Smoke Signals

Oil and Gas is not Coal and Methane but the same folks do it
And results are often the same.

October 30, 2006


Irresponsible Oil & Gas Drilling is Devastating the West

Dear Margot,

I’m asking for your help to gain a more responsible energy policy for our country.

You and I pay dearly for a bad national energy policy. On one hand, we shell out more money for gas to drive our cars, for diesel to plant our fields, and for natural gas to heat our homes.

On the other hand, too many of us must live with booming oil and gas drilling in the West. Too many deal with polluted water…dry wells…dirtier air…torn up landscapes… weeds…damaged soils…harm to wildlife…lower property values…and loss of income.

And you may be outraged to learn that our report, Filling the Gaps, found a potential multi-billion dollar taxpayer liability for clean-up of oil and gas sites.

A bankrupt oil company, for example, left the state of Wyoming and the federal government with a $4 million bill to reclaim 120 abandoned wells. The company’s damage deposit was only $250,000.

To turn this around, WORC has petitioned the Bureau of Land Management. WORC is asking the BLM to make the oil and gas industry reclaim land damaged by drilling and provide financial assurance bonds to protect taxpayers and landowners from restoration costs.

Our Oil and Gas Industry Responsibility Petition would require…

Better reclamation standards, plans, and cost estimates,
More reasonable bond amounts that truly cover clean up costs, and
Improved inspection, monitoring, and enforcement programs.
Grassroots leaders from WORC are heading to Denver in November to talk to the BLM about these reforms—because the BLM is rejecting this commonsense change!

That’s why I need your help now. I’m asking you to do two things.

First, I’m asking you to donate $25 or more to help us get the job done. Your donation will enable these grassroots leaders to make our case and push the BLM to change.

Second, I hope you’ll endorse our petition and let the BLM know you support these protections. I’ll add your endorsement to the growing list of supporters.

Click here to make a contribution of $25, $75, $100, or more and to endorse the Oil and Gas Industry Responsibility Petition.
Help do what’s right for the water, the air, the land, and the people facing the energy boom. Help us change the BLM’s energy policy. Help stop the devastation of the West. I’d appreciate your support.

Best wishes,



Patrick Sweeney
Director




Click here to make a contribution and endorse the Oil and Gas Industry Responsibility Petition.


Western Organization of Resource Councils
220 South 27th Street, Suite B, Billings, Montana 59101
phone: 406.252.9672 | fax: 406.252.1092 | email: billings@worc.org

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Look Well. O Wolves.
That’s what Rudyard Kipling said in a children's’ story concerning the boy Mowgli and a wolf pack in India.

Look well, o Cheyennes!


Once you let the genie out of the bottle you can’t get him back in.
Once you let the camel into the tent you can’t get him back out again.


There should be a moratorium on reservation energy development of any kind until there has been time to really study what the options are and to study their likely consequences. Nobody is smart enough to begin to understand this in the next two weeks before the election. It will take a good two years of hard, dedicated analysis to begin to learn enough about the alternatives to allow a wise decision.

No tribal council made up of human beings (and this one is) can begin to learn enough before opening the door to what will become dozens if not hundreds of new development proposals.
Once the door is open, they will have the power to decide who will come in and how.

Great Bear of Tulsa was only the first. They offered a bottling plant, a laundry, and yes, a dollar store!! in exchange FOR WHAT? Does anybody know? There will be innumerable Great Bears with their claws out and their tongues lolling, hot to get hold of Cheyenne resources. Nobody has succeeded in this yet, the tribe so far has been too smart for them. it will be the last great Land Grab. Which one(s) should get the nod? Who can possibly judge? Should any of them?

The Northern Cheyenne Reservation with all its faults and problems and troubles including economic underdevelopment, has still survived. It will not survive this time, unless the wisdom of the past can be carried forward. Other ways forward can be found if they are searched for.

Read High Country News to see what is happening with development in the rest of the west. It will curl your hair.

Look at surrounding communities to see what energy development has cost them. What can Colstrip teach us after ten years of experience with Colstrip One, Two, Three and Four? FIND OUT. When Birney One, Two, Three and Four become a reality, what will the Cheyennes wish they had known and done, while there was still time?

What can the Sheridan area teach about energy development? Read the articles I have posted on smokesignals2006.blogspot.com
about the effects of coalbed methane extraction on air, and water, and land. There have been Cheyenne water problems enough. After extraction of methane, livestock can’t even drink the stuff. It can’t be used for irrigation, it ruins the structure of the soil. See what the resource organizations have learned -- Northern Plains Resource Council and Powder River Basin Resource Council. Find them on Google. Rents have doubled in Sheridan and there is noplace to live. Don’t think the jobs will all go to Cheyennes -- most employable Cheyennes on the reservation are employed already. There will be hundreds of outsiders in colony communities not far from Jimtown and elsewhere near reservation borders. Don’t ask what they will do to problems of substance abuse, and law and order. Don’t even think about it if you want that easy development money.

I repeat, THERE SHOULD BE AT LEAST A TWO YEAR MORATORIUM ON COAL AND METHANE DEVELOPMENT UNTIL THE ISSUES CAN BE ADEQUATELY STUDIED. And pray God they can be adequately studied by then. The energy companies are huge, they are highly educated, they are very powerful, they know exactly what they want. They seem like really nice guys. They want to help the Cheyennes join the 20th century, help them climb out of poverty. Well, don’t buy it. They are in the pocket of the present administration in Washington. They are way more than one little Indian tribe can begin to stand up to, once they have their foot in the door.

Except that the Northern Cheyennes stood up to them once before, and won, during the time of the coal leases.

A Cheyenne alcoholism counselor, Teddy Beartusk, once said
“Don’t get in the ring with that animal.”

He meant alcohol.

Well, don’t get in the ring with this other animal, he will be way too much to handle
. And we will know that the Sweet Medicine prophecy has come true at last.

Margot Liberty wrote on October 24, 2006 9:16 AM


The Northern Cheyennes are one of the most famous and heroic tribes in the United States. They led the Sioux in defeating Custer and other military forces in 1876, and their outbreak from Oklahoma prison camp and return to the north in 1878-79 is one of the great epics of American history. More recently the tribe has had a very strong record of protecting their environment and denyting the irresponsible development of energy resources including coal. They stopped the sale of Cheyenne land to outsiders in the 1950s under the leadership of John Woodenlegs. 98% or more of reservation land (almost 500,000 acres) is thus under individual Cheyenne or tribal ownership -- unheard of among other reservations of the Plains, where 80% or more of reservation land is usually owned by Whites. When half the reservation was leased for coal development back in the seventies, they succeeded in overturning and cancelling the leases made by the Department of the Interior. Such a move was unheard of. They won a Supreme Court decision, the Hollowbreast case, guranteeing them control in perpetuity of their mineral rights. Most white owners of ranch land would die to be so lucky. Under the leadership of Alan Rowland they won a Class One Air designation under the Clean Air Act of 1974, one of the very few such high designations in the country -- the others are mainly the National Parks. Most areas in the country are Class Two or lower. This designation very nearly stopped the construction of mine-mouth electricity generating units Colstrip Three and Four. Colstrip Three and Four were built, but with much more rigorous emission requirements than would otherwise be the case, since mine emissions blow over the reservation just 15 miles to the south. Professor Ross Toole of the University of Montana in his book The Rape of the Great Plains in 1979 called the Cheyennes "The Most Important Tribe in This Country" because of their amazing record of resistance to strip mining and other environmentally disastrous development. Rubie Sooktis and Gail Small (at Native Action) have worked tirelessly to prevent such disasters. But today Tongue River on the east border of the reservation is so heavily affected by coalbed methane development nearby -- pollting the water with salt -- that it may soon be unusable for irrigation and livestock. Environmental damage from this cause is severe at nearby Sheridan, Wyoming. 30,000 methane wells in the area are projected for the near future. I have posted documents, background articles, and news stories on these matters at smokesignals2006.blogspot.com. Everyone is invited to visit and comment. It would be tragic indeed if today's Northern Cheyennes sold out the achievements of their ancestors and more recent leaders like Woodenlegs and Rowland, for a dollar store. A strip mine at Birney would destroy not only the traditional Cheyenne community, but one of the few last unspoiled and beautiful areas of the country. There are drugs and other such problems in great plenty at Lame Deer and other reservation areas. Don't let's let energy development spoil this truly last, best place.

NOTE TO READERS:

THIS BATTLE WAS BEING FOUGHT THIRTY YEARS AGO, MORE THAN A GENERATION.

THANKS TO ITS DETERMINATION, COURAGE, AND BRILLIANT LEADERSHIP, THE TRIBE WON AN AMAZING VICTORY.

NOWHERE IS THE NORTHERN CHEYENNE PERSPECTIVE MORE BEAUTIFULLY SUMMARIZED THAN IN THIS STATEMENT..

. . . mpl



“You know we are being surrounded not by the blue coats or Custer now, but the coal companies that are surrounding the reservation --

I am here to speak from the cultural point, from the Cheyenne way of life, the life that I have known and the life that I enjoy .

. . I think that the white man’s way of life is a way of life that has its own demands and has its own meanings and its own rules. The white man’s way of life next to his heart is money and guilt . .

how do you fight against the gigantic dream, the white man’s dream? He’s going to get it anyway some people have told me, he is going to get this land but what about our dreams? The dreams of Dull Knife and Little Wolf, the struggles they had and the price they had to pay so that we can benefit from the decision that was made almost 100 years ago ...

we are again trying to survive and we got no place to go. Our air is in danger and we are sitting on top of the coal that people want and you look in all four directions and you see all these coal companies, all these coal activities, Colstrip and all those posssible other plants.

We are totally surrounded and I don’t think the Cheyenne people are going to surrender that easy, but we are also talking about survival ... we can survive on a physical basis but are we going to survive as a Cheyenne people in holding onto what makes us Cheyennes? ...

I guess we have to find a way to survive, not only as Cheyenne people but to maintain what we have, what makes us Cheyennes, what makes us different from every other tribe, from every other country even the world.

And I am not only proud to be a Cheyenne but I am fortunate to belong to a tribe that still has human rights and still has human laws.


(Northern Cheyenne research project 1977: 66-68.)
The Northern Cheyenne Air Quality Redesignation Report and Request 1976 Lame Deer Montana:

NOTE TO READERS:

THIS BATTLE WAS BEING FOUGHT THIRTY YEARS AGO, MORE THAN A GENERATION.

THANKS TO ITS DETERMINATION, COURAGE, AND BRILLIANT LEADERSHIP, THE TRIBE WON AN AMAZING VICTORY.

NOWHERE IS THE NORTHERN CHEYENNE PERSPECTIVE MORE BEAUTIFULLY SUMMARIZED THAN IN THIS STATEMENT..

. . . mpl



“You know we are being surrounded not by the blue coats or Custer now, but the coal companies that are surrounding the reservation --

I am here to speak from the cultural point, from the Cheyenne way of life, the life that I have known and the life that I enjoy .

. . I think that the white man’s way of life is a way of life that has its own demands and has its own meanings and its own rules. The white man’s way of life next to his heart is money and guilt . .

how do you fight against the gigantic dream, the white man’s dream? He’s going to get it anyway some people have told me, he is going to get this land but what about our dreams? The dreams of Dull Knife and Little Wolf, the struggles they had and the price they had to pay so that we can benefit from the decision that was made almost 100 years ago ...

we are again trying to survive and we got no place to go. Our air is in danger and we are sitting on top of the coal that people want and you look in all four directions and you see all these coal companies, all these coal activities, Colstrip and all those posssible other plants.

We are totally surrounded and I don’t think the Cheyenne people are going to surrender that easy, but we are also talking about survival ... we can survive on a physical basis but are we going to survive as a Cheyenne people in holding onto what makes us Cheyennes? ...

I guess we have to find a way to survive, not only as Cheyenne people but to maintain what we have, what makes us Cheyennes, what makes us different from every other tribe, from every other country even the world.

And I am not only proud to be a Cheyenne but I am fortunate to belong to a tribe that still has human rights and still has human laws.


(Northern Cheyenne research project 1977: 66-68.) The Northern Cheyenne Air Quality Redesignation Report and Request 1976 Lame Deer Montana: The Northern Cheyenne Tribe.


From Ernest Schusky, ed. Political Organization of Native North Americans page 130

Rubie Sooktis in Northern Cheyenne Air

NORTHERN CHEYENNES AND CLASS ONE AIR

TRIBAL CHAIRMAN ALAN ROWLAND. 1976


p. 127 In August of 1976 Northern Cheyennes again were in the headlines for challenging the construction of two additional 700 million watt coal fired generating plants at Colstrip 15 miles from the reservation., where the pollution from two such plants already in operation is clearly evident. On August 23 the Great Falls Tribune reported that the Cheyennes might hold the trump card in this increasingly complicated fight, via their petition to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) for redesignation of the air quality standard from the existing Class II to Class I, an unheard of
prerogative. “The petition means,” said Tribal Chairman Allen Rowland, “that we’re in a bad habit of breathing fresh air and we want to continue to do so.” Billings Gazette, Aug 22 1976. “My own personal feeling is that I don’t think Congress should say, “Your air should be like this -- this number two. Everyone should be able to choose the kind of air they have to breathe.” (High Country News, July 16, 1976.)

The Cheyenne petition is the first of its kind in the country. At this time it appears the petition will be approved despite strong opposition from the mining interests, and from the Crows who wish to see mining development proceed (Environment Reporter, April 29 and May 6, 1977) although effective enforcement of its provisions will entail a grim and continuing battle (cf. Conoway1973; Gold 1974; Jospehy 1973; Smith 1975; and Northern Cheyenne Research Project 1976 and 1977.)

Rowland has also, to the utter amazement of the Cheyennes’ Montana naighbors, offered to purchase in the name of the tribe
the nearly community of Decker (along with Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, which was in the spring of 1977 talking about secession from its own state government. ) “We would like to buy Decker and incorporate it into the Northern Cheyenne Reservation,” he said, pointing out various benefits which might accrue to Decker from such an action. “For instance we could conceivably extend our proposed Class One air designation to your area.” Decker need no longer be “a resource colony of the State of Montana.” The tribe could reactivate time tested procedures long utlilzed by the Burau of Indian Affairs Indians by issuing Certificates of Competency to all eligible Deckerites: “Those unable to meet this test will be under our utmost supervision in all financial matters, to insure their continual well-being.” Full tribal membership for Decker residents would not be possible, but a schedule whereby some might attain full voting rights could be considered.

In closing, he extended the purchase offer to the secession-minded residents of Martha’s Vineyard: “We believe our special stutus is flexible enough to offer the same protection to that beleagured island” (Billings Gazette, April 6, 1977.)





from Margot Liberty 1980 The Symbolic Value of the Little Big Horn in the Northern Plains

pp. 121-136 in Ernest L Schusky ed., Political Organization of Native North Americans Washington University Press of AMERICA

Notes from Internet Dec 12 2005


Colstrip

Colstrip Power Plant,
near Billings, Mont.


The Colstrip power plant, east of Billings, Mont., operates four coal-fired generating units capable of producing a total of up to 2,094 megawatts of electricity. Units 1 and 2 began commercial operation in 1975 and 1976, and Units 3 and 4 started in 1984 and 1986. Units 1 and 2 each have about 307 megawatts of generating capacity; PPL has 50 percent ownership of each.
Units 3 and 4 each have about 740 megawatts of generating capacity; PPL has 30 percent ownership in Unit 3 and no ownership in Unit 4. PPL's share in the plant's generating capacity is 529 megawatts.
The plant employs about 300 people and is owned by PPL Montana LLC, a subsidiary of PPL Generation LLC, as well as Puget Sound Energy, Inc., Portland General Electric Company, Avista Corporation, PacifiCorp, and NorthWestern Energy LLC.
The Colstrip facility is the second largest coal-fired project west of the Mississippi. It is consistently ranked as one of the lowest cost fuel plants in the Western Electricity Coordinating Council, a regional member of the North American Electricity Reliability Council that includes all the western states and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia.
Low-sulfur coal and state-of-the-art scrubbers restrict sulfur dioxide emissions to less than levels required by both phase one and phase two of the Clear Air Act. The plant also meets Environmental Protection Agency standards for nitrogen oxide emission.

  SouthEastern Montana
Development Corporation  

 You Are Visitor        Since 10/01/05

6200 Main Street      P.O. Box 1935       Colstrip, MT 59323      (406) 748-2990


This web site was made possible through funding and assistance from Qwest and Montana Economic Developers Association

NEW YORK TIMES


Tribal Colleges Grapple With Challenges of Success
•

By STEVEN A. HOLMES
Published: August 3, 1997



Two years ago, Danetta Jane Holds, a Crow Indian, tried to help her 15-year-old son with his algebra homework and discovered to her horror that she couldn't do it. This abrupt affirmation of her educational shortcomings convinced Ms. Holds, who never went beyond high school, that it was time to finally get a college degree.
Daunted by the prospect of traveling 65 miles to the nearest four-year college in Billings and what she saw as an alien and not very friendly white world, Ms. Holds enrolled at Little Big Horn College, a two-year community college on the sprawling Crow Reservation in south central Montana.
''There are no strangers here,'' she said. ''I got married when I was pretty young, so I've never actually been any place else. So it's kind of scary to go other places. I'd rather stay here. This is my sanctuary, the Crow reservation.''
Ms. Holds's reasoning is shared by thousands of Indian students and helps to explain the explosive growth in recent decades of tribal colleges, which are chartered by their tribes and based on remote reservations primarily in the West, where most Indians live.
Many of the tribal colleges were founded because a number of Indian educators became concerned about the high dropout rates for Indian college students. Studies in the 1970's indicated that about 70 percent of Indian students quit college before graduating from traditional four-year schools, and at many institutions, the dropout rate was more than 90 percent.
Indian leaders blame racism, a lack of sensitivity among authorities at mainstream colleges and the poor preparation of many Indian students who attend high school on reservations. But they acknowledge that cultural considerations play a part, especially for some close-knit tribes like the Crow. Many educators involved in the founding of tribal colleges believed that the answer was a system of colleges on the reservations that would grant degrees or ease the transition from reservation life to mainstream schools.
Since 1968, when the Navajo tribe established Navajo Community College in Tsaile, Ariz., the number of colleges chartered by Indian tribes and run by Indian administrators has increased to 27. The number of full- and part-time students attending these colleges and three others run directly by the Federal Government has more than doubled since 1989, to about 25,000 from 10,000.
Tribal colleges are now among the bright spots on Indian reservations, which, despite the emergence of casino gambling, remain some of the poorest areas in the United States, with an overall unemployment rate of 49 percent.
In a May report, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching said that tribal colleges had ''taken on a breathtaking array of responsibilities'' and that with each passing year, they ''prove their worth to Indian communities and the nation.''
Yet tribal colleges are struggling financially. Unlike other community colleges in the country, they receive no funding from state and local governments, which view the colleges as Federal entities, because they are usually on Indian reservations. And because they have to keep their tuitions low, student fees cannot be counted on to finance the colleges. Legislation passed in 1978 authorizes a lump sum payment of Federal aid that translates to about $5,820 per Indian student. But Congress has never actually given the colleges that much money. Federal aid has also not kept pace with the growth in enrollment and is currently about $2,900 per student.
''That's our number-one problem and our number-one challenge,'' said Gerald (Carty) Monette, president of Turtle Mountain Community College in Belcourt, N.D., which is associated with the Chippewa tribe. ''Our funding is disastrous.''
Some college officials believe the financial situation is about to get worse. In addition to granting associate's degrees, the colleges offer remedial courses and general equivalency diplomas.
In coming years, administrators fear that their campuses will be swamped by untrained and out-of-work Indians who have been forced off the welfare rolls by recent Federal legislation.
''Many individuals are not employable,'' Mr. Monette said. ''Most don't have skills to go out to find a job and keep it. But they have to do something, and most will go to places like the tribal colleges.''
The financial fragility -- and resourcefulness -- of many tribal colleges can be seen at Little Big Horn. A tiny school of about 200 students, Little Big Horn is tucked away on the 2.2-million-acre Crow Reservation. The campus consists of a few trailers and a former gymnasium given to the college by the tribal government.
The buildings have been expanded and renovated by carpentry and building trades students as their academic projects. Strapped for cash, administrators are paying the salaries of 4 of the school's 18 instructors through one- or two-year grants from private foundations until the school is sure there is enough student interest in these teachers' courses to pay them directly from the college's budget.
School officials say this practice allows them to expand the number of courses without committing large sums of money up front. But they fret about possibly losing some faculty since they cannot promise to pay them after one or two years.
''It's a very risky strategy, and it's a strategy that most colleges would never use,'' said Janine Pease Pretty On Top, president of Little Big Horn. ''It's a very eyes-open way to try to build up our capacity. But it is a risk.''
Little Big Horn improvises in other ways. For example, through grants it has created an impressive computer network. More than 100 computer work stations -- about one for every two students -- are scattered throughout the college. And, as faculty like to point out, the computers are not under-powered hand-me-downs discarded by local businesses, but modern work stations loaded with sophisticated software. All of the computers on campus have Internet access and each student has an E-mail address.
''People see we're a little tribal college in the back of Crow Agency and think they're going to see DOS computers and maybe a few scattered work stations,'' said Randy Falls Down, head of the computer science department. ''But they're real surprised.''
The tribe, whose name in its own language is Apsaalooka or ''children of the long-beaked bird,'' which was incorrectly translated by early white settlers as ''crow,'' is a tight-knit group for whom maintenance of culture is important. About 75 percent of the approximately 7,000 tribe members live on or near the reservations, and about 85 percent speak the Crow language, a far higher proportion of native language speakers than any other tribe in the country, except the Navajo.
Obligations to extended family are also critically important. ''My seventh cousin is the same as my first cousin,'' said Jennifer Flatlip, head of the Crow Studies Department at Little Big Horn.
As a result, members of the tribe are reluctant to leave the reservation and tend not to do well when they go to school elsewhere.
''We don't think there is much out there that is worthwhile,'' said Ms. Pretty on Top.
Given the remoteness of the reservation and the reluctance of tribal members to leave, Ms. Pretty on Top, like a number of other heads of tribal colleges, is trying to structure the school's curriculum to help the reservation's economic development.
''We don't have nine randomly picked associate of arts degrees,'' she said. ''We've chosen specific fields so that people can be working here. We're building this community, not any other community, so we're not a generic community college in that regard.''
Little Big Horn established its computer science program after surveys of businesses in nearby towns like Hardin, Mont., and Sheridan, Wyo., revealed a need for computer-literate workers. The college is also trying to build a strong program in natural science, a field that can lead to careers in land management and animal husbandry. The goal is to help train a cadre of Crow who can manage the reservation's buffalo and elk herd, its stock of trout and its oil, gas, coal and timber reserves.
''I want to clean up the area,'' said Trisha Bird Bear, 19, a first-year student who wants to major in environmental science and natural resources and become an environmental lawyer.
Ms. Bird Bear is the third in her family to attend college, but her older brother and sister, who went to school away from the reservation, both dropped out and returned home. Yet when asked if she was going to make it all the way through Little Big Horn, as well as through a four-year college and then law school, she answered matter of factly, ''Of course.''
In some smaller ways, the college is trying to accomplish more immediate economic development.
Little Big Horn, like a number of tribal colleges, tries to help nurture small businesses on the reservation and trains members of the tribe to be guides to fishermen angling for trout on the Big Horn River.
In recent years the college began offering courses to train tour guides for the Little Big Horn Battlefield, which is about two miles away. Through its Institute for Micro-Business and Tourism, the school helped start Apsaalooka Tours, which this year won a concession to provide guided tours of the battlefield where George Armstrong Custer and the members of the Seventh Calvary were defeated by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors.
Beyond the economic boost, the college also serves other purposes for the Crow. It is a community center where groups can hold meetings. Members of the tribe and other Indians can all use its library, which is linked electronically to five other regional libraries. . And the school strives to help insure the tribe's cultural heritage, requiring, for example, that all students, including non-Indians, take at least one semester of the Crow language.
To some Crow, the college is also a symbol of nationhood, a reminder that their reservation is not merely a sprawling ghetto, but a sovereign entity deserving its own institutions.
''We're like a national university,'' said Ms. Pretty On Top. ''Like those national universities in Latin America. We exist for the preservation and the protection and, you might even say, the defense of the country. We're not just a neighborhood literacy center.''
In early June, in a stand of tall cottonwood trees, about two miles from the historic battlefield, 18 Indian students -- 1 Navajo and 17 Crow, including Denetta Holds -- strode onto a makeshift stage and received their associate of arts degrees.
In the audience was Ken Dawes, 32, a 1995 graduate of Little Big Horn, who in May received his bachelor's degree from Montana State University in Billings. Mr. Dawes had dropped out of high school when he was 16 and didn't get his GED until 1988. Now he is hoping to get a master's degree in museum science and to do research on the Crow tribe.
His inspiration, he said, came from a former Crow chief.
''It's like Chief Plenty Coups said,'' he explained. ''With an education, you're the white man's equal. Without an education, you're his victim.''


Steven A. Holmes covers race relations and demographics for The New York Times.

By JIM ROBBINS
Published: December 13, 1998
In the 1970's, a rush for coal shattered the quiet of eastern Montana. As giant shovels gouged the rolling grasslands in search of the mineral, ranch families and communities were torn as well, bitterly at odds over whether to accept the windfall from coal companies and give up parts of their ranches, or to join environmentalists and fight the assault on their way of life.

The price of Western soft coal has plummeted, to $5.90 a ton from $12.50 a ton over the last 16 years, and the controversy has quieted. But a battle over soft coal has surfaced again, this time in the form of a proposed 117-mile, $385 million rail link to haul the coal from south of this tiny town in the heart of one of Montana's most isolated and beautiful areas, the Tongue River Valley, to the main railroad at Mile City.

''I've got cold, hard market data that shows if the Tongue River railroad can be completed by 2001, we can double the supply of coal coming from Montana,'' said Michael Gustafson, president of the concern formed to build the link, the Tongue River Railroad Company.

Mr. Gustafson predicted that the rail line would bring the opening of new strip mines. The state now produces about 28 million tons of coal a year, all of it from this area.

As the Clean Air Act forces Midwestern utilities to use low-sulfur coal, a fuel that burns more cleanly than hard coal, to meet standards that go into effect in 2000, he said, Montana's vast reserves of such coal will grow invaluable.

The rail line would bring startling change to an area where stillness is broken only by cattle lowing or an occasional tractor-trailer hauling livestock. Mr. Gustafson envisions the line being used by as many as 18 trains a day, each with 125 cars -- about a mile long -- filled with coal pulled by two 4,000-horsepower locomotives.

''You can hear it 20 to 30 miles away,'' said Randy Knutson, chairman of the United Transportation Union in Sheridan, which represents railroad workers. ''The horns are piercing. It will be an overwhelming presence.''

The union opposes the new rail link because it says some 30 railroad jobs would be lost on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, which now serves this area. But the Burlington Northern's link to Mile City is on a 294-mile route, 177 miles longer than that proposed by Mr. Gustafson.

Opponents of the new link say the existing line makes the new one unnecessary. Mr. Gustafson counters that the shorter route would greatly reduce the price of the coal.

The fight against the new railroad has been a long one; the rail link was first proposed in 1986. But despite lawsuits and lobbying by the Northern Plains Resource Council, a coalition of ranchers and environmentalists based in Billings, the Tongue River Railroad may soon be barreling down on this quiet corner.

Last summer some ranchers here were served with papers notifying them that the railroad would begin exercising its right of eminent domain, granted by the Federal and state governments, and would be coming to survey their land. Mr. Gustafson said he hoped to begin construction next spring. Several ranch families vowed to continue their fight in court.

The cost to the Tongue River Valley, ranchers say, will be unbearable. ''It's already split the community,'' said Irv Alderson, a 68-year-old rancher whose spurs jingled softly as he fried up a pan of venison steaks and potatoes. ''There's people who don't speak to each other anymore.''

Such tension is especially difficult in a place where neighbors depend on each other if they get stuck in the mud, or a grass fire breaks out.

Some think the valley needs the money the railroad construction would bring, because beef prices have dropped. Though the Tongue River Valley is a sprawling chunk of real estate where ranches are measured in sections, or square miles, there are only 56 landowners along the river, with at least 29 of them opposed to the railroad.

The closest town is Birney, which is anywhere from a mile to 15 miles for many families, and it has dwindled to fewer than 50 people. The grocery here closed in the 1980's, and the one-room schoolhouse has just 16 students. The nearest sizable town, Sheridan, Wyo., is an hour-and-a-half ride, when the gravel road is not clogged with mud.

''We've got a lot of people in a world of hurt,'' said Jay Nance, a rancher north of Birney, who is a member of an economic development committee. He endorsed the railroad, saying: ''The world is bigger than my ranch. I would like to see something that will keep my kids around here.''

But the valley is also part of the ancestral homeland of the Northern Cheyenne, whose reservation lies just a few miles to the east. They gather plants for medicine and ceremonies here. And the railroad would bisect the site of the battleground of what the Indians call the Battle of Wolf Mountain, the last battle fought by the Sioux and Cheyenne before they surrendered in 1877.

''We still eat deer, still eat pheasants,'' said Freda Standing Elk, who lives in Birney Village, a small Cheyenne settlement seven miles from Birney. ''We still use the hide to make buckskin dresses, to make moccasins.'' The trains could drive off the game, she said, ''and we could lose all that.''

Jeanie Alderson, who with her two sisters and father, Irv, is a partner in the Bones Brothers Ranch, which straddles Hanging Woman Creek, says she worries about several things: grass fires started by sparks from trains, weeds that might be carried in to grazing land and the fact that cattle and horses would have to cross high railroad embankments to reach the Tongue River, the only source of water. ''I had a fellow call me to tell me what a nightmare it is to have a railroad for a neighbor,'' she said, looking out at several quarter horses in a corral near her home. ''He had 24 show horses killed by a train. He said it was a quarter-million-dollar loss and a year later he hadn't got a dime.''

Up the road in a deep canyon carved out by the Tongue River, Bill Musgrave has other concerns. He said he could not sell his ranch because buyers feared the effect of a new railroad. On a walk through one of his pastures he pointed to a series of towering, rugged hills. ''They want to obliterate the tops of those hills and use the dirt to fill in between'' for the railroad bed, he said, on more than two miles of his land.

''They're letting on like they can mitigate all this but they can't,'' he said, referring to erosion and other environmental effects.

Mr. Gustafson bristles at the criticism. ''I've been cast as a speculator and a promoter,'' he said. ''All kinds of names have been thrown at me. But I'm a creative entrepreneur and I feel strongly I've tried to do it right. I'm frustrated but I've made a concerted effort to work with those people.''

THE MOST IMPORTANT TRIBE IN THIS COUNTRY


In 1979 a very significant book was published. It was “The Rape of the Great Plains: Northwest America, Cattle and Coal,” by University of Montana history professor K. Ross Toole. He was also the author of “Montana, An Uncommon Land” (1959), “The Time Has Come” (1971), “An Angry Man Talks Up to Youth” (1970), and “Twentieth-Century Montana -- A State of Extremes”. (1971.) He was also co-editor and author of “A History of Montana” (with Merrill Burlingame), (1957), “Historical Essays of Montana and the Northwest (with J.W. Smurr (1957), and “Probing the American West”, 1960.

Ross Toole dedicates this book “To the dedicated and knowledgeable environmentalists in the Great Plains states upon whose persistence the fate of a great land depends.” He includes the Northern Cheyennes among them.

In Section I, People and Explorers, Chapter 2. is “The Indians: The Cheyenne and the Crow. “ Chapter 3 is “The Most Important Tribe In This Country.”

Chapter 3 is the Northern Cheyenne story, pages 50-68. It tells the story of the leasing of Cheyenne coal two generations ago to mining interests by the Department of the Interior. At that time on a reservation of about 433,000 acres,” the educational level was the seventh grade and the dropout rate was one third . . . average annual income was $1,000 and the unemployment rate ranged from 26 percent to an almost unbelievable 40 per cent.

“But there, suddenly, was the coal. Between 1966 and 1973 the BIA presided over the the granting of permits for the actual exploration of or actual leases for strip mining involving 214,000 acres or half the reservation. It is extremely difficult to make a callous villain of the area director, James Canan. But it is equally difficult to avoid the conclusion that something, somewhere, went dreadfully wrong, for if it is true that an Indian tribe can only maintain its identity, culture, and self respect if the essence of it is rooted in its own land and its own use of that land’s resources, the Northern Cheyenne were suddenly on the brink of extinction. James Canan did not put them there nor did they put themselves there. Who or what did?”

Ross Toole goes on to ask many more questions, and to outline some aspects of the answers. Alan Rowland, Tribal Council chairman in 1974, said “We began to ask a lot of questions but we got no answers. We thought the U.S. Government wouldn’t rip us off so we let it ride until last year.”

Early on, few people knew of the North Central Power Study of 1971. It had huge importance as a foundation for “Project Independence” in energy resources. There were vast ramifications and interrelationships between coal companies’ applications for exploration and leasing permits, and strip mining, railroad spurs, mine-mouth generating plants, transmission lines, and so-called reclamation. “The oil, coal and energy companies did not inform anyone of what was really involved. Quite the contrary, as we shall see, they were as secretive as CIA operatives. . . It is not at all surprising that as of 1966, the period of the first Northern Cheyenne leases, James Canan of the BIA area office saw opportunity for the Northern Cheyenne in the reservation’s coal reserves. It is even less surprising that the Northern Cheyenne were eager to proceed. If Montanans were isolated from the facts on on a wholesale basis, and if, as was actually the case, the facts were very deliberately kept from them, it is hardly strange that a genuinely remote, small, and inward-looking Indian tribe should have been victimized. What IS strange is that the tribe discovered it, studied it, understood it, and then took very decisive action. “ (Page 53.)

Ross Toole details the events that followed. Edwin Dahle of the Tribal Council became acquainted with George Crossland, a young Osage lawyer. Legal investigations and proceedings began. By the winter of 1973 it became clear that law to break the leases existed. Conflict of interest was found in the fact that the regular tribal attorney was also an attorney for the Peabody Coal Company. Senator Mike Mansfield and others intervened in the Cheyennes’ behalf. Four huge sales of leases had taken place between 1966 and 1973. Environmental regulation laws came into play. In a very complicated series of events, it became clear that the BIA had broken, and was continuing to break, the law. Among other issues was the matter of royalties to be paid the tribe at 17.5 cents per ton, by the only bidder, which was Peabody Coal.
Elsewhere, the Washington office informed the Billings Area Office, “prices ranging from $16 to $100 have recently been paid for coal or lignite leases” (Page 62.) Higher paying leases existed also between Peabody and the Navajo and Hopi reservations, where coal seams were between four and thirty feet in thickness -- Northern Cheyenne seams are between twelve and eighty nine feet in thickness. Tons per acre on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation range between 17,000 and 95,000 while at Black Mesa the average is 44,000.

Ross Toole goes into great additional detail on the story of the Cheyenne coal leases and how they were eventually overturned and canceled. It makes sobering reading. Nobody knows what the future will hold in terms of Northern Cheyenne reservation energy development. New schemes are being proposed continually. But hopefully whatever development takes place will be controlled by the Northern Cheyenne people, so that it does not destroy their land and overrun their communities and their way of life.

What is the flap about the Board of Regents at Chief Dull Knife College?
What is this Board supposed to accomplish?

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Whose idea was this?

NORTHERN CHEYENNE BATTLES WERE NOT JUST WITH CAVALRY -- SOME OF THE BIGGEST HAPPENED DURING RESERVATION YEARS



After its battle to live in Montana was finally won, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe had many more struggles to maintain, protect and preserve this sacred homeland. These included fights to keep grazing resources away from neighboring white ranchers, who have always wanted Cheyenne grass, and claimed the Cheyennes could not use it. They were able to force the slaughter of Cheyenne horses after 1920 because horses constituted a “wasteful” use of this pasture. People even had to slaughter their own horses for food. It was almost as bad a blow as losing the buffalo.

Most Plains reservations were allotted to individuals in 180 acre pieces after the Dawes Allotment Act of 1887. People were given a 25 year period of federal supervision and were then permitted to sell to outsiders if they wished. Most reservations were virtually sold out soon thereafter. In the Sioux reservations, the Crow reservation, and many others, the sellout was disastrous, resulting in 80% alienation of Indian land. These reservations are 80% white-owned today.

The Northern Cheyennes were not allotted until 1926 which turned out to be a lucky break. It was not until the 1950s that the period of supervision ended, and allottees were permitted to sell. By this time the disastrous results of allotment sales elsewhere were obvious. In an amazing victory, the tribe was able to get these outside sales stopped. Individual allotments could be sold, but only to the tribe. That is why some 98% of 445,736 acres remains in Cheyenne ownership today.

The legislation for this was known as the Fifty Year Northern Cheyenne Unallotment Program. It was passed with assistance of the Association on American Indian Affairs to Chairman John Woodenlegs and members of the Tribal Council.



From Newsletter, Indian Affairs
Number 34, November 1959


NORTHERN CHEYENNE GOAL -- ALL LAND IN TRIBAL OWNERSHIP

The Northern Cheyennes of Montana have asked the Department of the Interior to approve a “Fifty Year Unallotment Program,” under which the tribe would save their reservation by buying it back from individual Cheyennes among whom it was divided in 1926. The tribe’s request was transmitted to the Department by the Association On American Indian Affairs.
On November 10, replying through the Hon. Roger S. Ernst, Assistant Secretary, the Department said it was “encoraged by the initiative shown by the Northern Cheyennes in originating” the unallotment plan; that the Department and the Bureau of Indian Affairs would cooperate with the tribe in its effort to develop a financially sound method for carrying out the plan, and would lend technical assistance.
The proposed Northern Cheyenne Unallotment Program is outlined, in essence, in the following letter:


Northern Cheyenne Tribe
Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, Montana
An Indian Chartered Corporation
Lame Deer, Montana
October 12, 1959


Miss La Verne Madigan, Executive Director
Association On American Indian Affairs
48 East 86 Street
New York 28, New York

Dear Miss Madigan,

Our land is more than a reservation to us Northern Cheyennes. Our land is the home of our people, and that is why our grandfathers broke out of prison in Oklahoma and died and starved and froze and fought all the way north back to this good place. We want to hold every foot of our land. We do not want one foot of it to be sold out of Northern Cheyenne ownership.
Once our land belonged to our whole tribe and no Cheyenne could sell away a piece of it. That was good. Then our land was allotted. Every Cheyenne was given a piece. Today we children of those Cheyennes are very poor, and God will forgive us for selling our pieces of our homeland to buy food and clothes. But it is not good for our people to be able to do that. When they have eaten the food and worn out the clothes or spent the money childishly, they live right here among us on relief and a part of our community is gone forever.
The Northern Cheyennes never asked the Government to allot our land so that it could be sold away bit by bit.Our people did not understand what allotment meant when it happened in 1926. Now our land is going up for sale and we know what allotment means and we want to make it unallotted,
The lands of the Navajos, Seminoles, North Carolina Cherokees, and other tribes in the southern half of the country were never allotted. Today those tribes can use whatever money they have to build factories, give scholarships, start businesses, and do good economic things for the people. Those tribes do not have to use their income to try to buy up every piece of allotted land that goes up for sale. We are happy for those tribes, but we do not think that it is just that we Northern Cheyennes have to use all the funds that we could use for community development to buy back allotments so that our tribe will keep its home. We do not think it is just that we have to do that, but we are willing to do it to save our reservation. Our tribe will buy up every inch of Northern Cheyenne allotted land, and we will use our own money for every inch we buy. We want it that way. It can be done.
Our Northern Cheyenne Reservation is still almost whole. Of 445,736 acres, approximately 6000 have been sold away. In 1959, 2399.48 acres went up for sale, and we bought up all of these by matching every bid by a white bidder. Soon, perhaps this fall, more acres will go up for sale, and other land sales will follow, and we are asking the Bureau of Indian Affairs to lend us $500,000 from the Indian Revolving Loan Fund so that we can keep pace. The Revolving Loan Fund will be empty until Congress appropriates money for it, however, and we Northern Cheyennes are only one of many tribes that have applied for land purchase loans. The loan we need may be a long time coming, and half our reservationmay be sold while we wait. The borrowed money, even after we receive it, will not be enough to buy the allotted Cheyenne lands, and we may face a hard future in which we will be borrowing and repaying interest for years to come, to save our homeland, without ever having a penny to help our people live better lives. We will do that if we have to, but there is a better way.
The Government could approve a Northern Cheyenne Unallotment Program. The purpose of this program would be to allow the tribe to bring all Northern Cheyenne lands into tribal ownership. The program would run for fifty years. During that time, there would be a moratorium on all land sales except to the tribe. The tribe would be required to purchase all land offered for sale, and at the appraised value at the time of sale. The land would be purchased by the tribe out of annual, unborrowed income. The ampount of land to be purchased each year would be based on a 50-year calculation, according to which the acreage bought would increase annually in proportion to the rise in income from land already purchased. The right of Cheyennes to sell their land outside the tribe is not acknowledged by the tribe, but the right of the individual to sell would nonetheless be protected by the requirement that the tribe buy at appraised value. Over the 50 year period some individuals wishing to sell their land might die before the tribe could schedule purchase. The right of the individual to sell would not be violated, however, because the tribe would be obligated to buy from that individual’s heirs. . .


Sincerely your,


John Woodenlegs
Northern Cheyenne Tribe
Lame Deer, Montana

See comments -- lots of Cheyenne respondents on line.



American Indian images
Northern Cheyenne history told in photos, interviews
By Donna Healy
Of The Gazette Staff
Curiosity flared into a passion for history when Thomas B. Marquis came to the Northern Cheyenne Reservation as a doctor in 1922.

Although it was nearly 50 years after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Marquis sought out Northern Cheyenne participants in the battle and learned sign language to preserve their side of the story. The Missouri-born doctor published their controversial perspectives in a series of pamphlets and books, which can still be found on the shelves of many battlefield history buffs.

Maps he made of the battle are stored in the archives at the Little Bighorn Battlefield, along with artifacts he preserved from survivors.

Although Marquis is less-well-known as a photographer, his images document reservation life from the mid-1920s until 1935. The collection includes photos of Northern Cheyenne survivors of the Custer Battle as they grew into old age.

About 30 of his images are preserved in the battlefield's archives, while the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyo., has a collection of more than 460 negatives, which the museum acquired in 1999.

It took a collaborative effort spanning more than 40 years to put together Marquis' photos as a book, "A Northern Cheyenne Album," published this summer by University of Oklahoma Press.

"It was a long, long effort, and a lot of players were involved," said Margot Liberty, an anthropologist specializing in American Indian cultures and the American West, who edited the volume of photos.

"The first person was the old doctor, the photographer," Liberty said.

John Woodenlegs, who was the Northern Cheyenne's tribal president from 1955 to 1968, provided much of the commentary on the lives of the subjects of Marquis' black-and-white photos. With Woodenlegs' support, a group in the 1960s began interviewing the tribe's elders and talking to relatives of the people in the Marquis photos. They intended to publish the photos and oral history in a book for reservation schoolchildren.

Most of the captions were done in the 1970s. But the manuscript languished for several decades, in part because of the expense of reproducing so many photographs.

Ten years ago, a participant in the oral-history project sent the manuscript to Liberty, who had taught on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in the late 1950s. Liberty had co-written a book, published in 1967, with tribal historian John Stands in Timber. The book, "Cheyenne Memories," is considered a classic oral history of the Cheyennes.

Liberty immediately saw the importance of the collection of 150 photographs. To see it published, she was willing to forgo any royalty payments for her work on the project.

"There are a lot of historical pictures available, but very few of the early reservation years," she said in a phone interview from her home in Sheridan, Wyo.

She saw equal value in the commentary, provided mainly by Woodenlegs.

"He was an insider in the tribe, and he knew so many of these people well," she said. "The older people would talk to him in their own language. The tone of his captions is a very natural, very deeply Indian point of view."

To maintain the natural flow of Woodenlegs' way of speaking and preserve the other Indian voices, the editors at the University of Oklahoma Press envisioned two sets of captions. The original captions preserved the Northern Cheyenne voices from the oral histories. The other set of captions, written by Liberty, added more background information for those less familiar with Cheyenne customs and traditions.

In the early 20th century, the Northern Cheyenne Reservation was much more isolated, both geographically and culturally, than it is today. People assume the transition to reservation life was just kind of a sad story, Liberty said.

"The photos show the early reservation as a much better place than most people realize, because the Indian people were very, very poor, but they had their communities and their relatives nearby. ...They could also still speak their language and still have their ceremonies."

Although tribal members have maintained traditional ceremonies, the language is fading rapidly, Liberty said.

Custer buffs may be particularly intrigued by a few of the Marquis photos in "A Cheyenne Album," including a photo of Kate Bighead taken in 1926. Bighead is the only woman who is known to have been on the field to witness the Battle of the Little Bighorn and whose account has been preserved. She was the narrator of "She Watched Custer's Last Battle," a pamphlet written by Marquis.

"She watched from a great vantage point, what we know today as Greasy Grass Ridge," said John Doerner, chief historian at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.

"Her accounts are vivid, and they actually tell us a lot about how the Seventh Cavalry collapsed," Doerner said.

Some commentary by John Woodenlegs is about his grandfather, Wooden Leg, who as an 18-year-old fought in the Custer battle. Marquis preserved Wooden Leg's controversial recollections of the battle in "Wooden Leg: a Warrior Who Fought Custer."

"That's a classic in battle literature. It's a must for any serious student of the battle," Doerner said.

Because Wooden Leg was so vivid in his account as an eyewitness to the battle, Doerner still uses his descriptions when leading interpretive programs at the battlefield.

After befriending veterans of the battle, Marquis took great care to listen to their stories, Doerner said. To communicate with Wooden Leg, and other participants in the battle who didn't speak English, Marquis learned sign language.

"He spent countless hours sitting down with him and actually drew maps with Wooden Leg's help. I still study those today," Doerner said. Those maps are preserved in the battlefield's collection.

Marquis had a rare opportunity to capture stories of the elderly veterans of the battle.

"It's remarkable the time he spent trying to preserve this original history and document it," Doerner said.

For Marquis, who is buried at Custer National Cemetery, the history of the battle may have been "a magnificent obsession," one that caused him to put aside his medical practice for his writing.

"He was the right person at the right time," said Doerner, who envisions Marquis wearing his hallmark straw skimmer summer hat and always traveling with notebook in hand.

"The importance of sharing the photographs is they offer us a rare glimpse back in time, a moment in time," Doerner said. "They're like a time capsule.

"When you look at the faces ... these were proud people. I think capturing those images is significant, to look at this culture and admire it too. They preserve the faces of individuals who experienced the hardships of the Indian Wars firsthand."

Liberty sees a different value in presenting the images, some of them never before published, to a wider audience on and off the Northern Cheyenne Reservation.

"Í think the current generation is finding a lot of connections to their grandparents that are very important to them," Liberty said.

At a book signing in Sheridan, she was moved by a family whose members showed up to talk to her:

"It was their grandmother on the cover, and they were just thrilled."

Contact Donna Healy at dhealy@billingsgazette.com or 657-1292.

Published on Sunday, August 27, 2006.
Last modified on 8/26/2006 at 11:56 pm

Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.


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Gary Svee wrote on August 27, 2006 8:58 AM
Donna, This story is excellent. Thanks

plain old white woman wrote on August 27, 2006 12:30 PM
wow'i didnt know other tribes existed,i thought only the crows were around,you hear so much about only them.this story is refreshing.

SDBR wrote on August 27, 2006 1:02 PM
Great Article! Margot Liberty will be at Chief Dull Knife College Sept. 19, 9:00 for a presentation and book signing! Its a wonderful collection of photos and stories! Ms. Liberty has done the N.C. Tribe proud by her work!

The Crow Girl wrote on August 27, 2006 4:53 PM
Yeah I agree, you only really hear about Crows in the Gazette. I'm very glad to see the newsteam branching out. Good Job.

BTB wrote on August 27, 2006 6:48 PM
HA Ho' Margot Liberty & Thomas B Marquis for saving my family photos and sharing with me.

DSE wrote on August 27, 2006 9:07 PM
I purchased Cheyenne Album a month ago and am very captivated by it's photos and stories.I've shared it with other family members and they all agree that it's a GREAT Book.I'm from Lame Deer and recognize a lot of the names.Thank You Margot Liberty for your part in making it possible for this treasure to be shared with all.

Thank you wrote on August 28, 2006 8:23 AM
From a northern cheyenne woman. Heart felt thanks.

NDN wrote on August 28, 2006 8:24 AM
Yeah thanks, but did an cheyenne rep. say you could post the pic. of our sundance that is very sacred to us and it's not right to be in the paper. and Cheyennes are very humble thats why were are hardly in the paper.

Tara Lee wrote on August 28, 2006 2:08 PM
Donna, Thank you for this excellent and very interesting story. I'm anxious to purchase all of the books mentioned, especially "A Northern Cheyenne Album". The Northern Cheyenne are such a great People. I am happy to see there is more being released about their history. These photos are outstanding!

dhinNM wrote on August 28, 2006 2:25 PM
Dear NDN...Dude, where are the pictures of the Sundance? Are they in the book,'cause they're not shown here. A picture of some people outside the lodge where a dance is being held is sacred? However, I agreee with you in that what the NC want to be sacred should be...it's your culture, you should get to make up the rules. Remember though, most of the times when whites seem insensitive, its really a curiosity for and celebration of the culture they are inadvertantly offending.

n8tivelady wrote on August 28, 2006 3:16 PM
Hey - my grandma is the cover girl! It made my heart glad to see this! I shared this with my nephews and niece, who never met her - yet only heard our stories about her, NOW to put a face to our stories is great! Ha-ho!

Cheybrid wrote on August 28, 2006 6:12 PM
With so much history and connections to the old ones that has been lost or forgotten by some, it makes me happy to see these photos and to see or hear the old stories.. our relatives live through us now.. hopefully we can make those that have gone before us proud with what we collectively do as a people in this age.. Maheo's blessings--

muddy cluster resident wrote on August 28, 2006 6:58 PM
To NDN let all the negative stuff go, and go buy the book I think you will enjoy it. I remember last year our own people were taking pic's at the sundance in fact every time they have a sundance they change things and do it to their liking.

Margot Liberty wrote on August 28, 2006 7:23 PM
Thanks for the good story and comments. Concerning the use of a Sun Dance picture, this was taken in the public area outside the lodge where visitors and photographers are welcome. I took such pictures myself, accompanied by Northern Cheyenne tribal historian John Stands in Timber many years ago. Dr. Marquis took other pictures, some inside the lodge, which appear in the book. These were selected for publication by the reservation research team headed by John Woodenlegs back around 1960.

Aunry2003 wrote on August 29, 2006 8:23 AM
What a great story! Thank you Margot Liberty for putting it together. We as NC's need to be more proud as a tribe and be more involved in our culture. We also need to start involving our youth because a lot of them do not know where they come from. Josie was my great, great grandmother and it was nice to see her picture. Hey N8tivelady, my grandmother made it to!!

BTB wrote on August 29, 2006 11:21 AM
Yeah shuddup about the sundance. And yes today the sundance in no longer holy. There is only suppose to be one but there are 3or 4 going at once. It sure isnt what it use to be. Be glad and shut up if you don't have anything good to say anything at all.

Suva wrote on August 29, 2006 3:26 PM
They always put Cheyenne articles in the Gazatte. Look in the Wyoming section.