Apesanahkwat | |
---|---|
Born | Apesanah Apsanahkwat January 19, 1949 Menominee Indian Reservation, Keshena, Wisconsin, United States |
Occupation(s) | Actor; former tribal Chairman of Menominee tribe (8 terms) |
Years active | 1985–present |
Spouse | Kristine Poafpybitty-Apesanahkwat |
Children | 2 |
Apesanahkwat (born January 19, 1949) is a Native American tribal leader, activist, father, and a film and television actor.
Apesanahkwat served as tribal chairman of the Menominee Indian Reservation eight times. He served in the United States Marine Corps and is a Vietnam War veteran. He is known for playing American Indian roles in such films and television series as Wind River , Northern Exposure , Stolen Women, Captured Hearts , Bagdad Cafe , and Babylon 5 . He has competed in various Powwows across the United States as a northern traditional dancer.
Apesanahkwat has been nominated as the Menominee Nation’s chairman a total of eight times. On one of these occasions, Apesanahkwat was reelected after serving in prison for six months, for an alleged drug problem. As chairman, Apesanahkwat has actively spoken several times about injustices Indian tribes face. One of these times being in 1989, during a rally at Lac du Flambeau where he protested against racism towards indigenous groups. As chairman, Apesanahkwat has also presented the Menominee tribe at a congress level, such as the "Indian Tribal Conflict Resolution, Tort Claims and Risk Management Act of 1998." [1]
On March of 2004, Apesanahkwat was the official key note speaker at the Language and Culture Preservation Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico which was hosted by the Bureau of Indian Affair's Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP). This event was meant to spread awareness of the importance of preserving Indian culture though language. Being the keynote speaker, Apesanahkwat called to action his community, stating the importance of giving back the Indian people their voice. Apesanahkwat is also known to be one of the originators of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act(GRA). [2]
Apesanhkwat was twenty years old when he entered the Vietnam War. After the war ended, Apesanahkwat suffered from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). After his traumatic experiences at war, he reconnected with his indigenous roots as a form of healing. When discussing his thoughts on war, Apesanahkwat says he believes that no man should have to experience it. Since Vietnam, he has been an active voice for his community as a supporter for PTSD awareness. [3]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1987 | Bagdad Cafe | Sheriff Arnie | |
1994 | Sioux City | Clifford Rainfeather | |
2001 | Lady in the Box | Felix | |
2004 | The Reawakening | Henry Johnson / Dark Spirit Being | |
2005 | The Rain Makers | Joe Crying Eagle | |
2010 | Nightbeasts | Louis Freebird | as Apesanahquat |
2017 | Wind River | Dan Crowheart |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1985 | Tall Tales & Legends | Interpreter | Episode: "Annie Oakley" |
1993 | Harts of the West | Andrew | Episode: "Auggie's End" |
1993-1995 | Northern Exposure | Lester Haines | Recurring role; 5 episodes |
1994 | Gunsmoke: One Man's Justice | Six Eyes | Television film |
1994-1995 | Walker, Texas Ranger | Raymond Firewalker | Guest role; 3 episodes |
1995 | Babylon 5 | Telepath #1 | Episode: "A Race Through Dark Places" |
1995 | Siringo | Chinonero | Television film |
1995 | CBS Schoolbreak Special | Elder | Episode: "My Indian Summer" |
1996 | Goode Behavior | Chief Steve Davis | Episode: "Goode Samaritan" |
1997 | Stolen Women: Captured Hearts | Bloody Knife | Television film |
1997 | North of 60 | Senator Jack Harper | Episode: "Love Hurts" |
2002 | Skinwalkers | Captain Butler | Television film |
2004 | Helter Skelter | Guard Duty Cop | Television film |
2015 | Longmire | Cheyenne Man | Episode: "Down by the River" |
2016 | Ray Donovan | Wovoka | Guest role; 2 episodes |
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that develops from experiencing a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on a person's life or well-being. Symptoms may include disturbing thoughts, feelings, or dreams related to the events, mental or physical distress to trauma-related cues, attempts to avoid trauma-related cues, alterations in the way a person thinks and feels, and an increase in the fight-or-flight response. These symptoms last for more than a month after the event and can include triggers such as misophonia. Young children are less likely to show distress, but instead may express their memories through play. A person with PTSD is at a higher risk of suicide and intentional self-harm.
Montagnard is an umbrella term for the various indigenous peoples of the Central Highlands of Vietnam. The French term Montagnard ( ) signifies a mountain dweller, and is a carryover from the French colonial period in Vietnam. In Vietnamese, they are known by the term người Thượng, although this term can also be applied to other minority ethnic groups in Vietnam. In modern Vietnam, both terms are archaic, and indigenous ethnic groups are referred to as đồng bào or người dân tộc thiểu số. Earlier they were referred to pejoratively as the mọi. Sometimes the term Degar is used for the group as well. Most of those living in the United States refer to themselves as Montagnards, while those living in Vietnam refer to themselves by their individual ethnic group.
The Nooksack are a federally recognized Native American tribe near the Pacific Northwest Coast. They are a sovereign nation, located in the mainland northwest corner of Washington state in the United States along the Nooksack River near the small town of Deming, and 12 miles south of the Canadian border. As of 2008, they had more than 1,800 enrolled members. Their terms for citizenship include descent from persons listed in a 1942 tribal census.
The Penobscot are an Indigenous people in North America from the Northeastern Woodlands region. They are organized as a federally recognized tribe in Maine and as a First Nations band government in the Atlantic provinces and Quebec.
Tribal sovereignty in the United States is the concept of the inherent authority of Indigenous tribes to govern themselves within the borders of the United States.
Public Law 280 is a federal law of the United States that changes legal jurisdiction on Indian lands and over Indian persons. The law transfers some jurisdiction from the federal government to states in both civil and criminal cases in certain places. It was passed in 1953.
Menominee, also spelled Menomini is an endangered Algonquian language spoken by the historic Menominee people of what is now northern Wisconsin in the United States. The federally recognized tribe has been working to encourage revival of use of the language by intensive classes locally and partnerships with universities. Most of the fluent speakers are elderly. Many of the people use English as their first language.
An American Indian reservation is an area of land held and governed by a U.S. federal government-recognized Native American tribal nation, whose government is autonomous, subject to regulations passed by the United States Congress and administered by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs, and not to the U.S. state government in which it is located. Some of the country's 574 federally recognized tribes govern more than one of the 326 Indian reservations in the United States, while some share reservations, and others have no reservation at all. Historical piecemeal land allocations under the Dawes Act facilitated sales to non–Native Americans, resulting in some reservations becoming severely fragmented, with pieces of tribal and privately held land being treated as separate enclaves. This intersection of private and public real estate creates significant administrative, political, and legal difficulties.
The Menominee are a federally recognized tribe of Native Americans officially known as the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. Their land base is the Menominee Indian Reservation in Wisconsin. Their historic territory originally included an estimated 10 million acres (40,000 km2) in present-day Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The tribe currently has about 8,700 members.
The San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, in southeastern Arizona, United States, was established in 1872 as a reservation for the Chiricahua Apache tribe as well as surrounding Yavapai and Apache bands removed from their original homelands under a strategy devised by General George Crook of setting the various Apache tribes against one another. Once nicknamed "Hell's Forty Acres" during the late 19th century due to poor health and environmental conditions, modern San Carlos Apaches operate a Chamber of Commerce, the Apache Gold and Apache Sky Casinos, a Language Preservation program, a Culture Center, and a Tribal College.
A tribal chief, chieftain, or headman is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom.
Indian termination is a phrase describing United States policies relating to Native Americans from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s. It was shaped by a series of laws and practices with the intent of assimilating Native Americans into mainstream American society. Cultural assimilation of Native Americans was not new; the belief that indigenous people should abandon their traditional lives and become what the government considers "civilized" had been the basis of policy for centuries. What was new, however, was the sense of urgency that, with or without consent, tribes must be terminated and begin to live "as Americans." To that end, Congress set about ending the special relationship between tribes and the federal government.
Native American self-determination refers to the social movements, legislation and beliefs by which the Native American tribes in the United States exercise self-governance and decision-making on issues that affect their own people.
Menominee Tribe v. United States, 391 U.S. 404 (1968), is a case in which the Supreme Court ruled that the Menominee Indian Tribe kept their historical hunting and fishing rights even after the federal government ceased to recognize the tribe. It was a landmark decision in Native American case law.
Nicholas C. Peroff is an American political scientist, public administrator and professor in Native American studies and Complexity Theory at the Henry W. Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, he formerly held teaching positions in Taiwan, South Korea and South Africa.
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From 1969 to 1974, the Richard Nixon administration made important changes to United States policy towards Native Americans through legislation and executive action. President Richard Nixon advocated a reversal of the long-standing policy of "termination" that had characterized relations between the U.S. federal government and American Indians in favor of "self-determination." The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act restructured indigenous governance in Alaska, creating a unique structure of Native Corporations. Some of the most notable instances of American Indian activism occurred under the Nixon Administration, including the Occupation of Alcatraz and the Occupation of Wounded Knee.
Cannabis on American Indian reservations was historically regulated under United States federal law. However, the August 2013 issuance of the Cole Memorandum opened discussion on tribal sovereignty pertaining to cannabis legalization. A clarifying memo in December 2014 stated that the federal government's non-interference policies that applied to the 50 states, would also apply to the 326 recognized American Indian reservations. Reservations are therefore able to independently regulate cannabis possession and sale irrespective of laws in any bordering US states.
Native Americans in the United States have been a part of major military engagements throughout the history of the United States. There were many wars and battles fought between tribes before the birth of the United States, and later between European colonizers and Native Americans. Native Americans participated in many of the wars of the United States such as the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish–American War, the Philippine–American War, the Boxer Rebellion, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan, and the Iraq War.
1. "War to a Warrior - a journey home"
2. "Green Bay Press-Gazette 19 Apr 1997, page Page 1" Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-02-21
3. "Indigenous Education Columns" jan.ucc.nau.edu. Retrieved 2023-02-22.
4. "Indian Tribal Conflict Resolution and Tort Claims and Risk Management Act of 1998" Retrieved 2023-03-05