Fun fact

Native Americans weren’t allowed US citizenship until 1924.

Let that sink in. We lived here first…for thousands of years. And less than a hundred years ago we were finally given citizenship.

We also fought in WWI despite not being US citizens.

In Arizona, natives weren’t granted the right to vote until 1948. Think how that type of neglect ties into resource colonization as infrastructure was developed within years prior. 

In addition: the indigenous peoples of Canada were not recognized as Human Beings until the year 1960. Now let that shit sink in.

In the US it wasn’t until 1968 that the Indian Civil Rights Act was passed and allowed for the right to freedom of speech / assembly / press, a jury trial, the right to an attorney etc. It’s so fucking frustrating.

and it wasn’t until 1978 that we were legally allowed to practice our own religions. in a nation founded on religious freedoms, it was illegal to practice our own religions. in our own country. how fucked up is that?

Aaaand Native Americans weren’t entitled to their own languages (had no legal rights to teach them in their schools, use them in business) until the Native American Language Act of 1990.

I teach this to my students, because NONE of it is in a single textbook. This is and act of indoctrination

Boosting because I didn’t know any of this.

These facts should be known by all.

I learned in a Latin Studies class (with a chill white dude professor) that when the Europeans first saw Aztec cities they were stunned by the grid. The Aztecs had city planning and that there was no rational lay out to European cities at the time. No organization.

When the Spanish first arrived in Tenochtitlan (now downtown mexico city) they thought they were dreaming. They had arrived from incredibly unsanitary medieval Europe to a city five times the size of that century’s london with a working sewage system, artificial “floating gardens” (chinampas), a grid system, and aqueducts providing fresh water. Which wasn’t even for drinking! Water from the aqueducts was used for washing and bathing- they preferred using nearby mountain springs for drinking. Hygiene was a huge part if their culture, most people bathed twice a day while the king bathed at least four times a day. Located on an island in the middle of a lake, they used advanced causeways to allow access to the mainland that could be cut off to let canoes through or to defend the city. The Spanish saw their buildings and towers and thought they were rising out of the water. The city was one of the most advanced societies at the time.

Anyone who thinks that Native Americans were the savages instead of the filthy, disease ridden colonizers who appeared on their land is a damn fool.

They’ve also recently discovered a lost Native American city in Kansas called Etzanoa It rivals the size of Cahokia, which was very large as well.

white people please just purchase native artwork and jewelry from native people i keep seeing idiot white people be like “waaah i wish i could support native creators but its cultural appropriation” girl why would beaders sell you their earrings then. just dont get a medicine wheel or a thunderbird then like damn it is that easy

http://www.beyondbuckskin.com/p/buy-native.html?m=1

If Native folks are making it to sell to white people with the approval of their tribe, it’s not “appropriation”–its support and appreciation! So yes, buy that native-made dream catcher, but not the mass produced fakes made by white people. Like, you can go to a pow wow and buy native crafts there, too.

here are some places to get native/indigenous goods and merch online if you can’t find something local or if physical access is an obstacle:

https://sweetgrasstradingco.com/ https://nativeharvest.com/ https://byellowtail.com/ https://www.salishstyle.com/ https://trickstercompany.com/ https://hutxh.com/ https://www.thentvs.com/ https://urbannativeera.com/ https://www.oxdxclothing.com/ https://kotahbear.com/ https://www.totemdesignhouse.com/ https://ginewusa.com/ https://eighthgeneration.com/

and the only native-owned comic shop in the world: https://redplanetbooksncomics.com/

This semester in college we’ve been working with a company in an indigenous museum to help their sales

They work with native artists in all of Brazil, so the site is in portuguese

https://galeriamacunaima.com.br/

Buying from indigenous artists is not appropriation!

Every day praising an indigenous character — Day 15 

Ka'kwet from Anne With an E

Ka'kwet is a member of the Mi'kmaq nation, the daughter of Aluk and Oqwatnuk, and the older sister of Kitpu and Mimikej. The Mi'kmaq or Mi'kmag are an indigenous ethnic group in eastern Canada.  The Mi'kmaq are a First Nations people indigenous to Canada’s Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as the northeastern region of Maine.

https://anne-with-an-e.fandom.com/wiki/Ka%27kwet

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mikmaq

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/micmac-mikmaq

Researchers have used Easter Island Moai replicas to show how they might have been “walked” to where they are displayed.

VIDEO

Finally. People need to realize aliens aren’t the answer for everything (when they use it to erase poc civilizations and how smart they were)

(via TumbleOn)

What’s really wild is that the native people literally told the Europeans “they walked” when asked how the statues were moved. The Europeans were like “lol these backwards heathens and their fairy tales guess it’s gonna always be a mystery!”

Maori told Europeans that kiore were native rats and no one believed them until DNA tests proved it

And the Iroquois told Europeans that squirels showed them how to tap maple syrup and no one believed them until they caught it on video

Oral history from various First Nations tribes in the Pacific Northwest contained stories about a massive earthquake/tsunami hitting the coast, but no one listened to them until scientists discovered physical evidence of quakes from the Cascadia fault line.

Roopkund Lake AKA “Skeleton Lake” in the Himalayas in India is eerie because it was discovered with hundreds of skeletal remains and for the life of them researchers couldn’t figure out what it was that killed them. For decades the “mystery” went unsolved.

Until they finally payed closer attention to local songs and legend that all essentially said “Yah the Goddess Nanda Devi got mad and sent huge heave stones down to kill them”. That was consistent with huge contusions found all on their neck and shoulders and the weather patterns of the area, which are prone to huge & inevitably deadly goddamn hailstones. https://www.facebook.com/atlasobscura/videos/10154065247212728/

Literally these legends were past down for over a thousand years and it still took researched 50 to “figure out” the “mystery”. 🙄

Adding to this, the Inuit communities in Nunavut KNEW where both the wrecks of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror were literally the entire time but Europeans/white people didn’t even bother consulting them about either ship until like…last year. 

“Inuit traditional knowledge was critical to the discovery of both ships, she pointed out, offering the Canadian government a powerful demonstration of what can be achieved when Inuit voices are included in the process.

In contrast, the tragic fate of the 129 men on the Franklin expedition hints at the high cost of marginalising those who best know the area and its history.

“If Inuit had been consulted 200 years ago and asked for their traditional knowledge – this is our backyard – those two wrecks would have been found, lives would have been saved. I’m confident of that,” she said. “But they believed their civilization was superior and that was their undoing.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/16/inuit-canada-britain-shipwreck-hms-terror-nunavut

“Oh yeah, I heard a lot of stories about Terror, the ships, but I guess Parks Canada don’t listen to people,” Kogvik said. “They just ignore Inuit stories about the Terror ship.”

Schimnowski said the crew had also heard stories about people on the land seeing the silhouette of a masted ship at sunset.

“The community knew about this for many, many years. It’s hard for people to stop and actually listen … especially people from the South.”

 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/sammy-kogvik-hms-terror-franklin-1.3763653

Indigenous Australians have had stories about giant kangaroos and wombats for thousands of years, and European settlers just kinda assumed they were myths. Cut to more recently when evidence of megafauna was discovered, giant versions of Australian animals that died out 41 000 years ago.

Similarly, scientists have been stumped about how native Palm trees got to a valley in the middle of Australia, and it wasn’t until a few years ago that someone did DNA testing and concluded that seeds had been carried there from the north around 30 000 years ago… aaand someone pointed out that Indigenous people have had stories about gods from the north carrying the seeds to a valley in the central desert.

oh man let me tell you about Indigenous Australian myths - the framework they use (with multi-generational checking that’s unique on the planet, meaning there’s no drifting or mutation of the story, seriously they are hardcore about maintaining integrity) means that we literally have multiple first-hand accounts of life and the ecosystem before the end of the last ice age

it’s literally the oldest accurate oral history of the world.  

Now consider this: most people consider the start of recorded history to be with  the Sumerians and the Early Dynastic period of the Egyptians.  So around 3500 BCE, or five and a half thousand years ago These highly accurate Aboriginal oral histories originate from twenty thousand years ago at least

Ain’t it amazing what white people consider history and what they don’t?

I always said disservice is done to oral traditions and myth when you take them literally. Ancient people were not stupid.

This thread is made of gold

A really good thread on Killers of the Flower Moon by Indigenous Canadian actress Devery Jacobs (Reservation Dogs):

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.

okay cool but I’m confused about the great great — one. is it saying we should stop referring?? to our great?? grandparents??? and uncles and stuff? I just don’t get it I’m dumb someone help pls

No this is referring to specific jokes. People will often joke about Native people who don’t “look” Native to them and say their “great great grandmother was a Cherokee princess”. Sometimes white people will also say this as an attempt to claim Indigeneity.

i just realised i never seen the Indigenous America map so…this is what I found

The bottom one is spoken languages.

Here’s a map that includes the names of groups in their own languages, plus a bunch of groups that aren’t on the above maps. And here’s the full sized PDF.

the main problem i have with america is that nothings old as hell there. i cant be so far away from a castle it damages my aura

man people really just say stuff on here huh

Noooo haha don't spread racist ideals and colonizer propaganda by idolizing white european aesthetics above all else and denying the life and accomplishments of native peoples on their own lands

I work in postcolonial USAmerican history (museums in New England, Revolutionary through Victorian) and I constantly find myself correcting tourists who say we "don't have anything as old as in Europe here"

they don't usually mean anything by it; they're just not thinking and often get a bit embarrassed when I gently say "nothing EUROPEAN that's that old." but I will keep saying it until I run out of breath, if necessary

(also some pueblos are still occupied! Acoma Pueblo has been continuously occupied for 2000 years! which is incredibly cool!)

I've lived in Maine my entire life and never knew there was a 4,000+ year old American Stonehenge just a few hours away in Salem, NH. It's a beautifully maintained park, and one of the directional alleys points straight toward my ancestors homeland (Lebanon) 🥰🥰

It was a great place to get engaged!!

Also I talked about this on my other blogs but it bears repeating.

Dreamcatchers are not witchy. They’re not magical. Their only spiritual meaning is that they were taught to us by an Ojibwe mythological figure to protect our children when they’re out of her reach. They’re essentially glorified and blessed baby mobiles.

If anyone is reading this and taking it as permission to go out and make your own dreamcatcher or buy one from a non-Native artist, please rest assured and know that I hate you.

This post is about the misappropriation of dreamcatchers and the ways that they’ve been removed from their context and turned into something they’re not, which is the direct fault of them becoming popular outside of Native communities. They may not be some huge, sacred, ceremonial thing but they are still an important part of Ojibwe culture that has been stolen from us and used as a way for settlers to profit off of bastardized Native traditions.

Stop buying them from non-Native creators. Stop making your own if you’re not Native. Stop tattooing them on your body. Stop making jewelry with them. Stop printing them on clothes or home decor. Just fucking stop.

If you do buy one from a Native creator (preferably an Ojibwe person), don’t have it on a wall. A dreamcatcher should traditionally hang over the crib or bed with both sides uncovered, or in a window. It should be positioned so that the light of the rising sun touches it to burn away what it’s caught. If that’s not possible, just try to put it somewhere that the sun will hit at any point in the day.

If the child you’re buying it for is prone to bad dreams or nightmares, buy a dreamcatcher with a bead in the web, representing a spider, as extra protection. Some people will add more than one bead, so if you feel like it’s necessary, ask if that’s an option. Try to buy one with at least feather hanging from it because that’s how the good dreams are released from the web, by dripping down the feathers.

Some traditionally made dreamcatchers fall apart or collapse in on themselves after a year or so. It’s not because they’re badly designed or whatever, it’s because they’re something that children are meant to grow out of needing so they aren’t built to last.

Support Native artists and businesses.

200 fucking years and not a damn thing has changed.

These are human beings. 

Our brothers, our sisters, our siblings.

They will die.

THEY WILL DIE.

But the pipeline will be good for the economy, right?

Action, now!

The government did nothing about the armed anti government nuts in Oregon but jump to war strategies with Native Americans. This is so dangerous someone could easily die of dehydration in this heat. 

Smh fuck the Government

If this makes you angry, sign the “We The People” petition at whitehouse.gov.  It needs 26,674 more signatures to prompt a response by the White House.   https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/stop-construction-dakota-access-pipeline-which-endangers-water-supply-native-american-reservations

for more on native appropriation:  http://mycultureisnotatrend.tumblr.com/

Kelly Anderson, “Spring’s Least-Wanted Fashion Trend: The Co-opting Of Aboriginal Dress,” Elle Canada June 2013 (via racialicious)

important. Also something to keep in mind for the upcoming Tonto movie

(via feministdisney)