Blog: Off the Reservation

Happy Native American Day!

By Troy Doney, 9-26-08

It was the only thing that Ronald Reagan ever did right and marked what was apparently the Year of Reconciliation in South Dakota. Happy Native American Day, everybody!

It’s an official holiday in South Dakota and California only, but who needs an official proclamation?

How does one observe or celebrate Native American Day, you ask? There are many ways. Get involved with the culture in some way. If there’s one near you, go to a Powwow. Have an Indian Taco, since I can’t find or cook one. Chat up a Native, maybe even get some lunch. Educate yourself, understand the culture a little better and look at things from a different point of view.

Strike the phrase ‘Indian Princess’ from your vocabulary.

Watch the debates tonight. Keep in mind that Obama was adopted into the Crow Tribe, and that John McCain served on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

Listen to the “Ballads of the American Indian” album by Johnny Cash.

Watch how everyone else is celebrating Native American Day, whether they know it or not. NBA player Derek Fisher traversed the Blackfeet Reservation to promote Sen. Obama.

Brendan Sullivan, lawyer for embattled Alaska Sen. Stevens, proclaimed that “When it comes to things around the teepee, the wife controls. That might seem old-fashioned, but Ted Stevens is old-fashioned.”

A bill designed to protect the sacred Bear butte in South Dakota from encroaching development was rejected.

Senators voted on to award the Congressional Gold medal to the Native American “code talker” servicemen of World Wars I & II.

The University of North Dakota still hasn’t dropped the nickname “Fighting Sioux.”

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