Warrior Woman Dahteste

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Warrior Woman Dahteste (pronounced ta-DOT-say) Mescalero Apache

Dahteste is described as a very beautiful woman who took great pride in her appearance and, even though, she married and had children, she chose the life of the warrior. No one challenged Dahteste lightly for it was widely known that she could outride, outshoot, out-hunt, out-run, and out-fight her peers, male and fema...le, and she did so with grace. She was credited as being courageous, daring and skillful, and she took part in battles and raiding parties alongside her husband, and a good friend of her family, Geronimo.
Fluent in English, Dahteste became a trusted scout, messenger and mediator between her people and the U.S. Cavalry. Along with another woman Apache warrior named Lozen, Dahteste was instrumental in the final surrender of Geronimo to the U.S. Government and, as thanks for her efforts on their behalf, she was imprisoned with Geronimo and shipped to prison with his remaining followers. Dahteste was as strong in her personal spirit as her warrior spirit, and she survived both tuberculosis and pneumonia while imprisoned. Both diseases killed untold thousands of Natives across the land, but not Dahteste.
After 8 years in the Florida prison, Dahteste was shipped to the military prison at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. After 19 years at Ft. Sill, she was finally given permission to return to her homeland. She lived the balance of her life on the Mescalero Apache Reservation until she died there of old age.

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Apache Sunrise Ceremony

The Apache Sunrise Ceremony celebrates a girl becoming a woman. Girls prepare for the ritual for six months or more. During the ceremony, which can last four days, the girls sing, pray, run, and dance, often for hours without stopping. Here, a girl from the White Mountain Apache tribe in Arizona is blessed with pollen, symbolizing fertility.

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AMERICA'S THROW AWAY INDIAN PROJECT

AMERICA'S THROW AWAY INDIAN

BY

JULIE C BLASER

 Copyright: Julie C Blaser 2011

Entry # 1
Published Rough draft for Copyright purposes
 May20, 2017

Tillamook, Oregon
A Personal  Account of Duality; The Struggle Of One Woman Fighting Being Erased; A Record of Her Circumstance, Her Story About The Truth, Her Truth,  History Surrounding This Indigenous Woman Of The North American Continent, The Contrast Of What You Were Taught In The American Educational System and The Truth.

This project will be a series of short entries.  Consider this project my invitation to all persons interested in conversations of how the 1960"scoop era has impacted my life.  I encourage Indigenous persons to contribute their experience and stories to America's Throw Away Indian Project (#ATAIP).  My aim is to deconstruct stereotypes.  My goal is to create a safe platform for conversations with White people specifically, but non- Indigenous/people in general, to eradicate the stereotypes and rebuild belief systems.  A lofty goal, I know.  Many established projects currently exist.  One may ask, why another project?  Creating a safe platform for readers, and Indigenous persons, who are ready to cultivate a safe platform for connecting and recovering the truth.  I say there can not be too many of these beacons and spiritual axioms.   

This is my memorial.  This is my account of being a survivor of the 1960s Scoop era.  In the pages of #ATAIP, I hope you learn what I feel as an Indigenous woman who has spent decades searching for my voice.  It has been a grueling journey wracked with pain, a profound sense of feeling lost, and feeling alone.  This is a stark contrast to the romantic images Hollywood created with "Dances With Wolves."  That movie, in particular, is what ignited in me fiery anger and the need to tell the world this Native woman's real account of history as I lived it.  

  I really hope others will contribute their stories to my #ATAIP and build an authentic history freely accessible to generations to come. I am the first generation off the Rez and I am first-generation American.  I am the first generation, blah, blah, blah.  The pieces will somehow be woven into my masterpiece as I free write my feelings, thoughts, and story which is altogether what built the divine sister you see in my picture and read in my accounts of being a Native woman at the turn of the 21st century.  I wholeheartedly believe my experience holds historical value. Maybe it will be generations from now, maybe never, but my story will be available for use to understand how the US and Canadian government "killed the Indian and saved the man" and what it looks like on my skin and in my eyes, it is an unmistakable wound in my soul.   

I am a layperson and have not one certificate, license, or accreditation.  I will make no claim to be a spokesperson for my nation or for Indigenous people.  I do not own the cornerstone of spirituality because I am Lake Cowichan First Nation (#LCFN).  I am not romantic.  I am most times hostile or depressed.  I laugh and crack dark jokes.  I use sarcasm aimed at you.  I punish myself for not being enough and take pride in the beautiful skin I wear.  I love my hair and eyes but hate my body.   Do you understand the foundation of the disparity I am laying? 

I want to be very clear with my readers this is my story and it will be recorded spontaneously and it will be messy and heartfelt.  I might not make sense some days.  I don't give a shit. Everyone I've met my entire life has said I should write a book about my life story.  My children demanded I write a book about my life.  Here it goes.  One must understand one more thing.  Where did I come up with "America's Throw Away Indian Project (#ATAIP)??  I guess that is as good a place as any to start   So from today forth, you will begin to understand how I was thrown away.   

My next entry will officially begin with "The Garbage Can."

Final note:It has been my experience, Non-Indigenous people have many questions.  It is scary to ask these questions. They want answers.  Collectively, we can fund harmony and demand the truth be taught to our children.  With modern games, movies, phone apps, our modern children are quite capable of handling the truth. It's time to rebuild and reclaim our history.

To submit comments, ask questions, add your story, suggest edits for my content please, please, please use the comment section below.  Share my blog post.  Contact me through FB, (NO hit me ups, no snaggin, no trolls move the fuck forward if you do not believe in the Indigenous Holocaust, we will never get along or see eye to eye, you will never be a part of my story ever again.)  

For today, this is all I will write.  Next time, "The garbage can"
"America's Throw Away Indian Projects."

 Author:  Julie C Blaser

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The Mink and the Fish

Mink found a live pike on the lake shore. He told the pike, "Pike, the Muskie is calling you all kinds of names." "What is he calling me?" asked Pike. Mink answered, "He says you're wall-eyed." Pike did not like to be called names and said, "Well, he's got teeth like a saw blade and a long plated face. He's not pretty either."
There was a muskie nearby, and Mink told him what Pike had said about him. Mink went back and forth, back and forth, getting Muskie and Pike mad at one another. Finally, Pike and Muskie had a big fight and Mink acted as referee. Muskie and Pike ended up killing each other in the fight, so Mink had the last laugh on them.
Mink got a big kettle and boiled and dried the meat. Then he lay down to rest. He was taking life easy. He had the fish eggs, which were his favorite, all together next to him and all he had to do was open his eyes and stick out his tongue out to eat them. Finally, he dozed off.
Some Indians came by in their canoes and saw Mink lying there with all those fish. They came ashore and picked up all the fish and put them in their canoes. Where Mink had all the fish eggs right next to him, they put rocks there. Then they went away.
When Mink woke up, he reached with his tongue for the fish eggs, but instead there were only rocks and stones which broke his teeth. He realized they'd played a trick on him and he just walked away.
(Adapted from Victor Barnouw, 1977, Wisconsin Chippewa Myths and Tales and Their Relation to Chippewa Life, Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.)

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