#Does The NDN Live

[alinahdee]

Rules of engagement:

Every once in awhile I will get an anonymous ask in my messages along the lines of: "Don't reblog from this person because of x, y, z problematic behavior, prejudice, they're a pretendian, etc."

Because of the limitations of Tumblr I understand that you are unable to post evidence/receipts in asks and the onus is on me to do the work to find out about it. And I will. This is all I ask of you if you wish to bring this to my attention:

Do not post it anonymously. I have no idea who is sending this information to me, who you are, if you're part of the community or outside of the community, if you're an ally or if your intentions are malicious, etc. Indian Country is small and we all kind of know each other to some extent. If I know who you are, what you post, what your intentions are, what your impact is, I am more willing to believe YOU and trust YOUR judgment than I am when it comes to a random anonymous message that could've been sent by anybody. I will not post your message. I will not front you off. I will not paint a target on your back.

If I reblog something from a problematic person but it's an on issue or a stance that I personally agree with separate from who they are? ESPECIALLY if they have a big platform? Chew the meat, spit out the bones. It's honestly the only way to interact with anybody with a big platform whether it's an activist or a celebrity. The American Indian Movement rose a lot of awareness on Native issues while simultaneously treating Native women and girls like garbage (and in one specific case, murdering one). Both should absolutely be discussed because both are relevant and both are important. I cannot talk about one and not the other. I am okay with my relationship to these topics and positions changing and shifting based on new information.

If I reblog a gifset from a problematic person honestly, just ask yourself why I'm reblogging it. Is it because I like that specific person or is it because I like the character in the gifset? Do I reblog this person frequently or do I reblog posts about the character or the show frequently? This is the only benefit of the doubt I want from you. I trust patterns of behavior and can hold myself accountable for them.

Know this first and foremost: I am here for Indigenous people before anybody else. I want to know who the abusers or the frauds or the predators are for the sake of everyone in our communities. Trust is earned and everyone should be careful and picky with who they decide to trust. I need to know who I can trust if you bring these allegations and information to me.

If you have any questions or need anything clarified please let me know.

[doesthendnlive]

"Prey" was a catch 20 of sorts where NDNs sort of have to die yet there's plenty of characters like them and in a context that is about them first. The Predator is still a survival horror and not everyone makes it.

I figured Natives were going to die in Prey because, well, it's a Predator movie. I think that's why, as problematic as the fist fight scene was, they just needed those specific characters to be as unsympathetic as they needed to be so we wouldn't feel TOO bad about the Predator killing them. And then the film makes up for it by killing off a bunch of colonizers afterwards.

[doesthendnlive]

Aside from the ancestors who are obviously dead and both of Maya's parents, none of the Native characters in Marvel's Echo dies.

The death of her parents happens in the first episode both in her childhood flashbacks and in the Hawkeye recap. It can feel like a lot, but after it's smooth sailing.

Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) from ECHO passes The Ali Nahdee Test!

[neechees]

I just found out about this apparently Cree Flutist (who is blonde, blue eyed, & looks White) named Lisa Carpenter or "Gentle Thunder" as she calls herself, but its weird bc I can't find anything else about her being Cree besides that she plays Native American instruments, is from Washington (which doesn't exactly have large numbers of Crees) and that she "is of Cree heritage". I hate to be that bitch but I'm kinda wondering if she's just a White Woman who randomly said she was Cree lol

[cypheragent]

visit a rez populated by struggling native communities and tell me one more time that everyone living in this country benefits from imperialism

[vhygoxo]

Wolf Pack Headcanons

My personal head canons on the shifters and what they get up to 🫶 I’ve been missing seeing wolf pack content. Plus there isn’t much info or anything on the Wolfpack outside of Jacob. Most of these come from the fact I know what it’s like to live on a rez. Debating if I should do nsfw head canons next 🤭

There’s hardly any down time for the shifters. Since the Cullens came into town there had been almost constant activity in the area. After the birth of Renesmee everyone thought it’d calm down. But instead activity got more frequent. Patrols and executions were part of their routine after a few years

When Vampire activity is low they still protect the rez in their own way. Most of the guys took first aid and security classes. Since chief and council know about the secret of the shifters they pay all of them (except the younger ones aka minors) through their security program. So when there are hardly any vampires they work in the security program

Everyone helps Emily with the household such as cleaning and cooking when they can. But most just help pay for the groceries since she feeds all of them

The rez has a mixed view of the shifters. To everyone they’re all secretive and intimidating. But because of how many people they’ve helped over the years they’ve also earned a lot of respect. Some believe they are arrogant and entitled to the rez. Others believe them to be protectors of the rez in a way. Sometimes people have issues with them to the point of harassing them. Sam, Paul, and Jared are usually the main targets. Like Bella thinking they are a gang ☠️

These guys all have trucks and drive everywhere+anywhere. Kim is the only one to own a car. They have many different chill spots around the rez (not just them but everyone in La push goes to these places) usually to drink and have bonfires

When they aren’t driving on the Rez they’re heading into town for some fun. Shopping sprees, eating out, and gambling is usually what’s on the agenda for these guys. Although they drive a lot locally it’s because they can’t travel too far

Everyone especially Paul dreams of the day they no longer have to shift. Once they stop they have all the freedom to travel and explore

The guys love to go mudding in their trucks and have contests

Emily has a projector and hosts movie nights in the backyard when it’s nice out

Emily and Kim craft and bead together. Emily does more sewing than beading, she’s made all the guys ribbon shirts, from youngest to eldest. Also enjoys making ribbon skirts occasionally especially Appliqué ribbon skirts. Kim loves to make beaded earrings and necklaces. These two give away more than they sell

Kim is always wearing big ndn girl™️ earrings. Beaded, quilled, dentillium, shells, you name it. (Once she wanted to make some out of Jared’s wolf fur but he refused. She found a way)

All of them are hella competitive with each other. And since they’re basically non human their strength and abilities are crazy. They all enjoyed testing their strength, think Bella and Emmett arm wrestling, same energy with these guys. Both in human and wolf form they strived to show off. The imprintees of them all had to take some time to get used to seeing such things. Like two mega beasts fighting on the front lawn, switching back to human, and playing it off like nothing

Paul, Leah, and Embry are the ones who struggle the most with being a shifter. In the beginning their rage and frustration was almost uncontrollable. Even as the years passed they still had moments where they burst out of control. (Once they imprinted the out bursts stopped completely) So these three became close since they were similar especially in their struggles

High energy for all of them. They have to find ways to burn off energy or else they legit couldn’t sleep. Which the solution is always intense exercise. Most times you’ll find Paul and Jared are competing to see who can do more push ups. Or the younger wolves doing relay races on their usual trails. Embry, Quil, and Jacob liked to box and spar with each other only. Leah and Paul get way too aggressive when sparring with everyone. It’s usually just Leah vs Paul if they really need to get rid of their aggression. Sam and Jared spar together since they actually follow the rules lol

Emily and Leah are still close and Leah never dated Sam lol

It wasn’t Sam that scarred Emily it was a rogue vampire. Sam punishes his self since he wasn’t fast enough to protect her. But he was quick enough along with Paul to stop the vampire before he could change her. It’s why Leah distrusts Sam. She believes he can’t protect her sister/cousin well enough and punishes him daily in their hive mind. Also constantly questions him as a leader

Quil and Kim are cousins lol I imagine them being close like brother and sister growing up. So it works well for them to be in the wolf pack together

For the shifters it’s hard for them to drink any alcohol. Not that they don’t it’s just that their body burns the alcohol quicker than normal humans. Smoking 🍃 actually has an effect on them like normal

Majority of them rarely drink, it started from Sam believing he needed to be in a clear mind, in order to be a leader. Not only that but being a shifter meant being very spiritually connected. And in most native cultures it’s believed that alcohol dulls the spirit. (Doesn’t stop some of them lol)

Quil, Embry, and Jacob were the first to start smoking 🍃 and out of the whole pack Quil is the biggest stoner. Claims it’s what “keeps him chill” since he doesn’t have a hard time shifting

They hunt game while they’re in wolf form. Natives love wild meat, deer, elk, moose, you name it. So them being able to shift makes it way easier to catch game. The guys gut and skin whatever they catch. Emily and Kim are usually the two who process the game. (Tbh it’s mostly Paul, Leah, and Sam bringing back game home because they raged out)

Everybody is in someway jealous of Jared and Kim. Since Jared had an easy time with shifting even in the beginning. And when he imprinted on Kim their relationship had always been easy and full of love even now

Jacob and Quil are the mechanics of the group. All the guys know some basic skills but these two are the best at it. Anytime anyone has issues it’s them who take care of it

It was actually Seth who took on his mom’s role and was training to become an emergency service provider. Eventually he wants a job in medicine. Leah knows basic cpr and first aid like the rest of the guys

All their minds are linked, when they shift they get a download, of what everyone was doing while not in wolf form. Nothing is secret or sacred lol they all know everything about each other. In their human form they’re still connected of course. But they have to get consent to connect telepathically in human form. In wolf form they have no control and everything is shared in the mind in an instant

Tbh around others especially in crowded places they gained their rep of being stoic and silent bc of this. Even in human form they talk more with each other in their heads than with their voice. Usually if they’re in a group but silent they’re talking in their heads to each other. They all have their own ways of blocking out certain things the others go through

The pack tolerates renesmee but pretty much just Emily and Kim visit her, out of pity and empathy, Jacob understood this well. Instead of making his brothers uncomfortable he’s usually with the Cullens. Occasionally he’ll come by his self but not for long. Sometimes he brings her but it’s usually short visits

Quil Atera III (quil’s grandfather) Billy Black, Harry Clearwater, and Sue Clearwater are one of very few people who know history of the shifters. Majority of what everyone knows about shifters is because of the knowledge they possess. The pack rely on these 3 the most

I felt this was enough head canons for now even tho I have way more lol. Hoping to upload one of my fics rewritten soon here. But I’m having fun with these wolf pack head canons for now. If you enjoy this and my writing feel free to send me an ask! I’m open for requests ✨

[sluggybunny]

Sluggy i want to know more about Saturn! does she have any special skills or powers? a love interest? what is her personality likeeeee :>

first off.

i will cry. i love u. thank you for being interested in saturn. i shall tell you many things.

Saturn has special powers! She is magically awakened, aka she has magic powers. But she is freaked out by them lowkey and chooses not to develop them and instead suppresses them. Instead she is very skilled with beating the shit out of people & handling shotguns and machine pistols.

Her personality is very gaslight. girlboss. maybe a bit of gatekeep but shes mostly on that gaslighting shit. She is always lying, even about really innocuous stuff. You can never tell what her real feelings on a subject ever are because she is just dishonest down to her very bones. She's even dishonest to herself. She has a very nihilistic point of view on life and just is drawn to things that are 'exciting' or entertaining because what else is the point? Additionally, she's an elf so she's going to live a long time so that adds to it lol.

a snippet from her profile: "Saturn does not care. Whatever you're thinking about, she doesn't care. She would walk directly into hell with a smile on her face. A lifeless smile but a smile nonetheless. She is interesting in that she never puts on airs around people, she doesn't hide when she dislikes something or someone. She does not care for formalities or being polite. But that does not make her an honest person and when you interact with her, you walk away knowing less about her than you did before."

She has a love interest and he is (looks around the room to make sure nobody who knows who this character really is is here) Lofwyr, who is like. A dragon? CEO? Does the council agree with Dragon CEOs? LOL. He is like the master of all schemes, always pulling strings and makes elaborate plans so it was only natural she is drawn to him. Their relationship is very "you wanna fuck me so bad it makes you look stupid." I actually have drawn some comics and wrote a lot of stuff with them because I am unwell about them both. (Lofwyr is a character from the game/novels of Shadowrun, i get the award of having the most niche & obscure blorbo)

some other stuff about saturn:

she wears gold because of her boyfriend, yes. this is true. i know its more in trend for complementary/contrasting color schemes but you know whats hot? being decorated as a sign of being owned. sorry

she is native american/first nation which is very important to me, i am usually anxious to share my ndn characters

she is quite tall!!! 6'2/190 cm

her birthday is 4/2/24. in the current timeline of the story, she is around 56. i picked that year because thats the year I created her! (techincally, 2023 but i was in the hospital when i first thought of her. when i really started going nuts writing stuff, it was 2024)

[femboy-nation-rise]

What do you mean you're "reclaiming the color pink"? That sounds dunb 😂

I'm a trans man and I was raised to be hyper feminine. Like, not even kidding, "you need to be wearing gloves in public otherwise you're a slut" kind of hyperfeminine. No pants. No wearing blue (unless it was robin's egg blue). No short hair, no tattoos, no shorts, and T shirts were only allowed if I was wearing them to bed.

The color pink was supposed to be present somewhere in every outfit. Most of the time, if it wasn't the color of my clothes, it was the color of my earrings, or bracelets, or ribbons in my hair.

Needless to say, I learned to leave clothes at other friends' houses to change into or I would stow a pack near the bus stop and just changed there (i lived in a rural, wooded area, no worries).

But the color pink ESPECIALLY got tied into my dysphoria because it was SO hammered in that I had to wear it all the time, especially since I am NDN, and was consistently told that my features were "far too masculine", so the extra pink was there to "convince" people I was a woman "despite" not being white and having a little button nose and big doe eyes or whatever.

I am in my 30's now. Having to go through that for almost 20 years made me have a physical, nauseous reaction to the color pink. Now that I am older and have unworked a LOT of that—frankly—brainwashing, I want to give pink a fair chance, meet her for who she is, rather than the warden she was forced to be, you know?

[wapat]

Trying to understand the modern NDN

I show up to a party that's ahead of me by 3 days. It smells like piss and spilled coolers. There's 6 NDN's in there when I show up. The only source illuminating the space is the light above the oven. All the curtains closed as if trying to hide the shame of what is going on, the speaker so loud its drowning out the thoughts of how life is going for your people. Out of the 6, 4 are passed out. 2 are somewhat coherent- one keeps looking around with a 1000 yard stare, in the deepest part of the eyes you can see the spirit that can't make sense of what's going on. The other is babbling nonsense to the air "no you're crazy... hahaha.... they said they would be back, they said.". I grab the quarter bottle, probably belonged to one of those passed out. I take my first drink of a 4 dayer, because misery loves company.

How does a native cope with active colonialism? You get caught between wanting to fight like hell for what's right, or giving up entirely. Most choose the latter- getting into blind addiction, not wanting to think, not wanting to feel. Mistaking it for warmth and comfort from a harsh, arrogant, ignorant world. When in reality it just makes you numb. Easiest way to cope instead of fighting. I don't discriminate for those fighting addiction, I may not understand exactly what they are going through, but hey- me too. A moment of bliss or blacking out for 3 days feels better than being hurt or angry at the world for even a minute. Because in essence we don't want that for the world right? We want to love. We want to change things. We know what's best. That fight is in us, but that hope can be far from reach. Sometimes when we can't fight the system built to destroy us, we tear down our own brothers and sisters. Mocking them for being able to handle colonialism and actively stepping up, bettering themselves as individuals. It's like we look at their success as our failure. We don't look at it as building capacity within ourselves. Just another fucking way to show colonization is winning.

(Written 2020, crossed out 2023) I remember driving in my hometown, Bella Coola Valley. For work I went up Valley, to Stuix (Stuie on Canadian maps). On the drive I was talking to my fellow cousins (no relation). "Fucking white people" was repeated while driving by occupied houses sitting on unused farmland. The open fields dwarfed the 3 story houses that would put the local band office to shame. "Just sickens me, 2 of these properties are bigger than one of our reserves". "Welcome to tweedsmuir lodge" stands at the entrance of my ancestral inheritance. Some of these families up valley have been here for generations. Like for sure they oppressed mine kind of thing. Sure no one is at fault today. But they get to enjoy the spoils of what has happened? Fucking pricks. At the most there are 4 families living in one household on my reserve while there are fields of unused land. What are they doing to alleviate the injustices of past mistakes? Maybe once they do that I'll stop saying "fucking white people". Until then I have a right to my anger, my hatred, my hurt.

(2023) No. There is a better way to move forward than complete hatred- A reasonable amount of anger is a given. Healing takes both sides, and creator knows we are trying to show up. Against all odds, we are trying ❤️

-Wapat (flowers in his hands)

[doesthendnlive]

TigerLily from Peter Pan & Wendy LIVES

[cdenofreofina3147]

Questions Around Postmodernism

After 5 years in university, at Kwantlen, I have what I think is a very slight grasp on what postmodernism is after having many conversations with fellow classmates, through independent research and the lectures from professors. To answer “How do we approach postmodernism in 2025?” is something I don't think I'm necessarily qualified to answer. But despite that I would like to at least document my thoughts on the subject to the best of my ability. It's impossible to say what I write today will be my opinion a year from now, or 10 years from now. The way I've been approaching postmodernism in my own personal practice has just been to listen to all information given, ask questions often, and to challenge my own knowledge and others around me in a constructive way. For some context about my practice as an artist; I am a Cree woman, I was raised by my single mother who was a part of the 60s scoop here in Canada. She was taken from her parents before she was 1 year old, originally from Manitoba. Though she did her best to reclaim her identity after being adopted into a white family here in Richmond BC, there was a lot that was unknown. I was put into an indigenous program in my elementary school that tried to help kids reconnect with their heritage. This led to me being taken out of class for an hour a day to listen to a woman who was just as clueless as we were about what it “meant to be indigenous”. I watched Disney’s Pocahontas 28 times under the guidance of this “indigenous worker”. 

Cut to much later in my life, doing my best through highschool to learn more about where our family came from, our traditions, our stories I realized I would never be as connected as others. This really made me angry and confused about my identity and how I could claim I was indigenous without knowing what that even meant for me. Now today, most of my practice is exploring this colonized urban identity that I have as an indigenous woman, creating work that cements a confused and complicated identity that many of us new generation indigenous kids have. “NDN Troubleshooting” was an installation I worked on a year ago that I was super proud of that examined the media I was being fed as a child, and how as a young person I was trying to imagine what it would've been like to grow up where my band resides, and inventing this world that only existed on what I knew and could find out myself. That was the first piece of work that felt like I was going in this direction of postmodernism. I have been questioning the issues around my colonized identity for much of my life. And to my knowledge I don't know many people actually talking about embracing both sides of it. I question why? I grew up in a small neighbourhood with a majority of its members being indigenous, hispanic, and black. I grew up eating froot loops and watching elmo. I grew up going to monthly potlatches and dancing to drums. I grew up playing sonic on the sega with my grandmother. I grew up making button blankets. Both were important parts of my life, why would I deny and reject the colonized half? I'm waiting for someone to challenge me on why. Does that make me postmodern? Maybe.

Moving on to “Do we need to be wary of Postmodernism? Can we live our lives constantly skeptical?”

I think being constantly skeptical is what landed me in counseling at a young age. Like I mentioned previously, I ask a lot of questions, and that's gotten me in trouble more than enough times throughout my life. I was raised to be skeptical, whether that says anything about my mother I have no idea, but she was a strong believer in challenging people when they were so sure about a truth. I questioned why I had to just like boys as a little girl. I questioned why at the school dances I couldn't wear a dress shirt and tie. I questioned why our grade 7 teacher taught us about boners and not what a period was. I questioned why boys were forced into sports against their will when girls had to fight their way into them. I questioned why at 13 I couldn't vote for a leader I believed in. You get the idea. When I asked all these questions I was kicked out of my church, I was bullied at school, people my own age did not like me. Even adults would get tired of me, I'm sure. These days I think there are things I would like to accept as truths. Universal truths is a term that was given to these things, like drinking water keeps you from dying, vitamins are important, grass is green, things like that. I think there's a constructive way to be constantly skeptical so we don't all lose our minds and never trust anything. I don't think being wary of postmodernism is a bad thing, some people would rather happily accept the truths they've been told. There are truths I comfortably live with, in life and in art. But if we all just stopped our questions and skepticism I think conversation, change, and growth would stop. Whether it be from our planet dying from pollution, or power hungry leaders inciting nuclear wars.

“What can we do when we meet someone who thinks differently to us?”

This question is something that I think many people approach differently, especially in 2025 now. In general most of the people I keep in good company are like minded thinkers, usually left leaning, advocates, activists, people I trust in a crisis. I have a couple people in my life that think quite differently too. People who trust in political leaders I don't, people who aren't concerned about climate change, people who challenge pronouns, people who challenge philosophy or spirituality. I think most of the time I just listen and pay attention to their thinking, I internally wonder if they feel fulfilled in the way they think as I feel fulfilled in my thinking. Maybe there's a community that thinks the same way they do, and have advocates, activists and people they trust in crisis. How could I challenge someone that's just like me in that sense? If they are just as open to listening to me as I am to them, then it usually ends up being quite civil. We agree to disagree and that's the end of it. If this hypothetical someone who thinks differently isn't interested in listening at the least, I don't deem their words worth my time or energy.

“How does our training affect our worldview?”

This is an interesting one! As someone who's been a full time active fine arts student at Kwantlen since 2019, I think in general I can say that a majority of my training has been quite liberal. There are things that we are told to question and analyze, and are rewarded for whatever thinking we have as long as the argument is backed with academic articles or texts proving our thoughts and opinions. Most of the professors I've had experience with and have helped me and trained me to be the artist I am have similar worldviews I went into art having. I am definitely more educated and informed on what I believe in, and in that how to actually intelligently make my case in arts related topics. Someone who's going to school for business or medicine might not have the same type of training or people that I've had the pleasure of knowing being in fine arts. I feel like there's maybe a stereotype about artists being quite liberal or left thinkers, a term I've heard my father in law use was “hippies with a PhD”, and he's an elevator mechanic. I've been allowed in my practice and career choice to explore a more open way of learning, I'm not necessarily forced to write 100 page essays or multi-layered assignments about a subject, but the way that my training has transpired has been from contemporary or postmodern thinkers. And with their intention of allowing us and equipping us to be free thinkers has shaped the way that I view the world and how I view education and learning. I am very invested in the ideas and thoughts that come from my fellow classmates and peers in my department and field, and I think that comes from the training I've received. I'm reminded of how important it is to listen and ask questions often. It would be impossible to cover my entire worldview in a couple sentences, but I will say that I am happily an open book and am a forever student learning from everyone around me to fill my pages. I am only 23 years old, why would I ever close that book now? 

[neechees]

what do you think of blood quantums for tribal enrollment? I’ve heard many different opinions about it and wanted to ask your opinion. On one hand it undoubtedly filters out the pretendians, on the other it seems to keep many indigenous ppl from connecting with their communities when they are legitimately indigenous. It was also put in place by the govt so that doesn’t help it’s merit either

BQ for tribal enrollment does not filter out the pretendians, it's not ironclad. And even if it did, it's also disenfranchising people who are also ACTUALLY Native.

We (& i mean the royal "we" here) talked about this on my blog that there's a type of "pretendian" that technically does have some kind of (usually distant) Native heritage down the line, but that they use this to their advantage. If you've lived your whole life as a different ethnicity and only very recently learned of some Native lineage (esp if one is white), that Native heritage somewhere does not suddenly make you Native.

Like if I found out I had a greatx8 Chinese grandmother I would not suddenly start calling myself "Asian". Obviously that situation would be a little different since Chinese Canadians & FNMI have different histories of racialization within Canada & experiences among the diaspora, but it would still be weird for me to do something like sign up for a scholarship specifically meant for Chinese Canadians or started selling "Chinese inspired" art while marketing myself as Asian-Canadian. I would have Asian heritage yes, but I did not live my life as an Asian Canadian, and suddenly wanting something (what one could perceive as "benefits") from that experience without even trying to do ANY work in actual exploration, community building, self education & reflection, or reconnecting of that heritage would be weird & wrong.

The type of pretendians that I mentioned do the above: they might have some Native heritage, but there's a lot of people (and I mostly see White people do this), that aren't actually interested in reconnecting or building community & allyship with Native people, but want the perceived "benefits" of being Native, be it imagined (like how some people think that ndns don't pay taxes, which is a myth), financial (like applying for Native scholarships or selling "Native" products like sage), or social (like wanting to be perceived a certain way, or trying to market themselves as a Native "activist", or building a social media platform) or Fetishistic (being obsessed with the idea of Native lineage, hippies, appropriation) or literally anything else. So no, BQ laws for Native enrollment doesn't necessarily filter out pretendians effectively, because this type of "pretendian" also exists, and will and have used that heritage to get tribal enrollment for the above reasons.

And as I mentioned, it also disenfranchises other ACTUAL Natives, both those who technically have very little or no Native BQ but were adopted in & have always identified as Native their whole lives, or those who are mixed race and have what would be considered a "high" Blood Quantum as well, and even those who are "full blooded" but do not have tribal enrollment & are denied it for any number of reasons. Black Natives for example, are regularly denied tribal enrollment regardless of BQ for no reason other than that they are Black, so BQ for enrollment doesn't even necessarily work for people who are ACTUALLY NATIVE either.

BQ for tribal enrollment has a racist history in the past AND ongoing issues in the present. In other words, the system of BQ is bullshit, and was made up by White colonizers who literally did not know or care about Native ideas on Native identity, and their goal in creating BQ was also working along with genocide. BQ in enrollment was not made to protect us.

[webg1rl]

love after the end

While I was reading History of the New World by Adam Garnet Jones, I was struck with two questions in particular: what makes us worthy of living on a new planet after the end? Why is our continued existence the priority?

At the beginning of the story, Thorah says “you can’t deny that for our whole history, we’ve been an unstoppable force, limited only by our imagination and our determination.” I like this line because it’s very accurate to the way human beings are. Humans have always been curious and have explored countless crevices of this Earth for the simple goal of acquiring more knowledge. I believe it’s one of the things that really set us apart from other living beings on this planet. And, as Thorah mentions, our determination and imagination is certainly admirable, no doubt. We have accomplished great feats in our limited time on Earth and found ways of living and advancing to heights previously thought impossible. But what does that mean when our curiosity eventually becomes greed?

In our highly consumerist world, we are constantly in hunt of new ways to advance and these advancements, in the name of progress, have oftentimes come at the expense of the land, other animals that co-inhabit this planet, and ourselves. Our dedication to progress seems to have trumped our responsibility to the planet and everything/everyone that lives on it. We have destroyed forests, contaminated oceans, and killed each other all in the name of advancement and this advancement seemingly has no end.

In the story, the narrator mentions the formation of an escape plan as the planet steadily deteriorates and will, eventually, become unlivable. Scientists in the story have discovered a new planet, which they dubbed the New World, for humans to inhabit and thus, created ships to take people there in order to create a new civilization on a planet that isn’t dying. Or has not begun to die yet — which is where my question comes in.

If we can’t even save our own planet, what makes us worthy of inhabiting a new planet when ours eventually dies? History of the New World speaks about an organization, NDN, that focuses on rebuilding languages and histories that may have been wiped out as a result of factors that played a hand in planetary deterioration, a focus on “returning to the land while the rest of the world prepared to abandon it.” The New World is certainly tempting given the state of the Earth in the story — but to abandon Earth in its time of crisis seems to me altogether unacceptable. It is our technologies that destroyed the Earth and will undoubtedly destroy the next planet we inhabit if we don’t accept that fact. And when, not if, we destroy the New World, will we then search for another planet?

We have a responsibility to the land we live on, and one of these responsibilities is to not abandon it when the going gets tough (our fault, by the way). It is important to stay on this planet, crisis and all, and work on fixing it instead of finding an ‘escape plan’ out of something we did. When I say we I don’t mean the individual citizen of Earth — I’m talking about large organizations and corporations that willfully and intentionally destroy the planet purely out of self-interest. Yes, advancement had once been the goal but when these advancements line the pockets of greedy corporations with unfathomable amounts of monetary reward, the goal tends to become distorted.

At some point during the story, the narrator highlights the fact that the most important part of this New World is its lack of history. Later on, we learn that there is, in fact, life on the New World and that’s where the theme, for me, begins to reek of colonialism. Colonialism was premised on the idea of “undiscovered”, “uninhabited” land. And in this story, humans are shipping themselves to this new planet and occupying a land they believe exists solely for them, where they will “create” history — which is where my second question comes in. The narrator, Em, believes that humans will stop at nothing to live on this New World and has visions that echo colonialism, causing her to become less inclined to join this transfer to the new planet than she already was. Why is the continued existence of humans prioritized over everything else? There is no doubt that the humans in the story will colonize the New World and erase or otherwise displace any life form that already existed on the planet — similar to what they did on Earth. Thereafter, they will “create” history.

By the end of the story, I don’t find myself with answers to the questions I have posed. There really isn’t any simple answer or solution to this problem. I don’t think all humans are selfish, there are millions of us that care about the planet and have stood up against corporations and policies that were put in place to destroy it. But there is always more to be done. We can’t simply try to escape the damage we’ve done by finding another planet. Our place as here on Earth and I think we have a responsibility to dedicate ourselves to saving it. If we started on Earth, I think we should end on it too.

[weaselbeaselpants]

In response to the reblog before my last post- I'm fricken tired of people thinking hating on white people/"reverse racism" is comparable to racism-racism. And don't you dare call me a white-pickme for that; I MEAN IT.

In as far as BIPOC people bullying white ppl for existing, asserting the problem is always "whiteness" every time, and discriminating 'white-passing' individuals for not being asian, black, ndn 'enough --- I can't really speak personally for or about any of that. Yes, I can bring up the Art Spiegelman "suffering makes you hurt" speech, but that's a multifacited, complicated issue and I'm alone typing all this from a laptop. Especially the 'reverse colorism' part; I can NOT SPEAK for this. At most, when it's the first example, it can be a case of badly-handled social justice where a person doesn't really know how to clap back besides just pointing to the oppressor and unironically saying "they did it" every time.

Even so- the one thing I DEFINITELY can tell you is: that's still not comparable to systemic oppression, k? The reason it's "okay" to racelift a white character in an adaptation but not okay to white-wash a bipoc character is because WHITE WASHING WAS AND IS SERIOUSLY STILL AN ONGOING PROBLEM IN HOLLYWOOD. The reason people are trying to explore and delve into different non-eurpoean based cultures more and more is HOLLYWOOD IS NOTORIOUS FOR ONLY TELLING THE STORIES OF WHITE PEOPLE. And no, you can't go "but what about [x movie/tv show/book existing]?" one or a few examples of an experience does not cover the multitudes of perspectives and nuances in the real world and so-to in fiction of non-white experiences. People of color getting more stories about them or being main characters in fantasy stories should not be a threat to you unless you literally think and lack of white-people stories is alienating to you, a white person. inb4 "But it's revenge based! They're laughing about 'now you have to feel the pain of being misrepresented or invisible-'" yeah, STILL not comparable also who the hell means that completely in earnest? Maybe YOU should get used to people of color being main characters more often and stories from none white ppl in history being portrayed more too. Cope.

Small addendum but if you think every one in one group just adores ANY race/gender/sexuality-lifting uncritically, you all haven't actually been listing. People have been talking about bare minimum non-representation for years w stuff like Disney always having the 'first out-gay Disney character that's in the background and doesn't talk' and how Black!Hermonie makes the house elf plot in Harry Potter WORSE. Again- COPE.

I see white ppl I otherwise respect try and use this "isn't that racist towards us white people?" argument and all I see is ignorance sns. It feels like white people can't stand being called out and asserting that it's the person doing the criticism BEING a 'reverse racist' for pointing out/making fun of white supremacy...even though that's a thing you should make fun of. White supremacy HAS hurt basically everyone. It, like capitalism, is impossible to escape all at once, but it's bad that we live in such an unequal society. You(white person reading this) know and probably really DON'T want that inequality, so if you want to start fighting it you better get used to the fact that those criticisms will involve the demographic you're in AT LEAST SOMETIMES. It really isn't/shouldn't be about you as an individual that bipoc dare point out "man, white people don't get how this feels and I hate when they lecture me that they actually do and that I'M THE ONE 'bringing race into this'"- unless, of course, you are one of the white people doing the 'whataboutism in said argument! Oppressors and majorities are acceptable targets; that's the agreed upon idea when it involves appropriation and coding and shit. It doesn't stop because oppression itself doesn't stop because America had a black president one time, and you should listen to people when they tell you as the people BEING oppressed what's being done and said to them. You are a listener. You are an ally.

Some white-allies really only know how to punch down and/or take from the idea that their whiteness is an inherent mark of evil that they need to redeem themselves in the eyes of others...which is really fucked up and not what bipoc ppl are trying to tell you at all. I've seen fake-white allies bully bipoc people about what they should and shouldn't like. People assume the person on the other end HAS TO BE white as well and so here they are being a 'good white' by bashing them. It's the same logic as when someone assumes complaints about representation are only ever being DONE BY WHITE PPL, as if people of color have never complained abt fiction depicting them since Birth of a Nation-- it's revealing how you think the only other ppl ever holding any discourse with and/or discussions with you are other white people. The fact of the matter is you can't point to white supremacy and white people being racism being the ONLY problem in your life, but you ought to at least point it out because it is A problem we all deal with, and some people deal with it in worse ways than others. You owe it to them AND TO YOURSELF not to trivialize this whole thing into some kind of "never be CLEAN"/"I'm the exception" mentality --you owe it to everyone to RIGHTLY fight whitewashing, white racism, white supremacy. DecolonizetheLeft had a great discussion on their blog about this and how white people hating other white people isn't healthy nor activism.

You should never stop advocating for others or being an ally just because someone else is doing activism BADLY. Activism is a huge give and take and comes with trial and error. Hush up the bad faith and encourage the good you know you can do and help with in the world- because you CAN DO it.

[misschanandlerbong-3]

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I really appreciate that this is a time of year designated to spend time with family and engage in family traditions of meals shared together and community.

However. At the same time, and not discounting that. This is your annual reminder that the Thanksgiving origin stories we tell play a significant role in the propagandizing narrative of American innocence with regards to indigenous peoples.

This time of year, we often, in addition to spending time with family, do the ritual retelling of the "origin story" of Thanksgiving, whether this be kids learning in school about the first Thanksgiving between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag/Wôpanâak peoples, watching the Charlie Brown special retelling this, or dressing up as pilgrims and Indians. This narrative, regardless of its veracity or attention to the surrounding context, is often one of the only narratives we tell about American colonies and indigenous peoples. Its dominance in our collective imagination is reinforced by our ritual retelling of it every year. And it does this in the relative scarcity of narratives about the horrors American colonists inflected upon indigenous peoples as they wiped out large swaths of indigenous people through violence and disease, not to mention various forms of gendered violence.

I want to emphasize that it is the lack of these narratives of the violence Americans inflicted (and continue to inflict) upon Native Americans, in combination with the dominance of the Thanksgiving narrative, that contribute to a continuing imagining of America as innocent, as not owing indigenous peoples reparations as well as an end to violence and recognition of sovereignty.

And this trope of American innocence is not limited to our relation to indigenous peoples. It comes up again when we talk about slavery and African Americans (see, for example, the resistance to The 1619 Project, which was attempting to relieve the narrative scarcity around the horrors of slavery). It comes up again when we talk about Asian Americans the specific forms of racist violence that America has always subjected them to (from the treatment of Asian immigrants working on railways to the Japanese detention camps of WWII to the violence visited upon Asian Americans during Covid). And so much more.

And this narrative of American innocence is especially reinforced by trying to put temporal distance between the oppression Americans acknowledge and us now. For example, when people respond to BLM or demands for reparations with "but that was in the past, get over it." Or the continual rhetorical positioning of indigenous peoples as "ancient" or as not continuing to struggle for existence and thriving.

And we see it again in the US's respond to the mass genocide of Palestinian civilians by the state of Israel.

As I said at the beginning, I appreciate Thanksgiving as a time to come together with family and participate in family traditions. But I can simultaneously recognize that Thanksgiving and the narratives we tell around it are part and parcel to the, I repeat, propagandizing narrative of American innocence, which serves to legitimize the continuing oppression of people of color, indigenous peoples, and many other minority populations in the US, as well as abroad.

I highly, highly encourage you to:

(i) read up a bit on these attempts to tell other stories countering the trope of American innocence (for example, Viet Than Nguyen's The Sympathizer, or the 1619 Project, or Dorothy Roberts's Fatal Invention, or Kim Tallbear's Native American DNA, or Leanne Betasamosake Simpson's As We Have Always Done, or Nesrine Malik's We Need New Stories, and so many others)

(ii) support indigenous groups like the NDN collective, and educate yourself on the indigenous peoples who lived and continue to live in your area (so, for Pittsburgh, look into the Council of the Three Rivers American Indian Center)

(iii) learn what indigenous groups are actually asking for, for example the NDN collective's statement concerning Palestine, or educating yourself on what demands for "sovereignty" mean for indigenous peoples in the US

But I also encourage you to enjoy your time with family this holiday! It's a special time that I'm glad the institutions of America give us time for

[mamaangiwine]

My dude, you're overall ignorance of its history and academic theory aside, the Bible says many things and lays out many rules for Christians. Just because they are in the Bible doesn't mean that there is suddenly some forcefield that keeps Christians from doing it. The ten commandments are a pretty good example of this, actually.

By the by, you're whole "paganism was considered witchcraft" thing. Yes, true. Paganism was/is considered "witchcraft", but in large the Catholic approach to this was, and still is, conversion. Hence, why the majority of the people killed during the witch trials and inquisitions were Jewish people, those who practice Islam, poc, LGBTQ and disabled people (though, as I stated above, still depends exponentially on the area and time period a witchhunt took place). So, if the Catholic Church's first priority surrounding pagans was, and is, conversion it stands to reason-

where do you think the pagans went? And where do you think their traditions, even ones labled as 'magic', went?

The above post was never meant to be a defence of the church. Hence why I mention that they killed plenty of their own. I am merely stating a historical fact- Christians have always, and will always practice what we, and especially the church, consider magic. Whether you like Christianity or not, the whole argument that Christians are incapable of practicing magic, don't practice magic, or don't belong in magic communities based on their faith is asinine. Denying it is literally just throwing a temper tantrum. John Dee was a Christian. Agrippa was a Christian. Many Grimoires have invocations to God and Christ alike. Much of the Magic that is referenced in modern books on the occult were lifted from these people and the pages of their books. Their life's work. They are apart of a fraught history, but much of modern magic owes its very soul to them.

Which brings me to this- something that I'd like to make very clear on this blog to everyone. As a Native American, an Ndn, I don't need some fucking rando on tumblr talking to me about the blood on the Church's hands. I'm quite aware how it did, and continues to affect people like me. Next person who deigns to condescend to me about it on my own post is getting blocked on sight. Trying to use my own history and my own ancestral pain against me to win an argument is fucking vile.

What? Do you all want a banana sticker for knowing some of the most basic historical facts? Especially to those of you who are white and live in the U.S. Yeah, the church has blood on its hands-

and you all are actively benefitting from that blood.

There are many Christian whose practices are either criticized, or outright denounced by the church. There are people who practice voodoo who's faith in Christ and the holy spirit are a big tenant in their practice. Same with Santeria. There are Native Americans who practice both Christianity and Native Spirituality. You don't get to say they're not Christian any more than the Church does. It's not for you to say what they do with a religion that was forced on them, or how they choose to adapt it to their own needs. Also, why are you policing Christians via their own religion? Why are you determining what they can and can't do in the same way, and with the same tools, as other Christians that seek to condemn them?

Once more, and with feeling, I don't give a flying fuck about the church. I care about the Christians who aren't protected by the church. I care about individual Christians who choose to practice Christianity to connect to their ancestors via their religion. I care about Christians who are maintaining their cultural heritage via their Christian Folk Practices- folk practices that pagans cite and use in their modern reconstructions- All. The. Time. I also care about LGBTQ Christians that are equally oppressed by the larger organization that is the church.

Actually, no. Not all Christians are Nazis. Some Christians, by virtue of being poc and/or LGBTQ are, in fact, targets. Just as not all Pagans are Nazis, despite pagansim having a historical connection with the literal Nazi party and Folkish movement as well as a very real, and very current Nazi problem.

Feel free to cast the first stone, as they say.

Being hateful toward all Christians doesn't make you an automatic ally. It makes you a lazy one. It shows me that you have no idea how to recognize actual Nazi, Nationalist, or Supremacist talking points and instead rely on some kind homogenous world view to separate friend from foe. Shit like this is why Eugenicist New Age bullshit runs rampant, and unchallenged in online magic spaces. It's why appropriation happens in magic spaces. It's why Nationalist pseudo-historical theories are spread like fact, and why people still believe in the Ancient Witch Cult, and that Wiccans "have always been here". The thinking is literally "So long as it isn't Christian, it gets a pass". It's surface level moralizing.

So in answer to your question: No, I'm not gonna cry. I'm gonna post this, go back to my matcha, and then block people like you from now on with the same energy that allows me to ignore flies in summer after I swat them.

The inability to except that Christians can, have, and do practice magic is more "Burning Times" bias and bullshit.

I personally think that some of you prefer the fantasy-esque style narrative of the witch trials; a people of a noble and nature centric belief system being systematically hunted down and killed by an evil empire. As opposed to the reality based narrative of the gender, race, and politcal struggle the witch trials actually represented.

How many times does it have to be said that a large part of the people killed identified as Christian? How many times does it have to be said that many of them weren't practicing anything?

Not Midwifery. Not Herbalism. Not Cunning Craft.

Nothing.

Some were accused simply for the sake of accusation. Accusation that could be used as a tool to exert political and religious power- or accusation simply because of unchecked panic and fear. Sometimes both.

If there is a generalized lesson one can take from the complexities of the witch trials, it's not "Witches were oppressed and killed by the church" but rather "The church and other political elites created a bogeyman so generic and pervasive in the psyche of the people they were meant to govern that people died, many of whom were "their own"."

It was a time and place in history where almost none were safe, and I personally think that's something we should unite under. Not use as a wedge to further drive us apart- or a means to label oneself as a "true heir" to witchcraft/magic while labeling others as "natural enemies" (like seriously, that's how some of you act and...yuck.)