Devastating floods hit Hawaii last week, and thousands were forced to evacuate as a dam owned by the Dole Food Company was at risk of “imminent failure.” Here are a few ways you can support those impacted:
Kako’o O’ahu: The Hawaiian Council, a non-profit serving Native Hawaiians, is matching donations up to $200,000.
‘Aina Momona is a nonprofit supporting Indigenous Hawaiian land stewardship. Their land base and learning center were damaged during the storm.
The Lāhui Foundation: donate or, if you’re local, volunteer.
More resources are listed in this Hawaii Public Radio article.
Markwayne Mullin, a Republican Senator from Oklahoma and citizen of Cherokee Nation, was confirmed as the first Native American secretary of the Department of Homeland Security at the end of March. I really appreciated the thoughtful comments from Cherokee folks on my post about this. In case you missed it, Mullin now holds the highest office of any Native person in the U.S. today and will be only the second Native person to serve in a Presidential Cabinet. But if history teaches us anything, it’s that representation doesn’t always mean progress for Native Americans.
Charles Curtis, citizen of Kaw Nation, served as Vice President from 1929 to 1933. Before that he was the Senate Majority leader and the first Native person to ever serve in Congress. Curtis thought the best thing for Native Americans would be to assimilate to white society. In this vein, he supported a policy called allotment which divided up and privatized communally held tribal land. The results for Native communities were disastrous.
Robert Owen, citizen of Cherokee Nation, served in the Senate between 1907 and 1925. He also used his post to push for assimilation policies. He advocated for the creation of the state of Oklahoma on top of tribal land and the elimination of laws put in place to protect Native land owners from sale, swindle and theft.
Trump is calling for Jimmy Kimmel to be canceled (again) after the late night host made fun of Mullin for being a plumber. And while the media debates whether or not plumbers everywhere should be offended, it’s clear the late night show has no Native people on staff. Because they wouldn’t have made the following jokes. First, in his opening bit, Kimmel called Mullin “part Native American.” Mullin is not “part” Native American, he is a citizen of Cherokee Nation. Saying “part” comes from blood quantum. To “get rid of the Indian problem” in the early 1900s Congress decided that anyone less than half or a quarter Native would no longer count. Tribes who didn’t kick those people out were slated for termination. Today, the federal government still tracks what percent Native blood each tribal citizen has–including Mullin–by issuing a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood.
Then Kimmel joked that a Native Secretary of Homeland Security might not do a good job, because after all, Native America “let” Europeans in. Cherokee Nation did not “let” white people in. We fought white encroachment on our land, first militarily and then through diplomacy for over 250 years. We lost that fight when the US army rounded us up at gunpoint and put us into concentration camps. That’s not letting someone on your land.
If Kimmel wanted to take a swipe at Mullin, he could have talked about the time the Secretary called the Trail of Tears a volunteer walk, canceled a townhall at a local high school over “security” concerns, or threatened to fight a labor leader on the Senate floor.
Meanwhile, Congress is considering legislation that could disenfranchise voters across the U.S., and the impacts for Native voters would be huge. Here is what the SAVE Act could mean for Native voters:
What is the SAVE Act? Trump wants Americans to have to prove their citizenship before they can vote. The proposed legislation would require voters to have paperwork like a birth certificate or passport to register. It would also limit online or mail-in voter registration. Arizona has already implemented a similar law, and it’s blocked about 35,000 voters from registering to vote. A disproportionate number of those folks live on tribal lands.
Here’s the problem: Many Native folks don’t have easy access to birth certificates or passports. In short, it’s because getting that paperwork can be really expensive and time consuming. It can easily cost $200 to get a passport. And, under the proposed legislation, Native Americans would not be allowed to use tribal IDs to register to vote. Many Native Americans use their tribal IDs as their primary form of identification, and some may not have a state-issued ID.
Under the law, voters would have to register in person, at an election office. This disproportionately harms Native folks in rural communities. Take Alaska, for example, it’s a huge state with 229 federally recognized tribes. But in the entire state there are only 6 election offices.
Check out Native American Rights Fund for more information.
Through purchase, legislation, and gifts tribes are regaining ownership and control over their land. Here are some of the tribes that got #LANDBACK in March.
The Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center and Haudenosaunee community members just purchased 600 acres in the Adirondacks for long‑term cultural and ecological use.
Federal lawmakers from Washington state introduced legislation to return the federally owned Clear Creek Hatchery to the Nisqually Indian Tribe.
In California, the Agua Caliente Tribe regained ancestral lands in the mountains near their reservation, and two California senators introduced legislation that could return over 800 acres of federal land to the Pechanga Band of Indians. The land is sacred to the tribe and putting the land into trust would safeguard protections.
The California Coastal Commission ordered a developer to return land to the Wiyot Tribe, Blue Lake Rancheria and the Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria. The developer ignored planning and environmental regulations to build a coastal residence on a site that sits on a historic village of the Wiyot Tribe. When tribal representatives identified and reported the violations, they say they were met with racism and threats.
And finally, California announced a pledge to return 7.5 million acres to tribal stewardship! Its the first time the state has adopted a land back policy. At statehood, California funded civilian militias and bounty hunters to systematically kill Native people. In some Native communities, 90% of the people died. It was nothing short of genocide. Returning the land is one small step towards repair.
The movement for #LandBack goes beyond just land. Native communities are fighting for culture back, language back, and the restoration of so much of what we lost. That includes buffalo. In the late 1800s, the US government killed more than 3 million buffalo to intentionally starve Native communities and disrupt cultural lifeways. Today, tribes are working to bring the buffalo back. Over 1,500 buffalo were returned to tribes last year.
Another important thing tribes are fighting to get back is sacred objects. Often, these important and sacred items are held by museums and universities–not tribes and our citizens. Last month, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe reclaimed dozens of cultural items from the University of Montana.
While March was a great month for #LandBack, threats to tribal land and water continue. And while tribes are fighting to protect their land and water, in some places the opposition is winning.
After a years-long fight, ownership of the Apache sacred site Oak Flat (Chi’chil Bildagoteel) was transferred to Resolution Copper. Over the next four decades, the mining company plans to turn the holy site into a giant crater.
The Trump administration is rushing the approval of other mining projects on tribal lands. The administration approved a uranium mine in Utah in 11 days–when the process usually takes years. The department gave tribes only 7 days to respond to a request for comment.
Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation wants to take over the historic site of a boarding school where hundreds of Native children were sent in the 1800s. At such “schools” Native kids faced forced labor, abuse, malnutrition, and neglect. The Tribe wants to create a healing site, but the state is standing in the way. The state of Kansas says they should control the site.
The federal government has approved an energy megaproject on a site sacred to Yakama Nation near the Columbia River. It’s been used by the Yakama people for centuries in ceremonies and for fishing and root gathering–rights the Yakama Nation were promised in treaties. Meanwhile, in southeast Alaska, residents and neighbors of the Chilkat Indian Village, in Alaska, are organizing to stop a proposed mine that residents say will pollute the river with acid.
And in Michigan, Line 5 is moving forward while four tribes are still fighting to stop it. They claim if the pipeline bursts it would contaminate the Great Lakes–the largest source of fresh water in the world. Their case is now in front of the Michigan Supreme Court.
In California, an environmental trust spread “human compost”—soil created from human remains—along the banks of the San Joaquin River. The soil was provided by Earth Funeral, an alternative to burial or cremation. The area is the ancestral land of the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians who say the use of human remains is deeply disrespectful to their culture and home.
Pe’sla is a site sacred to Lakota tribes and translates to “the heart of all that is.” Nestled within the Black Hills, the site is central in Lakota creation stories. Last month, the Forest Service approved a permit for exploratory drilling for a graphite mine.
And in Guam, Trump’s Dept of War wants to detonate old bombs. The beach where they want to explode those bombs sits on top of 80 percent of the island’s drinking water. The Supreme Court will have the final say in a case that could jeopardize the rights of the CHamoru people of Guam–and Indigenous people throughout U.S. territories.
Tribal lands are also threatened by climate change. Last fall, the Alaska Native village Kipnuk was devastated by Typhoon Halong–with 90% of buildings destroyed. As the village decides what to do next, they have to deal with the contamination the typhoon left behind–sewage, garbage, household chemicals, even dead animals. The contamination threatens the community’s subsistence and drinking water.
Across the country, data centers threaten local communities’ drinking water and clean air, and also cause electricity prices to sky rocket. While big tech companies are eyeing tribal land, Native people are pushing back. In March, Seminole Nation of Oklahoma took action to ban AI data centers on their land. Cherokee Nation created a task force to study the impact of data centers. And two Muscogee women stopped a mega-AI data center from being built on their tribe’s land.
At the same time AI data centers pop up over the country, many tribal communities still don’t have internet access. A new report says that geography is a big reason. During relocation, many Native communities were forced to move to more rural areas, and this is just one way tribes continue to feel the effects.
Last month, all charges against Nick Tilsen were dropped! Tilsen, who is Oglala Lakota and the founder of NDN collective, was facing criminal charges that he allegedly accelerated his vehicle toward a South Dakota cop in 2022. Tilsen claims that didn’t happen and he was observing a police interaction with an unhoused person. The cop was not struck by the car and the police didn’t press charges until a year after the incident. Tilsen has maintained the case was brought for political reasons. In January, the case ended in a mistrial–meaning the jury couldn’t come to an agreement on his guilt or innocence and the state had 45 days to decide if they would try the case again. The state declined to retry the case, meaning the years-long legal saga is finally over.
I just hit 10k subscribers on Substack! Thank you so much to everyone who has read, shared, and subscribed to Native America! I started my Substack less than a year ago because Indigenous communities deserve the same standard of journalism as the rest of the country, but rarely receive it from non-Native media outlets. I bring a Native perspective to breaking news, and show how the history of Native people in the U.S. is echoed in today’s headlines–from breaking down the ways the Trump Administration’s plans in Gaza and invasions of Iran and Venezuela mirror U.S. policies toward Native Americans, to analyzing what it means for Billie Eilish to say “everyone is illegal on stolen land” at the Grammy’s. Please help me find the next 10,000 readers by sharing this email with a friend or posting on social media!
Let me know in the comments what other topics and content you want me to cover!
And, if you listened to S2 of THIS LAND you might remember an adoption attorney named Mark Fiddler who was trying to overturn ICWA. Despite his loss at #SCOTUS he’s still at it in Minnesota. And he is losing there too.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. For as little as $2 a month you can support my writing. Another great way to support this newsletter is to share it!
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.