NOMAAN MERCHANT 02/13/11 03:48 PM ZIEBACH COUNTY, S.D. – In the barren grasslands of Ziebach County, there’s almost nothing harder to find in winter than a job. This is America’s poorest county, where more than 60 percent of people live at or below the poverty line. At a time when the weak economy is squeezing … Continued
Cross-posted at Daily Kos Sherry Cornelius of St. Francis Energy has sent us more photos of our Rosebud rezidents saying *THANK YOU* to you all for helping them get through another harsh winter in South Dakota. One wonderful couple donated $1000 two weeks ago! From my last diary I sent a $700 check collected from … Continued
How does the American Indian improve his life today? If he’s not completely strapped down by the terrible conditions of most of our reservations he or she would get involved with politics. That’s how we change things. It was good for us that groups like INDN’s List existed to help elect American Indians to public … Continued
( – promoted by navajo) One of the common sayings in Indian country is that when our ancestors first gave tobacco to the European invaders, they knew it was going to kill them, they just didn’t think it would take this long. The use of tobacco today, for smoking as well as other uses, is … Continued
( – promoted by navajo) The major European powers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries took very different approaches to American Indians. For the French, the Indians were potential trading partners. The English were interested in Indian land and therefore the Indians were simply in the way. For the Spanish, the situation was more complex. … Continued
( – promoted by navajo) There has been a lot of talk recently by politicians, reporters, pundits, legal scholars, and others about the Fourteenth Amendment and citizenship. There is, as usual, a great lack of awareness of what this amendment has meant to American Indians. Adopted in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution states … Continued
( – promoted by navajo) During the nineteenth century the United States engaged in three wars with the Seminole Indians in Florida: 1816 to about 1824; 1835 to 1842; and 1855-1858. Contrary to some popular opinions, there was no traditional overall governmental or political organization among the Seminole at this time. They tended to … Continued
( – promoted by navajo) By the end of the nineteenth century, it was commonly believed by scholars, politicians, and the general public that Indians were destined to disappear. In the twentieth century, many scholars continue to write as those Indians did, in fact, disappear by the twentieth century. Since there weren’t supposed to be … Continued
One of the major American events during the nineteenth century was the Civil War. This war, which lasted from 1861 to 1865 and caused 620,000 soldier deaths, divided the United States into two warring factions: the Union and the Confederacy. The Civil War not only divided the Americans, but also the Indians, particularly those living … Continued
During the last part of the nineteenth century some of the American settlers in the west, and particularly in California, began hunting and killing Indians for sport. Between 1847 and 1865 American hunters killed 4,267 Indians in California. In contrast, the Indians killed fewer than 300 Americans. By 1890, California’s Indian population was estimated at … Continued
