Native American Old Photo

The Inuit people can't be imagined without their signature parkas, fashioned from fur and hide of the local wildlife. One of the many reasons why early European voyages into the Arctic circle failed is because they were underprepared for the extreme weather conditions of the north. They wore wool clothing, which kept them hot on the inside, but made them sweat a lot, which made their clothing freeze in the extreme temperatures. The Inuit never faced this problem, as they have been making their parkas from caribou deer or seal hide from as early as 22,000 BC (Siberia). The production of these parkas took weeks, and the tradition of making them was passed down from mother to daughter, taking years to master. Depending on the geographical location of the tribes, the design of the parkas varied according to the types of animals available. Beadwork, fringes and pendants frequently decorated the clothing. Roald Amundsen was the first explorer who outfitted his crew with Inuit clothing, which enabled him to successfully circumvent the North-West Passage in 1906. In the 20th century the use of traditional Inuit clothing declined, but it has seen a recent resurgence, as the Inuit strive to preserve their culture.

𝐂𝐋𝐄𝐆𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐍, 𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐌𝐎𝐂𝐇 🪶🪶

Traditional doll maker, schoolteacher, and Fort Sill Apache tribal leader, Mildred Imoch (En-Ohn or Lay-a-Bet) was born a prisoner of war at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, on December 11, 1910. Her grandfather had followed Geronimo into battle, and her grandparents and parents were imprisoned with the Chiricahua Apache in Florida, Alabama, and at Fort Sill. Her family was one of only seventy-five that chose to remain at Fort Sill instead of relocating to the Mescalero Reservation in New Mexico in 1913.

Mildred Cleghorn attended school in Apache, Oklahoma, at Haskell Institute in Kansas, and at Oklahoma State University, receiving a degree in home economics in 1941. After she finished her formal education, she spent several years as a home extension agent in Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico, and then worked for sixteen years as a home economics teacher, first at Fort Sill Indian School at Lawton and then at Riverside Indian School at Anadarko. Later, she taught kindergarten at Apache Public School in Apache. She was married to William G. Cleghorn, whom she had met in Kansas, and their union produced a daughter, Peggy. In 1976 Mildred Cleghorn became chairperson of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, newly organized as a self-governing entity. Her leadership in that government revolved around preserving traditional history and culture. She retired from the post at age eighty-five in 1995.

Cleghorn's many awards and recognitions included a human relations fellowship at Fisk University in 1955, the Ellis Island Award in 1987, and the Indian of the Year Award in 1989. She also served as an officer in the North American Indian Women's Association, as secretary of the Southwest Oklahoma Intertribal Association, and as treasurer of the American Indian Council of the Reformed Church of America.

Above all, Mildred Cleghorn was a cultural leader. She spent a lifetime creating dolls authentically clothed to represent forty of the tribes she had encountered in her teaching career. Her work was exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Her life ended in an automobile accident near Apache on April 15, 1997.

Chief Standing Elk, Roast, Chief Spotted Tail's son. Sicangu Lakota. 1880s

Native American (Navajo) men pose on horseback near Ship Rock in New Mexico. - Pennington - 1904.

Choctaw Tribe
The Choctaw were first noted by Europeans in French written records of 1675. Their mother mound is Nanih Waiya, a great earthwork platform mound located in central-east Mississippi. Early Spanish explorers of the mid-16th century in the Southeast encountered ancestral Mississippian culture villages and chiefs.
The Choctaw coalesced as a people in the 17th century and developed at least three distinct political and geographical divisions: eastern, western, and southern. These different groups sometimes created distinct, independent alliances with nearby European powers. These included the French, based on the Gulf Coast and in Louisiana; the English of the Southeast, and the Spanish of Florida and Louisiana during the colonial era.
Most Choctaw allied with the Americans during American Revolution, War of 1812, and the Red Stick War, most notably at the Battle of New Orleans. European Americans considered the Choctaw to be one of the "Five Civilized Tribes" of the Southeast. The Choctaw and the United States agreed to a total of nine treaties. By the last three, the US gained vast land cessions in the Southeast. As part of Indian Removal, despite not having waged war against the United States, the majority of Choctaw were forcibly relocated to Indian Territory from 1831 to 1833. The Choctaw government in Indian Territory had three districts, each with its own chief, who together with the town chiefs sat on their National Council.
Those Choctaw who chose to stay in the state of Mississippi were considered state and U.S. citizens; they were one of the first major non-European ethnic groups to be granted citizenship. Article 14 in the 1830 treaty with the Choctaw stated Choctaws may wish to become citizens of the United States under the 14th Article of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek on all of the combined lands which were consolidated under Article I from all previous treaties between the United States and the Choctaw.
During the American Civil War, the Choctaw in both Indian Territory and Mississippi mostly sided with the Confederate States of America. Under the late 19th-century Dawes Act and Curtis Acts, the US federal government broke up tribal land holdings and dissolved tribal governments in Indian Territory in order to extinguish Indian land claims before admission of Oklahoma as a state in 1907. From that period, for several decades the US Bureau of Indian Affairs appointed chiefs of the Choctaw and other tribes in the former Indian Territory.
During World War I, Choctaw soldiers served in the US military as some of the first Native American codetalkers, using the Choctaw language. Since the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the Choctaw people in three areas have reconstituted their governments and gained federal recognition. The largest are the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma.
Since the 20th century, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians were federally recognized in 1945, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma in 1971, and the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians in 1995
Thanks Donna

Other Medicine. Crow. Early 1900s. Photo by Richard Throssel. Source - University of Wyoming. American Heritage Center.

As Comanches were seen and highly regarded as outstanding horsemen, they were also observed by other people to have a copper-color about their skin with black eyes and hair. Comanches were well-built and seemingly of medium height. The men possessed just a little bit of facial hair but had a very prominent nose. They wore buckskin moccasins, leggings, and a breech clout. In colder times, a blanket or a bison robe would be worn over the man's shoulders.
With regard to adornments worn by young men, the Comanche elder Frank Chekovi related that pierced ears were sought after when an individual wanted to dress up.
The young man went to the tipi of an experienced person who knew how to pierce. One very red-hot needle was used. A greased straw was placed in the hole once it had been pierced. If more than one hole was desired on an ear, they were all done at the same time in order to properly heal. For instance, some young men liked shell beads and others rings that were worn along the edge of an ear. Copper wire bands could be worn about the wrist and the ear decorations on men were commonplace.
A remarkable picture of the graceful Minnie Too-sh-pip-pen and the very handsome Slim Tiebo, circa 1900. The Comanche Slim Tiebo would have been around twenty years of age. He was born in 1880 and passed away in 1952. The prominent Comanche Tiebo farmed his land and lived his entire life in the area of Cache, Oklahoma. He is buried at the Post Oak Cemetery, Indiahoma, Oklahoma. Photograph courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Denver, Colorado.

𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐆𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬 (𝟏𝟖𝟑𝟐-𝟏𝟖𝟕𝟕)
Native American Chief. Along with Chief Joseph the Younger, he directed the 1877 Nez Percé retreat from eastern Oregon into Montana and onward to Canada. The son of a prominent Nez Percé chief, Looking Glass had bitterly resented white encroachments on his ancestral lands, but opposed going to war with the United States over its plans to force his people onto the small reservation assigned to them at Lapwai, Idaho. When the Nez Percé and the U.S. Army first clashed at Whitebird Canyon on June 17, 1877, Looking Glass was already living on the Lapwai reservation, as he had agreed to do. Nevertheless, General Oliver Howard believed that Looking Glass would soon join the fighting, and he sent a detachment of troops to arrest him. Howard's plans backfired, however, for Looking Glass eluded arrest and fled the reservation to join Joseph and his fugitive band just as Howard had feared. For both better and worse, the Nez Percé flight bore the mark of Looking Glass's leadership. A respected battlefield commander, he convinced the band to flee to Montana, despite Joseph's opposition, and then persuaded them to stop at Big Hole, where he incorrectly believed they would be free from attack. After soldiers under the command of Colonel John Gibbon surprised the Nez Percé there on August 9, inflicting heavy casualties, Looking Glass lost much of his prestige as a military leader. Nearly two months later, when the Nez Percé were finally surrounded by Colonel Nelson A. Miles's troops in Northern Montana's Bearpaw mountains, Looking Glass remained stubbornly opposed to surrender. By this time, however, Chief Joseph had concluded that surrender was the only viable option, and on October 5, he rode out to hand over his rifle. That same day, Looking Glass set out to join Sitting Bull's band in Canada, but before he could make it to the border, he was killed by a Cheyenne scout.

Red Cloud (Lakota: Maȟpíya Lúta; 1822 – December 10, 1909) was a leader of the Oglala Lakota from 1865 to 1909.[1] He was one of the most capable Native American opponents whom the United States Army faced in the western territories. He defeated the United States during Red Cloud's War, which was a fight over control of the Powder River Country in northeastern Wyoming and southern Montana. The largest action of the war was the 1866 Fetterman Fight, with 81 US soldiers killed; it was the worst military defeat suffered by the US Army on the Great Plains until the Battle of the Little Bighorn 10 years later.

After signing the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), Red Cloud led his people in the transition to reservation life. Some of his opponents mistakenly thought of him as the overall leader of the Sioux groups (Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota), but the large tribe had several major divisions and was highly decentralized. Bands among the Oglala and other divisions operated independently, though some individual leaders were renowned as warriors and highly respected as leaders, such as Red Cloud.

Goes Ahead was a Crow Native American scout for George Custer's 7th Cavalry Regiment during the Black Hills war. He was valuable for his accounts of the Battle of Little Bighorn, in which he participated. The reason for cooperating with the white man was due to the historical enmity between the Crow and the Lakota, as well as their Northern Cheyenne allies. He was born in 1851 near the Platte River. At the age of 16, Goes Ahead married Pretty Shield, a medicine woman with whom he would have 7 children. At the age of 25 he volunteered to serve as a scout along with 5 other Crow. He was very useful to Custer, as he and the other scouts knew the Little Bighorn and Rosebud drainage pretty well. They spotted a large Lakota encampment on the morning of the battle and informed Custer about its size. As Custer thought that the enemy would retreat, he ordered an attack on the Lakota, and so the Crow scouts prepared to fight. They took off their military issued uniforms and put on their traditional clothing, seeking help from the spiritual world should they be killed. Custer was enraged by this, as he saw this as fatalism and promptly dismissed the Crow. The scouts were then assigned to another unit and saw action during the battle. Goes Ahead's wife later said that he saw where and how Custer died. After the war he went on to live a peaceful life at the Crow reserve until his death in 1919.

Southern Arapaho family having a meal in central Indian Territory - 1870.

Iron Thunder, Crow Eagle, Fool Thunder and Slow White Buffalo
Dakota
1880s
Photo by D.F. Barry

Fotografía del jefe Quanah Parker, líder militar de origen mestizo del clan kwahadi de los comanches, hijo del jefe Peta Nocona y de Cynthia Parker.

Según diversas fuentes el jefe Parker ejercía su poder en la región de las Grandes Llanuras, fue el último líder indio de Norteamérica en mantener una resistencia militar contra los americanos en la Guerra del Río Rojo. Para evitar que el ejército americano tomara represalias contra su gente se rindió en junio de 1875.

Debido a su gran fama fue recibido con honores por el presidente Theodore Roosevelt en Washington, se le concedió la ciudadanía americana y se le otorgó tierras a su gente en Oklahoma. El gobierno dispuso además que el 10 de junio se celebrará en su honor el Día de Quanah Parker y de la Resistencia Comanche.

"Era el hombre más elegante de toda la tribu de los comanches; alto, recio y bien proporcionado, de piel más oscura que muchos guerreros indios, un líder nato que gozaba de gran estima entre los suyos”. (Olive King, 1881)

El jefe Parker aprendió el idioma ingles y adaptó las costumbres modernas, sin dejar de lado las costumbres comanches. Se encargó de hacer reformas que permitieran a su gente a vivir de la agricultura, ganadería y comercio en su reserva. Así mismo fue el fundador de la religión del Peyotismo, que albergaba las viejas creencias indígenas y el cristianismo.

Referencia:- Quanah Parker: The Great Comanche Chief, William R. Sanford (2013).

LOL 🤷🏽🤣💫
-
American Horse, also known as Wašíčuŋ Tȟašúŋke, was a significant figure in American history as an Oglala Lakota chief, statesman, educator, and historian. Born around 1840, American Horse played a crucial role in promoting friendly associations with white settlers and advocating for education among his people. Throughout his life, he demonstrated his leadership skills and commitment to the well-being of the Oglala Lakota.

Touch Cloud (c. 1838 – September 5, 1905) and Woman (Sioux) Photographie de F. A. Rinehart, 1898.
Touch the Clouds was the son of the prominent Minneconjou headman Lone Horn (who died shortly before the Sioux War of 1876-77). Touch the Cloud's uncle, Lame Deer, was one of the last Minneconjou to hold out.
Touch the Clouds was not at the Little Big Horn. Rather, he and his band were living at the Cheyenne River Agency on the Missouri River in June 1876, where documents show that he was counseling the Army: "Have compassion on us. Don't punish us all because some of us fought when we had to." (Touch the Clouds, in council at Cheyenne River Agency, July 29, 1876).
When the Army began preparing to surround the friendlies to confisgate their horses and arms in the fall of 1876, many of the Minneconjou fled the agency, including Touch the Clouds. They joined the hostiles about the first week of October 1876. The arrival of influential Minneconjou headmen like Touch the Clouds, Roman Nose, Bull Eagle and Spotted Elk introduced a more moderate element into the leadership within the northern village.
After the hostile camp scattered, Touch the Clouds' band settled on the Little Missouri River where Spotted Tail found them in February/March 1877 and persuaded them to come in. They accompanied the Brule chief to the Spotted Tail Agency where they surrendered their horses and guns in mid-April 1877. Touch the Clouds remained at this agency for the remainder of the year, serving as a sergeant in the Indian Scouts and accompanied Crazy Horse to Camp Robinson at the time of his death. When the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail Agencies were moved to the Missouri that fall, Touch the Clouds camp joined the Oglala at Red Cloud. He returned to his own agency at the Cheyenne River Agency in January/February 1878. Agent Irwin at Red Cloud wrote (Jan. 21, 1878): "I have the honor to state that the following named Indians (Minneconjous) have asked to be transferred to your Agency. Touch the Cloud, chief has been very obedient and orderly during his stay with me and with his band remained behind when all the others left here. Owing to his conduct I consider him as deserving of attention and respectfully request that the transfer meets with your approval." The list included Touch the Clouds and son, with 1 woman and 2 girls

Spokane woman, 1908

“In the Lakota tradition, a person who is grieving is considered most waken, most holy.
There's a sense that when someone is struck by the sudden lightning of loss, he or she stands on the threshold of the spirit world. The prayers of those who grieve are considered especially strong, and it is proper to ask them for their help.
You might recall what it's like to be with someone who has grieved deeply. The person has no layer of protection, nothing left to defend. The mystery is looking out through that person's eyes. For the time being, he or she has accepted the reality of loss and has stopped clinging to the past or grasping at the future. In the groundless openness of sorrow, there is a wholeness of presence and a deep natural wisdom.”

Red Cloud (Lakota: Maȟpíya Lúta) (born 1822 – December 10, 1909) was one of the most important leaders of the Oglala Lakota from 1868 to 1909. He was one of the most capable Native American opponents whom the United States Army faced in the western territories. He defeated the United States during Red Cloud's War, which was a fight over control of the Powder River Country in northeastern Wyoming and southern Montana. The largest action of the war was the Fetterman Fight, with 81 US soldiers killed; it was the worst military defeat suffered by the US Army on the Great Plains until the Battle of the Little Bighorn 10 years later.

After signing the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), Red Cloud led his people in the important transition to reservation life. Some of his opponents mistakenly thought of him as the overall leader of the Sioux groups (Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota), but the large tribe had several major divisions and was highly decentralized. Bands among the Oglala and other divisions operated independently, though some individual leaders were renowned as warriors and highly respected as leaders, such as Red Cloud.

Red Cloud was born close to the forks of the Platte River, near the modern-day city of North Platte, Nebraska. His mother, Walks as She Thinks, was an Oglala Lakota and his father, Lone Man, was a Brulé Lakota leader. They came from two of the seven major Lakota divisions.

As was traditional among the matrilineal Lakota, in which the children belonged to the mother's clan and people, Red Cloud was mentored as a boy by his maternal uncle, Old Chief Smoke (1774–1864). Old Chief Smoke played a major role in the boy's childhood, as the leader of the Bad Faces. He brought Red Cloud into the Smoke household when the boy's parents died around 1825. At a young age, Red Cloud fought against neighboring Pawnee and Crow bands, gaining much war experience.

Red Cloud became an important leader of the Lakota as they transitioned from the freedom of the plains to the confinement of the reservation system. His trip to Washington, DC, had convinced him of the number and power of European Americans, and he believed the Oglala had to seek peace.

Outliving nearly all the other major Lakota leaders of the Indian Wars, Red Cloud died on Pine Ridge Reservation in 1909, at the age of 87, and was buried there in the cemetery now bearing his name. In old age, he is quoted as having said, "They made us many promises, more than I can remember. But they kept but one -- They promised to take our land ... and they took it."

𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝
𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐝𝐚’𝐬 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐅𝐚𝐦𝐞
Canada’s Walk of Fame honoured Indigenous actor Tantoo Cardinal with her own star last Saturday.
Tantoo, who starred in Kevin Costner's 1990 film, Dances with Wolves, and in Martin Scorsese’s recent blockbuster, Killers of the Flower Moon, noted her lifelong aim at the ceremony.
“There’s a lot of healing that’s needed to be done in our community, and so that’s always what I’ve tried to work with,” said Cardinal.
“I put in my two bits and now the road’s open.
I’m in a new age and I’m in a new place in my career, and a lot of things that I was so concerned about in the early days are no longer a responsibility that I need to hold on to and carry.”
👍🏽 For more on this story, search for "Tantoo Cardinal celebrated at Canada’s Walk of Fame anniversary gala"

Comanche mother and child. Early 1900s.

Then & Now
Lakota Sioux woman in 1899 & Lakota Sioux woman today.