Red Ice News

The Future is the Past

“We Are All Indigenous to Mother Earth, But We Have Forgotten” - Memories of Wounded Knee
New to Red Ice? Start Here!

“We Are All Indigenous to Mother Earth, But We Have Forgotten” - Memories of Wounded Knee

Source: ipsnews.net


Among Tiokasin Ghosthorse’s childhood memories is the “reign of terror” that engulfed the Lakota native reservations from 1973 to 1976 following the 72-day indigenous occupation at Wounded Knee.

The protest culminated in an armed standoff between the federal government (the FBI, U.S. marshals, and Bureau of Indian Affairs police) and Native American communities.

Following the incident, a period of intense local surveillance by the FBI ensued.

At the time, “Many were afraid of the government and of white skin. You were victimised if you had long hair and spoke indigenous language. You were persecuted if you stood up to the government or the Bureau of Indian Affairs,” Tiokasin, a Lakota Sioux who grew up on the South Dakota Cheyenne River Reservation, told IPS.

“But the native people stood up, and the more you stood up the more the government harassed you, turned you into a militant or a terrorist.

“It was a time when we were not allowed to sing our songs, speak our language, or pray,” he said.

Tiokasin is now a presenter for the First Voices Indigenous Radio Programme at the World Broadcasting Association Inc. (WBAI) in New York City. A master of the cedar-wood flute, Tioakasin’s activism is rooted in the power of radio and the language of music.

In 1978, Native American communities were granted legal recognition of their right to exercise spiritual freedoms, in the American Indian Religious Freedom Act.

But to this day Native American spiritual practices are caught in a quagmire of oppositional claims between the government and indigenous communities.

Whilst indigenous communities lay claims to sovereignty over sacred lands and freedom to practice spiritual lifeways, the government claims legal ownership of land, crucial to its ability to exploit oil and mineral resources.

According to the 12-day research project carried out this year by the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights, James Anaya, government authority over land is still justified on the grounds of legislation dating back to the 1930s.

“You can carry a cross around for free but we have to go to great lengths to bury eagle feathers,” Tiokasin told IPS.

“Our way has always been looked upon in a condescending manner, it is not listened to, which is why our culture seems to be dying,” he told IPS.

At the age of 14, Tiokasin left the Cheyenne River Reservation, full of questions and seeking answers.

“Why was this other way of life on a pedestal? Why was it ‘civilised’? Why was it the new and improved way?”

For Tiokasin the answer lies in the distorted image of indigenous peoples as savage and primitive.

First voices indigenous radio

Tiokasin’s goal is to revive indigenous culture and ways of thinking and reflect an accurate representation of indigenous ways of life, where aspects of the modern and the traditional intermingle.

“Indigenous radio that I do is one of the keys to getting our story out to the bigger world,” he told IPS.

Tiokasin is critical of mainstream outlets, which “pick up what the government talks about, our diabetes and alcoholism, focusing on the symptoms rather than getting to the root of the problem.”

For Tiokasin, it is a narrow perspective that fails to acknowledge the enduring effects of imposing one culture upon another.

Whilst he draws attention to shocking statistics of poverty and unemployment, which soar above the U.S. average, he also emphasises that there is more to life on the Lakota reservations than the story of destitution.

“It’s very disheartening but yet you see people who are really digging down and making sure that the culture stays” Tiokasin told IPS.

“There are pockets of tradition and resilience out here on the reservation but not too much is being said about them or written about them,” he said.

Tiokasin makes no attempt to whitewash harsh realities. High suicide levels among the Lakota youth, and a recent phenomenon of suicide pacts, have brought a morbid cloud over reservations and tragedy into the homes of many families.

But at the same time, “You see young people in ceremony, trying to sustain traditional practices and the planting of gardens,” he said.

[...]

Read the full article at: ipsnews.net





The Wounded Knee Massacre - December 29, 1890

The Wounded Knee Incident - February 27, 1973





"On the night of February 27, 1973, fifty-four cars rolled, horns blaring, into a small hamlet on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Within hours, some 200 Oglala Lakota and American Indian Movement (AIM) activists had seized the few major buildings in town and police had cordoned off the area. The occupation of Wounded Knee had begun. Demanding redress for grievances—some going back more than 100 years—the protesters captured the world’s attention for 71 gripping days.
With heavily armed federal troops tightening a cordon around meagerly supplied, cold, hungry Indians, the event invited media comparisons with the massacre of Indian men, women, and children at Wounded Knee almost a century earlier..."



Comments

We're Hiring

We are looking for a professional video editor, animator and graphics expert that can join us full time to work on our video productions.

Apply

Help Out

Sign up for a membership to support Red Ice. If you want to help advance our efforts further, please:

Donate

Tips

Send us a news tip or a
Guest suggestion

Send Tip

Related News

There May Be An Ancient Earth Inside Earth, Say Harvard Scientists
There May Be An Ancient Earth Inside Earth, Say Harvard Scientists
Máttaráhkká: Mother Earth in Sami rock art
Máttaráhkká: Mother Earth in Sami rock art

Archives Pick

Red Ice T-Shirts

Red Ice Radio

3Fourteen

Con Inc., J6 Political Prisoners & The Pedophile Problem
Kim Coulter - Con Inc., J6 Political Prisoners & The Pedophile Problem
Why European Culture, Art and Beauty Matter
Gifts - Why European Culture, Art and Beauty Matter

TV

Laughter: The New Weapon Of The Far-Right
Laughter: The New Weapon Of The Far-Right
London’s Fourth Plinth To Get Fat Black “Everywoman” Statue
London’s Fourth Plinth To Get Fat Black “Everywoman” Statue

RSSYoutubeGoogle+iTunesSoundCloudStitcherTuneIn

Design by Henrik Palmgren © Red Ice Privacy Policy