A message from the latest Comanche… This is spot on. Check out more comedy by Tito Ybarra. He is one funny skindian

Couldn’t be prouder of the Iroquois Nationals U-19 team, which is tearing it up at the World Lacrosse Championships in Finland. Check out some of the coaches and players talking about the game in this video. Shout out to Ansley Jemison, son of our friends Pete and Jeanette back in NY. Go for the gold!

Represent.

Kids from Pine Ridge the Rosebud teamed up to create a video response to ABC’s depressing and monochromatic “Children of the Plains.” As the kids say much more eloquently than I, we are more than poverty. Much, much more.

Check out this video by the Medicine Warriors youth group at the Division of Indian Work in Minneapolis. The Medicine Warriors (Mashkiki Ogichidaag) program teaches American Indian youth about the traditional uses of tobacco and develops native youth into traditional tobacco advocates. The young people work in the local community in commercial tobacco prevention, cessation and policy work. (Full disclosure: I am on the board at DIW). More videos are available on the DIW YouTube channel here.

This mashup makes me miss all my Haudenosaunee friends back in New York. I love it — especially the part where even Jesus is doing the Smoke Dance. I always knew that guy was part Seneca or something…

Thanks to my friends, Barb Bethmann-Mahooty and Jeanette Miller for posting this. Miss you guys

Jesse captured the inner me

Jesse and I spent the day at the Shakopee Powwow. I worked in my Masonic Lodge’s ice cream stand, dishing out the best sundaes in all the land. We didn’t sell as many as I had hoped, but we had fun visiting with friends and checking out the sights and sounds. Jesse gobbled down a massive piece of frybread, a fresh-squeezed lemonade, a hot fudge sundae and a bag of kettle corn. Good thing she wasn’t really hungry. Attendance seemed to be down this year and there weren’t as many vendors. Looks like gas prices and the crappy economy are keeping folks home rather than on the powwow trail. Still, it was a gorgeous day for a powwow.

Smiling Indians. Made me smile, too. Great way to start the week. Thanks, Ryan and Sterlin…