Food assistance and distribution programs, foster-care programs, school bus routes, elderly care programs, and college scholarship funds are just some of the services on Native American reservations that are threatened by the recent government shutdown.
Myth: Native American mascots honor Native peoples.
Reality: Native American mascots are racist, filled with stereotypical depictions of Native peoples.
From Alaska to Oklahoma and Wisconsin to Montana, we witness stories about the importance of saving Native American languages and meet some of the people who are working hard to heal these national treasures.
Plymouth, IN: On May 13, 2013 students from several universities left Kansas on a two-month journey to Washington, DC, to save the Wakarusa Wetlands, Lawrence’s only remaining indigenous wetland prairie, from becoming the South Lawrence Trafficway (SLT). They referred to their journey as the Trail of Broken Promises and beginning this September they will continue to endorse the protection of Native American sacred places by traveling with the Trail of Death Association’s 6th Commemorative Caravan.
On December 26, 1862, thirty-eight Dakota men were hanged at Fort Snelling in Mankato, Minnesota in the largest mass execution in the history of the United States. Ordered by President Abraham Lincoln, the execution functioned as the U.S. response to the killings that took place during what is now known as the “U.S. – Dakota War.” As a method through which to commemorate the loss of life and counteract the horror of the tragedy, every year, people of the Dakota Nation travel parts of the country by horse, spreading messages of harmony.
By Hannah Ellman
By Allie Goldstein and Kirsten Howard
We Can’t Eat Gold (2013), a new documentary directed by Joshua Tucker, gives voice to the local inhabitants of Bristol Bay as they oppose the construction of the Pebble Mine. The documentary is comprised of interviews—many of which are set in front of the beautiful lakes, rivers, and mountains of the region—highlighting the local community’s disapproval of the South African and Canadian Pebble Partnership Mine. The mine would be one of the largest open-air mines in the world if approved.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
