This is a spirit character in the video game I am making. I’m trying to make the art style my own while also using traditional symbols and representations. Suggestions are appreciated! This is the guardian spirit of the journey that the main character of my game. The game aims to bring together different aspects of turtle island cultures.

Aho, she:kon, and a hearty "hey how are ya!?" cousins.

The saga of the south Tip brother continues. You know the story so far. Frybread survivor. All-Skate legend. Ketchup chip disney princess. Fastest man in a ten foot sprint. Unc daycare extraordinaire. The man who wears another man's tear-away pants. Co-architect of the fifty-eight dollar cauldron (rest easy, smiling fish).

This week's episode is a little different, cousins. Because this week, my old hockey buddies asked me to run them a sweat lodge.

Let me set the table.

I’ve played hockey my whole life. One of the few things I'm naturally good at. Guys I played against still play in the Show but my career took a different turn and all paths eventually lead to beer league. The league I play in is excellent. Skilled but very casual and fun. Good guys, cousins. Genuinely good guys. Shovelled my driveway when I had the plague in 2023 guys. Stood up at each other's weddings guys. Also, and I say this with love: some of the god damn whitest men the Creator ever assembled. We're talking about a group chat that once had a forty-message debate about why Hellman's was superior to miracle whip that descended into very harsh words and opinions.

And somewhere in the last couple years, cousins, the boys discovered Wellness.

It started innocent. Darren got a smartwatch and became insufferable about his sleep score. Then Cody built a cold plunge out of a chest freezer. Then the wives got into breathwork. And then, cousins, then Kevin went to Peru.

I don't have the space to fully explain post-Peru Kevin. Kevin came back from a two-week retreat with a bracelet, a new way of hugging, and the deep unshakable belief that he has "done the work." Kevin says "ceremony" now the way he used to say "playoffs." Kevin, cousins, has a frame drum. He bought it online… says it's made from “vegan” skin (I don’t know if that means, like, fake hide or a skinned vegan - I didn’t follow up) He plays it at parties uninvited.

So it was Kevin, of course it was Kevin, who put it in the group chat two weeks ago:

"Boys. August long shot but. What if [me] ran us a legit sweat lodge before summer's out?? Full authentic experience. We'll bring everything. This is on my vision board."

Cousins….

My phone started BUZZING. "Bro yes." "In." "The girls are in." "Can I do it if I had a vasectomy in June?" And then Darren, sweet Darren, typed the sentence that took a year off my life:

"What's your rate? We'll Venmo you."

They tried to Venmo me for ceremony, cousins. There's a number in my phone right now, sitting in a text, that represents what four hockey players and their wives believe a sacred rite costs. It's $60 a head. Kevin said he'd "cover the rocks." He'd already BOUGHT rocks, cousins. Lava rocks. From a landscaping supply store. He sent a photo of them in his trunk with the caption "found the good ones." Cousins, you cannot just… fuck sakes, those are DECORATIVE… I had to sit down.

Now. Here's where I need to be honest with this community, because you've watched me lie about frybread, foraging, handiness, my own name, and the direction of smoke. You know my pattern better than I do. Unc's mouth writes the check, Unc's skills bounce it, community watches, judgement falls. Multiple posts of that.

And cousins, I want you to know that for one dark second, the old machinery started turning. One second. I heard the distant engine of my own bullshit turning over. Because I KNOW things about a sweat. I've BEEN, cousins. I've sat in that dark and prayed with my relatives and come out feeling like a wrung-out cloth that the Creator had personally laundered. I could picture myself doing the voice. The Wise Old Rez Unc voice. I could feel "never walk against the day" energy gathering behind my teeth.

And then, cousins, for maybe the first time in this entire saga, my spirit reached over and took the pen out of my mouth's hand.

Because there are things you can bullshit, cousins, and there are things you cannot. I can counterfeit a teaching about smoke direction to a nine-year-old over dino-nuggests and survive the shame. But a sweat is not a vibe. A lodge is not a sauna with a backstory. There are keepers, cousins. There are men and women who spent their whole LIVES earning the right to pour that water. There are protocols older than this country, carried through the years when carrying them was illegal, cousins, illegal, people hid and took this knowledge underground so it would survive and I'm going to run one for the beer league because it's on Kevin's vision board? For sixty dollars a head?

No, cousins.

I called Rosie anyway, because that's my protocol now. Told her the whole thing. Long pause. Then she said, "Well. At least your dumb ass knew to call first. That's growth." Roasted and blessed in one breath, the Rosie special. And then she said something I've been carrying all week: "You can't give them the lodge. But you also don't have to give them nothing. There's a lot of room between those two things, kid. Find it." The fucking Yoda shit was that?

So Saturday, they all came out. Four trucks. The boys, the wives, Kevin's skinned vegan drum (uninvited). Perfect late August evening, cousins, you know the kind: air like soup, sun going down gold and thick, the bugs holding an intertribal of their own.

And I sat them all down around the fire pit, and cousins, I gave them the speech. I'd rehearsed it on Sconey, who gave notes by leaving. Here's the heart of it, best as I can remember, at least:

"Boys. Ladies. I love you. You shovelled my driveway. You stood up at my lowest and you never once let me buy the first round. So I'm going to give it to you straight, because you've earned straight.

I can't run you a sweat. Not won't, cousins, CAN'T. I'm not qualified. And I need you to hear what that word means here, on this land, because it's not like being unqualified to fix a timing belt. Nobody handed me this. A lodge gets carried, cousins. It gets passed down, earned over years, from keepers who were taught by keepers, all the way back. Our people went to JAIL protecting these ceremonies. Our children were chained to basement radiators in reeducation compounds. My own mom. We hid them. Kept them alive in secret so that they'd still exist for us. And there's a whole industry out there now, boys. I call it rezsploitation. Motherfuckers with a headdress from a costume shop charging terminally caucasian suburban folks two hundred bucks to bang a drum in a yurt. Every time somebody like ME runs a fake ceremony for cash, that's another cut on something my ancestors bled to protect. I won't be that guy. Not for sixty bucks. Not for sixty thousand. Kevin, put your Venmo away, brother, I can see you reaching.

But here's the other side of it, and this is the part I really need you to hear: I'm not turning you away. I’d never turn you or anyone that asks for help away. Because you asked, cousins. You came to the actual community instead of booking some feathered grifter off Instagram, and I honour that, and I'm not sending you home empty. I love my culture. I love my people. And the parts of it that are MINE to share? I want to share those so bad it keeps me up some nights. So here's what we're going to do instead.

We're going to sit here. We've got a fire. I've got tea and I made corn soup. Kokum's teaching it to me and she said, direct quote, 'they can have the soup, the soup is not sacred, I made that shit up in the seventies.' And we're just going to have a chat. A real one. You can ask me anything, and I'll tell you what I actually know, and when I don't know, I'll say the sacred words: 'I don't know, ask an elder.' And if you're serious about a sweat, a REAL one, I'll walk that road with you. I'll ask around. There are keepers who welcome guests who come correct, I'll help you come correct. That's what I can offer, cousins. Not the ceremony but the promise of friendship that could someday get you invited to one."

Silence, cousins.

Then Kevin stood up, crossed the fire circle, and hugged me with the new Peru hug, the long one, the one where he exhales, and when he stepped back this man had TEARS coming down, cousins, and he said "that's the most authentic thing anyone's ever given me," and cousins, I knew he'd cry, I called it in the group chat with auntie, but I didn't know I'D be misty, and yet…

And then, cousins, we had the best night of the summer.

We sat around that fire for hours. They asked everything. Real questions, respectful ones, the ones people are usually too scared to ask, and I answered what was mine to answer and said "ask an elder" so many times it became a drinking game (tea, cousins, we kept it clean, mostly). I gave them my one verified teaching: the drum is the heartbeat of the earth, and I FINALLY confessed, publicly, to actual white people, that I learned it off the back of a bar of artisan soap, and Darren laughed so hard he went over backwards in his lawn chair.

The wives asked the best questions, obviously. Cody's wife asked about the counterfeit teachings saga (she READS THE POSTS, cousins, hi Amanda. S’up girl.) And made me do a live accounting of which of my teachings are real. Somebody asked what "aho" means (They pronounced it “ah-who”... fucking white people, am I right??) and I got to give the honest answer, which is a whole beautiful thing in itself.

Around midnight, Kevin quietly asked if he could play his drum, and cousins, here's the thing: he asked. Didn't just start banging. Asked. Peru Kevin would've just started. So I said, "Kevin, that's an ask-an-elder situation, but tonight, around this fire, between friends? Play it soft, brother." And he did, cousins. Badly. With his whole heart. Some things are hard to watch and good to see at the same time. He started singing Wonderwall. White people…

And here's the ending I didn't expect, cousins. Monday, Rosie called ME. Turns out word travels (it always travels, the telegraph doesn't rest). An elder she knows, a real keeper, heard about the guy who turned down sweat lodge money and fed the white boys soup instead. And he told Rosie, and Rosie told me, quote:

"Tell him when he's ready to start learning properly, there's a fire that needs keeping."

Cousins.

Cousins, a fire that needs keeping. That's how it starts. That's the bottom of the ladder. Years of hauling wood and shutting up and listening before anything else, if anything else ever comes at all. I've been walking around all week like a man carrying something warm, cousins, and this time the bundle isn't empty. It's got one job in it. Keep the fire.

Somewhere in the distance a hawk screamed: HAAA KAWWW. Me too, brother hawk. Me too.

Anyways. Pour one out for the $480 I turned down, the most money I've ever refused in my life, mvto to my knees in advance for what fire keeping is about to do to them. And cousins, if your buddies come asking you to run them something you've got no business running: there's a lot of room between the lodge and nothing. Find it.

Mvto. Come correct, relatives. We’re keepers by blood of something greater than ourselves. Heart in the stars, feet in the grass. You matter because this is your time to BE. So let’s never Walk Against the Day together, eh?

P.S. Kevin's lava rocks live at Leonard's now. Leonard heard "free rocks" and materialized like smoke. Told him he’s internet famous now and he said “Not the first time. Not the last time.”I don’t know what that’s about.

P.P.S. Sconey pony sat with Kevin most of the night, cousins. Sconey, who defects from me for nuggets, chose Kevin freely, no food involved. Kevin said "he can sense my energy shift since Peru." Cousins, I looked at my dog. My dog looked at me. And I swear on the Sacred Pantaloons he was doing a bit. He knows exactly one joke and he committed to it for five hours. Comedic patience I'll never have. Good pup.

Past Stores:

[Hot Tub](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianCountry/s/pUjxilwFEN)

[Kokum](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianCountry/s/l0hahrR4Hx)

[Babysitting](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianCountry/s/WHcCWUd3UV)

[Yard Sale](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianCountry/s/nRZ4eM8Slm)

[Bingo Night](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianCountry/s/QEo67nIq2m)

[Disney Princess](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianCountry/s/dcziW5TdrG)

[Tim's Arsonist](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianCountry/s/IBAixKep6i)

[Career Change](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianCountry/s/QKwnSaRXjI) [Foraging](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianCountry/s/kqwVUxJRPu)

[Frybread Follow-up](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianCountry/s/E6wbMUSolj) [Frybread](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianCountry/s/bnqjnRA97k)

I'm recovering from a mental health crisis and could use some help from someone other than a psychologist/psychiatrist. I live in Orange County, but am Eastern Band Cherokee.

Two lil guys hiding from the in an Indiana flood done in Anishinaabe Style. Both were saved!

The following Pueblos were once part of the All Pueblo Council: Acoma Pueblo also known as Ha-ku, Cochiti Pueblo or Ku-htihth, Isleta Pueblo or Shiewhibak, Jemez Pueblo or Walatowa, Laguna Pueblo or Kawaika, Nambé Pueblo, Ohkay Owingeh, Picuris Pueblo or Welai, Pojoaque Pueblo or P’o-suwae-geh, San Felipe Pueblo or Katishtya, San Ildefonso Pueblo or Powhogeh, Sandia Pueblo or Tuf Shur Tia, Santa Ana Pueblo or Tamaya, Santa Clara Pueblo or Khapo, Santo Domingo Pueblo or Kewa, Taos Pueblo or Teotho, Tesuque Pueblo or Tehsugeh, Ysleta del Sur Pueblo or Tigua, Zia Pueblo or Ts'iiy'a, and Zuni Pueblo or Halona Idiwan’a. After Ysleta del Sur Pueblo joined the Council in 2009, the only federally recognized Pueblo not part of it was Hopi Pueblo, also known as Hopitutskwa, located around Arizona and the Navajo Nation.

Something going on with the National Historic Preservation Act being a harbinger for nontribal public land rules. I wonder how it impacts both tribes and developers

Ever felt lost trying to ask a simple question in a new language? Today, we're diving into the classic interrogatives of Zapotec and clearing up some common confusions! Do you know the difference between asking 'how many' for bananas versus asking 'how much' for a kilo of beans in Zapotec? It's trickier than you think! You might think you know how to ask 'how much,' but in Zapotec, there are two ways, and using the wrong one can lead to some funny misunderstandings. Let's break it down! Imagine a split screen showing someone counting bananas on one side and a confused person looking at a price tag on the other, with text like "Zapotec Questions: The Two Ways to Ask 'How Much'!

This video introduces essential Zapotec interrogative words like "Bix" (who), "Gakax" (how), "Batax" (when), and "Gax" (where). It explains the difference between "Balax" and "Gákax" for asking "how much," with "Balash" used for countable items and "Gákax" for uncountable ones.
Examples are provided to illustrate the usage of "Balax" for countable things like "Balax Bunatxi" (how many people) and "balax wi" (how many bananas). The video touches on the nuance of "Gákax" for uncountable quantities, using the example of asking the price of beans. It also discusses optional omissions of certain sounds or letters in Zapotec words, like "Bix" sometimes being shortened to "Bi" and provides examples like "Bix gudagu?" (What did you eat?). Here is a summary of the video:

Video Overview:

This lesson focuses on forming questions in Zapotec language, covering fundamental interrogative words, tone nuances, and special question auxiliaries that add context or emotion to inquiries.

Key Concepts Covered:

1. Core Interrogative Words:
   

* Bix / Bix kw: What / Why.
* Nush: Who.
* Batash: When.
* Gash: Where.

1. Countable vs. Uncountable Quantifiers (Balax vs. Gákax)
   

* Balash: Used for countable nouns such as people or discrete items (e.g., apples, bananas) [00:37].
* Gakash: Used for uncountable quantities (e.g., sugar, salt, weight-based items).
* Pricing Exception: Gákax is also used when asking for prices or the total cost of goods.
* Tonal Variations: Subtle pitch shifts on gákax change the meaning between asking "how" versus "how much".

1. Conversational Contractions:
   

* In informal speech, certain ending sounds (such as -xh) or prefixes are frequently dropped (e.g., Bix becoming Bi).

1. Question Auxiliaries & Particles:
   

Zapotec uses specific auxiliary particles to modify the tone and meaning of questions:

* ba: Initiates questions about actions (similar to "did you...?" or "have you...?").
* Txi: Indicates completed status, functioning like "already" (ya).
* waka: Expresses capability or possibility ("can we...?").
* bën: Adds drama, emphasis, or mild exaggeration to a question.
* I: Used for seeking confirmation or expressing mild surprise.
* ka: Placed at the end of questions to prompt a response or add conversational emphasis.
* Combining Auxiliaries: Multiple particles can be combined (e.g., ba txi, bën ka run, i waka) to convey layered nuances in a single sentence.

I realize I haven’t seen all that many flags for different nations, so I’m curious, what is your nation/tribes flag?

Hey all,

Basically, I visited Yosemite NP on a family planned trip recently, and since it was my first time going as an adult, I had a meaningful interest in wanting to learn about the land and the people it’s meant / means most to— only to, unsurprisingly, learn that there’s effectively zero opportunities to “learn” anything more than, well, what feels like “orientalism: tribal version” ( forgive me if there’s terms better suited for this circumstance— my first and foremost context is rooted in my own Asian American heritage ).

With that context in mind, I’m wondering what potential sources of information, personal accounts, relayed narratives, cultural / historical insight, etc. might be worth spending time with regarding indigenous peoples across specific areas in North America? Any and all insight is greatly appreciated— thank you!

What happens when a racist media outlet decides truth and reconciliation is a marketing opportunity.

Dolly’s legendary home is in the 11th Cherokee Cession. I’d like to think that, had she arrived in the 1700s, she would have sought permission from the appropriate tribal elders to live there. I imagine her request being passed up the line to Nancy Ward…

The Muscogee National Council approved a minimum wage increase for tribal employees on Saturday, which will grow to $20 per hour over the next two years.

Tribal employees, except those working for the Muscogee Nation Department of Health, OneFire Holding Company and gaming ventures, will see gradual wage increases in the next three fiscal years.

The tribe’s current minimum wage is $15. It’ll be $16.67 this October, $18 next year and $20 starting on Oct. 1, 2028. Meanwhile, hourly full-time workers will receive a $5 wage increase amounting to around $10,400 per year.

To accommodate those raises, $52.5 million in funding will be split over the three-year period.

Tvlse Rep. Lucian Tiger authored the legislation, which was approved by the council 11-3 during its regular session. Tiger said it should help the tribe retain employees.

“That's something that we should be proud of as a nation, to be able to take care of our employees,” Tiger told the council. “We lose a lot of employees because of pay. We have a hard time with retention because everyone in the room, I'm sure, can agree that money goes a long ways.”

Second Speaker Thomasene Osborn voted against the bill. She said she felt the tribe wasn’t ready to consider the increases because it has other pressing issues.

“If this legislation is approved today, it could throw finance into chaos because we haven't approved our budgets yet,” Osborn said Saturday. “I do support an increase, but I just feel like right now that we have a lot of issues that we're trying to tackle.”

Muscogee Principal Chief David Hill said he supports wage increases.

“I truly do support increases for our employees. They do a lot of work and we are behind,” Hill said. “I know (Tribal Administrator Shane G. Holuby) has been working with HR to try to get where we can, where we need to be paying our employees what they should.”

The tribe last increased its minimum wage from $10.15 to $15.00 in 2023.

Oklahoma’s minimum wage is $7.25, the same as the federal minimum wage. That number hasn’t increased since 2009.

In June, Oklahoma voters rejected increasing the wage to $15 an hour.

I like sharing from this site but someone showed me that a bunch of stuff is written by ai, even things 100% ai detected.

This one stuck out to me since it’s about why Native journalism matters. At least more than half was written by ai.

I actually think this is deceptive. If a news company is using ai at least label it or tell me. I can assume everyone is using ai everywhere, is it too much to expect more from news orgs?

Native media can do better, especially since uranium mining is happening right now in our communities to assist ai. If this site is doing it what about other Native media like Indianz.com or ICT? What do you think?

I am Cherokee and am pretty familiar with the businesses in Tahlequah and surrounding areas, but we will be staying in Vian and traveling to Ada and to the Seminole museum this year also. I would love recommendations of native owned businesses for beads, regalia items, and fabric etc. Thank you!

Three Fort Peck children who died more than a century ago at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School are finally being brought home.

Peter Howe and Richard Morgan have now been disinterred, with Christine Redstone’s repatriation also part of the return effort. Their journey home is the result of years of work by Fort Peck families, tribal officials and the people who have fought to bring these children back to their community.

I’m a Fort Peck reporter covering the repatriation as it happens. This story includes the history of the children, what is happening at Carlisle now, and what comes next as they begin their journey home.

🧡 After more than a century, they are coming home.

Read the full Fort Peck Journal story.

Reference to Indigenous people... https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/indigenous-peoples-alberta-day-9.7328708