Saturday, September 12, 2015
Friday, September 11, 2015
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
These 10 Quotes From an Oglala Lakota Chief Will Make You Question Everything About Our Society
These 10 Quotes From an Oglala Lakota Chief Will Make You Question Everything About Our Society
by WISDOM PILLS
Luther Standing Bear was an Oglala Lakota Sioux Chief who, among a few rare others such as Charles Eastman, Black Elk and Gertrude Bonninoccupied the rift between the way of life of the Indigenous people of the Great Plains before, and during, the arrival and subsequent spread of the European pioneers. Raised in the traditions of his people until the age of eleven, he was then educated at the Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School of Pennsylvania, where he learned the english language and way of life. (Though a National Historical Landmark, Carlisle remains a place of controversy in Native circles.)
Like his above mentioned contemporaries, however, his native roots were deep, leaving him in the unique position of being a conduit between cultures. Though his movement through the white man’s world was not without “success” — he had numerous movie roles in Hollywood — his enduring legacy was the protection of the way of life of his people.
By the time of his death he had published 4 books and had become a leader at the forefront of the progressive movement aimed at preserving Native American heritage and sovereignty, coming to be known as a strong voice in the education of the white man as to the Native American way of life. Here, then, are 10 quotes from the great Sioux Indian Chief known as Standing Bear that will be sure to disturb much of what you think you know about “modern” culture.
1) Praise, flattery, exaggerated manners and fine, high-sounding words were no part of Lakota politeness. Excessive manners were put down as insincere, and the constant talker was considered rude and thoughtless. Conversation was never begun at once, or in a hurried manner.
2) Children were taught that true politeness was to be defined in actions rather than in words. They were never allowed to pass between the fire and the older person or a visitor, to speak while others were speaking, or to make fun of a crippled or disfigured person. If a child thoughtlessly tried to do so, a parent, in a quiet voice, immediately set him right.
3) Silence was meaningful with the Lakota, and his granting a space of silence before talking was done in the practice of true politeness and regardful of the rule that ‘thought comes before speech.’…and in the midst of sorrow, sickness, death or misfortune of any kind, and in the presence of the notable and great, silence was the mark of respect… strict observance of this tenet of good behavior was the reason, no doubt, for his being given the false characterization by the white man of being a stoic. He has been judged to be dumb, stupid, indifferent, and unfeeling.
4) We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, the winding streams with tangled growth, as ‘wild’. Only to the white man was nature a ‘wilderness’ and only to him was it ‘infested’ with ‘wild’ animals and ‘savage’ people. To us it was tame. Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery.
5) With all creatures of the earth, sky and water was a real and active principle. In the animal and bird world there existed a brotherly feeling that kept the Lakota safe among them. And so close did some of the Lakotas come to their feathered and furred friends that in true brotherhood they spoke a common tongue.
6) This concept of life and its relations was humanizing and gave to the Lakota an abiding love. It filled his being with the joy and mystery of living; it gave him reverence for all life; it made a place for all things in the scheme of existence with equal importance to all. 7) It was good for the skin to touch the earth, and the old people liked to remove their moccasins and walk with bare feet on the sacred earth… the old Indian still sits upon the earth instead of propping himself up and away from its life giving forces. For him, to sit or lie upon the ground is to be able to think more deeply and to feel more keenly. He can see more clearly into the mysteries of life and come closer in kinship to other lives about him.
8) Everything was possessed of personality, only differing from us in form. Knowledge was inherent in all things. The world was a library and its books were the stones, leaves, grass, brooks, and the birds and animals that shared, alike with us, the storms and blessings of earth. We learned to do what only the student of nature learns, and that was to feel beauty. We never railed at the storms, the furious winds, and the biting frosts and snows. To do so intensified human futility, so whatever came we adjusted ourselves, by more effort and energy if necessary, but without complaint.
9) …the old Lakota was wise. He knew that a man’s heart, away from nature, becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans, too. So he kept his children close to nature’s softening influence.
10) Civilization has been thrust upon me… and it has not added one whit to my love for truth, honesty, and generosity.
Dogs take wild solo hike into Bob Marshall Wilderness; rescued by trail crewall-wilderness-rescue
The trail crew that rescued the dogs included Tracy Mikesell, Nick Burkland, Doug MacCartney, Sonny Mazzullo, Craig Bacino, John Beard, Matt McDonald, David Morey and Megan Schulze. Abby rests in the carrier they made using a pole while Molly, lower right, decided to finish the walk out.
After spending almost two weeks in July wandering on their own deep into the Bob Marshall Wilderness, Jim Cain’s two English cocker spaniels seem to have recovered from their re-enactment of “The Incredible Journey.”
“There’s no sign of any lasting problems,” Cain said. “But since they’ve done that they don’t pass up a meal. You put a bowl of food down and they’re on it. And they stick a little closer to home now.”
Abby, 11, is the mother to Molly, who is 6 or 7 years old. And their tale of getting lost in the 1 million-acre wilderness and then found is one that the people involved won’t soon forget.
“It was pretty bizarre,” said Sonny Mazzullo, who works for the Montana Wilderness Association as a Continental Divide Trail field coordinator. “It’s definitely one of the most unusual things to happen to me in the backcountry.”
Backcountry dirt work
In July, Mazzullo had a crew of staff and volunteers working on a section of the CDT near Bowl Creek repairing a rotted out turnpike — an elevated trail that crosses swampland. The crew was five days into a nine-day hitch about 11 to 12 miles deep into the wilderness when Abby and Molly came walking down the trail.
“No one thought too much of seeing the two dogs. Everyone figured the owners would be trailing along shortly,” wrote Ted Brewer, MWA’s communications director, in a blog post. “They never showed.”
“After 10 minutes we started fearing the worst, that the dogs had wandered away,” said Mazzullo. “After 20 minutes we figured nobody was coming with them.”
Judging by the cuts on the dogs’ feet and bodies, their thinness, exhaustion, hunger and thirst, the crew figured the dogs had been on the trail for some time.
“They looked haggard,” Mazzullo said.
Dog packer
Since the dogs were too exhausted to walk any farther and camp was about 2 miles away from the work site, backcountry horseman and packer Greg Schatz used some of the bags the crew
was using to haul gravel to carry the dogs back to camp on his horse, Dusty.
In his 27 years of trekking into the Bob Marshall Wilderness, Schatz has often carried unusual things on his pack horses and mules — everything from bridge timbers to wheelbarrows, fire hose to scaffold — but he said he’s probably never carried anything more unusual than the pair of dogs.
“They were in such tough shape that they couldn’t walk,” he said. “They were finished.”
Then the concern arose that the dogs’ owners may have been injured and that a search and rescue operation might be necessary. Luckily, Molly still had her collar on and a tag that had a phone number.
“Crew co-leader Nick Burkland radioed the Schaefer Meadows Ranger Station and reported finding the dogs,” Brewer wrote. “The ranger called the number on Molly’s dog tag and later reported back that he had reached the dogs’ owners.”
Long potty break
Turns out that Cain had let the dogs out on July 2 to do their morning business while staying at his wife’s family cabin on the West Fork of the Teton River, just past the Teton Pass Winter Sports Area. The area is located northwest of Choteau along the Rocky Mountain Front. An hour later, there was no sign of the two black pooches.
Worried, Cain said his family contacted everyone they could think of: the county sheriff, Forest Service and the newspaper in Great Falls. They even offered a $500 reward and spent the rest of their vacation at the cabin driving up and down the road and checking trails in the area.
“We’re quite the dog people,” Cain said, noting that altogether they have eight canines at their Conrad home. “Those two really love to go outdoors. They’re a field dog. They’re used to running around.”
But after a week of looking and with no leads, he said the chance of ever seeing the dogs again seemed hopeless.
Tough terrain
How the dogs ended up crossing the Continental Divide 12 to 13 miles from the cabin is uncertain. Did they chase an animal and lose their way, or maybe follow other hikers or a pack train?
Schatz described the terrain between the cabin and work site as “extremely rocky,” littered with downfall and dense brush. What’s more, the dogs would have crossed the Rocky Mountain Front, known to the Blackfeet Tribe as the backbone of the world. The trail crew went over 7,200-foot high Teton Pass — an elevation gain of about 1,600 feet above Cain’s cabin. Whether the dogs followed that trail or clambered over the Lewis and Clark mountain range somewhere else — places with names like Corrugate Ridge or Washboard Reef — is unknown.
“I was shocked that the dogs, which are not backcountry dogs, had made it as far as they did, and with no dog food,” Schatz said. “They probably had 200 miles on them.”
The area is so remote that Mazzullo said during the trail crew’s stay they only saw two other backpackers the whole time, with the exception of the Forest Service and horse-packers who were scheduled to come in.
Trail nurses
With Cain unable to retrieve the dogs from the wilderness, the trail crew took turns staying with the pups until work near Bowl Creek was finished. Mazzullo said he always carries a two-man tent into the wilderness, just in case someone else needs a place to stay.
“I made room for the ladies,” he joked.
With temperatures staying cool, Abby was constantly shaking, Mazzullo said.
When the work on the Bowl Creek turnpike was done, the trail crew wasn’t quite sure how they could get the dogs out, since their feet were still hurting. Carrying the dogs in their arms wasn’t practical with them weighing about 30 pounds apiece. So the idea was hatched to cut down long logs and hang the gravel bags in the middle to give the dogs a place to ride out. The volunteers would take turns carrying the logs on their shoulder.
“After about 5 miles, I was thinking we might have been able to get by with smaller logs,” Mazzullo said.
Molly only stayed in her hammock about two miles before she scrambled free. But Abby — the older dog — was happy to make the trip out on the shoulders of the workers.
Trailhead reunion
Cain’s wife, Traci, was waiting at the trailhead to greet the workers, snapping pictures and cuddling the long-lost pooches. She insisted the volunteers take the reward money, which the crew donated to the MWA and its Continental Divide Trail program.
“You could tell right away that the dogs were really happy,” Mazzullo said. “That was a good feeling. We had gotten pretty attached to them.”
Cain still can’t thank the volunteers enough.
“Mom was pretty shell-shocked,” he said of the older dog, Abby. “If they hadn’t met that trail crew she wouldn’t have made it.”
Looking back on the incident, Mazzullo is philosophical.
“The thing that’s cool about the story is that it’s a reflection of the good hearts that our volunteers have,” he said. “Our volunteers are terrific.”
Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/lifestyles/recreation/dogs-take-wild-solo-hike-into-bob-marshall-wilderness-rescued/article_dadf4f2a-97ce-58af-b320-33a311a32b9a.html#ixzz3lFmRnW5R
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Washington National Guard
"On my way home from two weeks spent fighting the Chelan Complex fires with several other WA National Guard soldiers. It was a humbling experience.
Watching people pack the only belongings that could fit in their vehicles while wondering if they would have a home to return to is unexplainable. I have the utmost respect for the wildland firefighters and the tight knit community that they work in.
Thank you for teaching us more than just respecting the fire.
I worked with a great group of soldiers and we are all coming home safely. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the firefighters' families that lost loved ones near Twisp." - Capt. Jeff Rogers, G Co. 181st BSB — withChristina Burden, Sean Burden and Luz Maria Nieves.
Monday, September 7, 2015
Sitting Bull
On This Day: In 1883 Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man Sitting Bull gave a speech in Bismarck, North Dakota on the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Sitting Bull told the non-Natives and dignitaries (government officials, railroad barons, and military personnel) that they were liars and thieves for stealing the land and not abiding by the treaties. The interpreter, instead of relaying Sitting Bull's words, changed the speech. As a result, Sitting Bull received a standing ovation and was encouraged to give more speeches. — with Katona Eagle.
Introvert-- Yes I think I am one & I'm fine with it :D
24 Signs You’re An Introvert- Not Shy
Many people believe introversion and shyness are one and the same, but this is not true. All my life I was told that I was shy. I believed it too… until I learned that shyness is the fear of people due to insecurity or social anxiety.
When I learned this, I thought: wait a second- I’m not afraid of people, but being around too many people for too long always leaves me feeling drained. I also know that I always require alone time to recharge my energy. Moreover, I’m not a fan of interacting for the sake of interacting. I usually have a reason behind every interaction. It was then I thought to myself: nope, I’m not shy at all… what I am is an INTROVERT.
If you’ve always thought that you were shy, but you’re not afraid of being around people, check out this list of 24 signs that you are actually an introvert:
1. You Don’t Enjoy Small Talk
Introverts prefer conversations with substance over small talk. We’re thinkers, and thrive on heavier conversations about life, ideas, theories and big goals. But when small talk is inevitable, we can’t help but try to make the other person feel comfortable. We’re good listeners and are naturally in tune with how the people we interact with are feeling. More often than not, you find these casual chit-chats morph into deeper, more meaningful conversation.
2. You Have a Love-Hate Relationship With Your Phone
Introverts are not the best at talking on the phone. It’s not personal, honest; we screen calls from even our family and closest friends. At times we really hate the phone because it’s intrusive and tears our minds away from whatever we’re deeply focused on. However, those we choose to speak with can be sure that our monthly (or annual) phone conversations will be spilling over with plenty of heartfelt talk- and these calls will more than likely last for hours!
3. You Wait to Text Back
When you’re notified that you have a text from a family member or friend, you wait until you’re ready to give it your undivided attention, to read it, and send a thoughtful response.
4. You Find Crowds Stressful
You prefer one-on-one time, where it’s more intimate. If spending time around a lot of people is inevitable, you can’t wait to go home and recharge your batteries.
5. You’re Not Anti-Social… You’re Selectively Social
As an introvert, you find it difficult to meet people you like and feel comfortable with. You don’t get energized by the people around you, and most of the time, it takes you a little while to warm up to someone. We don’t invest our energy on people we’re not completely crazy about, so we choose to get to know them better before we get too close. That said, when we do find someone we enjoy being around or have an interest in getting to know better, it’s kind of special!
6. You Enjoy Being Out With a Group of People… in Small Doses
Every once in awhile you like to go out with a group of people and have a great time. It could be a party, networking event, or a huge concert. But once that’s done and over, it may take days, weeks, or even months, to completely recharge your batteries and feel ready to do it again.
7. You Are Extremely Observant and Mindful of Your Surroundings
You enjoy getting to really know what the people around you are really about. Introverts are also very mindful of their surroundings and small details, so people enjoy having you around and quickly grow comfortable opening up to you.
8. You Unlock Your Heart for Only the Most Special of Souls
Introverts are extremely careful in choosing who we allow to see our inner self. Sure, being left open and vulnerable is incredibly frightening for us, but it means we’ve determined the recipient of our affection and attention is worth the risk. That being said, we’re pretty quick in shutting people out when we feel threatened or hurt. We just don’t have the energy for that.
9. You are Creative
Studies show that introverts are a creative bunch! We are able to take in a lot of information and use it to create wonderful new ideas!
10. You Value Listening… Deeply
Introverts are great listeners. You listen to understand, not simply to respond. And if you’re asked for advice, the help you share has been thought out fully for that specific individual. The act of listening is our way of showing love and respect, and as such, we deeply appreciate when those we communicate with recognize that we carefully think through the messages we share… and that we love it when the same is done for us.
11. You are Highly Introspective
You tend to over analyze situations that don’t even need to be analyzed at all. It may take you a little longer to understand what’s going on, not because you don’t get it, but because you always seek to understand the deeper meanings.
12. You Think Before You Argue
Introverts need to take time to work things out in our heads first, and we choose our words with care. Once we’ve been given the chance to carefully process the issue, we’ll be able to clearly communicate exactly where we stand with those involved.
13. You are Accused of Flirting with Everybody
Which is pretty funny, considering that it takes time for most introverts to actually warm up to anyone. This misconception is usually due to your great listening skills and your mindfulness towards those around you.
14. You Enjoy Your Time Alone
This may not sound like fun to everyone, but introverts not only like our alone time- we need it. Just doing nothing and having some ‘me-time’ is a way for us to unwind and re-energize.
15. You are Rarely Bored
While our extroverted counterparts turn to others for stimulation, we are constantly working out our lives and dreams in our heads. Introverts are deep thinkers and almost always have an inner monologue running through our minds- it keeps us highly entertained!
16. You Don’t Trust Easily
You take your time to observe and really get to know someone before inviting them into your inner circle; but once you have the right people in your life, you don’t hold back and strive to always give the best of yourself.
17. You Have a Very Small Group of Very Close Friends
While introverts usually don’t enjoy much socializing, we adore our small group of close, trusted friends. We prefer to create and maintain fewer friendships at a much deeper level, over a large group of casual connections.
18. You Fiercely Guard Your Personal Space
You value your space and are extremely picky about what you give your attention to and who you let in because the wrong thoughts and people will leave you feeling burned-out.
19. You are More Comfortable Expressing Yourself in Writing
You prefer communicating through text and email because it gives you more time and space to clarify your thoughts before putting them into words.
20. You are Great at Getting Stuff Done
Your alone time is packed with brainstorming, outlining, creating blueprints and putting them all into action!
21. You are a Good Judge of Character
Because you keep to yourself, you are able to take time and observe the people around you and truly get to know who they are. Introverts pay close attention to nonverbal cues because we know words can only tell us so much. So, we’re usually able to see everyone for who they really are and not just what they appear to be.
22. You are Great at Making Decisions
Introverts are masters of thinking things through, allowing us to thoroughly gather all necessary data and weigh the pros and cons before making important choices.
23. You Retain an Air of Mystery
We know there really is nothing mysterious about us, but our tendency to stay just outside the crowd, simply watching and observing, while keeping our emotions and body language in check, makes us seem like we are mysterious.
24. You are A Loyal Friend
Introverts highly value the few close friends they have. If you’ve been welcomed into an introvert’s inner circle, you can almost be certain you have a loyal ally for life.
Sunday, September 6, 2015
On This Day: In 1877 Lakota warrior Crazy Horse
On This Day: In 1877 Lakota warrior Crazy Horse (Tašúŋke Witkó) was bayoneted in the back and killed. He was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota and took up arms against the U.S. Federal government to fight against encroachments on the territories and way of life of the Lakota people, including leading a war party at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876. After surrendering to U.S. troops under General Crook in 1877, Crazy Horse was fatally wounded by a military guard while resisting imprisonment (which lacked just cause) at Camp Robinson in present-day Nebraska.
150 years ago, Sept. 3, 1863, The Dakota and Lakota
150 years ago, Sept. 3, 1863, The Dakota and Lakota incident remained submerged for years. For whites, Whitestone Hill was overshadowed by the Civil War. (seems many massacres were overshadowed by Lincoln's civil war. it hasn't been forgotten, another massacre then a large monument was erected for the dead soldiers. lincoln cleared the way as planned)
Whitestone Hill: Was N.D.’s deadliest conflict, 150 years ago. It stands as the deadliest conflict ever recorded on North Dakota soil. Between 100 and 300 Dakota and Lakota Sioux men, women and children were killed, and 20 soldiers died from their wounds. After the fighting stopped, soldiers lingered for two days, burning teepees, shooting dogs as well as wounded horses and burning the Indians’ food and belongings.
An immense mound of buffalo meat – half a million pounds being dried for winter provisions – was burned. The melted tallow ran in streams down the hilly terrain. The acts of destruction ensured that even the survivors were condemned to hunger and hardship as they scattered after the attack on a sprawling Sioux encampment in Dakota Territory. But what happened on this lonely patch of rolling prairie 150 years ago, on Sept. 3, 1863, has been largely forgotten, as if swept from collective memory. The Dakota and Lakota, the incident was so painful that it remained submerged for many years. For whites, Whitestone Hill was overshadowed by the cataclysmic Civil War. The 150th anniversary observance, held last week, aimed to change that, to help heal historical wounds among descendants of the victims.
Efforts to nominate Whitestone Hill to the National Register of Historic Places have prompted a deeper examination in recent years about the enormous human suffering that came from the clash and a reappraisal of what happened and why. The U.S. Army, which was carrying out reprisal raids following the deadly 1862 Minnesota Uprising, called it the Battle of Whitestone Hill. Today, in fact, the National Park Service recognizes the site – which is in Dickey County, a 90-minute drive south from Jamestown – as a Civil War battlefield.
Descendants of the Dakota and Lakota Sioux, many of them from Yanktonai bands, use a different word to describe what happened here. They call it a massacre, with human consequences still felt today.
‘Basically forgotten’
Mary Big Moccasin had spent some glorious late summer days playing children’s games.
Her family was among the 4,000 Sioux, mostly Yanktonais and Hunkpatina, who had gathered for a late summer ritual, a trade rendezvous and buffalo hunt.
Late one afternoon, as the annual event was winding down, men in blue uniforms came swooping into her teepee village on horseback, shooting indiscriminately and surrounding the camp.
The 9-year-old girl, who became separated from her family, was unable to escape unscathed. She was shot in the leg, but was able to crawl to safety in a ravine, where she hid for several days.
She watched as the soldiers shot dogs and wounded horses and heard the cries of women and children. She was taken prisoner and held for seven years.
As an old woman, she sometimes woke up from a nightmare, screaming, “Run, run, the soldiers are coming!”
Many years later, her great-great granddaughter, Ladonna Brave Bull Allard, came across Mary Big Moccasin’s account in an archive – where she also read that the site of the conflict, whose precise location had been forgotten, was discovered 20 years later when a settler was picking up buffalo bones and discovered they were mixed with human bones.
“Oh my God, these are our relatives!” Brave Bull Allard said, recalling her reaction.
Some Indians who were killed were hastily buried, some beneath stones, but their grave locations never were recorded.
“There has never been a concrete answer” about what happened to the remains, she said. Some bodies might have been burned, she added, and some human bones likely were picked up with buffalo bones to be sold and ground into fertilizer.
The Yanktonais Sioux bands, sometimes referred to as Nakota, were widely dispersed after Whitestone, permanently separating many families whose members ended up in far-flung locations, Brave Bull Allard said.
Soldiers captured 156 women, children and old men and marched them to Fort Thompson on the Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota, where they were held as prisoners of war. Some of their descendants still live there.
Others fled to the Devils Lake area in North Dakota, Fort Peck, Mont., or Canada to join relatives. Still others, including some of Brave Bull Allard’s relatives, later ended up at the Standing Rock Reservation.
Extended family connections lost over the years are only now being pieced together through genealogical research that Brave Bull Allard and others are helping to compile.
“After Whitestone our families separated,” she said. “We are trying to find our relatives again.”
The Yanktonais, once one of the most powerful tribes of the northern Plains, who had made their home for many years in the James River Valley, never fully recovered after Whitestone Hill. The scattered bands do not have a reservation of their own.
“The ripple effects are still all around,” Brave Bull Allard said. “We (Yanktonais) have never been given anything for the loss of our land. We never signed a treaty. We’ve been basically forgotten.”
Observances evolving
Thomas Marshall, then a congressman representing North Dakota, secured a federal grant to buy 640 acres and rebury the 20 soldiers killed at Whitestone Hill.
A 30-foot granite monument topped by a bugler was erected, encircled by the soldiers’ graves on a hilltop. Marshall spoke when the memorial park was dedicated in 1914, an event attended by thousands.
For Marshall, the violence Whitestone Hill was justifiable. It cleared the way for white settlers, whom he viewed as superior to the Indians who were killed or displaced and later confined to reservations.
Lightning struck the monument in 1922, and later the North Dakota Legislature appropriated $500 for repairs to what was maintained for years as a state park.
In 1942, during dedication of improvements built by Depression-era Works Progress Administration laborers, a small concrete cairn of field stones was erected in memory to the Indians who died.
Two decades later, 6,000 spectators turned out for a two-day observance of the Whitestone centennial in 1963. The anniversary weekend, hosted by six neighboring communities, had a celebratory air. Events included a rodeo with a capacity crowd and traditional dances by students at the Indian boarding school in Wahpeton.
In recent years, the State Historical Society of North Dakota has sponsored anniversary observances, often during Labor Day weekend, with educational programs about Whitestone Hill and related events.
This year, the Aug. 24 public observance of the milestone 150th anniversary was quiet and reflective. Brave Bull Allard, one of the tribal historians consulted for the report nominating the site for national historic recognition, served as a speaker. A buffalo dinner was served.
Today, which marks the actual anniversary date, Dakota and Lakota will gather at Whitestone Hill for a private observance.
“It’s the 150th year,” Brave Bull Allard said. “We need to heal. The repercussions of what happened 150 years ago are still happening today.”
Site ‘a touchy subject’
Today the conflict surrounding Whitestone Hill involves interpretation of the bloody conflict.
The controversy is one reason it has taken so long to prepare to nominate it for the National Register of Historic Places, said Tom Isern, a history professor at North Dakota State University who studies the Dakota Conflict in Dakota Territory.
“It’s a touchy subject,” he said. “This is the most controversial Dakota War site we have in North Dakota. There’s a greater sense of injustice around this site than any other.”
Some of the Hunkpapa Lakota at the encampment probably took part in earlier clashes, and some Santee Dakota resisters from Minnesota also were present, along with refugee Santees.
The Yanktonais, the most prevalent group at Whitestone Hill, had nothing to do with the Minnesota uprising, and have a justifiable grievance over the attack, Isern said.
For some, the discussion has moved beyond whether the clash was a battle or massacre.
Aaron Barth, who is writing his doctoral dissertation in history at NDSU about events including Whitestone Hill, prefers the term, borrowed from another historian, “site of memorial, site of mourning.”
Still, he believes what happened was a massacre, and notes the general who led the Army troops, Gen. Alfred Sully, himself termed it a “slaughter.”
Dakota Goodhouse, a member of the Standing Rock tribe whose ancestry is both Hunkpapa Lakota and Yanktonai, agrees. But he doesn’t press the point.
“That is what happened, but I don’t know if North Dakota is ready for that word,” Goodhouse said. “I think massacre is such a strong, powerful, negative word.
“Memorial has a connotation to it that demands respect,” he said. Today, Whitestone Hill should be a place of prayer and reflection, he said.
Goodhouse and Barth were on the team that compiled a detailed narrative history of Whitestone Hill for the State Historical Society of North Dakota, which is preparing the nomination for the national historic register.
The application went before a state review panel Friday. An earlier version was rejected in 2010 because it was deemed to rely too much on official army reports, with insufficient input from the tribes.
Conflicting accounts, drawn from such different cultures and perspectives, are inevitable and happen all the time, Barth said.
Trying to arrive at a complete understanding is important, he said, but no
— with Lena Brown andGilbert Vega.
Whitestone Hill: Was N.D.’s deadliest conflict, 150 years ago. It stands as the deadliest conflict ever recorded on North Dakota soil. Between 100 and 300 Dakota and Lakota Sioux men, women and children were killed, and 20 soldiers died from their wounds. After the fighting stopped, soldiers lingered for two days, burning teepees, shooting dogs as well as wounded horses and burning the Indians’ food and belongings.
An immense mound of buffalo meat – half a million pounds being dried for winter provisions – was burned. The melted tallow ran in streams down the hilly terrain. The acts of destruction ensured that even the survivors were condemned to hunger and hardship as they scattered after the attack on a sprawling Sioux encampment in Dakota Territory. But what happened on this lonely patch of rolling prairie 150 years ago, on Sept. 3, 1863, has been largely forgotten, as if swept from collective memory. The Dakota and Lakota, the incident was so painful that it remained submerged for many years. For whites, Whitestone Hill was overshadowed by the cataclysmic Civil War. The 150th anniversary observance, held last week, aimed to change that, to help heal historical wounds among descendants of the victims.
Efforts to nominate Whitestone Hill to the National Register of Historic Places have prompted a deeper examination in recent years about the enormous human suffering that came from the clash and a reappraisal of what happened and why. The U.S. Army, which was carrying out reprisal raids following the deadly 1862 Minnesota Uprising, called it the Battle of Whitestone Hill. Today, in fact, the National Park Service recognizes the site – which is in Dickey County, a 90-minute drive south from Jamestown – as a Civil War battlefield.
Descendants of the Dakota and Lakota Sioux, many of them from Yanktonai bands, use a different word to describe what happened here. They call it a massacre, with human consequences still felt today.
‘Basically forgotten’
Mary Big Moccasin had spent some glorious late summer days playing children’s games.
Her family was among the 4,000 Sioux, mostly Yanktonais and Hunkpatina, who had gathered for a late summer ritual, a trade rendezvous and buffalo hunt.
Late one afternoon, as the annual event was winding down, men in blue uniforms came swooping into her teepee village on horseback, shooting indiscriminately and surrounding the camp.
The 9-year-old girl, who became separated from her family, was unable to escape unscathed. She was shot in the leg, but was able to crawl to safety in a ravine, where she hid for several days.
She watched as the soldiers shot dogs and wounded horses and heard the cries of women and children. She was taken prisoner and held for seven years.
As an old woman, she sometimes woke up from a nightmare, screaming, “Run, run, the soldiers are coming!”
Many years later, her great-great granddaughter, Ladonna Brave Bull Allard, came across Mary Big Moccasin’s account in an archive – where she also read that the site of the conflict, whose precise location had been forgotten, was discovered 20 years later when a settler was picking up buffalo bones and discovered they were mixed with human bones.
“Oh my God, these are our relatives!” Brave Bull Allard said, recalling her reaction.
Some Indians who were killed were hastily buried, some beneath stones, but their grave locations never were recorded.
“There has never been a concrete answer” about what happened to the remains, she said. Some bodies might have been burned, she added, and some human bones likely were picked up with buffalo bones to be sold and ground into fertilizer.
The Yanktonais Sioux bands, sometimes referred to as Nakota, were widely dispersed after Whitestone, permanently separating many families whose members ended up in far-flung locations, Brave Bull Allard said.
Soldiers captured 156 women, children and old men and marched them to Fort Thompson on the Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota, where they were held as prisoners of war. Some of their descendants still live there.
Others fled to the Devils Lake area in North Dakota, Fort Peck, Mont., or Canada to join relatives. Still others, including some of Brave Bull Allard’s relatives, later ended up at the Standing Rock Reservation.
Extended family connections lost over the years are only now being pieced together through genealogical research that Brave Bull Allard and others are helping to compile.
“After Whitestone our families separated,” she said. “We are trying to find our relatives again.”
The Yanktonais, once one of the most powerful tribes of the northern Plains, who had made their home for many years in the James River Valley, never fully recovered after Whitestone Hill. The scattered bands do not have a reservation of their own.
“The ripple effects are still all around,” Brave Bull Allard said. “We (Yanktonais) have never been given anything for the loss of our land. We never signed a treaty. We’ve been basically forgotten.”
Observances evolving
Thomas Marshall, then a congressman representing North Dakota, secured a federal grant to buy 640 acres and rebury the 20 soldiers killed at Whitestone Hill.
A 30-foot granite monument topped by a bugler was erected, encircled by the soldiers’ graves on a hilltop. Marshall spoke when the memorial park was dedicated in 1914, an event attended by thousands.
For Marshall, the violence Whitestone Hill was justifiable. It cleared the way for white settlers, whom he viewed as superior to the Indians who were killed or displaced and later confined to reservations.
Lightning struck the monument in 1922, and later the North Dakota Legislature appropriated $500 for repairs to what was maintained for years as a state park.
In 1942, during dedication of improvements built by Depression-era Works Progress Administration laborers, a small concrete cairn of field stones was erected in memory to the Indians who died.
Two decades later, 6,000 spectators turned out for a two-day observance of the Whitestone centennial in 1963. The anniversary weekend, hosted by six neighboring communities, had a celebratory air. Events included a rodeo with a capacity crowd and traditional dances by students at the Indian boarding school in Wahpeton.
In recent years, the State Historical Society of North Dakota has sponsored anniversary observances, often during Labor Day weekend, with educational programs about Whitestone Hill and related events.
This year, the Aug. 24 public observance of the milestone 150th anniversary was quiet and reflective. Brave Bull Allard, one of the tribal historians consulted for the report nominating the site for national historic recognition, served as a speaker. A buffalo dinner was served.
Today, which marks the actual anniversary date, Dakota and Lakota will gather at Whitestone Hill for a private observance.
“It’s the 150th year,” Brave Bull Allard said. “We need to heal. The repercussions of what happened 150 years ago are still happening today.”
Site ‘a touchy subject’
Today the conflict surrounding Whitestone Hill involves interpretation of the bloody conflict.
The controversy is one reason it has taken so long to prepare to nominate it for the National Register of Historic Places, said Tom Isern, a history professor at North Dakota State University who studies the Dakota Conflict in Dakota Territory.
“It’s a touchy subject,” he said. “This is the most controversial Dakota War site we have in North Dakota. There’s a greater sense of injustice around this site than any other.”
Some of the Hunkpapa Lakota at the encampment probably took part in earlier clashes, and some Santee Dakota resisters from Minnesota also were present, along with refugee Santees.
The Yanktonais, the most prevalent group at Whitestone Hill, had nothing to do with the Minnesota uprising, and have a justifiable grievance over the attack, Isern said.
For some, the discussion has moved beyond whether the clash was a battle or massacre.
Aaron Barth, who is writing his doctoral dissertation in history at NDSU about events including Whitestone Hill, prefers the term, borrowed from another historian, “site of memorial, site of mourning.”
Still, he believes what happened was a massacre, and notes the general who led the Army troops, Gen. Alfred Sully, himself termed it a “slaughter.”
Dakota Goodhouse, a member of the Standing Rock tribe whose ancestry is both Hunkpapa Lakota and Yanktonai, agrees. But he doesn’t press the point.
“That is what happened, but I don’t know if North Dakota is ready for that word,” Goodhouse said. “I think massacre is such a strong, powerful, negative word.
“Memorial has a connotation to it that demands respect,” he said. Today, Whitestone Hill should be a place of prayer and reflection, he said.
Goodhouse and Barth were on the team that compiled a detailed narrative history of Whitestone Hill for the State Historical Society of North Dakota, which is preparing the nomination for the national historic register.
The application went before a state review panel Friday. An earlier version was rejected in 2010 because it was deemed to rely too much on official army reports, with insufficient input from the tribes.
Conflicting accounts, drawn from such different cultures and perspectives, are inevitable and happen all the time, Barth said.
Trying to arrive at a complete understanding is important, he said, but no
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