Tagged With "African American"
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Reading Native family stories 'like mine' (Indian Country Today)
HarperCollins launches Heartdrum to better portray Native characters and stories HarperCollins Children’s Books recently tapped Smith to lead Heartdrum, a new imprint set to launch in early 2021 emphasizing contemporary Native characters and genre fiction. She’ll work with editor Rosemary Brosnan to publish a variety of picture books, chapter books and young adult titles from Native authors. Tribal presses and small publishers have focused on Native children’s books in the past, but Smith...
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San Francisco school is removing a ‘traumatizing’ George Washington mural. (good.is)
For nearly a century, a massive mural by painter Victor Arnautoff titled “The Life of Washington” has lined the hallways of San Francisco’s George Washington High School . The mural “glorifies slavery, genocide, colonization, manifest destiny, white supremacy [and] oppression.” So said Washington High School’s Reflection and Action Group , an ad-hoc committee formed late last year and made up of Native Americans from the community, students, school employees, local artists and historians.
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She Hoped to Shine a Light on Maternal Mortality Among Native Americans. Instead, She Became a Statistic of It. [nbcnews.com]
By Elizabeth Chuck and Haimy Assefa, NBC News, February 8, 2020 The twins were scheduled to be delivered on Aug. 21, 2019, and Stephanie Snook was nervous. Her pregnancy had not been planned. Snook was born with a heart condition; after her first two children, she had been told getting pregnant again could put too much stress on her heart. Nonetheless, Snook, 37, a warehouse clerk in food services at the Seattle Mariners’ ballpark, trusted she was in good hands. [ Please click here to read...
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Starting on the Nez Perce Reservation, Jo Ann Kauffman built a national consulting firm [Seattle Times]
When Jo Ann Kauffman applied for one of her first business loans, a lender told her, “You have zero net worth.” She was living on trust land on the Nez Perce Reservation, which she couldn’t use for collateral. Her vehicle had 300,000 miles, so she couldn’t pledge it against a loan, either. “I felt about this big,” said the president and founder of Kauffman & Associates in Spokane. Despite early challenges with financing, Kauffman went on to build an American Indian- and woman-owned...
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States Move to Add Native American History to Curriculum (usnews.com)
MINNEAPOLIS—ON THE heels of the National Indian Education Association's conference held in Minneapolis earlier this fall and just in time for Native American Heritage Month , the nearby Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community announced a $5 million philanthropic campaign to fund resources, curriculum, and training on Native American heritage for teachers and administrators across Minnesota , according to the Star Tribune . "We're hoping we can move the needle in the narrative in Minnesota and...
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Strengthening our Native Communities: How Understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences Can Help (Association of American Indian Physicians)
Native communities face many challenges. Too often the strengths of families are strained by these challenges, and finding effective ways to support our families can be difficult. Our communities often find themselves dealing with the results of family and community disruption, (alcohol or drug abuse, unintended pregnancies, dropping out of school, etc) and are challenged to address the core issues. ACE scores are significantly higher in indigenous American communities than in the broader...
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Teen pregnancy prevention program for Native American youth expands to Minnesota [caih.jhu.edu]
By Center for American Indian Health - Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, June 4, 2019. Nationally, teen pregnancy rates have declined by 67% since peaking in 1991. Yet significant disparities remain. Native American teens have the highest teen birth rate of any U.S. group and 4 in 10 Native American women begin childbearing in adolescence. Working closely with tribal partners, the Center for American Indian Health (Center) developed Respecting the Circle of Life, a...
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Thanksgiving Mourning (tolerance.org)
Much of the Thanksgiving story focuses on a peaceful, cross-cultural exchange between the "Pilgrims and Indians." While it's true that the Wampanoag and the planters shared in a harvest celebration, within fifty years, the Wampanoag would no longer be a free people. For some Native Americans, Thanksgiving is no cause for celebration, but rather serves as a reminder of colonization's devastating impact on Indigenous peoples. In this activity, students will explore the perspectives of two...
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The Ancient Indigenous Art of Rainmaking (upliftconnect.com)
The ancient art of rainmaking was once practiced all around the world. It represented the sacred relationship between humans and the Divine. The deep connection between Earth and cosmos, an innate and intimate understanding of the elements, and the essential nature of the universe . To understand these sacred traditions is to understand the extraordinary sacred connection Indigenous people have with the land. That intuitive understanding and knowing about life, which gives them knowledge of...
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The Chef Bringing Native American Flavors to Communities in Quarantine (Atlas Obscura)
By Reina Gattuso, March 27, 2020, Atlas Obscura For Brian Yazzie, the COVID-19 pandemic evokes a history of smallpox, European colonization, and indigenous resilience. What’s in your kitchen pantry? If you answered quinoa, green beans, or potatoes, you have, perhaps unbeknownst to you, been eating Native American heritage. “They might not know they have indigenous foods in their cupboard: might be canned corn, canned beans, squash,” says Brian Yazzie, a Twin Cities-based chef and food...
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The Chef Bringing Native American Flavors to Communities in Quarantine (Atlas Obscura)
By Reina Gattuso, March 27, 2020, For Brian Yazzie, the COVID-19 pandemic evokes a history of smallpox, European colonization, and indigenous resilience. What’s in your kitchen pantry? If you answered quinoa, green beans, or potatoes, you have, perhaps unbeknownst to you, been eating Native American heritage. “They might not know they have indigenous foods in their cupboard: might be canned corn, canned beans, squash,” says Brian Yazzie, a Twin Cities-based chef and food activist from the...
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Tribal Behavioral Health Grant Program (SAMHSA)
Click HERE to learn more. Description The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Centers for Mental Health Services (CMHS) and Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP), are accepting applications for the fiscal year (FY) 2020 Tribal Behavioral Health Grant Program (Short Title: Native Connections). The purpose of this program is to prevent suicide and substance misuse, reduce the impact of trauma, and promote mental health among American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN)...
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Trump administration forms presidential task force for protecting Native children in IHS [Indian Country Today]
Presidential Task Force created in response to a predatory pediatrician that had assaulted Native American children for years while employed at Indian Health Service On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced the formation of the Presidential Task Force on Protecting Native American Children in the Indian Health Service System. A senior administration official hosted a White House conference call, and released statements to the media which outlined that President Trump has “charged the...
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UCLA Created A New Job Specifically To Recruit More Native American Students [laist.com]
It may not seem like a lot compared with centuries of genocide, displacement from their land and separation of their families, but some Southern California Native Americans say they appreciate how local public universities are moving to recruit more American Indian students and faculty and generally improve relations. UCLA is the most recent campus to reach out to Native Americans. Last fall, Chancellor Gene Block created the position of Special Advisor to the Chancellor on Native American...
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UCSF sends doctor and nurses to largest Native American reservation, hard-hit by coronavirus [sfchronicle.com]
By Mallory Moench, San Francisco Chronicle, April 22, 2020 UCSF sent 21 health care workers - seven doctors and 14 nurses - Wednesday to treat patients in the Navajo Nation hard-hit by the coronavirus. UCSF-trained doctors working on the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. asked San Francisco colleagues for help as the outbreak strains the health care system. Navajo Nation, where around 175,000 people live spread over 27,500 square miles in New Mexico and Arizona, has recorded...
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Re: Uninsured Native Americans Often Lack Needed Prenatal Care [ocregister.com]
From the article: State grants also will help, at least for Native American women in need of prenatal care. Fresno, Humboldt, Placer and Shasta counties each received a grant of $267,250 through fiscal year 2019-20 to provide prenatal care to Native American communities.
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How I Can Offer Reparations in Direct Proportion to My White Privilege (yesmagazine.org)
I had a fascinating breakfast conversation with my 11-year-old daughter a few days back. The nigh before I had a fitful dream - one that was short on plot and imagery, but chock-full of emotion. In this case, the feeling was of a deep, immovable sorrow. When I awoke, it didn't take long to recognize that the article I'd been working on - this article - was definitely working on me, too. During breakfast I knew my daughter could tell I wasn’t on solid ground. She’s a sensitive soul, and I...
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Covering the effect of the coronavirus on Native Americans [healthjournalism.org]
From Association of Health Care Journalists, June 10, 2020 For an in-depth look at how to report on the effect the novel coronavirus is having on Native Americans, AHCJ will host a webcast with Donald Warne, M.D., M.P.H., the director of the Indians Into Medicine program and director of the master of public health program in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of North Dakota. A member of the Oglala Lakota tribe from Pine Ridge, S.D., Warne will explain how the virus...
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COVID-19 Materials Developed for Tribal Use What tribal members need to know about coronavirus [caih.jhu.edu]
From Center for American Indian Health, Johns Hopkins University, June 2020 Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health is producing materials related to COVID-19 for tribes to distribute. [ Please click here to access resources .]
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My adoptive parents tried to erase my Indigenous identity. They failed. [cbc.ca]
By Kim Wheeler,CBC.CA Radio, The Doc Project, June 18, 2020 My name is Kim Wheeler but some know me as Kim Ziervogel. Others will remember me as Kim Bell, and to a small group of people I will always be Ruby Linda Bruyere. But the name game doesn't stop there. Why would someone have so many different names? Are they all aliases? Are they hiding from their past? From the law? In my case, it's none of these. I'm a Sixties Scoop survivor and those names were given to me through birth, adoption...
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My First Loss to COVID-19; Remembering an Indigenous Elder with Love
Alongside two elders and a colleague, we arrived at the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health in Toronto, Canada. Our intention was to facilitate the first Canadian/American collaboration to heal Historical Trauma. I vacillated between feeling immensely excited and powerfully emotional; what an honor to be a black woman surrounded by First Nation relatives on Native land. Our first great work was to enter the sacred ceremonial space for prayer and cleansing. As a tribal African woman, I...
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WELLNESS & RECOVERY PROGRAM (Partnership Healthplan of California)
New benefits as of July 2020 Partnership is working to ensure that our members get effective and appropriate behavioral health care services ( mental health and substance use treatment services ) in all 14 counties we serve. Expansion of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Services PHC’s 14 counties have long supported SUD treatment services through the Drug Medi-Cal program. Now, these services are greatly expanded in seven of our counties through our new Wellness and Recovery Program. Wellness...
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National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month Blog Series (NIH)
July 22, 2020 American Indian/Alaska Native Mental Health: Our Voices, Traditions and Values to Strengthen our Collective Wellness Victoria M. O’Keefe, Ph.D. (Cherokee/Seminole Nations of Oklahoma) Mathuram Santosham Endowed Chair in Native American Health, Assistant Professor, Licensed Clinical Psychologist Associate Director, Center for American Indian Health Department of International Health, Social & Behavioral Interventions Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health My late...
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Reclaimed homelands of Northern California tribes fulfill a prophecy of renewal (calmatters.org)
In California’s backwoods, far from the clamors for social justice in America’s streets, longstanding cultural unrest is bringing change to the landscape. Native Americans are quietly repossessing their ancestral lands. Sacred peaks overlooking the Pacific, boulder-strewn salmon streams and lush alpine meadows are returning to the people who have always claimed them. In the last year six different tribal groups have negotiated six separate transactions transferring a combined total of 56,453...
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CALIFORNIA ACES ACADEMY (CAA), funded by ACEs Aware, is providing free online training to Medi-Cal providers and others [avahealth.org]
From CALIFORNIA ACES ACADEMY, Academy on Violence & Abuse, August, 2020 CALIFORNIA ACES ACADEMY (CAA) , funded by ACEs Aware , is providing free online training to Medi-Cal providers and others featuring: · Practical strategies for integrating trauma-informed health care into your team’s practice that improves patients’ well being and the productivity of your practice. · Meet colleagues with experience and success providing trauma-informed health care in their practices. · Learn from...
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Ann Penn-Charles casts a wide net to reduce generational trauma in Washington State coastal tribes
You could say that Ann Penn-Charles, a native of La Push, Washington, was a natural resilience builder even before there was an ACE Study. La Push is a Native American reservation on the western edge of Olympic National Park, where the Quileute Nation ancestors of “Miss Ann”, as she is known, have lived for generations. Although she faced hardships growing up on the reservation, including having her first child when she was a junior in high school, she was able to graduate with the support...
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To Manage Wildfire, California Looks To What Tribes Have Known All Along (npr.org)
Fire has always been part of California's landscape. But long before the vast blazes of recent years, Native American tribes held annual controlled burns that cleared out underbrush and encouraged new plant growth. Now, with wildfires raging across Northern California, joining other record-breaking fires from recent years, government officials say tackling the fire problem will mean bringing back "good fire," much like California's tribes once did. "We don't put fire on the ground and not...
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California ACEs Academy Event: The Repressed Role of Adverse Childhood Experiences in Adult Well-Being, Disease and Social Functioning: Turning Gold into Lead
Thursday, September 3, 2020 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT | presented by Dr. Vincent J. Felitti *Priority will be given to Medi-Cal providers* The ACE Study reveals how typically unrecognized adverse childhood experiences are not only common, but causally underlie a number of the most common causes of adult social malfunction, biomedical disease, and premature death. Moreover, it enables one to see that the Public Health Problem is often an individual’s attempted Solution to childhood experiences...
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NIHB Launches Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) Hub
The National Indian Health Board, in collaboration with CDC, has launched a new resource hub! Many Tribal individuals, families, and communities have been impacted by childhood experiences causing physical and mental health adversities throughout the lifespan. However, with understanding and effort, individuals and communities can confront Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) for positive health outcomes. This information hub, launched by the National Indian Health Board includes a "resource...
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CALIFORNIA ACES ACADEMY: Parental ACEs and Pediatrics: Transforming Well Care [avahealth.org]
CALIFORNIA ACES ACADEMY (CAA) , funded by ACEs Aware, is providing free online training to Medi-Cal providers and others featuring: Practical strategies for integrating trauma-informed health care into your team’s practice that improves patients’ well being and the productivity of your practice. Meet colleagues with experience and success providing trauma-informed health care in their practices. Learn from national and local experts. Talk to other professionals from your region in small...
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Native American Day event (SDSU Native Center) Ami Admire, Bobby Wallace, Chairwoman Angela Elliot-Santos (TODAY at Noon)
TODAY at Noon PDT. Native American Day - Honoring our Voices Hosted by San Diego State University Native Resource Center. Please Join Zoom Meeting https://SDSU.zoom.us/j/ 93715788015 Please call in: ( 669)900-6833
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The Native History of Indigenous Peoples Day (yesmagazine.org)
More and more towns and cities across the country are electing to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day as an alternative to —or in addition to—the day intended to honor Columbus’ voyages. As a scholar of Native American history —and a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina—I know the story is more complex than that. The growing recognition and celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day actually represents the fruits of a concerted, decades-long effort to recognize the role of Indigenous people...
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We Are Still Here — Today and Every Day (firstnations.org)
On October 12th, Frist Nations is proud to stand with Native communities across the nation in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day . This day, which began as a counter-celebration to Columbus Day, raises awareness of the true history of the United States while celebrating the culture and resilience of Native people. It is a day of recognition and respect, and a holiday that more and more states and local governments have been observing every year. Still, at First Nations, we believe that every...
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‘ERASURE’: A Blistering Report Highlights Disparate Education Outcomes for Native Students, Charts a Course Forward (Lost Coast Outpost)
By Thadeus Greenson, October 28, 2020, Community Voices Coalition . Working on the North Coast, where the American Civil Liberties Union has had an ongoing presence since 2007, when it filed a landmark class-action lawsuit against Del Norte Unified School District on behalf of Native American students, Tedde Simon says she came to see there was what she described as a “widely understood issue.” In Humboldt County — home to seven federally recognized tribes and proportionately one of the...
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Broken Treaties With Native American Tribes: Timeline (history.com)
From 1778 to 1871, the United States signed some 368 treaties with various Indigenous people across the North American continent. Concluded during the nearly 100-year period from the Revolutionary War to the aftermath of the Civil War , some 368 treaties would define the relationship between the United States and Native Americans for centuries to come. The treaties were based on the fundamental idea that each tribe was an independent nation, with their own right to self-determination and...
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Op-Ed: Thanksgiving is a tradition. It’s also a lie (latimes.com)
There was one meal in 1621. In 1622, the Indian Wars began. Native people were systematically erased through genocidal policy. The Indian Wars ended in 1924. But again, they just went cold because as soon as they ended, the Indian termination era began. Those battles were won by passing legislation that made it harder for us to stay visible, to thrive as a people, to stay alive. This November, most Americans will sit down with their families and eat a Thanksgiving meal. Some still will be...
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Join Us for a Webinar - Addressing Historic Trauma in Indian Country: Funding and Implementing Trauma-Informed Programming in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic
How does historic trauma impact contemporary Native American communities and how can Tribal communities, the federal government, and community organizations work together to address and mitigate those impacts? Van Ness Feldman and the Roundtable on Native American Trauma-Informed Initiatives* invite you to a webinar featuring Dr. Tami DeCoteau, a leader in identifying and implementing successful approaches to trauma-informed care and Van Ness Feldman Partner, Dan Press who together with Dr.
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Please remember, November is Native American Heritage Month
What are YOU doing to celebrate?
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'An actual seat at the Cabinet table' (Indian Country Today)
This week has been history in the making with the nomination of the first Native American to lead the Interior department. But there is more history: 50 years ago the Nixon administration signed legislation returning Blue Lake to the Taos Pueblo. Joining us today are Red Lake Band of Ojibwe citizen Holly Cook Macarro, a partner at Spirit Rock Consulting and a federal lobbyist since 2001, to talk about the nomination of U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland, Pueblos of Laguna and Jemez, to the position of...
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40+ gift ideas that are Indigenous (indiancountrytoday.com)
Looking to shop from Indigenous artists and small businesses this holiday season? Here is a list of sites where you can find these products online. (Side note: Also consider buying something from local artists, your auntie’s food stand or small businesses on social media.) MARKETPLACES Alaska Native Heritage Center's 12 Days of Christmas 一 Skincare, jewelry, chimes, artwork Beyond Buckskin 一 Jewelry, blankets, apparel Chickasaw Southeastern Art Show and Market 一 Beadwork, painting, textiles...
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Two Spirits, One Heart, Five Genders (indiancountrytoday.com)
The Native American belief is that some people are born with the spirits of both genders and express them so perfectly. It is if they have two spirits in one body. Some Siouan tribes believed that before a child is born its soul stands before The Creator, to either reach for the bow and arrows that would indicate the role of a man or the basket that would determine the role of a female. When the child would reach for the gender-corresponding hand, sometimes The Creator would switch hands and...
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The Land Has Memory (dailygood.org)
Playwright, poet, and essayist Cherríe Moraga sees the world as a place where the body knows and “the land has memory,” as she states in this interview. Moraga was born and raised in Southern California in the days when the civil rights, queer, antiwar, feminist, and environmental movements were changing the terms of public and private life. Her childhood home was just one long block from the San Gabriel Mission, established in 1771, and within view of the San Gabriel Mountains, smog...
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How to be an Ally for Native American Voices in 2021 (visionmakermedia.org)
While Vision Maker Media empowers and engages Native peoples to share stories, we also view a great deal of importance in education on how to be an ally for Native Americans. As we look ahead to 2021 we hope to cultivate conversation. Check out our list of ways you can be an ally brought to you by Native American allies in our organization. 1. STOP TALKING AND LISTEN One of the most vital steps in becoming an ally to Native Americans is simply listening. There’s a lot to learn as an ally,...
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Medicine Woman (visionmakermedia.org)
During a time where women were no more than stay-at-home housewives, Susan La Flesche Picotte broke through all barriers and became the first Native American woman to become a physician in the United States. Graduating from the Hampton Institute as valedictorian, Susan was determined to pursue her medical degree and was accepted at Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. She wrote an appeal to the Connecticut Indian Association for finances and was the first person to receive financial aid...
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Tribal Elders Are Dying From the Pandemic, Causing a Cultural Crisis for American Indians (nytimes.com)
The loss of tribal elders has swelled into a cultural crisis as the pandemic has killed American Indians and Alaska Natives at nearly twice the rate of white people, deepening what critics call the deadly toll of a tattered health system and generations of harm and broken promises by the U.S. government. Tribal nations and volunteer groups are now trying to protect their elders as a mission of cultural survival. Navajo women started a campaign to deliver meals and sanitizer to high-desert...
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‘Parade Across America’ has Indigenous touch (indiancountrytoday.com)
Wednesday’s virtual “Parade Across America” honoring President Joe Biden’s inauguration had an Indigenous touch. The event featured short, taped segments from every state and U.S. territory. It was streamed on various social sites. Among those featured were members of the Native American Women Warriors Association, the nation’s first all-female Native American color guard. “Our mission is to recognize women veterans that have served in America’s armed forces, especially those like us of...
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DOT to install murals on Northway honoring Capital Region’s Native American heritage (news10.com)
New York State Department of Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez announced that work will begin the week of Jan. 25 to install engraved murals on the Northway Exit 3 flyover northbound and southbound ramps that honor the Capital Region’s rich Native American history. As part of the environmental review process for the Albany Airport Transportation Corridor project, the State Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) identified artifacts within...
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President Biden signed four historic executive actions promoting racial equity into law (upworthy.com)
"In my campaign for president, I made it very clear that the moment had arrived as a nation, as we face deep racial inequities in America and systemic racism that has plagued our nation for far, far too long. I said that over the course of the past year that the blinders had been taken off the nation, the American people. What many Americans didn't see or had simply refused to see couldn't be ignored any longer." Today, President Biden spoke to these issues in straightforward language before...
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How the Dawes Act Stole 90 Million Acres of Native American Land (history.howstuffworks.com)
The Dawes Act, while not a household name, was perhaps the single most devastating government policy of them all. Also known as the General Allotment Act of 1887, the Dawes Act resulted in the loss of 90 million acres (36 million hectares) of Native lands from 1887 to 1934 — the equivalent of two-thirds of all tribal landholdings at the time. Mark Hirsch is a historian at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. He explains that many...
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Biden Reaffirms Tribal Sovereignty (nativenewsonline.net)
As part of his racial and equality initiative, President Joe Biden on Monday signed a Presidential Memorandum that reaffirms tribal sovereignty through tribal consultation. Speaking in more general terms about the racial divide that exists in the country, Biden said the nation faces deep racial inequities in America. “In my campaign for President, I made it very clear that the moment had arrived as a nation where we face deep racial inequities in America and system — systemic racism that has...