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PROFILE: Adam Fortunate Eagle Nordwall

Picture of Adam Fortunate Eagle NordwalL

Hits: 1668 FALLON, Nev. — “It is difficult to miss Adam Fortunate Eagle Nordwall’s two-acre spread on the Paiute-Shoshone Reservation. There, rising like a sacred temple out of the dusty brush, stand stacks of 5,000 fraying tires, reinforced with rusted cans and sand. They serve as the walls for what may be the first entirely recycled Native American roundhouse — even if it’s still only half-built after a decade. “It’s a work in progress,” says Nordwall, 73, who admits the…

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Roman Nose, Cheyenne war chief

Henry Roman Nose (Vohko Xenehe) 1823-1868 was Northern Cheyenne Chief.

Roman Nose (c. 1823 – September 17, 1868), also known as Hook Nose (Cheyenne: Vóhko’xénéhe, also spelled Woqini and Woquini), was a Native American war chief of the Northern Cheyenne tribe. He was called Môséškanetsénoonáhe (“Bat”) as a youth. He later took the warrior name Wokini, which the whites rendered as Roman Nose. Considered invincible in combat, this fierce warrior distinguished himself in battle to such a degree that the U.S. military mistook him for the Chief of the entire Cheyenne nation. He…

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Traditional War Stories & Wounded Knee 1973

Many of our people have forgotten the traditional way “War Stories” are used and respected in the sacred ceremonies of the people of the Sundance and Pipe, we who have always lived in the center of our turtle island. Long ago our wise ancestors understood that a powerful moment in time existed when a warrior performed a great deed and tested himself to the ultimate.  In english we call them war stories but in our own languages the story and…

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Frank Blackhorse

Frank Blackhorse (Francis DeLuca, Frank Leonard Deluca, Cherokee) is one of several aliases used by a member of the American Indian Movement. He is perhaps best known for his participation in the Wounded Knee incident, particularly his role in the shootout that left two FBI and one American Indian dead and for becoming a fugitive on the run who fled to Canada shortly after. Much of Blackhorse’s early and personal life is shrouded in mystery. According to one source, Frank Blackhorse was born Frank Leonard Deluca. However, another source identifies Frank…

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Wesley Bad Heart Bull

Just one month before the Wounded Knee siege, Wesley Bad Heart Bull, Oglala Sioux, (June 10, 1952-January 27, 1973) was  the victim of a murder in which Darrell Schmitz stabbed Bad Heart Bull to death outside a bar. This was Schmidt’s second assault on a Native American. A friend of Bad Heart Bull claimed Schmidt had said earlier in the evening “he was going to kill him an Indian.” Schmidt was charged with second degree involuntary manslaughter, a common charge given to…

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Clyde Bellecourt, Cofounder of AIM

clyde bellecourt. 2jpg

Clyde Bellecourt or Nee-gon-we-way-we-dun which means “Thunder Before the Storm.” White Earth Ojibwe (born May 8, 1936) was a cofounder of AIM in 1968.  He was the group’s first chairman. He continues to direct national and international AIM activities, is a coordinator of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media, and leads Heart of the Earth, Inc., an Interpretive Center in Minneapolis.

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