"The dogs may bark, but the caravan moves on," is an old Arab proverb.

I quoted this old saying more than 25 years ago when I first broached the subject of the use of Indians as mascots for America's fun and games. An article I wrote for Newsweek magazine...

Before you decide to throw rocks at Carol Good Bear, Kimberly Craven, Charles Colombe, or Mary Lee Johns, the four plaintiffs appealing the Cobell settlement, stop and think about it because these four souls may be the last line of defense between you and another government rip-off.

Two of...

The old saying goes that "The more things change, the more they stay the same." That, my friends, is the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in a nutshell.

The 1980 U.S. Census proclaimed Shannon County, the heart of the Pine Ridge Reservation, as the single poorest county in America. Thirty...

I got an email from Lonnie Burnett this morning. Lonnie is a Tribal Council Member of the Kaw Nation of Oklahoma. He started by saying he has been a fan of mine for many, many years and then he got to the subject of his letter.

He...

Most white South Dakotans forget that in December of 1890 there were still violent hostilities that existed between the Lakota and the United States. To this day an all-inclusive peace treaty has never been signed between the tribes of the Great Sioux Nation and the United States government.

On...

SuAnne Big Crow was furious after she watched an NBC broadcast about the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1981. "They came here and showed all of the terrible things and did not bother to show any of the good things," she said.

Big Crow was a star basketball player, and...

Our daughter Susan's mare Lacey got her rear left foot tangled in barbed wire. After making sure she was alright and after looking at the damage we were sure she would never be the barrel racer or pole bender she had been.

There was a full page...

I find it ironic that two adversaries, two domineering personalities that clashed over a number of years, have both been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Several weeks ago activist Russell Means announced that he had throat cancer and it was incurable. Last week former South Dakota Governor William Janklow announced...

NBC made a visit to the Pine Ridge Reservation in November of 1989. The result was a horrible newscast titled, "Tragedy at Pine Ridge." The tragedy was that NBC showed up.

One young Lakota lady basketball star named SuAnne Big Crow took exception to the telecast and attacked it as...

It is written (Niehardt -- Black Elk Speaks -- 1932) that in the end, Black Elk converted to Catholicism and it is also well-known that Lakota Chief Red Cloud also converted to Catholicism and this brings us to ask: Why?

There have been many very traditional Lakota who never gave...

As I look back on my life from the pinnacle of the seventh decade my reflections turn to the life of Russell Means. He is suffering from incurable cancer.

Americans have short memories. A few weeks ago while visiting some Native Americans students at Central High School in Rapid City...

There is a historic marker west of Custer, S. D. that reads: "Historic Sites, Buffalo Rock - Site where the last buffalo was killed in the Black Hills in 1887 by Joe Humphreus, Bob Patterson - Charles Sager nearby is the site of the first lime kiln in the Black...

My old friend and classmate, Patrick Red Elk, from the Catholic Indian mission boarding school we attended, died a couple of weeks ago and as I read his obituary in the local daily I swear that I would not have known who he was if I had not run into...

"Butch" Felix, the Lakota Eyapaha (Master of Ceremonies) for the 39th Annual Graduation ceremonies of Sinte Gleska University on the Rosebud Reservation, stood at the podium and after glancing behind him at the seated dignitaries in attendance said, "There is a big hurricane about to hit Washington D.C. so all...

Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry appear to be leading a parade of GOP presidential candidates in front of a marching band playing, "Onward Christian Soldiers."

Perry insists that evolution and global warming are merely theories among many theories and implies that creationism should be...

Suppose that every major newspaper in the United States decided to pull its paper from the Internet? Would they sink even faster?

A publisher would first have to look at that mythical bottom line. Is the newspaper making or losing money by posting the entire paper on the Internet?

A...

The relationship between Native Americans and Rapid City's law enforcement has been contentious at best.

Indians began to move to Rapid City during the Great Depression and during World War II in search of jobs that were nearly non-existent on the reservations. Many found jobs, settled down, and became...

A retiring lawyer takes down his shingle, a boxer hangs up his gloves, and an old soldier never dies; he just fades away.

So what happens to a newspaper editor when he feels that it is time to make his last deadline? I suppose he just closes the door behind...

It was five below zero when I left home for the office this morning. The forecast calls for a high of 14 degrees above zero today and, believe it or not, folks in Rapid City are saying, "Oh good, it's going to be a warm day."

Therein lies the difference...

There are posters floating about and advertisements asking residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation to celebrate the "Liberation" of Wounded Knee in February of 1973.

This action causes many of us old timers to scratch our heads in wonderment and ask ourselves, what is it that was liberated?

Were...