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The Kansas City Chiefs, the Killingly High School Redmen and Red Gals, the Jeep Cherokee...

Should products or teams be allowed to use racist depictions of Indigenous/Native Americans? Should the Jeep corporation allow a car brand to be named after a culture that was forced off their land in North Carolina and marched to reservation lands in Oklahoma?

Check out these links:

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Indigenous/Native Americans talk about Race

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Indigenous/Native Americans talk about Race

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A Conversation With Native Americans on Race | Op-Docs

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In 2005, the APA called for the immediate retirement of all American Indian mascots, symbols, images and personalities by schools, colleges, universities, athletic teams and organizations. APA's position is based on a growing body of social science literature that shows the harmful effects of racial stereotyping and inaccurate racial portrayals, including the particularly harmful effects of American Indian sports mascots on the social identity development and self-esteem of American Indian young people.

Research has shown that the continued use of American Indian mascots, symbols, images and personalities has a negative effect on not only American Indian students but all students by:

Undermining the educational experiences of members of all communities-especially those who have had little or no contact with indigenous peoples. The symbols, images and mascots teach non-Indian children that it's acceptable to participate in culturally abusive behavior and perpetuate inaccurate misconceptions about American Indian culture.

Establishes an unwelcome and often times hostile learning environment for American Indian students that affirms negative images/stereotypes that are promoted in mainstream society.

According to Stephanie Fryberg, PhD, University of Arizona, this appears to have a negative impact on the self-esteem of American Indian children, "American Indian mascots are harmful not only because they are often negative, but because they remind American Indians of the limited ways in which others see them. This in turn restricts the number of ways American Indians can see themselves."

Undermines the ability of American Indian Nations to portray accurate and respectful images of their culture, spirituality and traditions. Many American Indians report that they find today's typical portrayal of American Indian culture disrespectful and offensive to their spiritual beliefs.

Presents stereotypical images of American Indians. Such mascots are a contemporary example of prejudice by the dominant culture against racial and ethnic minority groups.

Is a form of discrimination against American Indian Nations that can lead to negative relations between groups.

"We know from the literature that oppression, covert and overt racism, and perceived racism can have serious negative consequences for the mental health of American Indian and Alaska native people. The discontinued use of American Indian mascots is a gesture to show that this kind of racism toward and the disrespect of, all people in our country and in the larger global context, will not be tolerated," said Lisa Thomas, PhD, APA Committee on Ethnic and Minority Affairs.

To eradicate the hurtful presence of stereotypical imaging of American Indians, the APA encourages continued research on the psychological effects that these mascots, symbols, images and personalities have on American Indian communities and others.

The APA is calling upon all psychologists to speak out against racism, and take proactive steps to prevent the occurrence of intolerant or racist acts and recommends the immediate retirement of American Indian mascots, symbols, images and personalities by schools, colleges, universities, athletic teams and organizations.

This document is based on the APA American Indian Mascot Resolution adopted by the APA's Council of Representatives in September 2005.

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apa resolution recommending retirement of american indian mascots

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In 2005, the APA called for the immediate retirement of all American Indian mascots, symbols, images and personalities by schools, colleges, universities, athletic teams and organizations. APA's position is based on a growing body of social science literature that shows the harmful effects of racial stereotyping and inaccurate racial portrayals, including the particularly harmful effects of American Indian sports mascots on the social identity development and self-esteem of American Indian young people.

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Social science | UW News blog

Research has shown that Native American mascots provoke racist stereotypes and harm the self-esteem of Native youth.

But what happens when a mascot is removed, as several college and professional teams have done?

"I remember seeing lots of racist reactions to the Cleveland Indians' decision to discontinue their mascot 'Chief Wahoo,'" said Tyler Jimenez, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Washington and leader on both studies, which were published Dec. 10 in Group Processes and Intergroup Relations. "This research tries to understand why some people react in this way."

More than 2,000 mascots referencing Indigenous terms and images are estimated to exist in the U.S. today, from high school to pro sports, including the Atlanta Braves, with their "tomahawk chop" chant that gained renewed attention during the 2021 World Series.

The new UW studies surveyed people's attitudes relative to the removal of two other well-known mascots: the Cleveland Indians' Chief Wahoo, eliminated from uniforms and merchandising in 2018; and the University of Illinois' Chief Illiniwek, discontinued in 2007. (The Cleveland Indians during the 2021 season announced a name change to the Guardians.)

The studies also explored the role of two related beliefs, namely racial colorblindness - the idea that race has no bearing on decisions or events - and worldview threat, an individual's perception that the way society functions is under attack.

The research took the form of two separate online studies. The first, conducted in 2018, recruited a little more than half of its nearly 400 participants from Ohio and Maryland - where, at the time, two mascot-related developments had occurred. The Washington Redskins had just announced they would continue to use their name and mascot, while the Cleveland Indians had just removed theirs. (The Redskins in 2020 dropped their name and logo and are known as the Washington Football Team.) The study posed a fictional legal dilemma for participants to read about - vandalism, committed by a Native American, at either the Cleveland ballpark or Maryland stadium; or, as a neutral scenario, vandalism at the Kansas City Royals ballpark related to ticket price hikes. Each participant was randomly assigned one of the readings and asked to recommend bail for the arrested perpetrator.

Results showed that Ohio residents set the highest bail in the Cleveland case - substantially higher than the other scenarios, and when compared to participants from other locations. Maryland residents set only a slightly higher bail for the case in their home state than they did for the Cleveland or Kansas City scenarios.

The findings suggest that prejudice against Native Americans might increase in areas where a mascot has been removed, Jimenez said.

The second study relied on the use of hundreds of thousands of responses from Project Implicit, an online platform for collecting data about bias and educating about prejudice and stereotypes, co-created by Tony Greenwald, an emeritus professor of psychology at the UW. Among the many topics Project Implicit covers are ideas about and bias against Native Americans.

Jimenez's study used datasets from Project Implicit participants nationwide between 2004 and 2019, and two smaller subsets: one from the year before and after the removal of Chief Wahoo in Cleveland, and another from the year before and after the removal of Chief Illiniwek at the University of Illinois.

Based on responses to Project Implicit questions, prejudice against Native Americans increased in the year after a mascot was removed - specifically among Ohio residents after the discontinuation of Chief Wahoo; and, after the removal of Chief Illiniwek, among residents not only of Illinois, but also among those of all other states. That may have been due, Jimenez and his co-authors wrote, to the fact that the NCAA, not the team, made the decision to discontinue the mascot, which affected teams across the country because it banned any team with a Native American mascot from appearing on TV.

Over time, evidence of anti-Native American prejudice in Illinois declined, suggesting that a spike in such attitudes following the removal of a mascot might not last, the authors wrote.

The increase in racism, however temporary, should not be seen as a reason to retain Native American mascots, Jimenez said. Instead, these findings could inform how to approach removing mascots so as to mitigate racist attitudes and actions.

"Native people have been pushing sports teams to stop using Native 'themed' mascots for decades. Adding to this push, our findings suggest that more needs to be done," Jimenez said. "In addition to removing these harmful mascots, we should prepare for backlash by developing prejudice reduction interventions and directing resources to Native people, tribes and other organizations."

Co-authors of the study were Jamie Arndt and Peter Helm of the University of Missouri.

For more information, contact Jimenez at jimenezt@uw.edu.

Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences * Department of Psychology * Tyler Jimenez

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Bias against Native Americans spikes when mascots are removed

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Social science | UW News blog Research has shown that Native American mascots provoke racist stereotypes and harm the self-esteem of Native youth. But what happens when a mascot is removed, as several college and professional teams have done?

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Native People commentating on Hollywood's depiction of Indigenous people in movies.

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Indigenous People Review Native American Characters In Film & TV

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When writing about Native Americans or Indigenous people as a collective, use capital letters for the first letters. When talking about a specific Nation, it is always appropriate to use tribal nation names like Salish, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Quinnipiac, etc.

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Using the present tense lets your classmates, parents, and teachers know that Indigenous people are contemporary and relevant; using the past tense implies that cultures no longer exist. When talking about historical events, try to use dates.

Look at the video below.

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Video - Misconceptions about Native American People

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Video - Misconceptions about Native American People

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6 Misconceptions About Native American People | Teen Vogue

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A video about the Land Back movement

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How the #LandBack Movement Might Help Save the Planet

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Solidarity again oppression and fighting for stolen lands.

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Tribal Nations Play a Growing Role in Addressing the Biodiversity Crisis

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Indigenous communities work to protect salmon, wolves, and condors

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Boarding Schools - "Kill the Indian in him, and save the man." 

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Boarding Schools - "Kill the Indian in him, and save the man." 

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Play Narration Your browser does not support the audio element.

Indian boarding schools were founded to eliminate traditional American Indian ways of life and replace them with mainstream American culture. The first boarding schools were set up starting in the mid-nineteenth century either by the government or Christian missionaries. Initially, the government forced many Indian families to send their children to boarding schools. Later, Indian families chose to send their children to boarding schools because there were no other schools available.

At boarding schools, Indian children were separated from their families and cultural ways for long periods, sometimes four or more years. The children were forced to cut their hair and give up their traditional clothing. They had to give up their meaningful Native names and take English ones. They were not only taught to speak English but were punished for speaking their own languages. Their own traditional religious practices were forcibly replaced with Christianity. They were taught that their cultures were inferior. Some teachers ridiculed and made fun of the students' traditions. These lessons humiliated the students and taught them to be ashamed of being American Indian. The boarding schools had a bad effect on the self-esteem of Indian students and on the wellbeing of Native languages and cultures.

However, not all boarding school experiences were negative. Many of the Indian students had some good memories of their school days and made friends for life. They also acquired knowledge and learned useful skills that helped them later in life.

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Chapter 3: Boarding Schools | Native Words, Native Warriors

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Beginning in the late nineteenth century, many American Indian children attended government- or church-operated boarding schools.

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Unspoken: America's Native American Boarding Schools

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Origins of Dream Catchers

Dreamcatchers are handmade willow hoops woven to a web or literally, a net. They can include feathers and beads, and they're traditionally suspended on cradles as a form of armor and protection.

Although the tradition began with the Ojibwes, dreamcatchers became widespread within the Native American communities in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of the Pan-Indian Movement.

They symbolize oneness and are indicative of Indigenous identity. Misuse and exploitation of the design is offensive to Indigenous people and dismissive of their value to them.

Story of Asibikaashi - The Spider Woman

Asibikaashi was the custodian of all Ojibwe infants and adults. As the Ojibwe started to geographically migrate across all of North America, the task became too large for Asibikaashi to fulfill on her own. Thus, women were placed in charge of weaving the webs alongside placing charms meant to protect the infant. The charms would capture any harm surrounding the infant at any time.

Source: Powwows.com

Alternate Ojibwe Legend
"A grandmother watched patiently each day as a spider spun his web above her sleeping place until one day her grandson noticed the spider and tried to kill it".

"Don't hurt him," she told the boy in a soft tone, surprising him.

"But grandmother, you should not protect this spider."

When the grandson left, the spider thanked the woman for her protection and offered her a gift. "I will spin you a web that hangs between you and the moon so that when you dream, it will snare the bad thoughts and keep them from you."

At this, grandmother smiled and continued to watch the spider spin his web."

Source: Native American Vault

Lakota Legend
"While receiving a spiritual vision high on a mountain, a Lakota leader met Iktomi, a trickster who also held great wisdom. Appearing to the leader in the form of a spider, Iktomi made a hoop of willow and spun a web inside of it.

He told the aged Lakota man that many forces, both bright and dark would attempt to enter peoples' dreams and that the dream catcher he was making would catch the bright forces and allow the dark ones to slip away and burn up. Iktomi instructed the old man to make dream catchers for his people so they could all achieve a bright future by capturing the good dreams that are blown about by the winds of the night.

As you can see, in the Lakota version, dream catchers trap good dreams, just the opposite of the Ojibwe belief."

Source: Native American Vault

Design & Meaning

They are small by design, some elements of a dreamcatcher include the hoop, the web and feathers. While beads, gem stones and arrowheads are more recent and modern additions to the design. The layering of the web leaves a small hole in the middle that allows good dreams to pass through while the web catches the bad dreams.

The Hoop - circle shaped or teardrop shaped, represents the circle of life.

The Web - patterned after a spider's web, meant to catch bad dreams (or good in for Lakota)

Feathers - there are multiple interpretations, the most accepted is that the feather provides a soft ladder for the good dreams to follow to the dreamer's mind

Beads - single bead represents the spider that wove the web, multiple beads represents the bad dreams that have been caught

Gemstones - replace the symbolism of feathers (where feathers are unobtainable due to laws and restrictions

Arrowheads - increased strength and protection. Arrows point to the four corners of the earth directed by the wind.

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Dreamcatchers are not your "aesthetic" - The Indigenous Foundation

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The Significance of Dream Catchers ﻿ Origins of Dream Catchers Dreamcatchers are handmade willow hoops woven to a web or literally, a net. They can include feathers and beads, and they're traditionally suspended on cradles as a form of armor and protection. Although the tradition began wit

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Generational Trauma: Residential Schools in Canada

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Generational Trauma: Residential Schools in Canada

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Residential Schools and its Lasting Impacts on Indigenous Communities Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
(TW: Violence, genocide, sexual violence)

What are Residential Schools?

Residential Schools were "schools" that were set up by the Canadian government but administered by churches. The Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario, was the first to open in 1831, and the Gordon Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan, being the last to close in 1996. Nearly 130 schools were placed throughout Canada and sought to have housed 150,000+ Indigenous children throughout the years of operation.

However, these children didn't just go to the residential schools by choosing. They were taken from their families and forced into the schools. The main goals of the schools were to remove the children from their homes in order to assimilate them into the Euro-Canadian and Christian ways of living, isolating them from their own culture.

Why did they want to assimilate Indigenous Children?

Statements like "Kill the Indian, Save The Man" or "Kill the Indian in Child" were common slogans that perfectly explain the veracity of the school's intentions. Indigenous children were not allowed to speak their own language, use their own names, or practice anything of their own religion and culture.

To detach the children from their culture, they would give them new names, cut their hair short, and force them to wear uniforms. Every aspect of their identity was suppressed, they had to abandon their way of life due to the belief that their culture was inferior to the mainstream white man's ways.

For example, in 1920, Duncan Campbell Scott, the Canadian Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs said of his government's policy: "Our objective is to continue until there is not an Indian that has not been absorbed into the body politic, and there is no Indian question, and no Indian Department."

The government's goal was to erase Indigenous Peoples and the easiest way for them to do so was mass genocide. They believed Indigenous peoples as ignorant, savages, a burden to society, and in need of guidance on the "right way to live".

Therefore, they assimilated Indigenous youth with similar tactics that the United States used. A tactic called "aggressive civilization", which also led to the public funding of residential schools in Canada. The major key of aggressive civilization was the use of religious instruction and skills training that would help Natives catch up with western society.

How Were Indigenous Peoples Treated at the schools? What were the treatments they used?

Given that the schools were meant for indigenous erasure, treatment was clearly not good-natured. The schools were breeding grounds for suffering and foul treatment. They had strict rules and often their days were regimented by timetables.

Family was not allowed to interact with other family members, for fear they would practice their customs and traditions. The interactions were not allowed for the same reason the children were taken away from their traditional home, to limit their culture. For example, Prime Minister Macdonald, "When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with his parents who are savages; he is surrounded by savages, and though he may learn to read and write, his habits and training and mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write." Also, boys and girls were separated the majority of the time.

In terms of the education factor of the schools, children often learned practical skills instead of the standard grade school curriculum. Girls would learn how to cook, clean, sew, and do laundry. Meanwhile, boys would learn things like carpentry and farming. They made the children involuntarily complete these tasks, unpaid child labor. The labor distracted them from their actual schoolwork, meaning some students would only reach grade levels five or six at the age of eighteen.

Aside from the neglect of a proper education, the schools also abused many of the students. Many students were sexually assaulted by the priest and nuns who abused their positions of power. Nearly twenty-eight percent of the young women were assaulted and 5% of the assaults recurring every six months. The schools are often referred to as a place of institutionalized pedophilia.

A majority of the children were also beaten and tormented. Some beaten and strapped or tied and shackled to their beds. Needles piercing their tongues or electric shocks were also a recurring punishment for speaking their native language. Often they were neglected meals and had poor nutrition along with poor sanitation. Nuns and priests used the teachings of Christianity to scare the children, creating and using the fear of God to make them embrace Christianity.

Nearly one in twenty-five students lost their life to residential schools and the pain and suffering continues to torment many of the former students and their communities.

What are the Lasting Impacts of Residential Schools?

Despite the efforts to destroy and colonize Indigenous peoples' culture, Indigenous livelihood has persisted.

However, residential schools have created a detrimental intergenerational effect. Residential schools laid the foundation for the epidemic we see within Indigenous communities today. Children at the schools grew up without nurturing and loving homes that uplifted them to partake in their culture, leading them to have misconstrued ways of living. Many of them, as adults, lacked parenting skills and utilized tactics of abuse on their children. Similar to the abuse they experienced within the schools. This has created a perpetuating cycle of domestic abuse within Indigenous homes.

Also, nearly fifty percent of the children who attended the schools did not benefit from the education. They often lacked basic reading and writing skills, leading to lower paying jobs, and a lower standard of living.

The trauma of the school's colonization tactics has often led to self-abuse in an attempt to cope. According to the University of British Columbia, "Among First Nations people aged 10 to 44, suicide and self-inflicted injury is the number one cause of death, responsible for almost 40 percent of mortalities. First Nations women attempt suicide eight times more often than other Canadian women, and First Nations men attempt suicide five times more often than other Canadian men. Some communities experience what have been called suicide epidemics."

Also, simply being a descendant of a parent who attended residential schools, increases your chances of being sexually assaulted by 2.35 times.

All in all, residential schools have negatively impacted the community. Indigenous peoples are still fighting to re-learn and practice their culture. Overcoming such a mass genocide has posed many challenges, but none that we as a community can not overcome!

Remembrance

In honor of those who lost their lives to residential schools: Full List of Known Names

And to those of us who continue to work through the intergenerational suffering and trauma,

Here's to Indigenous healing and prosperity

I am of both Mohawk and Algonquin descent. My grandma and grandpa are both survivors of residential schools. My grandpa and many of his siblings, cousins, etc, attended the Mohawk residential school. On that list there are five people with his same last name, "Beaver", I know some of his siblings passed away in that school.

Growing up with little knowledge of my culture has been a challenging journey. My grandpa died before I was born and my grandma is reluctant to tell her stories, the few she remembers. It is due to the residential schools that causes separation in my culture and its understanding. Yet I will continue to fight and strive to keep my cultural practice alive.

Sources
https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the_residential_school_system/ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49884387 https://www.facinghistory.org/stolen-lives-indigenous-peoples-canada-and-indian-residential-schools/chapter-3/role-churches#:~:text=The%20stated%20purpose%20of%20the,almost%20inseparable%20at%20the%20time https://www.facinghistory.org/stolen-lives-indigenous-peoples-canada-and-indian-residential-schools/chapter-3/killing-indian-child https://www.historytoday.com/history-matters/canada%E2%80%99s-first-nations https://www.jstor.org/stable/44030407 https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/truth-and-reconciliation-commission-by-the-numbers-1.3096185 https://www.spph.ubc.ca/children-of-residential-school-survivors-and-victims-of-childhood-sexual-abuse-are-at-increased-risk-of-sexual-assault/

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Residential Schools and their Lasting Impacts - The Indigenous Foundation

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Cover illustration by Lakeisha Marie Residential Schools and its Lasting Impacts on Indigenous Communities Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes (TW: Violence, genocide, sexual violence) What are Residential Schools? Residential Schools were "schools" that were set up by the Canadian gov

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By Rica Fulton with Upper Green River Network, a Colorado Riverkeeper Affiliate, republished with permission from Holiday River Expeditions.
The third in a four-part series on water law and allocation in the Colorado River Basin.
Read part 1, Prior Appropriation and Water in the West.
Read part 2, "The Law of the River."

Tribes in the Colorado River Basin

Howard Dennis, Squash Clan Chief of the Hopi Tribe, reminded an intimate crowd in Moab, Utah last weekend, that the headwaters of a river was not in a state, but rather in the clouds.

As children from Second Mesa, Arizona danced to vibrations of song and drum beats, they were asking the creator to bring rain to all people. Howard explained the ceremony, and how they dance for everyone on Mother Earth, regardless of race or religion. Intricate details on headdresses and leather moccasins symbolize rain, and the life water provides to corn, and people. Humans are after all, mostly made of water.

The Colorado Plateau has been home to Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. An almost incomprehensible period, long before Europeans and Spaniards "discovered" the region. Water has always been scarce, so often these peoples would live seasonally in regions near reliable water sources, and move during other parts of the year. Irrigation was also used, notably by the Hohokams in Arizona; a method often attributed to the Mormons.

Despite the obvious presence of Native Americans in the Colorado River Basin, and the even-more-obvious need for water in the desert, tribal water rights are still far from being solidified. Section 7 of the 1922 Colorado River Compact, which addresses Native Americans, consists of a single sentence: "Nothing in this compact shall be construed as affecting the obligations of the United States of America to Indian tribes." The Upper Colorado River Basin Compact went one step further by declaring tribal water rights are to count against the state in which the reservation sits in.

Clearly unwilling to address the topic in a truly substantive manner, two seminal Supreme Court cases broadly determine how reservations are allocated water today.

The Winters Doctrine

In Parts I and II of this series, we learned about Prior Appropriation and the "Law of the River," or the body of statutes, compacts, agreements, regulations, and an international treaty that collectively delineate how the waters of the Colorado River Basin are allocated and managed. So how do Native American tribes and individuals fit into this puzzle?

We'll start in 1908. The Fort Belknap Indian Reservation along the Milk River in Montana was established in 1888, as a tribal homelands. Soon after, non-native Euro-Americans begin moving upstream of the Reservation and using large amounts of water, and building diversion structures. Before long, water wasn't making it to the Reservation as it used to, of course hindering the tribes already severely diminished homelands. This injustice of first being relegated to a small tract of land, to then have water taken, led to the seminal court case, Winters v. United States.

Land without water in the arid West is inhospitable. Water rights were generally not addressed explicitly when reservations were being created, so the Court confirmed via Winters that water is implicitly included with reservation land. Furthermore, the courts assumed Native Americans would develop an agricultural society, similar to the Western narrative of Manifest Destiny, which inexplicably requires water.

Therefore, the Winters case set an important precedent for how water is allocated to Tribes across the American West. Most broadly, the case declared the date a Reservation was established as the priority date under the Prior Appropriation system. For example, the Fort Belknap Reservation was established in 1888, which is earlier than almost all Euro-Americans began using water beneficially. This means, Tribal members on the Reservation have very senior water rights to the Milk River from 1888.

Arizona v. California

Winters declared that water was indeed included as part of the land within reservations, and how it fell within the appropriative system; however, it failed to address water quantification, and what the quantified water could be used for. In 1963, Arizona v. California began to address these aspects.

The reader may recall Arizona v. California from Part II of this series, a long court battle between the two states. The case explicitly quantified five individual tribes water rights, and also laid-out two fundamental conclusions that determine tribal water right quantification.

First, the "Practically Irrigable Acreage," or, PIA, standard was established to help quantify how much water each reservation would receive. The standard assumes that any with a potential to grow crops if it was irrigated (e.g., not on a steep mountain or in a developed area), counted towards the quantified water. The five reservations who explicitly had their rights quantified, reserved about a million acre-feet of water for about 135,000 irrigable acres.

Especially on large reservations, such as the Navajo Reservation, the PIA standard can lead to a hefty sum of water. While not in the Colorado River Basin, a recent example is the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, who recently had over 500,000 acre-feet of water rights quantified. To put that amount in perspective, the state of Nevada is only allocated 300,000 acre-feet a year from the Colorado River!

Recall the necessity of having a "beneficial use" in order to obtain a water right. The amount quantified is tied to the primary purpose of the reservation - which is often to "serve as a homeland," and may sometimes explicitly address fishing or agriculture. In other words, if agriculture is a primary purpose of the reservation, more water will likely be allocated via the PIA standard.

This brings us to a second major interpretation of Arizona v. California. Even though the quantification of water rights is based on use, tribes have, with only a few exceptions, been able to use their quantified water as they see fit. For example, tribes may decide to leave water in a river for fishing rather than divert it to additional agriculture, and that is permissible by precedent.

Another unanswered legal question however, is the right for tribes to sell their quantified water, in particular undeveloped water, to non-tribal members for compensation. Any novice water policy wonk in the Colorado River Basin should pay attention to this, as it is only a matter of time before it becomes a necessary conversation.

How much water are tribes actually using?

Less-than-diligent is the kindest way to describe the urgency in which the federal government has addressed tribal water rights. Only five tribes have quantified water rights, and another 14 have undergone settlements to have water quantified. Side note - negotiated settlements are often more attractive than litigation for tribes, even though they generally include less "wet" water. This is because they are most often less expensive, take less time, and sometimes involve money to actually develop water.

In December 2018, the Bureau of Reclamation and the Ten Tribes Partnership came out with the Colorado River Basin Ten Tribes Partnership Tribal Water Study. It states that collectively all 29 federally recognized tribes in the Colorado River Basin have rights to 2.8 million-acre-feet each year. This is a massive amount of water - the same amount as the state of Arizona. As these rights continue to be quantified, it will come out of each state's water allocation - leading to a tricky situation for water managers on an already over-allocated system.

One conclusion reached from the study is: "none of the Partnership Tribes currently has the basic infrastructure or legal and administrative flexibility to fully use or realize the full economic value of its reserved water rights," despite 50 years of time since Arizona v. California. Many tribes also face water insecurities, despite having some of the most theoretically senior rights in the basin.

Most fundamentally, this highlights how little support tribes receive from the federal government and the states. The first massive irony that comes to mind, is the state of Utah pushing for the Lake Powell Pipeline to bring water to St. George, a predominantly affluent white community, whose current water consumption rates are among the highest in the country. States should instead be working with tribes to quantify and best utilize their water rights.

Collaboration is key

Systematic injustice is at the root of the situation we are in now, but perhaps continuing to work with all stakeholders in the Colorado River Basin will lead to policy changes that actually benefit the tribes.

Specific obstacles that need to be overcome include the uncertainty of off-reservation water transfers, jurisdictional issues within multi-state or basin reservation boundaries, poor comprehensive water development and planning resources for tribes, and the glacial pace that tribal water rights are quantified.

Education about tribal water rights is a first step to beginning to resolve tribal claims, which could lead to less conflict and more collaboration. Providing an economic benefit, and bringing tribes into the conversation of water in the Colorado River Basin in a meaningful way. The Tribal Study highlights this optimism:
"The Partnership Tribes are also hopeful that the Tribal Water Study will provide an opportunity for them to be included in regional water planning in order to facilitate tribal water development, minimize conflict, and improve overall reliability of the Colorado River System."
Sharing this topic with friends, or writing a letter to your representatives, may begin to give this injustice the attention and action it needs. Everyone in this country needs water, and we can all could learn something from Indigenous peoples such as Howard.
Check back later this month for the remaining blogs on water law and allocation in the Colorado River Basin.

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Despite the Native American presence in the Colorado River Basin and the need for water in the desert, tribal water rights are far from being solidified.

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Winter has descended on North Dakota. A blizzard swept through the state earlier this week, shutting down nearly 300 miles of interstate highway there. And the weather doesn't promise to relent in the coming months.

In the midst of it all, a large group of protesters remains at the temporary camps on the northern edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

The movement, which started in early 2016, had small roots but grew into the thousands, drawing support from Native Americans from across the country, as well as activists who joined in solidarity against the proposed route of the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline just north of the reservation.

Last week those protests won a concession from the federal government: The Army Corps of Engineers announced it would deny the permit necessary to build the oil pipeline in that area. And now, with an eye toward the impending winter weather, the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota is asking people camping near the route to go home.

Still, many "water protectors" have vowed to hold their ground.

Here are some of their own stories, their experiences at the camp and their reasons for joining the protest - in their own words.

Rachelle Figueroa

Rachelle Figueroa, 65, holds her pipe bag, which houses her chanupa, a sacred ceremonial pipe. She also holds colored prayer flags - each color representing prayers held for the cardinal directions and for Mother Earth.

"Mother Earth is our mother. She's everything. She's life. She brings life, she takes life. We get everything from her; we get our food, our shelter, medicines. The water flows through her creeks, the lakes, sacred places. This is why we're here. This is why we chose this planet, because of her. It's everything.

"My work [at Standing Rock] has been to do the traditional ceremony, and to bring the youth to the elders so that they can learn, and hear, and heal. ... That's why I came, mostly, was to pray, and to hold a sacred place so women would be able to come in and heal, and be able to have that strength - that rejuvenation that they need in order to keep doing what they're doing.

"It's going to be hard to get people back on track, but it's the women that will do it. It's the women that will stand up and say enough is enough. We've had enough of that. Anger, fear, all that doesn't work. What works? Love, compassion, forgiveness, all those things work."

Candace Ducheneaux

Candace Ducheneaux, 67, is Oglala Sioux from the Cheyenne River Reservation. She and her family were relocated when she was 10 years old, when portions of the reservation were flooded in the 1960s due to the construction of the Big Bend Dam in South Dakota by the Army Corps of Engineers.

"What we have to do is start harvesting the rainwater and heal the world water cycle. That's what I wanted to get around to. That's what happened when they flooded our lands down there, is they wholly interrupted the water cycle that is necessary to regeneration of life.

"What we have to do is repair that water cycle. The way to do that is to re-establish the small water cycle over our own micro-environment. That means we all have to take responsibility. They say water restoration begins in your own backyard. You have to start thinking of your own self and how you can do it. Like I said, all of humanity has to become involved."

Daphne Singingtree

Daphne Singingtree, 65, is a traditional practitioner and a medicine maker from Eugene, Ore., though her father's side of her family is from Standing Rock. She has been at Standing Rock for weeks at a time, driving from Oregon to North Dakota with a truck of supplies and belongings.

"I inherited land here so this is my fight. It's personal.

"I like to say that what we're going through right now is like a labor and a birth, that the movement is really in the works. Like now, [it's] experiencing some labor pains and that's why there's some chaos and disorganization. A lot of people have never done anything like this before. Indian country is not real rife in political activism. ... Both tribal and indigenous people as well as supporters from all walks of life and all nations, all together for this one force of protecting the water.

"It's more than this pipeline, on this land, at this time. I see this movement continuing on. "

Eryn Wise

Eryn Wise, 26, is a member of the Jicarilla Apache Nation and Laguna Pueblo Nation in New Mexico. She is the media liaison at the International Indigenous Youth Council and media coordinator at Sacred Stone Camp at the protest site.

"The water is a woman, this great mother who's just always providing life; endlessly, tirelessly providing life. And I've always felt such a deep love for the water just because she brings so much to us. She helps us renew. She helps us wash away, she helps us restore.

"I grew up in an Anglicized society, so all the things like our culture ... it was like weird to me. It was still pretty foreign, and it was like, 'Why do I have to do this? Why do I have to listen to this or why does my mom believe in this?'

"Now, I just feel bad for giving my mom a hard time because I'm older, and I get it. I get why it is we pray for the birds and why we pray for the sky, why we pray for the earthworms and why we pray for the grass. All these different things; I understand why there's so much beauty in the day-to-day things."

"Sometimes it scares me when I have those realizations. At least I'm here and at least I'm with people who understand why it's so important. Our fight is so important is because not a lot of people understand; obviously if they did, we wouldn't be getting beat up by police to protect the most basic and beautiful thing."

Lee Plenty Wolf

Lee Plenty Wolf, 60, is Oglala Lakota from the Pine Ridge Reservation. He is one of the lead elders at Standing Rock and mentor of newly elected young headsmen of the Oceti Sakowin Camp at the protest site.

"We've lost a lot of land to history. We have to stand up for our rights.

"Usually I get up and I look to the east to pray. You know, even if it's a small prayer. But [on the third morning I was here], I glanced at the east, and I looked to the north, and the first vision that came to me was Wounded Knee, the first massacre. You know? I got a little emotional.

"That's when I decided I couldn't leave."

Jeanne Dorado

Jeanne Dorado, 36, is the principal of of Sacred Stone Community School. She is 31 weeks pregnant.

"[The Lakota people] put out the call; we're all here. There's over 400 - probably more - tribes represented. It's a coming together that not even the Native folks of North America have ever seen. And it's wonderful timing because Native folks around the world - we're all finally, we're just done. We've played the game, we let you think that it worked, we got to where we are. Now we're all sick, now the planet is dying, now we're running out of natural resources. Now I think it's time to listen.

"[It's] definitely a sea change in the way nations stand together. The native folks here have never come together like this in agreement over something beautiful, which is love and spirit, and our common future, which is the children."

Alexander Howland

Alexander Howland, 21, traveled to the protest site from Dulce, N.M., on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation. He arrived in mid-August, intending to stay for a week, but he has ended up staying into the winter.

"We are made up of water, we are born in water, we come from water. Water is an essence of our being. A lot of people don't see it, but we are connected to that water. We are water. That's why a lot of us are here. That's what water means to us: it means life, it means unity, it means one people, it means all these things because we're all connected, because of water.

"I've grown so attached to this place, I've grown attached to the people, I've grown attached to the land, the water, the air. It's because of the Lakota and Dakota people that I now have new eyes to view the world that we live in. and to get back into that sense of tradition and prayer.

"I'm going to stay as long as it takes to ensure the safety of our future generations, to make sure that they have water for their children, for my children, for my future generations to come, for everyone's future generations to come. I'm not going anywhere until I see the drilling equipment leave. I'm not going to go until they dissemble that drill and leave this place for good."

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In Their Own Words: The 'Water Protectors' Of Standing Rock

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Winter has descended on North Dakota. A blizzard swept through the state earlier this week, shutting down nearly 300 miles of interstate highway there. And the weather doesn't promise to relent in the coming months. In the midst of it all, a large group of protesters remains at the temporary camps on the northern edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

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Find resources and information related to the census, redistricting, voter services, reservation registration and polling places, addressing and ballots, Section 203 language assistance, voting rights legislation, and litigation.

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Voting and Civil Rights (Juries, Census, Voting, Redistricting) Archives - Native American Rights Fund

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For most Americans, the right to vote is guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution; however, the federal government denied Native Americans voting rights until 1924, and some states waited until the 1960s to extend this vital right. Native Americans still face discriminatory laws and unreasonable burdens when trying to exercise the right to vote.

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History of Native American Voting Rights

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History of Native American Voting Rights

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Voting Rights for Native Americans | The Right to Vote | Elections | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress

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It’s often overlooked that self-government in America was practiced by Native Americans, long before the formation of the United States government. Yet Native Americans faced many of the same hurdles as African Americans and women before gaining the right to vote.

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The History of Native American Voting Rights and Current Obstacles

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The History of Native American Voting Rights and Current Obstacles

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Visit vote.narf.org to learn more about the Native American Voting Rights Project and its current activities.
Background:

A History of Native Voting Rights

The right to vote is considered a fundamental right within our democracy; however, for Native Americans, the fight to obtain voting rights is couched in a long history of racism and struggle. When the Fourteenth Amendment was passed in 1866, making all persons born in the United States citizens, Indians on reservations were specifically excluded. Michigan Senator Jacob Howard opined, "I am not yet prepared to pass a sweeping act of naturalization by which all the Indian savages, wild or tame, belonging to a tribal relation, are to become my fellow-citizens and go to the polls and vote with me..." (Congressional Globe. May 30, 1866). page 2895). There were pragmatic reasons, beyond racism, to keep Native Americans from voting; given their large numbers, votes by Native Americans at the time would have wielded significant political power.

It was more than half a century later that the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 ensured all Native Americans born within the United States citizenship. However, the Act did not automatically enforce the right to vote. While the Fifteenth Amendment declared that a citizen's right to vote could not be denied on account of race, many states were able to find other reasons to deny Native peoples the vote-residing on a reservation, tribal enrollment, taxation, and incompetency were all used as reasons for denying Native citizens in some states the right to vote. One outcome being that, thousands of Native veterans, including American Indian Code Talkers returning from World War II, found themselves prohibited from participating in basic civil liberties in the nation that they fought to protect.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 finally outlawed exclusionary practices that "deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color." However, despite these protections and subsequent legislation, discriminatory practices continue to this day. Since its inception in 1970, NARF has worked on cases to ensure equal and fair access to voting for Native citizens. Repeatedly we have encountered voting rights abuses against Native Americans in Alaska, South Dakota, Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, and other states with significant Native American populations. In addition, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2013 decision striking down parts of the Voting Rights Act, numerous state legislatures have passed new election laws that impose significant barriers to Native voters.

The Native American Voting Rights Coalition

In January 2015, NARF proposed an ambitious new project: gathering voting rights advocates, lawyers, civil rights experts, and tribal advocates into one room to discuss current problems with voting in Indian Country and begin to develop solutions to these problems. Previously, individuals and organizations working to protect Native voting rights did so independently, with no coordinated strategy in place. Often, the work was reactive-in response to an immediate threat-rather than proactive or planned in advance of an election. That is what NARF's project was meant to change. Thus, the Native American Voting Rights Coalition (NAVRC) was formed.

The NAVRC includes, among others: Native American Rights Fund (NARF); National Congress of American Indians (NCAI); American Civil Liberties Union, Voting Rights Project (ACLU); Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights (LCCR); Fair Elections Center; Western Native Voice; and Four Directions. NAVRC is organized into three working groups: legislation and policy issues (led by NCAI); litigation (led by NARF); and capacity building and education issues (led by LCCR).

The project's main goal is to remove barriers to Native American voter registration and voting, increase Native civic engagement, and foster a more informed and active Native electorate. With mounting evidence of voter suppression and violations of voting rights laws, NAVRC has accelerated its work.

Periodically, Native voting advocates in the coalition come together to discuss their ongoing fight for equitable voting access for Native communities. The meetings, which are organized by NARF, provide the group with the opportunity to talk about the challenges that they are facing and strategize on the most effective way to overcome those obstacles. Attendees share their frustrations, but more importantly, they gaine confidence through strategizing for success.

Obstacles at Every Turn: Barriers to Political Participation Faced by Native American Voters

In 2017 and 2018, the Native American Voting Rights Coalition held nine public hearings to better understand how Native Americans are systemically and culturally kept from fully exercising their franchise. More than 120 witnesses testified from dozens of tribes across the country.

The final report, Obstacles at Every Turn: Barriers to Political Participation Faced by Native American Voters, was released June 4, 2020, and provides detailed evidence that Native people face obstacles at every turn in the electoral process: from registering to vote, to casting votes, to having votes counted.

NARF released two updates to the Obstacles report in October 2021:

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Native American Voting Rights Project - Native American Rights Fund

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We fought for the Native American voting rights, and we will continue to fight until all Native citizens have equal opportunity to make their voices heard.

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Given the history of hostility toward and misunderstanding of Native religions, NARF works hard to protect religious freedoms. We helped pass the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. We assist Native students being prohibited from wearing sacred eagle feathers at graduation.

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Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

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Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

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Native Knowledge 360° | Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

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Educational resources, lesson plans, teacher training, and strategies to support positive change! Native Knowledge 360° is a national initiative to inspire and promote improved teaching and learning about Native America. #NK360

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hear
from the
historian:

Dr. Mark Hirsh National Museum of the
American Indian

American Indian Removal

President Thomas Jefferson was one of the first advocates for Indian removal. The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 gave the United States the opportunity to explore and buy vast lands west of the Mississippi River from American Indian Nations that owned them. President Jefferson then hoped to persuade the eastern Indian Nations to sign treaties and exchange their lands for territory west of the Mississippi.

Land-hungry Americans saw economic opportunity in American Indian lands, and the pressure to remove Indians grew. Americans tried to justify their actions by saying that Indians were uncivilized people who made little use of their vast tribal lands. They believed that the United States somehow had a "manifest destiny" to occupy the entire continent from coast to coast. Most American Indian Nations flatly rejected the idea of removal, and they tried every strategy they could imagine to avoid it.

Indians were not alone in opposing removal. The country was deeply divided about the idea. Thousands of citizens signed petitions against it. Newspaper articles depicted removal as a threat to the American value of justice. Some lawmakers denounced removal as an immoral violation of the government's previous treaty promises to Indian Nations. Even Chief Justice John Marshall wrote an opinion in an 1832 legal case, Worcester v. Georgia, finding that the state of Georgia had violated the Cherokee Nation's rights to self-government.

Eventually, the pro-removal forces won, and in 1830 Congress passed the Indian Removal Act by a slim margin. The legislation granted the president authority to negotiate Indian removal treaties, and American Indian removal was now an official U.S. policy.

American Indians continued the fight to keep their lands. But from about 1830 to 1850, the U.S. government used treaties, fraud, intimidation, and violence to remove about 100,000 American Indians west of the Mississippi. Thousands of Native men, women, and children died on the difficult trek to a strange new land that became known as Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma).

The tragedy and darkness of American Indian removal should not hide the remarkable story that followed. After resettling in Indian Territory, Native Peoples rebuilt their lives and cultures, and continued their struggle for self-government under their own laws on their new lands in the West.

But that is another story. For now, we hope this lesson shines a spotlight on the ways Native Peoples faced the crisis of removal. Their thoughts and actions reveal much about human strength in the face of adversity-a universal issue that is as relevant today as it was in the 1800s.

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Native Knowledge 360°-American Indian Removal Digital Lesson

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What does it mean to remove a people? This inquiry-based lesson for grades 7-12 explores the scope and effects of American Indian removal. Native American perspectives, documents, images, and digital activities help students and teachers understand an important chapter in US history. #NK360

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Since 1990, Congress has authorized an annual presidential proclamation that designates November as National American Indian Heritage Month to encourage all people to learn about the contributions and cultures of the Indigenous peoples of the North American continent. Such recognition, however, dates back further with state and organizational recognition of Indigenous peoples days and commemorations occurring at the turn of the twentieth century. For example, Dr. Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca Indian and co-founder of the Society of American Indians in 1911, organized American Indian Day beginning in 1915. More recently, Columbus Day, which is recognized on the second Monday of October, has been reclaimed in cities across the United States as Indigenous People's Day.

This Teacher's Guide will introduce you to the cultures and explore the histories of some groups within the over 5 million people who identify as American Indian in the United States, with resources designed for integration across humanities curricula and classrooms throughout the school year.

Guiding Questions

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This Teacher's Guide will introduce you to the cultures and explore the histories of some groups within the over 5 million people who identify as American Indian in the United States, with resources designed for integration across humanities curricula and classrooms throughout the school year.

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How the US stole thousands of Native American children

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Reservation Life Today - Pine Ridge Reservation

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Reservation Life Today - Pine Ridge Reservation

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Inside an Indian Reservation Reeling From Poverty and the Pandemic | LX NEWS

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The Navajo Nation | The Story of America's Largest Tribe

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On the Home Page, find the search and type Native AMerican Rights. It will take you to a page with eBooks like The American Indian Rights Movement, True History: Indigenous America, and U.S. Treaties with native Americans.

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MackinVIA is a complete eResource management system providing easy access to eBooks and educational databases. With just one login, users can view, utilize, and manage all of their eResources.

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Databases on MackinVIA - Gale in Context Middle School

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Databases on MackinVIA - Gale in Context Middle School

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Click on Gale in Context Middle School

This database has a lot of articles and videos on topics on Indigenous/Native American cultures, history, and current issues. Just type different topics in the search bar.

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Databases on MackinVIA - Britannica School

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Databases on MackinVIA - Britannica School

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Click on Britannica school and in the search bar type:

Trail of Tears (when the Cherokee were forced to leave their land for Oklahoma)

Native American Boarding Schools - overview of the schools

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Genocide: Forced Sterilization of Native American Women

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Genocide: Forced Sterilization of Native American Women

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A 1970 Law Led to the Mass Sterilization of Native American Women. That History Still Matters

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Over a six-year period in the 1970s, physicians sterilized perhaps 25% of Native American women of childbearing age. That history matters.

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Forced Sterilization and Links to Other Issues

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Forced Sterilization and Links to Other Issues

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It is no secret that the federal government has tried for centuries to colonize and control Indigenous peoples - from the forced removals of our ancestors to their placement in boarding schools. An important part of this history is the forced sterilization of Native women.

What is Sterilization?
Sterilization is a surgical procedure that permanently stops pregnancy or reproduction from occurring. In the 1960s and 70s, it became public knowledge the Indian Health Service (IHS) and outside physicians sterilized many Native women without their consent. Some sterilizations were performed without women's knowledge. In some cases, women were told that the process was reversible, which is often not possible.

To be clear, forced sterilizations were likely happening to Native women before the 1960s, but advocacy from women and their allies shone a spotlight on this issue during the 60s and 70s.

Medical Racism
In the 1960s, IHS doctors performed a high number of sterilizations on Native women without their consent. This was partly due to IHS physicians' views about "the ideal family." In the 1960s and 1950s (when the IHS was created), most IHS doctors were Protestant, white, and middle-class. They tended to believe that the family structure of middle-class white Americans was best. This included having a small number of children. Although there were no financial incentives for IHS physicians to perform sterilization in the 1950s and 60s, they saw it as the ideal form of birth control for Native women who they believed were "not capable" of making their own reproductive health decisions. These beliefs and actions were a part of medical racism and racism in general.

Federal Law Passed
In the 1970s, the U.S. Congress passed The Family Planning Services and Population Research Act of 1970, which financially supported sterilizations for Indian Health Service and Medicaid patients. Now that IHS physicians were paid by the federal government to sterilize Native women, they continued to do so in large numbers.

Between 1970 and 1976 alone, between 25 to 50 percent of Native American women of childbearing age were sterilized.

Lasting Impacts
The forced sterilization of Native women caused many Indigenous people to have increased discomfort in receiving health services from the IHS and other health organizations. It also furthered many peoples' distrust in the federal government, and led to a loss in the number of our relatives today.

Native Resistance and Activism
In the 1970s, Native resistance and activism grew and spread among different Tribal communities. This was when Native women and their allies began organizing nationally and formed the Women of All Red Nations (WARN). This group and others advocated against forced sterilization and raised awareness of the issue by pushing for investigations, performing research, advocating to government officials, planning rallies, and getting media attention.

Under pressure from activists and the general public, the U.S. Government Accountability Office investigated the issue in 1976. Although their investigation was incomplete (it only took place in 4 out of 12 IHS regions), their findings determined that sterilizations were being performed at very high rates without women's consent. These findings were consistent with a study performed by a Chocktaw/Cherokee physician, Dr. Connie Pinkerton-Uri, who in 1974 found that at least 1 in 4 Native women whom she spoke with had been sterilized without their consent. According to Dr. Pinkerton-Uri, IHS appeared to have singled out full-blooded Native women for sterilization procedures.

At the same time, Black and Latina female activists and their allies raised concerns about unjust sterilization practices happening in their communities, and by 1979 the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare adopted new regulations that protected women from forced sterilizations. These regulations emphasized:

Requiring health providers to get voluntary consent from patients before performing a sterilization procedure;

Requiring that health providers document a patient's voluntary consent using a standardized form that is provided in the patient's preferred language;

Banning health or social service providers (like social workers) from telling patients that if they don't get a sterilization procedure they will lose their Medicaid or other benefits;

Banning providers from obtaining consent to do a sterilization procedure from a patient during labor, before or after an abortion, or while the patient is under the influence of drugs or alcohol;

Requiring a multi-day waiting period between when a patient consents to be sterilized and when the procedure is performed.

Advocacy is Still Important
Because of this history, Native organizations and peoples continue to advocate for the health and well-being of our communities to prevent injustices like forced sterilization from happening again.

To ensure that forced sterilization will not happen again at levels seen in the past, it will take oversight (observation and action) by community members and Tribal councils to ensure the welfare of our communities.
For more information about our history, check out these resources: Author: Stephanie Paz is a Tigua Indian of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo. She has a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from The University of Texas at El Paso and is working towards a Master of Public Health in Health Behavior and Health Promotion from New Mexico State University.

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History of the Sterilization of Native Women

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It is no secret that the federal government has tried for centuries...