Chief Sitting Bull and Indigenous People

The theme for next year's paper in Ladies Lit is The World of the 1880's.

I am probably going to do my paper on Chief Sitting Bull, and to that end, I have been reading a great deal about this chief in particular, and native people in general.

I was drawn to the topic because I remember reading about the Chief's surrender to Fort Buford, North Dakota,  when we visited the fort in 2013.

This past summer,  our excursions off the cruise ship all had to do with the indigenous people of both Alaska and Canada. We had guides, visited museum, longhouses, and various sites that were led by tribal natives.

Now, reading about the Lakota Native Americans makes me realize that they all essentially have the same story of losing their way of life and heritage.   I am sure that the same thing is true of all native people who were displaced by explorers, settlers, pioneers, and western-thinking people.

Regardless of what we might think about their beliefs and practices,  indigenous people were deeply spiritual.  Their entire way of living, understanding themselves and their communities, were rooted in their spiritual understandings.

As I pursue this line of discovery, it is becoming clear to me why native American people were so completely decimated.  They were decimated because they could not survive the physical diseases that  destroyed them.  They could not survive the economic changes or transition from living off the land to living in reservations.  Family structure was no longer the same.  Their source of food disappeared----buffalo on the Great Plains,  and access to food from the sea in Canada and Alaska, and the disruption of their ecosystems.

For those who do remain,  there are great efforts under way to try to preserve their heritage, and that involves their languages, stories,  genealogy,  customs and artifacts, and sacred dances.

About fifteen years ago we took a trip out west, and at the museum of Crazy Horse [and Mt. Rushmore], we experienced Lakota children re-enacting their dance.   It was very moving.

I expect that as I continue to explore this topic,  I will learn a great deal more about the lives and the demise of these majestic people.

It is interesting to me, as I ponder this subject,  that so many of our travels,  from our Western journey around 2000, visiting the Badlands,  to our cross country journey of 2013, and our cruise excursions of 2014 have led down path toward enlightenment about Native American history and culture.