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rasslin’

zach wamego is 13-2 in wrestling and ranked 5th in state.
zach wamego is 13-2 in wrestling and ranked 5th in state.

i went to royal valley’s last home wrestling meet last night. my nephew zach texted me about it. so i went to watch him wrestle. he won both matches by pins. he won his last match in under a minute to bring his record to 13-2. he wrestles in the 285 pound weight class. a radio station said that he was ranked 5th in the state. i am hoping he advances on to state and wins it. i will try to go see him again.

it was senior night, so they introduced zach and his mother rachel. i know my brother mikey would have been proud of him as i was. many of zach’s family were there to support him in his last home meet. it was a fun outing. i got to talk to zach in between matches. he told me that football signing day is february 4th at royal valley high school. he will sign that day with the school he will attend next year. i plan to go watch that. he made all league as offensive and defensive lineman.  he also made honorable mention all state lineman. he was listed at 6’6 and 315 pounds. i wish i could take off weight like that.

i was watching one match with my nephew jaiden. i asked him when the guy was gonna hit the other with a chair. he answered so seriously that this was a different kind of wrestling. it was. they even had a few girls that wrestled. they did good. i remember back in bar fights seeing some girls whip up on some dudes. it is a different world we live in. girls can do anything.

got my ballot for the prairie band gaming election yesterday. i will send in my ballot soon, i vote in every election. i already decided i will vote for my brother gary and my nephew tug. tug looks slick in a suit. there is no rhyme or reason in how people vote in tribal elections. sadly we are at a point where somebody dont like somebody in every election. we haven’t gotten past that yet. then no matter who wins, someone wants to get rid of the one voted in. guess elections dont mean a thing. that affects our development. some people wont run because they dont want the hating involved in tribal politics. i wonder how strong we could be if we got along with each other. we could be a very powerful entity.

that reminds me we have a general council this saturday. i quit going to them. they are an exercise in spinning our wheels. we elect people to represent us, then allow mob rule to control us. we have our quarterly saviors step forward with solutions to every problem. dont know why they dont run for office. some do, but cant get elected.

i have been told that people are having trouble sending in comments to my site. i told them that for now i wasn’t allowing comments. i dont want my site to be full of anonymous comments  of someone hating on someone else. that is ignorant. it never solves anything. it is hurtful to both parties and to us as a people. and i used to get people that wanted to blog on my site after i built it. if someone has something to say, then he or she can pay for a site with their name attached to it. the internet is full of websites that will allow that.

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all’s well…i guess

the sun came up in the east. k u smacked down k-state again. a cold front is moving in. politicians promise they will fix what they helped create. all is normal i guess. well except a global economic crisis. and an unending war. and new wars are popping up all over the globe. big business is getting bailed out by the government. while no help for the average joe. i guess that is normal in the times we live in.

i had cabin fever today so i ventured out to one of the native gaming establishments. shoulda stayed home. but my upper back and neck is sore from sorting porky hair all week. i didnt win but played for 3 hours. thats sorta like winning.  while at a machine, i heard a soft thud. i turned and seen an old lady had fallen off her chair. the casino cop ran up to help her, as well as a few others. seeing i would be of no assistance, i stayed at my machine and played. another gentleman a few chairs over also looked and seen all was taken care of. the lady said she was alright. we kinda looked at each other. i didnt want to appear to be a heartless bastard. she was back at her machine in no time. in gaming, no blood – no foul. i didnt feel bad then.

the treasury nominee didnt pay his taxes. said it was a mistake, and regretted it. so he may get approved anyway. when poor folks say the same thing, the gavel comes down loudly as sentence is passed. another rich guy is restricted to his penthouse, instead of being locked up. he scammed investors out of billions. someone robs a liquor store  of a few bucks and they will do years.

my home state will have a ‘revenue shortfall’ of $945 billion this year and next. they wont have expanded gaming this year after all. investors withdrew their bids. seems they didnt want to spend half a billion to build the state new casinos. so they will probably eye indian casinos again. trying to see how they can get a piece of the action. the easy solution is to take away from the indians.

there was a piece in todays local rag bout a dude in the 1850s. he fast talked some potawatomis into joining his wild west show. the guy got into a drinking spree in indianapolis. the show disbanded. the potawatomis had to walk back to kansas. damn…..

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gip ka na ge ne

that is a question in potawatomi that asks ‘did you win?’.  i dont get asked that very much. probably cuz not many speak the language anymore. my mother used to ask me that. i would put on my stoic warrior face and just kinda grunt. usually i didn’t.

i go to the ‘indian’ casinos now and then. they are always identified as ‘indian’ casinos. as opposed to what i dont know. i go there because i live about 10 minutes from ours. its only a short trip to the other two closest casinos, maybe 45 minutes. the silent drive home seems longer than that if i lose. really they are the only game in town. my hometown has two liquor stores, and two churches. usually they have to be balanced in numbers. it also has a coupla antique stores. since i dont drink or buy antiques i head to the casino for a night out. and the boarding school experience keeps me away from churches.

there was a big billboard on the highway that asks the question ‘do you have a gambling problem’. then it lists a hotline to call if you do. only gambling problem i have is that i dont win. that billboard was located close to another one that advertised our casino. the billboards that advertise indian casinos usually dont have any brown skins on them. sorta a paradox. must be some reason to that, but it escapes me.

gamblers are like alcoholics. often they dont admit they have a problem, even if they do. i see the same people in all the casinos i go to. i wonder if they got a problem. but then they must wonder the same thing about me.

some gamblers are a superstitious lot. they do little bits of mojo to help them win, like maybe carrying a good luck piece. or they rub the machine. as if caressing the machine will turn it on to a big win. personally i dont like someone that stands there and watches me. i know i dont lose cuz they are watching me  but sometimes i just wish they would get the hell away from me. i carry a ‘lucky’  beaded necklace that holds my players card. i dont carry all my cards. i travel alot so i have like 16 of them at last count. i didnt pick one up at a number of places. that would have been one heavy necklace.

the players card keeps track of your points. a great gimmick. if you spend one dollar, you get one point. then when you get some points built up you can redeem them for some playing cash. i never have many points built up. i cash them in if i got 5 bucks. sometimes i get a coupon from the casinos. it can be redeem for playing cash. i dont get many of them. maybe cuz i am not a high roller. i never get one from our casino. dont lose enough money there.

i hear gamblers say our machines are ‘too tight’. that dont stop anyone from going there. during the occasional promotion you cant find a machine. the place is packed. marketing should take heed of that. others say you can win at the other casinos. been my experience i dont win there either. i win enough to keep me playing. havent learned yet to stay  away from them. common sense will tell anyone that it is in the house’s favor. thats why we get a per cap every 3 months. the possibility exists though that any machine at any given moment can pay out the big jackpot. thats what gambling is all about. trying to hit the big one. i am happy with just winning free spins.

i play the penny machines. my limited cash lasts longer that way. i hear many people say ‘i only play pennies’. kinda like an alky that says ‘i only drink beer’. it minimizes it. penny players bring in the most revenue for casinos. the casinos kiss the high rollers ass though. they comp them for everything. maybe they should do that to the penny players.

so most of the time i can answer the question with ‘tto gip ka na ge si’. i didnt win. i have hit a few times. once my wins paid for my trip to a big pow wow back east. another time i had 11 bucks and hit a thousand. life is a gamble. so we all gamble to some extent. people that played the stock market the past year lost more than i did. i may have had more fun even when i didnt win. so if anyone asks me if i am going gambling i can give them my best cutesy palin ‘y betcha’. a penny saved is a penny earned. but a penny gambled can pay off.

my 'lucky' necklace
my 'lucky' necklace
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walking da dog.

i took my faithful dog  ‘ko nu gish’  for a 2 mile walk today. i have heard people that have said they would start walking when it warms up. i heard others that said they would wait til it cools off.  for whatever reason they just dont walk. i dont let winter stop me from walking. last week i logged 6 miles.  i have 2 today. but the forecast says we will get an artic front coming in this week.  so i walk when i get the chance. i’m like oprah. need to drop a few pounds.

i like to go get a paper every sunday morning. sorta a ritual with me. i have the paper delivered to my mailbox the rest of the week. i noticed that the price of the sunday paper remained the same. the daily paper went up from 50 cent to 75.  Now you get less news for the increase in price. The daily paper is in two sections now. The sunday paper is also a bit thinner. even the tribal paper went from a monthly to once a quarter.

i kinda wonder  bout the mainstream media. a month or so ago they were forecasting some real dire times. something like the worst recession since 29. wouldnt say its a depression, just something bad news coming. now you dont hear much of it. so does that mean we aint having it so bad?  or they just backing off so people dont panic. i see changes happening. like the price of chicken feed went up but the weight of the bag went down. i used to buy 50  pound bags. now they are 40 pound bags. and they cost more. the cost of the paper went up and we get less news. same with other items. cost goes up and we get less. gas is creeping back up. i cut down on my powwowing the past coupla years cuz of the cost of gas. price went down when pow wow season was winding down.

just have to hold on. cuz change is coming. got a new prez and all that. least ways we told that. he got his work cut out for him. on the upside he dont have a tough act to follow. hope he gives the american people a break. big business is getting bailed out. how bout the rest of us.

i get google and yahoo alerts everyday. they key on the word ‘potawatomi’. so any news with that word in it is zapped to my email. i kinda notice that there is always news bout the other bands. but the prairie band dont get in the news often. must be the reason we rely on rumor so much. when you dont hear facts, you tend to make them up. or else we doing damn good.

i aint got no complaint bout them. i am just finishing up on my housing grant. i got a new front door, new plumbing, guttering, central air and a new 50 year roof. my floor will eat up the rest of the grant. i am getting a laminate put over the worn out vinyl. it will have a tile look to it. the cost is the same as putting new linoleum. and it will be more durable. it will stand up to the heavy traffic i get.  my humble house is looking good. i didnt get the full grant award cuz some bureaucrat decided i wouldnt. but i got lotsa bang for the dollar though. i am satisfied. i put lotsa my money into this house over the past 24 years. the flooring will cost more than what i got left in the grant so i will cover the rest. it will be worth it.

i tossed in the rest of the wood i had outside. getting ready for the cold snap coming. didnt have any back problems. thats good news. i see houses with wood stacked up neatly outside. i think that looks quaint. not practical though. i have to have the wood stacked in the basement, where i can put it into the stove. who wants to go outside to get some logs everytime the fire needs to be stoked up.

i have been sorting porcupine hair almost every day. i have piles of it every where. i can knock a roach out in three days. that is if i have all the material on hand ready to go. it takes weeks to sort hair. so when i get a bunch of it sorted i can make a number of roaches. i know this new website will keep me busy. and i can handle that.

'ko nu gish' answers commands in potawatomi
'ko nu gish' answers commands in potawatomi
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Odds and ends

The background image on this website is a section of a full mural on my screened in porch I built. It is a scene of an Indian village. I was inspired by diego riveria’s murals  while in mexico city. His murals tell the story of mexico. My mural will be a history of Indians when ever it is done. In the painting are various Indians including: a cigar store indian, the cleveland indian, lone ranger and tonto, billy jack, pow wow indians, christian indians and homie indians. I am pictured with a group of native prisoners i worked with. I tried to include many different animals. I hope to have all the clans represented in the picture.

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We’re building a website

my-website-greeting

This is the website of Eddie Joe Mitchell, Prairie Band Potawatomi. The site is a work in progress. I am  getting familiar with the site. I am still learning how to add to it.  I had trouble trying to add more of the roaches i made to my gallery. They went to my media library but not to the page. growing pains.

My site will highlight my roach head dresses and my writing.  I enjoy doing both. I plan on opening the site with a greeting in potawatomi and have a song by my nephew. The song will be an original composition done by him. I am still learning how to add that to my site.