The True Language of a Pow Wow Drum
Preserving language is an ever important task for Natives everywhere. This includes the language of the drum – a kind of communication that some fear few understand today.

ICTMN chronicles Doug Goodfeather’s (Lakota) knowledge of the language.

The Battle of the Little Bighorn is told in a series of six victory songs (called When the Battle Happened) sung in order, Goodfeather said, explaining that the songs tell of defending the women and children, what happened with Custer, events leading up to the battle, and the battle itself.

In addition to learning the words, drum groups singing those songs accompany them with three kinds of drumbeats—honor, round dance, and straight beat– which differ in pattern and tempo, he said, alluding to the complexity behind what appears straightforward to casual pow wow attendees.

Grannies with Gumption: Standing up to Corporate Giants in Canada and Ecuador
These indigenous women have made great strides for their people and the environment by not backing down to big corporations.

As ICTMN reports, it was their strength that helped curb big oil intimidation in their areas.

Chevron didn’t stand a chance before the ire of indigenous villager Maria Aguinda. Enbridge quailed before the determination of Saik’uz First Nation Chief Jackie Thomas.

Both women, 4,300 miles apart, refused to take no for an answer. They stood up to two corporate giants and won. Aguinda, 61, spearheaded rural Ecuadoreans’ fight against Chevron, accused of polluting the Amazon for decades, and helped them win a $9.5-billion judgment against the company. Thomas, 47, was instrumental in beating back Enbridge’s attempts to get several Canadian First Nations to sell rights of way for a pipeline to send oil from the tar sands to the Pacific coast. As the world celebrated the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day on March 8, these two women, both grandmothers, continued their respective fights for their people’s right to live on clean, productive land.

Tribe sues feds over reservation raid
The Yakama Nation is claiming in a lawsuit that the federal government violated the tribe’s treaty rights when it raided a reservation cigarette manufacturer.

The suit wants an order requiring the FBI to notify the tribe before it enters the reservation. It also seeks punitive damages, the Yakima Herald reports.

On Feb. 16, FBI agents swarmed King Mountain Tobacco, deep within the reservation, and seized company records and computer equipment.

Under the 1855 treaty, the Yakamas reserved their exclusive use of the reservation and authority over its land and people.

According to the lawsuit, the federal government violated those rights by conducting the raid without first contacting tribal leaders.

Jenna Cederberg

Tags: cigarettes, Douglas Cardinal, drumming, FBI, pow wow, saik'uz, Yakama, Yakama Nation