American Indian Culture and Research Journal

One of the joys of my life in teaching and writing about American Indian history has been the friendships I have had with Indian men and women. Linda Murray (Pima), a student, has taught me a lot about how much a circle of Indian friends and students can mean. Kenneth Eaglespeaker, a young Blackfoot Indian and one of the best dancers among any of the students I have had, once told me, after I had spoken about ”contributions” Indians had made, “We Indians were just doing our thing and did not plan to make special contributions to any white society.’’ How right he was! Johnny Flynn (Potowattomi) showed me how student activists could take on two formidable foes: the University of California, Santa Barbara Archeology Department, which was destroying age-old Indian middens (village refuse deposits) on Santa Cruz Island; and the mighty Chevron Oil Company, which was destroying Indian burial sites along the northern Santa Barbara coastline. And then there was Grandfather, Chumash Indian medicine man and spiritual leader of Redwind, an Indian commune north of San Luis Obispo. Grandfather taught me a lot about Indian humor and good luck charms that really worked. I am indebted also to Archie Fire, a Sioux medicine man (who put me in a sweat that was heated only for children because I was merely a “professor,”), as well as to Indian leaders such Dennis Banks and Oren Lyons, who have provided an education about the burden of dealing with authoritative agencies in the United States government.