Hello

[malakotawelo]

i chose my screen name not to offend or to pretend, but it came from an old song from the 80's called "I am Lakota" by Joni Mitchell, and this song still touches my spirit even today...

My grandmothers were both native, one knew what she was (but i cannot remember) the other was adopted and does not wish to remember...there was a stigma associated with her being different already, and she worked so hard to hide it, that she even refuses to use her given name in favor of one she chose for herself, nobody knows her real name...

My grandmother on my mothers side is the one who knew her heritage, and she made my father promise to teach us some of the old ways, which he did while we lived in Wisconsin...making moccasins, birch bark canoes, skinning animals, making bow and arrow, and only taking what we needed, not more...those days were the happiest days of my life, and i look back on them and smile, remembering the lessons and experiences...

we did not learn the dances or the language or the songs, since those were lost to us, and because we grew up in a Christian home...nothing against that, but i personally do not follow that way...

i once visited pine ridge, and i really enjoyed the people there, sometimes i miss them, even though i cant remember their names, there were so many, and it has been a long time...one name Frank Lightfoot, sticks out but im not sure where he is these days...

that experience in south dakota, in the black hills has stayed with me all these years, and even though i am not of their tribe, i support them 100%...so if i am wrong for saying it, so be it...

just as many men stood and said "i am Spartacus" to support that man...i am willing to stand with all natives...