—as the shortest day. Indigenous people of the North think...
"Down, down! Everyone on the yard, down!” came the voice screaming over the loud speakers. Sirens wailing, officers running from every direction, straight toward us. Minutes before this event took place, ten brothers in Jesus and I had gathered on the grassy area of the yard, in a circle. We were about to start our small group Bible study. As we began to open up in prayer, we could hear two men directly behind us, arguing over something. “Father,” I started the prayer. “As w...
Just one day before a crazed young gunman killed nine people in Oregon last week, police arrested four males who planned to go on a bloody rampage at their high school in central California. Fortunately those four juveniles are now in custody-but it doesn't lessen the pain of the families who lost loved ones in the Umpqua Community College shooting in Oregon. What is happening? Why are so many disturbed young men in the United States carrying out massacres? Consider these...
The handwritten sign on the wall caught my eye: "Baby gophers for trade; $2 in Top Ramen; Beef-flavored only; See Big Chato." My cell mate had already told me about the sign, but I just could not believe Big Chato was selling his baby gophers. "I think it would be fun to have a baby pet gopher in the cell," my cell mate shared with me as we both saw a sad pet adoption commercial on our TVs. I didn't answer because I didn't think he was serious. Plus, the sad commercial filled...
The political ground shook in Canada on October 19, 2015, when the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper was resoundingly defeated by the Liberal Party. It was kind of a David and Goliath story of biblical proportions. Political commentators said that it was a combination of anger over the former government along with a great desire for change that brought about this landslide victory. When you read this, Justin Trudeau, 43, will have been sworn in as the second youngest prime minister in Canadian history (Joe Clark is...
Martho is viewed as a hero. The pride of our old Jurassic tier (hall of cells.) He knows he’s dearly loved, so he struts like a celebrity. It’s rare that one of us doesn’t offer him a meal at least once a day. Martho always openly accepts the meals with glee. Martho doesn’t stay put for long; he is always active, coming in and out of the building dozens of times a day. Even with a well-rounded belly (from all the free meals he eats), he still moves with light feet and acrobat...
North America's Indigenous Peoples know that The Land is very important. In fact, in most First Nations societies, land is sacred. There is little doubt that our land is being desecrated and destroyed. Not only is the planet being harmed environmentally, it is slowly being destroyed because of our immorality. The shooting of two young journalists in Virginia on August 26 is the most recent horrid example of the ways our land and our people are being defiled. The Bible tells...
Being an inmate we [I] are very limited to what we can read. By luck your July-August 2015 issue ended up in my possession. I am a Tribal member of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Chippewa Indians (Ojibwe). Can you please give me the address of AFN Grand Chief Perry Bellegarde so I can write to him concerning his statement: Reconciliation can’t proceed while First Nations are mired in the “poverty that plagues our people”? I can change that statement but I need to correspond with him. The Pope asked the world for a unive...
ANTI-TRAFFICKING AND ROOTS I salute you with universal greetings of peace. I got the latest issue of Indian Life. Thanks a bunch. Two things came up while reading the issue. First was the two articles on Human Trafficking and the article on the Choctaw Medical Center in Jackson. My mother’s family has Choctaw in their blood. My great grandmother moved from Mississippi to California a long time ago. She married a man named Emmit and thus had my Granny who gave birth to my mother Cherie who gave birth to me. How would I go a...
June 2015 will go down in history as being a very historic month on both sides of the 49th parallel (US/Canada border). At the beginning of the month, Canadians across the country marched together in support of the Truth and Reconciliation Summit in Canada's capital, Ottawa. During the final summit (there had been nine previous ones held throughout the country over the last five years), a final report will be issued by the TRC chairman, Commissioner Justice Murray Sinclair....
Most of us find time to relax and review our memories. For many, it is a satisfying and gratifying pastime. As a caution, however, when reviewing our past memories we should be careful not to condemn ourselves with regrets and remorse. It is easy to recall a cross word spoken without careful thought to a friend or loved one, or a time when children had tried our patience. Perhaps while enjoying our own good health, we neglected to visit a sick friend who would have appreciated our caring presence. Perhaps, we forgot to count...
In case you haven't noticed, our world is getting a lot more critical and mean. By critical, we're not referring to important as in "critically important." No, we're referring to judgmental and sometimes downright brutal. With the dawning of technological advances, we are now able to communicate in many different ways almost instantaneously. A couple hundred years ago, people waited weeks to receive letters from home bringing news of births or deaths. Many times news and...
There’s a great verse in the Bible that reminds us that we are children of God (First John 1:9). We also see that as a result of being a child of God, this same God wants to lavish His love on us. “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.” If you come to truly understand what this means it will heal your broken heart. If this doesn...
Spring’s glorious production opens with a chorus of geese flying north, in perfect V formation, over melting ponds and running streams breaking free from their icy strongholds. Mallards quack to each other in sharp staccato tones as they establish mates and nesting sites. Gulls quibble in high pitched notes as they vie for morsels shared by sun-seeking humans. Red-breasted robins arrive, adding their melodic songs to that of the chickadees, sparrows, jays, starlings and r...
The wolf pack raced through the forest. Tala was the largest and most fierce of the wolves. He leaped at a doe that jumped over a ravine and narrowly escaped Tala’s sharp fangs. The doe scrambled towards the safety of the deer herd and Tala and the other wolves began to surround the deer. Suddenly, Dyani a huge buck with sixteen points on his antlers came forward and shook his mighty rack at Tala. “Leave my herd alone, go chase rabbits and other game. If you attack us, I will...
RENEW HOPE I wish to convey a sincere “Thank You” to all the staff there at Indian Life. Your publication has helped renew hope to a lost spirit. I received an old copy of your newspaper and it was the first time I ever saw it and I’m glad I read it. —D.G., Indiana SPIRITUALLY CLOSER Indian Life has brought me spiritually closer to God and has given me more of an understanding about Native North America. I did not know of the existing matters that have been taking place with the Indigenous People of the land. I have lived o...
For the last couple of years, there’s been a sense that a raging evil force is at work in the world and it’s on a rampage. With the rise of ISIS or ISIL, terrorists have become more daring in how far they are willing to go to defeat their foes and recruit members. The most recent dastardly act was the beheading of twenty-one Egyptian Christians on the beach of Tripoli where their blood flowed into the Mediterranean Sea as the waves lapped the shore. This was not only a political statement challenging Europe but also a bol...
