#indigenous naming

[delicatelysublimeforester]

Canada's Cornus: A Diverse Landscape of Dogwood Species

[iphigeniacomplex]

despite being what we as observers can understand as an extreme example of traditional family + relationship structure, the cullens are notably outcasts in forks. in contrast, bella's father has ties to the werewolves, and states several times that he would prefer bella date jacob. in the events of the story, jacob, an indigenous teenage boy in a jarringly white story, seems to represent imposed normalcy. he becomes more of a sexual threat + subsequent racial caricature as meyer becomes less confident in the reader's understanding that edward and bella are endgame, and is eventually completely destroyed as a character in order to further the idea that choosing edward represents free will for bella (consider imprinting). what we recognize as traditionalism in our world is treated in the world of twilight as something that will forever other you from the rest of the world. the vampires are written as if they are countercultural, even though they aren't. edward even has a whole thing where he says romance was simpler in his time — this is not subtle. all of the cullens are white, pseudoincestuous, and withdrawn from society. does this make sense like do you see what i'm saying here. related: does anyone else think mormonism is scary.

[tvstvnvkke]

Tribal Names

I don’t think many people, even some native people, are aware that the legal names of many tribes are actually not from the tribe.

Often the names came about because colonizers would ask one tribe "hey, what do you call those people over there?". then they would assign the name given to that tribe. so often the names were descriptions from unrelated tribes, or in more extreme cases, insults.

The Muscogee tribe got pretty lucky since the legal name was "creek" and it came from a different tribe going "oh, those are the people near the creek". which, is accurate enough, most creek settlements were placed along creeks. a famous one that is related to the Muscogee is the name "Cherokee". "Cherokee" is a Muscogee word meaning something along the lines of "people who don’t speak our language". Even this is pretty light compared to some names. some official tribal names translate to phrases like "dog eaters" or "lazy people".

This is why it’s not uncommon for tribes to start using older names. Muscogee comes from the term for our people "Mvskoke", and the tribe has made efforts to distance itself from the name "Creek". Although it is likely still the name you’ll hear most often.

[wanderinguteruspress-blog]

Their name was Nex Benedict.

They were 16 years old and deserved to live for many more years.

I can’t stop thinking about them and how every adult in that school and state failed them.

How the hateful rhetoric and dog whistle bathroom bills pushed by far right religious extremists led to this tragedy.

3 older teen girls beat them so badly they died from their injuries. Nex was murdered by hate.

We have been warning that the legal targeting of the trans community recently was going to lead to tragedy like this. We have been screaming from the rooftops that the right wing isn’t protecting anyone. And here we are.

I will continue to do what I can in the off line space to make the world safer for my community.

But I will also not forget Nex Benedict. Say their name. Remember who they were and who they never got the chance to become.

[stressedbeetle]

there was a swedish guy in like the early 1900s that literally just traveled to Australia, attended a funeral of an indigenous person and then HE CAME BACK A FEW WEEKS LATER TO DIG UP THE BONES TO KEEP IN HIS COLLECTION!!!!

DO YOU HEAR ME??!!!

HE WENT ON A FUNERAL AND THEN CAME BACK TO DIG UP THE BONES!!!!!!!

Thankfully the aboriginal people there had heard he had dug up bones previously and they moved the grave.

AND WHEN HE DISCOVERED THIS HE GOT MAD AND SAID THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE COULDN'T BE TRUSTED

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[cpyclopse]

Navajo Miku!

I'm mixed so we gotta represent both sides:)

I love saying "miku, miku, ooohweeeoooh" idek what that song is called but it's on loop in my mind

This is peak Americana

[My art]

[slyandthefamilybook]

"ugh everything is antisemitism now 🙄🙄🙄" hey buddy wonder why you keep hearing accusations of antisemitism.....

[dramatic-dolphin]

i swear to god some americans on this site have a humiliation kink bc what the hell is this

[mayasaura]

I dunno man. Maybe canon will prove me wrong, but I don't think the name Kiriona was forced on Gideon. Gideon, who has wanted her whole life to feel like she's wanted by someone and belongs somewhere. If her newly-found father took her aside and said "In the language of my grandparents, our ancestors, your name is pronounced Kiriona. I would like to call you that, to save on confusion." I just... I think she'd be cool with saying yes.

She doesn't really identify with it, and she has highly ambivalent feelings about the father in question, but the name Kiriona connects her with grandparents. It might have been what her great-grandmother would have called her, if things had ever been simple and kind enough that they could have met. Kiriona offers her a place to belong in connection with the generations before her. As much as it's not enough, not on its own and as isolated from those generations and that culture as she is, its also not nothing. And I can't believe it's less than nothing.

[powersandplanetaries]

I know that news stories about Indigenous people leading ecological stewardship movements are very charismatic and heartwarming, and if your heritage or culture inspires you to work towards better care for the environment that is incredible and extremely admirable, but we're clear on the fact that Indigenous rights and Land Back movements shouldn't depend on First Nations people being mystical Noble Savage, Closer To Nature poster children, yes?

Indigenous self-determination applies to the person who becomes a teacher because she wants to help fill a need in underserved northern reservations. It applies to the person who studies engineering because the job market is good and he likes cool cars. It applies to the woman who works a government job because it's a stable job with a decent salary on which to raise her kids, and the woman who works a government job because she wants to represent and be a voice for her people. It applies to the person who is a lawyer trying to correct the over-incarceration of First Nations people, and her son who wants to be a professional baseball player because he loves sports. It applies to the grad student who wants to bring traditional knowledge into field work, and the goth hairdresser who spends every weekend going to punk shows and anime conventions in the city. It applies to the person who considers themself Two Spirit, and the person who uses non-binary instead because they dont feel that umbrella term fits them. None of these examples are hypotheticals- these are all people I personally know, either friends or family friends or even members of my family. All of these people are equally Indigenous, whether or not they fit your image of what a marginalized people's priorities "should" be. They are not gone, and they are not "stuck in the past". Happy National Indigenous People Day. Do better.

[bogbutteronmycroissant]

For those who don't know, Nex Benedict, an American indigenous non-binary 16 years old, died in February 8. And I said died, but they were murdered: they passed away the day after three girls (whose names are still kept hidden) attacked them and their friends in the bathroom of the Owasso high school in Oklahoma. They were beated, insulted, and possibly suffered serious damage in the face and head. The next day, they collapsed and was declared dead at the hospital.

The school did and has done nothing. The teachers have done nothing. The police has done nothing. A kid died and the world stays silent. If Nex hadn't been indigenous or non-binary, then the whole country would have turned upside down.

Trans people deserve to live. Non-binary people deserve to live. Indigenous people deserve to live.

One of my close childhood friends is trans. He's also forced to go to the women's bathroom. Will he be the next victim? Who else will have to suffer for us to learn? When will justice be served?

We won't forget, Nex, and we won't forgive.

[yesornopolls]

USAmericans, do you know which indigenous people live(d) where you are?

[lelouch]

every thing i read about this manga makes it worse

[yuri-alexseygaybitch]

Related to previous rb I hope everyone who ever participated in turning the w*****o into a fucked up deer monster in pop culture kicks fucking rocks

[doddsmountain]

Some white folk are trying to say that recognizing Campbell River's indigenous place names goes against "popular opinion". This is just racist rhetoric.

[indecisiveavocado]

Dear Goyim Who Think Judaism and Israel Aren't Connected,

They absolutely are. The holy land of Judaism is Israel, and no amount of fiddling will get around that inconvenient fact.

Even throughout our exile, Jews clung to the idea of Israel, the holy land. Even after the Romans slaughtered us, sold us slaves, expelled us, and tried to erase our connection to the land (a propaganda that you seem to have swallowed), even after their successors tried to keep us from coming back (not that all of us left; some stayed, stayed through persecution and massacre and more), we clung to it.

Israel is the holy land. And, in the words of Jefferson, "To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world."

The central prayer in Judaism, Shema Yisrael, uses "Israel" as a synonym for the Jewish people.

We pray facing Jerusalem.

In old texts, it is incredibly common to see Israel used as a synonym of Jews. Thus in Nathan Ausubel's 1948 Treasury of Jewish Folklore we see rabbis referred to as the "Sages of Israel" (in a discussion of why Jerusalem was destroyed, no less!), and the saying "Am Yisrael Chai" literally translates as "the People of Israel live!"

At the end of the Passover seder, we say, "L'shana haba'a b'Yerushalayim" (Next year in Jerusalem).

Psalm 137: "על נהרות  בבל שם ישבנו גם־בכינו בזכרנו את־ציון". Or, "Al naharot bavel sham yashavnu gam-bakhinu bezakhernu el-tzion" (Tzion, Zion, being another name for the land). "By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept as we thought of Zion." It continues, "How can we sing God's song in a foreign land? / If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning."

There are many rules that only apply when in Israel.

Observant Jews say, "ברוך אתה יי בונה ירושלים" (Barukh atah Adonai boneh Yerushalayim), or "Blessed are you, God, builder of Jerusalem" three times daily.

My very short Haftarah portion, which is assigned based on when you were born and thus not something I had control over, mentions Israel ("vegoaleikh kedosh Yisrael elohei khol-haaretz yikarei" - my brain can't stop singing it, Isaiah 54:5), in the context of God being the "Holy One of Israel". The prayer before the Haftarah reading includes the line "uvyisrael amo" (for Your [God's] people Israel). Again, my Haftarah portion was not in any way special; it was five verses. The translation of the part I read is all of 153 words. And yet it still mentions Israel. (The Hebrew, by the way, is 71 words.)

In short: by denying Jewish claims to Israel as the holy land (kedushat ha-aretz), you are erasing an indigenous people's history and implicitly accepting the narrative of settler-colonialist genociders who sought to make it as though the people whose land they were taking and who they were selling as slaves were not tied to the land and did not have any ancestral connection. Your claims are entirely false.

Sincerely,

Your Neighborhood (Non-Israeli, But Y'all Are Making Me Want To Consider Aliyah) Jew

*Extended footnote on the terminology used: There are two major (and definitely non-dialectical) indigenous languages in the region that still survive to some extent: Hebrew and Aramaic. (Other languages existed in the region - Phonecian and Ugaritic, for instance. But they didn't survive.)

The indigenous name for the region in Aramaic and Hebrew is ישראל, pronounced, roughly, "Yisrael". Via the process of translation, that became "Israel". The other common name for the region, Palestine, derives from the Roman Palestina, a relic of their campaign to destroy Jewish connection to the region by renaming it after a small Greek group who were long since gone, the Philistines. I am using the name the indigenous people of the region used, rather than the name of a colonial occupier trying to pretend like the indigenous people were unconnected to the land.