Indigenous Lands

01/30/2026

We are big AHO

01/29/2026

In Cherokee culture, women held significant positions and enjoyed certain privileges and responsibilities.
Women in Cherokee society were considered equals to men and could earn the title of War Women. They had the right to participate in councils and make decisions alongside men. This equality sometimes led outsiders to make derogatory remarks, such as the accusation of a "petticoat government" by the Irish trader Adair.
Clan kinship was matrilineal among the Cherokee, meaning that family lineage and inheritance were traced through the mother's side. Children grew up in their mother's house, and maternal uncles held the role of teaching boys essential skills related to hunting, fishing, and tribal duties.
Women owned houses and their furnishings, and marriages were often negotiated. In the event of a divorce, a woman would simply place her spouse's belongings outside the house. Cherokee women had diverse responsibilities, including caring for children, cooking, tanning skins, weaving baskets, and cultivating fields. Men contributed to some household chores but primarily focused on hunting.
Cherokee girls learned various skills by observing and participating in their community. They learned story, dancing, and acquired knowledge about their heritage. Women were integral to the Cherokee society, and their roles played a central part in the community's functioning and adaptation to changing circumstances

01/28/2026

𝐋𝐨𝐮𝐢𝐬 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐲 𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝
Louis Lucky Cloud was drafted in 1943 and served as an 82nd Airborne Division Paratrooper. Cloud, pictured here at age 84, was a warrior in the tradition of his grandfather, Pax-an-'pín, whose Yakama name he has taken for his own. On June 6, 1944, Cloud was among the Paratroopers who jumped into Normandy and seized St. Mere Eglise. He went on to serve in five major campaigns, including Operation Market-Garden in Holland and the Battle go the Bulge. Among his many medals are the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Cloud survived the war, returned home and served as a councilman on the Yakama Nation Tribal Council and fought for tribal fishing and other treaty rights. Cloud died in 2007 at the age of 87.
Approximately 25,000 Native Americans fought in World War II; 21,767 in the Army, 1,910 in the Navy, 874 in the Marines, 121 in the Coast Guard and several hundred Native American women as nurses. They represent more than a third of Native American men between the ages of 18 and 50, and compromise 60% of the population of some tribes
Credit- Brian Fitzgerald, Yakama Herald-Republic.

01/28/2026

01/27/2026

Long ago in the year 1971, John Fire Lame Deer, a prominent and influential Sicangu Lakota made a damning prophecy of the future to come. He spoke of our current generation and the complete lack of respect for our Lakota ceremonies that will come and how that will cause great division amongst our people.
“I see a day coming when there will be separation. Our wicasa wakan will fight each other just like you see in the Church, they say my bible is real and my way is the only way. They will stand on top of each other saying I am the only one I am the real one. There will be many diseases when this happens because not one man has the medicine to cure it all.
I see the younger ones who will try to become medicine men for the wrong reasons, to get women or make money, and some who want the power to hurt others. I will tell you this if you want to hurt someone you can do it without power; there are many ways to hurt someone on a physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual level so the ones who want it to hurt others don't need to become a wicasa wakan to do this.
A wicasa wakan loves his people, he will die for his people and will defend them with his own life. When I was a boy the Spirit chose me I didn't want this way of life, I wanted to drink and womanize and so for many years, that's what I did. The dreams they never left me and if I prayed for someone who was sick they were cured, so it was something inside of me that made me who I am.
I encourage every young man to look for their life path, I tell them go up on the hill to find your vision. I also tell them if your not chosen to be a medicine man don't look for it because if you're not meant to be one, Wakan Tanka has chosen you for something else, for something greater.
I ran from my calling in life for a long time and was unhappy, I can tell you I was lost. "When the people need you the most don't walk away from them," these were the words spoken to me by John Strike and they changed me because I walked towards it and not away from it.
In my ceremony last night, the spirits told me hard times are coming for our Lakota People; they say human beings will forget their purpose, they will come to a point where they no longer know why they exist. They won't use their brains and will forget the secret knowledge of their bodies, their senses, and dreams. They won't use the knowledge the spirit has put into every one of them and will stumble along blindly on the road to nowhere. They will walk a road full of hurt and I have seen this road in my vision, to think of it makes me cry.
So it is, I am a medicine man because I was commanded to help my people in these times. The old holy men Chest, Strike, Thunderhawk, Chips, and Good Lance reminded me what I was and helped me to become what I was chosen to be.
When somebody dies even if I don't know them, I feel it deeply and offer my prayers for them. I will load my Pipe or go into Sweat to talk to the Great Spirit for them.
We have to walk the road Wakan Tanka has set before us, we have to stay close to one another and help each other out. This is the only way we will make it!”
John Fire Lame Deer

01/27/2026

Wherever I go on this sacred land there is love above me, there is respect below me, there is peace behind me and there is hope ahead of me.
I walk with a prayer in my heart and I am grateful for any blessing that meets me big or small, for within me I know everything is transpiring to care for me. Surround yourself with beauty and the sacred and everywhere you walk on the sacred land will transpire to give you only the good medicine.

01/23/2026

nativepride .