Author Archives: Stephen Carr Hampton

About Stephen Carr Hampton

Stephen Carr Hampton is an enrolled citizen of Cherokee Nation, an avid birder since age 7, and a former resource economist for the California Department of Fish & Game, where he worked as a tribal liaison and conducted natural resource damage assessments and oversaw environmental restoration projects after oil spills. He writes most often about Native history and contemporary issues, birds, and climate change.

Native communities confront oil development across Turtle Island: April 2018 update

Posted on March 24, 2018 by Stephen Carr Hampton

Across North America, Native communities are leading the battle against increasing oil development, fighting proposed new production, pipelines, and crude-by-rail routes. There is hardly a new proposal without indigenous opposition. Here is an update from the front lines. Note: Many … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged #DakotaAccessPipeline, #DAPL, #noDAPL, bayou bridge, bears ears, carbon, chaco, court, crude, dilbit, enbridge, energy east, Keystone, kinder morgan, northern gateway, oil, pipeline, protest, rail, red lake, Standing Rock, swinomish, tar sands, trans mountain, transcanada, xl | 1 Comment

Sitting on 700: The short story of my lifelist

Posted on March 11, 2018 by Stephen Carr Hampton

Sometime long ago when I started birding, when I was seven, I read that the ultimate lifetime goal for birders in the US was to see 700 species in North America. For birders, “North America” was defined by the American … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged 700, ABA, birding, birds, bluethroat, chasing, Citrine wagtail, Kougarok, lifelist, listing, nome | 2 Comments

The movie Wind River and white saviors: A review of reviews

Posted on March 5, 2018 by Stephen Carr Hampton

Wind River, a 2017 crime thriller set in the winter wilderness of the Wind River Indian Reservation, focuses on the on-going epidemic of assaulted and missing Native women and girls. Examples of the problem are not hard to find. The … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged film, ICTMN, jeremy renner, movie, reservation, review, white savior, wind river | 1 Comment

Alt-history Part 2: The mound builder myth reborn, Nazis, and Solutreans

Posted on February 21, 2018 by Stephen Carr Hampton

Continued from Alt-history Part 1: The mound builder myth and ethnic cleansing. The myth lives on The mound builder myth justified the ethnic cleansing of the 1800s. It was seemingly put to rest in 1894 just as Native Americans were … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged Ahnenerbe, aryan, barry fell, erasure, frank collin, glenn beck, hyperdiffusionism, kennewick man, kyle bristow, lost civilizations, native american, neo-nazi, Solutrean, White supremacist | Leave a comment

Alt-history Part 1: The mound builder myth and ethnic cleansing

Posted on February 21, 2018 by Stephen Carr Hampton

Throughout the 1800s, most white Americans believed in an alternative history– that they were here first; they are the true “natives”, related to the Mound Builders; and that “redskins” have no real claim to the land. Marietta, Ohio Traveling down … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged American Antiquities, Atlantis, cahokia, Crania Americana, Grave Creek Stone, Josiah Priest, marietta, mormon, moundbuilders, native american, Phoenicians, powell, Samuel George Morton, Solutrean | 7 Comments

Laser technology reveals enormous Mayan civilization

Posted on February 3, 2018 by Stephen Carr Hampton

‘Game Changer’: Maya Cities Unearthed In Guatemala Forest Using Lasers In a few hours, using LiDAR radar from a fixed-wing aircraft, “archaeologists have discovered 60,000 Maya structures that make up full sprawling cities.” The Mayan civilization was “three or four … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged civilization, guatemala, laser, LiDAR, Maya, Mayan, population, radar, Tikal | 2 Comments

Haiti: Nation of slaves

Posted on January 12, 2018 by Stephen Carr Hampton

To understand Haiti’s poverty, one must understand its history. It is often said that Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. It is—and it’s not even close. This is because Haiti is also one of the most exploited … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged allende, aristide, haiti, mikaben, paul farmer, shithole, slave, slave revolt, uses of haiti | Leave a comment

Trump guts Migratory Bird Treaty Act

Posted on January 11, 2018 by Stephen Carr Hampton

Years ago, Chevron came out with a series of commercials showing them going out of their way to protect wildlife and the environment. These ads would invariably conclude with a question like, “Do people stop work on an oil pipeline … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged berkeley pit, birds, bufflehead, butte, chevron, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, mortality, people do, searles lake, solar, terns, trona, trump, wind | Leave a comment

Native mascots: A comprehensive literature review

Posted on January 6, 2018 by Stephen Carr Hampton

In 1909 the University of Wisconsin lacrosse team adopted the first Native mascot. By the 1950s, they were commonplace. Beginning in 1968, Native Americans condemned the use of these mascots, arguing that they are based on stereotypes that “have a … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged blackhawks, chief illiniwek, chief osceola, chief wahoo, civil rights, cleveland indians, controversy, culture, dennis banks, fighting hawks, fighting illini, fighting sioux, florida state, football, fryberg, illini, literature review, logo, mascot, mascots, Native, native american, ncaa, nfl, North Dakota, ole miss, political correctness, rebels, red face, redskins, seminoles, sports, sports illustrated, staurowsky, steinfeldt, stereotype, university of illinois, washington redskins | 2 Comments

When the Gila River turned the Arizona desert green

Posted on January 3, 2018 by Stephen Carr Hampton

With the waters of the Gila River under threat again, most articles about the river talk about the reminiscences of Aldo Leopold or the Coolidge Dam, which impounds most of the water at San Carlos on the storied San Carlos … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged agriculture, dam, diversion, emory, gila river, maricopa, native american, Native American history, o'odom, phoenix, pima, tribe, water | Leave a comment