“You have to have … education.”

Quanah Parker Brightman’s nugget of truth teased from a brief segment of KPFA’s Evening News Saturday August 29, 2020.

Fiftieth-year remembrance of elder Lehman Brightman and the occupation of Mount Rushmore, renamed “Crazy Horse Mountain.”

 

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ehman L. Brightman, father of Quanah Parker Brightman, remembered in the Lakota Times

Lehman L. Brightman was, in the Lakota language, “an ‘icke wicasa’,” a common man living by a particular set of principles: 

“He does not put himself above others. He works as a warrior for his people, and lives his life in a good way—with respect and caring for the people.”

Lehman Brightman was said to be “a proud Sioux and Creek Indian” 

• Son of Lehman (Poogie) Brightman (Muscogee Creek, Eufaula, Oklahoma), and Phoebe Kingman Brightman (Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, South Dakota) 
• Husband of Trudy Felix Brightman (Member Rosebud Sioux Tribe) 
• Father of Quanah Parker Brightman 
• Grandfather of Quanah Parker Burcell, Lozen Brightman, Phoebe Brightman and Star Brightman

He served his country (the United States of America), and the American Indian People as educator, activist, college professor, US Marine Corps Veteran (wounded in Korean War, awarded Purple Heart), and Social change Icon for Indian Affairs.

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oldier, athlete (All-American), scholar, writer, editor, activist

After military service and earning his baccalaureate degree at Oklahoma State University and master’s and doctoral degrees at UC Berkeley, his activism extended from the California Bay Area to the world.

• 1968, he founded United Native Americans, an Indian nonprofit organization to promote the progress and general welfare of American Indians. 
• 1969, while working on his doctorate, he established and coordinated at UC Berkeley the first Native American Studies program in the United States. 
• He participated in “the occupation of Alcatraz, the takeover of Wounded Knee.
  
• 1970, he led the takeover of Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota.
  

He led investigations into seven Indian boarding schools and reservation hospitals, and testified in US Senate hearings “on the poor service and abusive treatment of Indian people.” 

He spoke out against “the sterilization of Native women in Indian hospitals and the medical experiments performed on Native people, including children, without their full knowledge and consent.” 

He was “editor of the first National Indian newspaper, ‘Warpath,’ and author of numerous articles on federal boarding schools and the history of Indian Education.”

The lifespan of Lehman L. Brightman: April 28, 1930-June 18, 2017.

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arrior, Pride, Spirit of resistance

Final Weekend August 2020: Celebrating an historic moment and the life and work of Dr. Lehman Brightman

Son, Quanah Parker Brightman

“Nowadays,” said Quanah Parker Brightman, “being a warrior means you have to have some education.”

“You have to know about laws, you have to know about policies that are going on that affect your community; you have to be able to combat those things.

As an advocate, you have to have some form of education to be successful in changing policies, in advocating correctly; and in being strategic in how you can create systemic change.”

Quanah Parker Brightman, who has worked on defeating “fossil fuel projects in recent years,” leads United Native Americans (UNA), the organization founded by his father.

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pproaching the Saturday fiftieth-year remembrance, Quanah Parker Brightman spoke to the press at an Oakland, California, airport. 

“I’m coming in to teach and educate people about the facts of what has really happened in the (Native American) civil rights movement which is what has led up to today.

“I’m going up there to honor my father and to honor our group’s accomplishments.”

The gathering takes place “amidst renewed calls and actions to return the monument (Mount Rushmore) and rest of the Black Hills to the Lakota people.”

All without a drop of blood wasted

Without a single shot fired

Without one weapon wielded.

 

Sources

The KPFA Evening News (Saturday) – August 29, 2020, https://kpfa.org/episode/the-kpfa-evening-news-saturday-august-29-2020/

Lehman L. Brightman, Lakota Times July 6, 2017, https://www.lakotatimes.com/articles/lehman-l-brightman/

Rapid City, South Dakota Journal “Group to gather Saturday for 50th anniversary of Mount Rushmore occupation” Arielle Zionts August 27, 2020 updated August 28, 2020 https://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/group-to-gather-saturday-for-50th-anniversary-of-mount-rushmore-occupation/article_10c6ba30-5109-5c81-bc4f-25879d6fa94d.html

WBUR “50 Years After Mount Rushmore Occupation, Native Americans Are ‘Still Fighting’” by Peter O’Dowd and Samantha Raphelson July 3, 2020 (audio program “Hear and Now”), https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/07/03/native-americans-mount-rushmore-protest

 

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