Hi Friends,
Yes, it’s been over a month since my last post, I’m really sorry! I’ve had some family stuff going on, and was back in California for a bit, and have been trying to catch up since then. I have an inbox that is bursting with great (if by great I mean maddening and cringe-worthy) tips, so I’ll try to work through them in the coming weeks.
Big things happening in the news that we didn’t get to talk about (tomorrow we’ll look at some other more appropriation-y things):
- CSU Long Beach published a horrible, racist rant about the campus powwow (that’s the image above, click to make it bigger). In response to criticism by Native students and others, they then gave the worst non-apology ever. This was right on the tail of the UCLA “Asians in the library” debacle, which got tons of national attention. Where’s the press for this incident? Check out these summary posts by Rob over at Newspaper Rock for more thoughts on the issue.
- Pentagon prosecutors compared the Seminole tribe of Florida to al Qaeda in a war filing, reaching all the way back to the Indian Wars in the 1800’s to set a precedent for ongoing issues with Guantanamo. The comparison is not only offensive, but factually wrong, and the Seminoles have demanded an apology.
- We can’t expect much from Fox News, but “reporter” John Stossel takes the cake with his rant on “freeloading” American Indians. There’s a quick clip here, but if anyone has a link to the full segment, let me know.This seriously makes my blood boil. Why don’t we talk about the reasons Native people are forced to rely on government aid? Oh, you know, like, continuing colonial oppression?
- The North Dakota state legislature passed a bill that orders UND to keep the Fighting Sioux nickname that they voted to retire a few months ago. You read that right. The state government ordered the school to keep the racist image. Yay government! But it looks like UND is moving forward with getting rid of the mascot anyway.
Thanks to everyone who’s been posting all the fantastic links over on the Native Appropriations Facebook page, definitely check it out if you haven’t been over there recently!
As always, keep the tips coming, nativeappropriations@gmail.com
Comments
I think my state, I live in ND, are dumb and what they passed is unconstitutional. If they want to do that, then they can keep crying when the NCAA tells them that they will have nothing to do with the school…the NIAA will probably do the same thing…I am ashamed of my politicians, they make the state look really bad.
A little ND political history, the State Board of Higher Ed was founded after William Langer, who was governor in the 30s, fired a number of people from NDSU, cause he didn’t like them. There are a couple of people in my hometown of Wahpeton, who didn’t get to graduate in 1937…though they did the following year.
“No group has been more “helped” by the American government than American Indians.”
Stossell starts his rant with a blatant bout of idiocy, and it just gets worse from there. He is the worst kind of stupid! The kind of stupid that looks in the mirror every morning and says “I are really smart.”
I hope John Stossel knows that he’s parroting things that have been said for years in New Zealand.
Some people just don’t seem to be able to understand what indigenous rights are, what basic human rights are, and what they entail after the indigenous people and culture have been forced to the brink.