indigen

Obama: Tribal Nations Conference Just a Start

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:42:13 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Fulfilling a campaign pledge, President Obama welcomed nearly 400 tribal leaders to his White House Tribal Nations Conference on Thursday and assured them that his support of Native issues is genuine and his historic summit is no mere “lip service” to Indian Country.

via reznetnews.org

Brazilian Indians find plane survivors

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:17:39 -0600

Indigenous Indians located nine survivors of a plane that crashed in a river in the Amazon rain forest with 11 people onboard, according to the Brazilian air force.

The nine passengers were in good health, the air force said Friday.

Of the two people missing — a passenger and a crew member — one is believed to be dead. The air force did not provide further details.

The plane was on its way to deliver health supplies Thursday when it crashed. It had taken off from Cruzeiro do Sul in Acre state and was headed to Tabatinga in Amazonas state.

The plane landed in the Itui River between the tribe settlements of Aurelio and Rio Novo. Indians of the Matis tribe, who live in Aurelio, initially located the plane and alerted the Brazilian air force, which sent search planes to the site.

Before the passengers were located, at least eight aircraft had been dispatched for the search operation, the air force said.

Members of the Matis, an indigenous tribe of about 300, live deep in the rain forest.

Other area tribes were helping in a search for the two missing passengers along the shores of the Itui.

via cnn.com

Behind the Scenes:: Still Wounded (A Photo Series and Interview)

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:17:00 -0600

All photos by Aaron Huey and can be seen at the New York Times interview here.

Aaron Huey arrived on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota at the start of a self-assigned photographic road trip to document poverty in America.
The poverty he found on the reservation stopped him cold.
“Pine Ridge is the scariest place I’ve ever been - more so than in a Taliban ambush,” Mr. Huey said. ”It was emotionally devastating. I’d call my wife late at night crying.”
Overwhelmed by the poverty – and at the same time by scenes of people trying to maintain the Lakota way of life – Mr. Huey abandoned the rest of his nationwide project to focus on Pine Ridge. Five years later, he’s still photographing on the reservation, which includes the Wounded Knee battlefield.
Mr. Huey, 33, is a photgrapher for National Geographic Adventure and National Geographic Traveler. He also freelances for The New Yorker and Geo. In 2007, he photographed in Afghanistan for The Times.

Still Wounded is an amazing photo series and great interview on this photographer and what he sees on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota.

2012 isn't the end of the world, Mayans insist

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:59:37 -0600

2012 isn't the end of the world, Mayans insist:

Chile Pixtun, a Guatemalan, says the doomsday theories spring from Western, not Mayan ideas. A significant time period for the Mayas does end on the date, and enthusiasts have found a series of astronomical alignments they say coincide in 2012, including one that happens roughly only once every 25,800 years. But most archaeologists, astronomers and Maya say the only thing likely to hit Earth is a meteor shower of New Age philosophy, pop astronomy, Internet doomsday rumors and TV specials such as one on the History Channel which mixes “predictions” from Nostradamus and the Mayas and asks: “Is 2012 the year the cosmic clock finally winds down to zero days, zero hope?”

Pow-Wow Thunder TEASER v1.1 (via cgeneroux) Pow-Wow Thunder is...

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:32:00 -0600

Pow-Wow Thunder TEASER v1.1 (via cgeneroux)

Pow-Wow Thunder is a journey into the lives of veteran Pow-Wow announcers, taking an intimate look at these versatile personalities that deliver a high-impact entertaining Pow-Wow. Witness the celebrations through their eyes as you have never seen or heard it before! HOKA-HEY! POW-WOW TIME!

Native writer Sherman Alexie enjoys being an offensive threat

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:31:00 -0600

via oregonlive.com

Sherman Alexie sits in a coffee shop on Westlake Avenue, talking about his recent appearance at a national booksellers convention. Alexie stirred up some controversy when he called the Kindle an “elitist” wireless reading device, but right now he’s telling a story about being on a panel with James Patterson and Lisa Scottoline, fiction writers who are more popular than he is and don’t go looking for trouble, like he does.

Alexie couldn’t get Patterson and Scottoline to understand the difference between what they write and what he writes. They study the book-buying market and try to appeal to the broadest possible audience. Alexie doesn’t operate that way.

“If you’re not offending a pretty high percentage of people who read your books, you’re not doing it well enough,” Alexie says. “(Patterson and Scottoline) don’t want to displease anybody, and I’d just feel terrible if I didn’t displease somebody. At my public performances, if somebody doesn’t walk out at some point I feel like I haven’t done my job.”

Then Alexie tips his head back and laughs. It’s his signature move, as easy to spot and hard to defend as a crossover dribble on the basketball court near his office.

The 42-year-old Alexie loves basketball — he can’t seem to go more than a few minutes without making some reference to it or using it as a metaphor — but he loves to laugh even more. He’s a serious man, committed to his art and his life with an intensity that would come off as maniacal if it weren’t for the humor lurking at the edge of every pronouncement. He’s not afraid to say anything, not afraid to write about anything and not afraid to joke about anything. After he stopped laughing, Alexie went quiet and waited for the next question:

Bears Belly :: Arikara

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:44:35 -0600

Bears Belly :: Arikara

In a First, Navajos to Vote on Their Power Structure

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 05:01:00 -0600

In a First, Navajos to Vote on Their Power Structure:

From the New York Times:

Navajo voters have never had much of a say in how their modern government was shaped. But that may soon change, after a tribal judge cleared the way for a special election on a restructuring that could alter the balance of power on the sprawling reservation.

The government structure was forced upon Navajo voters 86 years ago and was reorganized under three branches without their consent.

Maybe Navajos “will have a greater sense of ownership in the government than they now have,” said Dale Mason, who teaches Navajo government at the University of New Mexico, Gallup.

Northern Peru has plenty more to offer than Machu Pichu,...

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:33:52 -0600

Northern Peru has plenty more to offer than Machu Pichu, Thrifter gives a list of several other sites to see while visiting.

From Thrifter:

However, if you like a combination of archeology and beach lounging then the coastal town of Huanchaco may be more up your street. Although it is a little further away from Chan Chan than Trujillo, the beaches are wonderful, as is the surfing, and you will still be able to immerse yourself in Peruvian culture. The fishermen there still use paddling boats (Caballitos de Totora) built in the same manner for thousands of years. Some jokily call them the first ever surf boards.

Eskimo Chef Works Magic with Blubber, Moss

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:32:53 -0600

Eskimo Chef Works Magic with Blubber, Moss:

From Onion Radio News:

According to Villagers, a local [eskimo] chef’s recipe for seal blubber and tundra moss will make you think you’d died and gone to heaven.

courtneyj: fuckinnerd: claytoncubitt: Edward S Curtis, ‘The...

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 07:32:53 -0600

courtneyj:

fuckinnerd:

claytoncubitt:

Edward S Curtis, ‘The Whaler-Makah’, 1915

WHAT IS INDIAN TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY?

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:00:52 -0600

WHAT IS INDIAN TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY?:

deltafoxtrot:

Before the advent of Indian gambling casinos and the profits which enabled federally acknowledged Indian tribes to enter the world of big business, few people had ever heard of tribal sovereignty.

Generally the old European and international concept of sovereignty was associated with “nation states,” countries that saw their people and territory as having to answer to no other sovereign nation in their affairs.

Since the United States became a sovereign independent nation, it has exercised plenary power over all Indian tribes.

In the early days, there were only a few major recognized historic tribes, some with thousands of tribal members, unlike today, when tiny bands or groups of Indian descendants often claim to be a separate tribe.

In actuality, they are just splinter groups or families sharing a common or similar tribal ancestry.

In California, these tiny groups are no more than the remnants of families that at one time had a tribal ancestry.

The federal government’s Indian policies ran the gamut from treaties relations to welfare dependency.

In the beginning, when the European powers were struggling for hegemony, over the North American continent it was expedient to make treaties with various recognized tribes who were often allies in the war for control of what was called the American and Canadian territories.

As more and more Europeans migrated to the New World, the expansion of settlements often pushed tribes from territories they occupied and created conflicts between Native Indians and settlers.

Treaties then became a mechanism to make or insure a measure of peace.

As settlement became denser in the Eastern regions and migration westward increased, the conflicts could not be resolved by treaties alone, and in some cases treaties were broken.

This resulted in the disastrous relocation policies of the early to mid-1800s in which groups of Indians east of the Mississippi River were physically relocated to lands they were given by the government west of the Mississippi.

The injustices of the relocation policy and the continuing conflict between settlers were only interrupted by the Civil War.

Following the end of the Civil War, the great migration westward increased as did the beginnings of the industrial revolution in the east.

Conflicts continued with some of the warlike plains Indians and settlers seeking lands in the west.

These were often reported, sensationalized and exaggerated in newspapers and books in eastern cities and towns seeking to sell copy.

Treaties with Indian tribes were difficult at best to manage and were heavily oriented toward agriculture.

In 1881, Congress passed a law prohibiting the making of any more treaties with Indian tribes.

The advent of the homestead era, where settlers (and Indians) could homestead lands from the public domain served as impetus for the Dawes Act of 1887.

This federal law provided that Indian tribes could allocate the land they held in common as tribal lands in parcels to tribal members as their own fee lands to farm or ranch as they saw fit.

The intent in what was then still an agrarian-based economy was for these Indians to become self-sufficient and, essentially, to assimilate into the American economy and society.

Individual Indians could also homestead lands under a procedure established by the Indian Homestead Act.

By the terms of the Dawes Act, once a tribe had allotted all of its tribal land to its tribal members, the tribe ceased to have any tribal authority and political identity.

During that period, from the Dawes Act to 1921, there was much confusion in federal Indian policy, which conflicted with the earlier “treaty” policy that had created “reservations” for the occupation and control of tribal entitles.

The relocation policy also created “reservations” for the purposes of a recognized tribe of Indians to occupy and control, free from any outside interference in internal tribal affairs.

These reservations were lands ceded to tribes and to which some tribes were relocated.

Others voluntarily populated these lands set aside for their use and occupation.

During this same period, the U.S. government sought to make individual Indians full citizens of the United States, often creating fictitious or vague rationales for doing so.

Finally, in 1921, Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act, which made each individual Indian a full citizen of the United States.

Dances with Werewolves gets in step

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:02:08 -0600

Dances with Werewolves gets in step:

From Fangoria:

“DANCES WITH WEREWOLVES is a working title, and the movie is a classic American romance which will be done mostly in the Lakota language,” [Actor Noah] Segan tells Fango. “Set against the pioneering days of the Wild West, the insecurity of Reconstruction after the Civil War and the tumultuous relationship between white settlers and Native Americans, we examine how encroaching civilization drives a tribe, as a last resort, to invoke lycanthropy to defend their land and way of life. When a young pioneer and a Native American princess fall in love, the impending battle between their two families could at least tear them apart, if not tear them to shreds. Think ROMEO & JULIET meets BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF meets RAVENOUS.”

Dutch lacrosse player Jantien Van Der Kooij (right) fights for...

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:02:23 -0600

Dutch lacrosse player Jantien Van Der Kooij (right) fights for the ball with Katie Smith of the US Haudenosaunee

Native American women’s dream comes true in Prague

From AFP:

On the side of a football-turned-lacrosse pitch in Prague, the purple banner with white rectangles and a tree immediately catches the eye among the usual national flags.

A Native American woman in a purple sweatshirt watches the ongoing lacrosse battle intently, then turns and says casually: “It’s our game back home, you know?”

Charlene Thomas, general manager of the Native-American Haudenosaunee team, had taken her “girls” to Prague for the women’s lacrosse World Cup — the first such event for the team that will only celebrate its first birthday in August.

“We wanted to see our girls have their dream come true and this day, this year has done it for them,” said Thomas, a retiree who does her current job as a volunteer.

Why Dogs sniff each other's tails

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:00:53 -0600

Why Dogs sniff each other's tails:

A story told by Tree Cody (Dakota Sioux/Maricopa) put online by Ken White of the SF Gate:

I guess you want to know why dogs always sniff each other when they walk by.

Long ago, the dogs had their own nation and ceremonies, just like the human beings. The great dog chief was calling his people throughout the dog nation, all the dogs from all walks of life, who came to the camp for a big meeting.

It is important that you know that, back then, the dogs and the humans were not friends. The dogs were very cautious, very leery about the two-leggeds. Humans were known to capture the dogs and use them as slaves, to make them carry things. The dogs tried to avoid the human beings, to avoid capture and being made into slaves.

But it came to be that the dogs had this grand celebration, and at this celebration the dogs had invited several human beings in an effort to make a peace between their two peoples. At this celebration, there was a dance that the human beings wanted all these dogs to do. They said it was a special dance, and it would be a great favor if the dogs would perform it for them.

“What is this dance called?” the dogs asked. “It is called the tail dance,” the humans answered. “Really? And why is it called the tail dance?” asked the dogs. And the people explained that all the dogs were to take their tails off of their bodies and set them in the middle of a circle and then dance around the circle for a long time. It was a special dance that the two-leggeds, having no tails, could not perform, and that is why it would be such a special dance for them to watch.

So the chief of the dogs got together all of his people and they started to dance. It got to that special part of the ceremony when the dogs were to take their tails off. Off they came and they all put them in the center of the circle. Four times they would dance to the center, and they would dance back out again.

As they were dancing, all of a sudden the dog sentries set as guards around the village all came running in, shouting that the two-leggeds were coming. It was a big attack, a trick planned all along by those they had invited to the dance, by those humans who has asked them the favor of removing their tails for the dance.

Now all the dogs jumped into the circle and grabbed whatever tails they could and then they ran off to their homes. They knew that escape was the only way to avoid being made into slaves, so they grabbed tails in a hurry and they ran away.

And today, when two stranger dogs meet, part of the meeting is to sniff each other’s tail. Each dog still hopes to find his own real tail, lost long ago at that dance.

May-Jun Inuit Throat Singer Becky Beat Boxer Mike preform at the...

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 17:01:52 -0600

May-Jun Inuit Throat Singer Becky Beat Boxer Mike preform at the live lounge Ottawa (via mayjunmusic)

From bingo hall to Hollywood: An up and coming Native writer

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 11:01:10 -0600

From bingo hall to Hollywood: An up and coming Native writer:

From Indian Country Today:

Just over a year ago, Steve Judd, Kiowa/Choctaw, was working at a Bingo Hall in Goldsby, Okla.; today, he is working as a writer in Hollywood. Judd is a staff writer and Disney/ABC Writing Fellow on the new Disney XD comedy series “Zeke and Luther.”

Born in Oklahoma, Judd attended Haskell Indian Nations University and the University of Oklahoma where he focused on communications and Native American studies. Judd was inspired to make movies to combat the stereotypical portrayals of American Indians in films he saw as a child.

“When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a writer. Growing up in Oklahoma, I never thought I could write for television, so I started to write film scripts.”

While in college, Judd began his own production company called Restless Natives, which has produced several projects including the independent film, “American Indian Graffiti: This Thing Life,” the short-film spoof “MAC v. PC with a Native Twist” and the PBS documentary “Silent Thunder.”

Rez Bomb is a love story/thriller about a Lakota girl, Harmony...

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 05:00:53 -0600

Rez Bomb is a love story/thriller about a Lakota girl, Harmony and a white guy, Scott who are very much in love but get into trouble with a brutal loan shark, Jaws. Jaws threatens Scott as he’s being released from six weeks in jail that if his now hefty debt including interest isn’t paid off by midnight its curtains.

Scott thinks he can pay it courtesy of a stash of pills he has hidden inside his guitar so heads to his home on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which he shares with Harmony. It is the poorest place in the USA and a world apart from the more affluent upbringing he had in Rapid City, South Dakota.

There he discovers both Harmony and the guitar are missing. So he goes searching for them both. We inter-cut his quest with Harmony’s previous six weeks as she flees Jaws. After taking a beating and discovering she’s pregnant she’s offered a place in protective housing allowing her to disappear from those chasing her. In the process she pawns all their valuables, including the guitar.

As Scott searches for her he is forced to confront his past and their families who oppose their relationship.

Check out the movie trailer here.

The Dark Side of Health Care on Native American Reservations

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 17:01:48 -0600

The Dark Side of Health Care on Native American Reservations:

From Finding Dulcinea:

On paper, the situation sounds good: Based on a 1787 agreement between tribes and the United States government, the U.S. has an obligation to provide American Indians with free health care on reservations.

But that’s not how it works, reports the Associated Press. Roughly one-third more is spent per capita on health care for felons in federal prison, according to 2005 data referenced by the AP. The system’s ineffectiveness has yielded a common refrain on reservations of “don’t get sick after June,” because that‘s when federal funds run out.

Charlie Hill on the Richard Pryor Show, 1977 (via...

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:01:10 -0600

Charlie Hill on the Richard Pryor Show, 1977 (via lloydbrookes10)