Welcome to First Nations News & Views. This weekly series is one element in the "Invisible Indians" project put together by Meteor Blades and me, with assistance from the Native American Netroots Group. Each Sunday's edition is published at 3:30 p.m. Pacific Time, includes a short, original feature article, a look at some date relevant to American Indian history, and some briefs chosen to show the diversity of modern Indians living both on and off reservations in the United States and Canada.
There are many things you must learn. Reading, working hard, these are the important things. Edna Campbell Guerrero, Northern Pomo Elder, 1907-1995
Design: Carrie Mayfield
Guided by their art teacher and the input of local Indians, students at Potter Valley Schools, K-12 in Northern California have created a stunning mural that portrays the culture of the Pomo Potter Valley Tribe. The tribe is descended from the first-known inhabitants of the valley, which the Pomo called Ba-lo Kai. Europeans first settled there, at the headwaters of the East Fork of the Russian River, in 1852.
Carrie Mayfield, the art teacher, and Sam Phillips (Round Valley Indians-Concow/Wailaciki), the utility maintenance man at the school, collaborated on a means to recognize the Pomos and came up with the mural concept. The idea was to accurately reflect the tribe's culture and also educate Potter Valley students.
Phillips, who leads the school's multicultural club, organized a project team of staff members, Indian and non-Indian students and their families to give input and vote on all aspects making up the final design. The team decided that the tribe's various woven basket styles would offer the best representation of Pomo culture.
Mayfield began researching basket designs indigenous to the area. Phillips has a close relationship with the Pomos, and he introduced her to Salvador Rosales, the tribal chairman. Mayfield learned the tribe's history and viewed old photos and artifacts belonging to the tribe.
In an email to News & Views, she wrote:
The history of European settlers in Potter Valley mirrors that of other Northern California communities. Before they arrived, there was a strong and thriving Native community in the valley. The oak trees provided the people with acorns, a staple in their diet used to make various food including mash and the river provided the people with fish. The valley was a richly productive area which supported the Pomo people for many generations. [...]
The arrival of the Europeans and their views of the local Indian population caused many local Pomo people to leave Potter Valley to seek work in other parts of Mendocino County in order to survive. The Pomo people who remained were forced onto reservations and "educated" at the first Potter Valley School, a quarter mile away from the present school site where I now teach.
Like many other California Indians, the Pomo are known for their petroglyphs. But, since the 1960s, the current land-owners, descendants of those first European settlers, have not permitted the tribe to document or photograph the rock carvings, preventing it from recording its own history.
Mayfield's research led her to the Grace Hudson Museum in Ukiah, 18 miles down the road. Hudson, one of the first European settlers, collected the baskets of the Northern Pomo. During her lifetime, the nationally known Hudson painted 684 portraits of Pomos.
Once the mural's purpose was explained, the museum was extremely cooperative and removed the baskets from their cases, allowing Mayfield to photograph them. The intricate basket designs took a long time to sketch. From her photos of the baskets, she reproduced accurate colors of the weavers' craftsmanship.
The local school board granted the prominent location Mayfield originally wanted. Phillips raised money through the multicultural club to buy materials. Finally, with preparatory work completed, student volunteers set to work painting the mural.
An Indian 5th-grader suggested Weaving a Stronger Future as the original mural text. "But," Mayfield said, "Sam had discovered in talking with the elders that this simple, yet powerful statement could not be translated into Pomo since there is no direct translation for the word or even the concept of future in Pomo language." Phillips then found the Northern Pomo elder's quotation by Edna Campbell Guerrero and the mural committee approved it. The mural incorporates Mayfield's idea of including Pomo translated into English. A hundred invitations featuring the mural design were sent to local schools, multicultural clubs and to Pomo tribespeople. The two-year project was unveiled on Nov. 18, 2011.
Mayfield currently is at work helping to put together a presentation for elementary classes so pupils can gain an early understanding of the mural's significance and that of the original inhabitants of the land they occupy.
To me, this mural was just the first step in a long process this community must make to begin to right the wrongs of the past. The earliest inhabitants of this valley must be recognized and honored so that their descendants, including my students, may feel pride in their heritage, their culture, and themselves. The Potter Valley tribe is currently working to buy back the lands taken from them and regain sacred sites, weaving a stronger future for tribal youth in Potter Valley.
Prior to contact, the Modoc people inhabited an area approximately 5,000 square miles in southern Oregon and the northeastern corner of California, where today Modoc County corresponds somewhat to traditional geography. To the southwest (moowat and Tgalam) Mt. Shasta rises up, covered in shining blue ice. Modoc people would make pilgrimages to the sacred mountain every year, but would not live on it. Sacred journeys were also made to Medicine Lake, a healing volcanic feature now used as a recreation park. To the east (lobiitdal') lies Goose Lake, and to the north (yaamat) in Klamath land is Mt. Mazama. Today, Mazama is known as Crater Lake.
Thousands of years ago, oral traditional states, the Modoc and the much larger Klamath peoples' ancestors hid in caves from the catastrophic eruption of Mazama. Beyond the terrifying images of raining ash and fire imaginable, this event affected world climate.
In between these boundaries are Klamath Lake, hundreds of marshes, many seasonally dry, pine forests, the lush Cascade mountains, high desert, and alkali flats most desolate in appearance. The geography dictated the lifestyle: considered harsh by other Indian peoples, Modocs were nonetheless blessed with the bounty of wocas, a pond-lily seed, during the annual harvest season, salmon and suckerfish, as well as plentiful duck, pelican, goose and other waterfowl, many deer, moose, bear, elk, and delicious berries and roots like camas. Traditionally, they are a weaving and hunting people. Tule reed is the principle fabric source.
This stark land was one of the last places in the 48 where European settlers, desirous for land, timber and gold, would venture. It would become the setting for the most expensive Indian war in US history.
The Indian removals which destroyed one quarter of the Cherokee tribe, were actually conceptualized by Jefferson and then extended and carried out by Jackson. There were great debates about whether the "redskins" were human and whether they had souls.
WHEREAS, S.P.I.R.I.T is working for the rights of Oklahoma Indians, all American Indians, Indigenous people and the peaceful solution to all differences; and
WHEREAS, the Oklahoma History and US History does not provide the whole and true history of Oklahoma Indians or American Indians (Native Americans), and
WHEREAS, re-enacting the Land Run in public schools and in communities in Oklahoma is demeaning and humiliating to Oklahoma Indians, and
- snip -
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the undersigned and S.P.I.R.I.T, the group formed to help American Indians with matters such as these, formally requests the Oklahoma School Boards, Department of Education, Legislators and public officials to abolish the Land Run re-enactments held annually in this state.
Racism is based on ignorance and is passed down generationally. One racist adult caretaker may infect a few children with their racism; however, one racist film or television show would infect many more and more deeply ingrain any racism that already was in existence in my opinion. Examples such as in the following video have contributed to anti - Indian sentiments in the popular American culture in the relevant generations who viewed such films.
"I never did hear the words Native Americans, American Indians, or First Nations in school. I was taught about the Civil War and Slavery, but never did the word Native American come out of my junior high school history teacher's mouth. He was the football coach of our team, the "Red Skins."
I began college right after my high school graduation and took the course, American History to 1877. The Department Chairman taught that course. Consequently, I became so upset at being made to read "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown in that class, that I could not sleep for two nights.
The FBI told us that American Indians are still the most assaulted in hate crimes, and I had thought there that "some or many will not admit that violence against Native Americans is made more probable because of the institutionalized racism that is American Indian sports teams mascots, even if it is true - and it probably is."
Well, it is. Death threats against a 15 year old have spawned, because a coward published a 15 year old American Indian's name in a newspaper.
A local businessman placed a quarter-page ad in the local newspaper explicitly naming and targeting Eli Cordero, the young student who originally brought the issue to the school board.
WHEREAS, S.P.I.R.I.T is working for the rights of Oklahoma Indians, all American Indians, Indigenous people and the peaceful solution to all differences; and
WHEREAS, the Oklahoma History and US History does not provide the whole and true history of Oklahoma Indians or American Indians (Native Americans), and
WHEREAS, re-enacting the Land Run in public schools and in communities in Oklahoma is demeaning and humiliating to Oklahoma Indians, and
- snip -
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the undersigned and S.P.I.R.I.T, the group formed to help American Indians with matters such as these, formally requests the Oklahoma School Boards, Department of Education, Legislators and public officials to abolish the Land Run re-enactments held annually in this state.
At the Justice Department, recent scandals have dragged public confidence to an all time low. A special prosecutor is now digging into charges that former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales put political partisanship ahead of the law.
Jodi Rave investigates crimes against Native American women
Would institutionalized racism against American Indians have aided the approximately 68 Caucasian individuals to commit hate crimes against American Indians?
TULSA, Okla. - Crimes of hate against American Indians totaled 75 incidents in the nation during 2007, said a Federal Bureau of Investigation report. While the overall number of crimes against Indians mirrored 2006's 75 incidents, the overall number of hate crimes dipped, according to the report. The federal law enforcement agency culled data from over 13,000 agencies across the nation.
As Native Americans, I know, as they have been telling us, that there are a lot of stereotypes, um, what are some of the stereotypes that you constantly hear about?
The Indian removals which destroyed one quarter of the Cherokee tribe, were actually conceptualized by Jefferson and then extended and carried out by Jackson. There were great debates about whether the "redskins" were human and whether they had souls.
Esoteric spiritual madness has accompanied me as I have watched the continuing web of land theft spreading, still, from the Arctic to across the United States.
First off, I'm a HUGE fan of the NYTimes. I think the decline of the newspaper is a terrible thing. I'm a big time news junkie. I've been reading the Times everyday for the last eight years. But I'm also a Native American attorney who has studied Critical Race Theory and am highly sensitive to images of cultural stereotypes. Imagine my reaction as I came to work early to read the papers and saw the image below before I went to DC District Court this morning for a hearing on Nez Perce v. Kempthorne.
The image was "above the fold" so to speak on the home page of "the most liberal" newspaper in America.
First off, the fringed dresses. I'm not going to comment on the ethnicity of the females, I don't know and don't want to know. The issue is one of sexualization of "the Indian Princess." Don't believe me? Check out Disney's Pocahontas and look again.
Legendary Beauty? WTF is that about? I refer again to University of Arizona Law and Critical Race Professsor Robert Williams lectures on stereotypes and American Indigenous people entitled "Savage as a Wolf" available at arizonanativenet.com.
So back to the NYTimes picture. Look at the full size image and tell me who you see in the background.
Men dressed as US Cavalry?!
I'm not even going to complain that the bar is charging $3 a CAN for Bud Light(my feelings on the sale to InBev are well cateloged by my comments).
The kicker came as I read the article on "Absaroka" but the final insult came in paragraph 12. "Mr. Simpson said Absarokians mostly wanted self-determination."
Native Americans have fought for self determination and the right to self govern ever since the arrival of the White Man...Columbus's big mistake...the beginning of the American genocide. We've been through the Termination period, Allotment, and Restoration. We're still fighting for self government and recognition for tribes. The Churucawa Apache are still an unrecognized tribe because they never STOPPED fighting!
(ASIDE: I just watched Chato's Land on Comcast on Demand, a western with Bronson and Jack Palance which gives the painfully delivered message of the White Man as Savage...worth the 2 hours.)
My favorite newspaper, resorting to ironic stories of white people wanting self-determination ironically contrasted with images of white domination and indigenous stereotypes.
Off to the DC Circuit for a hearing on Nez Perce v. Kempthorne where more irony awaits.
It's a hearing on Class Certification regarding Individual Indian Trust Accounts, where it has been well cited by the Cobell litigation that the US Government has managed to lose, not record, be held in contempt for failing to provide an accounting and living up to their duties of trustee in the cases of managing Tribal Trust corpus/property and mismanaging those funds.
The obstacle to today's certification of various tribes similar claims under one class? Cited by the governement: Tribal Sovereign Immunity.
The irony would lose more in the explanation than it's worth.
Bad NYTimes. Bad breif and argument by the Feds. Bad day for Native Americans.
Last week the Washington Redskins scored a legal victory for themselves and another moral failure for American Judicial system. Patent and Trademark law and the investment of millions of dollars into a racist name and a stereotyped image assured another few years of denigrating headlines, repeated televised use of an outdated slur, and the continued monolithic pace of American jurisprudence.
Last week the Washington Redskins scored a legal victory for themselves and another moral failure for American Judicial system. Patent and Trademark law and the investment of millions of dollars into a racist name and a stereotyped image assured another few years of denigrating headlines, repeated televised use of an outdated slur, and the continued monolithic pace of American jurisprudence.
(I use quotes as the debate within the Native American community over the use of the term Indians remains vigorous, is the use of the term Indian to describe North America's indigenous people a slur, was Columbus's folly a proper moniker for the thousands of commnuities of people here prior to the colonization and enslavement of "America"?)
The Marshall Model incorporates the "Doctrine of Discovery" which summarized finds that tribes are domestic dependent nations, pre-existing sovereigns, which are subject to domination because of their inherent inferiority as "savages" (if you ask me this kind of tortured legal logic is barbaric in itself). Due to the inherent inferiority of the thousands of tribes, the handicap of their race requires the United States federal government to treat the tribes "as a guardian to his ward" (this creates the whole basis for the federal trust situation, where the federal government is supposed to manage the Native's lands for their benefit [trust law requiring a trustee, trustor, and res or property to be managed by the trustee]).
This "language of racism" (see Robert Williams "Like a Loaded Weapon") continues to dominate our jurisprudence and our culture. http://www.arizonanativenet.co...
So how is this language of racism reflected? Most recently, in U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly decision on the Redskin's patent and trademark victory. http://www.washingtonpost.com/... Here, the Judge found that the litigants ahd waited too long to file a claim, that the term "Redskin's" was so insulting and racially offensive that it should not be granted the protection's of copyright laws.
While I need not run through the various races and hypothesize about the outrage that would exist if there existed various football, baseball, and hockey teams named after stereotypes of other races I will list a few of the ones that America feels are accceptable in terms of denigrating the "pre'existing sovereigns": The Washington Redskins, the Cleveland Indians, the Kansas City Cheifs, the University of North Dakota "Fighting Sioux", the University of Illinois "Fighting Illini"...and their associated mascots and cheerleaders.
The UN has protected rights for indigenous people under international law and treaties, which the United States, the world's leader in protecting human rights (until 2000), has so progressively refused to sign and make itself subject to (See US v. Dann and associated OAS rulings finding that the US failed to give due process and property rights to the Western Shoshone).
I find it amazing that America, where all property holding slave owning white men who don't want to pay taxes are created equal, continues both in an abherrent jurisprudence based on racial superiority and continues to justify the disparate treatment of the "pre-existing sovereign" in the role of our "guardian".
Later this month a decision in the Cobell trial is expected, a trial which has lasted 12 years and found various Cabinet secretaries in contempt and the US continually and historically in violation of their duty as trustee. Yet in spite of the mismanagement of billions of dollars over a period of 100+ years, the government will find (Judge Robertson) that he doesn't understand how misappropriating billions of dollars may have benefited the US government (talk about circular reasoning and tortured logic).
It has been less than 100 years since the "First Americans" were granted the right to vote and equality of citizenship. And today, America denies it has a problem with race. http://en.wikipedia.org/... "We are post-racial" it is proclaimed. Yet yesterday Dan Snyder and the NFL were granted the right to continue insulting me every Sunday. And tomorrow, the US will steal billions of dollars it owes my peoples. And the next day we will still be living in poverty on our reservations, lack the funds to build needed jails and judicial systems, and have federal funding for the Indian Health Service cut for a war of choice in which many of us serve.
Canada New Zealand and Australia have all apologized for their treatment of indegenous peoples, ranging from attempts to assimilate to outright genocide. America has yet to do so. The Senate, continues to refuse to recognize indigenous Hawaiians as native peoples (mainly upon Republican objection and post racial arguments).
The Longest Walk II was completed this weekend, where issues from the environment to Native Sovereignty and America's failures to honestly discuss race were raised. Patricipants walked over 8,000 miles to draw attention to these causes. http://www.longestwalk.org/ What becomes most apparent when viewing these issues together is that America has very, very far to go.
I am not a Redskin. I am a patriot, a critic, and Anishnabe. I am not a stereotype.
Racism is based on ignorance and is passed down generationally. One racist adult caretaker may infect a few children with their racism; however, one racist film or television show would infect many more and more deeply ingrain any racism that already was in existence in my opinion. Examples such as in the following video have contributed to anti - Indian sentiments in the popular American culture in the relevant generations who viewed such films.
Although the United States would probably respond that racist mascots and logos are an exercise of free speech that it has reserved under the Convention, they reveal the depth and pervasiveness of the racism against Indigenous Peoples so deeply engrained in the history and psyche of the United States and the dominant culture.
And over the break is Carter Camp's essay entitled "Mass Racial Taunting; America's Weekend Sport," which he wrote "several years ago when people in Tulsa were protesting the Union High redskins."
On some positions a coward has asked the question is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right. - Martin Luther King Jr., November 1967
A few days ago, coincidentally on Martin Luther King Jr.'s real birthday, I was at a gathering of middling size where I only knew two people. While I sipped my club soda and nearly nodded off listening to someone buzz on and on about football, a conversation cluster within eavesdropping distance took up the subject of reservation casinos. I live in California and four Indian gaming referenda will appear on the ballot February 5, so a discussion of the topic was not a surprise. I've always had an (apparently inborn) ability to tune into conversations across a room while blocking out those in front of me, and my interest was piqued because whoever was explaining the gaming proposals seemed to know quite a bit about the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that led to these measures being put before the voters. Then I heard it. Somebody said, "It's the redskins' revenge."
For the first time, I looked over that way, and all five people in the group were gently laughing or smiling or nodding assent.
I don't think he meant it maliciously. Quite possibly he even thought he was being supportive. It's doubtful he would have said "nigger" or "wetback" or "chink," since there were African Americans, Asian Americans and Latinos in the room. But no obvious Indians. Because I don't wear feathers, mocassins or a loincloth and can pass for white, he apparently felt unconstrained in making what I'm sure he thought was a harmless little joke. Maybe even a pro-Indian joke. I could have walked over and explained how infuriating what he had said was, how hurtful it was that everybody seemed to have enjoyed what he said. But it gets so bloody tiring dealing with the reactions. Not just the accusations of "political correctness," the rolled eyes or the "Aren't you being too sensitive?" charges, inevitably delivered with a smile. But also the downward glances, the stammering, or even the apologies that so often greet an objection: "Oh, I'm sorry. I know that you ... uh... Native Americans object to that."
As if it's okay to deploy a slur when no member of the slurred ethnicity is around to be insulted? As if racism only matters to people of color? As if every one of us is not harmed to the core by such talk about any ethnicity and should object to it?
This incident - I can recount a dozen others I've witnessed in the 21st Century - made me ponder a great deal the theme I've heard so much of recently, on-line and off, that race and racism have been transcended in America. That we no longer need to talk about these matters because, well, because talking about them only engenders bad feelings about something that is fixed except in a few backward locales by people who will be dead soon anyway. That, 45 years after the summer day Reverend King made that soaring speech on the Washington Mall, his dream is wholly achieved.
Nobody can deny that tremendous progress has been made. Progress that is a testament both to the message of universal legal equality in the nation's founding document and two centuries of fierce and costly struggle by people of color and their white allies to transform that message into reality. A testament to people's willingness to change themselves, to surrender their prejudices and fears, to recognize injustice and do something about it, even to give up their lives if that's what it takes. That progress cannot be sneered at. It reflects an America and Americans of all colors at their best.
Racism nonetheless remains a chronic influence in our lives. Yet many white people say they don't want to talk about race. They say they're sick of talking about it. That stuff is all in the past, they say, and wonder aloud why we can't talk about something else. I think what most are really saying is that they don't want to listen to talk about race.
In honor of my mother, THE FLORA SOMBRERO LIND NAVAJO ENDOWMENT FUND has been set up to accept your donations.
This scholarship endowment has been established at the American Indian College Fund to honor Flora Sombrero Lind, as an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who was born at Inscription House, Arizona of the Many Goats clan circa 1925. This scholarship endowment is funded by Flora's family and friends who want to see Navajo students pursue higher education and carry on their great Navajo heritage.
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...a forum for the discussion of political, social and economic issues affecting the indigenous peoples of the United States, including their lack of political representation, economic deprivation, health care issues, and the on-going struggle for preservation of identity and cultural history
The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) is a non-profit 501c(3) organization that provides legal representation and technical assistance to Indian tribes, organizations and individuals nationwide - a constituency that often lacks access to the justice system. NARF focuses on applying existing laws and treaties to guarantee that national and state governments live up to their legal obligations.
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Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights News by Brenda Norrell
Mayfield's research led her to the 
On some positions a coward has asked the question is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right. - Martin Luther King Jr., November 1967
In honor of my mother, 
