“Call me whatever you want, as long as you do it with respect,” he answered.Ī mother-of-pearl and bone mask pendant by Seattle artist Jerry Chris Van Dyke (aka Jerry Witten) who falsely claimed to be Native American. Several years ago, VOA asked Chase Iron Eyes, a Hunkpapa Lakota activist from the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. The United Nations defines “Indigenous” as the descendants of those who inhabited a country or region at the time of conquest or colonization by another group.Īnd some tribes find the term offensive, believing it carries negative implications. For some, it refers to an ethnic culture that has never migrated away from its homeland and is neither a settler nor a colonizer. “Indigenous” is a word with different definitions. Many Native Americans continue to use the term, as it was the legal term used in treaties with the federal government. “Indian” was the name that explorer Christopher Columbus gave the people he encountered, assuming he had landed in India. Cornel Pewewardy said he prefers Nʉmʉnʉʉ “the People,” which is what the Comanche people have always called themselves.īut how to refer to America’s original populations generally? “There’s a lot of terms that have been bounced around, and you’ll never find any universal acceptance from that from anybody because it’s just too complex,” Kiowa Tribe Chairman Lawrence SpottedBird said.Ĭomanche Nation Vice Chairman Dr. Oklahoma TV station KSWO this week posed that question to two tribal leaders. Indian? Native American? What to call America’s first peoples? law and therefore deserved all legal protections. Dundy declared for the first time that an Indian was a person within the meaning of U.S. In a landmark ruling on May 12, 1879, Judge Elmer S. He sued the federal government for his freedom, arguing before the court, “I am a man. Standing Bear honored that wish but was arrested for leaving Oklahoma. His daughter Prairie Flower died along the way, and within a year, a third of the tribe died of disease and starvation, including his son Bear Shield, whose dying wish was to be buried back home. He saw his tribe through their forced removal in 1877 from homelands in Nebraska to Indian Country. Postal Service has released a postage stamp honoring Ponca Tribe Chief Standing Bear, one of the nation’s most important civil rights figures. Postal Service commemorates legendary Ponca leader Postal Service has issued this new stamp honoring civil rights icon and Ponca leader Standing Bear (Ma-chú-nu-zhe). war and conflict since the American Revolution, and as Rickert notes, have the highest record of military service per capita of any other racial or ethnic group in the U.S. Native Americans and/or Alaska Natives have served in every U.S. She is remembered as the first female soldier to die in Iraq and the first Native American woman to die serving her country. Army Specialist Lori Ann Piestewa, a citizen of the Hopi Nation, who died when her convoy was ambushed in Nasiriyah, Iraq, on March 23, 2003. Levi Rickert, a citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation in Kansas and founder/editor of Native News Online, marked the occasion by reflecting on Native Americans’ long and proud tradition of military service.Īmong those who have paid the ultimate price is U.S. May 29 was Memorial Day, a day to remember those Americans who have died serving their country. Remembering fallen Native American service members Lori Piestewa, remembered as the first Native American woman to die in combat on foreign soil.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |