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Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Intergenerational Trauma: Onigamiising: Seasons of an Ojibwe Year (new book)

‘Onigamiising’: an Ojibwe Woman’s Life

Linda LeGarde Grover’s ‘Onigamiising’ is lyrical, insightful and very personal

Now a grandmother in the fourth season of her life, Linda LeGarde Grover, Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe, has crafted 50 short essays that address what she characterizes as “contemporary and historical Ojibwe life in northeastern Minnesota from my perspective as an Ojibwe woman.” Each is a finely nuanced reflection on the spiritual and the mundane, the everyday and the extraordinary, the seasons of the year and the seasons of a life.
Linda LeGarde Grover
Courtesy Brett Groehler
Linda LeGarde Grover

“Our time on Mother Earth will end, but we mindimooyag dash akiiwensii know that when our seasons have completed there is continuity beyond our existence as individuals. Biboon [winter] leads that greater life to what always follows, which is another spring [Ziigwan] and thus the continuation of the story,” explains Grover in her introductory observations.
Written over ten years, the volume of essays is titled Onigamiising: Seasons of an Ojibwe Year (University of Minnesota Press, October 2017). Onigamiising is the Ojibwe word for Duluth, where Grover was born, as were her grandparents—and her grandchildren. A great part of what she is writing about is continuity—of family, language, customs and culture. An important preserver of that continuity for the Ojibwe is storytelling, of which this collection is a superb example.
Considering hankies, moccasins, dream catchers and urban chickens, Grover escorts us through her personal landscape, recalling a childhood summer [Niibin] graced by an ersatz vehicle made from the discarded frame of a worn-out baby buggy, a visit to the temperature-controlled Tweed Museum of Art on a hot and steamy afternoon, the gatherings and rituals of women: wedding showers, the collective sewing of ribbon skirts, and a tea party/luncheon/baby shower arranged by a plethora of girl cousins—all in the service of Mino-bimaadiziwin, the living of a good life, a concept that is “at the foundation of traditional Anishinaabe teaching and learning,” she writes.
Grover talks about the trauma of the boarding school era between 1879 and 1934, when most Indian children were removed from their homes, and notes that the children were not the only ones to suffer grievous harm.
She refers back repeatedly to the federal Indian boarding school system that damaged so many lives and led to what she prefers to call intergenerational, rather than historical, trauma. And she delights in writing about the children, grandchildren, cousins and relatives whom she has had the privilege of helping to raise—all in the gentlest possible lyrical prose that is a joy to read.
“The privilege and blessing of raising children were cruelly denied, which hurt tribes and communities far beyond the family unit,” she writes. “The heart’s blood of a nation is its families, and the future of a nation is its children.”

Onigamiising: Seasons of an Ojibwe Year will be published in early October.

Monday, August 21, 2017

Tribal Justice | POV | PBS

Tribal Justice | POV | PBS: In Tribal Justice, two Native American judges reach back to traditional concepts of justice in order to reduce incarceration rates, foster greater safety for their communities, and create a more positive future for their youth. A co-production of Vision Maker Media and American Documentary | POV.



TONITE

Pikwakanagan host 30th Pow Wow

This year's Pow Wow was dedicated to the Scoop survivors of the 1960s. The Sixties Scoop refers to the practice of taking, or “scooping up,” children of Aboriginal peoples in Canada from their families for placing in foster homes or adoption beginning in the 1960s and continuing until the late 1980s. An estimated 20,000 aboriginal children were taken from their families and fostered or adopted out to primarily white middle-class families, some within Canada and some in the U.S. or Western Europe. Earlier this year, Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba ruled that the federal government failed in its common law duty of care to failed to take reasonable steps to prevent thousands of on-reserve children who were placed with non-native families from losing their indigenous heritage.

READ: Pikwakanagan host 30th Pow Wow | Pembroke Daily Observer

Sunday, August 20, 2017

Minnesota law thwarts adoptees' quest to know their roots


A national movement led by adoptees has improved access to adoption records in 19 states since 1997. This year, thousands of people in New Jersey and Pennsylvania will see their original birth certificates for the first time. Adoptees in Missouri and Arkansas will get that chance starting next year.
When children are adopted in Minnesota, the state creates a new birth certificate with the child’s adopted name. Adoptees who have requested original birth certificates from the state Department of Health are often surprised to get a call back from the private agency that handled their adoption.
That’s because Minnesota law requires that agencies try to find the birth parents before honoring an adoptee’s request for original birth certificates. About 5 percent of birth parents have notified the state ahead of time about their preferences. Ninety percent of them said they welcome their names being known.


What the hell is wrong with you Minnesota?

Source: Minnesota law is thwarting adoptees' quest to learn roots - StarTribune.com

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Carlisle report: Remains don't match - not Little Plume

Students at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, circa 1900.

Exhumed remains don't match 19th century Indian child, in fact contains two unidentified sets
CARLISLE, Pa. — According to the Associated Press, the remains unearthed at a Pennsylvania Army base don't match the Native American child thought to have been buried there after dying at the government-run Carlisle Indian Industrial School in the 19th century, authorities said Friday.

The U.S. Army said Friday the grave thought to contain 10-year-old Little Plume, also called Hayes Vanderbilt Friday, doesn't match his age, and in fact contains two sets of unidentified remains.
The remains of 15-year-old Little Chief, also known as Dickens Nor, and 14-year-old Horse, also called Horace Washington, do match and will be returned to a Northern Arapaho delegation on Monday. They'll be reburied in Wyoming's Wind River Reservation.

The grave with Little Plume's headstone contains remains from a teenage male and another person of undetermined age or sex. They will be reinterred at the site.

The government-run Carlisle Indian Industrial School, founded by an Army officer, took drastic steps to separate Native American students from their culture, including cutting their braids, dressing them in military-style uniforms and punishing them for speaking their native languages. They were forced to adopt European names.

More than 10,000 Native American children were taught there and endured harsh conditions that sometimes led to death from such diseases as tuberculosis.

The exhumations began early Tuesday at the post cemetery on the grounds of the Carlisle Barracks, which today houses the U.S. Army War College.

Seventeen members of the Northern Arapaho tribe, including tribal elders and young people, came to Carlisle to take part in the process. In 2016, the tribe had formally requested the bodies be returned to them.

"The U.S. Army honored its promise to reunite Native American families with their children who died more than 100 years ago at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School," Army National Military Cemeteries Executive Director Karen Durham-Aguilera said in a statement. "We are thankful to the Northern Arapaho families for their patience and collaboration during this process."

Editors Note: This is so wrong. And we are expecting them to find more remains that are not officially registered.

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Billings Gazette Piece on the #ICWA Court in Yellowstone County

The most difficult cases in Montana District Courts involve children who have been abused or neglected in their own homes.
When children are in danger, judges must decide where and with whom they will live, making rulings that could affect the children for life.
When Native American children are involved, the legal situation is more complex. In addition to state law, the federal Indian Child Welfare Act must be applied, and the child’s tribe is part of the decision making.
At any given time, the number of Native American children in Montana’s foster care system is much higher than their 10 percent share of the total child population would suggest.
In Yellowstone County last year, 43 percent of the 550 civil child abuse and neglect cases filed involved children who are tribal members or eligible for membership. But there hasn’t been court resources dedicated specifically to improving outcomes for ICWA children — until now.

READ: Gazette opinion: Bringing Indian foster kids home | Editorial | billingsgazette.com

Monday, August 7, 2017

Returning Home


American Indian Children Buried in Carlisle for a Century to be Disinterred


Published August 7, 2017
Editor’s Note: This article was published on PENNLIVE. 

CARLISLE, PENNSYLVANIA – It has been more than a century, but they are finally going home.
Three Native American children, buried at what is now the Carlisle Barracks, will be disinterred on Tuesday, starting the process of returning their remains to their rightful home in Wyoming, capping decades of efforts to get them there.
The three children are members of the Northern Arapaho Nation and are among the 200 who died when they were students at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
Read more …

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Remembering our friend Cynthia Lammers

Cynthia Lammers (center photo)

  • Kearney resident, 51

FUNK — Cynthia S. “Cindy” Lammers, 51, of Kearney died Tuesday, July 11, 2017, near Funk.
Private family memorial services will be later.
There will be no visitation. Horner Lieske McBride & Kuhl Funeral and Cremation Services is in charge of arrangements.
——
Cindy was born on Feb. 10, 1966, in Rosebud, S.D. She grew up in Kearney and graduated from Kearney High School in 1984. She then attended Central Community College. She married Mike Splitter in Kearney on Aug. 14, 1993. They later divorced.
Cindy worked at Mount Carmel Home and Rehabilitation Center in Kearney. She enjoyed fishing and camping.
Surviving relatives include her father, LeRoy K. Lammers of Kearney; sister, Shellie Ingersoll and her husband, Odee, of Kearney; stepbrothers, John Moss and Jeff Moss, both of Fort Wayne, Ind., David Blankenship and his wife, Sandy, of Alliance and Johnny Blankenship and his wife, Jennifer, of Lincoln; also many nieces, nephews, aunts and uncles.
Cindy was preceded in death by her mother, Norma Lammers; brother, Mitch Lammers; grandparents; stepbrother, Earl Soden; and birth mother, Amy Standing Soldier-Busch.
Memorials are suggested to the Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, S.D.
Visit www.hlmkfuneral.com to leave a tribute or message of condolence.


Photo from the memorial on August 4 (Jessica photo)
Cynthia (Sherry Standing Soldier of Rosebud) contributed her story to the book CALLED HOME: THE ROADMAP, published last year. Our hearts are heavy... Cynthia had finally found her brothers who were also adopted out... Trace 
A roadside marker where she was killed (Family Photo)

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Am I Indian?

Tale of Discovery  ‘Am I Indian?’: A young man’s journey to reclaim identity
Growing up, Matthew Shorting knew that he was Indigenous — but didn’t know much more than that. Join Matthew on his journey of discovery as he seeks to find out more about his Indian heritage.
For the entire NewFire article visit here.


more stories from this episode




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