#anti-native violence

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The grandparents of a teen who was killed by RCMP in a northern Manitoba First Nation say they can't fathom why police would see the need to use lethal force on the boy they helped raise since he was a toddler.

Elgyn Muskego was shot by RCMP in the early hours of Friday on Norway House Cree Nation, about 460 kilometres north of Winnipeg. He was 17.

Police say the teen was holding an edged weapon, and that he didn't drop it despite numerous demands for him to do so. The RCMP says that when he moved closer to the officers, one of them shot him.

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Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[lyledebeast]

From the same article I posted earlier:

"In March 1782, after Indian attacks upon American settlements on the western frontier, militiamen under the command of Col. David Williamson attacked the Moravian Christian Mission at Gnadenhutten. Peaceful Delaware Indians, who had converted to Christianity, were rounded up, and ninety-six Delaware Indians, men, women, and children, were bludgeoned to death.[18] This shattered the Delaware-American alliance in the Ohio Country."

Every historian commenting on The Patriot's church burning scene: "This is more like the Nazis in World War II!"

No no no no no. This is "more like" occurrences much closer in time and distance than that.

[tigerrsmn]

"Say their name!"

Call and response at the Twin Cities vigil for Nex Benedict, organized by Thomas Edison High Gender and Sexuality Alliance.

[It is important to say their name. What’s their name?

(Crowd) Nex Benedict!

Say their name.

(Crowd) Nex Benedict!

Say their name.

(Crowd) Nex Benedict!]

[jcalexandrewrites]

Me: Man, you think the Twilight series can't get any worse, but then you learn about Emily Young. You: Who's Emily Young? Me: She's a native woman who was attacked by a werewolf, and she has a permanent scar on her face from that attack. You: Oh, wow! That's terrible. Why did the werewolf attack her? Me: Because he wanted her to be his soul mate, but she refused him. You: Oh! Oh, wow! That's real terrible. I bet she doesn't want anything to do with him. Me: Oh, no. She's actually married to him now. You: ... Me: And she serves as his submissive loving wife. You:

[icedsodapop]

[anarcho-commeownism]

pretentious cynical fucks that think solarpunk is an apolitical cozy pseudo-punk movement are so unimaginably stupid. like okay whatever go off and have ur glorious revolution. i'm gonna be here making community and planting a garden and dismantling systems of oppression brick by brick in the communities around me, building something new and beautiful in their place. maybe you should give it a shot.

[archaeologysucks]

The Smithsonian has formed a task force to address the massive collection of human remains held by its museums, which includes 255 human brains that were removed primarily from dead Black and Indigenous people, as well as other people of color, without the consent or knowledge of their families. The so-called racial brain collection was revealed by a Washington Post investigation. It was mostly collected in the first half of the 20th century at the behest of Ales Hrdlicka, a racist anthropologist who was trying to scientifically prove the superiority of white people.

[gay-jewish-bucky]

op of this post

is in support of the pogrom, the irony

[thenonbinaryghost]

Nex Benedict was a non binary two spirited ingenious 16 year old who died on January 8th 2024 after them and their friend were attacked by three girls in the girls washroom the day prier to their death. Nex had been suspended for so called “fighting” in the washroom when In reality they were being bullied. on the 8th When Nex and their mother Sue Benedict were packing for an appointment Nex suddenly collapsed in there living room Sue their mother quickly called for help. By the time help came Nex was already dead. They were murdered and no one but their family and friends had done anything. When An Oklahoma, lawmaker Tom wood was talking about about the community he called the lgbtq2s+ filth following Nex death. what the fuck Tom wood you say want to protect us kids yet you allow a minor to die and to rub salt in the wound you called their community filth. The only filth here is you Tom you sick bastard. And too Sue Benedict I’m so sorry for your loss from what I’ve heard Your child Nex was a kind person who’s future was taken away from them I wish you the best.

Rest in peace Nex Benedict : January 11th 2008 - February 8th 2024

[nando161mando]

[lyledebeast]

I'm working on a longer version of this for a certain relevant American holiday we'll have to endure in a few weeks, but I wanted to go ahead and put this out there.

The Patriot does not include many references to Martin's past interactions with the Cherokees, but the ones we have show him treating them as less human than White enemies he encounters in identical circumstances. When he's recruiting men to fight the British, he tells one man that he will not pay for scalps this time but will pay him for the gear of any British soldiers he kills. It's clear he knows Rawlins, along with other man in this tavern, from his experience in the French and Indian War. Any ambiguity about whose scalps he means is cleared up in his long monologue about Fort Wilderness.

It begins with "The French and Cherokee had raided along the Blue Ridge" after which Martin combines the two groups into "they" until he arrives at the different ways he and his men distributed their remains. "We put the heads on a pallet and sent them back with the two that lived to Fort Ambercon. The eyes, tongues, fingers were put in baskets. We sent them down the Asheulot to the Cherokee."

Martin and his men deemed "them" guilty of the same crimes and caught up with them in the same place, but once they were dead, the racial difference was a big deal. Both of the men left alive "to tell the tale" were sent to the same place because the message Martin had for the Cherokees needed no words. What it did need, apparently, was more intricate, labor-intensive posthumous violence. This is not just vengeance. Deep-seated racial hatred is evident here.

Tavington kills a lot of people, obviously, but he does so in the way that is most expedient to him at the moment. He shoots Black men for refusing to give him information, but then he burns a church full of White people alive for exactly the same reason. He does not care, which means he ends up faring far better than other characters when viewers get more accurate information about colonial South Carolina.

[tigerrsmn]

"I don't want to hear in another 25, that we have another Matthew Shepard, that we have another Nex Benedict. We need to protect our kids now."

Amelia Marquez (she/they), Thomas Edison High teacher, speaking at the Twin Cities vigil for Nex Benedict, organized by Thomas Edison High Gender and Sexuality Alliance. (transcript below)

[My name is Miss Amelia Marquez, as I am commonly getting told I am now. Um, my pronouns are she and they and I apologize, I lost my voice last night, uh, screaming at somebody that said that educators are only worth a 3% wage increase.

(Crowd) You sound great.

(Crowd 2) Yeah, you sound great.

I see you. Um, as a teacher--as a trans and two spirit teacher--I want to offer all of my sympathies to my little cousin, Nex. Things like this should not be happening. But I can tell you, as somebody that grew up and is a trans refuge here in your lovely state from the state of Montana, that it continues to happen. I have students that I had to leave back in Montana that continued to beg, that I can help them, that their home was not safe for them, that they needed protection. But I needed to take care of myself. I needed to put my air mask on before I protected other people, and I promised them I would not stop fighting for them a single day of my life. My students are precious to me. Absolutely precious. They also get me to do wild things like this. I plea with each and every one of you, especially my cisgender friends and relatives, and in our lovely crowd tonight.

Please don't stop talking. Get out there. These kids should not be afraid to go to the bathroom in our public schools here in Minneapolis, in Saint Paul. It is necessary that our school districts start to look at the funding that was passed this legislative session, thanks to that fucking phenomenal queer caucus--sorry kids--and that we start to actually make change happen. Real change doesn't happen from the top down. Real change happens from the bottom up. And we need, we need for our school districts here in the city as a trans refuge area, to start to act, to start to make these schools safer, to make it so that those little babies back in Montana have a place when they get over here. Because I can tell you, many of them in conservative America are planning to come out here. Please make it a safe place for them. Make it so we do not have future situations. I don't want to hear in another 25, that we have another Matthew Shepard, that we have another Nex Benedict. We need to protect our kids now. Thank you.]

[fortressofserenity]

A typology of indigenous character stereotypical roles

This may not always be the case for every fictional indigenous character in North American stories, not even consistently so, but it's kind of evident in the way they're portrayed. It's kind of evident in the way they're written in comparison to the white characters and non-indigenous characters in general, while it's getting better these days, it's still far from perfect.

Stuck in the past: While this is changing for the better, some North Americans (irrespective of ethnicity, unless if they're indigenous themselves) think that indigenous people only exist in the past. To the point where they kind of appropriate indigenous cultures, yet show no real interest in indigenous cultures and peoples themselves, due to this mentality that comes off as performative.

This is evident whenever there's a cowboy or colonialism themed story, oftentimes perpetuated by stories like almost any fictionalised take on Matoaka's story, The Road To El Dorado and possibly a few more. Like I said before, this is changing for the better. We're starting to have more stories featuring indigenous characters living in the present and even in the future like everybody else. These include Marvel's Dani Moonstar and DC's Dawnstar.

This is also evident in some romance novels featuring indigenous heroes at all, where it's almost always set in the past. They are unfortunately also sexualised and fetishised but that's for another topic.

The Sidekick: It seems until now, indigenous characters are only good if they are sidekicks to their white counterparts. I guess this is because if they ever show a backbone and stand up to white colonialism, they'll be immediately villainised if they do. This is the case with the earlier cowboy stories, most notably the Lone Ranger and its character Tonto. His real life female counterpart would be Sacagawea, especially in relation to Lewis and Clark.

This is unmistakably not a very threatening role, given the nature of settler colonialism where it seems indigenous people are only good if they kowtow to the settlers. This is beginning to decline in some later stories, though I'm afraid others still default to this portrayal. Like I said before that if Tonto's the preeminent fictional example of an indigenous sidekick to white people, Sacagawea could be seen as the real world indigenous sidekick to Lewis and Clark.

Even fictionalised portrayals of Matoaka fall into this in a way, where she's portrayed as being not too confrontational towards white settler colonialism. No wonder why she persists in the popular imagination and not Weetamoo.

The Enemy: The exact opposite of the sidekick where indigenous people are demonised if they don't kowtow to settler colonialism, it's also kind of demeaning because indigenous people are tired of racist mistreatment. It's kind of like this in some cowboy stories where if indigenous people do stand up to settler colonialism, they'll be maligned right away if they do. Not a good look when it comes to how Black Bison's portrayed in the Flash.

But this is not an isolated incident, since it kind of reflects white unease with indigenous people standing up to settler colonialism. It's not surprising how and why white cowboys are portrayed as getting rid of indigenous people, as if they don't deserve to live here even if they got there first. L Frank Baum, the creator of the Oz stories, has this mindset especially in nonfiction, where he demanded that Lakota people be killed. Terrible isn't it?

The Sex Object: One early encounter with this was in a short story anthology where this white female character makes out with an indigenous man, but this isn't an isolated case. It's like that with a number of romance novels featuring indigenous men at all, or more infamously their female counterparts in other stories. I remember somebody saying that white women fetishise indigenous men in a braves story of way.

Or for another another matter, Bernardo Spotted-Horse in the Anita Blake stories as pointed out by somebody else. It isn't just that they're scantily clad or whatever, but how they're fetishised for looking indigenous. This is the case in that story I mentioned, where the indigenous man is hot with his long hair down. This has unfortunately led to a lot of rape for many indigenous women and girls, including two that I know of online, which means this isn't good at all.

The way indigenous characters are fetishised for being indigenous is kind of disgusting, since this is one of the leading causes of MMIW. Another, better known, example is how Chel is portrayed in The Road To El Dorado where she's something of a sexualised accomplice to white colonisers. But you could also find this in romance novels featuring indigenous men at all.

The Plot Device: Cultural appropriation in action whenever somebody wants to either do pilgrims, cowboys or in the case with The Sentinel, get their powers from. It's a persistent problem that carries out in the real world where non-indigenous people appropriate bits and pieces of indigenous cultures and peoples, yet show no real interest in them themselves. Kind of performative, considering how indigenous people feel about this.

The Sentinel is one such example of this in speculative fiction, though one that also went largely unnoticed. The story involves some police officer who gains enhanced senses from an undisclosed indigenous community in South America, along with totem animals or something, but it's shocking how and why so little people talk about this. One would only wonder if this furthers the dehumanisation of indigenous cultures.

In the sense of their cultures being reduced to props for non-indigenous people to use, instead of something belonging to a living and breathing culture. This ties up with the stuck in the past meme, in the sense of treating indigenous people as artefacts. Rather than those who persist to the present day.

[lazydally09]

This is the Red Nation Podcast and in the video it touches up on colonialism/colonization and how the settler appropriates native/indigenous spirituality and twists it to justify or use in the efforts to enlightened themselves without confronting the history of demonizing of indigenous religions or beliefs.

This video seems to be for an Indigenous audience but I won't let it stop you from watching and giving it a chance.

[anthropomorphicbeancake]

Atrocities happening to innocents that are a part of the oppressor state or group, is still the fault of the oppressor, not the oppressed for using the same tactics in their defense.

[creepykuroneko]

Whenever I see asian, brown, and/or black Americans reinforcing, supporting, and upholding racism, colonization, imperialism, colorism, and any other belief system that not only harms them directly but other non-white communities as well and they still want to claim that they themselves are POC and face discrimination I feel bitter disgust towards them.