Through Skys Eyes

Hey everyone, I’m like putting a real quick note out here just to let you know whats happening on the rez at Pine ridge and Cheyenne river.

Its crazy weather and we have a huge amount of people and families suffering. we have over 40, 000 people out here on this rez, and most of them don’t have proper heating. Many use propane and that has become to expensive for most families.

There are families out there with young ones and elders that have no heating, elders and kids are getting sick cause they just can’t keep warm.

They way the economy is at the moment, $120 dollars only buys enough propane to warm an average home for a week.

According to the tribal energy office, they are saying that the best way to beat this, and the safest, is to use electric heaters. Which brings us to another problem, most families can’t afford those or the utility bill that comes with it.

Just $50 dollars will provide a family with an electric heater.

native Progress is trying to help provide families with 500 electric heaters, but your help is needed.We need those like yesterday, but the funds are not there.

Any donations made NOW can help a family who is desperate need, quickly!

The other option is to use the wood program.

The wood program can provide fuel for heat, for  families who need it. It will also give much needed employment to families who have no other work available.

We are supporting a wood program on Pine Ridge. The Lakota people are cutting and delivering 200 loads of cottonwood, elm and ash wood. The cost of the manpower and tools to acquire the wood and get it to the reservation will be $10,000 or $50 per cord.

You can help by donating, or by simply advertising here on Native Blogs. All advertising revenue will be directly sent to Nativeprogress donation drive.

You can help in other ways to, there is an ebay store that has been set up for the cause. They are selling crafts and posters and much more in a bid to raise money for these programs.

You can also donate items to give to families and elders such as food and winter supplies or you can donate items to sell on ebay stores.

which ever way you donate, just remember if we get together we can really make a difference to people suffering this harsh and cold winter. Just think of the children and elders battling below 0 degrees while your warm in your bed and ask your self, can you honestly sit there knowing that there are people getting sick and suffering from this winter, when you know you can make a difference.

If you want to help, then contact James at:
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jhorns@nativeprogress.org

Telephone: 708-903-4150.

How To Donate:

Donate Online:

Donate By Mail:
Donations may be made by check or money order to ONE/ONE Spirit and sent to:

ONE Spirit
P.O. Box 2595
Chesterfield, VA 23832

other ways to contribute …

I don’t know much, and i don’t claim to be wise or a ms know it all.

I can only write and share what i think, believe and feel.

This is something that has been in my heart for a long time, Something i have pondered over for an even longer time. I see so many women out there, especially my beautiful Indian Sisters, Mothers, Aunties and Grandmothers.

Sometimes I shake my head and wonder why they don’t realize these things, that i know and feel. Sometimes i feel things or understand things and expect everyone else to feel and understand these same things.
Maybe its time i tell them, they are so strong and blessed with good Wakan hearts.

Maybe i should tell them that they are special and the creators of the next generation.

Us women, we are a gift, and in being gifts we have been given gifts.

A man will only ever have one spirit. He will never have more than that. He is given glimpses of more, but it is never given to him.

But us sisters, we have been given power. We have the power to at any time have more than one spirit within us. This is our gift. Men understood this power, when sisters were in moon. They understood we had something they did not. This power was so strong that special arrangements were made so that the power would not interfere with the men.

Now we live in two worlds. And just as we could hold more than one spirit, we can also live in more than one world. We do not feel ashamed working for wasicu because when we come home, we are home and free. Our men are still not free, when they come home.

We have been blessed with this.

Our men still struggle with this. All that was theirs, all that defined them as Men has been taken away from them. The only thing that hasn’t been taken, is the ability to have children.

Our Men used to Hunt or Fish etc, Now they can not, if they do they must get a license and still they are told how much they can and how much they can not. Our men always knew how much and how much they should leave, they don’t need a piece of paper to tell them, making them feel small.

Our Men used to build our lodges, or provide food and clothing. Now they must slave at a job they do not understand or care for, to do the same and still, they struggle to keep the utilities on. When they work for wasicu they sometimes feel ashamed, that they must rely on this work for the little they get to provide for their families.

The men become ashamed and angry, they drink or get violent or both, they leave thinking it might fix the problem, and they realize this doesn’t work and they keep drinking and keep getting angry.

We have been blessed, because we still have many of the things that were in our lives before the wasicu, Preparing food, doing our quill work, Looking after our families, Looking after our men, sewing and practicing what the old ones taught us.

We can still look after our families, children and old ones and make them smile. We can help our children grow to become strong men and powerful women.

I had all this on my heart and i was reading a book. And unbelievably they were talking about the same thing i am saying above. It was very strange, since the book really didn’t have much to do with it.

Id like to quote some of it, this book is the words of an elder, when a friend gave me this book, i thought .. “here we go, some other plastic shaman claiming to have the answers to everything etc”, i was completely wrong. Its about an old man on the rez and he just shares a bit of his life and what he prays for, the future. Simple but very powerful.

This is what i came across and it blew me away, since i had been thinking about this in depth for days before reading it.

If honor had mattered, they would have won and we would still be strong and healthy as a people. But honor didn’t matter, Numbers mattered. They fought and lost. Now they still try to fight, Like grandpa is doing with words. But they are defeated.

It was taken from them. Everything. Your people did it. That’s the way it was planned, and it worked. You took their spirits and left them with shame. But no one paid any attention to us women. We kept things alive in our hearts and hands.

They ignored us, we were just women. But we were always the ones to keep the culture alive. That was our job, as women and mothers. It always has been. The men can’t hunt buffalo anymore. But we can still cook and sew and practice the old ways. We can still feed the old people and make their days warm. We can teach the children. Our men may be defeated, but our women’s hearts are still strong.

This is what i mean about it being our time - The Indian woman. We have always been at the center. The Indian family has been like a circle, and the woman has been at the center. White families have been like lines, with the men standing in front.

That’s why white women haven’t been able to understand us. They talk about sisterhood and liberation, but their struggle is not our struggle. We don’t need to get free. We need to free our men.

Things are different for us. We know who we are. We are Mothers. We are the bearers of our race. It gives us status to do other things. We are honored for what we are. If our men are treating us poorly, it is because they are shamed. Why should we want to set ourselves against them and call that liberation? Until they are free in their hearts again, none of us Indian people will be free.

All you see is the violence and the alcohol. All the white women see is the silence and the bruises. What we see is a broken circle, and we’re going to make it whole. This isn’t about men and women. This is about our whole culture and our ancestors and our children. White people always think of themselves first, and how to get your individual rights. We don’t. We think about the culture and how to make the people strong within it.

Thats what we’re doing. We’re building the culture. That’s our job. That’s why it’s our turn, now.

Dannie’s talk in the book Neither wolf, nor dog.

So women, never forget your are powerful. Our Families and Children Look up to you. Our men, Need you to help them be free. Our elders pass on to you.  Wakan Tanka blesses you with all these powers.

We are Women and We are strong.  Use this power for our people, to help them be free again.