« One of great captains in the Old West was Spaniard Juan Bautista de Anza | Home | Robert B. Parker: Not a bad Western writer for a crime novelist »
Lakota are proud people; honored to have known some of them
Most "white men" call them the Sioux, but their preferred cultural name is "Lakota." The Lakota are a proud Native American people (and most of them prefer "Indian people" to "Native American") who inhabit reservations mostly in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska. Their traditional ancestral lands are in those areas of the High Plains, with special feelings for the regions we know as the Black Hills and the Badlands of North and South Dakota.
My wife and I had the privilege, and fascinating experience, of living on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in and around the town of Mission, South Dakota, in 1972-75. As part of this adventure, I (and later my young teenage brother) worked about 50 hours a week at a gas station in Mission. It happened to be the one station in town most often used by the Lakota people of the Rosebud, and was almost as much of a "cultural center" in some respects than it was a 1970s gas station.
As a result of that job, I saw the best and the worst of life on an Indian Reservation in the 1970s. And, yes, that time span put me very near the modern-day "Wounded Knee Uprising" by the people of the nearby Pine Ridge Reservation in 1973. If you saw the recent "American Perspective" on PBS television regarding Wounded Knee, you saw much of what life was like for the Lakotas of both Pine Ridge and the Rosebud during that tumultuous time. (Whether or not you saw that "American Perspective," I encourage you to watch a series of videos about Wounded Knee 1973 by Bill Means, one of the individuals who was involved.)
I was not directly involved in Wounded Knee 1973, but many of the Lakota people who were daily customers at our gas station were friends and relatives of those who took part in the turmoil. Many of their friends and family members faced violence and criminal penalties as a result of the whole affair. I can only testify that MANY of the people I knew personally were honorable, wonderful folks seeking to do something to break out of the poverty and problems they faced, and to restore the honor and heritage of their Lakota culture.
But Let me add this: There were also some not-so-honorable, downright lawbreakers who took part in the events of 1973 surrounding Wounded Knee, also. As with any group of human beings, whether in modern-day or "Old West" times, there were good and bad on both the white side and the Lakota side of that fracas.
I encourage you to look around the Internet for information about the Lakota people, the history of white infringement on all the many Native American/Indian groups, and the joys of those fortunate times when both Native Americans and white people "got it right."!
| Listings from eBay |
 Adrian Larvie Native American Lakota art artist t shirt  See Full Details |
 Beaded Native American Doll NecklaceLakota So Cute See Full Details |
 Native American Lakota Beaded Barrette Spirit Horse See Full Details |
 Lakota Beaded Barrette Lakota Star design See Full Details |
 Beaded Sacred Catlinite NecklaceNative AmericanLakota See Full Details |
 Native American Indian Lakota Beaded Sunburst Necklace See Full Details |
(For excellent selection of Native American collectibles, check the items available from this eBay "power seller.")
Related Articles:
- Remembering four winters on the Rosebud Reservation — Brrrrrrrrrr!!
- Which term to use — Indians or Native Americans?
- Westward Ho! Would that be expansion or conquest?
- 1830s brought disease, death to Plains Indians
Topics: Indians-Native Americans | No Comments »