Ledger paper painting by George Sword (1847-1910), an Oglala Sioux. (Image in the Public Domain, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.)

The Lunar New Year begins 17 February 2026, inviting us to celebrate our commonality across both real and imagined borders.

We can come together—by making our own choices—and honoring our neighbors’ cultures while embracing what we all share: our humanness.

During the first days of 2026, stories of human harm seem endless:

Federal agents shot—and killed—fellow Americans and others under so-called threats by “illegal aliens;” our military fire-bombed Caracas and neighboring cities in Venzeula, killing civilians and military alike [some hundred people, according to The New York Times (Bubola, 8 January 2026)]; and some 45 protestors (including children) have been killed (thus far) in Iran, says CNN.

That our country’s leaders would create any aggressive and armed conflict—including with its own citizens (among them elders and children)—is sickening and amoral.

That they would enforce such cruelty without democracy’s constitutional measures of checks and balances is illegal.

And to hear such leaders lie to us to defend their brutality is just plain cowardly.

My vow is to engage in resistance and embrace resilience.

In the coming months I will look for ways and means to resist what is morally wrong and to find a path to become more resilient in character.

I look to the Year of the Horse, which ushers in the fire horse, “symbolizing energy, ambition and transformation,” according to the Korea Herald.

“Overall, the Year of the Fire Horse is seen as a time to embrace change, take bold action and pursue goals with courage.”

What better way to welcome 2026 to North America, where horses are symbolic of resistance and resilience?

Horse Ancestors Came from North America

Scientists note horses are Indigenous to North America.

Still, horses journeyed thousands of years ago to the Near East and Far East, where they were domesticated in about 2300 BC.

Horses were reintroduced to the Americas when Christopher Columbus brought equines from Spain in 1493 (the second voyage) and, in 1510, when Hernán Cortés found his way to the continent.

Native Americans avidly recruited horses into our lives, and have long pictured ponies in artwork, from carved images in stone to paintings on ledger paper (used for bookkeeping by settlers).The Osage word for horse is ka-wa or ko-wah and Lakota relatives call them sunka wakan (holy, or spirit dog).

Native peoples painted images and drawings on tanned hides before settlers brought paper to reservations. Paper and booklets used for accounting—such as ledger paper—were adopted by many, including George Sword (1847-1910), an Oglala Sioux who lived at Pine Ridge, where my relatives resided.

Pictured above is “Man Who Carries the Sword,” painted by George Miwakan YuhalaSword in the late 1880s.

The image of the warrior and his horse are now housed at the National Museum of the American Indian (NAMI) in Washington, DC.

According to the museum, Sword’s (and a few other Native artists’ works) were collected by a federal agent at Pine Ridge, John W. Alder, (1844-1919), who passed the pieces to relatives who sold the collection to what is now The Smithsonian Institution.

Thanks for listening.

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