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Lakota Man

@LakotaMan1

Jan 13, 2022

If these children were strong enough to survive boarding schools (many didn’t) — then their children are strong enough to learn about it.

My father, a survivor/victim of the Draconian boarding school system, suffered unmentionable trauma and physical abuse at the hands of clergy staff. A priest once knocked him across the room for speaking Lakota in “class.” I remember him, at night — crying in his sleep.

My mother once told me about the cemetery at her boarding school, she said the children were forbidden to speak about it. The darkness of her imprisoned nightmare followed her her entire life. She always slept with the light on — too afraid to see the haunting ghosts of her past.

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Lakota Man

@LakotaMan1

Dec 19, 2021

In an effort to return the care of buffalo to Native people, several were recently gifted to the Lipan Apache of Texas, fulfilling a prophecy that says — the reemergence of the buffalo will usher in an era of strength and healing.

This story is incredibly heartwarming.

texasstandard.org/stories/return…

Slaughtering the buffalo was an act of colonization.

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Lakota Man

@LakotaMan1

Aug 30, 2021

I saw a homeless man walking on scorching hot pavement with no shoes. A driver in front of me rolled down his window and gave the homeless man his shoes. Such random acts of kindness — helps restore my faith in humans.

Selflessness, altruism, compassion for others less fortunate than ourselves — these are the attributes we need to normalize — now more than ever.

Among the Lakota, things like food, clothing and medicine were distributed equally, so long as you put in work. Individualism was seen as detrimental to the collective good of the oyate (people.) If someone needed a meal or a blanket—the community rallied together, to provide it.

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Lakota Man

@LakotaMan1

Jul 17, 2021

They were abducted from their families. Had their hair cut off. Were forbidden to speak their language, and then were expected to smile for a photo op? Boarding school Indigenous angels had absolutely nothing to smile about—my heart is heavy today.

I desperately search for a myriad of different ways to assuage my grief. It’s an impossible endeavor. As my tears for these poor children continue to flow, unabatedly so. If there is a god out there, among the stars—today would be a good day to make his presence known…

When my takoja (granddaughter) cries out in the middle of the night, I run to her, and hold her gently and tightly against my chest, until our hearts beat in tranquil synchronicity. I think of all those children crying in the darkness of a thousand lonely boarding school nights…

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Lakota Man

@LakotaMan1

Jul 16, 2021

Women of the Sauk and Fox Nations disguised themselves in battle dress attire to fool adversarial tribes. To make their male warrior army appear more numerous.

Artist credit: Daniel Ramirez (Saginaw-Chippewa)

You recall our last discussion vis-a-vis Indigenous women warriors? It would not surprise me if Sauk and Fox women fought along side their men. With the same exquisite ferociousness as Pretty Nose (Arapaho) and Buffalo Calf Road Woman (Cheyenne)—heroes of Little Bighorn slayed.

1870–Gouyen (Apache) hunted down and scalped a Comanche chief for killing her husband. She tracked him to his camp and seduced him. She then took her knife and stabbed him to death as he slept. Gouyen rode back to her camp on his horse, carrying his bloody scalp all the way.

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Lakota Man

@LakotaMan1

Jul 15, 2021

Let’s get one thing straight—Natives were never conquered. Our land was stolen through 500 years of cheating, swindling, lying and bamboozling by greedy, predatory, unscrupulous non-Native colonizers—this is an historical fact.

I was taught settler propaganda in school. I was indoctrinated to believe the Columbus “discovery” fallacy. Then one day I went to my local library—and saw the light.

The U.S. illegally rescinded every single treaty it signed with its Indigenous populations. Every. Single. One.

Settlers descended upon the land of my grandfathers like malevolent white locusts. A plague of disease infested vermin. 50-100 million Indigenous people succumbed to the smallpox they brought with them. They were not “conquerers”—they were carriers of deadly pathogens. Like rats.

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