Category Archives: Social Justice

Writing About the Junction of First Nations and Social Justice Issues.

Spring, History, and Reparation

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In The PinkThe leaves are out and the lilacs are in bloom. This morning the squirrels have joined the birds in mating. This make for some entertaining moments at the feeders a everyone seems engaged in some playful, or occasionally confrontational, mating behavior. Spring is truly here!

This being an election year, we humans are engaged in some enigmatic behaviors of our own.  Down in Massachusetts the  election contest for the Senate, apparently lacking any real issues to address, appears focused on whether Elizabeth Warren meets criteria as a Native American. Nationally, Indian identity is a hot topic in Native and Neocolonial circles alike. Short Stories For Children entered the fray by writing sensibly about her experience as a Mixed Blood: Continue reading →

A Dream: High School and the Westward Expansion

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Dreaming of Early SummerLast night I had a dream. I was sitting in a high school social studies classroom. The class was watching a film about the “Westward Expansion“. I was seething. I was also sitting in the back of the class. As the film went on, I withdrew further and further from others in the class. Eventually, the teacher asked me why I was not participating. I explained that the colonists and settlers had killed between 60-100 million of my Native American  ancestors, and I saw no reason to celebrate. She was, of course, completely dismissive. Continue reading →

A Difficult Week In Indian Country

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After a light snow.I recently read Bill Read’s book of collected writings, Solitary Raven. Bill Reid was a Haida sculptor and poet, who wrote lovingly about traditions and the creative process. Were he alive, he might remind us that this year marks the 150th anniversary of the coming of Small pox to the people of the Northwest Coast. Within a few weeks of it’s arrival, up to 90% of people in some Native villages were dead. Germ warfare lead to the demise of traditional practices among the Haida, and other Northwest Native peoples. Many villages were simply abandoned. With the Small Pox also came the end of the “Golden Age” of Haida art and ceremonialism.

Unfortunately, acts of betrayal and cultural genocide against Native peoples in the Americas continues. Continue reading →