#tribal exploitation

[townpostin]

Protesters Hold Mock Funeral of Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren in Kolhan

Icha Kharkai Dam Opponents Stage Protest in Tiring, Hold Mock Funeral for CM and Ministers. In a dramatic protest against the Icha Kharkai Dam project, the Icha Kharkai Dam Virodhi Sangh staged a mock funeral for Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren and other leaders in Kolhan. CHAIBASA – The Icha Kharkai Dam Virodhi Sangh, a group opposing the Icha Kharkai Dam project, held a mock funeral for Jharkhand…

[palant1r]

you know, for a series about reckoning with the sins of america's past, the conflict between different forms of governance and the pitfalls of blindly assuming the infallibility of american liberal democracy, and being forced to stop depending on modern technology and search for alternative solutions in an attempt to live in reparative relationship with scarred land or die trying, fallout sure doesn't have that many indigenous people in it, huh.

[eurekavalley]

Oklahoma’s Republican governor Kevin Stitt is a card-carrying member of the Cherokee Nation. So why is he also considered the most “anti-Native governor” in history? A look at his family history reveals some wild surprises, and shows how Indigenous identity can be used as a weapon against Native nations.

[hqmillioncorn]

The Rabbit has landed.

After a busy....morning??? Pupusa finally had the chance to sit down. It felt like she had been on the move ever since she got here. Life itself wouldn't let her rest long however, because just as she sat down Babycorn decided to sit down right next to her. "Hi Pupu!!" Babycorn waved at her. As she stuffed half a sandwich in her face. Cherrypit was eating the other half. "I got something for you!" She stood up and from behind her back took out a bright yellow shirt. Pupusa was nearly speechless. "Did...Did you make this?" Babycorn shook her head. "Nope! Not me! It was Cherry!" Cherrypit waved around a small sewing needle. Ah. Yeah that made more sense.

Lalapril 4/23 Rise

pupusa takes a trip to go help some of babycorns friends :) yipppeeeeee

Pupusa took a breath and flicked the last drops of water from her hands. She took a step back and put her hands on her hips. The dishes had finally been cleaned, the fruit washed, cake decorated and her hair was brushed.

Her job here was done and now it was finally time for her to kick back and relax. 

She didn’t really have any plans besides sit around and people watch outside her house but she would probably find something to do. Pupusa always did. “I think Tortata is supposed to be back soon…”

Her sister had gone out to do some shopping and Pupusa had asked her to bring something sweet back for her. For now Pupusa figured she could wait outside for her sister to get home. 

That was until there was a frantic knock on her door. It was loud and it wasn’t stopping. “ For the love of-Hold your chocobos! I’m coming!” Pupusa dried her hands and headed towards the front door. No one else but her was awake so it was up to her to answer. “I swear if it’s another scam artist trying to sell me something…” 

Pupusa opened the door with a scowl on her face. It was neither a scam artist or her sister but instead a third thing that she never even considered. The Warrior of Light. Looking a little more nervous than usual. 

“Hi Pupusa!” 

“Hi Babycorn.” Pupusa dryly responded back. She looked down, Cherrypit was staring at her with his huge scary eyes. They had only been formally introduced just a few weeks ago. “H-Hey Cherrypit.” Initial scare factor aside, once Pupusa knew that Cherrypit was just a normal baby at heart she started warming up to him instead of turning and running the other way.

“Can um…we come iiiin?” Babycorn asked, a smile on her face. 

There was something about the way she was smiling that instantly set of Pupupa’s alarm bells. “Sure. Come on in.” Pupusa could recognize a fake smile like that a yalm away. She happened to be a master at them. 

Pupusa stepped aside as Babycorn nervously made her way inside the house. She was tapping her fingers together and shuffling her feet one over the other.

In contrast, Cherrypit was already busy climbing over the couches and flipping onto them with a loud squeal. 

Pupusa had to try really hard not to say ‘Awwww!’ out loud when she saw how messy Cherrypit’s hair was becoming with all his playing. She was digging her nails into her arms. The facade almost broke entirely when Cherrypit looked right at her. 

“Liba here?” Cherrypit asked. He started to chew on one of the throw pillows.

“Sorry baby. She’s taking a nap so she can’t play right now.”

“Pooie!” 

Despite his disappointment Cherrypit didn’t let it get to him. Instead he decided to just play with some of the blocks that Libra had left out before going to sleep. Babycorn shuffled over to where Cherrypit was playing and sat down next to him.

“Don’t chew on the blocks.” Pupusa reminded her. Libra did enough of that already.

“I wasn’t gonna!!” 

Babycorn put the block she picked up onto the small tower that Cherrypit was building. She criss-crossed her legs and took a look around the room to see if anyone else was around. “Hey Pupusa? Can I ask you for a favor?” Part of her was way too nervous to even look at Pupusa.

“Huh? Yeah sure.” 

Babycorn hesitated for a moment, truthly she wasn’t afraid of what Pupusa would say but she couldn’t help it, not really. “I have a problem. You see there’s a friend that lives really far away who needs my help but they want my help in making things and running some sort of…club? I’m not too sure…” Babycorn was still a little iffy on the details. Having so much info thrown at her often did that to her poor little head and she didn’t want to do the same thing to Pupusa.

“Go on?” Pupusa still wasn’t sure how she could help with this.

“Since you know how to goldsmith and run a store too I was hoping you could help! I’m not too smart for that sort of stuff soooooooo…That’s why I’m asking you!” 

“First of all, don't sell yourself short. Didn’t you tell me you were an alchemist just last week?”

“Oh I’m not an alchemist! That’s Cherrypit!” Babycorn pointed over to Cherrypit who gave Pupusa a cute little wave. 

“Ah I see.” That made sense. 

With that clarification out of the way, Babycorn continued. “We would have to travel really far away but I really need your help Pupusa! I don’t know what I’m doing really and they’re all counting on me but…!” Babycorn sniffled, wiping away snot from her nose on her brand new shirt. 

Pupusa rolled her eyes and walked to hand Babycorn a clean tissue. “Here. Don’t mess up that shirt, it looks expensive.” Pupusa took a step back and silently watched as Babycorn blew her nose. “I can go help. I mean if you really need me to.” She looked away bashfully, though she didn’t mean to.

“Really?!” Babycorn jumped to her feet and held her hands together. “You’ll really really do it?!” 

“Yeah I already said I would now stop jumping. You’re gonna wake up the whole house." Pupusa grabbed Babycorn by the shoulders and held her down. At the same time she noticed that Cherrypit had crawled up onto his sister’s head. Pupusa had a bad feeling about this.

“Hey. question. When do you exactly plan on leaving?” 

“We can go right now!”

“Yeah I thought so.” 

Good thing Pupusa was already wearing her shoes, Or rather her comfy slippers but that was better than nothing. Pupusa took notice of a purple glow around her. It was just like last time when Babycorn had teleported her to Old Sharlayan in the blink of an eye.

At least this time there was more of a warning. “You’re a really impulsive person. You know that right?” 

“Huh? Well yeah I do love to draw!”

“Impulsive! I said impulsive! How did you even hear artistic?!” 

Pupusa blinked once and then suddenly her house was gone. Instead she was surrounded by a dark sky and a sense of weightlessness. “Huh.” She looked around, there was nothing but grey dirt as far as she could see. Where in the world had Babycorn taken her?

“Not world!” Cherrypit chimed in. He was bouncing around in a circle around her. 

“What?” 

Just by sheer coincidence Pupusa decided to turn around. When she did, she was met with the sight of the planet she had lived her entire life on. The edge of her smile slightly twitched. Pupusa slowly turned to look back at Babycorn, who looked just as carefree as she usually did. “Who. Is the friend that needs your help again?”

“They’re a lopporit!” Babycorn put two hands over her head and imitated a pair of lopporit ears. “They got big ears and fluffy tails! They live on the moon that Hydealen built for them and for us!” 

Pupusa decided to pack away some of that sentence for later. “You didn’t mention they were THIS FAR AWAY!” Pupusa desperately gestured towards the planet in hopes that Babycorn would realize the scope of what she did. 

“Well I did say it was far faaaaar away!”

“I didn’t think you meant the fucking MOON!!” 

Pupusa’s cries echoed far, far, far away.

So far that even the Watcher turned his head to see what the commotion was about. Whatever it was, Babycorn was probably behind it. Nothing too surprising there.

[peaceresource]

Peace and War: Native Ground

Peace and War: Native Ground http://wp.me/p3RFuf-1M

North and South American indigenous tribal nations have been misused and abused by settlers, colonists, thugs, and thieves…    https://youtu.be/ujCq1oJQXBY?list=RDujCq1oJQXBY ARMSTRONG TERRIBLE BLUES   In spite of this history of painful and tragic mistreatment and abuse, human beings  survive. https://revolutionresource.org/2017/11/27/indigenous-wisdom/   It’s time to set things…

[arizonaconservativegal]

Okay yeah obviously there's an election in two and a half weeks and I want y'all to vote because it's literally my job and voting is important but you know something you could do that would help the country a lot more than any dopey election ever will?

Go make friends with someone who doesn't vote like you.

You don't ever have to talk politics with them. Just pick someone from the opposite party and go talk about football or Taylor Swift or which pretentious coffee shop in town has the best espresso or whatever. I don't care what you talk about. Pick something. Anything.

The point is that we all need someone we can think about the next time we hear someone say that democrats are all the spawn of satan or republicans are all nazis - someone who we care about and who we know is not like that. Maybe we disagree with them, but they're decent people who are at least trying to have their hearts in the right place, even if we think they get it wrong.

There is truly nothing that scares me more than the way we have managed to isolate ourselves into these tiny little ideologically homogeneous bubbles that let us forget how to exist with people who don't think exactly like us. It is so easy to exploit that maliciously. But it doesn't have to be. All this division and tribalism goes away the second we stop picturing a monster when we think of the other side and start picturing our friend who we care about.

So go vote but more importantly, go make a friend. Do some good for yourself and help heal this country.

[reasonsforhope]

"Cody Two Bears, a member of the Sioux tribe in North Dakota, founded Indigenized Energy, a native-led energy company with a unique mission — installing solar farms for tribal nations in the United States.

This initiative arises from the historical reliance of Native Americans on the U.S. government for power, a paradigm that is gradually shifting.

The spark for Two Bears' vision ignited during the Standing Rock protests in 2016, where he witnessed the arrest of a fellow protester during efforts to prevent the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline on sacred tribal land.

Disturbed by the status quo, Two Bears decided to channel his activism into action and create tangible change.

His company, Indigenized Energy, addresses a critical issue faced by many reservations: poverty and lack of access to basic power.

Reservations are among the poorest communities in the country, and in some, like the Navajo Nation, many homes lack electricity.

Even in regions where the land has been exploited for coal and uranium, residents face obstacles to accessing power.

Renewable energy, specifically solar power, is a beacon of hope for tribes seeking to overcome these challenges.

Not only does it present an environmentally sustainable option, but it has become the most cost-effective form of energy globally, thanks in part to incentives like the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

Tribal nations can receive tax subsidies of up to 30% for solar and wind farms, along with grants for electrification, climate resiliency, and energy generation.

And Indigenized Energy is not focused solely on installing solar farms — it also emphasizes community empowerment through education and skill development.

In collaboration with organizations like Red Cloud Renewable, efforts are underway to train Indigenous tribal members for jobs in the renewable energy sector.

The program provides free training to individuals, with a focus on solar installation skills.

Graduates, ranging from late teens to late 50s, receive pre-apprenticeship certification, and the organization is planning to launch additional programs to support graduates with career services such as resume building and interview coaching...

The adoption of solar power by Native communities signifies progress toward sustainable development, cultural preservation, and economic self-determination, contributing to a more equitable and environmentally conscious future.

These initiatives are part of a broader movement toward "energy sovereignty," wherein tribes strive to have control over their own power sources.

This movement represents not only an economic opportunity and a source of jobs for these communities but also a means of reclaiming control over their land and resources, signifying a departure from historical exploitation and an embrace of sustainable practices deeply rooted in Indigenous cultures."

-via Good Good Good, December 10, 2023

[panicinthestudio]

Phil Edwards - “The truth about Peeing Calvin”, March 5, 2023

Peeing Calvin is a travesty. But it's also a choice.

[an-shu]

Me, playing Chants of Sennaar thinking it’s a pretty puzzle game about deciphering logographic languages: Wow beautiful!!!

The game: Social disconnect, language barriers, inequality, xenophobia/tribalism, caste system, terrifying monster, involuntary indentured servitude, hostile AI, virtual reality, oppression, techno-dependency, religion, hedonism, rebellion, exploitation

[wiisagi-maiingan]

I think the thing that bothers me the most about this wave of "actually I do think all settlers should leave" posts coming from NDN bloggers (who would NOT be saying that shit just a few months ago) is like. Who is exactly is considered a settler?

Is it Black people whose ancestors were brought to North America as slaves?

Is it immigrants who came to the US and Canada in hopes of a better life compared to countries who are being horribly exploited?

Is it refugees who fled from war and violent persecution in their home countries?

Or is it just white people? What if they're immigrants for the above reasons? Are we okay with sending people to their deaths? How do we even decide who's white enough to be a settler? Who would be deciding that? Will things like ethnicity and religion be taken into account, especially when those things are relevant to their safety in their families' home countries?

And what about mixed people? What about mixed Natives? How many Native people can honestly say that they don't have "settler blood" and family members who aren't Native? Would it be based on things like tribal enrollment, even with all the already horrible tribal politics going on? Or what about blood quantum and all its issues and its role in colonialism? What about Native people who, for whatever reason, don't know their tribes? What about tribes that aren't federally recognized? What would happen to them? What would happen to us?

There's a reason why indigenous sovereignty and Land Back movements are so intent on rejecting the idea that sovereignty would mean everyone else leaving. It's not just out of kindness, it's also because that kind of separation IS NOT POSSIBLE. It just isn't. There is no clean line between "settler" and "indigenous", especially not after a few hundred years.

(And I've said it before, but to all the non-Native Americans and Canadians posting about how they'd actually be sooooo fine with being violently murdered in an indigenous revolution: shut up. You are not helping and you're a fucking liar who's only comfortable saying that shit because you know it'll never happen to you.)

[alwaysbewoke]

Ota Benga was born around 1883, in what is now the Republic of Congo. Theirs was a hunter-gatherer society. When he became a man, his teeth were chipped into sharp points, part of his tribal customs. His world came crashing down when King Leopold II of Belgium (The butcher of Congo) established a colony in the Congo to exploit its valuable resources. The demand for rubber was increasing around the world and Leopold wanted to corner the market. He subdued the native population to force them into laboring on the rubber plantations. In Belgium Congo, women were held hostage until their men returned with enough rubber for the colonizer King Leopold. Some had their hands chopped off for not meeting rubber quotas. Ota was out on a hunting expedition when his village was attacked by the slavers. Whether they were Force Publique or an African group working to collect people to sell to them varies from story to story. He was taken captive. On the other side of the globe, a man named Samuel Verner was preparing exhibits for the 1904 World's Fair. The fair's organizers wanted to do an exhibit showing the progress of mankind “from the dark prime to the highest enlightenment, from savagery to civic organisation" He was given a hefty budget to collect living "specimens" of people from Africa to represent the "savage depths" from which mankind had sprung. The experience of young African men at the 'fair' aka Human Zoo, was not a pleasant one. Billed as cannibals, they shook spears at the crowd and grimaced with their filed teeth, modeling their "war dances" Verner sent Ota to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. In 1906, Verner found a new home for Ota: The Bronx Zoo. Ota was put as an "exhibit" A plaque was erected, describing him in the same way an animal would be described and put into a cage in the monkey house. The Minneapolis Journal declared Ota to be the "missing link" between chimps and humans. On March 19, 1916, he stole a revolver gun and shot himself through the heart.

x

[townpostin]

Protesters Hold Mock Funeral of Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren in Kolhan

Icha Kharkai Dam Opponents Stage Protest in Tiring, Hold Mock Funeral for CM and Ministers. In a dramatic protest against the Icha Kharkai Dam project, the Icha Kharkai Dam Virodhi Sangh staged a mock funeral for Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren and other leaders in Kolhan. JAMSHEDPUR – The Icha Kharkai Dam Virodhi Sangh, a group opposing the Icha Kharkai Dam project, held a mock funeral for Jharkhand…

[dailyadventureprompts]

Hi! I really like your other takes on Underdark races, and wanted to ask if you had any thoughts on improving grimlocks? Beyond the permanent blindness they have and the whole being humans who adapted to the underdark, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot else done with them.

Monsters Reimagined: Grimlocks

Would it surprise anyone to learn that a d-list d&d monster has It's roots in 1800s ideas about eugenics and bad adaptations of genre fiction? No? Then you've been paying attention, top marks.

Asker is absolutely right in their assessment that there's not really much to grimlocks. They're one of many "hostile tribal primitives" that have filled out the monster roster ever since the original developers lifted them en mass from the pulp adventure stories they grew up reading.

A common theme among these pulp works and the early scifi that inspired it was devolution, the idea that a people could degrade from greatness back into an animistic nature. The most well known pop culture example would be HP lovecraft's deep ones, where the author's fears of race mixing manifest as monsters that literally push humanity back down the evolutionary ladder to the stage of fish.

There's plenty of different ways to explain the origin of this writing trend, but I like to chalk it up to an anxiety resulting from the widespread acceptance of Darwin's theory of evolution by a society that believed wholeheartedly in scientific racism. If intelligence (read: whiteness) wasn't just a god given right but was infact inheritable, then it could also be disinherited, bred out of a population whether by on purpose or by accident. This made it so important to practice good breeding (read: eugenics), to preserve the pure stock from falling to degeneracy (read: miscegenation) and introducing undesirable traits into the genepool.

We can see fear this with grimlocks, humanoids who were inherently lessened by their "adaptation" to life underground, losing their intelligence and eyesight and descending into a state of barbarism. Given that this is one of the few d&d monsters that mention evolution at all, we can trace this feature to their likely inspiration: The morlocks in H.G. Wells' Time machine, published a scant 36 years after Darwin published The Origin of Species.

I'm not well read enough to know whether Wells pioneered the idea of subhuman descendants, but I can say that most of his imitators missed the point of his writing: Wells saw in his day an increasingly indolent upper class inflicting brutal and dehumanizing labour conditions on the poor to support their own carefree lifestyle. He satirized this in his book by showing that while the descendants of the rich had devolved into beautiful, useless, idiots, the descendants of the workers devolved into subterranean ape-things who maintained the machinery that allowed the eden like existence of the rich while farming them for meat. Say what you will about Wells' race politics (Neither degenerate fop or inbred ape can withstand the smarts and strength of the enlightened colonial Englishman) but his writing was specifically class continuous, and the brutality of the morlocks was a direct result of the exploitation of working people in his own day and age.

When the morlocks were adapted into the grimlocks , the d&d writers kept their canibalistic streak but specifically removed their class based origins as well as their mechanical knowhow. This is a near identical process to what happened with a creature the worlocks helped inspire: Tolkien's orcs, which were likewise turned from a commentary on the brutality of the industrial age into warlike primitives. It's a bit of a trend.

If you wanted to "fix" the grimlocks I'd go one of two ways:

If you want to engage with themes of primality, make them legit underdark dwelling primates/australopithecus type of creatures, just figuring out tool use and language. Make the rumours of them being descended from cave-exploring humanoids a common myth made up by surface dwellers.

If you want to get spicy about it though, give them back their mechanical aptitude and maybe mix in a few more dashes of pulp "lost civilization" ancient aliens nonsense. Have them dwell in great mechanical complexes beneath the earth, worker drones who've long outlived the creatures that enslaved them and scribed mechanical knowledge into their very being. Originally denied understanding of the machines they toiled to build, work, and maintain, the grimlocks jealously guard the science they've spent generations reverse engineering, giving them the reputation of being violently territorial for those underdark travelers who venture too close to the megastructures they inhabit.

Artsource

[philosophicalconservatism]

Response To Quote On Male Protection Of Women.

chinchillacrossing

Protect us from who? 🧐

Philosophicalconservatism

The very fact that you can ask that question is a stunning testimony to the effectiveness of male protection. A tribal woman living on the plains of Africa or in the jungles of the Amazon would never ask such a question. Women living in 17th or 18th century colonial America would never ask such a question. It is protection from both the physical threats and the stringent physical demands imposed upon the human race by a brutal natural world. Men are always protecting women either directly, as is done in more primitive societies, or indirectly by building barriers against nature around them, and an infrastructure that creates a far greater life of ease. Men also maintain that infrastructure.

Men are virtually all of the mechanical engineers, materials engineers, civil engineers, electrical engineers, petroleum engineers, construction workers etc. Men do almost all of the most dangerous jobs on the planet. And all of it is done to sustain and enhance this infrastructure which men have created in order to insulate and protect their families (which is to say, women and children) from the hazards of the natural world. That is why when there is breakdown in that infrastructure and some kind of tragedy strikes, that is the priority for men "Women and children first".

Original quote

"Men have sacrificed and crippled themselves physically and emotionally to feed, house, and protect women and children. None of their pain or achievement is registered in feminist rhetoric, which portrays men as oppressive and callous exploiters."- Camille Paglia

[noctivagantpodcast]

I Live On Stolen Land

Consider donating to one of these wonderful charities dedicated to preserving the cultures, livelihoods, rights, and dignity of Indigenous peoples.

First Nations Development Institute. Information taken from their 'Our Programs' page: Grantmaker dedicated to addressing financial inequality and its many, many negative impacts. In additional to financial aid, FNDI provides job training and participates in policy-making and advocacy, often focusing on environmental concerns, food insecurity, and tribal sovereignty. Some examples of current projects include "Fortifying Our Forests" AKA restoring and protecting sacred land in partnership with the Forest Service, Native Language Immersion Initiative AKA ensuring the survival of Native languages, and Native Farm To School AKA connecting Native youth with traditional means of growing and harvesting food.

Native American Rights Fund A registered non-profit that provides legal representation in matters of Native interest, be that a single individual or an entire tribe. Since their inception, they have won cases that made critical contributions to the advancement of Native rights in the United States. Their efforts have helped uphold tribal sovereignty, compelled museums, universities, and other institutions to return the remains of Native ancestors, and protected the voting rights of pretty much everyone.

Redhawk Native American Arts Council This organization's primary focus is on the preservation of Native American arts through educational programs. We can also thank them for granting scholarships to Native students seeking higher education, and for running a youth program which aims to help Urban Indigenous youth connect with their heritage through the arts.

Seventh Generation Fund A "fiscal sponsor" for smaller community groups that are run by and for Native tribes/individuals, with the focus of preserving heritage and defending tribal sovereignty, as well as continued survival post-genocide. One example of their work is the Flicker Fund, a disaster fund dedicated to supporting Indigenous communities during times of crisis, be that a pandemic, extreme weather, or a severe drought. Another is the Traditions Bearers Fellowship, which provides financial support to tribal community members who carry on pre-colonization traditions.

Quiluete Move To Higher Ground Stephanie Meyer committed a serious of egregious acts of cultural appropriation and exploitation, and made a very large fortune off a very real tribe. This very real tribe now finds themselves living in a tsunami zone and unable to afford a move to a safer area. As of 2022, the move of the Tribal School, the most important phase, is complete, but there's much more work to be done.

Indigenous Women Rising Abortion Fund A fund to provide Native individuals and family access to abortion care, menstrual hygiene supplies, and midwifery. Here are two separate articles verifying their status as the ONLY indigenous specific (and Indigenous led) abortion fund. For more information on how the destruction of Roe V Wade has negatively impacted Indigenous women, look here and here.

South Dakota Historical Society Foundation So, this isn't a Native led or Native specific organization, but, they work closely with Indigenous communities in South Dakota to preserve their heritage alongside the state's history. I recently had a lovely conversation with one of their representatives about the Ghost Shirt their society is sheltering until such a time as the tribe it rightfully belongs to can house it safely. Article about the shirt's repatriation with some cool info on the shirt's history is here.

[vampiricsheep]

There was a post going around a little while ago praising how guild wars 2 handles its fictional races by avoiding treating them as monolith enemy factions. While I didn't want to comment on it then because I understand what they were trying to say, it's rubbed me the wrong way because of the abundance of anti-indigenous undercurrents present in how many "minor" races are written regardless of the fact that they aren't always hostile.

The most egregious example that often comes to mind is the way grawl, and our interactions with them, are written. They're depicted as ape-like tribal communities that worship false gods and non-god entities. Many renown hearts and events involving them are focused specifically on either culling them or changing/exploiting their worship. There's really no way to claim that they aren't caricatures, and I was irritated to see them return in Skywatch Archipelago (as generic hostile groups, no less).