Yellow Bird Lifeways Center

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Yellow Bird Lifeways Center Indigenous Organization based on the Northern Cheyenne reservation that helps reconnect to Cheyenne teachings, wisdom and ways of being and thinking.

Making this shift can help address the intergenerational effects of genocide and trauma

The young ones really love being around the horses at the horse medicine camp, they help regulate your nervous system, s...
11/10/2026

The young ones really love being around the horses at the horse medicine camp, they help regulate your nervous system, something we all can use at this stage! So it is time for some healing with horses for adults! We are happy to welcome Pamela Robins to Yellow Bird Lifeways Center this coming Sunday October 18 at 3 pm for sound meditation with horses. We will set up a circle with some of the cots from the peace gathering and selected calm horses will be invited into the circle if they chose. Pamela is a gentle teacher and looks after the circle as we share in energy with our horse relatives. It is a beautiful calming experience. Please do sign up by emailing: [email protected]
We will share a traditional meal together afterwards!

06/10/2026

Northern Cheyenne traditional Chief Phillip Whiteman Jr. (Heove’vekeso, Yellow Bird) shared the hotóao’o (buffalo/bison) song with the Cheyenne children and youth at the horse medicine camp. He explained that this traditional song is to help them in times of hardship when a loved one is sick or they are having a hard time. It calls out to the buffalo and the words are that the buffalo is returning, the buffalo has arrived, the buffalo is upon us! They first practiced the song at the stands after riding and then walked over to the buffalo practicing and then sang the their song to the hotóao’o. The buffalo came and stood right there in front of the children and youth as they sang and some knelt in front of them. You can hear the love of the children as they call out to the hotóao’o and the love from the hotóao’o in return, they are gentle. Vonha, named after Chief Phillip’s great great grandmother, who ran with her child (his great-grandfather Vehoc) from the Sand Creek Massacre, even gives kisses. The Bull stood right behind her, these buffalo do not stand like that unless they feel safe. They usually circle up putting the younger ones in the middle. Here even the baby buffalo came forward to the kids! You could feel the love going both ways and the healing needed for the children and youth and the whole community.

We could not have picked a better group and a better day for our Indian summer horse medicine camp. We hung Tshirts from...
06/10/2026

We could not have picked a better group and a better day for our Indian summer horse medicine camp. We hung Tshirts from extra small for children, to youth and adults on the saddles and from youngest to tallest they came to grab their shirts and picked the horses to ride calmly and confidently accordingly. You could see the love and appreciation and how our relationship with our horse relatives has grown. From there we shared a fall feast, we even got amazing yellow watermelon and cantaloupe as a special treat, along with Filipino food that our friends shared with us! It is important to put our children and youth first, rather than forget them amongst all the turmoil. Thank you to all who made these horse medicine camps and the Indigenous learning special for them. You could feel the love for these younger generations and they did not want to leave! We love you and there is nothing you can do about it!

INVITING YOUTH and CHILDREN to our next HORSE MEDICINE CAMP at the YELLOW BIRD LIFEWAYS CENTER (by the corrals 43426 Hig...
28/09/2026

INVITING YOUTH and CHILDREN to our next HORSE MEDICINE CAMP at the YELLOW BIRD LIFEWAYS CENTER (by the corrals 43426 Highway 212, Lame Deer) on Sunday, October 4, 2026 at 3 pm. Some say summer is over, yet we still have our Indian Summer and we will use it to have one more camp for the season and to strengthen our connection to our horse culture between Native American week at schools and National Indigenous Day. We will focus on riding and continue to deepen our Cheyenne knowledge about horses and strengthen fundamentals of ground work. We will have food after and a give away! Limited spots available, please sign up by emailing and letting us know the names, age and T-shirt size of your children and youth: [email protected]

Traditional Northern Cheyenne Chief Phillip Whiteman Jr., Heove ve’keso (Yellowbird), from Lame Deer, Montana, returns t...
19/09/2026

Traditional Northern Cheyenne Chief Phillip Whiteman Jr., Heove ve’keso (Yellowbird), from Lame Deer, Montana, returns to the Pendleton Round-Up for his fourth year of traditional gift giving he started in 2022 when he gave away a horse. Since he has been giving away intricately made star blankets first to intergenerational connections and then to leadership. This year he is focusing on the next generation. He is doing this because he competed here as a child in the traditional dancing and was blanketed by Pendleton Hall of Fame member Chief Clarence Burke for his overall win. It showed him that dreams can come true and made the rodeo arena his second home, returning to compete as a PRCA contestant at the Pendleton Round-Up. This had not happened since Jackson Sundown.

Chief Phillip has been inducted into the North American Indigenous Athletics Hall of Fame and the Montana Indian Athletics Hall of Fame, as a two times Indian National Finals Rodeo (INFR) world champion in the saddle bronc and the first PRCA European champion.

With these beautiful colorful star quilts laid out right here in the main Pendleton Arena Chief Phillip is honoring:

Hayze Louis, who was on the Amazon prime series “The Ride” along with Elite Bullriders including his Dad Dakota Louis; 3x Infr world champion bullrider and 4 x PBR World Finals qualifier.

Marian McDonald, 17 years old competitive fancy dancer, grandson of Thomas MorningOwl who organizes the traditional dancing.

We also honored: Scarlett Joni Lee Jack
Tiyatinmay, 9 years old, enrolled member of the Yakima nation; who helps grandparents Fred Hill and Janice George-Hill at Cayuse-Yakima Frybread stand;

Ricki and Sophia Bonifer, children of Anthony Bonifer who we lost over a year ago who helped with previous gift givings and was a loved bull rider from Pendleton. They are here with their grandparents Suzanne and Randy Bonifer; and their mother Claudia Bonifer.

In the Cheyenne tradition you also honor the announcers, so Chief Phillip wants to honor Jess Nowland, long time announcer here at the Pendleton Round up and Justin McGhee who announced for many years for the Cowboy Channel and unfortunately is not here this year, so Marty Campbell stood in for him.

Assisting with the gift giving are Kristin Windbigler, Executive Director of Cowboy Poetry at Elko Nevada; the Bruised Head and Many Guns family from Canada; and previous honorees, including the Brown Family, who received the horse; Ronnie Red Crane, who he gave away to in the second round as an intergenerational friend; and Thomas Morning Owl who he gave away to in the third round, and who announced this time.

Children and youth from all parts of the Northern Cheyenne districts have been attending the Yellow Bird Lifeways Center...
17/09/2026

Children and youth from all parts of the Northern Cheyenne districts have been attending the Yellow Bird Lifeways Center and learning so much more about our horse relatives and feeling more confident riding them. Chief Phillip Whiteman Jr., Yellow Bird (Heove’vekeso) shared teachings and stories about the horse, including how it can take us to the blue horizon (our imagination) and other teachings that were shared inside the sacred Cheyenne mountain. There have been quite a few who had their first ride at the camps - and others who are becoming true champs, everybody has been encouraging each other and families have been (re)connecting! Horses make us connect and calm our nervous systems and once we are calm the horses are calm.

12/09/2026

September 9 marks the day when Cheyenne relatives of Chief Phillip Whiteman Jr.’s left El Reno, Oklahoma in 1878. They were forced South to the Indian Territory after the Battle of the Little Bighorn where their Southern relatives were already starving and sick. So on this day Chief Phillip returned to the Battlefield where less than 3 months ago they had marked the 150th anniversary of the Little Bighorn to share the (hi)story of the dispossession and oppression of his people and the genocidal campaigns resulting in ongoing intergenerational effects of genocide.

Yet it is also a story of strength and resilience, how they returned to their homeland in the North led by young leaders Little Wolf and Dullknife and North Woman. On this day, September 9, after having asked to return North and being ignored they prayed and left in the middle of the night, asking just for a little headstart. Those led by Little Wolf and North Woman made it back, while Dullknife and his family were captured and detained at Fort Robinson after they split up by Lusk, Wyoming. We commemorate the Break Out 4 months later on January 9, 1879 with the Fort Robinson Spiritual Break out Run, that Chief Phillip founded over 30 years ago and that we are inviting Cheyenne children and youth and supporters to join again January 8-14, 2027.

Phillip also makes the connection to the September 11 attacks marking the 25th anniversary this year, of the brief moment when the whole country felt like Native Americans. He asks what can we do as a human race to avoid such attacks ever happening again and to stop what has been happening to Native Americans.

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INVITING YOUTH and CHILDREN to our next HORSE MEDICINE CAMP at the YELLOW BIRD LIFEWAYS CENTER (by the corrals 43426 Hig...
10/09/2026

INVITING YOUTH and CHILDREN to our next HORSE MEDICINE CAMP at the YELLOW BIRD LIFEWAYS CENTER (by the corrals 43426 Highway 212, Lame Deer) on Sunday, September 13, 2026 at 3 pm. We will focus on riding and continue to deepen our Cheyenne knowledge about horses and build basic fundamentals of ground work. We will have food after and if it’s not too late we might screen a movie! Limited spots available, please sign up by emailing: [email protected]

Our knowledge and connection to horses has been deepening with the next horse medicine camp, where we started off with t...
26/08/2026

Our knowledge and connection to horses has been deepening with the next horse medicine camp, where we started off with teachings that horses connect us to our imagination and Sweet Medicine’s prophecy that they take us to the Blue horizon where our dreams come true. So we visualized the horse we dream of, its color and pattern and named it and our biggest dream, knowing it can come true. Some of the kids want to become Bronc riders and rodeo champions, so we took them to Chief Phillip’s trophy room where his World Championship saddles are on display along with photos of him competing! We then went to the Yellow Bird Lifeways Center to ride and work with the horses and everyone from oldest to youngest had lots of fun. We will have the next horse medicine camp on the Labor Day Long Weekend keep your eyes open for an event announcement post!

INVITING YOUTH and CHILDREN to our next HORSE MEDICINE CAMP at the YELLOW BIRD LIFEWAYS CENTER (by the corrals 43426 Hig...
20/08/2026

INVITING YOUTH and CHILDREN to our next HORSE MEDICINE CAMP at the YELLOW BIRD LIFEWAYS CENTER (by the corrals 43426 Highway 212, Lame Deer) on Sunday, August 23, 2026 at 4 pm. We had so much fun at the last camp and will continue to learn the basic fundamentals of ground work. We might even do some art! We will have Indian tacos after and if it’s not too late we might screen a movie! Limited spots available, please sign up by emailing: [email protected]

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Po Box 293, Lame Deer
Montana

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