Native History Native Anthology

Cash for Peguis Trail coming

2010-07-12T09:21:00.000-07:00

Three levels of government are holding a press conference Monday morning to make a "major infrastructure announcement" regarding the multi-million dollar expansion of Chief Peguis Trail in North Kildonan.

Representatives of the federal and provincial governments and city council will be on hand to reveal details of the plan.

On the weekend, the Winnipeg Sun reported the city is joining the Manitoba and federal governments in cost-sharing a $110-million project to stretch Chief Peguis Trail east from Henderson Highway to Lagimodiere Boulevard within the next two years.

City Coun. Jeff Browaty previously said traffic on the Peguis expressway will be funnelled beneath Rothesay Street at the midway point by an underpass rather than go through a regular, signalled intersection.

A city hall report cites intersection crashes, traffic delays, signal costs and gas emissions as among the reasons for the project to go with an underpass at Rothesay. It also notes that if an underpass was added in the future, it would be far more expensive.

Indigenous development

2010-05-04T23:49:00.000-07:00

U of W program holds big promise
Indigenous development

The University of Winnipeg will soon be home to a masters program that focuses specifically on indigenous development.

The masters in development practice (MDP) is the first degree of its kind in Canada. Officials say it will help the U of W become the “international hub for the study of indigenous peoples and communities.”

Lloyd Axworthy, president of the U of W, said the new degree would bring the university to a new level of growth.

“(Tuesday’s) announcement is what I believe will be another major transformative step in the change over and evolution of this university,” said Axworthy.

The university will be joining a global network of 22 prominent institutions, including Columbia University in the U.S. and James Cook University in Australia.

The degree was established after the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation provided the U of W with a grant of US$800,000 and could be seen as soon as 2011 after it is approved by the U of W senate and the Council on Post-Secondary Education.

As a two-year program, the degree will train and help students who plan on entering the occupation of developmental practitioners in understanding and managing global sustainable development across the fields of health and social sciences, said a U of W press release.

The program is a result of a recommendation from the MacArthur-supported International Commission on Education for Sustainable Development Practice, who in 2008 released a report suggesting the development of the degree internationally.

“For (the U of W) to be included in this really quite remarkable network of universities will bring our faculty and our students into major exchanges and interactions with some of the best minds in the world,” Axworthy said.

Native American Native Movement Flag

2009-11-16T09:08:00.001-08:00

Native American Native Movement Flag

American Indian Movement

2009-11-16T08:52:00.000-08:00

American Indian Movement

The American Indian Movement (AIM) is a Native American activist organiztion in the United States. AIM gained international press when it seized the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C. in 1972, and in 1973 had a standoff at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. AIM was founded in 1968 by Dennis Banks, George Mitchell, Herb Powless, Clyde Bellecourt, Harold Goodsky, Eddie Benton-Banai, and a number of other in Minneapolis' Native American community. Russell Means was another early leader. From its beginnings in Minnesora, AIM soon attracted members from across the United States (and Canada). It was also involved in the Rainbow Coalition (Fred Hampton). Charles Deegan Sr. was involved with the AIM patrol.
In the decades since AIM's founding, the group has led protests advocating indigenous American Interests, inspired cultural renewal, monitored police activities, and cooridinated employment programs in cities and in rual reservation communities across the United States. AIM has often supported indigenous intrests outside the United States as well. By 1993 AIM had trademarks for affiliated chapters.

Reserve's in Canada

2009-10-09T12:33:00.000-07:00

2009-10-09T10:43:00.001-07:00

My Support Is In Words

And

Some Support Is In Bullets

Wounded Knee

2009-10-09T10:42:00.001-07:00

Wounded Knee - Occupation '73

2009-10-09T10:40:00.001-07:00

American Indian Movement

2009-10-09T10:37:00.001-07:00

War Bonnets (Indiginous Tribes)

2009-09-14T01:46:00.000-07:00

The war bonnet of the Sioux is, in my opinion, the most gorgeously picturesque headdress ever invented by a primitive people. It is so superbly decorative, symbolic, and splendid, that it has spread, in the last fifty years, to nearly every Indian tribe. In all our allegorical art it has become the Redman's typical adornment, notwithstanding the fact that it was the last of the representative headgears to be discovered by the White explorers of this continent.
There are many varieties of the war bonnet, but experience shows that it is best to stick to the simplest design. I have seen many with bunches of ribbon at each ear; many with a medicine plume in the center; some with a tail that trailed on the ground except when the wearer was on horseback; some with two tails, some with no tail at all some with a buffalo horn at each ear; some with strings of mirrors behind. But, in each and all, the central essential, typical and glorious thing dominant, was the sunburst of white eagle plumes.
Therefore, I shall describe the making of that, omitting the tail, medicine plume, and the horns, etc.

Materials
We must assume that real eagle feathers are not available, the substitute being the "white quills" sold by all [craft] supply houses. You will need thirty of these; and, sink they are really from the wings of swans, etc., they should be half right and half lefts.
Next, we need a quantity of white down. The entire product of white Brahma's rear elevation would be about right. This may be used white, or dyed yellow or red.
We need further some thin leather, some fine linen thread, shoe-maker's wax, a yellow or red dyed horsetail of the kind sold as harness hangers, and some thin red flannel.

Preparing the Feather
On the barrel of the feather, 2 inches from the bottom, lay on enough down to make a big fluffy ruff, then lash that on with a wax-end.
With real eagle feathers it was usual to cut away half of the quill for 1 1/2 inches near the bottom, then bend the remaining half and thrust it into the barrel, to give a strong loop. But the swan feathers have less quill and must have a different attachment. This is made of a leather strap, 4 inches long and 1/8 inch wide, lashed on the barrel of the quill as in the sketch, with a waxed thread or wax-end. The quill itself should be rubbed with wax before the lashing goes on as this prevents slipping.
Over this leather, now stitch a cover of red flannel for a finish. Near the 2 ends of this wrapping, wind it with white cord, in a band wide enough to be easily visible at a distance.
The top end of the feather is to be decorated with a down tuft of the same color as that below. This may be glued on, but is better if it have also a thread lashing, and a helpful final touch is a white paper circle 3/4 inch across glued on this.
Projecting above and beyond, if you desire it, is a tuft of yellow or red horsehair, 4 or 5 inches long, neatly lashed as before to the mid-rib of the quill.
Prepare the 30 quills all in the same way. I have seen the corona made of 24 quills--2 tails--but it looks skimpy unless you have real eagle tail feathers which are very broad.
The vast majority of war bonnets these days are founded on the crown of an old felt hat; but the primitive fashion is good enough, and is more enduring.
Make a strip of leather or buckskin, 23 inches long and 2 1/2 inches wide. Sew this into a circle to fit your head just above the eyes and ears. Divide this along the middle line into 30 spaces; then at either side of each dividing line push 2 holes big enough for a lace.

Assembling the Crown
Lay the 30 plumes in a row, beginning in the middle with the largest, and selecting all the right feathers for the right side, etc., carefully changing them about till you have them best fitted to each other, and to the circle.
The leather circle should now be held on two fingers or two pegs, upside-down, while the feathers are strung on. Begin at the middle of the front, put the lace from the inside through a hole, through the leather loop of a plume, then back through the next hole; and so on, doing the 15 on one side, then the 15 on the other, again beginning at the middle of the front.
The spacing string is next, and calls for some very deft handling. This is a linen thread well waxed, which is passed with a needle through the mid-rib of each quill at half its height. It must go through the whole 30 feathers, and its ends be tied loosely together. The feathers must now be evenly adjusted, so as to form the perfect cone-shape, the feathers flaring out in a circle about 20 inches in diameter. If more than that, the crown is over-spread at the points, and never keeps its shape; every puff of wind deranges it. If less than that, it looks like a stove-pipe hat.

The Decorations
There are three decorations that are never omitted in a complete war bonnet-the beaded brow-band, the ear targets, and the ear plumes.
The beaded brow-band or frontlet, extending across the brow, below the feather bases, should be chiefly white, and of very simple pattern, such as a line of tepees or of square blocks. Sometimes, this is painted when there is no time to bead it.
The ear targets should be round, much wider than the brow-band, chiefly white, and beaded or painted.
The ear plumes hang from a cord in the middle of the target, or else underneath it. I have seen feathers, bead strings, thongs, and ribbons used for these; but the ideal always has been ermine skins and tails, four on each side, and pulled out into long thin streamers. Real ermine is over-costly; but I have made a good imitation out of a strip of white rabbit fur, and finished off with a black tip of cat or skunk fur.

Adapted From By Ernest Thompson Seton Blogged By Andrew A. Sinclair

Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)

2009-09-13T20:56:00.000-07:00

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior harged with the administration and management of 55.7 million acres (87,000 sq. miles or 225,000 km²) of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American Tribes and Alaska Natives. The Bureau of Indian Affairs is one of two Bureaus under the jurisdiction of the Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs. the Bureau of Indian Affairs and The Bureau of Indian Education, which provides education services to approximately 48,000 Native Americans. Kevin Skenandore is the current Acting Director of the Bureau of Indian Education.
The BIA carries out its core mission to serve 562 federally recognized tribes through four offices. The Office of Indian Services operates the BIA's general assistance, disaster relief, Indian child welfare, tribal government, Indian Self-Determination, and reservation roads programs. The Office of Justice Services directly operates or funds law enforcement, tribal courts, and detention facilities on Federal Indian lands. The Office of Trust Services works with tribes and individual American Indians and Alaska Natives in the management of their trust lands, assets, and resources. Finally, the Office of Field Operations oversees 12 regional offices and 83 agencies which carry out the mission of the Bureau at the tribal level.
The BIA's responsibilities once included providing health care services to American Indians and Alaska Natives. In 1954, that function was legislatively transferred to the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, now known as the Department of Health and Human Services, where it has remained to this day as the Indian Health Service (IHS).

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)

Agency Overveiw
Formed: March 11, 1824
Preceding: Office of Indian Affaris,
Agency: US Department of war,
Jurisdiction: Federal Governments of The United States
Headquarters: 1849 C Street, N.W. Washington, D.C.
20240
Employees: 8,701 Permanent
Annual budget: $ 2.4 Billion
Agency: Larry EchoHawk
executives: Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs Michael R. Smith, Deputy Bureau Director (Field Operation)
Parent Agency: US Department of Interior

History

Although the bureau, which was called the Office of Indian Affairs, was formed in 1824, similar agencies had existed in the U.S. government as far back as 1775, when a trio of Indian agencies were created by the Second Continental Congress.. Benjamin Franklin.. and Patrick Henry.. were among the early commissioners, who were charged with negotiating treaties with Native Americans and obtaining their neutrality.. during the American Revolutionary War.. In 1789, the United States Congress.. placed Native American relations within the newly-formed War Department.. By 1806, the Congress had created a Superintendent of Indian Trade within the War Department who was charged with maintaining the factory.. trading network of the fur trade.. The post was held by Thomas L. McKenney.. from 1816 until the abolition of the factory system in 1822. In 1832 Congress established the position of Commissioner of Indian Affairs. In 1869, Ely Samuel Parker.. became the first commissioner of Indian affairs who was himself an Indian.
The abolition of the factory system left a vacuum within the U.S. government regarding Native American relations. The current Bureau of Indian Affairs was formed on March 11, 1824, by Secretary of War.. John C. Calhoun.., who created the agency without authorization from the United States Congress.. McKenney was appointed the first head of the office, which went by several names at first. McKenney preferred to call it the "Indian Office", whereas the current name was preferred by Calhoun. Like its predecessors, the bureau was originally a division of the Department of War. In 1849 it was transferred to the Department of the Interior... The bureau was renamed to Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1947 (from the original Office of Indian Affairs).
The 1970s were a particularly turbulent period of BIA history. During this time, the rise of vocal activist groups such as American Indian Movement.. worried the U.S. Government, who reacted both overtly and covertly (through COINTELPRO.. and other programs) to suppress possible uprisings among native peoples. As a branch of the U.S. government, BIA police were involved in political actions such as: the occupation of Wounded Knee..; the Pine Ridge.. shootout (in which Leonard Peltier.. was accused of killing two FBI.. agents); and the occupation of BIA headquarters in Washington, D.C. in 1972. The BIA also assisted intensively in the establishment of infamous tribal authorities such as Dick Wilson.., who was seen as a neo-dictator.. for his unabashed use of violent "GOON.."(Guardians Of the Oglala Nation) squads, open misappropriation of funds, and other controversial actions. Because many of these issues, particularly the continued imprisonment of Peltier, are still seen as unresolved today, the BIA remains a controversial agency among native peoples.

Currently

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has been hit by no less than four class action overtime lawsuits, brought by the Federation of Indian Service Employees, a Union which represents the federal civilian employees of BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs), BIE (Bureau of Indian Educators), AS-IA (Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs) and OST (Office of the Special Trustee for Indian Affairs). The Union is represented by the Law Offices of Snider & Associates, LLC , which concentrates in FLSA overtime class actions against the Federal Government and other large employers. The Grievances allege widespread violations of the FLSA and claims tens of millions of dollars in damages. The Snider firm handled identical cases which resulted in a $24 million settlement against the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and a $7.6 million settlement against the US Small Business Administration.
In addition, the Bureau of Indian Affairs is currently involved in a class-action lawsuit brought by Native American representatives against the United States government; see Cobell v. Kempthorne.. The plaintiffs claim that the U.S. government has incorrectly accounted for Indian trust assets, which belong to individual Native Americans (as beneficial owners) but are managed by the Department of the Interior as the fiduciary.. trustee.
The Bureau is currently trying to evolve from a supervisory to an advisory role; however, this has been a difficult task as the BIA is remembered by many Native Americans as playing a police role in which the U.S. government historically dictated to tribes and their members what they could and could not do

Commissioners and Assistant Secretaries

1824–1830 Thomas L. McKenney..
1830–1832 Samuel S. Hamilton..
1832–1836 Elbert Herring..
1836–1838 Carey A. Harris..
1838–1845 T. Hartley Crawford..
1845–1849 William Meddill..
1849–1850 Orlando Brown..
1850–1853 Luke Lea..
1853–1857 George W. Manypenny..
1857–1858 James W. Denver..
1858–1858 Charles E. Mix..
1858–1861 Albert B. Greenwood..
1861–1865 William P. Dole..
1865–1866 Dennis N. Cooley..
1866–1869 Lewis V. Bogley..
1869–1871 Ely S. Parker..
1871–1871 H.R. Clum.. (acting)
1871–1872 Francis A. Walker..
1872–1873 H.R. Clum.. (acting)
1873–1875 Edward P. Smith..
1875–1877 John Q. Smith..
1877–1880 Ezra A. Hayt..
1879-1887 John Q. Tufts..
1880–1880 E.M. Marble..
1880–1881 R.E. Trowbridge..
1881–1884 Hiram Price..
1885–1887 John D.C. Atkins..
1887–1889 John H. Oberly..
1889–1893 Thomas Jefferson Morgan..
1893–1897 Daniel M. Browning..
1897–1905 William A. Jones..
1905–1909 Francis E. Leupp..
1909–1913 Robert G. Valentine..
1913–1921 Cato Sells.. (1859-1948)
1921–1929 Charles H. Burke..
1929–1933 Charles J. Rhoads..
1933–1945 John Collier..
1945–1948 William A. Brophy..
1948–1949 William R. Zimmerman.. (acting)
1949–1950 John R. Nichols..
1950–1953 Dillon S. Myer..
1953–1961 Glenn L. Emmons..
1961–1966 Philleo Nash..
1966–1969 Robert L. Bennett..
1969–1972 Louis R. Bruce..
1973–1976 Morris Thompson..
1976–1977 Dr. Benjamin Reifel..
Assistant Secretaries of the Interior for Indian Affairs
1977–1981 Forrest Gerard..
1981–1984 Kenneth L. Smith..
1985–1989 Ross Swimmer..
1989–1993 Eddie Frank Brown..
1993–1997 Ada E. Deer..
1997–2001 Kevin Gover..
2001–2001 James H. McDivitt.. (acting)
2001–2003 Neal A. McCaleb..
2003–2004 Aurene M. Martin.. (acting)
2004–2005 Dave Anderson..
2005–2007 Jim Cason.. (acting)
2007–2008 Carl J. Artman..
2008–2009 George Skibine.. (acting)
2009–present Larry EchoHawk..

[.. Futher study]

Mukluks

2009-09-13T20:49:00.001-07:00

Mukluks or Kamik (singular: kamak) are a soft boot traditionally made of reindeer skin or sealskin and were originally worn by Arctic aboriginals, including the Inuit and Yupik. The term mukluk is often used for any soft boot designed for cold weather and modern designs are often similar to high-top athletic shoes. The word "mukluk" is of Yupik origin, from maklak, the bearded seal, while "kamik" is an Inuit word. In the Inuipiaq language the "u" makes an "oo" sound, and so the spelling "maklak" is used with the same pronunciation.
Another type of boot, sometimes called an Inuit boot, originating in Greenland and the eastern part of Alaska, are made by binding them with animal cartilage and have a centre seam running down to the foot of the boot.
Mukluks weigh little and allow hunters to move very quietly. They may be adorned with pompons and beads and may be lined with furs such as rabbit, fox and raccoon.
Modern man has also found utility in the design of the mukluk, especially paired with a rugged contemporary sole. The key component of it's success is it's ability to breathe, that is, to allow air exchange. This is an advantage in extremely cold conditions where perspiration may become a factor in frostbite on your feet. The bulkiness paired with their poor performance in slush makes them less ideal for the casual winter wearer.
Another kind of mukluk is knitted with a soft leather sole. These are worn primarily by ballet dancers in place of leg/foot warmers.

Moccasins.

2009-09-13T20:35:00.000-07:00

A Moccasin is a shoe made of deerskin or otherA moccasin is a shoe made of deerskin or other soft leather, consisting of a sole and sides made of one piece of leather, stitched together at the top, and sometimes with a vamp (additional panel of leather). The sole is soft and flexible and the upper part often is adorned with embroidery or beading, et cetera. Historically, it is the footwear of many Native American tribes; moreover, hunters, traders, and European settlers wore them. Etymologically, the moccasin derives from the Alginquain language, powhatan word makasin (cognate to Massachcusett mohkisson / mokussin, Ojibwa makizin, Mi'kmaq m'kusun), and from the Proto-Algonquian word *maxkeseni (shoe). soft leather, consisting of a sole

Design

Beaded moccasins original to the estate of Chief Washakie, Wind River Reservation (Shoshone), Wyoming, c.1900
Moccasins protect the foot whilst allowing the wearer to feel the ground. The Plains Indians wore hard-sole moccasins, given that their territorial geography featured rock and cacti. The eastern Indian tribes wore soft-sole moccasins, for walking in leaf-covered forest ground.

Adapted from Mountain man Moccasins

Genuine Deerskin, Elkskin, and Suede Cowhide moccasins!
Our WyomingNetwork Moccasins are made in Powell, Wyoming by Mountain Man Moccasins. We make them the old fashioned way, one at a time, with special care devoted to each pair. We make our moccasins out of deerskin, elkskin, and suede cowhide. Our deerskin moccasins are double deer; which means they are lined with the same premium deerskin inside and outside. We then add another layer of elkskin leather for the insole.

Why use all natural leather?

SOFT - It molds to the shape of your foot!

STURDY - your moccasins will last for years! We've been making moccasins since our first pair in 1989. One of these days, we'll have to replace it.

WASHABLE - yes, you can throw them in a washing machine! Just make sure you air dry them (dryers are not healthy for moccasins, cats, frogs, and other living things.) It may take a couple of days for the moccasins to dry completely, but they will be as good as new! Our Suede cowhide moccasins are cut from 4 - 41/2 ounce highly buffed leather. The end result is a soft comfortable shoe. We thought we'd better tell you that there are some manmade things in our moccasins. We do use manmade thread and laces. Also, we've been hunting for years for the elusive crepe beast… but finally had to resort to a manmade crepe sole. Choose one of our sole types, and take a step back in time!

*Soft sole - perfect for treading softly down a quiet forest path.

*Crepe sole - ideal for the tenderfoot walking across a rough cabin floor (or city sidewalk!) *Leather canoe sole - An extra layer of hide adds protection to the bottom of the moccasin, but with a style that says you run as free as the rivers of the west.

Our moccasins are available in Knee and Ankle length, as well as standard. We also have adorable little moccasins for children and infants! And check out the selection of colors! It's amazing!

2009-05-09T01:51:00.001-07:00

The Assiniboine

2009-05-08T23:53:00.000-07:00

The Assiniboine Tribe:

The Assiniboine Tribe came from a reservation in Fort Peck, Montana and brought with them 25 delegates. The Assiniboine population numbered over 10,000 in the 1780's, declined slightly in 1829 to 8000 and sharply declined to 2800 members after being sent to the reservation.

The Assiniboines in many ways resembled the Kiowa tribes in that they were roving buffalo hunters who fought and hunted on horseback. The Assiniboines livedin skin tipis, practiced no agriculture, used the same weapons as the Kiowa, and had similar military organizations and tribal ceremonies.

The Assiniboine tribal dress included the prairie moccasin, breech-cloth, and buckskin dress. The men wore the scalp-lock, usually having the rest of the hair braided and hanging down in front on each side of the head. They are all of fine physical type, with a build is sinewy and features which are thin and clear-cut.

2009-05-08T23:47:00.000-07:00

The original inhabitants of the area that is now Manitoba included:

The Assiniboine
The Chipewyan (Dene)
The Cree
The Dakota Sioux
The Ojibway

Federally recognized First Nations in Manitoba today include:

Birdtail Sioux First Nation
PO Box 22
Beulah, Manitoba R0M 0B0

Brokenhead Ojibway Band
General Delivery
Scanterbury, Manitoba R0E 1W0

Buffalo Point First Nation (Ojibway)
PO Box 1037
Buffalo Point, MB R0A 2W0

Canupawakpa First Nation (Dakota)
PO Box 146
Pipestone, Manitoba R0M 1T0

Cross Lake First Nation (Cree)
PO Box 10
Cross Lake, Manitoba R0B 0J0

Dakota Plains First Nation
PO Box 1246
Portage La Prairie, Manitoba R1N 3B2

Dauphin River First Nation (Ojibway)
Box 58
Gypsumville, Manitoba R0C 1J0

Fox Lake First Nation (Cree)
PO Box 369
Gillam, Manitoba R0B 0L0

Gambler First Nation (Cree)
PO Box 293
Binscarth, Manitoba R0J 0G0

Keeseekoowenin First Nation (Ojibway)
PO Box 100
Elphinstone, Manitoba R0J 0N0

Kinonjeoshtegon First Nation (Ojibway)
Box 359
Hodgson, Manitoba R0C 1N0

Lake Manitoba First Nation (Ojibway)
General Delivery
Vogar, Manitoba R0C 3C0

Lake St. Martin First Nation (Ojibway)
PO Box 69
Gypsumville, Manitoba R0C 1J0

Little Saskatchewan First Nation (Ojibway)
General Delivery
Gypsumville, Manitoba R0C 1J0

Long Plain First Nation (Ojibway)
PO Box 430
Portage La Prairie, Manitoba R1N 3B7

Norway House Cree Nation
PO Box 250
Norway House, Manitoba R0B 1B0
http://www.nhcn.ca/

Northlands Dene First Nation
General Delivery
Lac Brochet, Manitoba R0B 2E0

Opaskwayak Cree Nation
Highway 10 North, PO Box 1000
The Pas, Manitoba R9A 1L1
http://www.opaskwayak.mb.ca/

Peguis First Nation (Cree)
PO Box 10
Peguis Reserve, Manitoba R0C 3J0
http://www.peguis.ca/

Rolling River First Nation
PO Box 145
Erickson, Manitoba R0J 0P0

Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation
PO Box 30
Ginew, Manitoba R0A 2R0

Sagkeeng First Nation (Ojibway)
PO Box 3
Fort Alexander, Manitoba R0E 0P0

Sayisi Dene First Nation
General Delivery
Tadoule Lake, Manitoba R0B 2C0

Split Lake First Nation (Cree)
General Delivery
Split Lake, Manitoba R0B 1P0
http://tataskweyak.mb.ca/

York Factory First Nation (Cree)
General Delivery
York Landing, Manitoba R0B 2B0
http://york_factory_fn_304.tripod.com/YorkFactoryFN.html

Other Aboriginal communities of Manitoba include:

Manitoba Metis Federation
300-150 Henry Ave.
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 0J7
http://www.mmf.mb.ca/
Other resources about American Indian history, culture and society in Manitoba province:
Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs: Political and cultural information from a coalition of Manitoba Indian leadership.
Dakota Ojibway Tribal Council: Coalition of eight Dakota and Ojibway nations of Manitoba.
Manitoba Community Profiles: Basic information on all the First Nations of Manitoba.

2009-04-18T02:02:00.000-07:00

Canada's Economic Action Plan Delivers New School for the Wabaseemoong and the North Spirit Lake First Nations in Northern Ontario

Ottawa, Ontario (April 17, 2009) - Members of the Wabaseemoong and the North Spirit Lake First Nations will benefit from new schools, thanks to the Government of Canada's Economic Action Plan .
Greg Rickford, Member of Parliament for Kenora, made the announcement on behalf of the Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians.

“Facilities like this will help First Nation students obtain the skills and knowledge they need to grow, flourish and contribute to strong, healthy communities,” said MP Greg Rickford.

These projects are part of the $200 million for new schools and major renovations included in the $1.4 billion investment for Aboriginal peoples under Canada’s Economic Action Plan.

The Mizhakiiwetung Memorial School for the Wabaseemoong First Nation will be a new Kindergarten to Grade 12 facility to accommodate 460 students. Construction will begin in 2009-2010, and is expected to be complete in 2010-2011. The Wabaseemoong First Nation is located 95 kilometres northwest of Kenora, Ontario.

“The new facility will improve the educational outcomes and well being of Aboriginal students so that they excel and achieve in every aspect of their education,” said Eric Fisher, Chief of Wabaseemoong.

The Department will also invest in the construction of a new school in the North Spirit Lake First Nation. Construction will begin in 2009-2010, and is expected to be complete in 2010-2011. The Kindergarten to Grade Nine facility will accommodate 90 students. The First Nation is located in northwestern Ontario.

“The youth of the North Spirit Lake community deserve to learn in school buildings that reflect the importance and quality of their education,” stated Chief Rita Thompson. “The new school will provide the platform for enriching their chances to reach their full potential,” she continued.

The Government of Canada is taking action to improve the lives of First Nations and stimulate economic growth in First Nation communities through targeted infrastructure investments. Investments in school infrastructure projects will help ensure First Nation students have a strong and productive educational experience, which starts with access to quality infrastructure that is conducive to learning.

Project costs will be identified following the competitive tendering process.

2009-04-16T23:51:00.000-07:00

Tecumseh: His Role in the Cause and Conduct of the War of 1812

By Brian Blodgett
continued and studied by Andrew Alexander Sinclair

On 5 October 1813, Tecumseh (also known as Tecumthe), the leader of an Indian confederacy, died at the Battle of The Thames. Before his death, Tecumseh wielded more power than any other North American Indian before him did, and no other Indian after him would ever come close to his domination. His power was not due to the number of his followers, but on the strategic importance and potential that the confederation held along the western frontier. The Indians that joined him came from thirty-two tribes and his authority spread across an area of nearly half a million square miles, greater in size than the United States itself in 1812. The death of Tecumseh shook the various Indian tribes to their very roots. Although they would not know this until years later, his death signaled the beginning of the end of any large-scale organized Indian resistance in North America. His death also ended Indian support to the British in the western theater of operations during the War of 1812. When Tecumseh died, the British did not lose a subservient Indian leader, but a man more powerful and capable than any British officer in the western theater. The Americans won not only the Battle of the Thames when he died, but also the western theater. Why was this one Indian so important, and why did he ally himself with the British? It is the goal of this paper to answer these questions by examining Tecumseh’s plans for a confederation, his rise to power, and his view of Americans.

It is important to understand the history of the Shawnee (also known as the Shawanees and the Shawanoe) tribe and Tecumseh’s personal history to understand how and why he became such a significant leader. Tecumseh was born in 1768, and was the son of Puckeshinwau (also known as Pucksinwah and Puckeshinwa, a chief of the Kispapocoke or Kiskopoke clan and Methoataske (also known as Methotasa, who belonged to the Creek tribe). Shawnee legend was that they were the first Indians in North America and had all of the land to live on. Unfortunately, other Indians appeared after the Shawnees and forced them into a nomadic way of life. The Shawnee would normally settle in an area for a while, but war would usually erupt with the other tribes in the area and the Shawnees would move to another place. Through the years, the Shawnees became renowned as vicious fighters and often served as mercenaries for other tribes.

Before the birth of Tecumseh, the Miami, whose territory stretched from Pennsylvania southward to the Ohio River and northward to the Great Lakes, realized that the Americans posed a potential problem. The Miami decided on creating a buffer zone between them and the Americans and they invited the Shawnee to permanently settle in an area north of the Ohio River. For the first time in the memory of the Shawnee, they had a homeland. However, their nomadic heritage led them to continue wandering about from time to time, but the majority of them remained in the area north of the Ohio River.

Tecumseh’s early life was full of mixed feelings towards the Americans. Puckeshinwau was usually friendly with the Americans and Tecumseh learned compassion and understanding from him. However, when Puckeshinwau died at the hands of Americans, various stories exist as to who raised Tecumseh. These stories include Tecumseh being raised by his mother, his elder brother Chiksika (also known as Cheeseekau), his sister Tecumapese (also known as Tecumapease), and Blackfish (a respected Shawnee chief). Unfortunately, it is impossible to know who actually raised Tecumseh, but each of these guardians most likely had a hand in his upbringing and would have instilled different beliefs and values in his life. His mother supposedly instilled in Tecumseh a deep hatred of the Americans and made him vow never to forget that they killed his father. Chiksika reportedly taught Tecumseh to be a warrior and to have dignity. Tecumapese possibly taught him that it was a crime to be deceitful, that one should obey ones elders, and that one should respect the rights of others. Blackfish viewed the Americans as trouble and believed that the only good white man was a dead white man. No matter who raised Tecumseh, he developed into a man who believed in honesty, hard work, and that no one person should control the needs of the many. Tecumseh also did not believe in torture and vowed that no one would torture anyone in his presence.

Rebecca Galloway, an American, is another individual who may have played a significant role in Tecumseh’s life. Tecumseh had fallen in love with Rebecca and had asked her to marry him. Rebecca gave Tecumseh an ultimatum; in return for her hand, he would have to live like an American and give up his Indian life-style. Tecumseh refused to give up his Indian heritage and he and Rebecca parted ways. However, Rebecca had taught Tecumseh some English. In the future he would use his understanding of the language from time to time, but he usually refused to speak in English, preferring his native Shawnee language.

Not only did Tecumseh have a mixed upbringing in his formative years, but his various encounters with the Americans were often extremely negative in nature. After his father’s death, Chiksika and another brother died fighting Americans. The burning of two Shawnee villages, Piqua and Chillicothe, in 1780 by George Roger Clark was another negative incident involving Americans in his life. Yet, Tecumseh seemed to have no real desire to fight the Americans. He simply wanted to stop the encroachment of the whites into Indian lands.

Tecumseh believed that Americans were weakening the Indians. He saw the problems that liquor caused among the Indians, and he knew first hand that the desire for furs was decreasing the number of animals in the forest. Tecumseh abhorred the turning away from the Indian way and wanted the Indians to return to their previous way of existence, one of living off the land and not at the mercy of traders. Tecumseh, while recognizing the gunpowder and the rifle as powerful weapons, believed that the tomahawk and the bow and arrow were the true weapons of the Indians. Tecumseh knew that Indians could not manufacture lead or gunpowder and had to rely on traders for their hand-outs. Tecumseh did not want the Indians to have to rely on anyone at anytime.

To counter these problems, Tecumseh formulated a plan that he would spend years trying to fulfill. His plan was to unite the various Indian tribes into a single entity. He believed that if a large following of Indians were to form a confederation, then the United States would be forced to recognized them as a united front and deal with them accordingly. This confederation was to be the equal of the ‘Seventeen Fires’ of the United States. Tecumseh traveled across America for years visiting the tribes of Florida, the Great Lakes, and the western tribes across the Mississippi. Tecumseh attempted to convince tribes to join him in the formation of the confederation. During his travels he attempted to convince the other tribes of the need to unite, that by standing alone each tribe would eventually be consumed by the Americans, but together they could stand up to the Americans. He also preached that the land, like the air and water, did not belong to any particular tribe, but to all of the tribes together. Tecumseh stated that no one could sell or give away the land without the permission of all of the tribes. He knew that the Americans often pried on the weaker tribes to gain land. He understood that the Americans would offer them money and goods for land they may not have even owned. Two vastly different interpretations exist for his desire to form a confederation. The passive version is that Tecumseh simply wanted to form a common bond between the tribes and would settle for the confederation recognized as a country equal to the United States. The aggressive view and the one most believed by Americans at the time, was that Tecumseh was uniting the tribes together and would declare war against the Americans and drive them eastward, back across the Appalachian Mountains.

Tecumthe, knowing that his great oratory capability was not enough to win over all of the Indians, planned a subtler way of convincing Indians to join his confederation. This more subtle way involved his younger brother, Laulewasikaw (also known as Elskatawa, Olliwayshila). Laulewasikaw, known throughout the area as a lazy and thoughtless Indian who had discovered the wickedness of liquor, discovered that he had a special gift, that he could predict the future. From that day on he would be known as Tenskwautawa, "The Prophet". Various accounts differ on this revelation and his turning to spiritualism. The Indians of the early 1800’s believed that the Prophet had actually had a ‘conversion’ and believed whole-heartedly in him. The Americans initially believed him to be a hoax, but as the years went by, some came to believe that he was a prophet. Some Americans believed that he had acquired his ‘religion’ from the Shakers. No matter what, at that time people believed that the Prophet was the true leader of the confederation and that he was attracting the various Indians to join him. However, the modern belief is that Tecumseh knew that he could not be both a warrior and a spiritual leader and instead turned to his brother to help him fulfill his dream. It was Tecumseh who had visions and then passed them to his brother to ‘announce’ to the world. In either scenario, the two of them began uniting various tribes and individual Indians under one banner at The Prophet’s Town, a small town located along the Wabash River outside of any land granted to the Americans in any previous treaty.

Many Englishmen looked favorably upon the idea of an Indian confederation that would form a buffer zone between the English western holdings and the Americans. This zone could have become a separate country under the protection of the British. Having an Indian buffer zone that would limit the American westward movement would serve the British well. The British would then be free to continue their westward Expansionism through the Great Lakes and then down the Mississippi, thus encircling the Americans. It would also limit the potential growth of what was emerging as a major competing nation.

In reality, while the British would have like to have had a buffer zone, there is little evidence of them directly helping the Indians prepare for war before the War of 1812 itself. In contrast, the British withheld support from them at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. They also reduced the amount of trade goods up to the declaration of war. Major General Brook commented that withholding of supplies and ammunition to the Indians was actually diminishing any British influence that they might have had over the Indians and officials at Amherstburg reported that in June of 1812 that they had almost cut in half the amount of power given to the Indians and they had no record of giving the Indians any lead at all in the last six months. In addition, in the time immediately before the outbreak of war, the British had nothing to gain by a war on American frontier. They were still at war in Europe and could not afford another war in America. British agents tried their best to keep the Indians content with the status quo and to avoid war with the Americans. War, they pointed out, would destroy the Indians if they did not get support from the British, and the British were unwilling to give their support at this time.

Many Americans who dreamt of westward expansionism were able to argue convincingly that the British were supplying the Indians. The mere fact that the Indians were using British-made weapons was proof enough for many. Reports in various newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio reported that the British were arming the Indians and preparing them to attack the Americans at a moments notice. A copy of a letter published in the local newspapers advertised that the Indians were actually collecting American scalps and selling them in England. Included in this letter was a section on the special way that the backs of the scalps were marked to show the circumstances in which they died.

William Henry Harrison, governor of Indiana Territory, was afraid of the confederation. Harrison himself was a believer in the concept of ‘manifest destiny’ and did not believe that uncivilized Indians should stand in the way of the Americans. He was also afraid of Tecumthe, who he viewed as one of the greatest leaders in North America. Furthermore, Harrison did not believe in the powers of the Prophet and challenged the Prophet to make the sun stand still and the moon to alter its course. Harrison hoped that if he could discredit the Prophet, then the threat of the confederation would somewhat be diminished. Harrison told the Prophet that if could do this, then he was obviously sent from God. Unfortunately for Harrison, an event that was known by the Americans in Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana was soon to occur, an eclipse of the sun. Hundreds of scientists had been moving westward for the past several weeks setting up observation posts amongst the Indians, so it is highly likely that Tecumseh also heard about the eclipse. Tecumseh wisely told his brother to predict that a great event would occur and to gather the Indians to his town on 16 June 1806. When the Indians gathered, the Prophet, at the appointed time, appeared and raised his hands skyward and as if by command, the eclipse occurred. Harrison asked for the impossible and Tecumseh and his brother gave it to him.

Harrison had met Tecumseh several times in the years preceding 1812 and had been both impressed and intimidated by the Indian. Harrison, in his goal to increase the size of the United States through the purchase of Indian lands had recently completed the Treaty of Fort Wayne. This treaty crossed Tecumseh on the one point that he believed the strongest in, that no one tribe could sell the land that the Indians lived on. After Harrison had completed the Treaty of Fort Wayne, Tecumseh was extremely upset and said that the treaty was worthless because the tribes that signed the treaty did not own the land, but had sold it just to get money and supplies from the Americans. After a hostile meeting between Tecumseh and Harrison, the governor was extremely worried about Tecumthe’s confederation. At the end of the meeting, Tecumseh mentioned that he was about to start a journey south to visit the Indians along the Gulf Coast and that when he returned, he would again visit with Harrison. Tecumseh also stated that he viewed the treaty as non-binding and that he would ensure that those responsible for signing the treaty would be held responsible for their actions.

Because of Tecumthe’s influence as he traveled amongst the various tribes, and the spreading of the Prophet’s visions, more and more Indians were turning to the brothers for guidance. These Indians were often the younger braves of a village along with their families. The older Indians were not so easily swayed by Tecumthe’s oratory skills and often remained in their own villages, unwilling to commit themselves to Tecumthe’s confederation. While Tecumseh was travelling the countryside, Harrison began preparations to break up Prophet’s Town. He quickly recruited over 900 men and marched them northward. At this time, President Madison, well aware of the frontier problems, had no desire to launch America into an Indian war. However, he had given Harrison some latitude by allowing him to take any defensive measures required to keep peace in the area.

When Harrison moved his forces towards Prophet’s Town, one of his pickets was fired upon. This gave Harrison what he needed, an excuse to attack the town. He moved his forces to within several hundred yards of Prophet’s Town and representatives of the village came out to meet him. These representatives asked for a council to be held the next morning in order to avoid bloodshed. Harrison agreed to the suggestion and for some unknown reason, he asked the Indians where he should bivouac his troops. Even stranger was that the Indians suggested what turned out to be a very defensible position.

That evening, the Indians debated over what to do about the American force. Tecumthe, before leaving on his travels, told his brother not to fight the Americans. Tecumseh did not want to start a war with the Americans since he was still trying to peacefully unite the Indians into a confederation that the Americans would be forced to deal with peacefully. However, with Tecumseh gone, the more aggressive Winnebagoes who wanted to attack the Americans, prevailed. The Prophet had no choice but to agree with the numerous Indians who wanted to fight since he was afraid that if he backed down, many of the Indians would leave the confederation on their own. The Prophet even went so far as to make bold predictions that the Indians would be victorious and that bullets would bounce off their skin. The next morning, 7 November 1811, the Indians launched an attack on Harrison’s army. While the losses in the Battle of Tippecanoe were few, the Prophet’s prediction of victory did not come true. Many of the Indians lost faith in him and withdrew from the area. Harrison moved his forces into the town and destroyed it. The defeat was the beginning of the end of the confederation.

When Tecumseh returned from his travels in the spring of 1812, he was devastated at what had occurred while he was gone. The majority of his followers were gone and the confederation's growth was stunted. Tecumthe, however, did not declare war on the Americans. Instead, he attempted to visit President Madison in order to explain his plan for a confederation to him. He wanted to explain how he did not want to go to war against the United States, but simply wanted recognition of the various Indian tribes as a single entity. Tecumseh knew that the British and Americans were very close to formal war and he even stated that he would support the Americans if they agreed to recognize the unity of the Indian tribes. Tecumseh was not allowed to make his trip. No one heard Tecumthe’s peaceful overtures, just the rhetoric of westerners that claimed that Tecumseh would soon sweep down on the various settlements and kill the unsuspecting civilians.

Up to this time, many Americans still believed that the British were supplying the Indians and pushing them towards war. In fact, many of the leaders of the country actually wished for war with the British. They viewed a war with England as a quick and easy way to annex Canada to the United States. Therefore, no matter what the truth was, it was simply more convenient to blame the British and thus push the two countries closer to war. However, letters between Colonel Prevost (later General Prevost) and General Brock show that the British had tried to prevent Indian uprisings and had no connection with Tippecanoe.

Nevertheless, the calm that occurred after the Battle of Tippecanoe ended in the spring of 1812 when bands of Indians, mainly Potawatomi Indians who had their relatives killed at Tippecanoe, roamed through the countryside burning homes, killing settlers, and seeking vengeance. Harrison, in his attempt to destroy the confederation, had unwittingly destroyed the moderating influence that had held the Indians in check. Forts suddenly appeared throughout the American communities and the Indians continued their random attacks across the northwest.

In Washington and in the western cities, the British received the blame for inciting the Indians. As the outlook for war grew more promising between the two countries, both sides began attempting to gain control over the Indians. Brigadier General Hull had earlier commented that he thought that the older chiefs would prevail and that the Indians would remain neutral. On 15 May 1812, the representatives of eleven tribes were present at a council. The venerable Wyandot chief, Crane, wished for neutrality in the upcoming war and many tribes agreed with him.

Tecumseh knew that the disaster at Tippecanoe had destroyed much of his dream for a confederacy. The battle had diminished the power of the Prophet and Tecumseh had banished him. The loss had also frightened many Indians into neutrality. The Battle of Tippecanoe had thrown Tecumthe’s vast plan into confusion. Yet, Tecumseh knew that a war between the United States and England could benefit him greatly. Tecumseh knew that he would be unable to create the confederacy that he once dreamt of, yet he realized that if he could bring his now ‘imperfect federation’ into an alliance with the British, together they might win. Tecumseh also realized that he could not declare war on the Americans too soon; he had to be patient and wait for England and the United States to declare war, then he could join the British.

On 17 May 1812, Tecumseh headed towards Malden. Once there he told the British that he did not want a war with the Americans, but that he simply wanted the Americans to stop encroaching on Indian land. He also stated that if the Americans were to act offensively against his forces, then he would ensure that they defended themselves. This meant that Tecumseh was ready for war.

Americans and British representatives scrambled to hold councils with the Indians after the War of 1812 erupted. In the early stages of the war, the Americans simply wanted the Indians to remain neutral. General Hull did not believe that the Indians could be useful in a war between the ‘whites’ and that they were untrustworthy. A council in Brownstown on 15 July 1812, led Hull to believe that the majority of the Indians would remain neutral. The British, understanding the importance of having an Indian ally, actively sought their participation. The British realized that there were very few men in Upper Canada and that if a major American force was to attack Upper Canada via Detroit the Americans could easily defeat the Canadian militia and few Regular Army men stationed there. To the British, the Indians were definitely a force multiplier.

While the council was meeting at Brownstown, Tecumseh told the British that he would side with them during the war. Tecumseh naturally assumed leadership of the Indians that flocked to the British banner. At the outset of the war, about six hundred Indians sided with the British. In the next several months, this number would grow as individuals and families joined the British / Tecumseh alliance. Although the exact number of followers is not known, the British commissariat issued large numbers of supplies to the Indians that, at times, could have fed up to 3,000 men, women, and children. Some of the Indians were fighting in defense of their land and for cultural survival. Others were simply seeking protection from the Americans. The Americans, grossly overestimating the number of British Indians, estimated that up to ten thousand Indians were fighting against them.

Tecumseh and his followers participated in the first skirmish of the war when he helped the Amherstburg militia resist the American force. While this action ended in a slight victory for the Americans and a withdraw of the Indians, it still had a significant impact because it caused General Hull to worry about the prospects of the Indians being let loose on the countryside.

Tecumthe’s first major role in the war occurred when he ambushed a force that Hull had sent out from Detroit to guard a convoy heading to the city from Urbana. While not many Americans died, the capture of Hull’s dispatches and personal letters was extremely important. With Hull’s dispatches, Brock decided to attack Detroit rather than allow a build-up of American forces. Brook understood the conditions of the troops in the city and he now knew Hull was worried about attacking Canada without receiving additional supplies. Brock, believing that he could easily defeat Hull, although outnumbered, called on Tecumseh to assemble the Indians. Hull, with Tecumthe’s Indians, British Regulars, and militia dressed in cast-off regular’s uniforms, marched toward Detroit. Tecumthe, using a ruse to confuse Hull, marched his Indians in plain sight of Detroit, then into the woods circling through the woods, Tecumseh therefore appeared twice back into view of the city with the same Indians. Hull, extremely worried about the torture that would befall anyone captured by the Indians, surrendered Detroit without shots being fired. In reality, Hull, who had earlier stated that no white man found fighting with the Indians would be taken prisoner, feared that the Indians might torture not only the citizens of the city, but also his wife and daughter, who were also in Detroit. However, Hull had little to worry about since Tecumseh was in charge of the Indians. Tecumseh had long ago refused to participate in the torturing of prisoners and would not tolerate any Indians that did.

In the fall of 1812, Tecumseh again decided to visit the southern tribes, in particular the Upper Creeks. Tecumseh told the Indians that the Americans would try to change their customs and drive them from their homes and so they must fight the Americans. He also told the Upper Creeks that the British were their allies and would send them assistance. In fact, British vessels would soon be at Pensacola and would give the Indians guns and ammunition. The Upper Creeks, who had ignored Tecumthe’s plan for a confederation on his earlier visit, now decided to join him in the war against the Americans. The northern victories that Tecumseh told the Upper Creeks about probably greatly influenced their decision. After Tecumseh left the Upper Creeks, they attacked Fort Mims and slaughtered 536 men, women and children. Tecumseh received the blame for this slaughter since he had visited the tribe only a short time earlier. However, Tecumseh must have been shocked when he heard about the butchery, for he had always preached against the torture of ones enemies. The actions of the Upper Creeks at Fort Mims launched Andrew Jackson into the forefront of the Creek War. Although Tecumseh would die before the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and the destruction of the Creek confederation, he was responsible for convincing the Upper Creeks into going to war against the Americans. He may not have told them how to fight, but he did tell them to fight.

After the slaughter of the Americans at River Raisin, (these Indians were under the control of Round Head and Walk-in-the-Water and Tecumseh was not present. Nevertheless, the slaughter was still blamed on Tecumseh by the Americans), Harrison’s troops fell back to the Maumee River and built Fort Meigs. In late April 1813, the British led by Proctor, and Tecumthe’s Indians, appeared at Fort Meigs and put it under siege. Two weeks before this attack Tecumseh held a council at Malden to arouse their enthusiasm for the battle. The Indians were never very good at laying siege since it usually amounted to a long, drawn out affair that ended up in little booty. Furthermore, the tight control that the Indians were under was not exactly what they expected when they decided to join the British against the Americans. Many of the Indians wanted to go home, but the Sioux and Chippewa warriors stayed firm. They were not about to abandon Tecumthe. When Tecumseh entered Ohio he had with him about 1,500 Indians, while Proctor had about 1,000 soldiers, almost evenly split between regulars and militia. The Battle of Fort Meigs probably would not have been as famous as it was if it was not for Harrison’s and his subordinates actions. Harrison, upon learning that reinforcements led by General Clay were coming to his aid, sent Clay an order telling him to split his force into two sections. One force, ultimately led by Colonel Dudley, was to attack the British batteries and then move to the fort. The second force, commanded by General Clay, would attack the Indians. Harrison would sally forth from the fort to assist Clay in the defeat of the Indians. Unfortunately, after Dudley completed the first part of his mission, he decided not to return to the fort and was drawn into a trap. Dudley lost an estimated 600 men either killed or captured. Once again, the Indians began to massacre the prisoners, but Tecumthe, in full view of Proctor who was watching on with indifference, stopped the massacre. Tecumseh then scolded Proctor for his lack of doing anything to stop the slaughter by telling Proctor, "Begone, you are not fit to command, go and put on petticoats.’ Dismayed at his lack of progress against Fort Meigs, Proctor lifted the siege on 9 May 1813.

Two months later, Proctor again approached Fort Meigs, this time at Tecumthe"s insistence. Tecumseh thought that perhaps he could trick the soldiers into believing the Indians were attacking an American relief column and that troops would sally forth to protect the relief column. However, Clay, remembering what happened to Dudley’s men earlier, could not be fooled. By the time that Proctor gave up his second attack on Fort Meigs, the Indians, who were tired of siege warfare, had scattered. Tecumseh did little to stop them, for he believed that they would show up again at Fort Malden after the summer or if he needed them.

Throughout the war, Tecumseh had met only one man he considered worthy to be a leader, General Brock. Tecumseh had no faith in the leadership ability of Proctor. Tecumseh was always worrying about providing his Indians with food and supplies; he knew that they were not getting the same quality of material as Procter’s men. He made it a point to let Procter know that he would not stand for his Indians, who were doing the majority of the fighting, to receive inadequate supplies. What Tecumseh possibly failed to realize was that Malden was at the end of a very long supply line, one that could be easily interrupted by the Americans if they were to gain control of Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, or the St. Lawrence Seaway. Procter, on the other hand, understood just how precarious his position was. He not only had to feed his troops, but also the braves and their families that fought with Tecumthe. Proctor had few quality troops and the Indians would often not invest themselves in siege operations, nor could they always be counted upon to fight. When Commodore Perry gained control of Lake Erie, Proctor saw only one option, the evacuation of Fort Malden and the movement of his troops eastward. Procter did not tell Tecumseh of his decision, but Tecumseh easily determined Procter’s plan. Tecumseh had always fought his battles in the deep woods and did not understand the importance of the control of Lake Erie. He had often fought battles in which he was greatly outnumbered and he remembered Procter’s pledge that the British would never yield the land they occupied. Yet, Tecumseh now saw Procter planning a withdrawal without even an enemy near them. Tecumseh did not understand why the British would not stand and fight the Americans instead of running away from them.

Tecumseh was not about to let the British run off and leave the Indians at the mercy of the Americans. He instead insisted that Proctor and his army stand and fight. Procter, instead of listening to Tecumthe, continued moving his troops away from Fort Malden. Tecumseh eventually stood up to Procter and demanded that they make a defense. Procter eventually agreed and stated that they would retreat to the Thames River and there make a defense against the on-coming Americans. Proctor may have planned to make his stand at Moraviantown, which would have been an excellent defensive position, except for the fact that it was full of civilians and wounded soldiers. Instead, the main battle line was to take place in a wooded area about two miles west of the town.

The position that Procter chose was not the best defensive position that he could have chosen; yet, it did have certain advantages. A large swamp on the right side and the river on the left would force the Americans to conduct a frontal attack along a narrow front. Harrison had approximately 2,500 to 3,000 soldiers against probably 400 British soldiers and 1,000 Indians.

The British positioned themselves on the left between the river and a small swamp and the Indians had their positions on the right between the small swamp and a larger swamp. Harrison deployed his force with Colonel Johnson’s mounted riflemen facing the British troops. When the attack began, Johnson realized that the frontage was too small for his forces, so he divided them and sent a portion of them against the British while the rest attacked the Indians. The British quickly fell back and the attack now focused on the Indians. Johnson’s men dismounted due to the thick underbrush and attacked the Indians in hand-to-hand combat. During this fighting, an unidentified American killed Tecumthe. With the British forces defeated and Procter on the run, the Indians quickly melted away after Tecumseh died. With the death of Tecumthe, the dream of an Indian confederation and organized Indian support to the British in the Western frontier also died. A signing of a provisional Indian armistice occurred on 14 October 1813. This treaty favored both the Indians and the Americans, since it allowed the Indians to return to their homes and allowed the Americans to watch them.

The ultimate impact of the Indians in the War of 1812 was not one that really benefited Indians, but in reality, the Americans and the British. Tecumthe’s Indians did help the British win several battles and put the fear of savages attacking innocent civilians in Ohio and Indiana in every settlers heart, but in the end, the victories that they won were regained by the Americans. Canadians can say that Tecumseh and his Indians saved Upper Canada, but in reality Upper Canada could have fallen after the Battle of The Thames if Harrison would have advanced eastward. The only tangible benefit that can be claimed from Indian participation in the war is that it lengthened the war out by forcing the American military to focus on a western theater of operations and prevented tem from advancing northward along the Hudson Valley into Canada. A rapid attack northward up the Hudson Valley would have cut Canada in two and left Upper Canada without any resupply channels; it would probably have fallen quickly. Lower Canada would have then been defeated and the war would have ended before the European war ended. However, the focus of the American Army on Upper Canada may be considered a major strategic victory for the British since it allowed them time to finish the war in Europe and bring the War of 1812 to a stalemate. If Tecumseh had remained neutral, then perhaps the American flag would have a few more stars on it today.

The real impact of the Indians in the war was that their involvement caused the beginning of the end of organized Indian resistance in the northwest and the defeat of the Upper Creeks in the south. Would it have been better if Tecumseh would have stayed out of the war between the two countries and waited until the war was over and then sought a treaty with the victor that would have recognized the Indians as separate country? Perhaps so. However, the Indians were centuries behind the Americans and the British and were unable to adapt to their European ways. Tecumseh preached the way of the tomahawk and the bow while his opponents were using rifles and cannons. Tecumseh was unable to convince the tribes to unite under one leader, for each tribe had its own agenda and often a lasting hatred among themselves. Americans, with their concept of manifest destiny, would not have allowed the Indians to maintain a separate country for long. Eventually, settlers would have moved into the Indian Territory and a war would have erupted. Americans were never good at following the treaties that they made with the Indians and there is no reason to believe that they would have followed one for very long if they would have made one with Tecumseh after the war.

2009-04-16T23:42:00.000-07:00

Shawnee
So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and
Demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life,
Beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and
Its purpose in the service of your people.

Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend,
Even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and
Bow to none. When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the food and
For the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks,
The fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and nothing,
For abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts
Are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes
They weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again
In a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home."

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"No tribe has the right to sell, even to each other, much less to strangers.... Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth? Didn't the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?

The way, the only way to stop this evil is for the red man to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land, as it was first, and should be now, for it was never divided."

We gave them forest-clad mountains and valleys full of game, and in return what did they give our warriors and our women? Rum, trinkets, and a grave.

Brothers -- My people wish for peace; the red men all wish for peace;but where the white people are, there is no peace for them, except it be on the bosom of our mother. Where today are the Pequot?

Where today are the Narrangansett, the Mohican, the Pakanoket,
and many other once powerful tribes of our people?

They have vanished before the avarice and the oppression of the White Man, as snow before a summer sun."

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2009-04-12T23:49:00.000-07:00

Tecumseh was born in 1768 as a member of the Shawnee Indian tribe, native to Ohio. He had one brother, Tenskwatawa, also known as Shawnee Prophet. The successful native trading post, Keth-tip-pe-can-nunk,
also known as Tippecanoe, thrived in Illinois' Wabash River Valley until 1791, when it was destroyed to make room for the white man.

In May 1808, Tecumseh and his brother left Ohio and founded the village Prophet's Town in the same location as the former Tippecanoe. The land had been claimed by the Potawatomi and Kickapoo tribes, but Tecumseh and his brother were granted settlement. Their village would eventually become the Indian equivalent to Washington, D.C., the capitol of a great Indian confederacy.

The white settlers were disturbed at Tecumseh's movement and the power him and his followers were creating for themselves. According to then Governor of the Illinois Territory, Ninian Edwards, "the hostility that he (the Prophet) excites against us is the cement of their union." In the late summer of 1811, while Tecumseh was on a summer recruitment drive in an attempt to bring the Chickasaw, Choctaw an Creek nations to Prophet's
Town, Governor of the Indiana Territory, General William Henry Harrison sent a small army of 1000 men into Prophet's Town to try and drive away the Indians.

The brothers' main idea behind such a confederacy was to form a Native union against the western settlers in protection of the land they had lived on for thousands of years. Prophet's Town became not only the center of diplomacy, but also a rigorous training center for the warriors, housing over 1000 of these men during the village's peak.

On November 16, 1811, General Harrison and representatives of the Prophet met to discuss matters of land. It was also decided that no hostilities would be needed until an official meeting could be held the next day.

Harrison and his men moved west to a site on a wooded hill farther away from Prophet's Town. Harrison warned his men of a possible invasion from the Prophet, although Tecumseh had told his brother not to attack the battle-ready white men until the Native union was strong and completely balanced.

Unfortunately, the Prophet claimed the white man's bullets would not hurt them, and he allowed his men to attack. The battle bloodily intensified until a reported thirty-seven soldiers were dead, twenty-five would eventually die of injuries, and over one hundred and twenty-six were seriously injured. Between twenty-five and sixty Indians were killed, and the warriors, feeling betrayed, threatened to kill the Prophet an stripped him of his power.

Three months later, Tecumseh returned to find a broken dream. Prophet's Town was destroyed. Tecumseh decided not to rebuild his confederacy, feeling that doing so under the United States government would be useless and much too risky. Together, he and his remaining followers allied themselves with British
forces for the War of 1812 against the Americans.

He fought as a brigadier general at Frenchtown, Raisin River, Fort Meigs, and Fort Stephenson. On October 5, 1813, when he was forty-five, in the Battle of the Thames at Chatham, Ontario, Tecumseh was killed leading his warriors, dressed in traditional Indian deerskin garments.

WORDS OF TECUMSEH

The way, the only way to stop this evil is for the

red man to unite in claiming a common and

equal right in the land, as it was first, and

should be now, for it was never divided.

We gave them forest-clad mountains and

valleys full of game, and in return what did they

give our warriors and our women? Rum,

trinkets and a grave.

Brothers--My people wish for peace; the red

men all wish for peace; but where the white

people are, there is no peace for them, except it

be on the bosom of our mother. Where today

are the Peoquot?

Where today are the Narrangansett,the

Mohican, the Pakanoket, and many other once

powerful tribes of our people?

They have vanished before the avarice and the

oppression of the White Man, as snow before a

summer sun."

"So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your
heart.
Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their
view, and demand that they respect yours. love your life,
perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make
your life long and its purpose in the service of your people.
Prepare a noble death song for the day
death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always
give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a
friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect
to all people and grovel to none. When you arise in the
morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If
you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in
yourself. Abuse no one and nothing, for abuse turns the wise ones
to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When it comes your
time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the
fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray
for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different
way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home. .

2009-04-08T02:00:00.002-07:00

2009-04-08T02:00:00.001-07:00

Native Mythology

2009-04-08T01:49:00.000-07:00

Key Symbols of West Coast Native Art

Many native carvings symbolize figures derived from ancestrol history and folklore. These symbols represent birds, animals and spirits.

Beaver

Creative, Artistic and Determined. Also known as the carpenter of the animal kingdom. A builder of dreams.

Beaver is an important crest and the subject of many legends. One legend tells of the origin of the beaver: A woman with brown hair dammed a small stream to make a pool for swimming. As she swam, her leather apron kept slapping the water. The pool became a lake and, because of scolding words from her husband, she refused to leave it. She became covered with brown fur, her apron turned into a tail, and thus she became the first beaver. Beaver reminds us that we have to act on our dreams to make them a reality.

Bear

Strength, Learned Humility, Motherhood, Teaching. The protector of the animal kingdom, awakening the power of the unconscious.

A symbol of great strength, authority and mobility, and is an important family crest. Because of its power and human-like qualities, the bear was referred to by West Coast people as Elder Kinsmen. When killed, it was taken to the chief's house, sprinkled with eagle down (a symbol of welcome and friendship) and generally treated as a high ranking guest.

Eagle

Great Strength, Leadership, Prestige, Spirit healing and Creation. Eagle also has a strong connection to Peace

Symbol of great wisdom, authority and power. Long a symbol of spiritual power and illumination eagles inspire people of all societies. Their energy is healing and aids in creation. One of the principal crests of the West Coast Indians. Many myths and legends surround the Eagle. Eagle down, a symbol of peace and friendship, was, and still is, sprinkled before guests in welcome dances and other ceremonial occasions.

Frog

Spring & New Life - Communicator, Stability

The Frog was a guardian symbol. When strangers approached, the croaking of the frog would serve as a warning. The Frog was said to have warned humans of impending danger. The Frog is frequently depicted in the art of the Northwest Coast and many legends are attached to this whimsical little animal.

Heron

Patience, Graceful, Aggressive self determination and self reliance.

Follower of ones own path. No structure, little stability and no security.

Hummingbird

Love, Beauty, Intelligence, Spirit Messenger that represents friendship and playfulness. Tireless Joy and the Nectar of life.

The Hummingbird is also a symbol of good luck and good fortune. It was considered a positive sign to spot a Hummingbird just prior to some major event such as hunting or traveling to another village. Hard workers and fiercely independent. Hummingbird teaches us how to find the miracle of joyful living from your own life circumstances.

Killer Whale

Traveler & Guardian - Symbol of Good, Power of Song, Awakening Inner Depths

The Whale is a popular symbol for romance as they mate for life. The Whale like the Wolf, stays with its family and travel in large pods.

Loon

Peace, Tranquility - Generous Giving Nature, reawakening of old hopes wishes and dreams.

The Loon is very much a part of the West Coast aura; it plays a significant part in the symbols of the West Coast Indians. The loon is always around water, and water is the ancient symbol for the astral plane, dreams and other levels of consciousness. Loons ask you pay attention to your dreams. The Loons call though melancholy and eerie may also be telling you that all your hopes, wishes and dreams you may have tucked away in the back of your heart are about to come to the surface. If you compromise your dreams you may truly find yourself haunted.

Moon

Protector and Guardian of the Earth by Night

The Moon lightens the darkness of the night. The Moon was the exclusive crest of only a few of the highest ranking chiefs. The Raven is said to have released the Moon into the sky. The stars are pieces of the Moon that flung off when Raven threw it into the sky. An eclipse was said to be a Codfish trying to swallow the Moon. In order to prevent this, a bonfire was set with green boughs to add smoke. As people danced ceremonially around the fire, thick smoke rose to the sky causing the codfish to cough and spit out the Moon. When the people saw the Moon appear at the edge of the mountain they would drum to bring the Moon higher into the sky.

Owl

Wisdom, Omens, Vision of the night

No bird has as much myth and mystery surrounding it than the owl. Part of this mystical aura is due to the fact that the bird is nocturnal and the night time has always seemed mysterious to humans. The owl is a symbol of the feminine, the moon, and the night. Because of it association with the moon it has ties to fertility and seduction. The owl is bird of magic and darkness of prophecy and wisdom.

Raven

Creation & Knowledge - Bringer of the Light, magic

One of the most prominent figures of the first peoples. The Raven is credited with giving the light, fire, and water to the Indians. He had the power to change at will into an animal form or to that of a human being. The Raven is the transformer, trickster and creator. Known in legends as the one who released the sun, moon, and stars; discovered man in a clamshell; brought the salmon and the water; and taught man how to fish and hunt.

Salmon

Dependability and Renewal - A Provider

Symbol of abundance and prosperity, the salmon was the chief sustenance for the West Coast Indians. The Pacific Northwest Coast people believed that Salmon were actually humans with eternal life how lived in a large house far under the ocean. In the Spring, they put on their Salmon disguises and offered themselves to the villagers as food. The tribes believed that when entire fish skeletons were returned to the sea, the spirits would rise again and change into Salmon people. In this way, the cycle could begin again the following year.

Thunderbird

Powerful & Mystical - A Leader of All.

A mythological bird who was the creator and controller of all elements and spirits. When he flew, the flapping of his wings caused the thunder, and the flashing of his eyes caused the lightning. He lived in the highest of mountains.

Whale

Bravery and Strength

Often depicted as a symbol of great strength and bravery, but was sometimes feared, as the Indians believed the whale would capsize their boats.

Wolf

Intelligence & Leadership - Strong Sense of Family, Guardianship, Ritual and Spirit

Revered because it was a good hunter, the wolf symbolizes cunning and was often associated with a special spirit a man had to acquire to become a successful hunter. As Wolves mate for life and live in close family units usually traveling in packs, they are regarded as a family-oriented symbol in West Coast Native culture. Wolf is the land manifestation of the Killer Whale as they mate for life, protect their young and do not separate from their families.

2009-04-07T23:59:00.000-07:00

Dictionary defintion for totem pole

Totem:
to.tem

–noun
1.
a natural object or an animate being, as an animal or bird, assumed as the emblem of a clan, family, or group.
2.
an object or natural phenomenon with which a family or sib considers itself closely related.
3.
a representation of such an object serving as the distinctive mark of the clan or group.
4.
anything serving as a distinctive, often venerated, emblem or symbol.

to·tem

n.
An animal, plant, or natural object serving among certain tribal or traditional peoples as the emblem of a clan or family and sometimes revered as its founder, ancestor, or guardian.
A representation of such an object.
A social group having a common affiliation to such an object.
A venerated emblem or symbol: "grew up with the totems and taboos typical of an Irish Catholic kid in Boston" (Connie Paige).

[Ojibwa nindoodem, my totem.]
//--> to·tem'ic (-těm'ĭk) adj.

Defintions for Totem

British columbia Natives

2009-04-07T23:47:00.000-07:00

Totem poles are wonderful examples of aboriginal art. The ancient practice of totem carving has been handed down through generations as a way of preserving the history of local native heritage as well as honouring tribal rituals and sacred spirits of people. There are many ways to experience the rich culture and native heritage of British Columbia's most fascinating people. For your own exploration of some of the best totem poles and aboriginal art in British Columbia, here are a few areas worth visiting.

In the heart of Vancouver, at Stanley Park, a collection of Kwakiutl and Haida totem poles represents styles from a few of the northwest Pacific coast native traditions. The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, holds an impressive collection of Pacific Northwest aboriginal artifacts, including a definitive collection of west coast totem poles.

The Capilano Suspension Bridge and Park, in North Vancouver, offers a thrilling adventure 70 metres (230 feet) above the Capilano River. The park features colourful totem poles beautifully maintained in their original condition. In summer, watch First Nations artists at work in the longhouse carving centre.

Travelling eastwards on Highway 7, the Xa:ytem Longhouse, in Mission, is an Historic Site and the first native spiritual site in Canada to be recognized by both Provincial and Federal governments. Carbon-dated at between 5,000 and 9,000 years old, the centrepiece of the ancient village site is an enormous boulder dubbed Xa:ytem, meaning 'the transformed one.' The Sto:lo Nation has recently erected a longhouse at the site where, between June to September, visitors can learn more about traditional First Nations' culture and history. Each year in July, the Mission Powwow, which represents a celebration of the survival and adaptation of native culture, draws drummers, singers and dancers to a three-day festival. Outsiders may respectfully attend.

Click for MapFrom Prince George, drive west along Highway 16 to the 'Ksan Historical Village and Museum in Hazelton. The museum, in one of the long houses, honours the Gitksan ancestors, who were graced with such abundance that they had time to beautify the items they carved for everyday use. Seven decorated tribal houses fronted with several totems stand silently on the banks of the Skeena and Bulkley rivers. Further along is the Kitwanga Fort National Historic Site.

This fort, known on maps and signs as Battle Hill, was constructed on top of a glacial mound overlooking the river. The most famous warrior to occupy this fort was a man known as Nekt. His descendants continue to live in the native villages of the area.

Detour up Highway 37 to the small village of Kitwancool, to see what are reputed to be the oldest and finest examples of totem poles in British Columbia. The three poles mounted together directly in front of the Gitanyow Band Council office are among the most intricately designed ones of the whole group, and demonstrate that the carving tradition here is stronger than ever.

Ninstints, Queen CharlottesTake a side trip Take a side trip to Nisga'a Memorial Lava Beds Provincial Park, which has special significance to native people. Two centuries ago T'aam Baxhl Mihl Mountain erupted and destroyed two native villages, along with an estimated 2,000 Nisga'a ancestors.Board a BC Ferry in Prince Rupert and cross the Hecate Strait to the breathtaking Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii). They lie on the edge of the province's collective memory like a dream scarce remembered, mythical and elusive, full of meaning and beauty, yet incomprehensible to the waking mind.

Many visitors come to the islands to see the ancient villages on Moresby Island, accessible only by boat. Anthony Island, home of the old Haida village of Ninstints, is located within the boundaries of Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, and is a World Heritage Site.

Return to Prince Rupert and visit the Museum of Northern British Columbia, which houses an exceptional collection of Tsimshian artifacts. Tsimshian people continue to live in the area of Prince Rupert and on hundreds of offshore islands.

BC Ferries connect the community of Prince Rupert with Port Hardy, at the northeastern end of Vancouver Island. The magnificent 15-hour cruise down the Inside Passage leads through majestic fjords and a maze of narrow channels. Snow and ice coat the peaks of the mountains, and their shoulders plunge to the tideline. So rugged is most of this coast that if you were exploring here by kayak, you'd be challenged to find a welcoming landing site. Keep your camera handy, and passengers should keep their eyes peeled for a whale or dolphin in Queen Charlotte Sound. With luck you might even see a white-coated Kermodei bear on Princess Royal Island's lengthy shoreline.

Alert Bay lies cradled in the arms of Cormorant Island, easily accessible by a scenic ferry ride from Port McNeill on Vancouver Island. Visit the U'mista Cultural Centre to view elaborately carved cedar masks depicting the Potlatch ceremony of the Kwakwaka'wakw People. And memorial totem poles may be viewed from the road at the native Namgis Burial Grounds.

Back on Vancouver Island, follow Highway 19 to Campbell River. The rich native heritage of Campbell River is proudly displayed in the Campbell River Museum, which features a fine display of contemporary native masks and ceremonial items. Quadra Island, a ten-minute ferry ride from Campbell River, is well worth thevisit. A "must see" is their Nuyumbalees Cultural Center (formerly Kwagiulth Museum and Cultural Center), which showcases potlatch regalia, ceremonial masks, rattles, and whistles.

Continue south to Nanaimo and Petroglyph Park, to see 10,000-year-old stone carvings. Though the exact meaning or purpose of petroglyphs has been lost to time, the indelibly etched figures speak of the search for harmony between humans and nature, between humans and the divine. The local natives call it Kinomagewapkong, meaning 'the rocks that teach.'

Thunderbird Park in Victoria

Duncan calls itself 'The City of Totems' and features a selfguided walking tour of 41 totem poles in downtown Duncan. Visit the superb Quw'utsun' Cultural and Conference Centre - exhibits, traditional foods, storytelling, and Cowichan artists and elders at work. Their mission is to share and to build the pride of First Peoples through education, art, and traditional weaving, beading, spinning as well as providing entertainment for guests and first nations people by reflecting the past and striving in the present to enhance the future of our Native cultures.

The Royal British Columbia Museum located in the inner harbour area of Victoria, presents a premier collection of native artifacts. Outside the museum, protected from the elements, stand some of the oldest totem poles and greet figures ever collected and preserved. Totem poles carved in the styles of aboriginal people throughout British Columbia can be seen in Thunderbird Park, adjacent to the Royal British Columbia Museum.

Finally, and to complete this circle tour of Native heritage and culture, relax aboard a BC Ferry on the scenic cruise back to Tsawwassen, south of Vancouver.
History and Heritage Tour Operators in British Columbia

Medals matter

2009-04-05T02:00:00.000-07:00

Medals matter

Unit bids to save memory of soldier hero
By Paul Cowan, Edmonton Sun, Friday, July 27, 2001
Re:Andrew Sinclair,Winnipeg,Manitoba sundayApril 5,2009

A city army unit is fighting to preserve the medals of one of its most famous soldiers, hoping to keep his story from an inglorious end
The 10 medals belonged to Sgt. Tommy Prince, the country's most decorated native soldier, and are going up for auction on Aug. 9
His old unit, the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, is looking at the possibility of contributing to a fund which aims to put the medals on public display in Winnipeg.
"We were interested when they went up for sale (in 1997) but when the price went up to the $17,000 level it was too rich for our blood," said regiment spokesman Maj. Ted Giraldeau.
"The price this time is expected to be over $20,000. But we're looking at working with some of Prince's relatives who are setting up a fund to buy the medals and put them on display."
Giraldeau said the regiment was contacting the Prince Medals Committee for more details about its fund-raising.
Edmonton veteran Bill Lee, 71, served with Prince in Korea in 1951 when they were both members of the 2nd Battalion of the PPCLI.
"It would be good if they could keep the medals but it sounds like they're asking a lot of money," he said.
"Tommy was a good soldier and a brave soldier. He was a bit of a loner and maybe too keen to win another medal but I liked him - when he was sober."
Lee said Prince, a Second World War Special Forces veteran, should never have volunteered for another tour of duty in Korea.
"He should never have gone back. It destroyed him," said Lee.
Fellow Edmonton PPCLI veteran Ed Morley, 71, met Prince when they were both paratroopers in the early 1950s.
"He was a good soldier and it's a shame that the medals are up for sale at all," said Morley.
Prince won both the British Empire's Military Medal and the U.S. Silver Star for bravery in the Second World War when he served with the joint Canada-U.S. paratroop unit popularly known as "The Devil's Brigade."
While serving in Italy he specialized in sneaking through the German lines and slitting the throats of sleeping enemy soldiers. Legend has it he would sometimes simply leave a calling card behind as well - to let the lucky survivors know it could've been them.
After he left the army in 1953 Prince's drinking problem worsened and he was often picked up by the Winnipeg cops

Supporters hope to buy war hero's medals back

2009-04-05T01:58:00.000-07:00

Supporters hope to buy war hero's medals back

By Michael Lightstone, Halifax Herald Friday, July 27, 2001
Re: Andrew Sinclair ,Winnipeg Manitoba Saturday,April 5, 2oo9

He was a Canadian hero, a veteran of two wars who was injured in battle and later fought personal demons on the home front.
Manitoba's Tommy Prince was also this country's most-decorated aboriginal war veteran. He once had the military medals to prove it, but a Cape Breton broker storing them for a client is preparing to auction them off.
The prospect of seeing Mr. Prince's decorations end up farther from home - New Zealand, for example - has sparked an outcry in his home province.
Relatives and veterans are scrambling to raise enough money to bring the medals back to Manitoba.
An Ojibwa from the Brokenhead First Nation, southeast of Winnipeg, Mr. Prince served in the Canadian army during the Second World War and Korean War. He died in 1977 at age 62. Known for his ability to slip behind enemy lines at night, Mr. Prince received medals for gallantry from King George VI, who personally presented them.
Sandy Campbell of Proof Positive Coins Ltd. in Baddeck bought more than six Prince medals in 1997 for a client.
He said Thursday that the man, whom he wouldn't name, paid about $20,000 for them. They've been sitting in Mr. Campbell's safety deposit box since 1997.
Mr. Prince's medals are scheduled to be part of a military memorabilia auction Aug. 9 in London, Ont.
The market is extremely hot right now for native heritage items, Mr. Campbell said, and the Prince medals could fetch as much as $100,000.
He said their value isn't hooked to anything but their legendary recipient. "The value comes from the fact that it's Tommy Prince - he's the most famous native soldier of our time," Mr. Campbell said.
"The individual medals, if you broke them down and sold them (separately), would be . . . like two grand max," he said.
Mr. Campbell said he'd "love to see the medals stay in Canada," but noted one serious collector who will bid on them is from New Zealand.
"My client bought them for one reason in the end, and that's financial gain."
Mr. Prince's son, Thomas, said if supporters can't buy them back before they're put up for sale, they'll probably bid on the medals at the auction.
"If we do get them back, I would want to see them in the province of Manitoba, for sure," he said.
"I would like to see them in our (family) home - but I would also like to have them displayed somewhere where the public can see what Sgt. Tommy Prince has earned."
Mr. Campbell said part of the reason his client wants to unload the medals is the uproar in Manitoba's aboriginal community about their ownership.
"My client doesn't want to go through the hassle of owning the medals anymore," he said in a phone interview. "He can't enjoy them."
The fight to return Mr. Prince's medals to Manitoba is being waged on various fronts.
His nephew, Jim Bear, has lobbied the federal government on behalf of his family. Manitoban Donald Mackey recently started the Tommy Prince Medal Fund.
And a Manitoba veterans group says it will donate the first $1,000 to get Mr. Prince's decorations back.
Thomas Prince said his father, though a hero, didn't like to delve into his wartime past. He said his dad sometimes began battle tales but rarely finished them.
"He would start a story and then just zip up and forget about it," he said.
"In his first war, he wasn't injured but when he went overseas to Korea, that's where he got shot up pretty badly."
He said his father suffered from post-battle stress and alcoholism because of his war experiences. He said his dad had full-time jobs after the Korean War but later eked out a living with part-time work.
How the war medals slipped out of his family's hands and were sold in the first place is a mystery to the son.
"There's a heck of a story about this," he said. "Dad was, I guess, hitting the bottle at the time and he just didn't look after his stuff, and apparently he went and pawned them. But I really don't know how they got up for auction." A regular character on Winnipeg's gritty Main Street, Tommy Prince was known to police and spent his last years in Salvation Army hostels.
"Whenever the police would find him wandering around drunk, they would never lock him up in the drunk tank with the rest," a Web site biography says.
"He was treated with respect, and they would take him back to wherever he was staying."
His funeral was attended by more than 500 people, the Web site says, including Manitoba's lieutenant-governor and diplomats from France, Italy and the United States.

TRAIL OF BROKEN TREATIES

2009-03-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

We want to have a new RELATIONSHIP with you...an HONEST one!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OUR 20 POINT PROPOSAL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 1972, Minneapolis, Minnesota
"TRAIL OF BROKEN TREATIES": FOR RENEWAL OF CONTRACTS-
RECONSTRUCTION OF INDIAN COMMUNITIES & SECURING AN INDIAN FUTURE IN AMERICA!

RESTORATION OF CONSTITUTIONAL TREATY-MAKING AUTHORITY:
The U.S. President should propose by executive message, and the Congress should consider and enact legislation, to repeal the provision in the 1871 Indian Appropriations Act which withdrew federal recognition from Indian Tribes and Nations as political entities, which could be contracted by treaties with the United States, in order that the President may resume the exercise of his full constitutional authority for acting in the matters of Indian Affairs - and in order that Indian Nations may represent their own interests in the manner and method envisioned and provided in the Federal Constitution.

ESTABLISHMENT OF TREATY COMMISSION TO MAKE NEW TREATIES:
The President should impanel and the Congress establish, with next year, a Treaty Commission to contract a security and assistance treaty of treaties, with Indian people to negotiate a national commitment to the future of Indian people for the last quarter of the Twentieth Century. Authority should be granted to allow tribes to contract by separate and individual treaty, multi-tribal or regional groupings or national collective, respecting general or limited subject matter..and provide that no provisions of existing treaty agreements may be withdrawn or in any manner affected without the explicit consent and agreement of any particularly related Indian Nation.

AN ADDRESS TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE & JOINT SESSSIONS OF CONGRESS:
The President and the leadership of Congress should make a commitment now and next January to request and arrange for four Native Americans - selected by Indian people at a future date - and the President of the United States and any designated U.S. Senators and Representatives to address a joint session of Congress and the American people through national communications media regarding the Indian future within the American Nation, and relationships between the Federal Government and Indian Nations - on or before June 2, 1974, the first half century anniversary of the 1924 "Indian Citizenship Act."

COMMISSION TO REVIEW TREATY COMMITMENTS & VIOLATIONS:
The President should immediately create a multi-lateral, Indian and non-Indian Commission to review domestic treaty commitments and complaints of chronic violations and to recommend or act for corrective actions including the imposition of mandatory sanctions or interim restraints upon violative activities, and including formulation of legislation designed to protect the jeopardized Indian rights and eliminate the unending patterns of prohibitively complex lawsuits and legal defenses --which habitually have produced indecisive and interment results, only too frequently forming guidelines for more court battles, or additional challenges and attacks against Indian rights. (Indians have paid attorneys and lawyers more than $40,000,000 since 1962. Yet many Indian people are virtually imprisoned in the nation's courtrooms in being forced constantly to defend their rights, while many tribes are forced to maintain a multitude of suits in numerous jurisdictions relating to the same or a single issue, or a few similar issues. There is less need for more attorney assurances than there is for institution of protections that reduce violations and minimize the possibilities for attacks upon Indian rights).

RESUBMISSION OF UNRATIFIED TREATIES TO THE SENATE:
The President should resubmit to the U.S. Senate of the next Congress those treaties negotiated with Indian nations or their representatives, but never heretofore ratified nor rendered moot by subsequent treaty contract with such Indians not having ratified treaties with the United States. The primary purpose to be served shall be that of restoring the rule of law to the relationships between such Indians and the United States, and resuming a recognition of rights controlled by treaty relations where the failure to ratify prior treaties operated to affirm the cessions and loss of title to Indian lands and territory, but failed to secure and protect the reservations of lands, rights, and resources reserved against cession, relinquishment, or loss, the Senate should adopt resolutions certifying that a prior de facto ratification has been affected by the Government of the United States, and direct that appropriate actions be undertaken to restore to such Indians an equitable measure of their reserved rights and ownership in lands, resources, and rights of self-government. Additionally, the President and the Congress should direct that reports be concluded upon the disposition of land rights and land title which were lawfully vested or held, for people of Native Indian blood under the 1840 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo with Mexico.

ALL INDIANS TO BE GOVERNED BY TREATY RELATIONS:
The Congress should enact a Joint Resolution declaring that as a matter of public policy and good faith, all Indian people in the United States shall be considered to be in treaty relations with the Federal Government and governed by doctrines of such relationship.

MANDATORY RELIEF AGAINST TREATY RIGHTS VIOLATIONS:
The Congress should add a new section to Title 28 of the United States Code to provide for the judicial en- forcement and protection of Indian Treaty Rights. Such section should direct that upon petition of any Indian Tribe or prescribed Indian groups and Individuals claiming substantial injury to, or interference in the equitable and good faith exercise of any rights, governing authority or utilization and preservation of resources, secured by Treaty, mandatorily the Federal District courts shall grant immediate enjoinder or injunctive relief against any non-Indian party or defendants, including State governments and their subdivisions or officers, alleged to be engaged in such injurious actions, until such time as the District U.S. Court may be reasonably satisfied that a Treaty Violation is not being committed, or otherwise satisfied that the Indians' interests and rights, in equity and in law, are preserved and protected from jeopardy and secure from harm.

JUDICIAL RECOGNITION OF INDIAN RIGHT TO INTERPRET TREATIES:
The Congress should by law provide for a new system of federal court jurisdiction and procedure, when Indian treaty or governmental rights are at issue, and when there are non-Indian parties involved in the controversy, whereby an Indian Tribe or Indian party may by motion advance the case from a federal District Court for hearing, and decision by the related U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The law should provide that, once an Interpretation upon the matter has been rendered by either a federal district or circuit court an Indian Nation may, on its own behalf or on behalf of any of its members, if dissatisfied with the federal court ruling or regarding it in error respecting treaty or tribal rights, certify directly to the United States Supreme Court a "Declaratory Judgment of Interpretation", regarding the contested rights and drawn at the direction or under the auspices of the affected Indian Nation, which that Court shall be mandated to receive with the contested decision for hearing and final judgment and resolution of the controversy - except and unless that any new treaties which might be contracted may provide for some other impartial body for making ultimate and final interpretations of treaty provisions and their application. In addition, the law should provide that an Indian Nation, to protect its exercise of rights or the exercise of treaty or tribal rights by its members, or when engaging in new activities based upon sovereign or treaty rights, may issue an interim "Declaratory Opinion on Interpretation of Rights", which shall be controlling upon the exercise of police powers or administrative authorities of that Indian Nation, the United States or any State(s), unless or until successfully challenged or modified upon certification to and decision by the United States Supreme Court - and not withstanding any contrary U.S. Attorney General's opinion(s)..solicitor's opinion(s), or Attorney General's Opinion(s) of any of the States.

CREATION OF CONGRESSIONAL JOINT COMMITTEE ON RECONSTRUCTION OF INDIAN RELATIONS:
The next Congress of the United States, and its respective houses, should agree at its outset and in its organization to withdraw jurisdiction over Indian Affairs and Indian-related program authorizations from all existing Committees except Appropriations of the House and Senate, and create a Joint House-Senate "Committee on Reconstruction of Indian Relations and Programs" to assume such jurisdiction and responsibilities for recommending new legislation and program authorizations to both houses of Congress - including consideration and action upon all proposals presented herewith by the "Trail of Broken Treaties Caravan," as well as matters from other sources. The Joint Committee membership should consist of Senators and Representatives who would be willing to commit considerable amounts of time and labors and conscientious thought to an exhaustive review and examining evaluation of past and present policies, program and practices of the Federal Government relating to Indian people, to the development of a comprehensive broadly-inclusive "American Indian Community Reconstruction Act", which shall provide for certain of the measures herein proposed, repeal numerous laws which have oppressively disallowed the existence of a viable "Indian Life" in this country, and affect the purposes while constructing the provisions which shall allow and ensure a secure Indian future in America.

LAND REFORM AND RESTORATION OF A 110-MILLION ACRE NATIVE LAND BASE:
The next Congress and Administration should commit themselves and effect a national commitment implemented by statutes or executive and administrative actions, to restore a permanent non-diminishing Native American land base of not less than 110-million acres by July 4, 1976. This land base and its separate parts, should be vested with the recognized rights and conditions of being perpetually non-taxable except by autonomous and sovereign Indian authority, and should never again be permitted to be alienated from Native American or Indian ownership and control.
A. Priorities In Restoration of the Native American Land Base:
When Congress acted to delimit the President's authority and the Indian Nations' powers for making treaties in 1871, approximately 135,000,000 acres of land and territory had been secured to Indian ownership against cession or relinquishment. This acreage did not include the 1867 treaty-secured recognition of land title and rights of Alaskan Natives, nor millions of acres otherwise retained by Indians in what were to become "unrelated" treaties of Indian land cession as in California; nor other land areas authorized to be set aside for Indian Nations contracted by, but never benefiting from their treaties. When the Congress, in 1887, under the General Allotment Act and other measures of the period and "single system of legislation," delegated treaty-assigned Presidential responsibilities to the Secretary of the Interior and his Commissioner of Indian Affairs and agents in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, relating to the government of Indian relations under the treaties for the 135 million acres, collectively held, immediately became subject to loss. The 1887 Act provided for the sale of "surplus" Indian lands - and contained a formula for the assignment or allocation of land tracts to Indian individuals, dependent partly on family size, which would have allowed an average-sized allotment of 135 acres to one million Indians - at a time when the number of tribally-related Indians was less than a quarter million or fewer than 200,000. The Interior Department efficiently managed the loss of 100-million acres of Indian land, and its transfer to non-Indian ownership (frequently by homestead, not direct purchase- in little more then the next quarter century. When Congress prohibited further allotments to Indian individuals, by its 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, it effectively determined that future generations of Indian people would be "land-less Indians" except by hiership and inheritance. (110-million acres, including 40-million acres in Alaska, would approximate an average 135 acres multiplied by .8 million Native Americans, a number indicated by the 1970 U.S. Census. Simple justice would seem to demand that priorities in restorations of land bases be granted to those Indian Nations who are land-less by fault of unratified or unfulfilled treaty provisions; Indian Nations, land-less because of congressional and administrative actions reflective of criminal abuse of trust responsibilities; and other groupings of land-less Indians, particularly of the land-less generations, including many urban Indians and non-reservation Indian people - many of whom have been forced to pay in forms of deprivation, loss of rights and entitlements, and other extreme costs upon their lives, an "emigration-migration-education-training" tax for their unfulfilled pursuit of opportunity in America - a "tax" as unwarranted and unjustified as it is unprecedented in the history of human rights mature nations possessed of a modern conscience.

B. Consolidation of Indians' Land, Water, Natural and Economic Resources:
The restoration of an equitable Native American Land Base should be accompanied by enlightened revision in the present character of alleged "trust relationships and by reaffirmation of that creative and positive characters of Indian sovereignty and sovereign rights. The past pattern of treating "trust status" as wrongful "non-ownership" of properties beyond control of individual interests and "owners," could be converted to a beneficial method of consolidating useable land, water, forests, fisheries, and other exploitable and renewable natural resources into productive economic, cultural, or other community-purpose units, benefiting both individual and tribal interests in direct forms under autonomous control of properly-defined, appropriate levels of Indian government. For example, the 13.5 million acres of multiple and fractionated hiership lands should not represent a collective denial of beneficial ownership and interests of inheriting individuals, but be considered for plans of collective and consolidated use. (The alternatives and complexities of this subject and its discussion require the issuance of a separate essay at a later date.)

C. Termination of Losses and Condemnation of Non-Indian Land Title:
Most short-term and long term leases of some four million acres of Indians' agricultural and industrial-use lands represent a constant pattern of mismanagement of trust responsibilities with the federal trustees knowingly and willfully administering properties in methods and terms which are adverse or inimical to the interests of the Indian beneficiaries and their tribes. Non-Indians have benefit of the best of Indian agricultural range and dry farm lands, and of some irrigation systems, generally having the lowest investment/highest return ratios, while Indians are relegated to lands requiring high investments/low returns. A large-scale, if selective, program of lease cancellations and non-renewals should be Instituted under Congressional authorization as quickly as possible. As well, Indian Tribes should be authorized to re-secure Indian ownership of alienated lands within reservation boundaries under a system of condemnation for national policy purposes, with the federal government bearing the basic costs of "just compensation" as burden for unjustified betrayals of its trust responsibilities to Indian people. These actions would no way be as extreme as the termination, nationalization, confiscation and sale of millions of acres of reservation land by a single measure as in the. cases of the Menominee and Klamath Indian Tribes, and attempted repeatedly with the Colvilles.

D. Repeal of the Menominee, Klamath, and Other Termination Acts:
The Congress should act immediately to repeal the Termination Acts of the 1950s and 1960s and restore ownership of the several million acres of land to the Indian people involved, perpetually non-alienable and tax-exempt. The Indians rights to autonomous self-government and sovereign control of their resources and development should be reinstated. Repeal of the terminal legislation would also advance a commitment towards a collective 110-million acre land base for Native Americans - when added to the near 55-million acres already held by Indians, apart from the additional 40-million acres allocated in Alaska. (The impact of termination and its various forms have never been understood fully by the American people, the Congress, and many Indian people. Few wars between nations have ever accomplished as much as the total dispossession of a people of their rights and resources as have the total victories and total surrenders legislated by the Termination Laws. If the Arab States of the present Mid-East could comparably presume the same authority over the State of Israel, they could eliminate Israel by the purchase or by declaring it an Arab State or subdivision thereof, on the one hand, evicting the Israelis from the newly-acquired Arab lands, or on the other, allowing the Israelis to remain as part of the larger Arab Nation and justify the disposition to the world by the claim that, whether leaving or remaining, but without their nation, the Jewish people would still be Jewish. Such on unacceptable outrage to American people would quickly succeed to World War III - except when such actions are factually taken against Menominees, Klamaths, Senecas, Utes, and threatened against many other landed nations of Indian people.

REVISION OF 25 U.S.C. 163; RESTORATION OF RIGHTS TO INDIANS TERMINATED BY ENROLLMENT AND REVOCATION OF PROHIBITIONS AGAINST "DUAL BENEFITS":
The Congress should enact measures fully in support of the doctrine that an Indian Nation has complete power to govern and control its own membership - but eradicating the extortive and coercive devices in federal policy and programming which have subverted and denied the natural human relationships and natural development of Indian communities, and committed countless injuries upon Indian families and individuals. The general prohibition against benefiting dually from federal assistance or tribal resources by having membership or maintaining relationships in more than one Indian Tribe has frequently resulted in denial of rights and benefits from any sources. Blood quantum criteria, closed and restrictive enrollment, and "dual benefits prohibitions" have generated minimal problems for Indians having successive non-Indian parentage involved in their ancestry - while creating vast problems and complexities for full-blood and predominant Indian blood persons, when ancestry or current relationships involve two separate Indian tribes, or more. Full-blood Indians can fail to qualify for membership in any of several tribes to which they may be directly related if quantum-relationships happen to be in wrong configuration, or non-qualifying fractions. Families have been divided to be partly included upon enrollments, while some children of the same parents are wrongly (if there are at all to be enrollments) excluded. There should be a restoration of Indian and tribal rights to all individual Indians who have been victimized and deprived by the vicious forms of termination effected by forced choices between multiply-related Tribes, abusive application of blood-quantum criteria, and federally-engineered and federally-approved enrollments. The right of Indian persons to maintain, sever, or resume valid relations with several Indian Nations or communities unto which they are born, or acquire relationships through natural marriage relations or parenthood and other customary forms, must again be recognized under law and practice and also the right of Indian Nations to receive other Indian people into relations with them --or to maintain relations with all their own people, without regard to blood-quantum criteria and federal standards for exclusion or restrictions upon benefits. (I t may be recognized that the general Indian leadership has become conditioned to accept and give application to these forms of terminating rights, patterns which are an atrocious aberration from any concepts of Indian justice and sovereignty).

REPEAL OF STATE LAWS ENACTED UNDER PUBLIC LAW 280 (1953):
State enactment's under the authority conferred by the Congress In Public Law 280 has posed the most serious threat to Indian sovereignty and local self-government of any measure in recent decades. Congress must now nullify those State statutes. Represented as a "law enforcement" measure, PL280 robs Indian communities of the core of their governing authority and operates to convert reservation areas into refuges from responsibilities, where many people, not restricted by race, can take full advantage of a veritable vacuum of controlling law, or law which commands its first respect for justice by encouraging an absence of offenses. These States' acceptance of condition for their own statehood in their Enabling Acts - that they forever disclaim sovereignty and jurisdiction over Indian lands and Indian people - should be binding upon them and that restrictive condition upon their sovereignty be reinstated. They should not be permitted further to gain from the conflict of interest engaged by such States' participation in enactment of Public Law 280 -- at the expense of the future of Indian people in their own communities, as well as our present welfare and well-being.

RESUME FEDERAL PROTECTIVE JURISDICTION FOR OFFENSES AGAINST INDIANS:
The Congress should enact, the Administration support and seek passage of, new provisions under Titles 18 and 25 of the U.S. Code, which shall extend the protective jurisdiction of the United States over Indian persons wherever situated in its territory and the territory of the several States, outside of Indian Reservations or Country, and provide the prescribed offenses of violence against Indian persons shall be federal crimes, punishable by prescribed penalties through prosecutions in the federal judiciary, and enforced in arrest actions by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. U.S. Marshals, and other commissioned police agents of the United States - who shall be compelled to act upon the commission of such crimes, and upon any written complaint or sworn request alleging an offense, which by itself would be deemed probable cause for arresting actions.
A. Establishment of a National Federal Indian Grand Jury:
The Congress should establish a special national grand jury consisting solely of Indian members selected in part by the President and in part by Indian people, having a continuous life, and equipped with its own investigative and legal staff, and presided over by competent judicial officers, while vested with prescribed authorities of indictments to be prosecuted in the federal and Indian court systems. This grand jury should be granted jurisdiction to act in the bringing of indictments on basis of evidence and probable cause within any federal judicial district where a crime of violence has been committed against an Indian and resulting in an Indian's death, or resulting in bodily injury and involving lethal weapons or aggressive force, when finding reason to be not satisfied with handling or disposition of a case or incident by local authorities, and operating consistent with federal constitutional standards respecting rights of an accused. More broadly and generally, the grand jury should be granted broad authority to monitor the enforcement of law under Titles 18, 25, and 42, respecting Indian jurisdiction and civil rights protections; the administration of law enforcement; confinement facilities and juvenile detention centers, and judicial systems in Indian country; corrupt practices or violations of law in the administration of federal Indian agencies or of federally-funded programs for Indian people - including administration by tribal officials or tribal governmental units - and federal employees, and issue special reports bringing indictments when warranted, directed toward elimination of wrong-doing, wrongful administration or practices; and improvement recommendations for-systems to ensure proper services and benefits to communities, or Indian people.

B. Jurisdiction over Non-Indians Within Indian Reservations:
The Congress should eliminate the immunity of non-Indians to the general application of law and law enforcement within Reservation Boundaries, without regard to land or property title. Title 18 of the U.S. Code should be amended to clarify and compel that all persons within the originally-established boundaries of an Indian Reservation are subject to the laws of the sovereign Indian Nation in the exercise of its autonomous governing authority. A system of concurrent jurisdiction should be minimum requirement in incorporated towns.

C. Accelerated Rehabilitation and Release Program for State and Federal Indian Prisoners:
The Administration should immediately contract an appropriately staffed Commission of Review on Rehabilitation of Indian Prisoners in Federal and State institutions, funded from Safe Streets and Crime Control funds, or discretionary funds under control of the President, and consisting of Indian membership. The review commission would conduct census and survey of all Indian prisoners presently confined, compile information on records of offenses, sentences, actions of committing jurisdictions (courts, police. pre-sentence reports, probation and parole systems) and related pertinent data. The basic objective of the review commission would be to arrange for the development of new systems of community treatment centers, or national/regional rehabilitation centers as alternatives to existing prison, situations; to work with Bureau of Prison and federal parole systems to arrange for accelerated rehabilitation and release programs as justified, and to give major attention to the reduction of offenses and recidivism in Indian communities. The commission would act to provide forms by which Indian people may assume the largest measures of responsibility in reversing the rapidly increasing crime rates on Indian reservations, and re-approaching situations where needs for jails and prisoner institutions may again be virtually eliminated. The Congress should provide appropriate authorizations in support of such effort - perhaps extending the protective jurisdiction of the United States over Indians in State institutions to provide for transfer to Indian operated rehabilitation and treatment centers, at least probation systems, in a bargain of responsibility for bringing about vast reduction in incidences of offenses among Indian communities. (The $8,000,000 BIA budget for Law and Order is not directed toward such purpose - spending nearly half of its present increases on new cars to gauge the increases in reported offenses.)

Note on 13 - 13c:
The U.S. has asserted its jurisdiction over Indians nationwide, and may now do so again protectively. The Congress controlled liquor sales to Indians nationally until 1953, allowing prosecution for non-Indian offenders. Education of Indians in public state schools is essentially a contracting of jurisdiction to States.)

ABOLITION OF THE BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS BY 1976:
A New Structure: The Congress working through the proposed Senate-House "Joint Committee on Reconstruction of Indian Relations and Programs," in formulation of an Indian Community Reconstruction Act should direct that the Bureau of Indian Affairs shall be abolished as an agency on or before July 4, 1976; to provide for an alternative structure of government for sustaining and revitalizing the Indian-federal relationship between the President and the Congress of the United States, respectively, and the respective Indian Nations and Indian people at last consistent with constitutional criteria, national treaty commitments, and Indian sovereignty, and provide for transformation and transition into the new system as rapidly as possible prior to abolition of the BIA.

CREATION OF AN "OFFICE OF FEDERAL INDIAN RELATIONS AND COMMUNITY RECONSTRUCTION:
The Bureau of Indian Affairs should be replaced by a new unit in the federal government which represents an equality of responsibility among and between the President, the Congress, and the Governments of the separate Indian Nations (or their respective people collectively), and equal standing in the control of relations between the Federal Government and Indian Nations. The following standards and conditions should be obtained:
A. The Office would structurally be placed in the Executive Offices of the President, but be directed by a tripartite Commission of three Commissioners; one being appointed by the President, one being appointed by the joint congressional committee, and one being selected by national election among Indian people, and all three requiring confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

B. The Office would be directly responsible to each the President, the Congress, and Indian people, represented by a newly-established National Indian Council of no more than twenty members selected by combination national and regional elections for two-year terms with half expiring each year.

C. All existing federal agencies and program units presently involved or primarily directed toward serving Indians would be consolidated under the office, together with the budget allocations of the Departments assisting Indians although primarily oriented toward other concerns. All programs would be reviewed for revision of form, or elimination altogether, or continuance.

D. A total personnel and employee structure ceiling of no more than 1,000 employees in all categories should be placed upon the new office for its first live years of operation. Employment in the new office would be exempt from Civil Service regulations and provisions. (The Civil Service Commission and federal employee unions should be requested to propose a plan for preference hiring in other agencies and for transfer of benefits to new employment, for presentation to Congress, incident to abolition of the BIA and other Indian-related federal programs.)

E. The Office would maintain responsibility over its own budget and planning functions, independent from any control by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and should be authorized $15,000,000,000 budget, reviewing the efficiency of the Office and the impact and progress of the programming. The Appropriations Committees should not impose undue interference in plans - but should insist upon equitable treatment of all Indian Nations and general Indian people who would not be denied their respective direct relations with the Congress, or with the President.

F. The office of Federal Indian Relations would assume the administrative responsibility as trustee of Indian properties and property rights until revision of the trust responsibility might be accomplished and delegated for administration as a function and expression of the sovereign authority of the respective Indian Nations.

PRIORITIES AND PURPOSE OF THE PROPOSED NEW OFFICE:
The central purpose of the proposed "Office of Federal Indian Relations and Community Reconstruction" is to remedy the break-down in constitutionally-prescribed relationships between the United States and Indian Nations and people and to alleviate the destructive impact that distortion in those relationships has rendered upon the lives of Indian people. More directly, it is proposed for allowing broad attacks upon the multitude of millions of problems which confront Indian lives, or consume them, and which cannot be eliminated by piecemeal approaches, jerry-built structures, or bureaucracies, or by taking on one problem at a time, always to be confronted by many more. The Congress with assent of the Courts, has developed its constitutional mandate to "regulate Indian commerce" into a doctrine of absolute control and total power over the lives of Indians - through failing to give these concerns the time and attention that the responsibilities of such power demand. The Congress restricted the highest authority of the President for dealing with Indian matters and affairs, then abandoned Indian people to the lowest levels of bureaucratic government for administration of its part-time care and asserted all-powerful control. The constitution maintained Indian people in citizenship and allegiance to our own Nations, but the Congress and the Bureau of Indian Affairs has converted this constitutional standard into the most bastardized forms of acknowledged autonomy and "sovereign self-governing control" - scarcely worthy of the terms, if remaining divested of their meaning. A central priority of the proposed Office should be the formulation of legislation designed to repeal the body of "Indian Law that continues to operate most harmfully against Indian communities - including sections of the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act and prior legislation which instituted foreign forms of government upon our Nations, or which have served to divorce tribal government from responsibilities and accountability to Indian people. At this point in time, there is demonstrable need for the Congress to exercise highest responsibilities to Indian people in order that we might have a future in our homeland. This requires that Congress now recognize some restrictions upon its own authority to intervene in Indian communities and act to totally exclude the exercise of local tribal sovereignty and self-governing control. The proposed Office of Federal Indian Relations and Community Reconstruction should be authorized the greatest latitude to act and to remove restrictions from the positive actions of Indian people. This can be achieved if the Congress establishes a new Office in the manner proposed and authorizes it in promising degree to operate as instrumentality of its responsibilities.

INDIAN COMMERCE AND TAX IMMUNITIES:
The Congress should enact a statute or Joint Resolution certifying that trade, commerce, and transportation of Indians remain wholly outside the authority, control, and regulation of the several States. Congressional acts should provide that complete taxing authority upon properties, use of properties and incomes derived therefrom, and business activities within the exterior boundaries of Indian reservations, as well as commerce between reservations and Indian Nations, shall be vested with the respective or related tribal governments, or their appropriate to subdivisions - or certify that consistent with the Fourteenth Amendment, Section 2 statehood enabling acts, prevailing treaty commitments, and the general policy of the United States, that total Indian immunity to taxing authority of states is reaffirmed and extended with uniformity to all Indian Nations as a matter/established or vested right. (These questions should not have to be constantly carried to the courts for reaffirmation- disregarded as general law, and attacked by challenge with every discernable variation or difference in fact not considered at a prior trial). (Tribes have been restricted in their taxing authorities by some of the same laws which exclude federal or state authority. However, there are areas where taxing authorities might be used beneficially in the generation of revenues for financing government functions, services, and community insti- tutions.) (The Congress should remove any obstacles to the rights of Indian people to travel freely between Indian Nations without being blocked in movement, commerce, or trade, by barriers of borders, customs, duties, or tax.)

PROTECTION OF INDIANS' RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND CULTURAL INTEGRITY:
The Congress shall proclaim its insistence that the religious freedom and cultural integrity of Indian people shall be respected and protected throughout the United States, and provide that Indian religion and culture, even in regenerating or renaissance or developing stages, or when manifested in the personal character and treatment of one's own body, shall not be interfered with, disrespected, or denied. (No Indian shall be forced to cut their hair by any institution or public agency or official, including military authorities or prison regulation, for example.) It should be an insistence by Congress that implies strict penalty for its violation.

NATIONAL REFERENDUMS, LOCAL OPTIONS, AND FORMS OF INDIAN ORGANIZATION:
The Indian population Is small enough to be amenable to voting and elective processes of national referendums, local option referendums, and other elections for rendering decisions, approvals, or disapproval on many issues and matters. The steady proliferation of Indian and Indian-interest organizations and Indian advisory boards and the like, the multiplication of Indian officials and the emergence of countless Indian "leaders", represent a less preferable form for decision-making a state of disorganization, and a clear reflection of deterioration in the relations between the United States and Indian people as contracting sovereigns holding a high standard of accountability and responsibility. Some Indians seem to standby to ratify any viewpoints relating to any or all Indians; others conditioned to accept any viewpoint or proposal from official source. Whereas Indian people were to be secure from political manipulation and the general political system in the service of Indian needs, political favor, and cutthroat competition for funds with grants made among limited alliances of agency-Indian friends have become the rule - while responsibilities and accountability to Indian people and Indian communities have been forgotten. While the treaty relationship allows that we should not be deprived by power what we are possessed of by right - little personal power and political games are being played by a few Indians while we are being deprived our rights. This dissipation of strength, energies, and commitment should end. We should consolidate our resources and purpose to restore relations born of sovereignty and to resume command of our communities, our rights, our resources, and our destiny. (The National Council on Indian Opportunity Association on American Indian Affairs, and the National Tribal Chairman's Association are examples of government, non-Indian directed, and Indian organizations which are among may which could and should be eliminated). (At least none should be funded from federal sources).

HEALTH, HOUSING, EMPLOYMENT, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, AND EDUCATION:
The Congress and Administration and proposed Indian Community Reconstruction Office must allow for the most creative, if demanding and disciplined forms of community development and purposeful initiatives. The proposed $15,000,000,000 budget for the 1970s remainder could provide for completed construction of 100,000 now housing units; create more than 100,000 new permanent, income and tribal revenue-producing jobs on reservations and lay foundation for as many more in years following; meet all the economic and industrial development needs of numerous communities; and make education at all levels, and provide health services or medical care to all Indians as a matter of entitlement and fulfilled right.Yet, we now find most Indians unserved and programs not keeping pace with growing problems under a billion dollar plus budget annually - approximately a service cost of $10,000 per reservation Indian family per year, or $100,000 in this decade. Our fight is not over a $50-million cutback in a mismanaged and misdirected budget, and cannot be ended with restoration of that then invisible amount - but over the part that it, any and all amounts, have come to play in a perennial billion-dollar indignity upon the lives of Indian people, our aged, our young, our parents, and our children. Death remains a standard cure for environmentally induced diseases afflicting many Indian children without adequate housing facilities, heating systems, and pure water sources. Their delicate bodies provide their only defense and protection - and too often their own body processes become allies to the quickening of their deaths as with numerous cases of dysentery and diarrhea. Still, more has been spent on hotel bills for Indian-related problem-solving meetings, conferences, and conventions, than has been spent on needed housing in recent years. More is being spent from federal and tribal fund sources on such decision-making activities that is being committed to assist but two-thirds of Indian college students having desperate financial need. Rather, few decisions are made, and less problems solved, because there has developed an insensitivity to conscience which has eliminated basic standards of accountability. Indian communities have been fragmented in governmental, social, and constitutional functions as they have become restructured or de-structured to accommodate the fragmentation in governmental programming and contradictions in federal policies. There is a need to reintegrate these functions into the life and fabric of the communities. Of treaty provisions standard to most treaties, none has been breached more viciously and often as those dealing with education - first by withdrawing education processes from jurisdiction and responsibility of Indian communities, and from the power of Indian self-government - and falling yet to restore authority to our people, except through increased funding of old advisory and contract-delegation laws, or through control to conduct school in the conditioned forms and systems devised by non-Indians, or otherwise commended by current popularity. At minimum, Indian Nations have to reclaim community education authority to allow creative education processes in forms of their free choice, in a system of federally-sanctioned unit or consolidated Indian districts, supported by a mandatory recognition of accreditation in all other systems in this land.

2009-03-29T23:58:00.000-07:00

American Indian Movement
Ministry for Information
Press Releases

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re: The Passing of Jim Main, Sr. American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 1 February 2009

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re: Barack Obama's Principles for Stronger Tribal Communities American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 23 January 2009

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re: AIM 40th Anniversary American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 10 November 2008

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re: In Memory of Steve Blake American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 4 September 2008

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re: Update at Yankton, S.D. American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 28 April 2008

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re: Bull Conner Lives On in Yankton American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 16 April 2008

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re: ¡Raúl R. Salinas, Presente! American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 13 February 2008

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re: Longest Walk 2: Press Release American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 11 February 2008

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re: Floyd Red Crow Westerman: Information American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 13 December 2007

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re: Vernon Bellecourt: Personal Memoriam American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 25 October 2007

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re: Ward Churchill, Academic, Literary, and Indian Fraud American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 26 July 2007

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re: Shame on Jamestown's 400th American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 10 May 2007

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re: University of Illinois Racist Mascot Retires National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media 16 February 2007

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re: Border Summit of the Americas International Indian Treaty Council 29 September 2006

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re: United Nations and Human Rights Forum International Indian Treaty Council 20 April 2006

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re: Rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan-April 3, 2006 American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 26 March 2006

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re: AIM Blog on Churchill and Wannabees American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 23 January 2006

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re: Vermillion Press Conference American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 29 November 2005

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re: Origins of Thanksgiving American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 23 November 2005

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re: Memorial/Funeral for Vine Deloria, Jr. American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 15 November 2005

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re: John Graham Extradition Hearing American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 8 November 2005

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re: Urgent Plea for Michael Haney Family American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 10 October 2005

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re: On the Colonial Pirate, Christopher Columbus American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 10 October 2005

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re: Steve R. Robideau American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 6 September 2005

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re: Arlo Looking Cloud Appeal American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 20 August 2005

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re: Donations to the People of Red Lake Nation American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 25 March 2005

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re: Ward Churchill on 9-11 American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 31 January 2005

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re: National Day of Mourning American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 11 October 2004

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re: National Museum of the American Indian American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 21 September 2004

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re: Resolution of Apology to the American Indian American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 21 September 2004

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re: LETTERS TO: American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 13 October 2004

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re: Rush to Judgment-The Poisoning of a Potential Jury Pool American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 16 December 2003

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re: AN URGENT APPEAL American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 16 December 2003

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re: Mn Ed Commissioner Denies Genocide Against Native Americans American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 10 November 2003

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re: Caracas Indigenous and Campesino Conference American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council 12 October 2003

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re: Washington Football Team Trademark Decision National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media 2 October 2003

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re: Statement of the Tetuwan Oyate Teton Lakota Nation Treaty Council 21 April 2003

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re: First Twins First in Racism National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media 5 December 2002

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re: The American Indian Forum on Racism in Sports and Media National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media 20 November 2001

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re: American Indian Movement Peace Statement Concerning the Events on September 11, 2001 in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania, USA AIM Grand Governing Council 15 September 2001

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re: The Civil Lawsuit for False Arrest Brought by Five Anti-wahoo Demonstrators Against the City of Cleveland AIM Grand Governing Council 01 August 2001

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re: 11th Annual Youth & Elders International Cultural Gathering In Conjunction with "The Gathering of Sacred Pipes Sundance" AIM Grand Governing Council 05 July 2001

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re: American Indian Movement Conference, Seminar, Teachings Sponsored By AIM Michigan Chapter and Intertribal Coalition AIM Grand Governing Council 04 July 2001

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re: Zapatista Army of National Liberation March for Peace, Justice and Dignity AIM Grand Governing Council 11 March 2001

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An Open Letter to
Winona LaDuke and Ralph Nader WaBun-Inini, aka, Vernon Bellecourt
White Earth Anishinabe Ojibwa Nation 30 October 2000

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RE: Indigenous People's Opposition to Celebration and Glorification of Colonial Pirate Christopher Columbus American Indian Movement
Grand Governing Council 6 October 2000

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Article 1: Commission to Seek Justice for Ingrid Washinawatok American Indian Movement
Manifesto for the New Millennium 6 October 2000

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Paul DeMain's Editorial and the Publishing of the Two Elk Interview Falls Short of Upholding the High Standards of Journalism WaBun-Inini, Ind-diz-Nikaz, Anishinabe Ojibwa Nation, aka Vernon Bellecourt
National Representative, American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council
President, National Coalition on Racism in Sports & Media 13 August 2000

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AIM 32nd Anniversary Conference, July 11-13, 2000, on the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Nation Reservation in northern Wisconsin & Conference agenda American Indian Movement
Grand Governing Council 10 June 2000

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Letter to Oglala Oyate - AIM's support of the Oglala Lakota Oyate (Pine Ridge) and mediation American Indian Movement
Grand Governing Council 15 March 2000

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Press Conference in Rapid City, South Dakota, At Hearings of the US Civil Rights Commission American Indian Movement
Grand Governing Council 6 December 1999

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Letter to Senator Orrin Hatch requesting Senate Judiciary Committee and Special Investigator re. deaths on Pine Ridge SD American Indian Movement
Grand Governing Council 6 December 1999

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Re: Robert A. Branscombe Ministry for Information,
American Indian Movement
Grand Governing Council 3 November 1999
Re: US Government War Against AIM
Background
AIM Council on
Security and Intelligence 3 November 1999

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Wahoo - Chant - Chop, ...
Bad Medicine for Cleveland & Atlanta Baseball? National Coalition on
Racism in Sports & Media 27 October 1999

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on the Recent Killing
in Colombia American Indian Movement
Grand Governing Council,
Mid Year Meeting,
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Nation 12 March 1999

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re. "Autonomous AIM"
& use of AIM logo Official Declaration of the
American Indian Movement
Grand Governing Council,
Mid-Winter Meeting at the
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Nation 5-6 March 1999

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re. Russell Means
& AIM history American Indian Movement
Grand Governing Council,
Ministry for Information 20 February 1999

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2009-03-29T23:57:00.000-07:00

Female Protester Raises Fist During the Wounded Knee Occupation of 1973
U.S. Marshals standing roadblock duty on the access road to Wounded Knee on March 1, 1973, watch as a Native American woman gives a clenched fist salute. On February 27th, the 72 day occupation and protest at the Wounded Knee began between the civil rights group the American Indian Movement (AIM) and the United States goverment. The AIM took eleven hostages initially, though they were released on March 1rst. The protest was a demonstrationg against injustices by the federal and tribal governments.

Illustration of Sioux Warriors Preparing to Attack Settlers

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Winter Village of the Manitaries in Dakota Territory
Winter village of the Manitaries (Hidatsa) in Dakota Territory. Artwork by Karl Bodmer, 1833-34.

Illustration of Sioux Warriors Preparing to Attack Settlers

I

2009-03-29T23:52:00.001-07:00

2009-03-29T23:50:00.000-07:00

Blackfeet Dancers Perform During a Pow Wow

Blackfeet Dancers Perform During a Pow Wow

Blackfeet Dancers Perform During a Pow Wow

2009-03-29T23:48:00.000-07:00

An illustrated Picture of, Relocation of Natives off Rightous lands and homes from native Americans.

2009-03-29T23:46:00.000-07:00

Proud of is lands Rights and shows is pride of combat with a "kolishkinov automatic rifle"

2009-03-29T23:44:00.000-07:00

Natives Taken the hands of combat too Protect there rights of lands and Treaties

2009-03-29T23:42:00.000-07:00

Native Power, For Life Repersenting From the TWOZEROFOUR

Ideological differences within AIM

2009-03-29T23:41:00.000-07:00

In 1993, AIM split into two main factions, each claiming that it was the authentic inheritor of the AIM tradition, and that the other had betrayed the original principles of the movement. One group, based in Minneapolis, MN and associated with the Bellecourts, is known as the AIM-Grand Governing Council, while the other segment of the movement, led by, among others, Russell Means, was named AIM-International Confederation of Autonomous Chapters.
The split was formalized when the latter group issued its "Edgewood Declaration" in 1993, citing organizational grievances and authoritarian leadership by the Bellecourts. However, ideological differences seem to have simmered for a long time, with the Grand Governing Council (GGC) presenting a spiritual, albeit more mainstream, approach to activism. The GGC tends toward a more centralized, controlled political philosophy. The autonomous chapters argue that AIM has always been organized as a series of decentralized, autonomous chapters, with local leadership that is accountable to local constituencies. The autonomous chapters reject the assertions of central control by the Minneapolis group as contrary both to indigenous political traditions, and to the original philosophy of AIM

More info at this site real exciting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_Movement

The Native American Movement

2009-03-29T23:40:00.000-07:00

In the 1950s, Native Americans struggled with the government's policy of moving them off reservations and into cities where they might assimilate into mainstream America. Not only did they face the loss of land; many of the uprooted Indians often had difficulties adjusting to urban life. In 1961 when the policy was discontinued, the United States Commission on Civil Rights noted that for Indians, "poverty and deprivation are common."
In the 1960s and 1970s, watching both the development of Third World nationalism and the progress of the civil rights movement, Native Americans became more aggressive in pressing for their own rights. A new generation of leaders went to court to protect what was left of tribal lands or to recover that which had been taken, often illegally, in previous times. In state after state, they challenged treaty violations, and in 1967 won the first of many victories guaranteeing long-abused land and water rights. The American Indian Movement (AIM), founded in 1968, helped channel government funds to Indian-controlled organizations and assisted neglected Indians in the cities.
Confrontations became common. In 1969 a landing party of 78 Native Americans seized Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay and held it until federal officials removed them in 1971. In 1973 AIM took over the South Dakota village of Wounded Knee, where soldiers in the late 19th century had massacred a Sioux encampment. Militants hoped to dramatize miserable conditions in the reservation surrounding the town, where half of the families were on welfare and alcoholism was widespread. The episode ended, after one Indian was killed and another wounded, with a government agreement to re-examine treaty rights, although little was subsequently done.
Still, Indian activism brought results. Other Americans became more aware of Native American needs. Officials in all branches of government had to respond to pressure for equal treatment that was long overdue. The Senate's first Native American member, Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado, was elected in 1992.

Found At: http://countrystudies.us/united-states/history-133.htm

Tommy Prince, one of Canada's greatest heroes

2009-03-28T01:41:00.000-07:00

Major G.A. Flint briefs men of the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry on a plan of attack. Sergeant Tommy Prince, one of the most decorated aboriginal Canadians, stands second from left.

Laura Neilson Bonikowsky, National PostPublished

: Wednesday, November 09, 2005

2005 is the Year of the Veteran in Canada. To mark it, the National Post and Historica, a foundation that promotes Canadian history, have teamed up to bring readers some of the most compelling stories of Canadian courage and sacrifice in the wars Canadians fought during the last century. Today's instalment looks at the heroism of Tommy Prince, Canada's most decorated aboriginal war veteran.
- - -
Within Canada's largest military gravesite, Brookside Cemetery in Winnipeg, is the final resting place of Thomas George Prince. His tombstone is like all the others, a simple monument of white stone, with an inscribed cross below which are his name, mention of two medals, his rank, the units in which he served and the date he died, Nov. 25, 1977, at age 62.
What the headstone does not reveal is that the medals are but two of 11, and that Tommy Prince was Canada's most decorated aboriginal war veteran. Prince made significant contributions to his country during two wars. But during his lifetime, he was largely ignored -- thanks to his race and the prejudice that marked his era.
Prince grew up on the Brokenhead Ojibway Nation reserve north of Winnipeg and was sent to residential school. He defended his country bravely and with distinction during the Second World War and the Korean War. It is a great irony that he fought Nazi racism and then returned to Canada to face the racial discrimination that was an ordinary feature of daily life.
For many men on Canadian reserves, like Tommy Prince, military service meant the chance for a job and three square meals. Tommy applied but was turned down several times, despite exceeding the requirements for recruitment. He persisted and finally was accepted on June 3, 1940. He was assigned to the 1st Field Park Company of the Royal Canadian Engineers. He met every challenge that came his way and excelled as a soldier.
By 1942, Prince was a Sergeant with the Canadian Parachute Battalion. He was posted to the 1st Canadian Special Service Battalion and was among a select group of Canadian soldiers sent to train with an American unit to form a specialized 1,600-man assault team. They became the 1st Special Service Force (1st SSF), known to the enemy as the "Devil's Brigade." Hollywood adopted the name as the title of a 1968 portrayal of the elite unit. Prince was portrayed as "Chief."
Prince distinguished himself with the 1st SSF in Italy and France, using the skills he'd learned growing up as an Ojibway. In Italy, near Anzio, he volunteered to run a communications line 1,400 metres to an abandoned farmhouse less than 200 metres from a German artillery emplacement. Prince set up his observation post in the farmhouse and for three days reported on the activity in the German camp.
On Feb. 8, 1944, shelling severed the line. Prince disguised himself as a farmer and went out to the field with a hoe. German soldiers watched disinterestedly as the "farmer" slowly worked his way along the field, stopping once to tie his shoelaces. Finally, he stopped his work, shook his fist at the Germans and then the Allies, and returned slowly to the farmhouse -- and resumed his military duties. Prince had repaired the break while pretending to tie his shoes. His courage resulted in the destruction of four German tanks that had been firing on Allied troops. He was awarded the Military Medal for "exceptional bravery in the field."

Commemorative Medals - King George V Silver Jubilee Medal - 1935

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Sargent Prince

Terms
To mark the 25th year of the accession of King George V to the throne, this medal was awarded to the Royal Family, officers of state, officials and servants of the royal household, ministers, government officials, mayors, public servants, local government officials, members of the navy, army, air force and police in Britain, her colonies, and in Canada. There was no bar to the medal.
Description
A circular, silver medal (1.25" in diameter).
Obverse
The obverse features the conjoined effigies of King George V and Queen Mary, crowned and robed, facing left. The legend around the top edge reads GEORGE · V · AND · QUEEN · MARY · MAY · VI · MCMXXV ·
Reverse
The reverse displays the Royal Cypher GVR (v is small between G and R) surmounted by an Imperial Crown and on the left is the date MAY 6 / 1910 in two lines, and on the right the date: MAY 6 / 1935. The border is ornate.
Mounting
A ring attaches to a double scroll claw on the upper edge of the medal.
Ribbon
The red ribbon is 1.25 inches wide, with three narrow stripes (dark blue, white, and dark blue) at each edge. The three narrow stripes are 0.25" wide in total.
Issued
There were 7,500 medals to Canadians, of which 1,154 were to the Canadian Forces. A total of 85,235 were issued.
In the Canada Gazette Supplement 04 May 1935, all the names of the recipients are listed. This is the only coronation or commemorative medal where this has been done (64 pages)

Silver Star

The Silver Star is awarded for gallantry in action against an enemy of the United States not justifying a higher award. It may be awarded to any person who, while serving in any capacity with the U.S. Armed Forces, distinguishes himself or herself by extraordinary heroism involving one of the following actions:
In action against an enemy of the United States
While engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force
While serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party
The Silver Star differs from the Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross or Air Force Cross, in that it requires a lesser degree of gallantry and need not be earned while in a position of great responsibility. Soldiers who received a citation for gallantry in action during World War I were eligible to apply to have the citation converted to the Silver Star Medal. Air Force pilots almost automatically receive a Silver Star upon becoming an ace (having five or more confirmed kills).[1]
The Bronze Star is another United States decoration which may be awarded for heroism, but unlike the Silver Star may also be awarded for meritorious service while engaged in combat operations. When awarded for valor, the Bronze Star Medal comes with the Valor device. The Bronze Star Medal is often issued to individuals who performed notable accomplishments, but not to the level required of the Silver Star Medal.
The Valorous Unit Award is considered the unit level equivalent of a Silver Star Medal.

The medals Of prince.

2009-03-27T01:49:00.000-07:00

The 10 medals, earned during WW II and the Korean War, include the King George Military Medal presented to Prince at Buckingham Palace by King George VI and the U.S. Silver Star, one of 59 awarded to Canadians duringWW II.

2009-03-27T01:47:00.000-07:00

Early life

Born in Manitoba, Canada, he was one of eleven children of Henry and Arabella Prince of the Ojibway Nation at the Brokenhead reservation in Scanterbury, Manitoba. He was the grandson of the Indian chief, Peguis, who had led his nation from Sault Ste. Marie to the southern end of Lake Winnipeg in the late 1790s, keeping their French name, the Saulteaux.
Growing up, Prince became a superb marksman with exceptional tracking skills learned from countless days spent hunting in the wilderness around his Indian reserve. He attended Elkhorn Residential School, completing grade eight. After leaving school, he was employed at a variety of manual labor positions but primarily as a lumberjack.

2009-03-27T01:45:00.000-07:00

www.legionmagazine.com military related

2009-03-27T01:43:00.000-07:00

Sgt. Tommy Prince, who became Canada’s most decorated aboriginal war veteran, is briefed before going out on patrol in Korea

War Hero’s Medals Back In Manitoba

by Victoria Fulford

He volunteered to wear the uniform of Canada in both WW II and the Korean War, in spite of the fact that he was treated as a second-class citizen. He acquitted himself with valour and honour, and died forgotten and scorned by the very people he had fought (for) so long and hard.”
These are the words a participant in the Our Heroes online survey (www.ourheroes.ca) used to back his nomination for Canadian hero. He voted for Tommy Prince. Prince, an Ojibwa from the Brokenhead First Nation, in Scanterbury, Man., southeast of Winnipeg, is Canada’s most-decorated aboriginal war veteran.
Though unfamiliar to many, Prince’s name made headlines across the country recently when his military medals went on auction. News of the upcoming sale had been circulating for weeks, most markedly in Prince’s home province where his descendants rallied to obtain funds to buy the medals back.
With the help of donations from aboriginal groups, individuals across the country and a personal contribution from Veterans Affairs Minister Ron Duhamel they were successful, obtaining the medals with a bid of $75,000. Some branches of The Royal Canadian Legion also offered support.
After their purchase at the auction held in London, Ont., the medals arrived in Winnipeg amid great fanfare. Following a brief respite in Prince’s home province, they were sent to the Canadian War Museum and the Canadian Conservation Institute to verify their authenticity. Microscopic analysis proved them genuine.
How the medals hit the open market is a mystery in itself. At one time it was believed that Prince’s original medals were destroyed in a house fire and later replaced with replicas. It was rumoured Prince, who battled alcoholism prior to his death in 1977 at the age of 62, pawned them to finance his life on the streets of Winnipeg.
Following the confirmation of the medals’ authenticity, the Prince Medals Committee issued a press release attempting to shed light on the medals’ whereabouts for the past 25 years. “It is…probable that the medals came into the possession of another party or parties and Prince simply lost track of them as his personal circumstances deteriorated,” said the statement.
The medals first surfaced four years ago when they were bought by a Nova Scotia collector for $17,000. In an interview with the Halifax Herald, Sandy Campbell of Proof Positive Coins Ltd., who originally purchased the medals for the client, whom he wouldn’t name, said part of the reason he decided to sell was because of the uproar in Manitoba’s aboriginal community about their ownership. Prior to the auction, Campbell estimated the medals could net as much as $100,000.
The family has vowed to share the medals with the general public. They are currently being held at the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature where they are expected to be displayed.
Prince began his wartime service in 1940 as a sapper with the Royal Canadian Engineers. In 1942, he volunteered as a paratrooper and later served with the First Special Service Force, unofficially known to the German forces as the Devil’s Brigade.
The 10 medals, earned during WW II and the Korean War, include the King George Military Medal presented to Prince at Buckingham Palace by King George VI and the U.S. Silver Star, one of 59 awarded to Canadians duringWW II.

Tommy Prince

2009-03-27T01:40:00.000-07:00

Thomas George “Tommy” Prince, MM (October 25, 1915–November 25, 1977) was one of Canada's most decorated First Nations soldiers, serving in World War II and the Korean War.

Andrew Alexander Sinclair (December,14,1988) continuing Studies 2009

2009-03-27T00:01:00.000-07:00

Thats My land Keep Out!

2009-03-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

http://www.narf.org/pubs/index.html

Other activities

2009-03-26T23:58:00.002-07:00

AIM has been active in opposing the use of indigenous caricatures as mascots for sports teams, such as the Cleveland Indians, the Atlanta Braves, the Chicago Blackhawks and the Washington Redskins, organizing protests at World Series and Super Bowl games involving those teams.
AIM has been committed to improving the conditions that face Native peoples. AIM has founded institutions to address those needs including the Heart of The Earth School, Little Earth Housing, International Indian Treaty Council, AIM StreetMedics, American Indian Opportunities and Industrialization Center (one of the largest Indian job training programs), KILI radio, and Indian Legal Rights Centers. [5]
During the Sandinista/Indian conflict in Nicaragua of the mid-1980s, Russell Means sided with Miskito Indians opposing the Sandinista government due to allegations of forced relocations of as many as 8,500 Miskito. Predictably, this stance damaged some of AIM's support from many White dominated left wing organizations in the U.S., who opposed Contra activities and supported the Sandinista movement. Contra activities included insurgent recruitment among Nicaraguan Indian groups including some Miskitos. Means' position recognized the difference between opposition to the Sandinista government by the Miskito, Sumo, and Rama on one hand, and the Reagan administration's support of the Contras, who were dedicated to the overthrow of the Sandinista regime. [6]
More recently, Banks and the Bellecourts have rallied in support of John Graham and Arlo Looking Cloud, who were indicted in 2003 for the 1976 murder of Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash. Means and other AIM affiliates believe that those who ordered Aquash's murder, even if they are AIM leaders, should be held accountable. Means argues that Looking Cloud's conviction has made Looking Cloud a scapegoat for those who actually ordered Aquash's murder. Each of the current AIM factions accuses the other of complicity in Aquash's murder.[7]
Many AIM chapters remain committed to confronting the government and corporate forces that allegedly seek to marginalize indigenous peoples.[8] Some of these activities included challenging the ideological foundations of anti-indigenous policies, which they believe are exemplified in national holidays such as Columbus Day [9] and Thanksgiving. AIM argues that Thanksgiving should be a National Day of Mourning, and protests the continuing theft of indigenous peoples' territories and natural resources. [10][Need quotation on talk to verify][11][Need quotation on talk to verify][12][Need quotation on talk to verify]
In 2004 AIM held protests against the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, and even threatened to blow up the keel boat of the nationally recognized re-enactment group[citation needed].
In December 2007, a delegation of Lakota Sioux, including Russell Means, delivered to the U.S. State Department a declaration of secession from the United States to the U.S. State Department. Citing many broken treaties by the U.S. government in the past, and the loss of vast amounts of territory originally awarded in those treaties, the group announced its intentions to form a separate nation within the U.S. known as the Republic of Lakotah. [13]

Early AIM protest tactics

2009-03-26T23:58:00.001-07:00

The tactics AIM adopted were premised on the fact that Indian activists failed to achieve results at the time of its founding. AIM believed that advocates for Indian interests who had worked within the American political system had not been effective. The political system simply ignored Indian interests. The AIM leadership decided at its founding that a more aggressive approach had to be adopted in order for their voices to be heard. Up to this time, Indian advocacy had been passive and consisted of the typical lobbying effort with the Congress and the state legislatures.[1]
AIM used the American press and media to present its own unvarnished message to the American public. It did so by ensuring that the members of the press would have an event they wanted to cover for their respective newspaper or television/radio station. If successful, news outlets would seek out AIM spokespersons for interviews and receive its message. Instead of relying on traditional lobbying efforts with the Congress or state legislature, AIM directly sought out the American public to ensure it would get AIM’s message. AIM was always on the look out for an event that would result in publicity. Sound bites such as the AIM Song were often caught on camera and quickly became associated with the movement.
The seizure of the Mayflower replica on Thanksgiving Day in 1970 during ceremonies commemorating the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrim’s landing at Plymouth Rock, the occupation of Mount Rushmore in 1971, the Trail of Broken Treaties march and takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C. in 1972, AIM’s occupation of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation in 1973, the Longest Walk in 1978, and other events during the 1970s were designed to achieve this effect. All of these events were undertaken to ensure AIM would be noticed in order to highlight its belief that the rights of Indian people had eroded. [2]
In view of the nature of its more provocative advocacy for Indian rights and the experience of other minority groups during the civil rights era, AIM encountered a similar reaction from the government.[3] The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) used paid informants to report on AIM’s activities and its members. [4]

2009-03-26T23:53:00.000-07:00

American Native Movement

The American Indian Movement (AIM), is an Native American activist organization in the United States. AIM came onto the international scene with its seizure of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 1972 and the 1973 standoff at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. AIM was cofounded in 1968 by Dennis Banks, George Mitchell, Herb Powless, Clyde Bellecourt, Eddie Benton-Banai, and many others in the Native American community, almost 200 total. Russell Means was another early leader.
In the decades since AIM's founding, the group has led protests advocating Indigenous American interests, inspired cultural renewal, monitored police activities and coordinated employment programs in cities and in rural reservation communities across the United States. AIM has often supported other indigenous interests outside the United States as well.