Pe’ Sla in the Black Hills is one of the most significant cultural/spiritual sites of the Sioux Nation. Recently, its greedy owners put it up for sale, but the Sioux Nation was able to redeem it by buying it outright.
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Pavel Sulandziga, chairman of the working group for Development of the North, Siberia, and the Far East in the RF Public Chamber, announced that in mid-January 2013, for the first time, a meeting of the chiefs of Native American tribes of Canada and the USA with worldwide indigenous leaders would take place in Russia. In the light of all the noise raised by the international and Russian mass media in relation to the notorious end of the world bruited for 21 December, Sulandziga’s assessment of the upcoming international conference to take place in Bolivia, entitled The Beginning of the Era of Harmony and Becoming One with Nature, appears quite à propos.
Pavel Sulandziga
In the last few years, Bolivia has become one of the main actors in the movement to defend Mother Earth, which in spirit is very close to what indigenous people worldwide believe in… becoming one with nature, being part of the environment. The meetings in Bolivia that President Evo Morales initiated are of great importance because, in the long run, the economics of our globalised world plays a dominant role. However, it shouldn’t be that way. Besides economics, there’s much else related to the life and activity of people. Of course, economics isn’t the only criterion; people value other values as well.
VOR
Pavel Vasliyevich, you were invited to the conference in Bolivia, but you accepted another invitation and chose to attend a different event. Please, tell us about that.
Pavel Sulandziga
Yes, we’re talking about the annual meeting of the Sioux tribe chiefs, which is one of the largest Native American tribes in the USA. Our association of indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia, and the Far East have sought contact with them for a long time in order to work together. Now, for the first time ever, they’ve invited an outsider to their Chief’s Council, which takes place on 21-22 December.
VOR
Will you speak at that Council?
Pavel Sulandziga
Yes, I plan to speak on two themes. Firstly, I plan to touch upon establishing cooperation and joint action between us. I’m currently the chairman of the working group on the international cooperation between the indigenous peoples of Russia and other countries in the RF Public Chamber. Our group works with a number of areas related with the development of indigenous peoples. This includes education, youth culture, self-government, cultural development, and other matters. That’s why I’d like to raise these issues in a joint discussion. Secondly, I’ll talk about the Evenk people, for the Sioux Chiefs’ Council voiced its support for them. This, by the way, was one of the reasons for my invitation. The problem is that Evenk lands attracted the attention of high-ranking officials and legal structures, which decided to grab them…
I’m currently working on the visit to Russia of a number of Native American chiefs from the USA and Canada, as well as the leaders of indigenous people from other countries. Willie Littlechild, the Honorary Chief of the Crees from Alberta in Canada, Aali Kirskitaua, vice president of the Sámi parliament, and Henry Harrison, chief of the Thabas tribe from Alaska, have already confirmed their participation. They’ll come to Russia in mid-January, for a meeting of indigenous peoples for a joint discussion of problems and cooperation. We’re planning a press conference in Moscow, and, then, we’ll go to Lake Baikal.
12 December 2010
Voice of Russia World Service
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_12_12/The-meeting-of-the-Native-American-chiefs-of-the-USA-and-Canada-to-take-place-in-Moscow/
Addendum on Pe’ Sla:
Born from her core, I know she beats for all that is.
This is where we’re from,
Where we pray,
Where our stories were told back in the day.
My soles stained red as I walk the road around her,
Pointing to the stars and all that surrounds,
This land beats with the power of ten thousand drums.
In my heart of hearts I know this is love I’ve found.
So hear me now —-
You will not destroy her.
No roads will pass,
Nor foundations laid,
Not as long as we’re here…
We will not be swayed.
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Pe’ Sla is the heartland of the Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation). This land is a part of our creation story; we believe that this land is the centre, the heart, of everything that is.
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Aho Mitakuye Oyasin….All my relations. I honour you in this circle of life with me today. I am grateful for this opportunity to acknowledge you in this prayer….
To the Creator, for the ultimate gift of life, I thank you.
To the mineral nation that has built and maintained my bones and all foundations of life experience, I thank you.
To the plant nation that sustains my organs and body and gives me healing herbs for sickness, I thank you.
To the animal nation that feeds me from your own flesh and offers your loyal companionship in this walk of life, I thank you.
To the human nation that shares my path as a soul upon the sacred wheel of Earthly life, I thank you.
To the Spirit nation that guides me invisibly through the ups and downs of life and for carrying the torch of light through the Ages, I thank you.
To the Four Winds of Change and Growth, I thank you.
You are all my relations, my relatives, without whom I would not live. We are in the circle of life together, co-existing, co-dependent, co-creating our destiny. One, not more important than the other. One nation evolving from the other and yet each dependent upon the one above and the one below. All of us a part of the Great Mystery.
Thank you for this Life.
http://www.indiegogo.com/PeSla-LakotaHeartland
Voices from Russia 
Crazy Horse’s Last Stand
Tags: American history, American Indian, First Nation, First Nations, Great Sioux Nation, history, Indians, Lakota, Native American, Native Americans in the United States, political commentary, politics, Sioux, United States, USA
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In the early 1940s, Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear, wrote to Polish-American architect Korczak Ziolkowski and asked if he’d be willing to build a monument to commemorate Native American history. The letter ended:
However, who was it they proposed to embody the epic history of their people? It wasn’t Sacagawea. Although she was a formidable woman, she personified cooperation with white America at a moment when Native leaders wanted to express resistance. The recent completion of Mt Rushmore enraged Native America. It was a monument to white presidents in the Black Hills of South Dakota… land sacred to the Natives of the region. Henry Standing Bear and his fellow chiefs wanted their counter-sculpture to represent someone who fought against the American empire. The choice was easy… Crazy Horse (killed by American soldiers on this day in 1877).
An Oglala Lakota (one of the many sub-branches of the Sioux people), Crazy Horse was born in 1840 at a time when the United States’ thirst for land was driving a bloody expansion into what remained of Native land in North America. Crazy Horse grew up with his younger brother, Little Hawk, in a Lakota camp in modern-day Wyoming. He had his first experience of US brutality there in 1854 that when Federal forces stormed the camp in search of a supposed cattle thief, murdering the camp’s chief, Conquering Bear, in the process. After this, Crazy Horse committed himself to a life of resistance against the USA and its growing empire.
He was well-suited to the task as a fearless warrior and shrewd tactician. By the mid-1860s, his band named him Ogle Tanka Un (“Shirt Wearer”… the war chief) for his successes in battle against US forces. Soon after, in December 1866, Crazy Horse led a decoy manoeuvre which enabled a combined force of Lakota and Cheyenne to defeat a US force ranging out of Fort Phil Kearny in northeast Wyoming. A lull followed, until the Natives of the north had their final showdown with the US empire… the Great Sioux War of 1876-77.
It began with an astonishing Native victory in the river lands of Montana. On 17 June 1876, at the Battle of the Rosebud, Crazy Horse led 1,500 soldiers in an attack against 1,000 US troops under George Crook. The action delayed Crook, who was trying to link up with the 7 Cavalry Regiment of Colonel George A Custer. The rest is well-known. On 25 June, beside the Little Bighorn River, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse led a large Native force to a dramatic victory against Custer. Crazy Horse’s earlier action at Rosebud Creek made this possible, and his bravery on the field was a defining feature of both battles. One eyewitness recalled of Crazy Horse at the Little Bighorn:
The Battle of the Little Bighorn was the last great war-cry of Native America against its conquest. Alarmed by Custer’s defeat, the federal government poured more and more troops into the region. After a harsh winter in 1876-77, Crazy Horse surrendered to save his people from starvation and death. Later, on 5 September 1877, an American soldier bayoneted Crazy Horse whilst he was in US Army custody.
It goes without saying that no commemoration, whatever its scale, can redress the historical injustice done to the Native American people… an injustice upon which the modern USA was built. Three centuries of colonisation, genocide, and ethnic cleansing can’t be undone with a statue of Crazy Horse. However, such tributes can, at the very least, prevent the dispossession of Native Americans from being written out of the American story just because it’s an uncomfortable truth for those who rule. What’s more, the story of Crazy Horse and his resistance gives hope, not just to Native Americans, but to all who confront the forces of colonialism. To borrow the words of American journalist Chris Hedges:
By the way… the Crazy Horse Memorial is still under construction in the Black Hills of South Dakota!
5 September 2018
Pete Morgan
Radical Tea Towel
https://www.radicalteatowel.com/blog/crazy-horses-last-stand/