Nakota Îtipi n Ryder Style Craft

04/01/2025

Hau! Ámbá wás’tè nô!

How’s errbody out there on this fine winter day I truly hope all is well todays cultural topic of discussion

Love and Marriage

Back in the buffalo hunting days of our Stoney Nakoda ancestors arranged marriages where a common practice when a young man courted a young woman often times the young brave would have with him two items his snagging blanket and his flute and would closely observe when and where the young woman he had his eye on would leave her Teepe to fetch water or collect firewood he would then go to the spot she was to do her daily chores and wait often times vying with other young men for the chance to converse with the young woman as in those days young Stoney men where kept apart from young women the only other time they where allowed to interact with each other was during the social dances known as the Gáhomanî wacipi aside from this social gathering which was designated as the appropriate time and place for courtship it was considered damn near impossible to talk to any young woman unsupervised and so the young men would as mentioned earlier wait at the spot in the creek where the she fetched water for Teepe or in the wooded area where the young woman was collecting her fire wood and when the young woman arrived the young brave would whip out his flute and begin to play the finest ballad chosen from his plethora of fine melodies stored inside the young man’s mind enticing her to permit him a few minutes to converse if the young lady was interested in the young brave she would intentionally let her chore drag out as she listened to the beautiful melody which was being played for her on these magnificent instruments of courtship and once the tune ended the young brave would step out from his waiting spot and approach the young lady and he would cover both of them with his blanket and they would talk and if they both agreed to have a relationship then rhe young brave would follow all necessary protocols and tribal customs and present 4 sometimes as many as 10 of his finest ponies hand selected from his personal herd to be given to the father of his future bride to be and if the parents of the young lady were pleased they would then make it official by having the camp crier announc it for all the people to hear and know that these two are now together and that details of there wedding ceremony will soon be shared however at times this was not always the case sometimes a young lady’s parents would have arranged a marriage in advance ahead of time often times without the girls knowledge and when the time was at hand the young girl would be given away to those they had previously made arrangements with and so at times young woman back in those days did not marry for love ❤️ but rather to maintain integrity to one’s word and so often times these types of marriages where done to unify clans or bands and sometimes tribes however as time wore on the woman would grow found of her husband and eventually have deep connection with their pre-arranged spouse
Hau! Thanks for taking the time to read and remember all you men out there if you ain’t handsome then you might as well be handy

Hau! Itôs’akâ igi’ma’cas
Till next time take care and u hope you all enjoyed a a bit of my Stoney Nakoda peoples pre-Rez custo

19/08/2024

22/06/2024

Hau ! Ámbá wás’tè nô
Happy Indigenous Day ! Errbody I would like to take this opportunity to share a pre-reservation era custom of my Nakoda people which was known as iñ’dâ thám’gîya’bî (blackface paint).
When a war party went out on a horse stealing raid, or a raid to count enemy coupe or to fight the enemy and one or more in the group were killed in the process before the surviving members of the war party entered back into their camp they would select one from their group and they would paint his entire face black and this painted individual would then lead the war party back into camp this was done to inform those who are waiting in camp that although the war party has returned home one or more of its members have been slain in battle and so when the people saw this painted man coming leading the war party mothers, sisters, aunties grandmothers, daughters and wives would emerg from their lodges to stand in front of them and prepare themselves as they awaited the terrible and unfortunate news that the man with the painted black face was bringing to the people.

Hau! Hè’cá’tû nô
Piña’má’bi no!

02/01/2024

Hau! Ámbá wás’tè nô!

Happy belated Gregorian new year everyone hope y’all had a safe and wonderful time celebrating 🥳.

Most will look to this new moon/month as their new beginning their fresh start at life yet there are others who have pushed themselves to be here with us today as most of us have had challenges that we will never fully overcome. However for those of us that are struggling day in and day out I want to share a bit of our Stoney Nakoda ancestors perspective of Birth, Life and Life after death pre-contact. First and foremost I want to begin by saying that the info I am going to share with y’all today was at one point common knowledge instilled into the very fabric of every clan/family throughout our nation pre-contact. Before the push to colonize our people really got under way our people had our own ways of dealing with the loss of our dearly departed loved ones a time when our people’s connection to spirit was stronger through ceremonies, through song and customs so without further delaying allow me to present to you my Stoney Nakoda ancestors perspective on the subject.

As science recently discovered that we as human beings are made up of the same building materials as the stars hence the term our Star Being relatives our ancestors knew this fact long long ago before science ever confirmed it.
Our Elders use to say that we are all on a learning journey from the time we take our first breath to the time we take our last here on Grandmother Earth and that we are constantly learning new knowledge every time the Sun comes up over that horizon.
Our Elders have taught that all of us before entering into our physical bodies into our physical form here on earth we all chose our journey from the other side by choosing who our parents were gonna be and what experiences we would have while here in Earth. Once we made our choice we entered into this physical world via the top of the head
(baby’s soft spot) during the moment of birth keeping in mind that we all chose to incarnate onto earth during this specific time and place to serve a specific task Wákañ tága (creator) give to each and everyone of us before incarnation.
And for some this journey may take 75+ years yet for others it could only be afew days, a few months etc etc regardless the duration of time whatever lessons that our spirit came to earth to learn will be learned. Also keeping in mind that whatever our mission is is known only to Wákañ tága and the individual spirit itself and once the spirit has remembered what it came to earth for and completes its specific task then the body dies and the sprit is released where the White Spirit horse will come to take our recently departed spirit up to what our ancestors called the Spirit Road
(Milky Way). They say once our spirit reaches this road we begin our journey back to where we came from walking this road for 4 seasons until we come to a fork on this path where the Old Woman sits and She does a review of how we lived our life while on earth if we lived in a good manner or what is commonly referred to as the Red Road she directs us down the right and longer path that leads back to Wákañ tága however if the spirit chose to live its life while here on earth on the Black Road she then directs you to the shorter path on the left they say this path is shorter only a few steps long then we fall back down to earth and restart this entire process we call life all over agin until we learn and accomplish the specific task we were sent here with for some spirits this process takes a few times I believe these spirits are known today as Old Souls and so with that I would just like to say take heart for this will not be the last time we see our dearly departed loved ones our Stoney ancestors use to say that when we loose a family member a new one will come not to replace but to ascertain that there truly is a life after death and that everything we do here on earth is in preparation for the next life

Nî’ñarji zè ôtága gè’ñum