A Queer Native Feminist Reading List

Readings

Video & audio

As at least one person has pointed out, since I created this list Gwen Benaway has been called out as a pretendian. In recognition of this, and also just a desire to expand this list with more trans content, I present a series of links to essays and a few videos by transgender Native writers in the US and Canada. 

Other Media

Seeing a lot of posts about the Palestinian flag, and it got me thinking about indigenous flags around the world.

Maori:

Kalaallit Nunaat:

Haudenosaunee

Nunatsiavut:

Australian Aboriginal:

Torres Strait Islands:

Rapa Nui:

Kurdistan:

Sami:

Ainu:

Of course, these are just a handful. May they all reclaim their stolen lands.

Happy Indigenous History Month + Pride Month ❤️

Without Reservations - Ricardo Caté // #StandingRockTwoSpirits // Historical Photo of Two-Spirit Natives // Griffin Germain // Diné Pride (Cayla Nimmo)

Lakota Nation vs. United States (Jesse Short Bull & Laura Tomaselli, 2022)

People commenting on that post about how “some traditions aren’t sustainable anymore” as if indigenous people are dumb savages ignorant about modern ecosystems and how human actions affect the world around us, good and bad.

Spoiler alert: indigenous groups are more than aware of how their traditions need to change to fit this ever changing world. They lead movements to reintroduce species to their natural ecosystems. They use invasive animal species for food sources, hunting them excessively to try to get control over the populations. They fight to revive land destroyed by deforestation and climate change.

If you can’t acknowledge how indigenous people are at the forefront of pretty much every environmentalist movement, then uh. You’re a fucking racist lmao

Natives protect 80% of the world’s biodiversity despite only being less than 5% of the world’s population.

We need to thank the Navajo a nation! They all got out and voted with no cars and few polling places- their population was enough to swing BOTH Arizona and New Mexico

This is Navajo organiser Allie Young and her "voting squad" on the way to the polls. They rode 10 miles to vote early!

[Image: is a photograph of a group of eight Navajo people on horseback. End]

Do not forget it was Arizona's Indigenous tribes that pulled through and turned the state blue. They didn't *have* to participate in a government that colonized them and oppressed them for centuries. But they did anyway. Thank them.

this is the official navajo covid relief fund, please donate, it’ll go towards desperately needed medical supplies, as well as daily necessities for the community like canned food, drinkable water, disinfectants, and baby formula

http://www.nndoh.org/donate.html

If you haven’t already, please take a moment to read about the Quileute people’s Move to Higher Ground and donate if you are able to do so.

new post! respect indigenous people you morons.

This is pure art.

For those curious, this was taken at the Oceti Sakowin camp during the No DAPL protests in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. The photograph is titled "Defend the Sacred" by Ryan Vizzions. I did not find the name of the subject on horseback.

On September 21, the House of Representatives passed Savanna’s Act, a bill designed to address the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women in the country. The bill was named for Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, a 22-year-old pregnant woman who was killed in 2017. The bill requires the creation of protocols to address missing or murdered Native American women, with the goal of improving coordination and data collection between federal, state, tribal, and local law enforcement agencies. It also increases federal support from the Department of Justice in local cases. LaFontaine-Greywind is one of more than 500 Indigenous women who have been classified as missing or murdered in recent years, according to a 2018 report by the Urban Indian Health Institute. Researchers say the numbers are likely much higher. The bill was originally passed by the Senate in March. It will now head to President Trump’s desk to be signed into law.

Anti-Indigenous things to quit saying/doing:

- Stop saying “off the reservation”. It’s a reference to the pass system that was in place restricting Native people from leaving without permission.

- Stop making “1/16th”, “great-great grandmother”, etc. jokes. All of these reference blood quantum, a system designed to “breed out the Natives”. Indigeneity isn’t defined by a percentage, fraction, etc. Quit policing Indigenous identities and quit joking about genocidal tactics.

- Stop calling things your “spirit animal”. You don’t have one. Only Indigenous people from specific nations have spirit animals.

- Stop making dreamcatchers. They are sacred Anishinaabe culture and are not cute trinkets, crafts, etc. Buy them from Anishinaabe artists.

- Stop buying those little cloth “teepees” for your kids/pets/whatever. Also stuff with tipi prints

- Quit referring to your “tribe”. Enough with the “bride tribe” nonsense and all the rest. Stop trivializing tribal affiliations.

- Don’t wear “war paint”. Don’t put a feather in your hair. Don’t dress up as Native people or characters.

- Stop referring to your meetings/side discussions/parties as a “pow wow”.

- Stop supporting sports teams that use racist terms and logos and caricatures of Indigenous people.

- Stop using white sage. It is sacred and overharvested. There are lots of types of sage you can use instead.

- Stop “smudging”. Smoke cleansing exists in many forms in many cultures, use that. Non-Natives can’t smudge.

- Stop tokenizing your Native friends, classmates, in-laws, half siblings, etc.

Please add more!

- Stop treating Native spirits as generic monsters or cryptids, especially w*ndigoag and sk*nwalkers.

- Stop using imagery of skulls in Plains headdresses, especially as tattoos. This shouldn’t need to be explained.

Non-native but ESPECIALLY white witches/pagans stop trying to practice native religions/spirituality or trying to contact native spirits, leave our shit alone. They’re closed, period. The only time it’s okay for you to participate is when you’re invited by a native person, and your participation ends when that event is over, case closed.

- “You don’t *look* Indian” is wrong on numerous levels, among them the assumption that mainstream media’s stereotypical presentation of us is the way we somehow all must look. Stop saying any version of that. Your nearest midsize powwow will give you a full array of Native people with every phenotype you can imagine, from the ones who fit your narrow, stereotypical boundaries to the very pale, blue-eyed, blond grass dancer to the dark-skinned dancer with locs and her fancy shawl appliqued with African tribal patterns. If we’re Native, we look Native, period.

- “Native Americans believed…” As though 1) there was a monoculture and 2) Natives no longer exist/aren’t relevant in modern times and are relegated to history. We’re still here, and acting like we aren’t just helps perpetuate the genocidal tactic of deliberate invisibility. Also, we are not now, nor ever were, a monoculture, so a present-tense “Native Americans believe…” is also invalid.

- This was somewhat covered, but to be clear: “How much?” is not something for you to ask, especially not to people fighting a war of cultural attrition and erasure while trying to weave together the ragged threads of families and cultures and identities that were targeted and torn apart for centuries in an (ongoing) attempt to eliminate us.

i don’t know which twilight fan needs to hear this today but keep in mind that the quileute tribe is real and deserving of your respect

Anyway. With the revival of the Twilight fandom, please remember the absoluely devastating effects it had on the very real Quileute tribe and maybe think about supporting their Move to Higher Ground movement. The tribe is currently in extreme danger of being essentially wiped out by a tsunami, which the area is very overdue for, and so they're fundraising to move the community outside of the tsunami danger zone.

They're in the process of moving the school already after receiving federal funding, but their goal is to move the whole community as quickly as possible, starting with the most vital things like the school. Things like the Elder center, cultural and community buildings, and residential areas are all still in the danger zone.

If you're interested in Twilight or any of its follow-ups, instead of buying the books, consider just pirating the books (or checking them out at your local library) and using the money you'd have spent on them to donate to the Quileute tribe instead.

Indigenous protesters at Mount Rushmore, July 4 2020.

Since there’s OP didn’t include a caption, here are some links to fundraisers to help our tribe! Thank you!

Navajo Relief Fund: http://www.nativepartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=nrf_index

Navajo Water Project: https://www.navajowaterproject.org/

NavajoYES (youth organization): http://www.navajoyes.org/donate/