#hunkpapa

Dr. Harriet Skye (1931–2018) was a multimedia journalist who worked in print, radio, television, and film. She became the first Native American woman to have her own television show, a public-affairs show called Indian Country Today that ran for 11 years and was televised across five states.

Her Lakota name, Makhpiya To Win, translates as Blue Sky Woman. She was a Húŋkpapȟa Lakota and a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. In addition to her television program, Skye had a career as a newspaper editor, and served in key leadership positions on city, state, and national boards that promoted the advancement of Native American people. Dr. Skye was inducted into the North Dakota Native American Hall of Honor in 2016 in recognition of her educational leadership.

Record Label History: 4AD Records (CAD 901)

Throwing Muses

Cultural Belongings - 2016

On this date, December 15, in 1890, the Hunkpapa Lakota political leader Sitting Bull was killed by U.S. agents outside of his home on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation during an attempt to arrest him, as police forces feared he was about to escape the reservation to join the Ghost Dance movement, a religious political resistance that had emerged the year prior.

In the immediate violence surrounding the attempted arrest, eight U.S. Indian Agents and and seven of Sitting Bull’s defenders were also killed or died shortly afterward of sustained injuries. In the later days to follow, Sitting Bull’s home was dismantled and reassembled for use as an exhibit at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, hosted in the United States to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the ‘New World’.

Under the moon when the chokecherries are ripe

The green growing ones & the winged

shared their songs with me

Sprouting prayers ascending up

beyond the stars, past the falling blessing

i caught mid-flight

Under the moon when the chokecherries are ripe

I can feel the spirits urging me to inipi

because they know I’m not alright

Under the moon when the chokecherries

are ripe

I day dream of Wovoka’s dream on the

rolling prairies behind my eyes

Where sky meets plight

Now the changing Moon

is shaking the leaves

But the finches still cleanse and sing

in the water offering

& the dragonfly round dances with me

As the winds of Grandmother Earth

slowly turn cold my heart aches

For my friends are going away

But when the chokecherries are ripe again i won’t be late

Under the moon when the chokecherries

are ripe

Primordial equilibrium

Sentimental frequencies

Back against a tree because I don’t have a pipe