Resource Links Tagged with "Indigenous"

Dec. 28, 1872: Skeleton Cave Massacre

by Zinn Education Project | Date Unknown
On Dec. 28, 1872, the Yavapai people’s shelter of Skeleton Cave, located in Salt River Canyon, Arizona, was attacked by Lieutenant Colonel George Crook and the 5th Cavalry. The army took up position around the mouth of Skeleton Cave. Surrounded, the Yavapai refused to surrender. The soldiers opened fire and dropped boulders on those who gathered at the mouth of the cave. Close to 100 Yavapai adults and children were massacred. This event has come to be known as the Battle of Salt River Canyon or the Skeleton Cave Massacre.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [Indigenous] [History] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [White Culture]

‘An Unbelievable Chain of Oppression’: America’s History of Racism was a Preexisting Condition for COVID-19

by Alan Gomez, Wyatte Grantham-Philips, Trevor Hughes, Rick Jervis, Rebecca Plevin, Kameel Stanley, Dennis Wagner, Marco della Cava, Deborah Barfield Berry, and Mark Nichols | October 2020
As the country cries out for a vaccine and a return to normal, lost in the policy debates is the reality that COVID-19 kills far more people of color than white Americans. This isn’t a matter of coincidence, poor choices or bad luck — it’s by design. A team of USA TODAY reporters explored how the policies of the past and present have made Black, Asian, Hispanic and Indigenous Americans prime targets for COVID-19. They found: America’s education and economic systems are still unequal, disproportionately leaving people of color out of higher-wage jobs. When COVID-19 struck, more people of color were serving as essential workers directly in the path of the virus.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [Health Disparities] [2020’s] [Black Lives Matter] [Indigenous] [Asian] [Latino/a] [Economics] [Employment] [Systemic Racism] [Denial] [History] [Social Justice] [Politics] [Justice System] [White Privilege] [White Culture] [White Blindness] [Housing] [Slavery] [Racial Covenants] [Environment] [Silencing POC]

The Last Free River of Manitoba

by Stephanie Wood | November 2020
The Seal River is Manitoba’s only major waterway that hasn’t been dammed — and five Indigenous communities have banded together to keep it that way by establishing a protected area. Tadoule Lake is a Sayisi Dene community nestled in the Seal River Watershed, a vast, intact landscape that stretches across northern Manitoba from Hudson Bay almost to the Saskatchewan border. It’s dotted with trees, lakes and wetlands. Sandy hills left behind from glacial rivers, called eskers, snake across the land. The Sayisi Dene and the caribou have lived in relationship with the Seal River Watershed for many generations.
The 50,000-square-kilometre area — about the size of Nova Scotia — has escaped dams, mining and colonial settlement. It’s home to millions of birds, along with polar bears, moose, beluga whales and, of course, its namesake seals. The Seal River is also the only major river in Manitoba that is not dammed.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [Environment] [History] [POC Climate Action] [Justice System] [Systemic Racism] [Housing] [Advocacy] [Role Model] [Strategies]

New Native American Memorial Offers Peace in the Heart of One of the City’s Few Wild Spaces

by Philip Kennicott | December 2020
The wetlands on the grounds of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian are one of the most serene and magical spots in all of Washington. It counters by example the larger argument of the Mall, which is all about symmetry, extended vistas and monumental scale. With trees and grass and a bit of water, this garden is a quiet but forceful rejoinder to the bombast and imperial ambition that surrounds it. With a little imagination, you might pretend that somehow the great brush of history missed this one small spot where the landscape looks just as it did in pre-Columbian times.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [History] [Art & Culture]

White Images, Black Reality: How to Talk to the Accidental Apologists for Monsters

by Earl Hazell | June 2020
We are now living in another one of those times in history when the majority of white people feel compelled to project all of their most deluded fantasies and deepest insecurities onto People of Color simultaneously, to avoid dealing with the systemic crisis they have created. As such, some of them are looking for any excuse to disrupt our communication with each other with a specific objective: to make themselves feel better by getting us to reestablish the sanctity of their illusions. How I ended an online conversation with several friends of mine that a white person entered recently—without invitation—is something that might be helpful to others who will inevitably find themselves in similar situations for some time to come. For some white people, particularly liberals , crisis does not begin when innocent people are ritualistically murdered . Crisis begins when ignorance is no longer bliss. When a lessor enlightened person of European descent elbows their way into one of your talks online, and passive/aggressively asks you to deny reality so you can comfort them, try telling them something like this: _____, the first thing you need to do is cop to the fact that your principle objective for coming into this conversation is to dominate it.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2020’s] [Denial] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [History] [White Fragility/Tears] [White Blindness] [White Defensiveness] [Racial Terrorism] [Economics] [Silencing POC] [Systemic Racism] [Policing] [Slavery] [Reparations] [Black Lives Matter] [Indigenous] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts]

Denial Is the Heartbeat of America; When Have Americans Been Willing to Admit Who We Are?

by Ibram X. Kendi | January 2021
“Let me be very clear: The scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect a true America. Do not represent who we are,” President-elect Joe Biden said during Wednesday’s siege. …To say that the attack on the U.S. Capitol is not who we are is to say that this is not part of us, not part of our politics, not part of our history. And to say that this is not part of America, American politics, and American history is a bald-faced denial. But the denial is normal. In the aftermath of catastrophes, when have Americans commonly admitted who we are? The heartbeat of America is denial. It is historic, this denial. Every American generation denies. America is establishing the freest democracy in the world, said the white people who secured their freedom during the 1770s and ’80s. America is the greatest democracy on Earth, said the property owners voting in the early 19th century. America is the beacon of democracy in world history, said the men who voted before the 1920s. America is the leading democracy in the world, said the non-incarcerated people who have voted throughout U.S. history in almost every state. America is the utmost democracy on the face of the Earth, said the primarily older and better-off and able-bodied people who are the likeliest to vote in the 21st century. America is the best democracy around, said the American people when it was harder for Black and Native and Latino people to vote in the 2020 election.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2020’s] [Systemic Racism] [Black Lives Matter] [Indigenous] [Latino/a] [Denial] [History] [Politics] [White Defensiveness] [White Blindness] [White Privilege] [White Culture] [White Supremacy] [Slavery] [Civil War] [Racial Terrorism] [Policing] [Police Shootings] [Economics]

National Congress of American Indians Statement on U.S. Capitol Storming by Trump Supporters

by Native News Online Staff | January 2021
The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) Administrative Board Officers met in response to the events surrounding the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and released the following statement: “This week, as hundreds of thousands of Americans continue to die on a daily basis and millions more suffer the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the President of the United States chose to incite his supporters to launch a violent and uncivilized attack on our democracy, which led to destruction of public property and unfortunately the death of several American citizens. The actions of those who breached the U.S. Capitol building put the lives and liberties of many in danger. These actions, incited by President Trump and his enablers, are rooted in systemic and acute racism and hate, and represent direct attacks on our democracy. As leaders of our own tribal nations, we understand the sacred duty undertaken by those chosen to serve their people to uphold the rule of law and the will of the people.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Systemic Racism] [Indigenous] [Social Justice] [Accountability] [White Supremacy] [Politics] [Health Disparities] [White Privilege] [White Defensiveness]

This Waltz Once Attributed to Strauss Is Actually by Indigenous Mexican Composer Juventino Rosas

by Stephen Raskauskas | May 2017
The waltz is typically associated with composers from German-speaking countries. The word waltz is, after all, German. Viennese composers like Beethoven and Schubert composed waltzes. Viennese composer Johann Strauss II was known as the “Waltz King.” But at the same time that the Viennese were waltzing around ballrooms and clinking their champagne glasses, the people of Mexico were enjoying waltzes, too, many of which were composed in Mexico. One of the most famous waltz composers in Mexico was Juventino Rosas. He was born in 1868 in Santa Cruz de Galeana to parents who were Otomí. The Otomí people are one of many indigenous groups in Mexico. In 2015, over 25,000,000 people living in Mexico identified as indigenous.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [Indigenous] [2010’s] [Latino/a] [Myths] [Art & Culture] [Implicit Racism] [History] [Silencing POC]

20 Things You’re Saying That You Didn’t Know Were Offensive; Many Common Words or Phrases Have Insidious Origins

by Morgan Greenwald | November 2020
Cobble together—in your head, please, particularly if there are children around—a list of the most offensive words and phrases you can think of. Chances are, it’s full of the usual suspects: F-words and a whole lot of S-words, right? But here’s the thing: Your list is missing quite a few offensive phrases. And we’re sorry to report that it’s a good bet you use them a lot. For instance, did you know that the common phrase “basket case” comes from a saying used in World War I to describe quadriplegics? Or that “rule of thumb” has an insidiously violent origin? (And we’re sure most parents aren’t aware that “fuzzy wuzzy” was a racist term before he was the protagonist of a harmless child’s rhyme.) Before you accidentally hurl an insult without even realizing, read up on these 20 offensive words and phrases.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2020’s] [Assumptions] [Implicit Bias] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [Definitions] [History] [Systemic Racism] [Indigenous] [Accountability] [White Blindness]

Teaching Indigenous Star Stories; Educators like Wilfred Buck Know that Astronomy Did Not, in Fact, Start with Aristotle and End with Neil DeGrasse Tyson

by Kelly Boutsalis | November 2020
When some Cree people look at the sky during summer months, they see Ochekatchakosuk, a group of stars in the shape of a fisher, a weasel-like animal related to the wolverine. According to Cree teaching, a long time ago (likely during the Ice Age), there was no summer in the northern hemisphere. The animals of the region wanted to find summer and bring it back, and the fisher, Ochek, was selected for the task. After he succeeded, he escaped into the sky, and the Creator stamped his shape into the stars. In spring and summer evenings, Ochek is located high in the sky, inviting celebrations of warmer weather; in autumn and winter, he appears closer to the horizon—a reminder to be grateful of the passing seasons.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [History] [Silencing POC] [Advocacy] [Role Model] [White Culture] [White Supremacy] [Denial]

Field Correction: Race-Based Medicine, Deeply Embedded in Clinical Decision Making, is Being Scrutinized and Challenged

by Stephanie Dutchen | December 2020
A young Black man arrives in the emergency room, doubled over in pain from a sickle cell crisis. “It’s an act,” says the attending physician dismissively. “I think he just wants drugs.” The attending refuses to prescribe the opioids he might give to a white patient in similar straits. Andrea Reid, MD ’88, associate dean for student and multicultural affairs for the Program in Medical Education and director of the Office of Recruitment and Multicultural Affairs at Harvard Medical School, witnessed too many such scenes as a trainee in Boston-area hospitals in the 1980s and ’90s. “It was awful,” she says. “There was bias that reflected in the management of some patients, especially those who didn’t look like they were in pain.” After watching this scenario play out in the emergency department and on the wards, Reid quietly began to direct some of the sickle cell patients toward her outpatient clinic for continuity care. … Many clinicians have heard or been formally taught that Black people don’t feel pain as acutely as white people because they have different biology. Black bodies have fewer nerve endings than white bodies, they’ve been told. Black skin is thicker than white skin, they’ve learned. Digging deeper reveals that these notions, as old as transatlantic slavery, have no evidence behind them. Yet a 2016 survey in PNAS of white medical students and residents found that half of the respondents still believe and act on them.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2020’s] [Systemic Racism] [Health Disparities] [Myths] [Implicit Bias] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Blindness] [Denial] [History] [Indigenous] [Asian] [Latino/a] [White Privilege]

How the Dawes Act Stole 90 Million Acres of Native American Land

by Dave Roos | January 2021
In the long, dark history of the United States government’s mistreatment of Native Americans, most people are familiar with the Trail of Tears, in which approximately 15,000 Native American men, women and children died during forced relocation from their tribal homelands in the American Southeast to Indian Territory in modern-day Oklahoma. But the theft of Native American tribal land didn’t stop with the Indian Removal Act of 1830 that authorized the Trail of Tears. Over the next century, Congress passed a series of laws that systematically stripped tribes of their lands, selling them to white settlers and corporations.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [History] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [Slavery] [Systemic Racism] [Politics] [Economics] [Implicit Bias] [Justice System] [Assumptions]

Enslaved Native Americans Played Central Role in 1600s New England Households

by Cecily Hilleary | January 2021
In 1614, six years before the Mayflower crossing, English explorer John Smith led two ships to survey the New England coast. As he described in his “Historie of New England,” Smith left shipmaster Thomas Hunt behind to fish and trade with the Natives. But Hunt saw an opportunity in another kind of trade: He kidnapped 27 Wampanoags and sailed to Spain, where he sold “these poor innocent souls” into slavery. … Slavery in America is usually associated with Africa and the American South. But Ohio State University historian Margaret Ellen Newell told VOA that up until 1700, Native Americans comprised the majority of slaves in America. “The first documented case was in 1605, when an English expedition captured four Wabanakis in what’s now Maine and brought them back to London,” Newell said. “The expedition was run by a man named Ferdinando Gorges, who hoped to establish a colony in northern New England and was looking for captives to use as guides and interpreters.” Since the start of their settlement, Puritan colonists sought Indians as indentured servants as a solution to labor shortages, she said.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [Slavery] [History] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism] [Justice System] [Prison System]

The Whiteness Within Me

by Ami Worthen | January 2021
Like you, I watched with horror as a violent mob stormed the Capitol building last Wednesday. Inflamed by white supremacy, misogyny, antisemitism, and homophobia, the rioters erupted like pus oozing from the infection that has been raging on this continent since Europeans arrived. Looking at the disturbing images of the hate-filled insurrectionists, who were almost all white, I forced myself to acknowledge that they are, figuratively and likely literally, my distant cousins. It was an urgent reminder that my commitment to collective liberation hinges on addressing the whiteness within me, the anti-Blackness in my blood. We anti-racist white folks can take note that, as Crystal Good (@cgoodwoman) put it, “This is a DANGEROUS moment because the illusion of a sliding scale of white supremacy — allows so many to point to whiteness over there not in the mirror.”
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2020’s] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [History] [Individual Change] [Policing] [Politics] [Accountability] [Systemic Racism] [Justice System] [Social Justice] [Black Lives Matter] [Indigenous] [White Privilege] [Economics]

PWB: Preaching While Black! Ten Indicators of Racism in Predominantly White Church Bodies and What You Can Do To Address Them; The Unholy Union of Racism and Christianity

by Rev. Dr. Jack Sullivan, Jr. | August 2015
Racism and Christianity are no strangers to each other. While no theologically and biblically alert and informed person of our day would dare to defend racism as a legitimate, holy expression of Christianity, it is important to note that United States church bodies were on both sides of the matter of the enslavement of Africans, with some “Christian” ministers and theologians taking the time to bend some biblical texts while remaining silent on others, in order to offer heretical justification of the evil practice of slavery while crafting the doctrine of White supremacy and Black inferiority to provide a perverse platform on which it was placed. Of course, segregation, discrimination, and White privilege as hallmarks of societal racism, were found in organized church bodies as well. Several predominantly White church bodies continue to struggle with racism in both society and their organizational bodies. Some have made defeating racism a priority, while other church organizations have gone so far as to call racism a sin and to issue apologies for their historic and contemporary silence and complicity with racist orientations, laws, and church practices. Still, a large number of church bodies choose to remain silent on the matter perhaps while not realizing that this option actually emboldens racist practices.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [Individual Change] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [Faith-Based/Spiritual] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [-ing While Black] [Employment] [Policing] [Slavery] [Latino/a] [Asian] [Indigenous] [Black Lives Matter] [Social Justice] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts]

The Brutish Museums by Dan Hicks Review – Return Everything; A Powerful Call for Western Museums to Return the Objects Looted in the Violent Days of Empire, During ‘World War Zero’

by Charlotte Lydia Riley | November 2020
The book is a vital call to action: part historical investigation, part manifesto, demanding the reader do away with the existing “brutish museums” of the title and find a new way for them to exist, not as sites of violence or trauma but as “sites of conscience”. Hicks is a curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, whose website says that it displays “archaeological and ethnographic materials from all parts of the world”. He focuses on one particular region – the kingdom of Benin, now located in modern Nigeria.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2020’s] [History] [Art & Culture] [Systemic Racism] [Denial] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [Racial Terrorism] [Economics] [Slavery] [Reparations]

Anti-Black Racism in Indian Country: Jim Crowfeather Lives

by Cedric Sunray | August 2020
Of 55 continuous, identifiable, cohesive Indian communities in the Eastern and Southern regions of the United States (of whom I have intimate knowledge of) were found that of the 29 federally-recognized entities, all but six have been listed in historical records as having mixed-white ancestry, as well as some of course being listed as of primarily Indian ancestry. In the remaining six (all of who battled the BIA more so than the other 23), as well as 26 more that were not federally recognized, it was found that all had some perceived or real association in historical accounts to have some measure of mixed-black ancestry. As the Bureau of Indian Affairs is run by whites, mixed-white Indians, and a smaller number of racially identifiable Indians, with few black employees or employees of mixed-black and Indian descent, it is clear that recognition is not about one’s racial proximity to Indian, but rather one’s racial distance from black. This is entrenched racism and the most obvious double standard one can imagine rearing its head in the Indian political spectrum. While tribes who are perceived or do have some black ancestry, as well as significant Indian ancestry, are being denied, tribes with large amounts of white ancestry and less significant Indian heritage have been acknowledged.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [Systemic Racism] [History] [Denial] [Politics] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Blindness] [Assumptions] [Silencing POC]

The Violent Defense of White Male Supremacy; Trump and His Supporters Are Defending an America Where White Men Can Rule and Brutalize Without Consequence.

*Paywall Alert

by Ibram X. Kendi | September 2020
The violence of Chauvin and Rittenhouse bookended the summer of Trumpism. The three long, hot months from May 25 to August 25 compressed 413 years of American history into a cellphone video in which anyone could easily see the history for what it has always been: the violent “self-defense” of white male supremacy. Colonialism, capitalism, slavery and slave trading, Indian removal, manifest destiny, colonization, the Ku Klux Klan, Chinese exclusion, disenfranchisement, Jim Crow, eugenics, massive resistance, “law and order,” Islamophobia, family separation—all were done in the name of defending life or civilization or freedom.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [Politics] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [History] [White Privilege] [White Culture] [Policing] [Police Shootings] [White Defensiveness] [White Blindness] [Health Disparities] [Justice System] [Black Lives Matter] [-ing While Black] [Accountability] [Indigenous] [Intersectionality]

Going Beyond the Myth This Thanksgiving

by Maia Coleman | November 2020
“I contend that the Thanksgiving myth is just that — it’s a myth, it’s not history,” said Mr. Silverman. The real story, he explained, features far more bloodshed and destruction, including a European plague that wiped out enormous swaths of the native population, the continued exploitation of native people at the hands of the colonists and above all, the grabbing of native lands. The actual Thanksgiving feast was born from a mutual defense pact between the English colonists and the Wampanoags against the neighboring Narragansett tribe, Mr. Silverman said. “Neither side attributed much importance to this event,” Mr. Silverman told the audience. “The Wampanoags never invoked it again, at least on record in any diplomacy between themselves in the English…and English records dedicated two paragraphs to it.”
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [Myths] [History] [Silencing POC] [White Culture] [White Supremacy] [Denial] [Systemic Racism]

The Hurdles Ahead in 2021 for Maine’s Stalled Tribal Sovereignty Bid

by Caitlin Andrews | November 2020
Tribes are reviving a push to overhaul their relationships with the state, but they lost champions in the election and the complicated effort may face obstacles in a skeptical Gov. Janet Mills and special-interest opponents. … The complex issue of sovereignty would be revived in what promises to be one of the more high-stakes legislative sessions in state history in early 2021. Lawmakers will be facing an estimated $1.4 billion shortfall over the next three years. Racial disparities around the coronavirus, health and incarceration are also likely to drive policy conversations.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [Politics] [Justice System] [Systemic Racism] [Health Disparities] [Prison System] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [Economics] [Denial]

“This is Where Our People Are”: Reflections on Plymouth 400

by Charles Thomas Lai FitzGibbon | November 2020
This month, in addition to being National Native American Heritage Month, marks 400 years since the Mayflower landed in Plymouth. Here in Massachusetts—a state named after the indigenous people of the “Great Blue Hill”—many of us are settlers on stolen land. I spoke with Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, Chairwoman of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah based on Martha’s Vineyard, to hear her perspective on this moment, and what we can learn from reflecting on the anniversary. CF: This year marks 400 years since European settlers landed in Plymouth. How are your communities reflecting on and/or acting around this moment? …CAM: We wanted to really have our truth be told, not the whitewashed, watered down version [from] the history books that our children have to endure around fifth grade. Not the version to make the story sound good. As we say in Indian Country which is where we live and work: the truth is the truth is the truth.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [History] [White Supremacy] [Racial Covenants] [White Culture] [White Blindness] [Systemic Racism] [Advocacy] [Justice System] [Politics] [White Privilege]

Shinnecock Nation Asserts Sovereignty at Sunrise Highway Encampment

by Julia Press | December 2020
For 26 days, Shinnecock residents camped out along the Sunrise Highway — the only road in and out of the Hamptons. “We’ve had snow, we’ve had rain, we’ve had sleet, we’ve been under tornado watch,” said Tela Troge. She’s a member of Warriors of the Sunrise, the group of Shinnecock women who organized the occupation. Troge said that this “Sovereignty Camp” was spurred by a recent dispute with state and local government over a 61-foot tall electronic billboard. The Shinnecock Nation built this monument along the highway to generate advertising revenue. Troge, who’s a lawyer, spent years on the legal research to prove that it was on Shinnecock land.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [Justice System] [Accountability] [White Privilege]

US Supreme Court Rules Half of Oklahoma is Native American Land

by BBC News | July 2020
Thursday’s decision in McGirt v Oklahoma is seen as one of the most far-reaching cases for Native Americans before the highest US court in decades. The ruling means some tribe members found guilty in state courts for offences committed on the land at issue can now challenge their convictions.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [Systemic Racism] [Collective Action] [Justice System] [Prison System]

The Ugly History of the Pledge of Allegiance — and Why It Matters; Requiring Displays of Patriotism Have Often Been Tied to Nativism and Bigotry

by Christopher Petrella | November 2017
The origins of the pledge trace to the late 19th century, the product of an expansionist American project. In 1891, the family magazine Youth’s Companion asked 35-year-old Francis Bellamy, a former pastor of Boston’s Bethany Baptist Church, to fashion a patriotic program for schools around the country to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s “arrival in America” by “raising the U.S. Flag over every public school from the Atlantic to the Pacific.” …Far from a political outlier, Bellamy tapped into the ubiquitous turn-of-the-century nativism that made enemies of the 2.5 million Slavs, Jews and Italians who immigrated to the United States throughout the 1880s and 1890s.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2010’s] [Indigenous] [Policing] [History] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [Systemic Racism] [Immigration] [Slavery] [Anti-Racism] [Assumptions]

American Environmentalism’s Racist Roots Have Shaped Global Thinking about Conservation

by Prakash Kashwan | September 2020
American environmentalism’s racist roots have influenced global conservation practices. Most notably, they are embedded in longstanding prejudices against local communities and a focus on protecting pristine wildernesses. This dominant narrative pays little thought to indigenous and other poor people who rely on these lands – even when they are its most effective stewards.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [Systemic Racism] [Myths] [Confederate Monuments] [Slavery] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [Economics] [History] [Environment]

Democrats Introduce Bill Addressing Cultural Genocide Against Native Americans

by Jordan Davidson | October 2020
Two lawmakers introduced a bill Tuesday addressing previous actions the U.S. government inflicted upon Native Americans. The bill, authored by Rep. Deb Haaland from New Mexico and Sen. Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts, specifically addresses the “intergenerational trauma” caused by policies that tore Native American children away from their families and sent them to boarding schools to be educated in white culture, HuffPostreported. The bill, called The Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policy in the United States Act, would create a formal inquiry to document how the government’s Indian boarding school policy amounted to cultural genocide as children were prevented from learning Indigenous traditions. Instead, the government forced them to assimilate into mainstream American culture.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [Systemic Racism] [White Culture] [White Supremacy] [History] [Politics] [Teachers] [Accountability]

7 Racist Slurs Which You Should Drop from Your Vocabulary; Odds Are That You Use These Phrases Every Day

by Shourya Agarwal | October 2020 On this uphill climb to social justice, we have uncovered an underlying structure of discrimination that lurks beneath our milieu. As our language has been shaped alongside a predominantly racist climate, it has absorbed some of the...

The Racist History of Abortion and Midwifery Bans; Today’s attacks on abortion access have a long history rooted in white supremacy.

by Michele Goodwin | July 2020
Just like slavery, anti-abortion efforts are rooted in white supremacy, the exploitation of Black women, and placing women’s bodies in service to men. Just like slavery, maximizing wealth and consolidating power motivated the anti-abortion enterprise. Then, just as now, anti-abortion efforts have nothing to do with saving women’s lives or protecting the interests of children. Today, a person is 14 times more likely to die by carrying a pregnancy to term than by having an abortion, and medical evidence has shown for decades that an abortion is as safe as a penicillin shot—and yet abortion remains heavily restricted in states across the country. Prior to the Civil War, abortion and contraceptives were legal in the U.S., used by Indigenous women as well as those who sailed to these lands from Europe. For the most part, the persons who performed all manner of reproductive health care were women — female midwives. Midwifery was interracial; half of the women who provided reproductive health care were Black women. Other midwives were Indigenous and white.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [History] [Slavery] [Black Lives Matter] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [Politics] [Civil War] [Asian]

Thirty Everyday Phrases That Perpetuate the Oppression of Indigenous Peoples

by Alex Kapitan | October 2020
Language isn’t neutral or objective. It is a vessel of cultural stories, values, and norms. And in the United States, everyday language plays into the violent, foundational myth of this country’s origin story—Europeans “discovering” a virtually uninhabited wilderness and befriending the few primitive peoples who lived there—as well as other cultural myths and lies about Indigenous Peoples that are baked into U.S. culture and everyday life.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [Myths] [Systemic Racism] [History] [Definitions]

Inside a New Effort to Change What Schools Teach About Native American History; A New Curriculum from the American Indian Museum Brings Greater Depth and Understanding to the Long-Misinterpreted History of Indigenous Culture

by Anna Diamond | September 2019
Students who learn anything about Native Americans are often only offered the barest minimum: re-enacting the first Thanksgiving, building a California Spanish mission out of sugar cubes or memorizing a flashcard about the Trail of Tears just ahead of the AP U.S. History Test.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Indigenous] [Systemic Racism] [History] [Teachers] [Myths] [Silencing POC] [Immigration]