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.

The Pioneers were bad guys

Posted on May 29, 2022 by Stephen Carr Hampton

One thing about “the pioneers” as we call them in the US — they were essentially white renegade militias, operating outside of US law, who sought to ethnically cleanse the land for their own acquisition. And that’s the opinion of … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged Cherokee, colonists, crockett, Daniel Boone, ethnic cleansing, Franklin, frontier, genocide, gun culture, history, indians, John Wayne, Little House on the Prairie, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Oregon Trail, pioneer, pioneers, settlers, Trail of Tears, white savages, white supremacy | Leave a comment

A reverse land acknowledgment: Place names honor ethnic cleansing and slavery

Posted on April 4, 2022 by Stephen Carr Hampton

I live in Port Townsend, Jefferson County, Washington. It was originally called qatáy by the S’Klallam, a place with a small lagoon and a series of freshwater ponds that allowed for kayak portages from Puget Sound to the Strait of Juan … Continue reading →

Posted in land acknowledgments | Tagged bird names, birds, cass, Chetzemoka, chimacum, chinese gardens, ethnic cleansing, genocide, history, honor, Indian removal act, indigenous, Jackson, land acknowledgement, land acknowledgment, lincoln, morton, names, Native, Native American history, native americans, polk, port townsend, Rainier, s'klallam, Sioux, slavery, street, townshend | 3 Comments

The California missions: A lot worse than most people realize

Posted on February 2, 2022 by Stephen Carr Hampton

It’s dawned on me that the California’s missions were a lot worse that most people realize—objectively a cross between the ISIS theocratic state and Nazi concentration camps. Call it California’s Gulag Archipelago. European visitors at the time were horrified by … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged California missions, chumash, death rate, el camino real, fourth grade mission project, Junipero, Kumeyaay, revolt, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Barbara, Serra, Walker Pass | 9 Comments

White backlash: The Rittenhouse debacle from a Native perspective

Posted on November 19, 2021 by Stephen Carr Hampton

During the George Floyd protests, twenty-five people were killed. Most of them were Black Lives Matter protesters. They were not killed by the police, but by white supremacists who traveled to the protests from out of town for the sole … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged #RittenhouseVerdict, backlash, black, Black Lives Matter, BLM, Cache Valley, caste, charleston, chastisement, Eureka, Indian Island, Kenosha, Kingsley, Massacre, Mill Creek, mystic, Narbona, Native, Native American history, pequot, protest, retribution, Rittenhouse, Sand Creek, synagogue, town destroyer, trump, tucson, tulsa, verdict, Washington, washita, white, Wounded Knee, Yahi | Leave a comment

The Right Wing attack on ICWA and Tribal Sovereignty

Posted on October 22, 2021 by Stephen Carr Hampton

In Season 2 of her podcast, This Land, Rebecca Nagle does some serious investigative journalism, uncovering a small network of powerful ultra-conservative power-brokers, foundations, law firms, attorneys, and judges working together to tear down the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged Bradley Foundation, Brakeen v Haaland, evangelical, Fifth Circuit, foster to adopt, genocide, Gibson Dunn, ICWA, nagle, navajo, Paul Clement, Reed O'Conner, SCOTUS, This Land | 3 Comments

Double standards: How white bureaucracy ramps up when Native Americans are involved

Posted on September 30, 2021 by Stephen Carr Hampton

It’s often been said that the most powerful people in government are not the leaders, but the low-level bureaucrats that actually run government programs and implement the law. In a settler colonial society dominated by implicit white supremacy – the … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged bias, bureaucracy, certification, chumash, double standard, EPA, grant program, grants, indigenous, oil spill, prejudice, Refugio, response, sovereignty, tribes, unconscious bias, Yurok | 1 Comment

Texas deputizes citizens and awards bounties, as was done for burning witches, catching slaves, and killing Native Americans

Posted on September 5, 2021 by Stephen Carr Hampton

Texas just outlawed all abortions after six weeks after a woman’s last menstruation. They knew this violated the US Constitution under Roe v Wade. To avoid a federal judge blocking the law, Texas will not enforce it. Instead, the law … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged abortion, bounties, bounty, genocide, legal, massacres, militias, scalp, SCOTUS, Standing Rock, Supreme Court, texas | Leave a comment

From Afghan interpreters to Apache scouts and beyond: White America’s non-white allies are enemies until proven otherwise

Posted on August 20, 2021 by Stephen Carr Hampton

Afghanistan This week the world was horrified to see images of 640 men, women, and children crowded into the hold of a US military cargo plane on the tarmac in Kabul, while hundreds ran alongside the plane as it took … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged afghanistan, apache, bin laden, Boston, C-17, C17, Crook, Deer Island, Exile, florida, geronimo, immigrant, Kabul, King Phillip's War, miles, native american, Native American history, native americans, prison, refugee, scouts, SIV, trump | Leave a comment

Voices from the boarding schools: Direct quotes from superintendents, teachers, students, the Supreme Court, and special reports to the Secretary of the Interior

Posted on July 19, 2021 by Stephen Carr Hampton

Historical records about Indian boarding schools – forced re-education and labor camps – are abundant. Superintendents had to write reports to superiors every year, and these were passed on to the Secretary of the Interior. Today, Secretary Deb Haaland’s call … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged boarding schools, carlisle, civilize, Haaland, indian, kill the indian, lone wolf, luther, Native, re-education, repatriation, save the man, Standing Bear | 1 Comment

Reflections of a Native birder: The one Indian killer bird name I really have trouble with

Posted on June 6, 2021 by Stephen Carr Hampton

As a citizen of Cherokee Nation and a birder for nearly fifty years, I offer these thoughts on the burgeoning discussion to re-name birds that are named after people. When people say they are used to the current bird names … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged Abert, aos, bird names, bird names for birds, Cherokee, Clark, Couch, Native birders, Scott's Oriole, Sibley, Townsend, Trail of Tears, winfield scott | 51 Comments