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.

Erasure, white fragility, and the verbal monuments of bird names: Should we hold people in the past accountable to present-day mores?

Posted on June 4, 2021 by Stephen Carr Hampton

When addressing historic wrongs, and especially memorials that honor people that perpetrated historic wrongs, a common challenge is: Should we be holding these people accountable according to modern values and mores? There are two big problems with this question. Almost … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged accountable, aos, aou, bird names, bird names for birds, Cherokee, honorific, indians, mcCown, memorials, mores, native american, parisorum, Scott's Oriole, statues, Trail of Tears, verbal monuments, white fragility, winfield | 2 Comments

The backstory on Hannah Duston’s scalps

Posted on May 1, 2021 by Stephen Carr Hampton

To scalp someone is to remove the skin from the top of the skull and the hair with it. The end product is a flap of skin with a hair piece attached. The size of the scalp taken can vary … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged Abenaki, bounties, bounty, Dustan, Duston, ethnic cleansing, Hannah, manifest destiny, monuments, Native American history, New Hampshire, scalp, scalping, scalps, statue, vandalize | Leave a comment

Decolonizing bird names: Effort reveals fault lines among birders

Posted on April 28, 2021 by Stephen Carr Hampton

A revolution is about to sweep the world of birders and ornithologists. After decades of intransigence, the most prominent organizations and authors – including prominent field guide authors David Sibley and Kenn Kaufmann – are endorsing “bird names for birds”, … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged Audubon, Bachman, bird names, bird names for birds, birds, decolonize, honorific, Kaufmann, memorials, ornithology, reaction, Sibley, statues, Townsend, white fragility | Leave a comment

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s 14th District: Where the Trail of Tears began

Posted on January 30, 2021 by Stephen Carr Hampton

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s 14th District in the northwest corner of Georgia lies in the center of the lands the Cherokee Nation was forced to vacate at gunpoint during the horrific ethnic cleansing known as the Trail of Tears. Greene is … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged Andrew Jackson, Cherokee, ethnic cleansing, genocide, Marjorie Taylor Greene, pioneers, racism, removal, settler colonialism, Trail of Tears, trump, white supremacy | 5 Comments

The rise and fall and rise of the buffalo

Posted on January 24, 2021 by Stephen Carr Hampton

The story of the American buffalo (Bison bison; formally known as American bison) is steeped in legend, mythology, and controversy. Recent research has shed light on the full history, affirming portions of most stories. The first rise: evolution with Native … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts, news | Tagged antiquus, atlatl, bison, buffalo, clovis, extinction, folsom, history, indian, Native American history, restoration, trade, white hunt, Yellowstone | 2 Comments

Cherokee Nation juggles tribal sovereignty with Trumpers in a red state

Posted on January 15, 2021 by Stephen Carr Hampton

In light of its newly recognized reservation, Cherokee Nation, and all of Oklahoma’s 38 tribal nations, finds themselves in the crosshairs between tribal sovereignty and Trumpism, between protecting the environment and Big Oil. In the July 2020 McGirt decision, the … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged Barr, Cherokee, Cherokee Nation, Choctaw, Creek, environment, Hoskin, jurisdiction, McGirt, oil, Oklahoma, red, republican, rider, SCOTUS, sovereignty, Stitt, Supreme Court, trump, Trumpers | Leave a comment

Not always but mostly: Native Americans living in harmony with nature

Posted on December 11, 2020 by Stephen Carr Hampton

It’s often said that Native Americans have always lived in harmony with nature, understanding how to live sustainably with Mother Earth. This is partially a myth, but one that we embrace, because it is very much our goal today to … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged buffalo, climate, columbia, harmony with nature, Karuk, manifest destiny, Mother Earth, native americans, noble savage, restoration, Yurok | Leave a comment

Patuxet (Plymouth) 400 years on: Massasoit the statesman masterfully played the Plymouth Colony

Posted on November 26, 2020 by Stephen Carr Hampton

While the Pilgrims moved into the abandoned village of Patuxet and planted their fields, the Great Sachem Massasoit called together a council to hammer out policy toward the wayward colonists. Hammered by plague and pestilence, his Wampanoag Confederacy was vulnerable. … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged massasoit, patuxet, pilgrims, Squanto, thanksgiving, treaty, wampanoag | Leave a comment

Patuxet (Plymouth) 400 years on: Prisoner, slave, guide, ambassador — Meet the real Squanto, Tisquantum

Posted on November 20, 2020 by Stephen Carr Hampton

When we last left the Pilgrims and other settlers (see previous blog post), they had arrived at the abandoned village of Patuxet, but stayed huddled onboard the Mayflower, freezing and dying thru the winter. Finally, in March 1621, the weather … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged john smith, massasoit, mayflower, pilgrims, Plymouth, Squanto, tisquantum, wampanoag | Leave a comment

Patuxet (Plymouth) 400 years on: “Bones and skulls” — An epidemic made the Pilgrims’ settlement possible

Posted on November 11, 2020 by Stephen Carr Hampton

In the late fall of 1620, the 102 men, women, and child passengers aboard for the Mayflower found themselves behind schedule and seriously off course. They were supposed to be in Virginia Colony (the colony that famously kidnapped Pocahontas), which … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged Cape Cod, disease, epidemic, massasoit, mather, mayflower, morton, Nauset, patuxet, pilgrims, Plymouth, smallpox, wampanoag, winslow | Leave a comment