Category Archives: news

White backlash: The Rittenhouse debacle from a Native perspective

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

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The Right Wing attack on ICWA and Tribal Sovereignty

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The backstory on Hannah Duston’s scalps

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

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Decolonizing bird names: Effort reveals fault lines among birders

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

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

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

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The rise and fall and rise of the buffalo

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

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Cherokee Nation juggles tribal sovereignty with Trumpers in a red state

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

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