, I just noticed your username. You're Lakota? That's from Great Lakes area? Thanks for prefacing your statements by calling me Patriot. I'm negligent on that and I see the honor you show me.
Patriot, No Thanks needed, people who have the courage to stand up to the DS BS have earned the right to be called patriot and be respected. We were in Minnesota and all the way to Wyoming, most of my family later on were in the Wyoming area until they ended up at Rosebud and some at Pine Ridge. I am a Lakota.
Thank you for telling me. When I was sent to Nebraska Center for Children and Youth for a year there were two Lakota guys there. They were tall, long black hair, good looks and kept to themselves.
One day around sunset some older bigger guy decided he'd have fun beating the crap out of me. I did my best but eventually he got me down on the ground and was kicking the hell out of me. Then, the two Lakota guys, (brothers?) came flying down the hill, slammed into him with a few good punches to throw him off. He ran and I got up to thank the guys but they already were walking off. It happened so quick I was left with my gratitude half out of my mouth as they turned away without a word, like it never happened. Still, I saw them from time to time and like everyone else, was equally ignored. LOL. At least they were there when I need them, right? Another Native American guy was my friend and even though we were from different cabins we kind of hung out together in wood shop class. He was kind of a laid back guy with occasional philosophical comments.
As a kid I remember my Grandmother telling me her mom was half Cherokee and yes, you could see she had darker skin and some what of the looks but she was sort of tall and graceful. But, then I was shown photos of Great Great Grandmother and dang, she was pure Cherokee. Great Grandma didn't much like to talk about these things, I guess some sort of issue I know nothing about. But, I noticed Great Great Grandma was reported to me as having married an Irishman who sort of vanished and left her with some kids. The next Irishman that came along she married right away. What's odd is that Great Great Grandma was by my way of seeing things, very homely. The Irishman in the photo is tall and gangly with very good looks. Sort of aristocratic looks mixed with some ruggedness.
Grandma told me that when her mom was of a decent age to get married great great Grandma married her off to the first Irishman who chanced along. He was a traveling musician which to me is just a loafer who sings for his alcohol. In the wedding photo Great Grandma is tall and slender with a lovely shade of light brown skin, very shapely face that would draw any eye to her. The idea was to hurry and marry her off before she got involved with some random dude and brought shame to the family by being pregnant out of wedlock. In that wedding photo Great Grandma is looking happy and pleased.
Next to her is this grinning short Irishman, not much to look at. To me he looks like an ignorant drunk and that's exactly how it worked out. A photo a year or so later shows Great Grandma with a face grim and worried and that foolish Irishman frowning. Turns out neither one was happy but they moved to California and with his violent temper his oldest son eventually drove him away warning him to never come back. So he didn't.
I have one aunt who looks a bit like Great Grandma Helen but not quite as tall and not nearly as beautiful. Today, I wished that while Great Grandma was alive I had thought to ask her more about her mother. The experiences they all had with poverty after arriving in California, well, it wasn't happy times.
Patriot, in Lakota tradition it is frowned on to boast about doing a good deed. As the grandmothers will quickly tell you, you do not take credit for doing good, you are supposed to do that anyway. The good deed speaks for itself. You only take credit for your mistakes. And they tell you also never to start the trouble.
There was a time we did not speak our language around strangers, we just kept it amongst ourselves, and this was done to avoid any trouble, now today they are being taught their language in school, so more are speaking it, where there was a time I thought we may lose the language. Our problem is we can not agree how the words are spelled. LOL, we have the same language and different dialects, so depending on the dialect it would be spelled different. so they pretty much agreed to disagree and spell I the way you think it should be spelled. LOL
would have been great had you been able to learn more, but you can research their teachings and all. you may be able to find more on your family in the Dawes Rolls since they were a Eastern Band. If they ever signed up you will be able to find your family on them.
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