"Yesterday I had a phone conversation with a reader from Grand Forks. She suggested in a good way that a new name might be the “Fighting Spirits,” because that could mean anyone — Native American, Norwegian, German, animals and so on.

But what struck me most about our conversation is that she said she learned from my columns about Indian people and culture.

I felt a little uncomfortable.

I was raised Sahnish (Arikara). Our ways are very different from those of other tribes. I know that.

It’s almost impossible to say “Indians are …” or “Indians do …” It’s more correct to say, “The Lakota are …” or “the Sahnish believe …” and so on.

Still, I know what the reader meant, because there are commonalities in Indian country. We are the same in some ways.

I spent my last two years of high school at the Immaculate Conception Indian School in Stephan, S.D. There I became friends with many of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota and learned some of their culture and language."

Get the Story:
COLUMNIST DORREEN YELLOW BIRD: Like clouds -- the same and yet different (The Grand Forks Herald 2/25)

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