A bad spirit rides through the Oklahoma Department of Corrections and thinks to himself, “Nay, keep moving.” Then he rides on to the Center Point Halfway House in Oklahoma City where David Dobbs is the program director and says to himself, “Nay, keep moving, he’s full.” Last, he rides and sees the people that participate … Continued
Long before the arrival of Europeans, the Pacific Ocean provided the Indian Nations of California with an abundance of shellfish: clam, abalone, mussel, olivella, and dentalium. These provided not only food, but the shells were the raw material for beads, jewelry, currency, and fishhooks. Archaeology has found that clamshells – Saxidomus nuttalli and Tivela stultorum … Continued
When the Europeans arrived in North America, they simply assumed that their concept of family was universal, moral, natural, and divinely-inspired. If there were any other kinds of families they must be immoral and inferior. For the Europeans, family implied a male-dominated institution, one run by the male in the household and whose children belonged … Continued
About 350 CE, the Maya city of El Zotz was founded in what is now Guatemala. The Maya name for the city is Pa’Chan which is translated as “Split Sky” or as “Citadel Sky.” The designation “El Zotz” comes from the many bats living in the caves on the site: zotz is the Maya term … Continued
In American Indian cultures, art is not separate from daily life. Traditionally, the things people used in their everyday life-clothing, tools, housing, containers-were often decorated to enhance their beauty and their spirituality. Prior to the European invasion, the Indian people of the Plateau area-roughly the area between the Rocky Mountains and the Cascade Mountains in … Continued
The Genoa Industrial Indian School was started in 1884 in a one-room school that had been originally built for the Pawnee before the tribe was removed from Nebraska to Oklahoma. The school had an initial enrollment of 74 students. Over time, the school would grow to have an enrollment of nearly 600 students from 10 … Continued
The Sonoran Desert stretches across Southern Arizona and Northern Sonora (Mexico). It is a hot, dry place. It is also the homeland for Indian people who call themselves O’odham. The name O’odham means “we, the people.” The Spanish, the first European people to enter the area, called them Pimas Altos meaning Upper Pima Indians. … Continued
In 1998, Congress, in its infinite wisdom, passed the National Park Service Concessions Management Improvement Act which was intended to open up the bidding process for national park concessions and make them more competitive. At the present time there are about 600 concession contracts at 120 national park units. While national parks are public … Continued
In 1702 a war broke out between England and France which would later be known as Queen Anne’s War, the War of Spanish Succession, and the French and Indian War. While the war was fought primarily in Europe, in North America it became a struggle between the European powers for control of the continent. While … Continued
Montana state Republicans introduced a bill in the legislature to designate the Winchester Model 1873 as the state rifle and honor it as “the gun that won the west.” However, Native American legislators objected to the legislation pointing out that American Indians couldn’t honor a weapon that had brought devastation to their people. The Democratic … Continued
