"my voice restore for me" Hi, I'm Steve Dragswolf. I'm Hidatsa/Arikara born in North Dakota and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. My heart is for storyte...
“O Great Spirit, our Father from above, we honor your name as sacred and holy. “Bring your good road to us, where the beauty of your ways in the spirit-world above is reflected in the earth below. “Provide for us day by day—the elk, the buffalo, and the salmon. The corn, the squash, and the wild rice. All the things we need for each day. “Release us from the things we have done wrong, in the same…
This is part two of my retelling of the Arikara creation story. Read part one here Mother and her children soon found out that there were many difficulties in this land. Things weren’t as easy as it was inside Mother’s womb, where the ecosystem provided things easily, and they were well protected. They now had to fight against the elements. The first was a large body of water they came upon, and…
The Arikara tell this story of origin. 1 All living creatures began as one, bonded together as blood in the womb of Mother Earth. Neshanu Natchitak had grown them from seeds of corn placed below the earth for their protection. It is in this womb, a symbol of both birth and beginnings, where humanity grew into existence underground, bound in the womb of the earth. Those inside this womb wanted…
“I think Steven Tyler from Aerosmith.” “No, Axl Rose. Way better.” “How about the guy from AC/DC? I think he’d make a good powwow singer.” “He’d blow out what’s left of his voice.” The four boys sat on dirt, attempting to stare through the shadow blanketing them as a light wind blew through the desert, reassuring them of life, that they were still human in what seemed like total blackness. “I…
“Do you guys know that my husband is an Indian?” my wife, a non-Native from Vermont, asked her Kindergarten class in East Texas at the beginning of a week studying about American Indians. Each child looked at one another with the same level of fear and surprise on their faces. With jaws gaping open, the children screamed, “Ahhh, is he gonna get us?” The bravest boys of the bunch quickly stood up…