{"id":3255,"date":"2020-10-19T14:21:16","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T19:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=3255"},"modified":"2020-10-21T08:23:14","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T13:23:14","slug":"ivan-star-comes-out-our-ancestors-never-surrendered-as-a-sovereign-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2020\/10\/19\/ivan-star-comes-out-our-ancestors-never-surrendered-as-a-sovereign-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivan Star Comes Out: Our ancestors never surrendered as a sovereign nation"},"content":{"rendered":"\"mountrushmore\"\r\n
Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Photo: Diana Morales<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n
Enduring government corruption, nepotism, and cronyism<\/div>\r\n
Monday, October 19, 2020<\/div>\r\n
By Ivan Star Comes Out<\/DIV>\r\n
Native Sun News Today Columnist<\/DIV>\r\n
nativesunnews.today<\/A> <\/DIV>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nIn this bare existence of ours, there are things we never think about, much less, discuss. It seems we just live for the day or the hour. \r\n

<\/p>\r\nFor instance, we never think about Mount Rushmore as a glaring declaration of racial discrimination. Also, the European-created image of a white God, now ingrained in the world\u2019s subconscious mind, makes minorities more compliant with white supremacy.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nAs Lakota people, we struggle to experience even a fraction of what \u201cwhite privilege\u201d provides for the bigot in this country. We tend to ignore the realities of our unreal situation and try to find contentment within this government-created existence which was designed take down our ancestor\u2019s way of life and keep us oppressed. But, we never talk about such things.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nFor example, our ancestors called themselves Ikce Wicasa (Human\/Natural Man) but we now call ourselves \u201cIndian\u201d and \u201cSioux,\u201d among other unflattering titles. They were tribal by nature meaning they gathered and lived in familiar tiospaye (extended family) groups but we never talk about the complexity of planning and logistics that goes into maintaining that way of living.\r\n

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<\/IMG> <\/DIV>\r\n
Ivan F. \r\nStar Comes Out. Photo courtesy Native Sun News \r\nToday<\/A><\/FIGCAPTION> <\/DIV><\/DIV>

<\/p>\r\nI can only imagine our ancestor\u2019s reaction when they learned a huge territory called the \u201cGreat Sioux Reservation\u201d was theirs via the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. We must remember that Maka (Earth) is considered their mother, according to our Otokahe Kagapi (First Creation). The European concept of owning land was completely unheard of among our ancestors and is likened to owning one\u2019s own flesh and blood mother.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nFrom the east bank of the Mni Sose (Muddy Water), now called the Missouri River, and touching on five contemporary states, the land is owned by the treaty signers, specifically the Lakota, Saiyela, (Cheyenne), and Mahpiyato (Arapaho) and Santee but we never think about such things.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nWhen the intruders found gold in the He Sapa (Black Hills) in 1874, they became demoniacal. This stuff had been there since time immemorial. Congress then removed the \u201chills\u201d from the \u201cGreat Sioux Reservation\u201d in 1877 and assumed possession of it. Then in 1980, when Congress was ordered to pay \u201cjust compensation\u201d for stealing the Black Hills, it tried to pay a price comparable to 1800s value of the land.\r\nVarious tiospaye (extended families) resided along the creeks and rivers of the Pine Ridge Reservation prior to 1889.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n These old camp sites were called otiwote. There the tiospaye maintained their ancient language, culture, history and experienced the last remnants of their traditional government until 1935 when the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) was implanted here. But, we never talk about such things.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThen the first \u201ccluster\u201d housing sites were built in 1975. Centrally located, it drew the tiospaye residents away from their otiwote leaving the original treaty lands for leasing by non-Lakota ranchers. Actually, these \u201ccluster\u201d housing sites helped to destroy their ancient sovereign tiospaye way of life and government.\r\n

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