Remembering our identity

Sakowin Wicoicage Wicoiye Words of the 7th Generation ANSON BLACK CALF Wanblii Ake Glii Standing Rock Sioux, Vine Deloria Jr. once wrote that a "people cannot be subdued unless they lose belief in themselves."

This I believe to be true because when I look at the present state of our once Great Sioux Nation - now secluded in our own reservations' - and compare the world of the reservation to the world outside, it's obvious we Lakota people have been subdued.

This loss of identity became very evident to me while I was back home on the Plains this past summer. I remember reading the words from a military veteran who in his opinion said he didn't consider any Lakota a real warrior unless, they had served in the US military.

I was dumbfounded, and even more so later when I watched some horse riders on a local television channel meeting up at some powwow. Where the leader or spokesperson got off his horse and in front of the camera blurted out the words "this is a warrior society!" As an American flag flapped in the wind behind him being carried by a fellow warrior.

The dominating interpretation of what being a warrior is today, is far from how our ancestors knew and lived it. Today a soldier can be a warrior, a warrior a soldier, and these terms are thrown around loosely, and made to mean whatever a writer or speaker wants them to mean.

Our ancestors knew what being a warrior was though, and they knew what being a soldier was too, because they fought them. Back then there was a distinct difference, there was only being Lakota, and then there was the invading white Euro-Americans.

Today, things are all mixed u-literally-compared to how things once were. Once we used to only touch the red, white, and blue flag to honor our ancestor's courage when they took it from the Euro-Americans in battle. Now these flags are flying all across the reservations' and are in front of every tribal office and building today.

Once our truly independent and sovereign nations of the seven original council fires governed the people in a good way because the laws to do this came from our Earth mother.

Now we have the tribal governments that are duplicates of the US system whose laws are based on the European man's ideology. And where the young men Akicita and old men Naca societies once were, to protect, keep order, and give guidance, we now have the Tribal police, BIA, and youth gangs.

There are of course many other examples of how things have changed for us and I'm sure if one looks around they could even see one or two more of these backward realities. The important thing to know though, is that we've lost the understanding of what once defined us collectively as a people, when we were of one mind and one voice. Because now we have to debate over what being a warrior or a soldier is, or what being Lakota is or isn't.

And the actuality of these conflicts, imbalances, and misunderstandings for us Lakota people, is what makes it clearly evident that we have indeed lost our identity. This doesn't have to continue though for I believe that we can regain our identity back, and the belief in ourselves.

We just first have to remember and understand our past, so we can move clearly in our present, to make our future.