Hey not many people know this but the pic that almost always accompanies my post, this awesome pic of a Lakota Warrior preparing himself for ceramony, I didn't pick this pic out. It was given to me.

Truth is I am Lakota-trained and I have both NA blood in me in addition to Taino, the native peoples of Puerto Rico. And our family hostory is un-ambiguous on this point: My matrilineal grandfather was an illegal alien. My matrilial patriarchy describes something different. And the telling of this story takes some background. Everybody read the book about "Llenni Llenappe" but we were not Lenni. We were just Llennape/Algonquinn.

This identity crisis was not contained. There are, among my people, accounts in our stories in which we maintained our ethics. For instance, aberrant men in my family have this remarkable propensity to drown.

It's not spoken of in this day but in the old days, if what we considered to be a demon took hold of a man, what we used to do was bind them hand and foot and throw them into a river or lake and say "live if you want to, die if you can't".

We tried that method of therapy to many veterans of WWI, WWII and all wars since. Being a warrior is still valued in our culture. And those that return bent, we really do try all of the satchements and dream pillows and if that doesn't work, the incredibly expesive sand-paintings and if that doesn't work, we bind you hand and foot and throw you into a river. Hey, we've done our best. Only you can free yourself and if you don't, guess what? You are totally bumming people out. Your behavior is not helpfull. And did you notice that we are still recovering from a freaking genocide BTW?

Thanks for reminding us.

Hey people, part of being blood is understanding. Part of being a mixed-breed like me is trying to somehow keep our family together. Because in truth, to me, YOU ARE ALL MY FAMILY. You are Oyate.

The important thing for you to know is that we have never been really beaten, we still survive and thrive and now I am authorized to bring you into a family and a tribe.

OyateMiyelo. Micaje Oyate. We Oyate Om Lajum, Wo Lakota Om, Najum.

"Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't."