Tim Giago: Recognize an Indian hero in the new yea

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Tim Giago: Recognize an Indian hero in the new year
Tuesday, January 2, 2007

I come from a world that is, for the most part, out of sight and out of
mind for the average American. We (the Indian people living on the nine
Indian reservations in South Dakota) are usually featured in the
mainstream media during times of controversy (Wounded Knee takeover in
1973) or when an aspiring journalist covers the consequences of extreme
poverty (NBC News and Washington Post series in early 1980s on poverty
on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota). The Pine Ridge
Reservation was prominent in the news in the early 1980s because it is
located in a county, Shannon, which was proclaimed "The Poorest
County in America" by the 1980 U. S. Census Bureau. I was born,
raised, and educated on an Indian reservation where the people
oftentimes see the world through the wrong end of the telescope. It is a
place where the people do not necessarily see George Washington, Abraham
Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson or Teddy Roosevelt (the four faces on Mount
Rushmore) as heroes. On the 50th Anniversary of the carving of Mount
Rushmore, I was featured in People Magazine because I called Mount
Rushmore "The Shrine of Hypocrisy." In the article I
outlined some of the atrocities against the Indian people perpetrated by
the four presidents carved on the mountain. In fact, the month of
December not only was the month of the Massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890,
it was also the month when 38 Sioux warriors were hanged in Minnesota in
the largest mass hanging in this Nation's history, by order of
President Abraham Lincoln. In the first Gulf War, when the massed
coalition forces looked out at the dark desert lands just prior to their
assault on Iraq, they called that vast unknown land "Indian
country." When someone commits a social or political blunder they
are "off the reservation." Or when one wants to tell a lie but
not be accused of being a liar, he puts a hand behind his back, with
fingers crossed, and says, "Honest Injun." And worse yet,
African Americans who cringe at the public use of the "N" word
are just as guilty and as adamant as whites in using the "R"
word (Redskin) although that word is as offensive to Native Americans as
the "N" word is to African Americans. I suppose it all depends
upon whose ox is gored. I have my own heroes. They are Indian people
that will, in all probability, never be honored in mainstream America.
They are people I have admired and emulated in deed and cause. And as we
move into the New Year of 2007, I want to mention their names if for no
other reason than it may be the only time they are nationally acclaimed.
Rupert Costo (Cahuilla) was my mentor. He was the publisher of the
Indian Historian Press in San Francisco until his death in 1987. Peter
MacDonald served four terms as president of the Navajo Nation. Although
he was charged and convicted of taking bribes in his later years as
president, he still holds a special place in my heart for taking on the
large corporations that were raping the lands of the Navajo for uranium
and coal. He told his people, "We are not an Indian reservation; we
are the Navajo Nation." Lionel Bordeaux (Sicangu) for his role in
bringing higher education to the Rosebud Reservation (Sinte Gleska
University), Tom Short Bull for doing the same for the Oglala Lakota,
(Oglala Lakota College), Dr. Dean Chavers (Lumbee) for his many years of
fighting for the educational freedom of Indian students, Wilma Mankiller
(Cherokee) and Cecilia Fire Thunder (Oglala Lakota), two women that rose
to the highest posts on their reservations, Principle Chief and
President, and who fought tooth and nail to advance the rights of Indian
women, Charlene Teters (Spokane) for taking on the task of removing the
Indian people as mascots for America's fun and games, Oren Lyons
(Onondaga) for bringing a national spiritualism to Indian country, Vine
Deloria, Jr., (Hunkpapa) for the books "Custer Died for Your
Sins" and "God is Red," Tom Bee (Dakota) for the spirited
protest songs his group "Exit" brought to America, Gwen
Shunatona (Otoe), for her role in Indian education, Pa Haska (Oglala
Lakota) for greeting tourists at Mount Rushmore until his death as an
unofficial ambassador of the Lakota Nation, Charles Trimble (Oglala
Lakota) for serving as a role model for Indian journalists for many
years, Mary Kim Titla (Apache) for starting the online magazine
"Indian Youth Magazine" and throwing away her role as a much
honored television journalist to accomplish this feat, and to Enos Poor
Bear (Oglala Lakota) for creating the flag that serves the Oglala Lakota
Nation (Pine Ridge) and for giving me my Lakota name, Nanwica Kciji
(Stands up for Them), in a religious ceremony many years ago. There
are so many more high achievers in Indian country that I did not mention
here but they are people I will write about in the years to come. In
this modern day of online news, people, and events, perhaps you will
take the time to "Google" the people I have mentioned in this
New Year's column and become their friends. We lost that great
author and professor Vine Deloria, Jr., last year, but his works can be
found at [e-mail]. I wish all of my readers the very
best of the New Year. McClatchy News Service in Washington, DC
distributes Tim Giago's weekly column. He can be reached at P.O. Box
9244, Rapid City, SD 57709 or at [e-mail]. Giago was
also the founder and former editor and publisher of the Lakota Times and
Indian Country Today newspapers and the founder and first president of
the Native American Journalists Association. He was a Nieman Fellow at
Harvard in the class of 1990 � 1991. Clear Light Books of Santa Fe,
NM ([e-mail]) published his latest book, "Children
Left Behind.