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Native American Blood, Indianapolis, IN (2026)

08/05/2026

Portrait of Geronimo, an Apache Native American. Taken in 1905.

08/05/2026

Quanah Parker was the last Chief of the Commanches and never lost a battle to the white man. His tribe roamed over the area where Pampas stands. He was never captured by the Army, but decided to surrender and lead his tribe into the white man's culture, only when he saw that there was no alternative. His was the last tribe in the Staked Plains to come into the reservation system. Quanah, meaning "fragrant," was born about 1850, son of Comanche Chief Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker, a white girl taken captive during the 1836 raid on Parker's Fort, Texas. Cynthia Ann Parker was recaptured, along with her daughter, during an 1860 raid on the Pease River in northwest Texas. She had spent 24 years among the Comanche, however, and thus never readjusted to living with the whites again. She died in Anderson County, Texas, in 1864 shortly after the death of her daughter, Prairie Flower. Ironically, Cynthia Ann's son would adjust remarkably well to living among the white men. But first he would lead a bloody war against them. Quanah and the Quahada Comanche, of whom his father, Peta Nocona had been chief, refused to accept the provisions of the 1867 Treaty of Medicine Lodge, which confined the southern Plains Indians to a reservation, promising to clothe the Indians and turn them into farmers in imitation of the white settlers. Knowing of past lies and deceptive treaties of the "White man", Quanah decided to remain on the warpath, raiding in Texas and Mexico and out maneuvering Army Colonel Ronald S. Mackenzie and others. He was almost killed during the attack on buffalo hunters at Adobe Walls in the Texas Panhandle in 1874. The U.S. Army was relentless in its Red River campaign of 1874-75. Quanah's allies, the Quahada were weary and starving. Mackenzie sent Jacob J. Sturm, a physician and post interpreter, to solicit the Quahada's surrender. Sturm found Quanah, whom he called "a young man of much influence with his people," and pleaded his case. Quanah rode to a mesa, where he saw a wolf come toward him, howl and trot away to the northeast. Overhead, an eagle "glided lazily and then whipped his wings in the direction of Fort Sill," in the words of Jacob Sturm. This was a sign, Quanah thought, and on June 2, 1875, he and his band surrendered at Fort Sill in present-day Oklahoma

08/03/2026

Undaunted
By Matt Atkinson b. 1971

Pastel and Colored Pencil on Paper
24 X 20 Unframed
30.5 X 26.5 Framed.

Matt Atkinson is a Colorado-based painter whose work is found in collections throughout North America and Europe.

08/03/2026

Nearly fifty-seven years ago, the Occupation of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay occurred. The symbolic takeover and occupation of the island began on November 20, 1969. The occupation lasted nineteen months ending on June 11, 1971. This protest by young native college students and urban tribal citizens of the Bay area sought to bring international attention to the extreme hardships of native people in the United States.
The group wanted it to be known that over 500 treaties made with tribal nations were broken by the federal government. Their decided actions helped lead others to become voices on critical issues within their tribal communities. At the peak of the occupation, around 400 people were on the island. Community members of the local Bay Area were helpful with aid and support for the young students who organized the occupation. Numbered among those many community members helping the young students were the well-known Mead and Norene Chibitty.
In 1964, the remarkable photographer Ilka Hartmann came to the Bay Area. As a young photographer, she soon embarked on her journey to record the many significant social movements of the Twentieth Century. One of those events included the Occupation of Alcatraz. Moreover, she began to chronicle the lives of Native Americans in the Bay Area and tribal reservations in the United States. Ilka's caring for people has lead the way for her amazing work. Of her life-long efforts as a noted photographer, she shared the following statement:

"I am drawn to the beauty of the human face - the character, the expressions, the humanity."

An outstanding photograph of the late Comanche tribal elders Norene Saupitty Chibitty and Mead Chibitty at Alcatraz Island. The picture was taken on May 30, 1970 by the noted photographer Ilka Hartmann. They were standing on the loading dock in front of the guard barracks. The National Park Service titled the photograph "Mrs. Norene and Mr. Mead Chibitty, Comanche from Oklahoma. They taught beadwork and dance on the Island. Alcatraz Island, May 30, 1970." Additional information and permission from Ilka Hartmann Photography, the National Park Service, and Johnson, Troy (Autumn 1994). "The Occupation of Alcatraz Island: Roots of American Indian Activism". Wicazo Sa Review Volume 10 Number 2.

08/03/2026

146 years ago today, on July 30, 1880, Apache leader Victorio, shown below, led Apache warriors in a fight against U.S. Cavalry near Sierra Blanca, Texas, in the Battle of Tinaja de las Palmas, also called the Battle of Rocky Ridge. The U.S. Cavalry was commanded by Col. Benjamin H. Grierson. Victorio had been on a reservation in New Mexico but had left with about 300 of his people and then eluded the army for two years.

The Battle of Tinaja de las Palmas was fought at a small seasonal water hole, or tinaja, in what is now Hudspeth County, about 15 miles southeast of Sierra Blanca. The engagement centered on a rocky hill that overlooked the tinaja. The cavalrymen called the hill "Rocky Ridge."

The reason the battle occurred there is straightforward. Victorio had been raiding into Mexico but was moving back northward into Texas. Colonel Grierson realized that Victorio's Apaches would have to stop for water before crossing into the Guadalupe Mountains. Although Tinaja de las Palmas was an unreliable water source in most years, recent rains had filled it. Grierson rushed a small force to occupy Rocky Ridge, overlooking the tinaja, forcing Victorio to attack in an effort to reach the water. That fight became one of the pivotal engagements of the Victorio Campaign.

Today the site lies on private ranch land a few miles south of present-day Interstate 10. There is no preserved battlefield park, and because the exact military positions were never surveyed with modern precision, historians can only identify the battlefield only to within a few hundred yards. Archaeologists have located the tinajas and Rocky Ridge, but excavations found very few battle-related artifacts. They have, however, discovered prehistoric petroglyphs at the water holes themselves. That's pretty cool.

Just a week after this battle, on August 6, a more decisive battle was fought at Rattlesnake Spring in what is now Culberson County, Texas, about 22 miles north of Van Horn, just east of the Sierra Diablo Mountains. The site of this battle is just a couple of miles west of Highway 54 as you travel from Van Horn to the Guadalupe Mountains. Afterward, Victorio retreated into Mexico. A few months later, Mexican troops defeated Victorio and the Apaches at Tres Castillos, largely ending Apache raids in Texas.

07/27/2026

Would you take him home? YES or NO 👇😍

07/27/2026

Captured Colors
By Martin Grelle b. 1954.

Signed Martin Grelle CA © '00, l.r.
oil on canvas
48 by 36 in.
(121.9 by 91.4 cm)
Provenance

Gene Autry Oklahoma Museum, Gene Autry, Oklahoma
Acquired from the above.

07/27/2026

The conflict over the Black Hills, known as Paha Sapa to the Lakota, stems from the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. This legally binding agreement established the Great Sioux Reservation, which included the entirety of the Black Hills, and promised that the territory would belong to the Sioux Nation in perpetuity.

However, the dynamics shifted abruptly when an 1874 expedition led by General George A. Custer discovered gold in the region, triggering a massive influx of miners and prospectors. In direct violation of the established treaty, the United States government passed the Act of 1877, officially seizing the Black Hills and relocating the Sioux onto smaller, fragmented reservations under the threat of starvation by cutting off government rations.

Decades of complex litigation followed as the Sioux Nation sought redress for the illegal seizure of their ancestral territory. The legal battle culminated in the landmark 1980 Supreme Court case, United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians. The Court ruled decisively in favor of the Sioux, declaring that the 1877 act constituted an illegal taking of property under the Fifth Amendment because it was enacted without just compensation.

To rectify this century-old breach of contract, the Court awarded the Sioux roughly $122 million, a figure that represented the original estimated 1877 value of the land combined with over a hundred years of accrued interest.
Despite the substantial financial award and the challenging economic conditions on many modern Sioux reservations, the tribes have consistently chosen to refuse the settlement.

Their decision is rooted in the deep spiritual and cultural significance of the Black Hills, which are considered the sacred center of the Lakota universe. Tribal leaders and community members maintain the resolute stance that "the Black Hills are not for sale," arguing that accepting monetary compensation would legally validate the 19th-century theft and permanently extinguish their sovereign claim to the territory.

As a result of this principled refusal, the money remains untouched in an interest-bearing federal trust account, where it continues to grow significantly.

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