Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community

HUALAPAI INDIAN RESERVATION, Ariz. (AP) - To leaders of the Hualapai Indian Tribe, opening a casino on the south rim of the Grand Canyon (PHOTOS)seemed like a great idea at the time.

The popular image of Indian casinos is one of prosperity, of glittering lights and crowds of gamblers and wealthy tribal members.

"Most of the tribes (with casinos) are marginally successful at best," says Jacob Coin, executive director of the

National Indian Gaming Association. "They’re not pulling in the hundreds of millions of dollars that most people tend to think about when they think of Indian gaming."

It didn’t pan out for the Kaibab-Paiute 

tribe, either, whose casino near the Arizona-Utah border closed in 1996. Or the Lummi tribe, whose casino in Washington state closed in 1997.

South Dakota’s Oglala Sioux Tribe has a similar complaint. The tribe could use a bigger casino than the one it has

under a state agreement, because the tribe’s Pine Ridge reservation is home to one of the nation’s poorest counties, said tribal treasurer Dale Looks Twice.

"While tribal gaming successes have provided no direct tangible benefits to non-gaming tribes, the non-gaming tribes nevertheless share the brunt of the Congressional backlash and unfavorable public perception," Taylor told the National Gambling Impact Study Commission last summer.

native american indian news http://newsfornatives.com gambling news casino news information about reservation politics native american vote votes
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U.S. Department of the Interior On The Web Bureau of Indian Affairs on Indian Ancestry and prospective applicants.

Thousands of people throughout the United States have some degree of Indian blood. However, unless such an individual has at least one parent legally entitled to membership in a federally recognized Indian tribe, it is improbable that he/she can qualify for special federal services available to Indians or share in assets owned by an Indian tribe. The burden of proof of Indian ancestry rests with the individual claiming possession of Indian blood.

Many people are descended from eastern tribes that disbanded before the present Government of the United States came into being in 1789. As a result, there are no existing Indian groups with which these individuals can affiliate. Other, descended from western tribes, but cannot substantiate their claim to membership in an Indian tribe due to lack of early family records.

Contrary to popular belief, Indians do not receive payments from the federal government simply because they have

Indian blood. Funds distributed to a person of Indian descent may represent income from his/her own property collected for him/her by an agent of the United States. Other disbursements to individuals may represent compensation for lands taken in connection with governmental projects, comparable to payments made to non-Indians for the acquisition of land for governmental purposes. Some Indian tribes receive income from the utilization of tribal timber and other reservation resources, a percentage of which may be distributed as per capita among the tribes membership. Individual tribal members also share in the money paid to the tribes by the federal government in fulfillment of treaty obligations. Money available for payments belongs either to the tribe or to an individual and is held in trust by the federal government. In this event, Government checks are issued in making payment to individuals or to the tribes. 

To be eligible to receive payment from tribal funds, a person, in addition to possessing Indian blood, must be a recognized member of the Indian tribe whose money is being distributed. Generally, responsibility for establishing this membership lies with the tribe and the individual. Indian tribes establish their own enrollment criteria.

The Central Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs does not maintain comprehensive lists of persons possessing Indian blood or enrollment data of every federally recognized Indian tribe. However, copies of census and membership rolls may be on file in the Bureau’s field offices. A list of these offices can be obtained from the directory "AREA OFFICES." The Area Office list identifies the states over which a particular Area Office has jurisdiction.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs publishes a list of federally recognized Indian tribes in the Federal Register. The latest publication was on October 23, 1997, (60 F.R. 55270), which can be obtained from most libraries, or accessed on the World Wide Web, Internet, at http://www.doi.gov/bia/tribes/entry.html, under the heading "Federally Recognized Native American Tribes, 10/23/97".

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Wonderful video of Jim Anderson discussing the desecration of sacred Native Sites including burial mounds. ending with a lone sad flute playing while he reads his poem entitled “Genocide”

http://www.mendotadakota.com/hoipate/Jim_Anderson_Coldwater.avi

Jim Anderson, (Red Sky) of the Mendota Dakota Mdewakanton Community discusses the importance of the sacred “Cold Water” in Pike Island (big island) Minnesota.  This starts out in native language and then in English.  Very Interesting.

This is a large file, It may take a long time to download, especial if you have a slow connection.   RIGHT CLICK HERE and select “SAVE TARGET AS”

Why not ask the Indians what happens when you don’t control immigration!

CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE

"REZ BLUES 2006"

Recorded live at Ringside Cafe, in St. Pete, Florida. 2006. Sylvia A. Duquet, Videographer/Tam
bourine…..Chaska Denny, Slide Guitar…Curt H. St. Cyr, Harmonica Alvon Griffin,
Percussionist…This was unrehearsed and impromptu, with words and music made up on the spot

History of Maple Sugar and Maple Syrup

Once a staple of American life, the sweet products of the maple tree are now specialty items. Over the years, the price of cane sugar fell dramatically, and now cane sugar is the variety most Americans use every day. The popularity of maple syrup keeps Vermont sugarhouses going. As anyone who has ever tasted it knows, genuine maple syrup has a taste and texture that the imitations just cannot match. (In Quebec, cheap imitation maple syrup is called "sirop de poteau" or "pole syrup", suggesting that it was made by tapping telephone poles. We couldn’t agree more.)

Here is an interesting article on the making "Zeezibahkwat" or Maple Syrup

also called "Ziinzibaakwad" and "Sinzibukwud"

Please click the photos below to enlarge

 

The Reservation tribal headquarters is located five miles south of Granite Falls, Minnesota, on the Minnesota River in Yellow Medicine County. The reservation is 115 miles west of Minneapolis.

History

This land we call Pejuhutazizi Kapi (The place where they dig for yellow medicine) has been the homeland for our people, the Dakota Oyate (Nation), for thousands of years. We have always occupied this area bordering the Minnesota River Valley, with the exception of a short period of time in the late 1800’s following the US/Dakota Conflict of 1862. At that time they were either exterminated, forcibly moved to reservation elsewhere, or fled to avoid harm.

Many Dakota died during that difficult time. Some of those who survived the forced removal defied

the State and Federal Governments be not remaining on the assigned reservations located outside of Minnesota, but rather chose to return to our ancient homelands in the Minnesota River Valley.

In 1938, 746 acres of original Dakota lands in Minnesota were returned to our people, and the Upper Sioux Indian Community came into existence. Provisions for governing the Upper Sioux Indian Community were adopted, and a Board of Trustees was elected to carry out the responsibilities identified in these Provisions. In 1995, the Provisions were modified and the governing document in now called the Constitution of the Upper Sioux Community.

Since its formal designation as an Indian community, Upper Sioux has struggled with poverty, substandard housing, inadequate health care, and the subtleties of racism. Tribal leaders continually strived to improve the standard of living and the quality of life on the reservation. The population was small, and Upper Sioux’s share of program monies from the federal government was minimal, yet elected tribal leaders still managed to provide the “bare-bones” programs in housing, health care, and education.  Through the 1970’s and 80’s, conditions improved very little despite many vocal supporters, both Indian and non-Indian, and we continued to struggle for survival on our small tract of land along the Minnesota River.

In the late 1980’s the legal standing of tribes as a sovereign nations had been acknowledged in the highest federal courts. In 1990, following these court decisions, the Upper Sioux Community did as many other tribes had done—we exercised our rights as a sovereign nations to capitalize on a financial opportunity by building and opening Firefly Creek Casino.

In the years since, our business has helped to revitalize and energize the Upper Sioux Community, allowing us an opportunity to obtain economic independence. Through obtaining an additional 654 acres of Dakota ancestral lands, the community can work towards meeting the growing demands of an increasing population, now at 482.  We are finding ways to preserve our dignity, our culture and our traditions, free from the burden of meeting basic survival needs. 

More Information

Upper Sioux website: http://www.uppersiouxcommunity-nsn.gov

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux (Dakota) Community, a federally-recognized Native American tribe, issued the following news release:

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community has awarded a $1 million grant to the Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe for renovation of the Grand Portage Lodge and Casino. The Lodge was first built in 1974. The first phase of the work will include the lodge and its lobby area. The second phase may include renovations to the casino itself.

"The whole community here really appreciates that Shakopee helped us. Some of these projects would not come to be without their assistance. This really fits into our long-term goal of improving Grand Portage into a destination point for travelers," said Grand Portage Chairman Norman W. Deschampe.

"Our Community supports tribal economic development. The Grand Portage Band has a great project here, and we are pleased to help it along," said SMSC Chairman Stanley R. Crooks.

The Grand Portage Reservation, established in 1854 by treaty with the United States government, is one of six Ojibwe (Chippewa) reservations that comprise the federally recognized Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. The reservation lies along 18 miles of Lake Superior’s coast and consists of forested mountains, thriving wildlife, the inland sea of Lake Superior, and cliffside corridors. Grand Portage is as close to Canada as it is to the nearest town. The reservation also features the reconstructed Grand Portage National Monument, a fur trade fort of the 1700s. The Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe has 1,198 band members.

In 2003 the SMSC awarded Grand Portage a $1.5 million economic development grant for a new, modern trading post and convenience store on Highway 61 in front of Grand Portage Lodge and Casino in northeastern Minnesota.

Out of cultural and social traditions to assist those in need, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community has become a leader in promoting tribal sovereignty through economic development grants and loans. Already in fiscal year 2005, the SMSC has awarded economic development grants of $1 million each to the Yankton Sioux Tribe (South Dakota), the Lower Sioux Community (Minnesota), the Santee Sioux Nation (Nebraska); the Ponca Tribe (Nebraska); the Upper Sioux Community (Minnesota), and the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa (Minnesota).

Other major SMSC donations this fiscal year include: $750,000 to the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation; $500,000 to United Sioux Tribes Technical College; $350,000 to the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe; $250,000 to the Bennett County Activity Center for a district of the Pine Ridge Reservation; $250,000 to the Minneapolis American Indian Center; $250,000 to the Cheyenne River Youth Project; $150,000 to the Yankton Sioux Tribe; and $50,000 to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.

In fiscal year 2004, the SMSC donated more than $10.27 million to charitable organizations and Indian Tribes. Over the past six years the SMSC has donated more than $42 million to charitable organizations and Indian Tribes. The SMSC utilizes its financial resources from gaming and nongaming enterprises to pay for all of the internal infrastructure of the Tribe, including but not limited to housing, roads, water and sewer systems, emergency services, and essential services to its Tribal members in education, health, and welfare. The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, a federally recognized Indian Tribe in Minnesota is the owner and operator of Mystic Lake Casino Hotel, Little Six Casino, Playworks, Dakotah! Sport and Fitness, and other enterprises on the reservation south of the Twin Cities.

Master Sgt.Woodrow Wilson Keeble receives award posthumously
WASHINGTON - A Sioux warrior received overdue recognition from the president of the United States.

On March 3, Army Master Sgt. Woodrow Wilson ”Woody” Keeble, who passed away nearly 26 years ago, became one of a select few to receive the Medal of Honor during an overflowing White House ceremony packed with tribal dignitaries, military leaders and proud family members. Keeble is believed to be the first Native person of full Sisseton-Wahpeton ancestry to be given the award.
While American Indians as a group have long been recognized as having an above-average commitment to serving in the American armed services, fewer than 10 individual Indians have received the Medal of Honor, the highest award for valor bestowed by the American government for action against an enemy force.
A pride-filled Russell Hawkins, Keeble’s stepson who is also of Sisseton-Wahpeton descent, was in attendance in the East Room to accept the medal from an apologetic President George W. Bush. Also in attendance were Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, as well as South Dakota Sens. Tim Johnson and John Thune, Democrat and Republican, respectively; Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D.; and former South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow, a Republican.
Bush admitted openly that the recognition of Keeble’s courageous acts during the Korean War should have been bestowed many years ago - long before Keeble’s death in 1982. However, due to a series of bureaucratic blunders, and perhaps racism, the president said the honor did not come until this year.
”On behalf of our grateful nation, I deeply regret that this tribute comes decades too late,” Bush said at the ceremony. ”Woody will never hold this medal in his hands or wear it on his uniform. He will never hear a president thank him for his heroism. He will never stand here to see the pride of his friends and loved ones, as I see in their eyes now.”
Bush described the long time it took the military man to be recognized as a ”terrible injustice,” but added that Keeble ”believed America was the greatest nation on Earth, even when it made mistakes.”
Keeble’s family and friends explained after the ceremony that tribal members and politicians from the Dakota region had long been pushing for Keeble’s strategic military efforts during the Korean War to be properly recognized.
In October 1951, Keeble saved the lives of fellow American soldiers by fending off several Chinese enemies on a steep hill, while he himself was wounded as a result of two rifle shots to the arm and a grenade exploding near his face.
”Soldiers watched in awe as Woody single-handedly took out one machine gun nest, and then another,” Bush recalled during the ceremony. ”When Woody was through, all 16 enemy soldiers were dead, the hill was taken, and the Allies won the day.”
Keeble, who was known by his fellow soldiers as ”Chief,” first saw intense combat during World War II, for which he earned his first Bronze Star and the first of his four Purple Hearts. An athletic man, Keeble was being recruited by the Chicago White Sox before he was first called to duty. Later, with Keeble’s opportunity to play professional baseball having passed, he returned to service as a master sergeant.
”There were terrible moments that encompassed a lifetime, an endlessness, when terror was so strong in me, that I could feel idiocy replace reason,” Keeble once said of his service, according to the Army. ”Yet, I have never left my position, nor have I shirked hazardous duty. Fear did not make a coward out of me.”
Army men twice recommended that Keeble receive the Medal of Honor in the 1950s, but their applications were apparently lost by the military both times. When family members tried to renew the effort to get Keeble his award in the 1970s, they were told by Pentagon officials that the legal deadline had passed. He was instead given the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army’s second-highest commendation.
Later, family members renewed their attempts, but were told that it would take an act of Congress for Keeble to receive the award. After many pleas from tribal members, the four current U.S. senators from North Dakota and South Dakota introduced legislation to award Keeble the medal. President Bush ultimately signed the legislation in 2007, which paved the way for the Department of Defense to recognize Keeble’s bravery.
”Master Sgt. Keeble’s family first contacted me in 2002 and I have been fighting ever since to get him the recognition he deserves,” Johnson said in a statement. ”The Keeble family, the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, and all the people of the Dakotas today have reason to celebrate and remember his service and valor.”
Kurt Bluedog, a great-nephew to Keeble, said after the ceremony that he’d like to believe that racism wasn’t involved in his uncle’s slow-to-come recognition, adding, ”I think this kind of thing happens more often than we think.”
Hawkins also discounted racism, saying that he didn’t think Keeble would have said the missing papers were a case of discrimination. ”He didn’t see racial colors,” Hawkins said. ”He didn’t see racial barriers.”
Family members now plan to display the Medal of Honor in a public place, such as a museum or the North Dakota National Guard armory. They hope it will be viewed as a symbol of pride for the Sisseton-Wahpeton people, as well as all American Indians.
Hawkins said he accepted Bush’s word that the ceremony was an attempt to ‘’set things right” and that his stepfather knew that he had ”done right.”
After his service in Korea, Keeble returned to North Dakota, where he worked as a counselor until suffering a series of strokes. Living in poverty in his later years, he was forced to pawn all of his military medals. He died in 1982 at age 65 and is buried in Sisseton, S.D.
During the White House ceremony, a chair decorated with an Army uniform once worn by Keeble was displayed prominently beside a chair bestowing the red shawl of his late wife, Blossom Iris Crawford-Hawkins.

Mendota Mdwakanton Dakota Community’s letter of support:
August 12, 2004
To Whom It Should Concern:
I believe that renaming the river "Wakpa Wakan" or "Spirit River" is a great stride in mending the circle that we share with all four colors of man. We, as Dakotas, are very happy that there are people out there that are trying to understand that by using names like "rum" and "devil" to label sacred sites and places is degrading to our children, our elders and also to our ancestors. These places were already named in our language by our people because of their special meaning. When we have to tell our children why these places have been named after a poison or the worst words in their language. It is demoralizing to us to have to explain why a place is named after the same things that helped to steal our land and language. To have to be reminded of the cultural genocide that has been perpetrated on all Indian people. So, in changing the name back to the Dakota language, it will help in the healing process that our people continue to deal with.
Many schools and teams have already changed their names in respect to our children and adults. It promotes us to be proud of our heritage, language and culture, to respect themselves and being Indian in our own homeland. I am writing in support of the name change of the Rum River.
We, as the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota, request the County Commissioners in the affected counties to support our hope of righting this wrong. Please do the respectful and moral thing and change this disrespectful and culturally damaging name.
Respectfully yours,
Jim Anderson Cultural Chairman
Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community
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In a Star Tribune newspaper artcile about the movement to change the derogatory Rum River name Jim Anderson was quoted as saying: "It’s another derogatory term." "Naming a sacred river after what they were binging up to our people is wrong. We’re in favor of the name change."
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In a Mille Lacs Messenger newspaper article, subtitled: "300 gather to note the toll by alcohol abuse", Melvin Eagle, a prominent member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe is quoted as saying: "Alcoholism is not our traditional way. We need to try to pull together and away from alcohol because it is destroying our people." Now-a-days, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe live at the headwaters of the "Rum River". Rum and other alcoholic beverages are still destroying Native people located on the headwaters of the "Rum" River.
During prohibition there was a movement to change the name of the "Rum River". A lot of people did not want geographic places to have names that helped the alcohol industry to advertise and sell its addictive products that were harmful to society, as was the case with the "Rum" River.
When a geographic place is located near a Native community that is plagued with alcoholism - we especially do not what it to be named Rum, Whiskey nor by any other alcohol beverage. This is another reason why we initiated and are spearheading the movement to change the name of the "Rum River". The headwaters of the Wakan/"Rum" River are located next to the Mille Lacs Band Of Ojibwe, a Native community suffering with the plague of alcoholism.
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MORE ABOUT OUR MISSION’S PURPOSE
We believe that the restoration of the river’s original name would help uplift the Indian community, which has been historically plagued by alcoholism.
When Europeans came to the Americas they brought rum and other alcoholic beverages with them. At the time, the Natives had no cultural controls in place for their usage. Hence, because of alcohol abuse, things for the Natives moved into degradation and multitudes of premature deaths. This situation was made even worse by the White’s frequent use of alcohol in ruthless genocidal attacks, alcohol was given to the Natives in order to kill, subdue, or cheat them.
We believe that by drawing attention to the "Rum River" name-change issue "white guilt" will increase, because of a heightened awareness of the catastrophic consequences caused by white settlers introducing and selling alcohol to Native Americans; and that this increase of "white guilt" will, in a lot of ways, cause white Euro-Americans or the dominate culture to offer all Native Americans their long over due restitution justice. Especially when it comes to making amends to help Native Americans to free themselves from the plague of alcoholism.
We believe that, by reverting the derogatory name of the "Rum River" back to its original Native American name (Wakan), we would be honoring the importance of spirituality for American Indians.
We believe that the "Rum River" name has become like a joke - an antagonistic joke that’s very antagonistic, and that by changing the river’s name we would be putting an end to a source of racial antagonism.

Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community Pow Wow in Minnesota. Jim Anderson, the Cultural Chair for the Mdewakanton Dakota community and a leading activist for Minnesota’s Dakota people, asked Thomas Dahlheimer set up a stand and display information about my work. Anderson addressed the pow wow participants about the bill to change 14 derogatory location names across Minnesota including Rum River (Photo by Thomas Dahlheimer)

CLICK FOR KIRBY SATTLER WEBSITE

Kirby Sattler

The work of Kirby Sattler is fueled by an inherent interest in the Indigenous Peoples of the Earth. His current images evolve from the history, ceremony, mythology, and spirituality of the Native American. Sattler’s ultra-detailed interpretations examine the inseparable relationship between the Indian and his natural world, reflecting a culture that had no hard line between the sacred and the mundane. Each painting functions on the premise that all natural phenomena have … MORE

Origins of the Smoke Signal
By Grandmother Selma 

A gentle……almost magical…..puff of smoke rises up toward the clouds and heavens, floating, suspended in space, lifting then gradually disappearing, being consumed by the earth surrounding it and the breath of the wind that carries it.

An ancient skill of communication and survival, one that is simplistic in design, yet, universal versatility.   A skill of the Native American Indians, also of the ancient Chinese and presently used by the Boy Scouts of America.

The ” sending station” was a high location that would be visible from another high location.  The individual sender laid flammable material ( logs etc. ) on a fire bed that was of controlled size and design.   Many of these were referred to as ” fire bowls in earth Mother”.

For the most part the signals or code was pre-arranged between the sender and the receiver.  There was no universal code for shapes, frequency or multiples of puffs. 

To have established a “set” series of signals equating to consistent meaning would have allowed enemies to ” read” the communication as well.

” Fire bowls”  have been located and studied on distinct hill tops and are saucer shaped depressions, round or square, five to eight feet across and lined with field stones. 

The size, shape and depth of the ” fire bowl” was in direct relation to the amount and type of ” fuel” to burn to produce the needed smoke.

The stone lining aided in controlling the fire from escape and also provided ” props” or  “braces” which poles could be laid across with either skins or blankets attached, allowing for control and manipulation of the smoke to produce “puffs” of visible shape and size.

Some of these ” fire bowls”  or pits have been mapped and studied as they lay in close proximity to the ” Warrior Path” that ran between encampments of Shawnee near the Scioto River and Ohio River near Richmondale.  This ridge and ” path” of location ranges from elevations of six hundred and nine hundred feet.

In general Smoke Signals could signal danger, warning, call the people to a common meeting area, and transmitting  news.   Smoke could be made to curl in spirals, ascend in puffs or circles, even parallel lines.   Some signals resembled the letter V or Y and some were zigzag.  There were a few overall accepted meanings ….. as three puffs in rapid succession usually indicated danger.

Amongst the Apache, the sighting of one puff quickly losing its geometric shape indicated that a strange party had been spotted approaching.  If those ” puffs” were frequent and rapidly repeated, it transmitted the message that  ” the stranger approaching” was in fact many in number and armed.

The burning of wood has always been symbolic of transformation.  Changing one tangible form into another or others.  In this case usually wood being transformed to new elements, ash, lye, smoke, heat and water vapor.  Isn’t it somewhat amazing that indigenous peoples utilized one aspect of this transformation of the smoke to communicate amongst the people even over long distance? 

When the sender ” released” the message the receiver would then often times, become the new sender to another receiver,  often many times over. 

Therefore, in this fashion the information could be transmitted over vast geographic areas with accuracy.