#three blackfeet chiefs

[omgthatdress]

dress by Mrs. Walking Sun, Nadoka (Assiniboine), 1941, The Royal Ontario Museum

Chief American Horse's Outfit, 1900-1913, The McCord Museum

Chilkat robe, Tlingit, 1860, The Fenimore Art Museum

Inuit Girls

Three Blackfeet Chiefs

Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs protesting

Cree women in powwow regalia

White men in Canadian Tuxedos

[whitepolaris]

Wally of Wallowa Lake

Located just south of Joseph, Wallowa Lake is about five miles long and a mile wide. It's about 283 feet deep. Essentially a tear in the earth from the last ice age, the lake and the surrounding wilderness inspire the imagination and possibly conceal some undiscovered secrets of nature.

In one such legend, Nez Perce and Blackfeet Indians, who inhabited opposite shores of Wallowa Lake, negotiated peace after years of war. As part of their conciliation, Tlescaoe, son of the Blackfeet chief, and Wahluna, daughter of the Nez Perce chief, was married. After their wedding ceremony, the newlyweds went canoeing on the lake, taking in an especially impressive sunset. Without warning, a great serpent lunged at them under water, capsizing their canoe and killing them. The Blackfeet worried that, by ending hostilities between their people, the chiefs defied their warriors' preordained destiny and angered the Great Spirit. The giant serpent may have simply acted as an emissary of punishment.

Another legend states that Wally originally lived high up in the mountains surrounding the lake. An Indian brave who was exploring startled it and caused it to flee. The adventurous young man chased it over the mountains and, eventually, the serpent came to Wallowa Lake and dove in, quickly followed by his pursuer. After a few moments, the brave gave up, turned around, and began swimming to shore. As his friends approached, they saw him jerk and scream as he was pulled under.

Stories like these have caused generations of Native Americans to approach Wallowa Lake with caution. Though the newlyweds and the Indian grave are said to never have been seen again, the monster has since been spotted form time to time.

In 1885, shortly after settlers began using the lake for recreation, the first known sighting of the monster by a white man was reported in a local newspaper. A prospector was roughly halfway across the lake when he saw a ten-foot-long neck with a flat, cowlike head rise out of the water fifty yards to his right. It called out in a few low bellows, submerged, and soon reappeared to his left. This time, the serpent's entire body rose to the surface. The prospector estimated it to be about one hundred feet long. It glided along the water surface for a few hundred yards before submerging again.

In 1932, a couple in a boat saw what they described as a "monster fish" about three hundred feet from the west shore.

Irene Wiggins, who owned a lakeside lodge, claimed to have seen the monster several times, from 1945 onward. She may have been among the first to refer to the creature as Wally. Her description of Wally was consistent with previous sightings.

In 1950, three witnesses saw two sleekly shaped creatures with heads resembling those of buffalo. The creatures were approximately sixteen and eight feet long. Previous descriptions of a larger lake monster therefore suggest that these two were youngers. It follows, then, that what is commonly thought of as a single animal may instead be a group of some sort.

In his book Oregon's Ghost and Monsters, author Mike Helm claims that his father once saw Wally while fishing. He writes that, based on his father's description, he's "always pictured it as a huge snake with a head like a Chinese dragon, a regular medieval sea serpent, rippling across the surface of the lake."

He also touches on other lands of Wallowa Lake, such as speculation that it's connected to the Great Lakes by a vast underground river. (As Helm heard it, some time ago the body of a man who drowned in Wallowa Lake was supposedly recovered in Lake Erie).

This concept raises another interesting question: Could Wally be the same creature as, or a relative of, South Bay Bessie, the Lake Erie Monster?

[walkonandtwo]

"Tough little town"

By 1913-1914 the Blackfeet Agent held firm control of the reservation. How he disbursed rations lay at the center of his power . . . he could either cut back or withhold rations at will to keep his wards in control. The agent could also grant or cancel allotments and leases. As for the Council . . . it could make a lot of noise and blow up a big cloud of dust, but that was about it.

In 1914 Special Agent Charles Ellis was called in to investigate several issues of immorality, before they got out of hand. To assist him in the delicate matter, Ellis contracted Elsie (Eaton) Newton, Educator for Indian Services. Newton had already made a name for herself as a serious, dedicated federal servant. Ellis and Newton conducted the most rigorous investigation to date and filed an extensive report.

Here are some of the report's main concerns: [names were listed and annotated]

1) Seven full bloods (Heavy Gun, Wolf Eagle, Whiteman, Looking for Smoke, Curley Bear, Chief Crow, and Heavy Runner) were cited for continuing the illicit practice of plural wives. No matter that these men were respected elders in the tribe . . . Ellis and Newton recommended they be reprimanded, counseled, and, if need be, punished for their reprehensible behavior.

2) Three men (Eddie Big Beaver, Henry No Bear, and Walter Mountain Chief) were cited for "premeditated" adultery. Ellis and Newton said the Agent and Church must intervene and disrupt this vile practice. Newton added that these criminals had already committed "fruits of their folly" and would continue to do so if they were not arrested and jailed.

3) At least 33 additional men were charged with living and cohabitating in a series of "entangled" households. In other words, these men would move in, impregnate the woman, and move on to the next house. Ellis told the Agent he must employ a 5-person morality police force to clean up the mess. Newton insisted that a woman be a member of the force to handle the women who were party to this heinous lifestyle.

4) Louis Marceau, Chief of Police, and Louis Monroe were given particular attention. A group of disgruntled witnesses told Ellis and Newton that the Agent should control his police chief and leave the people alone. The group testified that in a bizarre twist of fate Marceau and Monroe casually swapped wives (Short Robe and Mountain Chief) without any good reason and suffered no consequence, which was a gross violation of any moral code.

5) Finally, Newton demanded the Agent employ a squad of field matrons to patrol the town and set the many wandering, lost girls on the right path. Newton dictated a small sermon into the report: "Field matrons prevent them being subjected to the dangers of seductive temptations, and while the call of nature may be stronger in the Indian girl than the average white, that, if true, shows the more need of preventive measures to protect her chastity."

6) Ellis and Newton summed up their report by stating that despite the many young men who openly live with a succession of girls and the many loose girls who bring false paternity charges against men of means to entrap them into marriage . . . Browning is a "tough little town" that can be saved by strict management and an active police force.

The Ellis-Newton Report is grossly insulting by any standard and should offend everyone. But the real intent is much more sinister than mere insult. The Agent, prompted by Washington, wanted to see how far into the corner he could push the tribal members . . . thus guaranteeing absolute and perpetual control of the Blackfeet reservation.

[ear-worthy]

Cadence 13 & Tenderfoot TV Expand Podcast Lineup For 2023

Late in 2022, we saw a retrenchment in podcasting with layoffs at several large podcast networks, including Spotify, and cancellations of podcast programming.

In TV, streaming subscription channels took a similar hit, with investors suddenly unsure about profit-making opportunities there after years of

But the news is not unremittingly bad, as some podcast journalists would have you think. Take podcast studio Cadence13 and podcast network Tenderfoot TV. The two companies just announced plans to expand the partnership through 2024 to include renewal of hit series “Up and Vanished” and “To Live and Die in LA,” a slate of new weekly shows, and a first-look at new limited series

The first new series as part of this partnership is High Strange, created and hosted by Tenderfoot TV founder, Payne Lindsey. The eight-part, investigative UFO series focuses on unexplained aerial phenomena, and will debut in early 2023, with details forthcoming.

“Tenderfoot TV is at the top of its game and we’re thrilled to expand our relationship with them and continue to create innovative, thought provoking and compelling content,” said Chris Corcoran, Chief Content Officer and Founding Partner, Cadence13.

“We always strive to push the limits of podcasting and Cadence13 has consistently empowered our team to use creative freedom,” said Payne Lindsey, founder of Tenderfoot TV. “This new series is unlike anything we’ve done before, and with this partnership, we’re confident we have the support to give our listeners something truly unique.”

“Through our partnership with Cadence13, we’ve launched some of our most compelling new series, which have now become household names,” said Tenderfoot TV CEO and co-founder, Donald Albright. “This expanded partnership allows us to build on those tentpole titles as well as launch new formats, and we can’t wait to see what’s next.”

In addition to the new series, Cadence13 and Tenderfoot TV will release new seasons of hit shows “Up and Vanished,” “To Live and Die in LA,” “Culpable” and “Radio Rental”:

Up and Vanished: Up and Vanished is a popular true-crime podcast hosted by Payne Lindsey that investigates mysterious cold case disappearances and has garnered over 400 million downloads across three seasons. Season one covered the disappearance of Georgia high school teacher Tara Grinstead, resulting in two arrests, and season two focused on the disappearance of young mother Kristal Reisinger from a remote mountain town in Colorado, a case that has since been reopened. In season three, Lindsey investigated the North West Montana disappearance of Ashley Loring HeavyRunner, an indigenous woman who went missing from the Blackfeet Nation Indian Reservation in 2017.

To Live and Die in LA: Award-winning Rolling Stone journalist and bestselling author Neil Strauss hosts this award-winning investigative series. In season one, Strauss investigates the disappearance and death of aspiring Albanian Macedonian actress Adea Shabani. In season two, Strauss — along with his wife, Ingrid De La O, and his neighbors, Incubus guitarist Mike Einziger, and concert violinist Ann Marie Simpson — investigates the case of Elaine Park, a 20-year old aspiring actress and musician who vanished from her Hollywood apartment in 2018.

Culpable: Hosted by Dennis Cooper and produced in partnership with Resonate Recordings, Culpable explores unsettled cases where those deserving of blame have somehow eluded justice. Season one explores the case of Christian Andreacchio, whose death was ruled his death a suicide, despite substantial evidence that points to murder. Season 2 investigates the case of Brittany Stykes, a 22-year old mother who was shot and killed while driving down Highway 68 in Brown County, Ohio. (Author’s note: one of my favorite shows).

Radio Rental: From the mind of Payne Lindsey, discover real-life horror stories–from bizarre crimes to paranormal activity–set inside the fictional world of Radio Rental, a 80s video rental store run by an eccentric shopkeeper, Terry Carnation, played by Rainn Wilson. This imaginative, cult classic-inspired horror brand blurs the lines of reality, with cutting-edge documentary storytelling and a splash of comedy.

Details on the slate of weekly “always on” podcast series will be announced at a later date.

Podcast listeners are the winners in this ongoing collaboration between Cadence 13 and Tenderfoot TV.

[theamericanparlor]

Three Piegan (Blackfeet) Chiefs

Albumen print. 1900

The North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis. These images were published between 1907 and 1930.

[fatehbaz]

Tribunal discussing murdered and missing Indigenous women to be hosted by Blackfeet Nation during the first weekend in October 2019.

-

From The Daily Inter-Lake, 24 September 2019:

The two-day tribunal will record public testimony from MMIW survivors and victims’ families, as well as provide private sessions for witnesses who may be hesitant to share their accounts in a public forum.

“We welcome witnesses from the four directions to attend and share their experiences,” Blackfeet Nation Chairman Tim Davis said in a press release. “This is not just a Blackfeet or Montana tribes’ tragedy, it is an Indian Country tragedy, and a national and international disgrace.

“This is a multi-generational epidemic the federal government has done nothing to address – even less than the Canadian government – which was found to be complicit in ‘deliberate race, identity and gender-based genocide’ by its own national inquiry into MMIW,” Davis continued.

The Blackfeet Nation is uniquely positioned to host this first of its kind MMIW tribunal in the lower-48 states, he said. The Blackfeet Tribe (Amskapi Pikuni), a member of the Blackfoot Confederacy, along with its three sister tribes – the Piikani, Blood and Siksika — located in Alberta, Canada, stands in solidarity in combating the issue of murdered and missing indigenous women in Indian Country, the press release noted.

“The truth is that we live in a country whose laws and institutions perpetuate violations of basic human and indigenous rights. These violations amount to nothing less than the deliberate, often covert campaign of genocide against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people,” Chief Commissioner Marion Buller wrote in “Reclaiming Power and Place,” the final report of Canada’s National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, published on June 3.

Davis continued, “We are not divided by the border; we are united in our grief. Many women and children stolen from our communities are trafficked back and forth between the U.S. and Canada,” explained Chairman Davis.

Tribal members constitute 7% of Montana’s population, but the state identifies some 26% of missing persons as Native American. Available evidence suggests that may be a low estimate. Last year’s Urban Indian Health Institute Report identified Montana as the state with the fifth-highest incidence of MMIW cases.

Billings, which had the same disturbing ranking among cities, is a purported hub on the I-90 corridor through Crow, Cheyenne and Lakota-Dakota country to Minnesota, along which indigenous women and children are trafficked into sex slavery, the press release said. The western “track” runs from Missoula to Seattle.

As of this spring Montana had not submitted any MMIW data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the release stated.

“For those abducted into sex-slavery, the I-90 corridor is a second ‘Highway of Tears,’” Davis commented, drawing a comparison to the infamous highway in British Columbia cited in Reclaiming Power and Place.

The Blackfeet MMIW Tribunal is being held in conjunction with the Global Indigenous Council and is endorsed by the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council. The Blackfeet Tribal Business Council credits the work of both organizations in partnership with the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association in raising the profile of MMIW cases and the alliance’s efforts to secure meaningful MMIW legislation on Capitol Hill.

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For further information: www.mmiwtribunal.com www.mmiw-gic.com; Facebook.com/MMIWtribunal; info@mmiwtribunal.com or call 406-209-8480/703-980-4595.

[yasbxxgie]

Now that the cast is coming together, Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming adaptation of Dune is getting more attention than ever. And with that attention an interesting question has started cropping up with more frequency, one that bears further examination: Is Dune a “white savior” narrative?

It’s important to note that this is not a new question. Dune has been around for over half a century, and with every adaptation or popular revival, fans and critics take the time to interrogate how it plays into (or rebels against) certain story tropes and popular concepts, the white savior complex being central among them. While there are no blunt answers to that question—in part because Dune rests on a foundation of intense and layered worldbuilding—it is still an important one to engage and reengage with for one simple reason: All works of art, especially ones that we hold in high esteem, should be so carefully considered. Not because we need to tear them down or, conversely, enshrine them, but because we should all want to be more knowledgeable and thoughtful about how the stories we love contribute to our world, and the ways in which they choose to reflect it.

So what happens when we put Dune under this methodical scrutiny? If we peel back the layers, like the Mentats of [Frank] Herbert’s story, what do we find?

Hollywood has a penchant for the white savior trope, and it forms the basis for plenty of big-earning, award-winning films. Looking back on blockbusters like The Last of the Mohicans, Avatar, and The Last Samurai, the list piles up for movies in which a white person can alleviate the suffering of people of color—sometimes disguised as blue aliens for the purpose of sci-fi trappings—by being specially “chosen” somehow to aid in their struggles. Sometimes this story is more personal, between only two or three characters, often rather dubiously labeled as “based on a true story” (The Blind Side, The Help, Dangerous Minds, The Soloist, and recent Academy Award Best Picture-winner Green Book are all a far cry from the true events that inspired them). It’s the same song, regardless—a white person is capable of doing what others cannot, from overcoming racial taboos and inherited prejudices up to and including “saving” an entire race of people from certain doom.

At face value, it’s easy to slot Dune into this category: a pale-skinned protagonist comes to a planet of desert people known as Fremen. These Fremen are known to the rest the rest of the galaxy as a mysterious, barbaric, and highly superstitious people, whose ability to survive on the brutal world of Arrakis provides a source of endless puzzlement for outsiders. The Fremen themselves are a futuristic amalgam of various POC cultures according to Herbert, primarily the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana, the San people, and Bedouins. (Pointedly, all of these cultures have been and continue to be affected by imperialism, colonialism, and slavery, and the Fremen are no different—having suffered horrifically at the hands of the Harkonnens even well before our “heroes” arrive.) Once the protagonist begins to live among the Fremen, he quickly establishes himself as their de facto leader and savior, teaching them how to fight more efficiently and building them into an unstoppable army. This army then throws off the tyranny of the galaxy’s Emperor, cementing the protagonist’s role as their literal messiah.

That sounds pretty cut and dried, no?

But at the heart of this question—Is Dune a white savior narrative?—are many more questions, because Dune is a complicated story that encompasses and connects various concepts, touching on environmentalism, imperialism, history, war, and the superhero complex. The fictional universe of Dune is carefully constructed to examine these issues of power, who benefits from having it, and how they use it. Of course, that doesn’t mean the story is unassailable in its construction or execution, which brings us to the first clarifying question: What qualifies as a white savior narrative? How do we measure that story, or identify it? Many people would define this trope differently, which is reasonable, but you cannot examine how Dune might contribute to a specific narrative without parsing out the ways in which it does and does not fit.

This is the strongest argument against the assertion that Dune is a white savior story: Paul Atreides is not a savior. What he achieves isn’t great or even good—which is vital to the story that Frank Herbert meant to tell.

There are many factors contributing to Paul Atreides’s transformation into Muad’Dib and the Kwisatz Haderach, but from the beginning, Paul thinks of the role he is meant to play as his “terrible purpose.” He thinks that because he knows if he avenges his father, if he becomes the Kwisatz Haderach and sees the flow of time, if he becomes the Mahdi of the Fremen and leads them, the upcoming war will not stop on Arrakis. It will extend and completely reshape the known universe. His actions precipitate a war that that lasts for twelve years, killing millions of people, and that’s only just the beginning.

Can it be argued that Paul Atreides helps the people of Arrakis? Taking the long view of history, the answer would be a resounding no—and the long view of history is precisely what the Dune series works so hard to convey. (The first three books all take place over a relatively condensed period, but the last three books of the initial Dune series jump forward thousands of years at a time.) While Paul does help the Fremen achieve the dream of making Arrakis a green and vibrant world, they become entirely subservient to his cause and their way of life is fundamentally altered. Eventually, the Fremen practically disappear, and a new Imperial army takes their place for Paul’s son, Leto II, the God Emperor. Leto’s journey puts the universe on what he calls the “Golden Path,” the only possible future where humanity does not go extinct. It takes this plan millennia to come to fruition, and though Leto succeeds, it doesn’t stop humans from scheming and murdering and hurting one another; it merely ensures the future of the species.

One could make an argument that the Atreides family is responsible for the saving of all human life due to the Golden Path and its execution. But in terms of Paul’s position on Arrakis, his effect on the Fremen population there, and the amount of death, war, and terror required to bring about humanity’s “salvation,” the Atreides are monstrous people. There is no way around that conclusion—and that’s because the story is designed to critique humanity’s propensity toward saviors. Here’s a quote from Frank Herbert himself on that point:

I am showing you the superhero syndrome and your own participation in it.

And another:

Dune was aimed at this whole idea of the infallible leader because my view of history says that mistakes made by a leader (or made in a leader’s name) are amplified by the numbers who follow without question.

At the center of Dune is a warning to be mistrustful of messiahs, supermen, and leaders who have the ability to sway masses. This is part of the reason why David Lynch’s Dune film missed the mark; the instant that Paul Atreides becomes a veritable god, the whole message of the story is lost. The ending of Frank Herbert’s Dune is not a heroic triumph—it is a giant question mark pointed at the reader or viewer. It is an uncomfortable conclusion that only invites more questions, which is a key part of its lasting appeal.

And yet…

There is a sizable hole in the construction of this book that can outweigh all other interpretations and firmly situate Dune among white savior tropes: Paul Atreides is depicted as a white man, and his followers are largely depicted as brown people.

There are ways to nitpick this idea, and people do—Paul’s father, Leto Atreides might not be white, and is described in the book as having “olive” toned skin. We get a sense of traditions from the past, as Leto’s father was killed in a bull fight, dressed in a matador cape, but it’s unclear if this is tied to their heritage in any sense. The upcoming film has cast Cuban-Guatemalan actor Oscar Isaac in the role of Duke Leto, but previous portrayals featured white men with European ancestry: U.S. actor William Hurt and German actor Jürgen Prochnow. (The Fremen characters are also often played by white actors, but that’s a more simple case of Hollywood whitewashing.) While the name Atreides is Greek, Dune takes place tens of thousands of years in the future, so there’s really no telling what ancestry the Atreides line might have, or even what “whiteness” means to humanity anymore. There’s a lot of similar melding elsewhere in the story; the ruler of this universe is known as the “Padishah Emperor” (Padishah is a Persian word that essentially translates to “great king”), but the family name of the Emperor’s house is Corrino, taken from the fictional Battle of Corrin. Emperor Shaddam has red hair, and his daughter Irulan is described as blond-haired, green-eyed, and possessing “patrician beauty,” a mishmash of words and descriptions that deliberately avoid categorization.

None of these factors detract from the fact that we are reading/watching this story in present day, when whiteness is a key component of identity and privilege. It also doesn’t negate the fact that Paul is always depicted as a white young man, and has only been played by white actors: first by Kyle MacLachlan, then by Alec Newman, and soon by Timothy Chalamet. There are many reasons for casting Paul this way, chief among them being that he is partly based on a real-life figure—T.E. Lawrence, better known to the public as “Lawrence of Arabia.” But regardless of that influence, Frank Herbert’s worldbuilding demands a closer look in order to contextualize a narrative in which a white person becomes the messiah of an entire population of people of color—after all, T.E. Lawrence was never heralded as any sort of holy figure by the people he worked alongside during the Arab Revolt.

The decision to have Paul become the Mahdi of the Fremen people is not a breezy or inconsequential plot point, and Herbert makes it clear that his arrival has been seeded by the Bene Gesserit, the shadowy matriarchal organization to which his mother, Jessica, belongs. In order to keep their operatives safe throughout the universe, the Bene Gesserit planted legends and mythologies that applied to their cohort, making it easy for them to manipulate local legends to their advantage in order to remain secure and powerful. While this handily serves to support Dune’s thematic indictment of the damage created by prophecy and religious zealotry, it still positions the Fremen as a people who easily fall prey to superstition and false idols. The entire Fremen culture (though meticulously constructed and full of excellent characters) falls into various “noble savage” stereotypes due to the narrative’s juxtaposition of their militant austerity with their susceptibility to being used by powerful people who understand their mythology well enough to exploit it. What’s more, Herbert reserves many of the non-Western philosophies that he finds particularly attractive—he was a convert to Zen Buddhism, and the Bene Gesserit are attuned to the Eastern concepts of “prana” and “bindu” as part of their physical training—for mastery by white characters like Lady Jessica.

While Fremen culture has Arab influences in its language and elsewhere, the book focuses primarily on the ferocity of their people and the discipline they require in order to be able to survive the brutal desert of Arrakis, as well as their relationship to the all-important sandworms. This speaks to Herbert’s ecological interests in writing Dune far more than his desire to imagine what an Arab-descended society or culture might look like in the far future. Even the impetus toward terraforming Arrakis into a green world is one brought about through imperialist input; Dr. Liet Kynes (father to Paul’s companion Chani) promoted the idea in his time as leader of the Fremen, after his own father, an Imperial ecologist, figured out how to change the planet. The Fremen don’t have either the ability or inclination to transform their world with their own knowledge—both are brought to them from a colonizing source.

Dune’s worldbuilding is complex, but that doesn’t make it beyond reproach. Personal bias is a difficult thing to avoid, and how you construct a universe from scratch says a lot about how you personally view the world. Author and editor Mimi Mondal breaks this concept down beautifully in her recent article about the inherently political nature of worldbuilding:

In a world where all fundamental laws can be rewritten, it is also illuminating which of them aren’t. The author’s priorities are more openly on display when a culture of non-humans is still patriarchal, there are no queer people in a far-future society, or in an alternate universe the heroes and saviours are still white. Is the villain in the story a repulsively depicted fat person? Is a disabled or disfigured character the monster? Are darker-skinned, non-Western characters either absent or irrelevant, or worse, portrayed with condescension? It’s not sufficient to say that these stereotypes still exist in the real world. In a speculative world, where it is possible to rewrite them, leaving them unchanged is also political.

The world of Dune was built that way through a myriad of choices, and choices are not neutral exercises. They require biases, thoughtfulness, and intent. They are often built from a single perspective, and perspectives are never absolute. And so, in analyzing Dune, it is impossible not to wonder about the perspective of its creator and why he built his fictional universe the way he did.

Many fans cite the fact that Frank Herbert wrote Dune over fifty years ago as an explanation for some of its more dated attitudes toward race, gender, queerness, and other aspects of identity. But the universe that Herbert created was arguably already quite dated when he wrote Dune. There’s an old-world throwback sheen to the story, as it’s built on feudal systems and warring family houses and political marriages and ruling men with concubines. The Bene Gesserit essentially sell their (all-female) trainees to powerful figures to further their own goals, and their sexuality is a huge component of their power. The odious Baron Harkonnen is obese and the only visibly queer character in the book (a fact that I’ve already addressed at length as it pertains to the upcoming film). Paul Atreides is the product of a Bene Gesserit breeding program that was created to bring about the Kwisatz Haderach—he’s literally a eugenics experiment that works.

And in this eugenics experiment, the “perfect” human turns out to be a white man—and he was always going to be a man, according to their program—who proceeds to wield his awesome power by creating a personal army made up of people of color. People, that is, who believe that he is their messiah due to legends planted on their world ages ago by the very same group who sought to create this superbeing. And Paul succeeds in his goals and is crowned Emperor of the known universe. Is that a white savior narrative? Maybe not in the traditional sense, but it has many of the same discomfiting hallmarks that we see replicated again and again in so many familiar stories. Hopefully, we’re getting better at recognizing and questioning these patterns, and the assumptions and agendas propagated through them. It gives us a greater understanding of fiction’s power, and makes for an enlightening journey.

Dune is a great work of science fiction with many pointed lessons that we can still apply to the world we live in—that’s the mark of a excellent book. But we can enjoy the world that Frank Herbert created and still understand the places where it falls down. It makes us better fans and better readers, and allows us to more fully appreciate the stories we love.

+Dune’s Paul Atreides Is the Ultimate Mighty Whitey

[kommahana93]

Just A Dream C1.3

∞ Ş ∞ Ş ∞ Ş ∞

“I don't like it,” Sitara whined, suddenly speaking in English again, “old shirt!” She chuckled at the childish demand of her sister; even she could agree that their old uniform was easier to put on. The old version was the main reason the other military schools bullied them; she glanced up at her shelf beside the door, smiling at the old photo of her and her three friends. Their uniforms went from shirts with wide sailor-collars, to a tighter-throat military look. Not only were the old uniforms simple in design and coloring, but their academy crest was easily localized on their scarves, instead of on their vests, bags, and pretty much everything else the academy owned. Of course the change in uniform design brought a new problem: her siblings getting used to the new clothes. They’ve all practiced putting on the tops multipole times already and yet her siblings STILL kept getting their hair tangled in the zippers and buttons; especially Sitara. Her hair was a headache on a good day, but it was stubborn enough to never give the poor girl a good day; every day was a struggle just for a ponytail. It was as if nothing in the world could reign in its search for freedom.

"I agree. The old uniforms were much better than these ones," Silas huffed, folding his arms over his vest, partially covering his little fox. "I can't believe that we don't get real coats in winter, just lousy cloaks." Technically they did get jackets, but they weren’t made for withstanding the wet winters their region was plagued with, which was why the academy changed to waterproof cloaks. Their jackets were good against the autumn winds but not the winter rain and snow.

"Too bad," she chuckled at her siblings, "school rules." Sitara pouted as she pulled the knee-length dress over her head and zipped up the large gap on her right side. "Did you grab your shorts?" She asked as she stood to her full height and wandered to her vanity table. She quickly grabbed a brush for her hair and two bright sapphire ribbons from her desk before she sat down. The shorts were a demand most mothers made of their daughters. The headmaster didn't give a damn, but the mothers felt better knowing their daughters wouldn't accidentally flash someone. She thought that if the parents in question got the girls the right length of skirts they wouldn't have to worry about it. She was just uncomfortable with her little sister in a skirt, primarily because Sitara and Silas got in so many fights that the younger girl almost always ends up pinned to the ground trying to fend off her brother’s dangling spit.

"Uh-huh," Sitara nodded as she tugged a stray curl behind her ear, only to wince as the curl locked around her finger and sent a bolt of pain through her temple as she tried to pull her hand away.

"Why don't you do something with that already?" Silas asked as he leaned forward to watch his little sister unwind the unruly hair from her finger. "I mean seriously Sitara, you look like a homeless orphan." She snorted at her brother’s observations, her blue eyes sparkling as she watched her siblings through her mirror. With their uniforms on straight, they looked like adorable little honor students. Wild haired, pouty-faced, sarcastic and spoiled honor students; she doubted she’d ever been so proud of her siblings’ appearances before.

"So?" Sitara tilted her head to the side with a defiant look, "better than you."

"How so?" Silas asked, narrowing his golden eyes at her warningly. Sitara smiled impishly at him and pointed at his dark gray vest.

"Wrinkle-Crinkle!" Sitara chimed. Through her vanity mirror, she watched as Silas stared blankly at Sitara for all of two seconds before he had Sitara in a headlock and was giving her a noogie. "Owy! Owy! Saly stop iiiittt!!" Sitara protested loudly but Silas ignored her. Wrapping her tiny pale fingers around her brother's arm, Sitara began flailing her feet to try and unbalance him but he was stronger than her and so didn’t sway with her added weight. She pulled the last of her sunset-copper hair up into her twin pigtails, her ribbons dangling with the weight of the silver orbs at the ends. Glancing once more through the mirror at her siblings, she watched as Silas continued to ignore Sitara’s loud protests while the vein in his forehead pulsed.

"Hey," she drawled as she turned back to her siblings, just in time to see Sitara put one foot on her doorway and push all her weight into Silas's chest, effectively making them both tumble to the ground. "That was new," she blinked her big eyes at her out-of-breath-siblings who were both laying on the dinning floor in awkward positions. "Little monsters," she sighed in the other language as she rose from her seat and approached her siblings, straightening her uniform. She watched as Silas tried to remove Sitara from himself but realized too late that Sitara's curls had tangled themselves into his buttons.

"Damn it Sitara!" Silas snarled. "Curse your hair to the depths of HELL!!"

"Calm down Little brother, I have an idea.” she smiled at her siblings, slipping between languages effortlessly. "There is a product I can use on little sister taming, take hour or two." Her eyes dancing as her siblings carefully rose to their knees, not wanting to make the knots worse. "Come." She moved passed Sitara and Silas, "it’s in the bathroom, we hurry.”

By the time noon came around, Sitara's head was still a mess of curls but they were no longer frizzy. She hummed as she raked her fingers through the waist long midnight curls and watched as they defiantly curled together again. There were times when she was jealous of the beautiful curls Sitara had: remembering the work, the knots, and the hours it takes to ‘calm it’ always sobered her up, turning her envy into pity. Glancing up into the bathroom mirror, she stared at the faces of her siblings beside her own; even she could admit they looked nothing alike. She looked like their Native American-Irish grandmother, complete with caramel skin, blue eyes and flaming hair; the poor old woman was a half breed of an Irish merchant and a Blackfeet Chief-man's daughter. Silas took after their Nigerian grandfather. His hair was more brown than black and was wavy compared to Sitara’s almost uncontrollable curls, but he did inherit the man's dark chocolate skin and their mother's unexplainable golden eyes. Little Sitara had their great grandfather's ivory white skin, their grandfather's wild black curls and their father's warm chocolate almond-shaped eyes. How could three children sharing the same mother and father look so vastly different from each other? They looked more like cousins or strangers than siblings.

[the-firebird69]

Tons of people are buying this because it's liquid cooled and it has shocks at least they put them on and we're actually building now with shocks on the rear and it's much better the system is a full floater system it has a lot of weight and it's slightly higher but not much but it does give you travel and it's a real shock and those are fitted out for the dirt and these are not necessary filling out properly for the dirt and the road and a lot of people are buying them for the name and they're going around scouting and they're saying they're using the Indians and they mean us

Thor Freya

We also have our version no we're part of the same company and the old Indian company is producing bikes still and they build them just like this and they can't see where ours are coming from they think it's China so they're mad at China they're bringing Chinese in with their episodes and stuff it is with Asians and we're also Indian we're somewhere and we're selling these in building these and we're the ones making them you know where we are and making huge numbers today of the scout model and the new scout model that our son and Thor Freya did the actual engineering of the ladder and he helped design it it is very slick it's very cool looking like this and they're using it to scout and we know about the analogy and it really mean us our race Indians because we made really good scouts and they are still using some and you'll see them in some movies that's what they're using them for and they're trying to find us

Blackfeet Chief

Awesome this is a big boost and the help we got at Harley-Davidson for the program Harley-Davidson and we got for our program take on me really is what it is because we're taking them on and she's smiling because she knows what I mean I might have to win a race I don't think I've ever want to race for real with you people to win the circuit we'd have to win every race from now on or or if we lost when we tie if we won first place each time as it is Mac will win even if he loses three races and there's four left so I'm happy with second or third, yeah it won't heat it up sufficiently and he's not exactly helping me so we're going to sit down and think about this can't get a damn dime it's supposed to be helping you get through and he never does

Zues

I'm proud of you you've thought through it I do get it it's not really you we're going to do this

Hera

I want 550,000 of those bikes the scouts at my door tomorrow no I'm building them, and it's my factory that they're coming out of he's got one too and they're the same bike his adults with a solid frame though his way only about 10 more pounds believe it or not they're heavier it says it's cuz he has to use the same kind of motor it's a huge block it's a waste of time it was done because it's all Air Cold and heat some cools uniformly and that's the idea of anyways it's important to write what he says so with our bike it's inexpensive no it's less expensive no but it's made by us not by them and we're not going to put any devices on it it don't lead back to me right down the street from you so think about it we don't put any devices on them anyways as a matter of fact that we just found any on his but it would help us in our economic situation I'm also making the light bike go kart for our McDonald's restaurants tons of them give me the first one in the seat he probably forget to eat as a matter of fact you and your stupid rat pack will be racing each other until midnight some of them stay open till midnight you just bribe the guy Stan Jackie the a****** Trump would lose every time I can see him being aggressive for letting Stan win

No I'm not buying any of his Indian bikes

Mac Daddy

[leonard-94]

Books by Jay North, Native American, Blackfeet Indians Life Of A Gypsy Traveler

Press Release; Life Of A Gypsy Traveler For some of us there is no life if we can’t be on the road. Its not merely traveling, it is the experience of so much beauty to behold and folks one can meet while enjoying the drive. I am not up for hitching rides, no I am an RV liver-at my age 71 I need creature comforts. I have been For some of us there is no life if we can’t be on the road. Its not merely traveling, it is the experience of so much beauty to behold and folks one can meet while enjoying the drive. I am not up for hitching rides, no I am an RV liver-at my age 71 I need creature comforts. I have been on the road for fourteen years and would hate to give it up, unfortunately health issues are getting in my way. They (doctors) tell me I have advanced cancer-what a pain. What led me to see 29 states and 56 National Parks? Wonder! My wife (Pamela) of 24 years passed and I thought Jay why not? Before taking up the gypsy life I was a hairdresser, an organic farmer in the small town of Carpinteria CA, I was in the sales and marketing business in the trash hauling business, an antique dealer and now for the most part a full time writer, with 30 books under my belt. Thing is being unwell and all my friends telling me I should be in a nursing home-to which my reply is- hell no I am going to let go in the woods-where I love so much. Why am I writing this now, to encourage people to do what they love-no matter what we are all going to die, why not go out with love of life. The most common question I get is where is your favorite place that you have been, everywhere I reply, but if I have to choose one -Glacier National Park is the cats meow. Life seems to go by so fast, so please if you can take the opportunity - the road it's the best way to live, just my opinion. Jay North Three wishes, 1) get well, 2) the ability to go fly fishing again and 3) finally see my book Open Spaces: My life With Leonard J. Mountain Chief Blackfeet Elder Northwest Montana read by the masses, understood and applied. Find it here. Jay North- no, not the child star can be reached at www.OneGlobePress.com # Released for publication and distribution Jay North PO BOX 1211 Ojai CA 93024 805-794-9126 jaysbookshere@gmail.com Jay North: Published author, organic gardener, and social activist, naturalist. Jay is truly inspirational at appreciating the journey and the roller coaster of life! In the 1980’s and 90’s he was revered worldwide as the Edible Flower Child, partially due to his astonishing success with Paradise Farms and his books regarding organic gardening. Jay is currently enjoying his life as a full time writer. Jay came into the world knowing exactly what he wanted. He intended to experience life to the fullest; on every level imaginable. His path would eventually expand outward; to include assisting everyone in understanding their own ability to savor and cherish their own life; in love, peace and joy. Jay’s life experiences are vast. All accepted as a vehicle of growth; regardless of the degree (or lack thereof) of amusement and excitement. He allowed everything without judgment. This is attainable for anyone, says Jay. www.oneglobepress.com

[engelspolitics]

Comanche Tribe

https://www.grunge.com/265660/comanche-the-most-powerful-native-american-tribe-in-history/

Comanches → Native American nation once the most powerful in America → controlled a vast empire in current Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas,

Held off invaders for decades; only defeated in the late 19th century

Comanche were originally nomadic hunter-gatherers who moved following seasonal prey; in many ways they lagged behind their peers (Aztec Empire) but in late 17th century they encountered horses brought in by the Spanish and

Within a century the hunter-gatherers had transformed into dominant, aggressive empire of warriors that conquered neighbouring tribes

Culture became almost solely focused on waging war; no religious structure, no social organizations, no manufacturing or art; children learned how to ride, how to hunt, and how to fight and lives would be focused on those three aspects.

As a result, the Comanches evolved into a force of violence no one could withstand.

Waged war on everyone who came into contact with them; raids were brutal (all males killed, women sexually assaulted and then killed, young children taken captive)

Comanche Nation was divided into bands, which were centred on a patriarch (eldest patriarch was chief) and usually comprised of extended relatives; could be hundreds strong

Bands would combine informally into a tribe or nation, based on mutual need or advantage

Comanche government was council-based, with elders gathering on (in)informal basis and each having a vote → democracy > monarchy

Comanches were particularly aggressive against their fellow Native Americans; systematically pushed all the other tribes off the central plains, forcing them to find new lands

Almost wiped out Apaches to point they asked for Spanish protection

Killing thousands of Pawnees, the Osages, the Blackfeet, the Kiowas, and the Tonkawas.

By 1750, the Comanches had total control of the plains

Comanches were very adaptable; transformed their entire society around horses in a few decades

Also quickly adopted the concept of the Winter Village from other tribes, not only safeguard their horses and herds, but to cement their control over a local area.

Americans went west and brushed up against Comancheria in the 1820s (250,000 square miles)

They also had vassals, with about 20 other tribes acknowledging Comanche supremacy.

Comanches were the reason California and the West Coast were settled before the middle

One reason Mexico was so easily defeated in the Mexican-American War was due to the Comanches, who had spent decades stretching Mexico's fighting force

Wars between the Comanches and the United States are often not described as wars but they fought Texas nearly 40 years, stretching across its time as a Spanish colony, independent state, U.S. state

Only when President Ulysses S. Grant made defeating the Comanches a priority after the Civil War that they were finally pushed back, setting off a series of events that culminated in their final defeat in the 1870s.

Already weakened by smallpox and cholera → two widespread epidemics in 1816 and 1849 had reduced the Comanche population by half.

They relied almost completely on the buffalo for food → when the United States got serious about opposing the Comanches they realized that this dependence was a strategic weakness.

Between 1868 and 1881, 31 million buffalo were slaughtered to destroy the Comanches' food source; by 1874, the Comanches faced an almost total collapse of their civilization and way of life.

In 1874 Quanah (chief) gathered 300 Comanche warriors and launched a final assault on the American forces encroaching on the Comancheria

A five-day siege that ended with the Indians retreating

This broke the back of the Comanche Nation, and Quanah led his surviving warriors to surrender, agreeing to move to a reservation.

[covid19updater]

COVID19 Updates: 08/18/2021

World:  Actress Sally Kirkland After Moderna Vaccine: In My 79 Years, I’ve Never Experienced This Level of Pain LINK

California:  The Lambda COVID variant is in California: 5 things you should know LINK

Alabama:  Alabama has “negative” ICU beds free as U.S. hospitals struggle with surge of cases

US:  More than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths recorded as US returns to April levels LINK

India:  COVID-19 Vaccine for Children Will Be Available In India By September, Says Director of ICMR-NIV LINK

UK: Scotland:  Side point: Schools went back in Scotland on Monday, 16 Aug Nightclubs opened 9th Aug. Cases reported: 2021-08-18,2531 2021-08-17,1815 2021-08-16,1567 2021-08-15,1498 2021-08-14,1383 2021-08-13,1542 2021-08-12,1525 2021-08-11,1498 2021-08-10,1032 2021-08-09,851 Highly vaccinated, approx 75% double-pricked.

China:  The Chinese mainland Tuesday reported six new locally transmitted #COVID19 cases in Jiangsu Province, the National Health Commission said on Wednesday.

World:  WHO & @Unitaid express concern over @Roche's warning of a global shortage of tocilizumab, a WHO-recommended IL6 inhibitor for use as a treatment for severe #COVID19.

Tennessee:  In West Tennessee, a class of second graders at Riverwood Elementary in Cordova were sent home yesterday with a letter about the death of their teacher, 31-year-old Ashley Leatherwood. Family and friends say she contracted #COVID19 in the classroom. #GetVaccinatedNow #WearAMask

Texas:  Despite urgent cries from families, Plano ISD is not taking any new action to prevent COVID-19 in schools. LINK

Montana:  The Blackfeet Nation has implemented a mask mandate and the tribe’s offices are closed to the public. This comes as Montana experiences increased spread of COVID-19. Please mask up on Blackfeet land.

US:  U.S. COVID update: Nearly 177K new cases, including Florida backlog, and 1,316 new deaths - New cases: 176,787 - Average: 138,396 (+2,813) - In hospital: 88,481 (+3,742) - In ICU: 21,914 (+1,047) - New deaths: 1,316

Texas:  #COVID19 outbreaks in rural #Texas districts signal a troubled back-to-school season LINK

US:  WASHINGTON (AP) — US health officials recommend COVID-19 booster shots for all Americans to boost their defenses amid delta variant.

UK:  United Kingdom Daily Coronavirus (COVID-19) Report · Wednesday 18th August. 33,904 new cases (people positive) reported, giving a total of 6,355,887. 111 new deaths reported, giving a total of 131,260.

World:  How SARS-CoV-2 Evades And Suppresses The Immune System (Part 4) LINK

Alaska:  Anchorage ICUs at capacity as a surge of COVID-19 patients has hospitals under stress and scrambling LINK

Israel:  In less than a month #Israel may no longer be able to hide the very obvious about the #covidvaccine despite booster doses, #lockdowns and suppression of V data. Leaked yesterday - 95% of deaths in the #vaccinated and a huge jump from June.

Israel:  Israel: in high cases areas, only classrooms in which over 70 % of students are either vaccinated, recovered or pass a positive serological test for antibodies will be allowed to meet in person. Classrooms that fall below that level will be required to switch to home learning. LINK

Texas:  The new Texas COVID-19 surge could be worse than anything the state has seen yet Last week in San Antonio, 26 minutes went by with no ambulances available to respond to 911 calls from the city’s 1.5 million residents. LINK

US:  Booster doses of Covid-19 vaccine will be offered to Americans beginning September 20, pending CDC and FDA approval, US health officials say LINK

US:  There's concerning evidence of waning vaccine effectiveness over time and against delta; the risk of severe infection increasing among those vaccinated early and those with at-risk conditions.

US: CDC DIRECTOR  *WALENSKY: VACCINE EFFECTIVENESS FALLING IN NURSING HOMES.  WALENSKY SAYS  OVERALL VACCINE EFFECTIVENESS IS DECREASED FOR THE DELTA VARIANT

World:  Various people have been raising the variant AY.3 as a potential problem. So here is a quick thread on what we are seeing here (and internationally). TLDR: Definitely the first clear sign of potentially worrying variant here in a while.  First what is AY.3? It's a subtype of Delta and is most prevalent in the US where it is about 9% of their cases. Very early results from India suggest that it is more immune evasive than "original" Delta.   In the US, AY.3 has also increased rapidly, but alongside Delta so it's hard to say if it's outcompeting Delta or just outcompeting previous variants.

NYC:  *DE BLASIO SAYS 'DOESN'T ANTICIPATE' NYC SCHOOL VACCINE MANDATE

Michigan:  Grand Rapids and Traverse City regions are at "substantial" increases in new cases of #COVID19. The rest of the state's regions are classified as "high" numbers of new cases.

World:  Why is Delta so much more contagious than prior #SARSCoV2 variants? It achieves membrane fusion far more efficiently and faster LINK

Mississippi:  Mississippi eighth grader dies of COVID-19 amid escalating mask battle LINK

France:  France reports 2,054 people in intensive care units for covid-19, up by 111 ICU tally above the 2,000 limit for the first time since June 14

South Carolina:  As Delta Spreads Through South Carolina, A Troubling Rise In Breakthrough Cases LINK

New York:  Today's update on the numbers: Total COVID hospitalizations are at 1,888. Of the 156,128 tests reported yesterday, 4,737 were positive (3.03% of total). Sadly, there were 20 fatalities.

Colorado:  COVID-19 vaccine mandate issued for Colorado prison workers, other state employees LINK

Israel:  Israel is now requiring anyone over the age of three to show proof of vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test before entering many indoor spaces, as it tackles a sharp rise in infections. LINK

Nevada:  The Las Vegas Raiders are the first NFL team to require all fans attending home games to be vaccinated against COVID.

France:  People refusing to get Covid-19 vaccines in France are paying hundreds for fake health passes in an online black market that has flourished since the government imposed mandates for them to enter cafes, intercity trains and other public places;

Singapore:  Singapore court sentenced Brit Ben Glynn to 6 weeks in prison, for repeated breaching covid protocols. Found guilty on 4 charges for: failing to wear a mask on train in May & his July court appearance; causing a public nuisance; & use of threatening words to public servants;

Texas:  Five regions of Texas have zero open ICU beds LINK

Alabama:  Alabama is out of ICU beds amid a COVID-19 surge, with some patients being treated on gurneys in hallways, hospitals chief says LINK

Afghanistan:  JUST IN - Former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani reportedly hospitalized in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

NYC:  Restaurants in NYC sue the Mayor over his vaccine mandate.

US:  The Biden administration will move to require that nursing home staff are vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition for those facilities to continue receiving federal Medicare and Medicaid funding. LINK

Israel:  Israeli congressman in hospital with covid, Fully vaccinated 47-year old, not yet boosted, describes his experience LINK

Florida:  BREAKING: 3,055 students in Florida's Palm Beach County Schools have been forced to quarantine due to #COVID19 since classes began 7 days ago. There are now 608 confirmed student COVID-19 cases out of 167,000 students enrolled.

World:  Significant reduction in humoral immunity among healthcare workers and nursing home residents 6 months after COVID-19 BNT162b2 mRNA vaccination LINK

Israel:  Pfizer COVID vaccine 83% effective after third shot - Maccabi LINK

US:  UPDATE: J&J BOOSTER PENDING—People who received Johnson & Johnson vaccines may need boosters, too, says @Surgeon_General Vivek Murthy. The CDC will have more information about additional J&J shots in **coming weeks**

US:  The Biden admin will cover of 100% of states' emergency COVID costs. LINK

Alabama:  WaPo: An Alabama doctor watched patients reject the coronavirus vaccine. Now he’s refusing to treat them. “'Dr. Valentine will no longer see patients that are not vaccinated against covid-19,' the sign reads." LINK

US:  The COVID-19 Forecast Hub at UMass Amherst, which is utilized by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, predicts new COVID-19 hospitalizations could reach 32,000 a day as soon as Sept. 13. LINK

South Africa:  ⁦@USAfricaLive⁩ BrkNEWS: South Africa hit by 14,728 new COVID-19 cases — within 24 hours ⁦@MLKmandelachebe⁩ ⁦@WHO LINK

Alabama:  JUST IN: Alabama now at NEGATIVE 29 ICU beds, according to the Alabama Hospital Association.

US:  BREAKING: Number of Americans hospitalized with COVID-19 tops 90,000

Kentucky:  More Kentuckians currently in ICU battling COVID than ever before during pandemic LINK

Washington:  BREAKING: K-12 school teachers and staff must be vaccinated in WA by Oct. 18 or face losing their jobs.  The applies to public, private, and charter schools. @GovInslee is live on #KOMONews  right now

Canada:  553 new cases of #COVID19 in B.C., as the rolling average increases slightly, but may be beginning to plateau. Active cases up to 5,580 (highest since May 13), hospitalizations down to 107 but ICU cases to 53, one new death.

World:  Researchers find that COVID-19 patients who only suffered mild infections can be plagued with life-altering and sometimes debilitating cognitive issues LINK

Australia:  Sydney Children's Hospital Network is currently looking after SEVEN HUNDRED kids with #COVID19 Still fortunately vast majority as outpatients, but expecting more to become unwell as time goes on

Hong Kong:  Hong Kong’s granting of quarantine exemption to Nicole Kidman following her arrival from Australia last week has sparked outrage among residents who face some of the world’s toughest pandemic restrictions. LINK

[techcrunchappcom]

New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/trump-to-withdraw-pendleys-nomination-as-public-lands-chief-us-world-news/

Trump to withdraw Pendley's nomination as public lands chief | Us World News

SEATTLE (AP) — President Donald Trump intends to withdraw the nomination of William Perry Pendley to head the Bureau of Land Management, a senior administration official said Saturday — much to the relief of environmentalists who insisted the longtime advocate of selling federal lands should not be overseeing them.

Pendley, a former oil industry and property rights attorney from Wyoming, has been acting as the director of the agency for more than a year under a series of temporary orders from Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. Democrats alleged the temporary orders were an attempt to skirt the nomination process, and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and conservation groups have filed lawsuits to have Pendley removed from office.

Trump announced Pendley’s nomination to become the bureau’s director in June. A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter, confirmed Saturday that the president intended to withdraw that nomination.

“Good!” Bullock, a Democrat, tweeted Saturday. “William Perry Pendley wants to sell off our public lands – and has no business being in charge of them.”

The bureau oversees nearly a quarter-billion public acres in the U.S. West and much of the nation’s onshore oil and gas development.

The White House did not offer an explanation for the decision, which is not expected to become official until the Senate returns to session. The Interior Department said in a statement that the president makes staffing decisions and that Pendley continues leading the agency as deputy director for programs and policy.

Pendley, who in a 2017 essay argued that the “Founding Fathers intended all lands owned by the federal government to be sold,” spent three decades as president of the nonprofit Mountain States Legal Foundation, which has worked on behalf of ranchers, oil and gas drillers, miners and others seeking to use public lands for commercial gain.

Among the cases Pendley worked on was one challenging grizzly bear protections on national forest land. In another, he sought to validate an energy developer’s claim to drill for oil on land considered sacred by the Blackfeet Indian Tribe near Glacier National Park in Montana. A federal appeals court rejected the effort two months ago.

The author of books that include “War on the West: Government Tyranny on America’s Great Frontier,” he has criticized environmentalists as extremists and expressed support for Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, whose family has engaged in armed standoffs with federal agents.

In his announcement of the nomination, Trump said Pendley had “worked to increase recreational opportunities on and access to our Nation’s public lands, heighten concern for the impact of wild horses and burros on public lands, and increase awareness of the Bureau’s multiple-use mission.”

The Interior Department has disputed the notion that Pendley wants to sell off federal lands, saying the Bureau of Land Management has acquired 25,000 acres under his leadership.

While acting as director, Pendley has overseen the relocation of most of the bureau’s jobs from Washington to various locations in the West, including its new headquarters in Grand Junction, Colorado — a move conservationists consider an effort to weaken the agency.

The agency has also sought to ease rules for oil and gas drilling that were adopted under the Obama administration. One recent proposal, which would streamline requirements for measuring and reporting oil and gas produced from federal land, is projected to save energy companies more than $130 million over the next decade.

“William Perry Pendley has been unfit to lead the Bureau of Land Management every day since he was appointed acting director in 2019,” Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said in an emailed statement. “The fact that he was nominated this June and not withdrawn until millions of Americans and elected officials spoke out illustrates the wrongheaded priorities of this administration.”

———

AP writer Aamer Madhani contributed from Bedminster, New Jersey.

Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

[deepartnature]

Native American Hand Talkers Fight to Keep Sign Language Alive

Detail of portrait of Shoshoni Chief Tendoi Demonstrating Sign Language.

"In early September 1930, the Blackfeet Nation of Montana hosted a historic Indian Sign Language Grand Council, gathering leaders of a dozen North American Nations and language groups. The three-day council held was organized by Hugh L. Scott, a 77-year-old U.S. Army General who had spent a good portion of his career in the American West, where he observed and learned what users called Hand Talk, and what is today more broadly known as Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL). With $5,000 in federal funding, Scott filmed the proceedings and hoped to produce a film dictionary of more than 1,300 signs. He died before he could finish the project. Scott’s films disappeared into the National Archives. Recently rediscovered, they are an important resource for those looking to revitalize PISL. Among them is Ron Garritson, who identifies himself as being of Choctaw and European heritage. He was raised in Billings, Montana, near the Crow Nation. ..."

VOA (Video)

A Sign Language of the Plains Indians – Part 1

North American languages map before European contact

W - Plains Indian Sign Language

Fighting to Save Indigenous Sign Languages

2011 July: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - Dee Brown, 2012 September: The Ghost Dance, 2016 September: A History and Future of Resistance, 2016 November: Dakota Access Pipeline protests, 2016 December: Police Violence Against Native Americans Goes Far Beyond Standing Rock, 2016 December: Dakota Protesters Say Belle Fourche Oil Spill 'Validates Struggle', 2017 January: A Murky Legal Mess at Standing Rock, 2017 January: Trump's Move On Keystone XL, Dakota Access Outrages Activists, 2017 February: Army veterans return to Standing Rock to form a human shield against police, 2017 February: Standing Rock is burning – but our resistance isn't over, 2017 March: Dakota Access pipeline could open next week after activists face final court loss, 2017 April: The Conflicts Along 1,172 Miles of the Dakota Access Pipeline, 2017 May: 'Those are our Eiffel Towers, our pyramids': Why Standing Rock is about much more than oil, 2017 June: Dakota pipeline protesters won a small victory in court. We must fight on, 2018 February: PHOTOS: Since Standing Rock, 56 Bills Have Been Introduced in 30 States to Restrict Protests, 2018 November: Dennis J. Banks, Naawakamig (1937-2017), 2018 April: The Next Standing Rock? A Pipeline Battle Looms in Oregon, 2018 October: Democrats, Don’t Take Native American Voters for Granted

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/world/united-states-of-america/joe-biden-facebook-n-f-l-draft-your-thursday-briefing/

Joe Biden, Facebook, N.F.L. Draft: Your Thursday Briefing

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)

Good morning,

We’re covering Joe Biden’s long-awaited campaign announcement, the brewing fight between the White House and Congress, and a potential $5 billion fine for Facebook.

Mr. Biden, 76, is set to offer himself as a moderate and a trustee of former President Barack Obama’s legacy, which he will hope can attract a broad cross-section of voters who want to move on from President Trump. But his long political record is expected to face intense scrutiny, particularly from younger, more progressive Democrats.

The details: We examined where Mr. Biden stands on the issues, and how his views have changed over nearly 50 years in Washington.

Closer look: The Democratic Party has grown increasingly progressive and diverse since Mr. Biden first ran for the Senate in 1972.

President Trump vows to fight “all the subpoenas”

The Trump administration has made a series of moves this week to block multiple investigations, which could redefine Congress’s power to conduct oversight of the executive branch as well as presidents’ power to keep government affairs secret.

Citing the end of the special counsel’s investigation, Mr. Trump said on Wednesday that he had been investigated enough. “These aren’t, like, impartial people,” he said. “The Democrats are trying to win 2020.”

Closer look: Past administrations have also been reluctant to comply with congressional requests, but Mr. Trump’s actions are unusual, our chief Washington correspondent writes.

News analysis: The president once welcomed the special counsel’s report as a “total exoneration,” but he has shifted to calling it a “total ‘hit job’” produced by “true Trump haters.” Our chief White House correspondent examines Mr. Trump’s increasingly incongruous messaging about the findings.

Another angle: The special counsel’s report also revealed that Mr. Trump repeatedly sought to have the Justice Department reopen an investigation into Hillary Clinton and her use of a private email server.

The timing of a potential fine was unclear. Facebook has been in negotiations with the F.T.C. over a financial penalty for claims that the company violated a 2011 privacy consent decree.

American regulators have been criticized as lacking scrutiny of tech giants, even as their European counterparts have moved aggressively against the companies.

Quotable: “This would be a joke of a fine — a two-weeks-of-revenue, parking-ticket-level penalty for destroying democracy,” said Matt Stoller, a fellow at the Open Markets Institute, a think tank that is critical of tech companies’ powers. Facebook had $56 billion in revenue last year.

Sri Lanka faces new threats

Imams in the country are being encouraged to cancel Friday Prayer services after the police said that they had information that Sufi Muslims could be attacked by Islamist extremists. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo, the capital, has suspended services for Roman Catholic worshipers through the weekend.

The American ambassador to Sri Lanka, Alaina Teplitz, said on Wednesday that there were “ongoing terrorist plots,” days after suicide bombers killed more than 350 people at churches and hotels across the country.

Another angle: After the Easter Sunday attacks, Muslims in some areas of Sri Lanka are facing a backlash from gangs of Christians. The two faiths are small minorities in the country, which is predominantly Buddhist.

If you have 5 minutes, this is worth it

Working in the weed industry

While cannabis is still illegal on a federal level, it’s allowed at least for medical purposes in 33 states. And that’s creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, ranging from farm work to executive positions to “budtenders,” who help customers decide what kind of cannabis they want.

But working in the industry comes with caveats, including stigma and a pay cut.

Here’s what else is happening

North Korea-Russia meeting: The North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, met with President Vladimir Putin in Russia today. Mr. Kim is seeking support for sanctions relief and a gradual approach to nuclear disarmament that the Trump administration opposes.

Measles outbreak: The number of cases has risen to 695 — the highest annual number recorded since 2000, when the disease was declared eliminated in the U.S. The virus mostly has affected families that do not vaccinate their children.

White supremacist’s execution: John William King was put to death in Texas on Wednesday for the murder of James Byrd Jr., who was chained to the back of a pickup truck and dragged to his death in 1998.

Snapshot: Above, the Grand Organ at Notre-Dame in Paris last year. The cathedral’s three primary organists initially feared that the instrument — which has five keyboards and almost 8,000 pipes — had been destroyed in the fire that devastated the building last week, but technicians have confirmed that it is safe.

N.F.L. draft: Here’s a preview of the first round tonight. A talented class of rookies is led by the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Kyler Murray.

“Jeopardy!” champion: James Holzhauer has won more than $1 million in just 15 games, putting him second on the all-time earnings list. The Times spoke to him about his aggressive strategy.

Late-night comedy: Several of the hosts noted a meeting in which President Trump reportedly asked Twitter’s chief executive why he had been losing followers. “It’s like breaking the news to a child that Santa isn’t real,” Trevor Noah said. “It’s like, ‘Sir, you’re 72 now, so I think you’re old enough to know the truth: @MIKHAIL_62875 isn’t a real person.’”

What we’re watching: This TED Talk by Mariah Gladstone, a member of the Blackfeet Nation. “She’s also a cook with a degree from Columbia,” says our national food correspondent, Kim Severson, “who started a cooking show called ‘Indigikitchen’ to help people remember what food was like before colonization: locavore paleo.”

Now, a break from the news

Cook: Korean barbecue flavors inspire this easy meatball recipe.

Listen: In his “Ring” cycle, Wagner uses musical themes to create a world of gods, heroes, dwarves and giants. Here’s how.

Go: With few exceptions, musical comedies today are comedic only in the sense that the protagonist doesn’t croak, and musical only in the sense that he does. The new “Tootsie” is an exception, one of our critics writes.

Read: The humorist Dave Barry describes emulating his dog’s grace in “Lessons From Lucy,” which is new this week on our hardcover nonfiction and combined print and e-book nonfiction best-seller lists.

Smarter Living: Apologies are complicated. The urge to be polite undermines your confidence, critics say, and underscores your own insecurity. But context matters, and saying sorry isn’t always a bad thing.

And eating better can change your mood.

And now for the Back Story on …

He-he-helium

This is the International Year of the Periodic Table, so named by the United Nations to honor what is considered the 150th anniversary of a crucial discovery by a Russian chemist, Dmitri Mendeleev.

In 1869, he published the first recognizable periodic table, arranging the 63 elements then known by increasing atomic number — the total number of protons in an atomic nucleus — and in vertical stacks that corresponded to recurring patterns or properties.

That concise organization revealed and predicted many elemental dynamics, and the table became the foundation for chemistry, nuclear physics and other sciences. The periodic system is considered one of modern science’s most important achievements.

But it can also help to explain the chemistry behind a popular party trick: inhaling helium from a balloon to make your voice sound funny.

Helium is lighter than oxygen, enabling the vibrations of your vocal cords to travel more quickly, which shifts the resonant frequencies in your vocal tract to the higher end.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Chris

Thank you To Mark Josephson, Eleanor Stanford, Chris Harcum and Kenneth R. Rosen for the break from the news. Katie Van Syckle wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S. • We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is about accusations against a Navy SEAL leader. • Here’s today’s mini crossword puzzle, and a clue: Operator of the world’s largest cargo airline (5 letters). You can find all our puzzles here. • “Caliphate,” a Times podcast series that followed our reporter Rukmini Callimachi’s work on the Islamic State, won a 2018 Peabody Award.

[fatehbaz]

4 October 2019: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women tribunal, the “first in the US” and hosted by Blackfeet Nation, begins.

Excerpts from Holly K. Michels, Helena Independent Record:

Browning, Montana - At a tribunal here to record testimony from the families of Indigenous people who have gone missing or been murdered, organizer Belinda Bullshoe left a red skirt draped over a chair near the corner of the room. The seat was left empty, Bullshoe said, to represent the stolen voices of missing and murdered Indigenous people, some of whose families gathered at the community college here Friday to share and record their stories. "That skirt represents the MMIW," said Bullshoe, of Browning, using the acronym for missing and murdered Indigenous women. " … We hope that we can actually, by doing events like this, and the families coming forward, that we can actually be their voice and they're not going to be stolen anymore."

The stories recorded at the two-day tribunal will be compiled into a report examining the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women, men and children. The inquest is organized by the Global Indigenous Council, which helped put on the event in coordination with the Blackfeet Nation and Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council. [...]

It’s the first time an effort like this has been made in the U.S. Canada went through a similar process and a report generated from the inquiry this summer documented what its chief commissioner called “genocide.” Those who spoke Friday said the Blackfeet Nation does not acknowledge a strong division at the U.S. border and is strongly connected to sister tribes in Canada.

In Montana, 46 of the 162 missing people in the state, or 28%, are Native, though Indians make up a little less than 7% of the state’s residents, according to Misti LaPlant, the state Department of Justice’s missing persons coordinator.

Seemingly everyone who attended the tribunal had been touched by tragedy that would be easier to call unthinkable except it's something they contemplate every day. A thread through each of their stories, as common as the red skirts and shirts many wore, was anger at law enforcement for not listening to a family's pleas to search for missing loved ones.

“I believe the law enforcement ruined my sister’s case because they did not take it seriously,” said Kimberly Loring, the sister of Ashley Loring HeavyRunner, who went missing from Browning in June 2017. Malinda Harris Limberhand said she had to make appeals to social media to get the community looking for her daughter, Hanna Harris, when she went missing in Lame Deer in 2013 before being found murdered days later. Law enforcement told her, Limberhand said, they wouldn’t take a missing persons report for 48 hours.“The chief of police told me, ‘Oh, she’s probably out partying and scared to come home,'” Limberhand said.

LaPlant, the missing persons specialist, said Friday the misconception that law enforcement has to wait 24 or 48 hours before taking a missing persons report is false, and a dangerous delay to starting a search for someone.LaPlant’s position was created under Hanna’s Act, which passed the state Legislature earlier this year as part of a package of bills meant to start addressing the epidemic of missing and murdered Native women. LaPlant has been on the job three weeks and said the percentage of Natives who make up missing persons cases in the state has fallen from 31% to 28% over that time.“It seems minuscule when you look at the big picture, but that’s how many more people that were located safely and are off the list,” LaPlant said.Blackfeet Nation Chairman Timothy Davis said he was pleased to see the state start to take some action, but has been frustrated with the slower pace of legislation at the federal level. A bill called Savanna's Act, to revamp the federal database on missing and murdered Native women, has stalled in Congress. Late last year, Loring testified about her sister in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

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[Source.]