Showing posts with label Native Americans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Native Americans. Show all posts

Sunday, January 28, 2024

Climate-Endangered Tribe Sues Louisiana

By now, you're likely well aware of the climate crisis and its significant dangers to Indigenous communities the world over. The problem is especially magnified on islands and in coastal regions, where sea level rise can wipe away traditional homelands and make climate refugees of those who have been displaced. That's true even right here in the United States, where hundreds of Native communities -- in South Dakota, Alaska, Florida, Hawai'i, Washington, and Louisiana -- face existential threats.
 
And now, the first community to supposedly be moved from harm's way -- the Jean Charles Choctaw Nation -- is facing a new set of problems. Just before the new year, the tribe filed a landmark civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) against the state of Louisiana. In 2016, HUD granted Louisiana $48 million in aid to resettle the tribe. But, its complaint asserts, Louisiana failed to properly implement the grant and has ethnically and racially discriminated, violated tribal sovereignty, excluded cultural components central to a proper relocation program, and provided poor replacement housing.
 
The Jean Charles Choctaw Nation has resided on the Isle de Jean Charles for five generations, since the ancestors of its citizens escaped the Trail of Tears in the early 1830s amid President Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act. Its homelands and burial grounds are located in a region facing perpetual devastation and erosion by storms and sea level rise. Since 1955, the Jean Charles Choctaw Nation has lost over 98 percent of its lands to the encroaching ocean.
 
It's also worth noting that the tribe is located in Terrebonne Parish, a region notorious for oil extraction, high pollution rates, and environmental justice violations. The Parish and over 90 percent of its property are largely controlled by non-local fossil fuel and chemical companies. The infamous "Cancer Alley" is just upstream.
 
By filing its complaint with HUD, the Jean Charles Choctaw Nation is looking to the federal agency to investigate the grant-funded resettlement program, currently run by Louisiana's Office of Community Development (OCD). The tribe hopes HUD will order OCD to respect tribal needs and authority as the program's implementation proceeds. The lawsuit is also significant in that, while the tribe has state recognition from Louisiana, it does not have federal recognition, which would extend access to more grants, disaster assistance, and various legal powers -- including constitutional protections and self-governance recognized by the United States.

Sunday, January 21, 2024

Environmental Victory for Alaska Natives

On January 8th, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the State of Alaska's bid to fast-track the legal process, overrule the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and gain approval for the Pebble Mine -- slated to extract enormous amounts of copper, gold, and molybdenum from the pristine and sensitive ecosystem known as Bristol Bay. Located in a remote, wild, and generally uninhabited part of Southwest Alaska, Pebble is the largest known undeveloped copper ore body in the world.
 
The populations in the area rely heavily on wild resources for subsistence, harvesting moose, caribou and salmon. Wild resources play an important part in the region's cultural heritage. There are more than 30 Alaskan native tribes in the region that depend on salmon to support their traditional subsistence ways of life, in addition to other inhabitants and tourists in the area. A diverse coalition led by Alaska Natives has consistently fought against the proposed mine for more than two decades. It eventually gained support from the EPA, which ultimately blocked the mine proposal in January 2023 over concerns it would threaten an aquatic ecosystem supporting the world's most prolific sockeye salmon fishery.
 
This decision is significant, particularly considering the current High Court's tendency to support states' rights, limits on regulation -- especially of the environmental variety -- and corporate concerns. Alaska's request, filed in June, was unusual in that it sought to skip lower appeals courts to challenge the EPA's decision on the basis that it violated Alaska's state sovereignty.
 
Under the law, alleged violations of state sovereignty are one of the few categories of cases that grant the Supreme Court original jurisdiction -- meaning a state can bypass the usual state/federal court appeals process and file straight with the High Court. The justices could easily have decided to hear the case and decide in favor of the mining company, which has shown no qualms about engaging in some shady business practices over the years.
 
As the single most productive sockeye salmon fishery in the world, Bristol Bay contains biodiversity and abundant wild fish populations which present a stark contrast to many other fisheries in the Pacific Northwest (and worldwide). All five Eastern Pacific salmon species spawn in Bristol Bay's freshwater tributaries. Most have experienced severe depletion over the last few decades. Sockeye salmon, like all Pacific Salmon, are a keystone species, vital to the health of an entire ecosystem. Of course, salmon also provide a sacred food source for Indigenous communities up and down the West Coast.
 
Kudos to the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, a consortium of Alaska Native tribes fighting to preserve the traditional Yup'ik, Dena'ina, and Alutiiq ways of life in Southwest Alaska, for leading the charge. The Supreme Court's decision confirms all the hard work put in by tribes and allies, including the Save Bristol Bay Coalition. It remains to be seen whether Alaska's conservative leadership will continue with legal challenges at a lower court level -- but, for now, Indigenous People have won a big battle in this decades-long fight to protect their homelands.

Sunday, January 14, 2024

Native Actor Lily Gladstone Makes History

Today, I share with you some great news! On January 7, in case you missed it, Blackfeet and Nez Perce actor Lily Gladstone made history as the Golden Globes' first Indigenous winner in the category of Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. Gladstone, who goes by both she/they pronouns, brought an understated power to their portrayal of Mollie Burkhardt, an Osage woman struggling amid the murders of her family and community by greedy settlers, in Martin Scorcese's "Killers of the Flower Moon."
 
After beginning their acceptance speech with a traditional Blackfeet introduction and a round of thank-yous, Gladstone said something important and inspiring: "This is a historic win, but it doesn't belong to just me. I'm holding it with all of my beautiful sisters. And this is for every rez kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream, who is seeing themselves represented and our stories, told by ourselves in our own words, with tremendous allies and tremendous trust from with and from each other."
 
That last statement is filled with both truth and nuance. It's a beautiful sentiment, but Gladstone may also be acknowledging that Hollywood remains a place with rich and powerful gatekeepers. Even in 2024, non-Native filmmakers (allies or not) like James Cameron (the "Avatar" franchise) and Scorcese are most often still the ones helming stories featuring Indigenous People and perspectives.
 
This needs to change. Allies are important, and representation is wonderful. Still, even the most positive representation on-screen is not the same thing as agency -- the ability to tell their own stories, centering their own narratives. And agency, particularly for the Native women without whom this story does not exist and the movie could not function, is largely missing for much of "Killers of the Flower Moon." When Native actors occupy the screen, the movie seems to vibrate at a different frequency. I'm left wondering what could have been had their characters' arcs been less peripheral.
 
Much has been written about the movie by Indigenous People across the nation. From a glowing review by Vincent Schilling, founder and editor of NativeViewpoint.com, to a scathing indictment from "Reservation Dogs" star Devery Jacobs, opinions on the movie vary widely -- and understandably so. The three-hour-plus epic, based on true events, is ambitious, messy, and devastating. Critics praise the movie's effort to highlight Osage history with Indigenous actors in prominent roles but express reservations about its graphic violence and lack of historical context, foregrounding of white characters and lack of an Indigenous screenwriter or director. One thing everyone seems to agree upon, though, is the powerful performances given by Gladstone and other Native People in supporting roles. I, for one, look forward to seeing more from all of them, especially in movies and shows written and directed by Indigenous storytellers.

Sunday, December 10, 2023

Life is a Walking

A Native American elder talks about the Sacred Gift of Choice, given to all the Two-Legged Beings:
 
"I am Good Buffalo Eagle. Hear my words.
 
The Creator gave all Two-Legged beings a sacred gift. We call this the Gift of Choice. Regardless of where we are born, all come to earth with this gift. Along with this Gift of Choice, all Two-Legged beings have a sense of knowing right from wrong from the One Who Stands Within. Therefore, the Gift of Choice allows us to choose knowingly.
 
My Pauline, the Woman of my Heart, states that in her Navajo language, life is a walking, a journey. So, if life upon Mother Earth is a journey, there are two ways to walk.
 
By applying the Gift of Choice, we can choose to walk forward or we can choose to walk backward. Because we choose knowingly, with every step we take forward or backward, we are accountable.
 
Because we are accountable, there are consequences. Consequences, however, are not chosen. They might be delayed, but by and by they will come.
 
Forward Walking choices are rewarded with consequences that light the way to peace, happiness, joy, comfort, knowledge, and wisdom. Backward Walking choices bring to the Two-Legged beings consequences of misery, despair, and darkness.
 
At the end of our lives, when our bodies are about to be laid in Mother Earth, we will know for ourselves whether we are a Two-Legged being full of light or a Two-Legged being full of darkness. At that time, we cannot turn around and point a finger accusingly in the air. We will know because We are the ones who chose to walk forward toward the light or backward toward darkness.
 
Hear my words. Don't believe the dark whisperings that invite you to walk backward. At any time in your life, you have the power to turn forward. No matter how young or old you are, you have the power to turn and walk forward.
 
We extend an invitation to all to utilize the power of the Gift of Choice, which will teach us the Forward Walkings that will bring peace. Let's look at the present and with anticipation into the future at what we can become -- a Two-Legged being full of light!
 
I am Good Buffalo Eagle and I have spoken."
 

Sunday, September 10, 2023

Let's Stand Again With Standing Rock

It's time to take action and stop the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL)! It's been over six years since DAPL began carrying oil and nearly a year and a half since the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the pipeline operator Energy Transfer's attempt to avoid producing a required Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Today, in violation of a separate court order, DAPL continues to operate illegally, without a federal easement. Finally, after interminable delay, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has finally released an extremely problematic draft EIS for public input.
 
That's where you come in. You now have just a few weeks to submit your public comment demanding the Corps shut this pipeline down and require a new, valid EIS. Please stand with Standing Rock in this critical moment and write to the Army Corps right now.
 
Now that the EIS has been released, we can confirm what we already suspected. Prepared by a member of the American Petroleum Institute -- clear conflict of interest -- the EIS addresses none of Standing Rock's many grave concerns about DAPL. Those include DAPL's imminent threat to the Missouri River, big problems with Energy Transfer's emergency response plans, Energy Transfer's horrendous safety track record, continued lack of transparency with Standing Rock throughout the environmental review process, inaccurate characterizations of tribal consultation, and sensitive habitat and sacred burial sites along the riverbank.
 
Earlier this year, four U.S. senators including Bernie Sanders submitted a letter to the Corps seeking an explanation. The reply from Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Michael Connor did not adequately or honestly address the tribe's complaints. Standing Rock replied, pointing out the flaws in approach and demanding redress.
 
For now, it's up to us to lend a hand. We must flood the Army Corps with a single, unified message: This illegal pipeline's operations must be terminated and the Army Corps must start over with a legitimate environmental review. In the midst of a climate emergency, let's defend sacred ground and safeguard Unci Maka (our Grandmother Earth). This may be our last, best chance to end DAPL once and for all. Please take action now.

Sunday, August 6, 2023

The Pueblo Jewelers of the Southwest

In the world of Pueblo artisans, the jewelry makers are second in number to the pottery makers. Over the generations, this ancient craft has taken on numerous forms. On the meticulous end of the spectrum, there are those who make tiny beads, called heishi, first produced at today's Santo Domingo (Kewa) Pueblo in prehistoric times, with hand-pump drills and stone drill bits, and then strung as necklaces. From there, Pueblo jewelry runs from semi-precious stones set in silver to contemporary works, made with gold and precious gemstones. In between are tufa-castings (a process using a carved volcanic stone as a mold for molten silver or gold); hammered metal; handmade silver beads; choruses of tiny bird effigies carved from stone and strung; classic concho belts; large seashells covered in mosaic stonework; and some of the most prized lapidary work in the world, famously done by Zuni Pueblo artists. There are works in stainless steel cut to a fine edge, "shadow boxes" (where a design is cut out of a sheet of burnished silver, which is then affixed to an underlying piece of blackened silver, thereby creating an image in negative space), as well as bracelets, rings, bolo ties, and belt buckles, all worn today by design-savvy buyers from around the world.
 
Steve LaRance, of Hopi and Assiniboine heritage, gets his tufa on the Hopi Reservation from deposits created by the San Francisco Peaks. To gather what he needs, he has to drive a four-wheel drive pickup, find an isolated spot, and spend a day digging with shovels and picks. The tufa comes out in chunks, in sizes that range from bowling ball to suitcase. This will generally provide enough raw material for a year's work.
 
Steve and his wife and jewelry-making partner, Marian Denipah, moved from Arizona some years back to Marian's homelands, just a stone's throw from the lazy Rio Grande on Ohkay Owingeh land in northern New Mexico. In addition to their various lines of jewelry, they have also produced a batch of children and grandchildren that have made marks of their own. One daughter is a physician; another, along with her brother, spent a decade as principal dancers for Cirque du Soleil. Today, Steve and Marian oversee a Native youth dance troupe called the Lightning Boy Foundation, which travels the world in an effort to spread Pueblo values and skills.
 
Santo Domingo is one of the Rio Grande Pueblos in Northern New Mexico. For centuries the Pueblo people have been mining turquoise at Cerrillos, south of what is now Santa Fe, and have been acquiring other turquoise from as far away as Nevada, California and Colorado.

The Pueblo jewelers traveled south to the Gulf and west to the Pacific for shell when they couldn't trade for it. Jet and red colored rock was found nearby and used in mosaics and other jewelry. Eventually coral was introduced by the Spanish and replaced the red rock. These colorful stones were made into beads and mosaics for decoration and ceremonies.

The people of Santo Domingo became known for making the best disc beads and, along with the Zuni people, for producing the best inlay in turquoise, jet, shell and coral on shell and wood bases. The jewelers of Santo Domingo still produce the finest handmade beads and mosaics. Many of their children acquire drills and learn to make beads at a very young age. You can shop online for authentic Pueblo jewelry at PuebloDirect.com.

Sunday, July 30, 2023

The Pueblo Potters of the Southwest

Pottery, the most sought after Pueblo art today, is being made by thousands of Native clay artists, many of whom still dig, clean, and age their own clay, as well as hand-shape and coil-build pottery without the use of a potter's wheel. Potters then decorate their works with mineral and clay slips they prepare themselves, or by carving into the clay. Finally, they fire their clay outdoors in the open air, rather than in a kiln.
 
This is the age-old process used by Jody Naranjo, one of the most well-known contemporary Pueblo potters. Naranjo grew up at Santa Clara Pueblo, but moved to Albuquerque years ago to pursue a career in professional art. She still returns to the Pueblo for ceremonies and to fire her distinctive pottery. Naranjo's work is distinguished by intricately etched surfaces, portraying everything from fine geometric patterns to quaint scenes of people and Pueblo life, as well as a variety of animals, birds, and fish.
 
Naranjo consciously carries on ancient traditional techniques. In her pottery, which is always unglazed, Naranjo aims for a natural color that she describes as "rich chocolate brown." To get that tone, she encloses the pots in thin sheets of metal before firing the pottery on a brick. "Some people even use old metal cafeteria trays, or put the work inside metal milk crates," she says. Then she surrounds her pots with chunks of cedar, and sets the whole thing afire. "It burns hot and fast," she notes.
 
Most modern pottery is made from very different clay that requires overnight firings in intensely hot gas or electric kilns, but Naranjo's firings take no more than 30 to 45 minutes. "I have no idea of the temperature, because we don't use thermometers, but I've learned to judge the heat by observation," she says. About 5 to 10 minutes before the pots are done, she covers them with cow manure, which has been dried until it's fluffy.
 
"Some people use shredded newspaper," she says, "some horsehair." The manure blanket blocks the fire's source of oxygen, a step that darkens the pots. If she lets this stage go too far, the pots turn black, a distinct style in itself that some buyers prefer. If the goal is to retain the natural reds in the clay that Pueblo potters traditionally use, this step is skipped entirely, but if you're aiming for some combination -- for example, swirls of black on a red pot -- Naranjo says, "you put a whole cow pie against the pot."
 
The process, however, is not foolproof. Because these firings are done outdoors over a wood fire, without the controlled conditions inside a kiln, wind and humidity levels can create havoc, causing the pottery to crack or explode. To avoid such catastrophes, Naranjo tries to fire in either the mornings or evenings, which are the calmest times of day in her area. But even that's not always enough. "I've often waited a week or more to fire," she says. "It's so tricky. All your work can be gone in a minute!" While studying her craft, Naranjo says, she had her grandmother "giving me advice at every step. Still, I've made mistakes and heard the pots exploding in the fire. Then I just cry."

Sunday, July 23, 2023

The Sweat Lodge Ceremony

In September of 1991, I began hosting a weekly teaching sweat lodge ceremony on four acres of secluded, unimproved forest land that my wife and I owned near Bend, Oregon. The ceremonies were conducted by Wasco elder Les Thomas and Oglala Lakota elder Don Fasthorse. Many people gathered to learn, and then left the group to teach others. The sweat lodge or inipi is as a spiritual purification ceremony of rebirth, rejuvenation, emotional release and awakening. The ceremony serves to cleanse the body, mind and spirit while opening a path of communication between the spiritual and earthly realms. The intense heat generated by steam created from pouring water onto heated rocks is meant to encourage a sweating out of toxins and negative energy that create imbalance in life. Sweat lodge ceremonies are traditionally held for a variety of reasons: before warriors go into battle, before and after major rituals like vision quests or for personal purification.

Sweat lodges are unique dome-shaped structures approximately four to five feet high at the center. They are constructed from supple willow branches and covered with rugs, furs and blankets. When a sweat lodge is built according to tradition, it looks like the body of a turtle. This is because the structure represents Turtle Island or Mother Earth. Entering the lodge symbolizes going back into the womb. It provides a safe and secure place to pray for self, others and all our relations. During the ceremony, spirits are invoked, drums are played and songs are sung. Spirits will enter and sing along with the participants and may even talk to them as well. If a person is not ready to hear the spirits, the spirits may not let that person hear them. Only those who are ready to hear the spirits may hear them because that is how compassionate the spirits are.

The Lakota term for sweat lodge is inipi, which translates to "Stone People Lodge." The Stone People, who are often referred to as the "grandfathers," come from the womb of our Mother Earth. The purpose of the inipi is to return to the womb of Maka (Earth) to be recreated. The Stone People become alive again when their spirits come into the Stone People Lodge. Then you can visit with them and tell them your problems. Then the power that pollutes our mind can be released. The fire from the womb of the Earth Mother will come in and destroy bad thoughts and words. Only good thoughts and words will remain. The spirits of the Stone People return our power to us. That's what Spirit does -- the Stone People, fire, water and green (the plants). The inipi is a place of healing, of purification and of prayer for all life.

A sweat lodge typically has four doors (or rounds) to the four directions (or winds), represented with colors, spirit guides and different elements. The number four has long been considered a sacred number in shamanism and Native American spirituality. All events and actions are based on this number because everything was created in fours. The Great Mystery reveals itself as the powers of the four directions, and these four powers provide the organizing principle for everything that exists in the world. There are four winds, four seasons, four elements, four phases of the moon, four stages to humanity's spiritual evolution, and so on.

The whole process is modeled after the Medicine Wheel, which is a universal symbol that can be found in many Indigenous cultures around the world. The Medicine Wheel represents the natural cycles of life and the basic way in which the natural world moves and evolves. The Medicine Wheel represents the archetypal journey each of us takes in life. This journey has four stages or rounds, each associated with a cardinal direction. Four rounds signify fullness, wholeness or completion.

Sunday, June 4, 2023

Traditional Water Drums

Water drums are a category of membranophone characterized by the filling of the drum chamber with some water to create a unique resonant sound. The presence of the water within gives the sound far greater carrying power than a dry drum possesses. At close range, the tone of the water drum is often a dull thud, but when properly tuned by an experienced drummer it has a resonance that can be heard for miles. No drum can be heard so far; it is on record that water drums have been heard eight to ten miles over a lake. This capacity to be heard distinctly at a distance, coupled with a peculiar tone quality, gives the water drum a very unique voice.

Water drums are used all over the world, including African music and American Indian music, and are made of various materials, with a membrane stretched over a hard body such as a metal, clay or wood. The Native American Church uses a black iron kettle with three tripod legs. The leather drum head is soaked in water before being stretched over the kettle. Clay pot drums were common among many eastern and southern tribes in the ancient days, those of the South using a semicircular-shaped bowl with legs. The pottery water drum of the Pueblo Indians is a vase-shaped pot with a flared out top. Pueblo water drums vary in size from small pots holding a gallon of water up to huge ones measuring thirty or more inches in diameter. These are filled about one-fourth full of water and the wet hide is tied over the top. When not in use the tanned drumhead and rawhide thong for tying it are kept inside the pot.  

Wooden water drums are the traditional percussion instrument for the Native American Anishinaabe (Ojibwe), Ottawa, Potawatomi, Huron and Iroquois peoples. The Eastern Woodland tribes made far greater use of water drums than any other Native peoples, and attached a greater significance to them. To the Anishinaabe and their many neighboring tribes, the water drum is a true medicine drum of great power, the sacred drum of the Midewiwin or Grand Medicine Society, which is at the core of Anishinaabe religion. Water is synonymous with life, hence it adds great potency to the water drum. Its sacred sound is regarded as one of the most effective ways of establishing connections with the spirit realm, since it travels through space, permeates visual and physical barriers, and conveys information from the unseen world. It is widely used today in traditional Longhouse social dances and ceremonies.

Wooden water drums are made either by hollowing out a solid section of a small soft wood log, or assembled using cedar slats and banded much like an old keg. The drum is filled about one-fourth full of water and a wet leather hide is stretched over the top. For detailed instructions on crafting, tuning and playing water drums, download the free eBook, How to Make Drums, Tomtoms, and Rattles by Bernard S. Mason. This classic 1938 edition is now a free public domain eBook.

Sunday, May 28, 2023

The Drum Makers of Cochiti Pueblo

Brothers Carlos and Tomas Herrera, along with their father, Theodore "Arnold" Herrera, of Cochiti Pueblo, produce some of the most sought-after drums in the Native American craft world today. Drummers from all 19 of New Mexico's Pueblo communities come to Cochiti to purchase these drums, which are still made according to ancient practices. Over the years, the Herreras' craft has taken them from Guadalajara, Mexico, to Washington, D.C., for the Smithsonian Institution's Folklife Festival.
 
While Carlos, an environmental scientist, does drum-making in his free time, Tomas recently left the home construction business to focus full-time on making drums. To find the materials for the perfect drum, the brothers wander riverbanks looking for cottonwood boughs and trek into the mountains to collect recently dead aspen logs. Being a relatively soft wood, aspen is not only easier to hollow out, compared with other woods, it also emits a soft reverberation. Cottonwood, having similarly desirous properties, is often used for the large drums that the Herreras make for Plains Indian powwow groups.
 
While a drum has only a few parts, the process of making one is not simple. The multiple steps include aging the logs, cutting them to length, and removing the interior wood, a process for which the Herreras use homemade chisels culled from heavy metal scraps. Then, after preparing rawhide for the drum's head, a lengthy process in itself, the Herreras stretch the rawhide, secure it to the drum with sinew, and do whatever trimming is needed. These steps alone can take up to 16 hours, and that's before they've gotten to painting the drum, or making the drumsticks.
 
While plenty of other Native Americans make drums, Carlos says that their use of ancient, traditional methods for turning an animal hide into a drum head "is something that sets us apart." Today, he says, most drum makers use harsh chemicals, which dry out the hides and make them brittle. The method the Herreras' practice allows their hides to retain some of their original fat and oils, which Carlos says keeps them supple for decades.
 
To accomplish this feat, the Herreras bury their hides, which are sometimes made from elk skins but usually from cowhide, in damp earth for a week or two. They then remove the hair, using old metal files, and degrease the inside, which will still be covered with a lot of fat. To finish the hide, they never use salts, preservatives, or any other special treatment; by the time the hide is fully dry, it has been transformed into odor-free, resonant rawhide.
 
This whole process was passed onto the Herreras from their father, and their grandfather before him. "Even with the knowledge base we have, we struggle at times in getting the hides just right," Carlos says. "There's a lot we don't have control over. Every hide is different, and this is one of the biggest challenges we face. The drying process of the rawhide is out of our control. We can do everything right -- log selection, the carving, the hide preparation, and stretching it with the proper tension. Then maybe the humidity changes or the air pressure, and it loses its tone. At that point, the only option is to remove the leather and begin again with a new hide. We always have to wait until a drum is perfectly dry to find out if it works."
 
"To try to ensure success, we always reach out to my grandpa's spirit and ask him for his help," Carlos says. "We say a little prayer to the spirits to help guide us."
 
To learn more about Cochiti artisans, read "Storytellers and Drums," an excerpt from my memoir Riding Spirit Horse.

Sunday, April 23, 2023

The Pueblo Moccasin Makers

Aaron Cajero began making traditional, Pueblo style moccasins while growing up at Jemez Pueblo, which lies in the foothills of the Jemez Mountains northwest of Albuquerque. He was in the seventh grade at the time. Today, his moccasins are worn by hundreds of ceremonial dancers on Pueblo plazas throughout New Mexico, and he usually has a backlog of orders which can take up to six months to fill.
 
Part of the delay in filling moccasin orders is due to his multifaceted life: Cajero is also a hunting guide, a potter, a traditional bow maker, and a teacher at the Jemez elementary school, where he teaches physical education along with history, language, and traditional Pueblo culture. His cultural studies range from the Pueblos' historical forms of government to moccasin-making and spiritual practices. Cajero knows much of this curriculum personally, having served as his tribe's lieutenant governor three times, and as its overseer of traditional religious practices.
 
Before starting a new pair of moccasins, Cajero first traces the dancer's feet on heavy paper, measures foot height, and notes any unusual physical features. He then cuts into a thick piece of cowhide, creating a shape that's slightly larger than his paper outline. After soaking the new sole in water to soften it, he turns up the outer edge -- a extremely difficult task that has left Cajero with very strong hands.
 
For the moccasins' upper wraps, which must be soft and pliable, Cajero prefers to use fine-grade deer or elk hide. Getting quality supplies can be tough, so Cajero sometimes makes his own leather from the hides of deer or elk he hunts himself, or buys from other Pueblo hunters. He prefers a thick hide so that the moccasins hold up over time. Even for the moccasin tops, if the leather is too thin it sags, creating bulges where the wraps overlap. It needs to look nice and smooth.
 
To stitch the uppers to the sole, Cajero typically uses clear fishing line, because it's lightweight, transparent, and relatively easy to work with. For a moccasin that is entirely authentic, however, he uses elk sinew, which must be kept wet during the stitching. Sinew is more difficult than a nylon line to thread through the leather's holes, which he punches with a tool he made himself by embedding a heavy needle into a wooden handle. Cajero has found that sinew makes a tighter stitch, because it tightens itself as it dries, but it takes more time.
 
This means that a pair of moccasins -- when made with sinew, and leather that Cajero has tanned himself -- runs about $1,000, more than twice the price of a standard pair. It costs more to do it all the old way, but it is well worth it for many traditional dancers.

Sunday, April 9, 2023

Pass the Pipe

You've probably heard the expression "pass the peace pipe." It might have been when two parties struck a compromise after previously being at an impasse. The phrase comes from early American settlers and soldiers who noticed Indigenous peoples smoking ceremonial pipes during treaty signings. They misunderstood this to mean pipe smoking symbolized peacemaking in Native American culture and hence the word "peace pipe" and phrases like "pass the peace pipe" came about.
 
But, like many conventional American ideas about the history and culture of Indigenous peoples, the term peace pipe is a misnomer, says Gabrielle Drapeau, an interpretive park ranger at Minnesota's Pipestone National Monument and an enrolled member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. Tribal enrollment requirements preserve the unique character and traditions of each tribe. The tribes establish membership criteria based on shared customs, traditions, language and tribal blood.
 
Many Native Americans smoke pipes -- and not just in recognition of peace, but in ceremony and prayer as well as a way to connect with God. "So, don't use the term peace pipe," Drapeau says. "It's just pipe."
 
But these were -- and are still -- not just pipes. These artifacts, the tradition of pipe smoking and the ceremonies during which they are smoked hold far more significance for American Indian peoples across North America than the misnomer conveys.
 
A Short History of the Ceremonial Pipe
 
There is no singular word for these ceremonial pipes that spans all Native American cultures. The broad term often given to them is calumet, from the French word chalumet, which means reed or flute. Various tribes have their own unique names in their own languages. For example, the Lakota sacred pipe is called a chanunpa. 
 
Ceremonial pipes have been a part of several Native American cultures for at least 5,000 years and are still used for ceremony and prayer. "I grew up this way. It's the only way I know how to pray," Drapeau says. "To me, it is like a physical representation of your connection to God."
 
The legends of how tribe elders first received pipes differ, too. According to Lakota legend, the first pipe was brought to Earth 19 generations ago by a divine messenger known as White Buffalo Calf Woman (known in the Lakota language as Pte-san Win-yan). The pipe was given to the people who would not forget -- the Oceti Sakowin, or Seven Council Fires of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota nations. The Buffalo Calf Woman came to the tribes when there was a great famine and instructed them about living in balance with nature. She gifted the people with a sacred bundle containing the White Buffalo Calf Pipe, which still exists to this day and is kept by Chief Arvol Looking Horse of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. Other members of the tribes are also pipe carriers: stewards entrusted with the care of particular ceremonial and personal pipes.

Sunday, March 26, 2023

Court Case Threatens Native Sovereignty

A serious threat to Native American tribes across the United states looms large. A decision on the Supreme Court case Brackeen v. Haaland -- a direct assault on the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), and by extension, the very right of tribes to be classified as sovereign nations -- is expected later this year.
 
Enacted in 1978, ICWA was part of the federal government's efforts to rectify the incomprehensible harm it caused to Native families through the forcible removal of Native children from their communities into boarding schools or non-Native foster and adoptive homes. Between 1819 and 1969, hundreds of thousands of children were taken from their families and homes. 
 
ICWA establishes minimum standards for a Native child to be removed from their home and empowers tribes to be more involved in adoption and custody procedures for kids enrolled or eligible to enroll in tribal nations. The law gives tribal courts exclusive jurisdiction over members who live on tribal land, in the hopes of keeping families together, and creates a process whereby they're noticed and involved in cases outside of these boundaries.
 
For years, people and organizations hostile to ICWA have tried to erode the legislation through the court system. Should ICWA fall, it's not only adoption and foster cases that will be gravely impacted; the basic foundations of tribal sovereignty could be unwound. Observers in Indian Country have long believed that attacks on the legislation have broader aims in mind than the wellbeing of children, and many anti-ICWA proponents are also perceived as gunning for access to natural resources, mineral rights and more.
 
Calling into question the authority of Congress to deal with tribal nations as distinct sovereigns would have ​major reverberations throughout the field of Indian law. These attacks on sovereignty can be traced back to the Trail of Tears, the deadly westward displacement of five tribes between 1830 and 1850 initiated by then-President Andrew Jackson. The argument made at the time was that the tribes were being overwhelmed by European settlers, and they would be annihilated if the government didn't take them into custody and move them. ​In truth, those tribes controlled the waterways, and Andrew Jackson said, "​We want it, and we are going to take it."
 
Tribal sovereignty predates the coming of the colonial powers. From 1778 to 1871, the United States federal government signed 370 treaties with tribal nations. Many were used as tools to forcibly remove Indigenous people from their native lands and relocate them to reservations. In exchange for the land they had lived on for generations, tribes were offered many now-broken promises from the government: of peace, the provision of health and education, hunting and fishing rights and protection against enemies.
 
According to the Constitution, treaties can only be enacted between two sovereign nations. That status and the right of tribes to self-govern was affirmed in the 1832 Worcester v. Georgia Supreme Court case. It's also grounded in the Constitution through not one, but two clauses, and was reiterated yet again in the 1990s by a Department of Justice memorandum that tribal nations have the unique status of ​"domestic dependent nations." You can help protect tribal sovereignty by supporting the Native American Rights Fund.

Sunday, March 12, 2023

FNX - First Nations Experience

First Nations Experience (FNX) is the first and only national broadcast television network in the United States exclusively devoted to Native American and World Indigenous content. Through Native-produced and themed documentaries, dramatic series, nature, cooking, gardening, children's and arts programming, FNX strives to accurately illustrate the lives and cultures of Native people around the world.
 
Created as a shared vision between Founding Partners, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and the San Bernardino Community College District, FNX is owned by and originates from the studios of KVCR-PBS San Bernardino. FNX began terrestrial broadcast in the Los Angeles area on September 25, 2011 and went national on November 1, 2014 via the Public Television Interconnect System (PBS satellite AMC - 21 Channel SD08), making the non-profit channel available to PBS affiliates, community and tribal stations, and cable television service providers across the country. 

At the ceremonial unity launch of FNX in February 2011, Cherokee actor Wes Studi confessed he didn't see this coming. "Thank you for proving me wrong," Studi said, speaking at the KVCR/FNX studios in San Bernardino, California. "I once said that I didn't think in my lifetime I'd see a TV channel dedicated to Indian people like you and me, people who are rarely seen on screen in authentic ways. We're making history with this powerful new media tool. This is something I can tell my grandchildren about -- I'll tell them I was there when it launched."

San Manuel Tribal Chairman James Ramos said FNX is "fulfilling a dream our ancestors had ... using the resources we have built through gaming. It's important that people know what our ancestors had to go through so we could be here today. It's time for us to change negative perceptions about indigenous peoples in mainstream audiences. We need to stand together as one voice and make things better for our people."

Ramos added context from his own tribe's past. "There was a time in California's history when there was an effort to get rid of Indian people; we were shot and killed here in the San Bernardino Mountains," Ramos said. "Many people never heard that story, and today some people don't want to talk about that history. But it's important that we do so that we can learn from the past and move forward working together for a better future."

FNX is working diligently to obtain channel carriage in as many communities as possible across the United States. Currently, FNX is carried by 22 affiliate stations broadcasting into 25 states from Alaska to New York and has a potential viewing audience of more than 74.5 million households across the United States! Several additional stations have also begun streaming FNX digitally throughout their communities and states. More new stations are always coming on board, so stay tuned -- FNX may be available in your city very soon! If you'd like to get FNX carried in your community, please reach out to your local stations, cable and satellite service providers. I can't recommend FNX enough and best of all it is totally free!

Sunday, March 5, 2023

Remembering Indigenous Rights Advocate James Abourezk

A few days ago, we lost a tireless champion of the rights of the Indigenous Peoples of North America. Retired South Dakota United States Senator James Abourezk, the architect of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), passed away at his home in Sioux Falls on Friday, Feb. 24 on his 92nd birthday. James George Abourezk was born in 1931 in Wood, South Dakota, the son of Lebanese immigrants. Growing up on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, he spoke only Arabic at home and did not learn English until he went to elementary school.
 
After high school graduation in 1948, Abourezk served in the US Navy during the Korean War. Following military service, he earned a degree in civil engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines in Rapid City in 1961, and worked as a civil engineer in California, before returning to South Dakota to work on the Minutemen missile silos. At the age of 32, he decided to pursue law, and earned a J.D. degree from University of South Dakota School of Law in Vermillion in 1966.
 
Abourezk began a legal practice in Rapid City, South Dakota, and joined the Democratic Party. He ran in 1968 for Attorney General of South Dakota but was defeated by Gordon Mydland. In 1972, Abourezk was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served from 1973 to 1979, after which he chose not to seek a second term. He was the first chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. His legislative successes in the Senate included the 1975 Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, as well as the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978. The American Indian Religious Freedom Act gives federal protection to the traditional religions of the American Indian, Eskimo, Aleut, and Native Hawaiians.
 
Abourezk's signature legislation was the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA, 1978), designed to protect Native American children and families from being torn apart. Native American children have been removed by state social agencies from their families and placed in foster care or adoption at a disproportionately high rate, and usually placed with non Native American families. This both deprived the children of their culture and threatened the very survival of the tribes. This legislation was intended to provide a federal standard that emphasized the needs of Native American children to be raised in their own cultures, and gave precedence to tribal courts for decisions about children domiciled on the reservation, as well as concurrent but presumptive jurisdiction with state courts for Native American children off the reservation.
 
In 1973, Senators Abourezk and George McGovern attempted to end the occupation of Wounded Knee by negotiating with American Indian Movement (AIM) leaders, who were in a standoff with federal law enforcement after demanding that the federal government honor its historical treaties with the Oglala Sioux nation. The Wounded Knee Occupation began on February 27, 1973 when about 200 Oglala Lakota and followers of AIM seized and occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. The occupation lasted for a total of 71 days, during which time two Lakota men were shot to death by federal agents and several more were wounded. It was a key moment in the struggle for Native American rights.
 
The summer after the occupation of Wounded Knee, Abourezk introduced the American Indian Policy Review Commission Act, which created the eleven-member commission to study legislation with the goal of addressing key issues in Indian Country. He served as its chairman until its landmark report was published in 1977. He took the gavel as chairman of the Select Committee on Indian Affairs from its creation in 1977 to 1979, when he left the Senate.
 
In 1980, Abourezk founded the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, a grassroots civil rights organization. In 1989, he published his Advise and Dissent: Memoirs of South Dakota and the U.S. Senate. He was the co-author, along with Hyman Bookbinder, of Through Different Eyes: Two Leading Americans -- a Jew and an Arab -- Debate U. S. Policy in the Middle East (1987).
 
After his retirement from the Senate, Abourezk worked as a lawyer and writer in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He continued to be active in supporting tribal sovereignty and culture. Since 2005, he chaired the Lakota People's Law Project Advisory Committee. The Lakota People's Law Project is committed to defending the rights of South Dakota's Native American families, exposing the epidemic of illegal seizures of Lakota children by the state of South Dakota, working towards the structural solution to end this injustice. Just last year, Sen. Abourezk assisted their legal team in filing an amicus brief supporting ICWA with the United States Supreme Court. Later this year, the High Court could overturn the senator's landmark piece of federal legislation -- and that poses an imminent threat to Native families and sovereignty.

Sunday, January 8, 2023

However Wide the Sky: Places of Power

Pamela Pierce, founding partner and CEO of Silver Bullet Productions in Santa Fe, New Mexico recently announced that "However Wide The Sky: Places of Power" has received an Emmy award in the Best Documentary category. This beautifully filmed documentary originally aired on the New Mexico Public Broadcasting Station. Narrated by Indigenous actress Tantoo Cardinal, the documentary explores the history and spirituality of the Indigenous people of the American Southwest, who are deeply rooted in the land. Since the beginning of time, they have been stewards and protectors of their home lands, past and present. When the Pueblo people pray, they pray for the living land as far as they can see. However wide the sky is, this is who they pray for.

Pierce worked with tribal leaders to film on the land. The areas chosen are: Chaco Canyon, Bears Ears, Zuni Salt Lake, Mount Taylor, Pueblo of Santa Ana, Taos Blue Lake, Mesa Prieta and Santa Fe. These places intimately connect the people and their beliefs to the natural world. This is their story, of the land and who they are. Pierce says the concerns about the use, misuse, development, drilling and mining of scared places in New Mexico began a conversation between Silver Bullet Productions and tribal leaders about the importance of education in 2016.
 
"The land was treated as a commodity, something to be owned, mined, drilled or developed," she says. "In order to protect land and water rights, it seemed that educating about the significance of land might help alert those leaders. The more we know, the better we do. Film can be a powerful tool to change thinking, and motivate people to vote. The danger to land, and the fight to protect land, will always be an issue worth fighting for, regardless of culture or national origin. All land is sacred, and it is a universal concern worth fighting for."
 
The documentary features New Mexico's Chaco Canyon and Utah's Bear's Ears, which is significant because the locations are under siege. Bear's Ears is a modern day story of government versus layers of culture, and the risk of development if the power and policies of the U.S. shift -- it is just how fragile the protection of land is. Chaco Canyon, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is facing drilling for fracking wells. It's not just the wells and the roads that have an impact on the land. Tribal leaders see it as a real threat to their spiritual well being. Pierce thought it was important to really put that out there for the public to see and make them understand why this issue is important to tribes. From their perspective, the land does not belong to them. They belong to the land.
 
Pierce says some of the themes in the film include a distinction between stewardship and ownership, the layers of cultural life on every piece of land, no place is ever abandoned, but remains living from the ancestors who have come before, places have shared cultural history and the difference between being from a place, and of a place. Here is the trailer.

Sunday, November 27, 2022

Second Annual Wopila Gathering

A message from Chase Iron Eyes, Co-director of the Lakota People's Law Project:
 
I'm excited to announce that our Second Annual Wopila Gathering is almost here -- and you're invited! Please come spend a couple hours with me and many of our Lakota Law leaders at the live-streamed event this Giving Tuesday, Nov. 29 at 5 p.m. Mountain Time.
 
I'm very much looking forward to hosting you for these candid conversations. Four powerful women -- Madonna Thunder Hawk, Phyllis Young, Waste Win Young, and DeCora Hawk -- will join me to talk with you about three of the most critical issues in our Native communities. This year's topics are Water is Life (including the importance of Indigenous resistance to environmental racism), Indian Child Welfare (and protecting ICWA), and the Native Vote.
 
It still gives me great joy to think back to our inaugural Wopila Gathering last year, when thousands of supporters like you gathered with us throughout the day. This year, we'll have a more focused and intimate event, spending about two hours shining a light on what you helped us accomplish in 2022 and looking ahead to next steps in our shared journey toward greater justice.
 
So I hope to see you there! And please extend this invite to those you love by clicking the social share icons -- to Facebook, Twitter, and email -- on our Wopila Page. Let's continue to grow the circle of support and come together to honor, inspire, and activate! Stay tuned for more info soon.

Wopila tanka -- thank you, always, for your friendship!
Chase Iron Eyes
Co-Director and Lead Counsel
The Lakota People’s Law Project

Sunday, October 16, 2022

Meeting Author William S. Lyon

While visiting my family in Kansas for the holidays in 1991, a friend of mine introduced me to William S. Lyon, the co-author of Black Elk: The Sacred Ways of a Lakota. We met Lyon at his home in Lawrence, Kansas. Lyon received his Ph.D. in anthropology in 1970 and has spent his career in the study of North American Indian shamanism, mainly among the Lakota. He first met Wallace Black Elk, a renowned Lakota medicine man, in 1978 when they jointly conducted a summer session course at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon. In 1986, Lyon left academia to spend full time traveling in the U.S. and Europe with Wallace Black Elk and Archie Fire Lame Deer. Over the next four years, Lyon taped the many talks given by Black Elk that resulted in the 1991 publication of Black Elk: The Sacred Ways of a Lakota. This highly-acclaimed book is entirely in the words of Black Elk.
 
Lyon had some great stories to share about his travels with Wallace. On one occasion, Lyon accompanied Wallace to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. They walked out into an isolated area far from habitation to attend a sweat lodge ceremony. Hanging in a tree near the sweat lodge was Chief Crazy Horse's sacred pipe or Chanunpa. Lyon asked Wallace if he was concerned about someone stealing the pipe. Wallace answered, "No one will ever take that pipe. One time we came out here to sweat and the pipe was gone. We went into the lodge and asked the spirits to return the pipe, and sure enough when we came out of the sweat, that pipe was hanging in the tree."
 
Wallace told Lyon that when Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, a lava tube opened beneath the mountain and a column of lava is now flowing from Mount St. Helens all around the Pacific Rim or Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire is an area where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. Wallace said that this is a sign that the Earth Changes have begun. The phrase "Earth Changes" refers to the Indigenous belief that the world would soon enter a series of cataclysmic events causing major alterations in human life on the planet. This includes natural events, such as major earthquakes, the melting of the polar ice caps, a pole shift of the planetary axis, major weather events, solar flares as well as huge changes of the global social, economic and political systems.
 
Lyon also recounted the story of Wallace's silver eagle pendant being stolen from the altar at a sweat lodge ceremony in Ashland, Oregon. Just as he did at Pine Ridge, Wallace went into the lodge and asked the spirits to return the pendant. When he came out of the lodge, the pendant was back on the altar. Lyon was convinced that Wallace was one of the most powerful shamans in the United States. Wallace passed away on January 25, 2004 at his home in Denver, Colorado.

Sunday, September 4, 2022

The Origin of Disease and Medicine

An excerpt from The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees by James Mooney
 
In the old days, the beasts, birds, fish, insects, and plants could all talk. They and the people lived together in peace and friendship. As time went on, however, the people increased so rapidly that their settlement spread over the whole earth, and the poor animals found themselves cramped for room. To make things worse, Man invented bows, knives, spears, and hooks, and began to slaughter the larger animals, birds, and fish for their flesh or their skins. The smaller creatures, such as the frogs and worms, were crushed and trodden upon without thought, out of pure carelessness or contempt. So the animals resolved to consult upon measures for their common safety.
 
The Bears were the first to meet in council, led by old White Bear. After each in turn had complained of the way in which Man killed their friends, ate their flesh, and used their skins for his own purposes, it was decided to begin war at once against him. Once the angry crowd calmed down, White Bear told them that the human beings had a decided advantage -- the bow and arrow. So the Bears decided to make their own weapons.
 
However, the Bears had a problem. Their claws made it impossible to properly draw back on a bow. Some of the younger Bears thought of cutting their claws, but White Bear objected, " If we cut off our claws, we will all starve together. It is better to trust the teeth and claws that nature gave us, for it is plain that Man's weapons were not intended for us."
 
No one could think of any better plan, so the old chief dismissed the council and the Bears dispersed to the woods and thickets without having concerted any way to prevent the increase of the human race. Had the result of the council been otherwise, we should now be at war with the Bears, but as it is, the hunter does not even ask the Bear's permission when he kills one.
 
The Deer next held a council under their chief, Little Deer. After some talk, they resolved to use their magic. Thenceforth, if a hunter wished to kill a Deer, he must take care to ask their pardon for the offense. Any human hunter failing to do so would be stricken with rheumatism. The Deer sent notice of their decision to the nearest settlement of Indians and told them at the same time what to do when necessity forced them to kill one of the Deer tribe. No hunter, who has regard for his health, ever fails to ask pardon of the Deer for killing it.
 
Next came the Fish and Reptiles, who had their own complaints against Man. They held council together and determined to make their victims dream of snakes twining about them in slimy folds and blowing foul breath in their faces, or to make them dream of eating raw or decaying fish, so that they would lose appetite, sicken, and die. This is why people dream about snakes and fish.
 
Finally, the Birds, Insects, and smaller animals came together for the same purpose. They decided to spread disease among the humans. They began then to devise and name so many new diseases, one after another, that had not their invention at last failed them, no one of the human race would have been able to survive.
 
When the Plants, who were friendly to Man, heard what the animals had done, they determined to defeat the latter's evil designs. Each Tree, Shrub, and Herb, down even to the Grasses and Mosses, said, "I shall appear to help Man when he calls upon me in his need." Thus was medicine born. The plants, every one of which has its use if we only knew it, furnish the remedy to counteract the evil wrought by the vengeful animals. Even weeds were made for some good purpose, which we must find out for ourselves. When the doctor (shaman) does not know what medicine to use for a sick man, the spirit of the plant tells him.
 
Source: James Mooney, The Sacred Formulas Of The Cherokees. Published in the Seventh Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, pp. 301-399. 1886.

Sunday, July 17, 2022

Words Are Monuments

A national reckoning with American history and racial injustice has been playing out on the terrain of monuments, museums, school curricula, and increasingly -- maps. While the Department of the Interior plans to rename 660 place-names with the derogatory term "sq**w," a new study published in the journal People and Nature shows that misogynist and racist slurs are the tip of the iceberg. Violence in place-names can take many forms, including the erasure of Indigenous knowledge and languages.
 
Titled "Words Are Monuments," the study reveals a system-scale pattern of place-names that perpetuate settler colonial mythologies, including white supremacy. Through a quantitative analysis of 2,200 place-names in 16 National Parks, researchers identified:

• 10 racial slurs

• 52 places named for settlers who committed acts of violence against Indigenous peoples. For example, Mt. Doane, in Yellowstone, and Harney River, in the Everglades, commemorate individuals who led massacres of Indigenous peoples, including women and children.

• 107 natural features that retained traditional Indigenous names, compared with 205 names given by settlers that replaced traditional names found on record.

While the Department of the Interior has established a task force to address derogatory place-names, the agency has faced some criticism for what Washington State officials and area tribes are calling a rushed process, with proposed replacement names that are largely colonial.

Calls to re-Indigenize place-names in national parks and monuments have been gathering steam, from the Blackfeet Nation's recent petition to return traditional names to mountains in Glacier National Park, to the Puyallup Tribe's campaign to rename Mount Rainier to Təqʷuʔməʔ, or Mount Tahoma.
 
A new website and national campaign inspired by these efforts and the place-names study launches today at WordsAreMonuments.org. Created by the pop-up social justice museum The Natural History Museum, the site features an interactive map with stories from problematic place-names cited in the study; a step-by-step guide from the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers on how to officially change place-names; video interviews with cultural geographers and Tribal leaders; and ways to take action to support renaming campaigns.
 
The Natural History Museum will also host a free series of online events featuring Indigenous leaders, artists, activists and scholars that explores:

• Why place names matter and how the movement to 'undo the colonial map' relates to other movements that reckon with American history -- to topple Confederate and colonial monuments, decolonize museums, and overhaul school curricula;

• The relationship between language and ideology, and the power of place names in encoding a way of seeing, understanding, and relating to the land;

• How campaigns to re-Indigenize place names on federal lands are not just about making public lands more inclusive, but are stepping stones on the path to Indigenous co-governance and land rematriation;

• The global reckoning with colonial and imperialist history, including successful and ongoing efforts to replace colonial place-names in New Zealand, India, Palestine, South Africa, and beyond.