#indigenous recognition

[fallensapphires]

Holidays: Indigenous Heritage Month (November)

That hand is not the color of yours, but if I prick it, the blood will flow, and I shall feel pain. The blood is of the same color as yours. God made me, and I am a Man.

As of 2023, there are 547 federally recognized tribes in the United States but somewhere between 200 to 400 unrecognized tribes.

[moniquill]

Here is a brief summary of what is happening in Wikipedia right now:

In the last few years (3-4 years) the WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North America, which was originally created to improve the quality and coverage of native issues and native articles on wikipedia, has been hijacked by a small number of users with an extremist agenda. They have been working diligently over the last few years to change the definition of both what it means to be an Indigenous American and even what it means to be state and federally recognized.

The four or five key players (Mainly Editor Yuchitown, Bohemian Baltimore, ARoseWolf, (now retired editor CorbieVreccan, Netherzone and Oncamera) who are part of the “Native American Articles Improvement Project” started implementing these changes slowly, but they started pursuing their goals aggressively after November 2023, when state-recognized tribes retained their voting rights in NCAI. Essentially, after the movement to delegitimize state-recognized tribes failed officially, the key players doubled down on altering and controlling the flow of information about Native Americans through Wikipedia.

The talk page of Lily Gladstone’s article has a relevant discussion here. Initially, the leaders of the WikiProject removed any reference to her being a “Native American Actress” and instead had her as “Self-identifying as Blackfoot” and “Self-identifying as Nez Perce” because her blood quantum was too low to be enrolled in either tribe.

You can see some of the discussion here:

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Lily_Gladstone

Eventually they relented and changed her category to being “Of Nez Perce Descent” but you can see in the discussion that they are referring to an article that these editors (Yuchitown, Bohemian Baltimore, and CorbieVreccan) themselves appeared to have mostly written and revised:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_identity_in_the_United_States

This statement is very much at odds with even the government’s description, as seen below;

The DOJ Office of Tribal Justice Office on their webpage “Frequently Asked Questions About Native American”, question “Who is an American Indian or Alaskan Native” states:

“As a general principle, an Indian is a person who is of some degree Indian blood and is recognized as an Indian by a Tribe and/or the United States. No single federal or tribal criterion establishes a person's identity as an Indian. Government agencies use differing criteria to determine eligibility for programs and services. Tribes also have varying eligibility criteria for membership.”

In addition, “List” pages have been created on Wikipedia for federally and state recognized tribes. The Wikipedia “List” page for state-recognized tribes is inaccurate in its interpretation of state recognition and not supported by expert reliable sources--(1) Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law 2012 edition, (2) NCSL.org current stand on state recognition (not the archived list from 2017 which NCSL no longer supports), (3) Koenig & Stein’s paper “Federalism and the State Recognition of Native American Tribes: a survey of state-recognized tribes and state recognition processes across the United States” (both 2008 & updated 2013 in book “ Recognition, sovereignty struggles, and indigenous rights in the United States: A sourcebook”)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-recognized_tribes_in_the_United_States

State-recognized tribes who have received recognition through less formal but acceptable means have been moved from the Wikipedia list page on state-recognized tribes to the Wikipedia list page of unrecognized or self-identifying organizations.

The Wiki page "List of organizations that self-identify as Native American tribes", in particular, is being used to purposely defame legitimate Native American individuals who are members of the tribes/Native communities that are on this list. 

By the parameters set up on Wikipedia, only the colonizer’s governments can acknowledge who is Native American through either federal recognition or state recognition. If an individual is not a member of a federally or state-recognized tribe, then it is determined that they cannot be Native American and are, instead, considered “self-identifying” or only “a descendant of ...” (example Lily Gladstone). As a result, Native individuals are currently being tagged as “self-identifying” and their names are put on “list” pages that strongly imply they are “pretend” Indians.

These editors have indicated that they would like “self-identification��� to be the default setting for any people who they deem do not fit within the parameters that they themselves created within Wikipedia.

Moreof, these editors are admin and senior editors within the Wikiproject Indigenous Peoples of North America, and are being called in specifically to weigh on Native Identity, and any project involving any Indigenous Group.

Any attempt to correct misinformation, add information, or change any of these articles is often met with being blocked, reported for various offenses, or reported for having a Conflict of Interest, whether or not that is actually applicable. They have use this strategically in many different pages for many different individuals and groups within the scope of their Wikiprojects.

While changing things in Wikipedia does not change the truth, it is a way to control how most people take in information, and thus they hope to manipulate the narrative to better suit their goals.

This is quick and messy but:

Here is a link to the google document with the other state recognized tribes (Including yours) that were edited by these editors. This is an incomplete list so far that only goes back to September 2023 but I am going to add to it. If you can add to your own part of this list, and send your complaints and information to the arbitrator committee (the email is below) with the involved editors, this will help our case.

The  more tribes who complain, and the more Wikipedia editors complain, the better our case will be. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YNDEjLTrrZ_mMIRCVxtvt69FwCYpJWKs71lBhWa5a9M/edit?usp=sharing

The place to make complaints on Wikipedia is oversight-en-wpwikipedia.org , and

arbcom-enwikimedia.org . It is most helpful to have an editing account on Wikipedia, because Yuchitown and the others will try to defend themselves using Wikipedia methodology and make anyone who confronts them look like the aggressor (see the other tribes who tried to fight back on Wikipedia I found).

The more people and tribes make complaints the more likely it is that this will work and we can rid ourselves of these monsters.

Some of the tribes I have spoken to are taking legal action against these editors. Any groups affected by their policies should also reach out to the news to make knowledge of this more widespread.

Thank you

- quoted with permission from an email sent by an associate of my tribe. Message me for their email address if you'd like to reach out to them.

[coolestguyonearth]

Crash Course and the Chinook Indian Nation!

So, imagine my shock and joy when I found out that Crash Course made a video highlighting my nation's fight for recognition. It was so overwhelming that I'm still riding that high as I write this. Crash Course is such a huge platform to be uplifting my people, and I'm so happy that they're doing it.

You guys might remember "Hey everyone, serious post!", a post I made that was a brief overview of how people can support my tribe. It started circulating again last week, which is perfect timing to coincide with this new video. I encourage anyone who cares even a little bit about Native American justice to watch it, because it gives a rundown on the most important things to do with NA sovereignty and recognition. It is so, so vital to know these things to properly advocate for my people and all of our related nations.

The Chinook Nation is an example of brutal injustice at the hands of the United States government. There are many other tribal nations out there who have fought long, arduous battles to gain recognition, or are still fighting to this day like us. The right to sovereignty is a basic one that all tribes are entitled to. It is a vast, repetitive, and infuriating failure of the US government that we must fight just to be acknowledged as existing people. We have always been here, and despite the genocide, we always will be.

Highlighting Native American voices is the safest way to spread our messages without accidentally disseminating misinformation. I sincerely hope that, if you have the time, you take it to watch Crash Course's video, and then you use the knowledge it gives you to be a better ally to the indigenous people in your life.

[rebeccathenaturalist]

This is a big deal. No, $48,692.05 is in no way, shape or form a fair price for the many thousands of acres of traditional Chinook land that were never ceded but were taken by settlers anyway. However, the fact that this funding from the 1970 Indian Claims Commission settlement is being released to the tribe is the strongest move toward regaining recognition in years.

As a bit of background, the Chinook Indian Nation are some of the descendants of many indigenous communities who have lived in the Columbia-Pacific region and along the Columbia to the modern-day Dalles since time immemorial. They saw the arrival of the Lewis & Clark party to the Pacific Ocean in 1805, but shortly thereafter were devastated by waves of diseases like malaria and smallpox. The survivors signed a treaty to give up most of their land in 1851, but it was never ratified by the United States government. While some Chinookan people are currently part of federally recognized tribes such as the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, and the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Reservation, the Chinook Indian Nation--comprised of the Lower Chinook, Clatsop, Cathlamet, Willapa, and Wahkiakum--have remained largely unrecognized.

That changed briefly in 2001. On January 3 of that year, the Department of the Interior under the Clinton administration formally recognized the Chinook Indian Nation. In July 2002, the Bush administration revoked the federal recognition after complaints from the Quinault Indian Nation, as the Chinook would have had access to certain areas of what is now the Quinault reservation. This meant that the Chinook, once again, were denied funding and other resources given to federally recognized tribes, to include crucial healthcare funding during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chinook Indian Nation has been fighting legal battles to regain federal recognition ever since the revocation. The funding released to them in this month's court decision doesn't make them federally recognized, but it is a show of legitimacy in a tangled, opaque system that indigenous people across the United States have had to contend with for many decades. Here's hoping this is a crack in the wall keeping the Chinook from recognition, and that they get more good news soon.

[ladychlo]

Today, Ireland, Norway and Spain announced their recognition of the state of Palestine. Long live the resistance. This would not have been possible without the resistance 🇵🇸🔻

[agentfascinateur]

The importance of recognizing Palestine

�� It corrects the historical record of previously negating its natural continuity

• It rectifies the false premise of a second-tier citizenry

• It welcomes Palestine in its rightful, senior place at the international table

• It respects its destiny and creates a safe space for its national future

• It promotes reconciliation

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

* * * *

The storytelling mind is allergic to uncertainty, randomness, and coincidence. It is addicted to meaning. If the storytelling mind cannot find meaningful patterns in the world, it will try to impose them. In short, the storytelling mind is a factory that churns out true stories when it can, but will manufacture lies when it can’t. -Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human (via exhaled-spirals)

+

There is a pattern to the universe and everything in it, and there are knowledge systems and traditions that follow this pattern to maintain balance, to keep the temptations of narcissism in check. But recent traditions have emerged that break down creation systems like a virus, infecting complex patterns with artificial simplicity, exercising a civilizing control over what some see as chaos. The Sumerians started it. The Romans perfected it. The Anglosphere inherited it. The world is now mired in it. The war between good and evil is in reality an imposition of stupidity and simplicity over wisdom and complexity.

Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta

[thehealingsystem]

got my down with the system book yesterday and I'm nearly at chapter five. I find a lot of things he says here insightful, a lot of it I didn't know because I personally haven't researched the armenian genocide a whole lot and only have lived in america. I picked up a book from the library on it that I'm gonna read after I finish my current readings. I've always found it interesting looking into the personal details of someone's life that's so different from mine, a completely different uprising yet here I am reading his stories and listening to his/their music and connecting with it. his political philosophy I mostly agree with, though the ways we differ are kinda significant imo. he leans more democratic-socialist with some more lib views where I'm more hardline communist. his respect for the us raises my brow, while he has shown support and shared ideas that advocates for indigenous rights, his level of solidarity with us is a bit questionable for me but I'm just gonna have to read more on it. it's a good read so far

[givelifetoaworld]

i wonder when the conversation about america in general will shift to the fact that is a failure. it’s so tangled up in so many tragedies that literally everyone is a victim of it in some way. it’s so hard to put into words.

america is literally hell. a capitalist police state death machine where everyone distrusts and hates each other for one reason or another, by design. it is cultureless, but also the dominant culture - because the culture is just capitalism and being part of the death machine. colonialists wiped out the vast majority of indigenous cultures to create the shittiest possible world where we are all born to 1) work and feed the capitalist death machine and 2) be settlers on land that has been ravaged beyond recognition. america is literally post-apocalyptic and will not last as it stands now, but the world has somehow been convinced that it is peak human society. and that’s only a little bit of it all

[moniquill]

CALL TO ACTION - IMPORTANT - RI AND NEARBY

The RI State Legislature is voting TODAY (June 11, 2024) on the recognition of the Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe by the state of Rhode Island.

We need as many people as can possibly make it to be at the RI State House, Rm 101, at 4:00pm. THIS IS IT - call your friends, your family, your neighbors. Call out of work or school if you need to. Bring as many people as you can - kids, elders, anyone who's able to come. We need to make an appearance as a tribal body!

If you could copy/paste this post to your own feed on FB, Insta, Whatever social media - that would be super helpful! Please spread, we're trying to rally a crowd at the last minute.

[skruffie]

had a thought in my head when I was getting beading supplies at Michael's earlier today and it has not left me since: the federal government did it's best to try to eradicate my ancestors, and the same government would then further punish me as their descendant if I misstep while reconnecting with what they were trying to steal away (i.e.: if I sold any beaded products I make, possession of eagle feathers, etc)

[themorningnewsinformer]

Ainu Language Revival: How AI Is Rescuing Japan’s Forgotten Tongue

Introduction The Ainu language, spoken by Japan’s Indigenous people, is classified as “critically endangered” by UNESCO. With only a handful of native speakers left, the language faced near extinction after decades of state assimilation policies. But now, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is stepping in — using old recordings and speech synthesis to help breathe new life into the nearly lost…

[kingohats]

Seeing the Inuit and Innu go to court claiming the NunatuKavut aren't indigenous because the latter are of mixed Inuit/European ancestry makes me wonder how that can be claimed when the Red River Metis are recognised as indigenous. Is there a double-standard here or is there some tension among FNs regarding Metis claims to indigeneity that the broader Canadian public doesn't see??