#north american indigenous peoples

[phoenixofthestars]

just another little white boy

[reasonsforhope]

I know this happened last year, but Illinois has its first reservation! The Department of the Interior placed 130 acres of land in DeKalb County near Shabbona State Park into trust for the Prairie Band Potawatomi.

!!! That's huge! I had no idea!! Congratulations to be Prairie Band Potawatomi!!!

"Nearly 200 years after Native Americans were forced out of Illinois, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation has become the first federally recognized tribal nation in the state after a decision from the U.S. Department of the Interior last week.

The move represents the first victory in the tribe’s larger effort to regain the approximately 1,280 acres of its ancestral land in Illinois via legislation in both the General Assembly and Congress.

But the tribe first had to spend $10 million over the last 20 years to repurchase the first 130 acres of the Shab-eh-nay Reservation, located in what is now DeKalb County, that the federal government illegally sold out from under Chief Shab-eh-nay around 1850.

Nearly two centuries later, Prairie Band Chairman Joseph “Zeke” Rupnick – a fourth-great grandson of Chief Shab-eh-nay – signed paperwork on Friday that allows the Department of the Interior to place those 130 acres into a trust, which gives the tribe sovereignty over the land.

Rupnick said he’d heard the story of his ancestral land in Illinois “ever since I was a child” from his grandparents, and said his mother started the push to reclaim the Prairie Band’s land three decades ago when she was the tribe’s chairperson.

“For me to actually get it accomplished and signed, honestly, words couldn't describe the feeling that I had that, you know, when I actually completed that task,” he told Capitol News Illinois on Monday, adding that the credit should be shared with his entire counsel and tribal membership more broadly. “And now the real work begins.”"

-via NPR Illinois, April 30, 2024

[uwmspeccoll]

Winter Solstice 2024

It is cold and it is dark, but the Winter Solstice brings the promise of light's return and the warming of our world. To celebrate this most important day, we feature a naturally-dyed wool weaving entitled Náhookǫsji Hai (Winter in the North) / Biboon Giiwedinong (It is Winter in the North) held at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA) and produced by Navajo artist D. Y. Begay in 2018. This image, which is only a portion of the slightly larger work, is from our copy of the exhibition catalog Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists edited by Jill Ahlberg Yohe and Teri Greeves (Kiowa) and published by the MIA in association with the University of Washington Press in 2019.

D.Y. Begay (b. 1953), a Navajo born to the Totsohni’ (Big Water) Clan and born for the Tachinii’ (Red Running into Earth) Clan, is a fourth-generation weaver. Begay’s tapestries encompass her interpretation of the natural beauty and descriptive colors of the Navajo reservation, reflecting on her Navajo identity and her family’s weaving tradition. This spiritual connection to the plants yields the natural colors that are transformed into evocative land formations on her loom. Of the weaving shown here, Jennifer McLerran, curator at the Museum of Northern Arizona and a retired assistant professor of art history at Northern Arizona University, writes:

Most of D. Y. Begay's textiles respond to the Southwest landscape in which she was raised and resides today. For this work, a textile produced with all-natural dyes and handspun wool, Begay traveled to Minnesota in the depths of winter to observe the land surrounding the Grand Portage Indian Reservation of the Ojibwe people. Over an extended period she observed changing light conditions as the sun and clouds moved across the sky, altering the hues of snow and water.

D. Y. Begay with her weaving Confluence of Lavender by Arizona videographer Kelso Meyer, 2016. From the University of Virginia Mellon Indigenous Arts Program.

We wish you a most serene Winter Solstice.

View posts from Winter Solstices past.

View other posts from our Native American Literature Collection.

[emerging-jew]

Okay here's my spicy take:

It's really convenient for white westerners, especially Americans, to have the stance that being indigenous expires a certain time after colonization and I think that stance isn't pushed back against nearly often enough. And to go a step further I think the take is itself a subtle act of colonization

[gwydpolls]

Time Travel Question 62: early Modern and Much Earlier

These Questions are the result of suggestions from the previous iteration.

This category may include suggestions made too late to fall into the correct grouping.

Please add new suggestions below if you have them for future consideration.

I can't remember if we did this one. It would have been late last summer. i think we did some specific species, but i can't remember if it was done in total. I am quoting the whole suggestion here: "Carboniferous forests, before Angiosperms became dominant. I want to see the lepidodendrons and the huge equisetes and all the many Araucaria and gnetophytes and ginkgos that once thrived."

It is too late to fix the typo, but the First item should read somemething like: "People, species, and landscapes of California circa 1400.

[pplndplcs]

Couples linked at the wrist chase a ball during a game at the All-American Indian Days in Sheridan, Wyoming. Indigenous Americans from all over the country attended the annual festival until it ended in 1984.

Lowell Georgia

National Geographic, 1966

[ciderjacks]

everyday my “half-foots are indigenous coded” theory becomes more and more real in my mind palace

[bartohenchmanb]

A country built from colonialism has no fucking business complaining about fucking immigration.

[ihearttseliot]

A Dakota Sioux man named Goose Face. 1900.

Goose face was part of Buffalo Bill show. They were headed to Washington DC on a train to see the president (before going on to Europe to perform) and due to an error a mail train crashed in to theirs. There were many deaths. He lost his wife Annie Goose Face.

The paper talks about the old chief who demanded they not make efforts to save him since death was inevitable. He demanded to be brought over to the pile of the dead next to the tracks and sat there giving instructions and messages to loved ones back home. He smoked a pipe and all the others chanted a death song.

Several of them sued for damages, medical costs and for transportation back home. Goose face got $2,500.

[cindydacatpink]

My CountryHumans OC aka Country Humanize character (Cindy Nilo Evelyn country doppelganger) Part 9

I drawing Native North American as Countryhumans

- Aiyana Tabananica (Apache Country) (Native American) 🇺🇸

- Jessica Kaiah (First Nation Canada: Blackfoot) 🇨🇦

- Yatzil Adriana (Indigenous people of Mexico) 🇲🇽

- Agapeta Ivaana (Greenland) 🇬🇱

- Cora Agueda (Taíno) (Cuba) 🇨🇺

- Maria Xaviera (Taíno) (Puerto Rico) 🇵🇷

- Jane Sikway (Kalinago/Caribs) (Dominica) 🇩🇲

- Alizay Tahiris Leahchayy (She Lucayan later reincarnation to Taíno by her same name) (Bahamas) 🇧🇸

[bucephaly]

Just curious, where would you recommend starting genealogy research? I’m mostly curious more than anything, thought I don’t think having Native American lineage is likely for me?

Start by talking to your family and writing down as much info as you can. Names of grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles, whatever you can. Birth dates and places they lived as well.

I do genealogy thru ancestry.com and it's mostly great but I know some people have problems with it. You can get a 2 week free trial and you might be able to get plenty of your tree filled out in that time.

Then, just put in what info you got from your parents, and look for census records. US Census records from 1950 and earlier are public, so start there. I was able to go back to my gg grandfather just thru censuses, and then I was able to find his Dawes card. I have gone back further but the farther back it goes the less reliable anything is. Be wary of anything on ancestry or other sites where the only source is someone else's tree, because people can put whatever they want down and a lot of it is wrong. [For example, on other parts of my tree it's tried to connect me to pocahontas 3 times.]

Ofc this advice doesn't just apply for those looking for native ancestry, it's just general genealogy stuff and it's really interesting for anyone to learn about their ancestors (:

Sorry this might be specific to the US, I'm not familiar with how records work elsewhere.

Good luck!

[arthurdrakoni]

Flag of the Pueblo Sultanate

This is the flag of the Pueblo Sultanate. It comes from a world where the Ottoman Empire established colonies in the New World. The Ottomans began in the Caribbean, and soon went on to conquer Mexico. Eventually, the Ottomans made their way to the American Southwest, and subjugated the Pueblo peoples. Life was harsh for the Pueblo people under Ottoman colonialism. Pueblo people were forced to toil away in silver mines to feed the Ottomans’ hunger for precious metals. Several madrasas were established with the intent to convert the Pueblo peoples to Islam. In theory, the madrasas would provide aid, education, and social services to the Pueblo people. In practice, however, the imams often subjected their charges to horrific abuse. Despite this, Islam did manage to spread among the Pueblo peoples. The Pueblo peoples begged for a savior. But where could he be? 

The Pueblo people received their answer in the form of a charismatic preacher named Po’Pay. Despite the similar name, he is a separate individual from the Po’Pay of our world. This Po’Pay preached the highly syncretic religion that combined indigenous Pueblo beliefs with Islamic liberation theology. This was in sharp contrast to the Islam of the Ottomans, which frowned upon syncretism, and suppressed indigenous beliefs. Po’Pay teachings began to spread, and soon Po’Pay a revolt against the Ottomans. Though the fight was hard, at last the Pueblo peoples were free from the Ottoman yoke. The Pueblo peoples began to think of themselves not as a collection of disparate tribes, but as a united people sharing in a common destiny. 

 Po’Pay organized the tribes into a sultanate, with himself as the first sultan. However, the sultan would not rule alone. An assembly of tribes was created. Representatives of each tribe could voice the opinions and concerns of the tribe to the assembly. Thus, the Pueblo Sultanate became the first representative monarchy in the New World. The Pueblo Sultanate stretches over much of what would be he American Southwest.   The Pueblo Sultanate is famous for begin very tolerant, open-minded, and accepting of peoples with different beliefs. Most citizens practice Pueblo Islam, but don’t try to push it on other people. Most women do not veil, and most Pueblo citizen wear traditional indigenous-style clothing. to Po’Pay developed a written script based upon Arabic, and the Pueblo Sultanate is home to several libraries and other centers of learning. In fact, the Great Pueblo Library is world renown for its expansive collection of books. Qurans are written in the Pueblo script, and the call to prayer to announced in the various Pueblo languages. The Pueblo Sultanate is also quite famous for its cooking. Pueblo cuisine combines cooking techniques from the Eastern Mediterranean with spices and ingredients of the American Southwest. The Pueblo Sultanate has a noticeable minority of Greeks, Serbians, Bulgarians, and Amazighs. They are mostly descended from slaves brought over during the days of Ottoman colonialism.  

Also, the Pueblo Sultanate isn’t actually called the Pueblo Sultanate in-universe, but I couldn’t think of a better name.  The flag includes the sun symbol of the Zia people, and the crescent moon of Islam. This is a reference to the Sultanate’s mixed indigenous and Islamic heritage. The blue band represents turquoise, an important stone to many Pueblo peoples. The green band represents prosperity, and green is a color associated with Islam. The yellow band is there because it goes well with everything else. 

Link to the original flag on my blog: https://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2022/06/flag-of-pueblo-sultanate.html?m=1

[nordfjording]

Also just as an fyi using "norse" as a collective term for current-day nordic or scandinavian people and languages is both incorrect and also, notably, a very common narrative in white supremacist and neonazi communities so like. I'm not saying anyone's inherently a bad person for this but it might be worth having a think about why this is the word used okay thank you 😊

[stankhead]

it really cant be understated just how fucking horrible education about pre-columbian North America is in US public schools

[note-a-bear]

So wild. This white southern chef, Vivian Howard, had this show on PBS for a long while. And her whole thing was history of southern foodstuffs and foodways.

I was always struck by how minimized and sometimes outright absent Black Folks were from her chronicles.

She has a newer show, apparently, and every episode I catch she's featuring a Black chef, cook, or producer and highlighting Black culinary history. Which like, yknow what? Pretty impressive for a white southern chef.

Not many white chefs make a point of doing that, so to see this, even if it's a belated apology for the earlier erasure, is a great step.