Dear entitled-full-of-sh*t-not-so-secretly-racist fan of Indian mascots, I’m pretty sick of your behavior right now. I’ve written a lot of well-reasoned posts about mascots. I’ve provided both appeals to emotion and to science. I’ve shared stories about how people “like you” have changed their minds about Indian mascots. I’ve shared my own experiences about how I, as a Native person, feel when …
Idle No More Los Angeles Solidarity Rally
Long exposure on the hoop dancer…all artistic and stuff. I wanted to try something different to share my experience at the Idle No More solidarity rally in LA on Friday, so I made a podcast-of-sorts. I give some thoughts on the Idle No More movement, a little background, and set the scene. But then, the exciting part, I was able …
We live in a culture of violence, and it needs to stop.
(Photo courtesy of Save Wįyąbi Project, who are doing truly amazing work) I sat in my apartment in a daze today, thinking about the poor babies in Connecticut, and how many families’ lives were irreversibly changed. I kept thinking about my mom, a second grade teacher in California, and how her only responsibility as a teacher for 23 beautiful 7 year olds should …
Ignorant and Malignant: The Hate Mail Cometh
One of the realities of having a blog is getting hate mail. No matter what you put on the internet, chances are, someone is going to disagree with it, and chances are, they’ll want to tell you about it. Now, I get a lot of love-mail, which always makes my day–stories of how you’ve used the blog to educate classmates, …
Native Video Round-Up: Johnny Depp, Identity, and Poetry
I know things have been quiet around here for a few weeks, and I apologize. I’ve been traveling all over the place talking, and talking, and talking some more. I had great visits to ASU and Columbia, and was supposed to be on an awesome panel with Phil Deloria, Suzan Harjo, and Carla Fredericks in NYC, but it was unfortunately …
Guess we can add Victoria’s Secret to the list
The list is getting really, really long of companies I don’t like to support anymore because of their egregious cultural appropriation, stereotyping, and marginalizing of Native peoples. Let’s see, in the last year or so alone, there’s Urban Outfitters, Ecko, Gap, Paul Frank (just kidding, they’re awesome now), along with 5 bazillion others, not to mention my local grocery store, …
So you wanna be an Indian for Halloween?
I wasn’t going to do a Halloween post this year. I thought about it, but decided I was going to try and let my posts from last year stand on their own. I’ve tried many approaches–the emotional plea, the in-your-face-racism approach, the “I am not a Costume” campaign–but every year, the arguments are the same. No one listens, people on …
When offensive Indian mascots hit too close to home
I posted on Monday about some of my amazing Native friends that I got to catch up with while on campus for my college reunion. I had an incredible weekend, so much fun, but there was a bit of a dark underbelly to it all when I went to our homecoming football game. I’ve written several times about how Stanford …
Celebrating Indigenous Peoples, Not Columbus
Sunrise ceremony for Indigenous Peoples Day on Alcatraz Island, an annual tradition when I was in college “Every Native American is a survivor, an anomaly, a surprise on earth. We were all slated for extinction before the march of progress. But surprise, we are progress.” — Louise Erdrich, …
Hey Guys, it’s time to VOTE.
I don’t know if you were aware, but there’s an election coming up here in the US. Like, real soon. This is a call to remind all of you (especially the Natives) that you need to register to vote, and then turn out on November 6th and cast your ballot! The rates of voter registration and voter turnout for Natives …