Sitting Bull or Tatanka Iyotanka, as he was known in his language, was a Dakota Indian from the Hunkpapa Band of Sioux Indians, a respected medicine man, and one of the last free Sioux leaders. On August 23, 1932, Mr. Z. M. Hamilton, a journalist for the “Leader Post” newspaper of Regina, Saskatchewan, referred to the Battle of Little Big Horn as “a massacre.” This term was very incorrect. The Sioux were defending their territory, liberty, homes, and their own…
he Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation have lived in Central and South Central Washington since time immemorial. The lands of the Yakama extended in all directions along the Cascade Mountain Range to the Columbia River and beyond.
The Lakota constellations are visible in the winter sky, and they reflect Lakota mythology. A notable aspect of that mythology is that every event and object on earth has a correspondent in the sky.
Many days passed before the joy of that day settled deeply into my heart and I could move forward to thinking on the realities of the present situation of the buffalo on our People. The senseless slaughter of 60 million buffalo brought the herds to the point of extinction.
As we completed our prayers, we all sat there with the buffalo herd in silence. The buffalo had been making their low, gentle calls back and forth to each other during the entire time we had been praying and singing for and with them. Yet at the end of the prayers, we all, as one family, sat in peace and silence together. Slowly the real world began to slip back into the moment and the sounds of bustling tourists and…
One breath at a time and one second at a time adds together to a life well lived or one filled with sadness at missed opportunities to make the world a better place. On this September day there was peace, prayers, songs and the drum joining together with the buffalo and humans in a meadow where time seemed to stand still.