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Host Andi Murphy (Navajo) writes, "I'm talking to Native chefs and foodies about what Indigenous cuisine is, where it comes from, where it’s headed and how it’s used to connect them and their people to their origins and traditions."

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Hupa Online Dictionary and Texts

Dictionary based on the Hupa Language Dictionary (Na:tinixwe Mixine:whe', second edition, © Hoopa Valley Tribal Council), compiled by Victor Golla and edited by Ray Baldy, Louise Badgely, Ruth Beck, Calvin Carpenter, William Carpenter, Victor Golla, James Jackson, Minnie McWilliams, Elsie Ricklefs, and Herman Sherman

additional original content for this online resource provided by Verdena Parker

editorial and technical work by Amy Campbell, Kayla Begay, Ramon Escamilla, Andrew Garrett, Lindsey Newbold, Anne Pycha, Cutcha Risling Baldy, and Justin Spence

technical development 2015-2019 supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation's Documenting Endangered Languages program (#BCS-1500851)

email questions, comments, and other feedback to: jspence (at) ucdavis.edu

COMING SOON!! An updated version of the website will be rolled out in August 2020. Click here to try it out!

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Dictionary based on the Hupa Language Dictionary (Na:tinixwe Mixine:whe', second edition, © Hoopa Valley Tribal Council), compiled by Victor Golla and edited by Ray Baldy, Louise Badgely, Ruth Beck, Calvin Carpenter, William Carpenter, Victor Golla, James Jackson, Minnie McWilliams, Elsie Ricklefs, and Herman Sherman additional original content for this online

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Native America Calling - Your National Electronic Talking Circle

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A call-in radio show about contemporary Native American life

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Native American Studies at Humboldt State is more than an academic discipline. We’re a continuation of Indigenous knowledge from time immemorial, presenting a depth of Native American experience from a distinctly tribal perspective. As the first CSU campus to offer a baccalaureate degree in Native A…

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Welcome to the Yurok Language Project website! Our goal is to provide as much information as possible about the Yurok language, its structure and usage, and its relations to cultural and geographical setting. We work with the Yurok Tribe, with members of the Yurok community, and with Yurok community groups. Please don't hesitate to write with questions or requests. Wokhlew k'ee ma k'e-nuue'mow'!

Project news (October 2014)

Newly published! Basic Yurok (volume 16 of the Survey Reports series, xxiii + 309 pages): "meant to be used by Yurok language teachers and advanced learners, in support of language restoration in the Yurok community. Part I (chapters 1-10) provides information about the sounds of Yurok and about basic grammatical and vocabulary patterns. Many were identified by the Yurok Tribe for teacher certification purposes. Part II (chapters 11-25) introduces the meanings and forms of the most common Yurok verbs. Over 200 different verbs are covered, in 117 numbered sections."

Spotlight text: Sentences (GAR-LT)

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Welcome to the Yurok Language Project website! Our goal is to provide as much information as possible about the Yurok language, its structure and usage, and its relations to cultural and geographical setting. We work with the Yurok Tribe, with members of the Yurok community, and with Yurok community groups.

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Winona LaDuke | Center for Humans and Nature

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In this film by American Rivers and Swiftwater Films, Indigenous leaders share why removing four dams to restore a healthy Klamath River is critical for clean water, food sovereignty and justice.

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Gather is an intimate portrait of the growing movement amongst Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political and cultural identities through food sovereignty, while battling the trauma of centuries of genocide.

Gather includes the Ancestral Guard, a group of environmental activists from the Yurok Nation (Northern California), trying to save the Klamath river.

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Gather documents the growing movement among Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political and cultural identities through food sovereignty.

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WHAT IS THE HONOR TAX?

The Honor Tax is a way of recognizing and respecting the sovereignty of Native Nations, and implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

This is a "tax" out of respect for Native Sovereignty - rather than a gift or donation. We all live on traditional Native homelands.

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Wiyot people have lived in the Humboldt Bay region for thousands of years. The map to the right shows their traditional territory. Wiyot people lived in permanent villages along the waterways, which also served as travel and trade routes. Seasonal camps were made on the prairies, and mountainous regions provided berries, acorns, pine nuts, wild game, and basketry materials.

Wiyot people actively managed their resources, burning for open grasslands, cultivating edible bulbs, and following strict hunting and fishing protocols.
WHAT IS THE HONOR TAX?

The Honor Tax is a way of recognizing and respecting the sovereignty of Native Nations, and implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

This is a "tax" out of respect for Native Sovereignty - rather than a gift or donation. We all live on traditional Native homelands. If you do not live in Wiyot territory you can initiate an Honor Tax in your community!

The Honor Tax was not in any way initiated by the Wiyot Nation, although they have formally agreed via their Tribal Council to accept the Honor Tax. The Honor Tax was initiated by individuals, organizations and businesses who want to actively recognize the sovereignty of the Wiyot tribe and their right to their traditional land.

The Honor Tax is a voluntary annual tax paid directly to the Wiyot Nation by people who are on their traditional territories. The amount is decided by the individual.

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Wiyot people have lived in the Humboldt Bay region for thousands of years. The map to the right shows their traditional territory. Wiyot people lived in permanent villages along the waterways, which also served as travel and trade routes. Seasonal camps were made on the prairies, and mountainous regions provided berries, acorns, pine nuts, wild game, and basketry materials.

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The First Thanksgiving: What Really Happened by Uncivil History

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Mary Golda Ross spent over 30 years at Lockheed, much of it as a member of the top-secret Skunk Works program involved in cutting edge research during the early years of the space race.

When Mary Golda Ross, the first Native American aerospace engineer, began her career at the aerospace company Lockheed during World War II, women engineers were rare and most companies expected them to leave after the war was over to make room for returning men. Ross was such a phenomenal talent, however, that she not only stayed at Lockheed for over 30 years years, she became an integral member of the top-secret Skunk Works program involved in cutting edge research during the early years of the space race. As one of 40 engineers in Lockheed's Advanced Development Projects division, Ross was the only female engineer on the team and the only Native American. Her research was so secret that, even in 1994, she had to be coy with an interviewer about her work: "I was the pencil pusher, doing a lot of research," she said. "My state of the art tools were a slide rule and a Friden computer."

Born on August 9, 1908 in Park Hill, Oklahoma, a small town often called the 'center of Cherokee culture,' Ross was the great-granddaughter of renowned Cherokee Nation Chief John Ross. A talented child, Ross was sent to live with her grandparents in the Cherokee Nation capital of Tahlequah, Oklahoma to attend school. She loved math from an early age, and said that she "didn't mind being the only girl in math class [because] math, chemistry and physics were more fun to study than any other subject."

She went on to earn a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1928 at Northeastern State Teachers' College and a master's degree in 1938 from the Colorado State Teachers College, where she took "every astronomy class they had." During the Great Depression, she taught math and science for nine years in rural Oklahoma schools. On the advice of her father, Ross moved to California in 1941 after the U.S. joined WWII to seek out more work opportunities and was hired as a mathematician by Lockheed in 1942.

Initially, she worked on the P-38 Lightning, one of the fastest airplanes at the time that was used extensively during WWII. Her research on the effects of pressure on the fighter plane helped solve problems related to high speed flight and aeroelasticity. The war years involved nearly non-stop work and she recalls that "often at night there were four of us working until 11 pm." Impressed by her work, Lockheed sent her to UCLA following the war for a professional certification in engineering.

In 1952, she was invited to join Lockheed's top-secret Advanced Development Projects division, commonly known as Skunk Works, where she worked on "preliminary design concepts for interplanetary space travel, manned and unmanned earth-orbiting flights, the earliest studies of orbiting satellites for both defense and civilian purposes." She also worked on the cutting-edge Agena rocket project, and on preliminary design concepts for flyby missions to Venus and Mars as one of the authors of the NASA Planetary Flight Handbook Volume III. As she once said of her work in an interview, "we were taking the theoretical and making it real." By the time she retired in 1973, she had reached the rank of senior advanced systems staff engineer and had worked on the Polaris reentry vehicle and the Poseidon and Trident missiles.

In celebration of the opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in 2004, then 96-year-old Ross asked her niece to make her a traditional Cherokee dress. The green calico dress was the first traditional dress that Ross ever owned, and she wore it as part of procession of 25,000 Native Americans during the museum's opening ceremony. Ross also left an endowment of $400,000 to the museum upon her death at the age of 99 in 2008. She was proud to be able to contribute to the museum's ability to "tell the true story of the Indian - not just the story of the past, but an ongoing story."

In honor of Ross' work, the U.S. Mint's 2019 Native American $1 coin, which is dedicated to American Indians in the Space Program, features an image of Ross on its face. "Her achievements deeply impressed me," says Emily Damstra, the science illustrator who designed the coin. "From the beginning of my design process, before I had anything else worked out, I knew that my design would include a figure of her." Ross would no doubt be thrilled to know that her story is inspiring a new generation of mathematicians and engineers: when asked about women in the space program in the 1960s, she said that women would make "wonderful astronauts" but added, "I'd rather stay down here and analyze the data."

Books About Women In Engineering and the Early Space Program

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Mary Golda Ross: The First Native American Aerospace Engineer and Space Race Pioneer

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Mary Golda Ross spent over 30 years at Lockheed, much of it as a member of the top-secret Skunk Works program involved in cutting edge research during the early years of the space race.

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Back to Commemorative Observances
Overview

National American Indian Heritage Month celebrates and recognizes the accomplishments of the peoples who were the original inhabitants, explorers and settlers of the United States.

"National American Indian Heritage Month" had its origins in 1986 when Congress passed (PDF, 93KB) which authorized and requested the President to proclaim the week of November 23-30, 1986 as "American Indian Week." As directed by Congress, President Reagan issued Presidential Proclamation 5577 in November 1986 proclaiming the first American Indian Week. Both law and proclamation recognized the American Indians as the first inhabitants of the lands that now constitute the United States as well as making mention of their contributions to American society:

Many of the foods we eat and the medicines and remedies we use were introduced by Indians and more than one highway follows an Indian trail. Indians make contributions in every area of endeavor and American life, and our literature and all our arts draw upon Indian themes and wisdom. Countless American Indians have served in our Armed Forces and have fought valiantly for our country.

In 1987 Congress passed Pub. L. 100-171 which again called upon the President to designate the week of November 22-28, 1987 as "American Indian Week" while in 1988 Congress passed Pub. L. 100-450 which designated the week of September 23-30, 1988 as "National American Indian Heritage Week." According to Pub. L. 100-450 this change from November to September was made because "the last week of September begins the harvest season in the United States." Then in 1989 Congress passed Pub. L. 101-188 which asked the President to proclaim the week of December 3-9, 1989 as "National American Indian Heritage Week."

As requested by Congress, Presidents Reagan and George Bush issued annual proclamations in 1987, 1988, and 1989 for "National American Indian Week," honoring the achievements of the American Indians.

In 1990 Congress passed Pub. L. 101-343 (PDF, 211KB) which authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation designating the month of November 1990 as "National American Indian Heritage Month." Congress chose the month of the November to recognize the American Indians as this month concluded the traditional harvest season and was generally a time of thanksgiving and celebration for the American Indians. President George H.W. Bush issued Presidential Proclamation 6230 which paid tribute to the rich history and culture of the American Indian tribes. In 1991 Congress passed Pub. L. 102-123 which authorized and requested the President proclaim the months of November 1991 and 1992 as "National American Indian Heritage Month." Subsequently, Congress passed Pub. L. 103-462 authorized the President to proclaim November 1993 and 1994 as "National American Indian Heritage Month."

Since 1995 Presidents Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama, and Trump have issued annual proclamations which designate November as National American Indian Heritage Month, or since 2009 as National Native American Heritage Month. These proclamations celebrate the contributions of the American Indians and urge the peoples of the United States to learn more about the American Indian cultures.

Legislative Branch Documents

The public laws that designated a week and then a month for National American Indian Heritage are available in the United States Statutes at Large which is widely available online through the Government Publishing Office as well as in federal depository libraries. The specific citations are as follows:

Executive Branch Documents

Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders have been used by presidents to rule on substantive issues of law; to administrate the executive branch of government; and to make general announcements to the public. These general announcements which exhort the public to observe a holiday such as Thanksgiving or honor a particular group of citizens as in National Black History Month are usually issued in the form of a Presidential Proclamation. On many occasions Congress will pass a law specifically requesting the President to take certain action such as proclaiming the recognition of a particular group of citizens as Jewish or Hispanic Americans.

Listed below are examples of Presidential Proclamations for American Indian Week or National American Indian Heritage Month beginning with 1986 along with the citations to the Code of Federal Regulations or the Federal Register the official publications for Presidential Proclamations.

To search for Presidential Proclamations on the annual observances of Hispanic Heritage Week or Month, through American Presidency Project, select the year and click on the Apply button.

Presidential proclamations as well as Presidential statements, messages, remarks for Hispanic Heritage Month can be searched for from the Government Printing Office's Advanced Search page in the following collections: Code of Federal Regulations, the Compilation of Presidential Documents and the Federal Register.

Web Resources
Native American Heritage Month

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Back to Commemorative Observances National American Indian Heritage Month celebrates and recognizes the accomplishments of the peoples who were the original inhabitants, explorers and settlers of the United States. "National American Indian Heritage Month" had its origins in 1986 when Congress passed (PDF, 93KB) which authorized and requested the President to proclaim the week of November 23-30, 1986 as "American Indian Week."

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There are always two sides to a story. Unfortunately, when it comes to the history of Thanksgiving, generations of Americans have been taught a one-sided history in homes and schools.

The dominant cultural and historical story has been told from the perspective of the European colonialists who landed near Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts in 1620. In this version o]f the Thanksgiving story, the holiday commemorates the peaceful, friendly meeting of English settlers and the Wampanoag tribe for three days of feasting and Thanksgiving in 1621.

Every year, news outlets and social media are a-buzz with Thanksgiving themes.

There is little coverage of the fact that November is Native American Heritage Month or that the day after Thanksgiving, known to most as Black Friday, is Native American Heritage Day.

The Real History of Thanksgiving

The mainstream version of the Thanksgiving story paints a picture of courageous Christian settlers braving the perils of the New World and, with the help of some friendly Natives, finding a way to make a new life for themselves. In the days around Thanksgiving, many educators focus on this happy story, helping students make American Indian headdresses out of construction paper and holding Thanksgiving reenactments in their classrooms.

Very few teachers realize that construction headdresses and school re-enactments create a generalized stereotype that Native Americans all wear the same regalia. These school activities also encourage young students to think it is okay to wear culture as a costume. This makes it difficult for students to recognize the diversity of Native American tribes and leads students to believe it's okay to mimic Native American traditional wear without having an understanding of its spiritual significance.

Most children are only taught this brief snapshot in American History, which leaves a frozen memory of peace and generosity. However, in a short time after these Thanksgiving events, circumstances and relationships between the European settlers and the Native American tribes drastically changed. Unfortunately, very few educators have the opportunity to teach students about the massacres of Native tribes like the Pequot which took place in the years that followed. They also do not mention that English settlers robbed Wampanoag graves and stole food from them to survive during their first years on this new continent.

Here's a look at some reasons why Thanksgiving is a complex holiday that all Americans should approach with greater sensitivity.

Why Thanksgiving Is Also a National Day of Mourning

It's important to know that for many Native Americans, Thanksgiving is a day of mourning and protest since it commemorates the arrival of settlers in North America and the centuries of oppression and genocide that followed.

Organized by the United American Indians of New England in 1970, the fourth Thursday in November (Thanksgiving) is recognized as the National Day of Mourning for Native Americans and their allies.

Many people gather at Cole's Hill in Plymouth for an organized rally and day of mourning on Thanksgiving. Here's what they have to say about this choice to mourn:

"Thanksgiving day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands, and the relentless assault on Native culture. Participants in National Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today. It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection as well as a protest of the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue to experience."

Some Native Americans mourn publicly and openly, while some choose to refrain from participating in this national holiday.

Thanksgiving is Already a Way of Life for Native Americans

While some Native Americans have chosen to reject the Thanksgiving holiday entirely, many embrace the positive messages of the day and choose to put aside thoughts about its complex history.This is because the idea of giving thanks is central to Native heritage and culture.

In this way, Thanksgiving is simply a chance to appreciate the good things in life, like family, community, and the riches of the land. Long before settlers arrived, Native tribes celebrated the autumn harvest and the gift of Mother Earth's abundance. Native American spirituality, traditionally and today, emphasizes gratitude for creation, care for the environment, and recognition of the human need for communion with nature and others.

Thanksgiving as a holiday originates from the Native American philosophy of giving without expecting anything in return. In the first celebration of this holiday, the Wampanoag tribe provided not only the food for the feast but also the teachings of agriculture and hunting (corn, beans, wild rice, and turkey are some specific examples of foods introduced by Native Americans).

Now, regardless of the day's ambiguous origin, many Native Americans will gather with friends and family and use the day to eat good food (many of the classic Thanksgiving dishes are inspired by indigenous foods) and give thanks.

Steven Peters, a Wampanoag Tribe spokesman, was asked about his views on Thanksgiving and the fact that most people still gather to eat turkey and give thanks. Here's what he had to say:
"I think it's great. My ancestors had four harvest festivals throughout the year. Gathering with family, enjoying our company, sharing our blessings, and giving thanks for all that we have is a good thing. I say have more thanksgiving events throughout the year. I also ask that you take a moment in that day to remember what happened to my people and the history as it was recorded and not the narrative that we had been given in the history books."

What is the Real Meaning of Thanksgiving?

As we gather this Thanksgiving, we wish the hearts of all people, Native and non-Native, are filled with hope and healing. Together, let's pledge to dismantle the physical, economic, educational, psychological, and spiritual barriers that divide and oppress us.

Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Day allow us to reflect on our collective history and celebrate the beauty, strength, and resilience of the Native tribes of North America.
Want to make a difference? Explore how you can get involved today!

We remember the generosity of the Wampanoag tribe to the European settlers.

We remember the hundreds of thousands of Native Americans who lost their lives because of the ignorance and greed of colonists and the genocide experienced by whole tribes.

We remember the vibrant and resilient Native descendants, families, and communities that persist to this day throughout the culture and the country.

We give thanks to people like Sharice Davids and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, whose hard work and diligence helped place them in positions where the Native American voice can be heard.

Last but not least, we remember all of the friends and family of Native Hope who have embraced our mission of healing and storytelling. We give thanks to you for your support!

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The History of Thanksgiving from the Native American Perspective

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Here's the history of Thanksgiving from the Native American perspective and why it's a controversial holiday for many.

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Every November since 1990, the United States celebrates Native American Heritage Month. The commemoration of the month provides a platform for Native Americans to share traditions, music, crafts, and dance with others. It also serves as a powerful reminder for non-Natives of the important contributions and significance of Native people in the history and the present day reality of North America.

However, the importance of honoring Native people runs much deeper than this one month of celebration and commemoration.

The Native American narrative has long been controlled by a history told through the eyes of the dominant Western culture. In order to change this narrative, we must understand there is a nar rative to be changed and a heritage to celebrate. Native American Heritage Month is one step toward an ever present recognition and celebration of the Indigenous peoples of North America.

How much do we know about Native American history?

Ask most people educated in America's classrooms a few questions about the Native people of our country and most likely they be unaware of the facts-not out of ignorance, but out of sheer lack of education in schools and lack of conversation about the topic from the wider culture. Today, in honor of Native American Heritage Month, we're sharing some basic questions and answers about Native America so you can test and broaden your knowledge.

How many Indigenous people lived north of the Rio Grande (North America) prior to 1492?

Historians believe between 10-12 million people called North America home.

Why do many grossly underestimate the number of peo ple living here prior to Columbus? The land was described as "vast" and "untouched." The land was "discovered" and some "savages" happened to be living on it.

How many Natives lived in the United States in 1880?

According to the United States Census, 306,543 American Indians lived within the borders.

What happened to the millions who lived here? The Native people of this land experienced a genocide-a genocide that until recent years has been largely untold.

: How many tribes called and still call the United States home?

There are 574 federally recognized tribes. Many of these tribes have lost their language and traditions.

Why were languages and traditions lost? " Kill the Indian and Save the Man. " The United States forced Native youth to attend federal boarding schools where they were forbidden to speak their languages, required to learn English, and forced to assimilate in numerous ways. No one was allowed to practice spiritual or cultural traditions-it was a gainst the law.

How many treaties did the United States make with Indian tribes and how many were upheld?

500 treaties were made and 500 treaties were broken.

Why is there mistrust between tribes and government/non-Natives? Promis es have been notoriously broken, time after time after time. Each time the Native people lost land and a piece of their identity.

Building the Culture of Native Americans Today

Today, there are nearly 6.79 million Native Americans. This in itself is cause to celebrate. Because of the resilience of many strong individuals, tribes have survived. Language and cultural revitalization efforts are growing, and voices are uniting.

Nati ve Hope places telling the stories of Native America at the forefront of its mission-not only stories that reveal the past injustices done to America's first people but also the stories of those working to dismantle barriers for their families, bands, and nations.

The restoration of a valued identity is what is at the heart of Native American Heritage Month.
To celebrate, Native Hope is honoring the hopes of today's Native leaders and innovators-those paving the path for the Next Generation.

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Celebrating Native American Heritage Month

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Every November since 1990, the United States celebrates Native American Heritage Month. The commemoration of the month provides a platform for Native Americans to share traditions, music, crafts, and dance with others. It also serves as a powerful reminder for non-Natives of the important contributions and significance of Native people in the history and the present day reality of North America.

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25 Inspiring Indigenous American Activist Accounts to Follow to Learn About Indigenous People, Issues and Life

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This year saw a record number of Native Americans elected to Congress, with at least six candidates winning election and reelection.

The six victories were all in House races, CBS News reports. The winners include Reps. (D-N.M.), (D-Kan.), (R-Okla.) and (R-Okla.).

Two non-incumbents also made up the record slate of wins in the House, including Hawaii state Senator and Rep.-elect Kai Kahele (D), who will fill outgoing Rep. 's (D-Hawaii) seat, as well as Rep.-elect Yvette Herrell (R-N.M.), who defeated Rep. Xochitl Torres Small (D-N.M.) this week.

Indian Country Today was first to report the news Wednesday.

According to the news outlet, 13 Native Americans ran in House races this week.

With the recent wins by Herrell and Haaland in New Mexico, along with the victory secured by Democrat Teresa Leger Fernandez for the state's 3rd congressional district, the state has became the first in the nation to elect all women of color to its House delegation.

History was also written this week in Kansas, where Christina Haswood, a Navajo Nation member, won election to the state legislature at the age of 26, becoming the youngest in history to do so, according to The Guardian.

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Native Americans elected to Congress in record numbers this year

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This year saw a record number of Native Americans elected to Congress, with at least six candidates winning election and reelection. The six victories were all in House races, CBS News reports. The winners include Reps. (D-N.M.), (D-Kan.), (R-Okla.) and (R-Okla.).

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Home Page | National Museum of the American Indian

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The NMAI fosters a richer shared human experience through a more informed understanding of Native peoples.

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Paying tribute to the rich ancestry and traditions of Native Americans.

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World Storytelling Cafe

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Photo by Tamara Herman

December 10, 2019

As the impacts of the climate emergency become more apparent, activists rallying around the issue are bringing it to the forefront of international discussion. Recently, Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg has become a global icon for her dedication to raising consciousness and holding corporations and politicians accountable for their contributions to the climate crisis. She has inspired climate strikes across the globe and worked with Indigenous organizers to move forward. We are especially grateful for her allyship.

At this point in our collective climate activism venture, though, it's crucial to note that Indigenous people have been speaking out against mistreatment of the land for decades - but many still find themselves excluded from conversations around climate.

Indigenous activists are trailblazers in climate organizing, as they often stand on the frontlines when climate aggravators abuse land and water. For decades, Indigenous people have been instrumental in cultivating awareness both within their communities and on the international stage. The discourse around our climate crisis cannot exclude People of Color, especially Indigenous communities, which contribute the least to global climate change, yet are the most impacted by its effects. It is not a true discussion of climate change if Indigenous voices do not have a seat at the table.

So, how do we understand the climate crisis holistically rather than centered on individual experience? We must go back to the roots of environmental conservation, and that requires listening to Indigenous people.

Allow us to introduce you to a few Indigenous climate icons to keep on your radar.

Madonna Thunder Hawk
Oohenumpa Lakota
"Because we're land-based, we're always as a people concerned about the environment and extracting corporations."
Madonna Thunder Hawk, a leader, boarding school survivor, and lifelong activist, advocates for Indigenous communities across the continent and globe. She has fought for Native justice - from child custody to pipeline battles - for over 50 years, and she is still fighting at almost 80 years old.

Growing up on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in the 1940s, Thunder Hawk witnessed the impact of federal land grabs and government-spurred flooding.

In her twenties, Thunder Hawk became a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and the Red Power Movement, and she occupied Alcatraz. In 1973, she became a member of the Pie Patrol at Wounded Knee, and later, a member of the Wounded Knee Legal Defense Team. In order to help Native children pushed out of public schools learn their culture, Thunder Hawk established the We Will Remember Survival School in 1974. Her daughter, Marcy, is a graduate. Thunder Hawk is also the co-founder of Women of All Red Nations and the Black Hills Alliance, groups that confronted the intersectionality of issues facing Native women and investigated uranium mining in the sacred Black Hills, respectively.

In 2004, Thunder Hawk joined the Romero Institute's Lakota People's Law Project with the intention of reforming policy in regard to the Indian Child Welfare Act. In her Cheyenne River homelands, Thunder Hawks now works with Wasagiya Najin, a "Grandmothers' Group" she helped establish to create a system to handle child welfare matters in the community. She also helped to organize camps at Standing Rock in the resistance against the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) in 2016 and is a supporter of the anti-Keystone XL movement.

Most recently, Thunder Hawk is the subject of a documentary called " Warrior Women," which recounts her past and follows her from Wounded Knee to Standing Rock. A force to be reckoned with, Madonna Thunder Hawk continues to rise in pursuit of social and environmental justice for all Indigenous people.

JoAnn Tall
Oglala Lakota
"Every day of our life we're with the land...we're part of mother earth. We are her children."
An environmental advocate, JoAnn Tall has been a major figure in Native American activism for decades. Tall survived boarding schools, and because of this, knew nothing about her culture until she had what she called a spiritual awakening in the 1970s. This experience drove her to become very involved with the Black Hills Alliance, tracking uranium mining in the sacred Black Hills near the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Tall worked to ensure that any companies trying to mine for uranium in the Black Hills had to get the approval of voters rather than exclusively from the state of South Dakota. She also organized protests against nuclear testing in the Black Hills.

Tall's advocacy helped to give Native residents a seat at the table in discussing their own land, which has historically not always been the case. In 1989, Tall became a co-founder of Native Resource Coalition, which worked to educate community members on how the environment intersects with health. She received the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1993.

Tara Houska
Ojibwe Couchiching First Nation
"Eighty percent of the world's remaining biodiversity is in Indigenous lands. So we are the last holders of these sacred places and of the diversity of the world."
Tara Houska, raised in North Dakota, is a water and land protector and advocate for Indigenous inclusivity in policy-making. As an attorney, she has helped gain recognition of issues facing Indigenous communities by way of her affiliations with organizations working on a grassroots level to a federal scale. Houska is a co-founder of Not Your Mascots, a nonprofit working toward fighting the stereotype of Natives in sports and pop culture. She is also an advisor for Matriarch, a PAC that works to increase the number of women in office with the goal of economic, social, and racial justice. Houska also formerly served as the National Campaigns Director for Honor the Earth.

Houska was on the ground for the protest against the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline and continues to be an advocate for the eradication and prevention of pipelines. In 2018, Houska presented a TEDTalk, discussing the movement and resilience of the Native people who rallied around protecting the land.

Beyond Standing Rock, Houska speaks about the importance of upholding treaties in the present day, saying that the consultation and consent of Indigenous people is crucial to sustain the land for generations to come.

Xiuhtezcatl Martinez
Aztec Heritage
"The biggest issue we face is shifting human consciousness, not saving the planet. The planet does not need saving, we do."
Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, an Indigenous climate activist and hip-hop artist, got his start at a very young age speaking on the topic of climate change. At just 19, he has already had a major influence in holding political leaders accountable for their failure to act on the current climate crisis. He was one of the plaintiffs in Juliana vs. United States, also known as Youth v. Gov: a group of young people suing the federal government in 2015 for threatening their future with climate inaction. Martinez is also involved in Martinez vs. Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which highlights the government's negligence toward climate change and the impact that will have on the youth.

Martinez has a long list of accolades: he has given a TED Talk, has spoken to the United Nations on environmental issues, and is the Youth Director of Earth Guardians, an organization rooted in environmental preservation by way of organizing and policy change. In 2017, he wrote a book titled " We Rise: The Earth Guardians Guide to Building a Movement That Restores the Planet," about his work in approaching the current climate crisis and how the reader can do the same.

Naelyn Pike
Chiricahua Apache
"We all have one issue and we all can relate. And that's that we need to protect this Earth."
Naelyn Pike made headlines in 2015 when she became the youngest person, at the age of 13, to speak to congress. Pike is a youth activist working to defend sacred lands and prevent environmental harm by fighting for Indigenous stewardship of territory. She is a member of the Apache Stronghold, a nonprofit that seeks to safeguard land and promote civic engagement to protect a site called Oak Flat. Oak Flat, a place she identifies as home, is threatened by mining corporations that would cause harm to the land, water, and local tribes that hold this place sacred. On the frontlines of this movement, she has helped to organize protests across the country. She spoke at the National Bioneers Conference in 2017 and has garnered a lot of support for her fervent activism. Pike held her first public speaking engagement at the age of nine and continues to address audiences to this day, inspiring many more to advocate for climate justice.

Tokata Iron Eyes
Lakota

"We are at the edge of a cliff in regards to our timeline to save this planet, and the Indigenous people will be the ones to lead the movement off of the edge."
Tokata Iron Eyes is a 16-year-old environmental activist working with various organizations to prevent the degradation of the land. Iron Eyes, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, has been a water protector since DAPL first invaded her homelands. In 2016, she spoke in a video for the organization Rezpect Our Water, asking viewers to sign a petition to the Army Corps of Engineers to reject the construction permit for DAPL. She pulled many allies to Standing Rock to protest the construction.

She is now channeling her energy to organize both locally and internationally, inspiring many to actively participate in protesting negligence toward the climate crisis. At her high school in Pine Ridge, Iron Eyes is on the board for Indigenized Energy, a sustainable energy collective that installed a solar farm and is working on other projects to implement. Earlier this fall, Iron Eyes and Thunberg joined forces to speak at Red Cloud Indian School, Iron Eyes' home campus, on youth activism in the midst of the climate crisis. They then traveled to climate rallies on Standing Rock and Cheyenne River, and in Rapid City, SD, to speak about what we can do to make change moving forward.

Autumn Peltier
Wikwemikong First Nation
"Maybe we need to have more elders and youth together sitting at the decision table when people make decisions about our lands and waters."
Autumn Peltier is a water warrior who has been fighting for clean water since the age of eight. From speaking at the United Nations (UN) Youth Climate Summit to organizing at a local level in her First Nations community, Peltier is only getting started. Her auntie, Josephine Mandamin, is her inspiration. She taught a very young Peltier the importance of advocacy. In 2015, Peltier attended the Children's Climate Conference and, the following year, she tearfully spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau regarding the importance of clean water. Today, Peltier is a water protector who speaks out against those who ignore the persistent problems of contaminated water. "A lot of us youth are scared," Peltier said in an interview with Vice. "We are wondering, do we even have a future to look forward to?"

Earlier this year, at the age of 14, Peltier was named Chief Water Commissioner for Anishinabek First Nation-the role previously held by her aunt Josephine.

Peltier addressed the UN in both 2018 and 2019, highlighting that Indigenous communities are the most affected by contaminated water, that water is life, and it is sacred. This was a pivotal moment for Indigenous communities, as their worldviews have been historically excluded from these conversations. Peltier is challenging this status quo by amplifying the needs of her community - issues that will eventually impact everyone, no matter the nation. Peltier is a living reminder that the time is now, and we must hold lawmakers accountable for their negligence in the face of the climate crisis.

In the era of climate crisis, it is more important than ever to listen to, learn from, honor, respect, and support Indigenous voices.

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Photo by Tamara Herman December 10, 2019 As the impacts of the climate emergency become more apparent, activists rallying around the issue are bringing it to the forefront of international discussion. Recently, Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg has become a global icon for her dedication to raising consciousness and holding corporations and politicians accountable for their contributions to the climate crisis.

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This story was originally published by Underscore.news and is republished here by permission.
For more than a century, The Pioneer stood tall on his pedestal on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene. With his bushy beard, boots, and buckskin, he struck many Oregonians as the embodiment of frontier courage and determination, representative of settlers who traveled thousands of miles to tame the Wild West and build a new life for themselves.

On the day the statue was dedicated in 1919, residents and local officials preached white supremacy. "The Anglo-Saxon race is a branch of the Teutonic race," declared Frederick V. Holman, President of the Oregon Historical Society. "It was and is a liberty-loving race. ... This race has large powers of assimilation, and it's great ideas of liberty and of the rights of mankind caused other races to become a part of it, so it became a people as well as a race."

The Pioneer went on a different journey last month, when a group of unidentified protesters lashed ropes around the statue, pulled it onto the ground, and dragged it across the street and onto the steps of the university's administration building. Bystanders say some struck the statue with pickaxes and crowbars. A companion sculpture, The Pioneer Mother, was also toppled the same day.

On a recent Friday evening, Jacob Billy Sr. stared at the empty space where The Pioneer once stood. "I was just wondering why it took this long, really," said Billy, a member of the Yakama Nation with a newly minted Ph.D. in education. "These two statues that came down - people have wanted them removed for a long time."

Although monuments and statues like The Pioneer and The Pioneer Mother symbolize Old West values of perseverance and independence, to Billy and countless Native Americans they symbolize the displacement of the land's original inhabitants, who were then demonized by the white authors of history.

"The Kalapuya were here," said Billy, gesturing toward the rest of the university campus. Historians believe the Kalapuya Indians once numbered close to 15,000. But by 1849, after several epidemics brought on by contact with traders and settlers, that number fell to an estimated 600 people. Imagine, said Billy, that you were living in your home, but then "someone comes up and says, 'I like your house and the stuff in it. Get out!' That's basically what happened."

Injustice in common

For years, students, alumni, and other community members have implored the University of Oregon to remove the statues. Minutes before its sudden removal in June, a group called Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC), Liberation Collective, held a teach-in about the university's racist past. Deady Hall, for instance, was named for a pro-slavery university founding member. In June, the university announced it will be changing the building's name, due to community pressure and the broader impact of the Black Lives Matter movement.

"Our histories are very intimately tied," said Charise Cheney, an associate professor of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies at the university. "The connections that people are making between white supremacy and anti-Blackness on the one hand, and white settler colonialism on the other hand, has been a breakthrough moment in American history."

When protests began across Eugene in late May, Cheney, a Black woman in a predominantly white city, was nervous. But having allies from the white and Native American communities provided her a feeling of support that she had never felt during her 11 years living in Eugene. "It really hearkens back to the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 60s and 70s," she said.

Long before this summer of protest, Black and Native American activists have supported each other's efforts to reexamine the white-centric, widespread, and woefully inaccurate history of this country, while also urging American society as a whole to recognize systemic racism and inequality - and to do something about them. Toppling statues of Christopher Columbus, Confederate soldiers, The Pioneer - they are all part of a legacy of oppression, displacement and slavery. "I think that Indigenous communities have always been struggling, against the use of mascots, and the destruction of sacred sites," said Cheney. "But their numbers are so much smaller than other communities of color. I think that the broadening awareness of racism and white supremacy in the U.S. has helped to buoy Indigenous protesting."

A recent event held in Eugene, dubbed Indigenous Solidarity with Black Liberation, drew about 150 people to Owen Rose Garden. Flanked by a tall tipi, presenters spoke of a shared history of oppression, slavery, mistrust of the justice system, and cultural stereotypes. "The Black community stood with us during Standing Rock," said Violet Johnson, a University of Oregon student and Hupa Valley Indian of Yurok descent. "And we're with them now for the Black Lives Matter movement."

Indigenous issues are also becoming more prominent, as Black activism surges across the U.S. "The U.S. is a capitalist country, one of the wealthiest," said Johnson. "But that wealth didn't come arbitrarily. It was built with stolen labor and stolen land." These dual injustices connect Black and Native Americans.

"The U.S. is a capitalist country, one of the wealthiest. But that wealth didn't come arbitrarily. It was built with stolen labor and stolen land."

As the Black Lives Matter movement works to spotlight police brutality and systemic racism in the U.S. justice system, Native Americans are capitalizing on this moment to spotlight injustices such as the 1978 Supreme Court ruling in Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe. The decision rendered tribal courts without jurisdiction over non-Native Americans. (It took 35 years before the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act allowed tribes to take such non-Native American offenders to court for domestic violence against Native American women.)

Oliphant v. Suquamish had "huge ramifications on tribes' abilities to protect themselves from non-Natives who committed crimes on our territories," said Johnson. Of particular concern to Johnson and many other activists is the tragedy of missing or murdered Native American women. According to the National Crime Information Center, more than 5,700 Native American women and girls were reported missing in 2016, while the U.S. Department of Justice says that on some reservations they experience murder rates 10 times higher than the national average. Johnson hopes justice reform could overturn the law altogether, allowing tribal police to arrest and convict non-Native Americans.

Meanwhile, Johnson feels it's critical for Black and Native American activists to continue supporting each other to maintain momentum. She believes this is true whether the subject is renaming a professional sports team, a push for new models of policing, campaigns for the removal of statues, or protests to expose systemic racism.

"It's like making a snowball and pushing it down a hill."

Billy, who will be a science teacher on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation later this year, looked at the site where The Pioneer once stood and thought about this current political moment. It will take more effort, he said. "It's like making a snowball and pushing it down a hill." Everyone has to keep adding to it and adding to it before it will finally roll.

As for his connection to Black Americans and the Black Lives Matter movement generally, he says the sense of solidarity is almost overwhelming: "In my language," Billy said, "there's no word for 'I.' It's specifically 'Us.' People who are akin to us, who are [fellow] human beings, are that important. That for them to suffer is for me to suffer."

Brian Bull is a reporter with KLCC in Eugene, Oregon, and a member of the Nez Perce Tribe. Underscore.news is a nonprofit journalism organization based in Portland, Oregon. They are supported by foundations, corporate sponsors and donor contributions. Follow Underscore on Facebook and Twitter. High Country News

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Indigenous and Black Lives Matter activists join forces in Oregon

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This story was originally published by Underscore.news and is republished here by permission. For more than a century, The Pioneer stood tall on his pedestal on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene.

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7 Young Indigenous Activists Standing Up For Their Communities

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“The youth is going to stand. And that’s us today. That’s us here and now.”

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In his new preface to this paperback edition, the author observes, "The Indian world has changed so substantially since the first publication of this book that some things contained in it seem new again." Indeed, it seems that each generation of whites and Indians will have to read and reread Vine Deloria's Manifesto for some time to come, before we absorb his special, ironic Indian point of view and what he tells us, with a great deal of humor, about U.S. race relations, federal bureaucracies, Christian churches, and social scientists. This book continues to be required reading for all Americans, whatever their special interest.

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In his new preface to this paperback edition, the author observes, "The Indian world has changed so substantially since the first publication of this book that some things contained in it seem new again."

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Running for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women | Rosalie Fish | TEDxYouth@Seattle

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Wendsler Nosie Sr. is a true Apache warrior and Native American activist who wields the powerful weapons of words, culture and spirituality to fight for his people's rights.

"I remember clearly in junior high traveling with our basketball team to other towns that surround the reservation and how I became confused," Nosie said. "My question was, 'why were things so different for non-Indians compared to us Apaches?'" Coming from the San Carlos Apache Tribe's reservation in eastern Arizona, Nosie's question particularly resonated. More than half the population is unemployed, with the many social ills such grinding poverty engenders.

However, Nosie's Apache religion and culture provided a foundation for his life. "I was raised with our Apache religion and having parents and grandparents who spoke of how it was before we were prisoners of war," Nosie said. He's referring to when Apache people were rounded up and confined to a concentration camp at San Carlos, 100 miles due east of modern-day Phoenix. That prisoner-of-war camp is now the reservation. "All they ever knew and understood was they defended what was rightfully theirs."

Nosie says that his work sprang from that philosophy: "The land was sacred, it is our mother blessed with all the Creator's creations. It was our home, our way of life and we were blessed by the Creator with the knowledge to live by."

However, in order to continue that way of life, Apaches often engage in cultural renewal on their most sacred spaces-and many of those sites are not on Apache reservation land. Some of these places include Dzil Nchaa Si An, or Mount Graham, where Nosie and his wife, Theresa, have advocated for access by his people and against development; the San Francisco Peaks, which are held sacred by 13 Southwestern tribes; and most recently, for Oak Flat and Apache Leap.

The San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Arizona, are sacred to at least 13 tribes. They are being squirted with fake snow fashioned from treated city wastewater. Wendsler Nosie Sr. has been fighting to protect them.

In fact, Nosie's organization, Apache Stronghold, is working with Rep. Raul Grivalja, D-Arizona, on a new bill in Congress to repeal the authorization for Resolution Copper to create a huge mine in the area. "For the Stronghold, we have a new bill in Congress and we need every organization, Native tribes and Americans to join forces on educating our congressional leaders to support the repeal bill," Nosie said. He also avers that the issue of Resolution Copper's proposed mine is "no longer a Native American issue, but an American issue," due to the possible impact on water and air in the nearby Phoenix metro area.

Nosie also took his message of cultural renewal, respect for Native rights and the environment on the road. In 2015, Apache Stronghold traveled across the nation, beginning at Mount Graham and ending with a final stop in New York's Times Square to bring attention to the infamous land swap that enabled the multinational firms Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton to acquire the lands including Oak Flat and Apache Leap for their mine.

The Native American activist also used his term as San Carlos Apache chairman to advocate for Native rights, including Oak Flat. He's not afraid to speak his mind to anybody, including senators, congressmen or anybody else.

Michael Paul Hill/Facebook

Protesters gathered for a day of spiritual succor at Oak Flat, the sacred Apache site that was all but handed over to Resolution Copper in the latest must-pass federal defense-spending bill in 2015.

He educates other Natives about why it's important to understand their indigenous rights. "It comes down to either educating them or just being who you are and not fearing what the United States has placed as barriers," Nosie said. "We must remember people of all color have a conscience and have a religion, we must explore these avenues and the only way is that we do it spiritually."

And he's opened the doors to collaboration with others. "We are indigenous to all the land in this country called America," Nosie said. "Whether you're Native or non-Native, but educated in the field of preserving land, water and sacred places, we must now come together and work on laws ... that are obsolete." Nosie challenges all to take an active role in "changing federal policies that will protect our identity or culture, our religious and holy places" and to evaluate laws that have harmed Native people and affected future generations.

Courtesy Allie Fredericks

San Carlos Apache Tribe council member Wendsler Nosie Sr. embraces Standing Rock Sioux Tribe David Archambault II at the Camp of the Sacred Stones near the Standing Rock reservation, where Nosie came to offer support and prayers to those taking a stand against the Dakota Access oil pipeline. The Apache Stronghold has been fighting for more than a decade to stop the takeover of sacred Oak Flat for copper mining by Rio Tinto. Apache Stronghold is one of nearly 90 tribes that have expressed support.

As a Native American activist, his aim is to "continue to educate true history, the importance of mother Earth and our religious practice, and also to be a strong advocate to remind all those who call themselves Americans that we also have a rightful place." He added that everybody must work together to preserve what is left of the Earth.

"I've been on this journey all my life," Nosie said. "Many before me have passed on, I've been a witness to them as well as them to me. I also pray for those on this same journey who are out there. I have taken on the responsibility to educate and motivate all people to understand God's greatest gift and not for us to destroy it. You see it in every birth from everything that comes into the world they have a right to live.

"It's definitely been a journey with all the pros and cons," Nosie said, "but at the end of the day I just feel for the children and those yet to be born. I strongly believe it's been a personal journey to a sacred unity with the hopes that people will be awakened."

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Native American Activist Spotlight: Wendsler Nosie Sr.

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Wendsler Nosie Sr. is a true Apache warrior and Native American activist who wields the powerful weapons of words, culture and spirituality to fight for his people's rights. "I remember clearly in junior high traveling with our basketball team to other towns that surround the reservation and how I became confused," Nosie said.

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Amy Cordalis, Yurok Attorney fought for the Klamath Basin

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Amy Cordalis, Yurok Attorney fought for the Klamath Basin

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On a warm September Saturday in 2002, Amy Cordalis stood in a Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department boat on the Klamath River, in response to reports from fishermen that something was amiss on the river. On this stretch of the Yurok Reservation, the river was wide and deep, having wound its way from its headwaters at the Upper Klamath Lake, through arid south-central Oregon to the California coast. Cordalis, then 22, was a summer fish technician intern, whose job was to record the tribe's daily catch. A college student in Oregon, she'd found a way to spend time with her family and be on the river she'd grown up with - its forested banks and family fishing hole drawing her back year after year.

But that morning, something was wrong. Cordalis watched as adult salmon, one after the other, jumped out of the water, mouths gaping, before plunging back into the river. Her father, Bill Bowers, who was gillnetting farther downriver, looked up to see a raft of salmon corpses floating around the bend. The carcasses piled up on the banks and floated in eddies, as seagulls swept inland to pick at the remains.

Remnants of the fish kill lingered for weeks, as Cordalis and fishermen up and down the river looked on in shock. By the end of it, California and the Hoopa Valley, Karuk and Yurok tribes made a conservative estimate of the toll - 34,000 dead salmon along the Klamath - though officials said the sheer volume made a true count difficult. It was the largest fish kill in both Yurok and U.S. history, and its cause was no mystery. Earlier that year, the federal government had capitulated to public pressure from farmers and ranchers in the Klamath Basin and diverted water from the river to irrigate fields. The resulting low flows created an environment where fatal diseases could fester.

The Klamath water crisis and ensuing fish kill marked a pivotal moment for the Yurok Tribe. It shaped a generation of people, many of whom feel a fierce responsibility for a river that not only carries fish and water, but centuries of stories and struggle as well. As Amy Cordalis watched the salmon die, she told herself she would find a way to prevent similar tragedies. Today, she is the Yurok Tribe's general counsel - meaning that, for the first time, the tribe has one of its own to lead its battles in court.

Since the fish kill, legal fights over the Klamath have rarely abated. As time goes on, though, the stakes increase, as salmon populations steadily drop, stream flows dwindle and disease blights the water. This year, snowpack was a paltry 46 percent of normal in the Klamath Basin by March, and Oregon's governor, Kate Brown, D, declared another drought in Klamath County. "Tensions are rising, people are looking for any source of water they can possibly use to get their crops wet," Scott White, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association, told me. "It is an operational nightmare."

While the Yurok Tribe, the largest in California, has secured a number of legal wins for water and salmon, Cordalis told me recently that two main issues on the Klamath remain the same: an over-allocated river and dams that diminish water quality. What is different, though, is how the tribe is representing itself in court. As a lead attorney and a tribal member, Cordalis hopes to change those two fundamental problems by creating a legal framework that prioritizes fish as much as it does agriculture. "We are back to the time of the tribes on the river again," Cordalis said. "We are reclaiming that governance now."

One of Cordalis' most important cases, Yurok Tribe et al. vs. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation et al., is currently in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In that case, the Yurok and Hoopa Valley tribes, joined by commercial fishermen, are suing the Interior Department's Bureau of Reclamation over the agency's water plan, which they allege is not adequately preventing the fish diseases that result from low flows. They argue that the salmon, specifically endangered coho, need more water to consistently flush out disease-causing parasites. Water districts and irrigators, namely the Klamath Water Users Association, have sided with the Bureau, disputing the need for increased river flows and claiming they can't give up any more water. This year, diversions away from irrigation have delayed farming, and White said he worries that some Klamath Basin farmers will go under.

As part of that case, in April, a district court judge ruled that endangered salmon on the Klamath are entitled to prioritized protection under the law. So when infection rates for salmon tipped over the legal limit later that month, water was again diverted from irrigators. The rest of the case has yet to be heard, but if Cordalis and her team secure a win, it will be an incremental step toward restoring Klamath salmon, and by extension the Yurok Tribe. The case and resulting water flows, she said, is "one of the most important conservation measures protecting Klamath River salmon from complete extinction."

If Cordalis succeeds in winning this case and others, she will owe much of it to the family members who fought before her. Cordalis' grandmother, Lavina Bowers, née Mattz, the family matriarch, has lived through the acquisition of Yurok lands and water by non-Natives, confrontations with armed federal agents, and the gradual renewal of Yurok political will and culture. I met Bowers at the Requa Inn, a 104-year-old hotel owned by Cordalis' aunt (the first Yurok owners in nearly 100 years), which overlooks the Klamath River on the Yurok Reservation. It was a blue-skied January morning, and the light shimmered on the water's surface through the inn windows while Cordalis and her 2-year-old son, Keane, played nearby. Bowers wore a denim jacket and silk neckerchief, and as she described growing up in the 1930s, her traditional shell earrings swung gently back and forth.

As a child, Bowers lived upriver on a family farm, where she and her brother, Raymond, picked salmonberries in summer and rode a boat to school in the fall. It was a time of intense racism, socially accepted and legally codified in state and federal policy. At that time, the Yurok, a tribe long established along the rugged coast and Klamath River, had no overarching government and little say in what happened to its lands or people. Many of Bowers' peers were sent to boarding schools by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a disruption that fractured her generation. Some returned, trying to earn a living in the fishing canneries in Klamath Glen on the reservation, or with the lumber companies, whose wealth was held primarily in non-Native hands. "Indian people have never really had justice," Bowers told me. "A lot of us didn't know how to stand up and talk for ourselves. I was an Indian kid that was treated like an Indian."

The Yurok signed a treaty with the United States in 1851, but white settlers, hungry for gold in the newfound state of California, pressured Congress not to ratify it. A reservation was established in 1855, but as early as 1874, settlers argued that it had been abandoned, and that they had a right to homestead. In 1887, Congress passed the General Allotment Act, essentially divvying up the reservation into small parcels for each Yurok, with any "surplus" lands going to non-Native homesteaders. Much of the allotted land thus passed out of Yurok hands. "Each time that I make a trip to the territory," a BIA superintendent wrote in 1918, "I have it more forcibly impressed upon my mind that somehow the Indians did not get a fair portion of the land."

Still, they had the river. In the early 1940s, despite a state ban on traditional salmon gillnetting, Lavina and Raymond would sneak down to the Klamath at night to fish. Under the light of the moon, they would set their long nets across the breezy river, lie on a sand bar and wait for the fish. When game wardens came by to pull up the nets, the children would hide under a blanket. "I used to lay there under the blanket thinking they'd hear my heart beat," Lavina said. "I'd try not to breathe."

Raymond Mattz was 12 years old when he first got in trouble with a warden for gillnetting. As an adult, in September 1969, he was fishing the fall run of chinook salmon at the family's fishing hole, called Brooks Riffle - named for his great-great-great grandfather. When a state game warden caught Mattz and a group of friends with five gill nets, Mattz claimed all five nets were his and was arrested. He then sued the state of California to return the nets, but the state refused to return them, claiming that Mattz could not legally gillnet in the state of California. The state argued that the Yurok Reservation had lost so much of its land to non-Native homesteaders and companies that it no longer met the legal definition of Indian Country. At its core, Mattz vs. Arnett was a challenge to tribal sovereignty, the ability of tribes to govern themselves. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the state lost. The court affirmed, in 1973, the Yurok Tribe's treaty rights to fish by traditional means, including gillnetting, and declared that the Yurok Reservation was indeed a part of Indian Country, a legal term that refers to lands held by tribes. Mattz's stand on Brooks Riffle is not only part of Cordalis' family lore but is also recorded in federal Indian law.

The Mattz case became part of a broader conflict in the Northwest called the Fish Wars. Triggered in part by the political momentum of the civil rights era, the Fish Wars included civil disobedience, such as "fish-ins," in which Indigenous fishermen would flagrantly practice their treaty-held fishing rights, only to be arrested. The movement was also galvanized by the landmark Boldt Decision of 1974, which reaffirmed the rights of tribes to co-manage their fisheries and to harvest according to various signed treaties.

"The fact that we won that right in the Supreme Court, you'd like to think that they decided the way that things should be," Bowers said.

Still, after the case was concluded in 1973, California found other means to invalidate the tribe's fishing rights. A Supreme Court decision in 1977 gave states the power over tribes to regulate tribal fishing for conservation purposes. In 1978, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife closed down Indian fishing on the Klamath River, ostensibly for conservation reasons. Lavina's son (and Amy's father), Bill Bowers, remembers that period well. Signs and bumper stickers put up by disgruntled non-Native fisherman appeared on and near the reservation: "Can an Indian, Save a Fish." Federal agents in riot gear enforced the moratorium by pulling up nets and ramming boats, and, the Yurok allege, by using physical violence and intimidation. "The hostility that was there was intense," Bill told me. They began fishing at night again, leaving their flashlights in the truck.

It was into this moment of unrest that Cordalis was born, in March 1980.

Cordalis was the first of five siblings. From the time she was 5, Cordalis and her dad, a Yurok citizen and parole and probation officer, would drive from their family's home in Oregon to Requa, on the reservation, when the salmon began their spring run from the Pacific up the Klamath, and again in the fall when the fish returned to the ocean. The pair would hang out at the seasonal fishing camps along the river and at their family fishing hole at Brooks Riffle, where, Cordalis says, "it all began."

They would watch the salmon move up the river, scales glinting in the sun, and they would talk about the Yurok's history. The Yurok people have fished and eaten the same runs of Klamath salmon for so many generations, Bill told her, that their DNA is intertwined. He told Amy fishing stories and family history as they drove home, bouncing down the road, the truckbed full of chinook salmon. Bill would talk politics with his fishing buddies, as Amy listened from the backseat of the cab of her dad's truck. "She was my cruising buddy," Bill told me.

Bill was forthright about the hardships the Yurok were up against - the drug and alcohol abuse and poverty that existed alongside pervasive racism, and social and environmental injustices. "You can change things," he would tell her, "but you have to do that within the prevalent system. The most effective way is working with that system."

In 2004, two years after the fish kill, a 24-year-old Cordalis began classes at the Pre-Law Summer Institute through the American Indian Law Center at the University of New Mexico, an intensive program for Indigenous law students that replicates the first eight weeks of law school. Helen Padilla, director of the center and a tribal member of Isleta Pueblo, told me the program is designed to "open the door for the opportunity for Indian people to be able to have a voice" in the legal issues that affect them. Many of the students who go through the program do so for the same reasons as Cordalis, Padilla said: to give back to their tribe and improve their communities. "An Indian attorney has a much more vested interest in advocating for their Indian clients, and a better understanding of why a tribe might want to litigate or negotiate," Padilla said.

There, Cordalis began to learn the full scope of tribal sovereignty, the power of treaties, and the authority that tribes have in government-to-government relationships with the United States. Because tribes remain the sovereign nations they were before colonizers arrived, they have a unique relationship with the United States. Cordalis had known few lawyers before, and even fewer who were Indigenous. That experience, coupled with mentorship from the Indian law firm Berkey Williams, which often represented the Yurok, helped her understand how much could be done within a legal framework, inside the system. "It was the first time that I'd encountered these issues my family has been dealing with for hundreds of years, in an academic way," Cordalis said. It revealed how much agency the law could provide, and how legal decisions in one part of Indian Country could affect all tribes. "Up until that point, we were the clients," she told me. "We were the victims, frankly."

She also learned the limits of the law. A thesis she co-authored in law school analyzed a Supreme Court case that permitted the logging of Yurok ancestral lands, even though they had deep spiritual importance to the tribe. The justices decided that because the Forest Service owned the lands, the Yurok had no legal right to their management. Historically, she wrote, the United States has attempted to sever tribes like the Yurok from their lands, especially once legal title is forcibly transferred, regardless of a tribe's past relationship to the land. The justices, she argued, ignored history. "The tribal narratives underlying (the case) suggest the opposite is true - that tribal attachment to place persists before, during, and after legal conquest."

Cordalis graduated from Sturm College of Law, at the University of Denver, in 2007, and went to work as an attorney for the Native American Rights Fund in nearby Boulder. There, she learned the complexities of water law and how it intersects with Indian law. NARF was established in Boulder in 1971, with an all-Indigenous board. John Echohawk, NARF's executive director since 1977, was in the first class of students to graduate from the pre-law institute that Cordalis attended. "For so long, the only choices were non-Indian attorneys," said Rodina Cave Parnall, a Quechua Peruvian Indian, director of the institute. Since the institute's inception in 1967, when there were just a handful of Indigenous lawyers, some 1,200 students have graduated, including former Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn, a member of the Chickasaw Nation. Native American lawyers and leaders have steadily established themselves across Indian Country and beyond, as a new, younger generation is filling the ranks.

As Cordalis began practicing law, the issues on the Klamath continued to evolve. In 2006, the license to operate the Klamath Hydroelectric Project expired. The project's eight aging dams cut off miles of habitat for salmon, blocking their ability to run up the river, and that year, due to the low salmon numbers, commercial fishing was closed along more than 400 miles of coastline. The hydropower operator, PacifiCorp, faced the possibility of environmental lawsuits if it did not retrofit the dams to help salmon, but the cost of doing so outweighed their profitability. So, in 2009, PacifiCorp began working with a coalition of politicians, conservation groups and tribal nations. The working group, which called itself the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, reached an agreement to remove four of the eight dams on the Klamath, pending federal approval, beginning in 2020 - the largest dam removal project in the United States.

In litigation, Klamath Basin irrigators remain agnostic about the dam removal, because its effect on their interests is unclear. Some proponents say removing the dams could alleviate legal pressure on agriculture, because without dams, a more natural water cycle could help flush out fish diseases - and decrease lawsuits. Meanwhile, the farmers and ranchers on the Upper Klamath continued to struggle. During the drought of 2010, the Klamath Basin received $10 million from Congress. Two years later brought another drought, as did the following year, and the year after that (and the next year, and the next).

In 2013, severe drought meant that farmers' water was cut off during critical parts of the growing season. Amid rising discontent, Oregon state watermasters - a state position that helps track water rights - had to personally visit farms and shut off their irrigation water. "People are hurt, they are angry, and I think there's grieving," Roger Nicholson, a cattle rancher in the Wood River Valley near Fort Klamath, told HCN at the time. "To lose the productive ability of our land is almost like the loss of a family member. It's deep down."

The emotional events of that year drove one watermaster, Scott White, to become the new director of the Klamath Water Users Association in 2016. "At the end of the day, farmers are the backbone of America," White told me. "To be able to grow food and feed America: It's hard to do that without water."

The Klamath Basin's non-Native agricultural ties to the land are deeply entrenched. In 1902, Oregon and California both ceded land to the federal government, which then opened it to homesteading with the promise of water rights for farmers. Veterans of both world wars were given preference, as wetlands were drained and dams were raised on the Klamath. The Bureau of Reclamation's mission for the Klamath Project was to "reclaim the sunbaked prairies and worthless swamps."

Ever since, these communities of farmers and ranchers have hung on like stalwart junipers, enduring economic hardship and drought, with the support of the federal government. But that's been changing slowly, particularly since endangered and threatened species have gained priority under the law, and since tribes began exercising their senior water rights. (Tribal water rights, which can date back to original treaties, often provide the oldest rights on a river.) That long history means that farming out here is more than an income; it's a culture. And that produces a binding knot of paradoxes between river users. "When I do have those conversations with those folks, whether it's the Klamath Tribes or the Yurok Tribe, and they talk about their issues and concerns, I mean, it sounds like I'm talking to my guys," White, the most frequent legal opponent of the downstream tribes, told me. "It's just different perspectives that are out there, but they are identical issues."

In 2014, the Yurok Tribe offered Cordalis a position on its legal team. It had always been her intention to return to Requa, so Cordalis and her husband, Daniel Cordalis, a citizen of the Navajo Nation and an attorney, moved back with their 2-year-old son, Brooks - named for the family riffle on the Klamath. But they found it difficult going; they couldn't find a house, or daycare, or a good grocery store. Food insecurity is prevalent across Del Norte and Humboldt counties, and the closest store to Klamath Glen is about 30 minutes away. After a few months, Daniel was offered a position as an attorney with the environmental law group Earthjustice, in Boulder, so they returned to Colorado.

Later that year, the Yurok Fisheries Department recorded a sweeping epidemic on the Klamath River: 81 percent of its juvenile salmon were infected with Ceratanova shasta, a deadly parasite that thrives when water flows are low. As Cordalis resettled in Colorado, C. shasta infection rates rose, hitting 91 percent the following year, an outbreak that would damage the fish population for years to come. In August 2015, Cordalis had her second son, Keane, named after the Yurok word for fisherman. A year later, when the Yurok Tribe asked her to be the tribe's general counsel, she agreed. She moved her family to McKinleyville, an ocean-side town just south of the Yurok Reservation, and got to work.

Cordalis, who is now 38, is only the second tribal attorney in the tribe's history. The first, John Corbett, started in the 1990s with few resources to work with. "When he first started, they gave him a milk crate, a pad and a pencil," Cordalis told me. By contrast, Cordalis now has a staff of five that prioritizes water issues, dam removal and reacquiring Yurok land for Yurok ownership. While her team represents a broader trend in Indian Country, Native Americans still make up just .2 percent of lawyers nationwide. Still, an Indigenous-led team can change the way law is practiced.

Chief Justice of the Yurok Tribe Abby Abinanti, herself a tribal member, was the first Native woman to pass the bar in California, in 1974. Cordalis' role as both a general counsel and a Yurok citizen is an important development, Abinanti told me. "A lot of what you do as a lawyer is communicate with people who don't know the story," Abinanti said. "And the best storytellers are the ones who are a part of that story." Reclaiming the legal narrative allows the tribe to litigate in the Yurok way. While law is often about individual rights, that's not all the tribe focuses on. "It isn't, 'I have the right to do this to you,' it's, 'I have a responsibility to do this for the community,' and that is a very different approach to the world," Abinanti said.

"Having a Yurok person in this role can have an impact," Cordalis said, "because there's a lot of ways to interpret the law. It's going to make a difference, because we'll exercise that sovereignty like Yuroks, not a county or state government."

Cordalis told me there are many avenues to effect change, be it through science, activism or litigation. Her legal approach, she said, is to identify common ground where possible. With the irrigators, it's the Klamath. "That creates the tension, but it also means we both rely on the Klamath River for our livelihood," she said. "And I think that connection to place and a resource creates a sense of respect and duty to protect." Cordalis said she feels less personal resentment toward the upstream irrigators and the feds than some of her elders and peers do. After all, it was her father, uncle and aunts, not her, who endured armed standoffs on the Klamath. Even so, the family stories drive her, she said. They carry a weight that brings momentum to her work.

"Lawyers aren't born, they're made," Abinanti said. "It's a lot of hard work, and she's going to do the work. I do believe she is the future."

Within her first six months on the job, Cordalis was involved with two major water cases that have implications for salmon survival and the Klamath's health. One of them is the case against the feds currently in the 9th Circuit. The other was a battle over water allocation on the Trinity River, a major tributary to the Klamath, and whether water should go to salmon, or be diverted to California agriculture. In 2017, the 9th Circuit ruled that the amount of evidence demonstrating the salmon's need was "staggering," and that the restoration of the fisheries on the river was "unlawfully long overdue." The court ordered the flushing flows to rehabilitate the Trinity, which had lost 80 percent of its salmon habitat due to the irrigation project on the river, to continue.

Both cases represent progress, but an even bigger task may yet lie ahead. While piecemeal litigation addresses problems one by one, no successful, large-scale agreement to deal with water allocation on the Klamath exists. "It's a living, organic basin, and it will be there forever, and people need to have long-term solutions that they control, rather than courts," said Paul Simmons, who represents the Klamath Water Users Association and was involved with negotiating the last agreement. Cordalis agrees. While lawsuits can be a useful tool, she said, "nobody really wins through litigation." Water is not the only answer to restoring the fishery, and a comprehensive review of river management is needed to support both sustainable agriculture and the return of a pre-dammed river, she said.

The last attempted negotiation, the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, died after Congress failed to pass the necessary legislation to support it. That agreement took years to formulate and was propelled by a friendship between the former executive director for the Yurok Tribe, Troy Fletcher, and the former director of the Klamath Water Users Association, Greg Addington, who used to golf together. "The real beauty of the past agreement was the relationships that were built," said White, the current director. "The tragedy is that I think that we're back in that era of litigation." He's still looking for his "golfing partner," he said. In the meantime, the severity of this year's drought has him worried. "Yes, absolutely we want to get to a long-term solution of some sort, where we don't have to face these issues year in and year out. But on the other hand, if we don't survive this year, we're not going to be at a table to talk about that."

The irrigators and river tribes have a long road to rebuild, starting from the rubble of three previously failed agreements. Under the Trump administration, Alan Mikkelsen, a senior advisor to the secretary of Interior, has begun contacting stakeholders about the potential of a new agreement, because at this point, it's obvious that no one who depends on the river is doing well - not the farmers, not the fishermen, and certainly not the salmon.

Last august, the yurok tribe held its annual Salmon Festival, a public celebration of the first return of native chinook to the Klamath each fall. The 2017 festival was overshadowed by painfully low salmon runs, so much so that festivalgoers ate salmon from Alaska instead. (The year before, they'd had hamburgers and hot dogs.) Because of the long life cycle of chinook, the juvenile salmon populations plagued by C. shasta in 2014 and 2015 were returning as adults, with deeply thinned ranks. The tribe cancelled commercial fishing for the second year in a row, and, for the first time, it cancelled subsistence fishing, a particularly personal blow to families on the Klamath. As the festival got underway, the nearby docks were unusually quiet - devoid of boats, burger shacks and sun-beaten fishermen. A parade went on under skies smudged with smoke from southern Oregon wildfires.

"It's saddening and sickening to see what's happening to our salmon runs in the Klamath River," Chairman Thomas O'Rourke told me in his office, a few days after the parade. "The impacts are major; it's a way of life. In the modern world, people take things for granted and say, 'You can eat other things.' Here, our people depend on our resources to live."

Two months later, Oregon's irrigators appealed the lower court's decision to allow increased flows for the salmon - the next step in a potentially long path to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In January, I drove with Cordalis to the mouth of the Klamath, where the river empties into the Pacific Ocean. We were supposed to take a boat upriver, to see Brooks Riffle, but the boat had broken down, so we walked the quiet docks instead, the estuary water in the afternoon light glinting like fish scales. Little Keane ran ahead, as Cordalis told me about the sense of loss she feels at not having seen the Klamath at its wildest and healthiest. She's never seen the salmon runs she heard about in her dad's stories. "Grandma and Great-Uncle Ray talk about huge fish runs; I've never seen that," Cordalis said.

The Yurok's ancestral lands were once called the Redwood Empire, a vast swath of land that stretched inland through old growth and rocky cliffs, with the Klamath running through it like an artery, the coho salmon red and thick as blood. As Yurok lands were taken, the Klamath suffered, and today, even if the four dams come down, even if the fish got all the water in the Klamath, the salmon would still have to contend with an unhealthy ocean.

We returned to the car with Keane in tow, and, as the sun set, began the drive home. "You talk about the American Dream," Cordalis said, the coastal mists and forest shadows darkening in the twilight. "My family has experienced the exact opposite, through assimilation and genocide - just taking, taking, taking."

Despite all that, the Yurok have always had the Klamath and its salmon. Today, that sense of place sustains the tribe's persistence and underpins Cordalis' work. A generation ago, no one would have thought it possible that the four dams could come down. Now, it seems it's just a matter of time. "We see who we are, and our core values don't change," Cordalis said. "And the funny thing is that we've been fighting that same thing since white people came here, so we're kind of good at it by now."
Anna V. Smith is an assistant editor for High Country News. This story was originally published at High Country News (hcn.org) on June 11, 2018.

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Oregon attorney for Yurok tribe leads Klamath Basin fight

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On a warm September Saturday in 2002, Amy Cordalis stood in a Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department boat on the Klamath River, in response to reports from fishermen that something was amiss on the river.

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Yurok Fishing Rights

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Susan Masten, Raymond Mattz, and Diane Bowers are members of the Yurok Tribe who experienced first-hand government crackdown on tribal salmon fishing rights now known as either the "Fish Wars" or the "Salmon Wars." KCET spoke with Masten, Mattz, and Bowers in Yurok country along the Klamath River.

Co-produced by KCETLink Media Group and the Autry Museum, this six-part multimedia series and one-hour documentary special are presented in association with California Continued, a groundbreaking exhibition now on view at the Autry.

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An Oral History of the Klamath Salmon Wars

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Susan Masten, Raymond Mattz, and Diane Bowers are members of the Yurok Tribe who experienced first-hand government crackdown on tribal salmon fishing rights now known as either the "Fish Wars" or the "Salmon Wars." KCET spoke with Masten, Mattz, and Bowers in Yurok country along the Klamath River.

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On a warm September Saturday in 2002, Amy Cordalis stood in a Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department boat on the Klamath River, in response to reports from fishermen that something was amiss on the river. On this stretch of the Yurok Reservation, the river was wide and deep, having wound its way from its headwaters at the Upper Klamath Lake, through arid south-central Oregon to the California coast. Cordalis, then 22, was a summer fish technician intern, whose job was to record the tribe's daily catch. A college student in Oregon, she'd found a way to spend time with her family and be on the river she'd grown up with - its forested banks and family fishing hole drawing her back year after year.

But that morning, something was wrong. Cordalis watched as adult salmon, one after the other, jumped out of the water, mouths gaping, before plunging back into the river. Her father, Bill Bowers, who was gillnetting farther downriver, looked up to see a raft of salmon corpses floating around the bend. The carcasses piled up on the banks and floated in eddies, as seagulls swept inland to pick at the remains.

Remnants of the fish kill lingered for weeks, as Cordalis and fishermen up and down the river looked on in shock. By the end of it, California and the Hoopa Valley, Karuk and Yurok tribes made a conservative estimate of the toll - 34,000 dead salmon along the Klamath - though officials said the sheer volume made a true count difficult. It was the largest fish kill in both Yurok and U.S. history, and its cause was no mystery. Earlier that year, the federal government had capitulated to public pressure from farmers and ranchers in the Klamath Basin and diverted water from the river to irrigate fields. The resulting low flows created a marine environment where fatal diseases could fester.

The Klamath water crisis and ensuing fish kill marked a pivotal moment for the Yurok Tribe. It shaped a generation of people, many of whom feel a fierce responsibility for a river that not only carries fish and water, but centuries of stories and struggle as well. As Amy Cordalis watched the salmon die, she told herself she would find a way to prevent similar tragedies. Today, she is the Yurok Tribe's general counsel - meaning that, for the first time, the tribe has one of its own to lead its battles in court.

Since the fish kill, legal fights over the Klamath have rarely abated. As time goes on, though, the stakes increase, as salmon populations steadily drop, stream flows dwindle and disease blights the water. This year, snowpack was a paltry 46 percent of normal in the Klamath Basin by March, and Oregon's governor, Kate Brown, D, declared another drought in Klamath County. "Tensions are rising, people are looking for any source of water they can possibly use to get their crops wet," Scott White, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association, told me. "It is an operational nightmare."

While the Yurok Tribe, the largest in California, has secured a number of legal wins for water and salmon, Cordalis told me recently that two main issues on the Klamath remain the same: an over-allocated river and dams that diminish water quality. What is different, though, is how the tribe is representing itself in court. As a lead attorney and a tribal member, Cordalis hopes to change those two fundamental problems by creating a legal framework that prioritizes fish as much as it does agriculture. "We are back to the time of the tribes on the river again," Cordalis said. "We are reclaiming that governance now."

One of Cordalis' most important cases, Yurok Tribe et al. vs. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation et al., is currently in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In that case, the Yurok and Hoopa Valley tribes, joined by commercial fishermen, are suing the Interior Department's Bureau of Reclamation over the agency's water plan, which they allege is not adequately preventing the fish diseases that result from low flows. They argue that the salmon, specifically endangered coho, need more water to consistently flush out disease-causing parasites. Water districts and irrigators, namely the Klamath Water Users Association, have sided with the Bureau, disputing the need for increased river flows and claiming they can't give up any more water. This year, diversions away from irrigation have delayed farming, and White said he worries that some Klamath Basin farmers will go under.

As part of that case, in April, a district court judge ruled that endangered salmon on the Klamath are entitled to prioritized protection under the law. So when infection rates for salmon tipped over the legal limit later that month, water was again diverted from irrigators. The rest of the case has yet to be heard, but if Cordalis and her team secure a win, it will be an incremental step toward restoring Klamath salmon, and by extension the Yurok Tribe. The case and resulting water flows, she said, is "one of the most important conservation measures protecting Klamath River salmon from complete extinction."

If Cordalis succeeds in winning this case and others, she will owe much of it to the family members who fought before her. Cordalis' grandmother, Lavina Bowers, née Mattz, the family matriarch, has lived through the acquisition of Yurok lands and water by non-Natives, confrontations with armed federal agents, and the gradual renewal of Yurok political will and culture. I met Bowers at the Requa Inn, a 104-year-old hotel owned by Cordalis' aunt (the first Yurok owners in nearly 100 years), which overlooks the Klamath River on the Yurok Reservation. It was a blue-skied January morning, and the light shimmered on the water's surface through the inn windows while Cordalis and her 2-year-old son, Keane, played nearby. Bowers wore a denim jacket and silk neckerchief, and as she described growing up in the 1930s, her traditional shell earrings swung gently back and forth.

As a child, Bowers lived upriver on a family farm, where she and her brother, Raymond, picked salmonberries in summer and rode a boat to school in the fall. It was a time of intense racism, socially accepted and legally codified in state and federal policy. At that time, the Yurok, a tribe long established along the rugged coast and Klamath River, had no overarching government and little say in what happened to its lands or people. Many of Bowers' peers were sent to boarding schools by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a disruption that fractured her generation. Some returned, trying to earn a living in the fishing canneries in Klamath Glen on the reservation, or with the lumber companies, whose wealth was held primarily in non-Native hands. "Indian people have never really had justice," Bowers told me. "A lot of us didn't know how to stand up and talk for ourselves. I was an Indian kid that was treated like an Indian."

The Yurok signed a treaty with the United States in 1851, but white settlers, hungry for gold in the newfound state of California, pressured Congress not to ratify it. A reservation was established in 1855, but as early as 1874, settlers argued that it had been abandoned, and that they had a right to homestead. In 1887, Congress passed the General Allotment Act, essentially divvying up the reservation into small parcels for each Yurok, with any "surplus" lands going to non-Native homesteaders. Much of the allotted land thus passed out of Yurok hands. "Each time that I make a trip to the territory," a BIA superintendent wrote in 1918, "I have it more forcibly impressed upon my mind that somehow the Indians did not get a fair portion of the land."

Still, they had the river. In the early 1940s, despite a state ban on traditional salmon gillnetting, Lavina and Raymond would sneak down to the Klamath at night to fish. Under the light of the moon, they would set their long nets across the breezy river, lie on a sand bar and wait for the fish. When game wardens came by to pull up the nets, the children would hide under a blanket. "I used to lay there under the blanket thinking they'd hear my heart beat," Lavina said. "I'd try not to breathe."

Raymond Mattz was 12 years old when he first got in trouble with a warden for gillnetting. As an adult, in September 1969, he was fishing the fall run of chinook salmon at the family's fishing hole, called Brooks Riffle - named for his great-great-great grandfather. When a state game warden caught Mattz and a group of friends with five gill nets, Mattz claimed all five nets were his and was arrested. He then sued the state of California to return the nets, but the state refused to return them, claiming that Mattz could not legally gillnet in the state of California. The state argued that the Yurok Reservation had lost so much of its land to non-Native homesteaders and companies that it no longer met the legal definition of Indian Country. At its core, Mattz vs. Arnett was a challenge to tribal sovereignty, the ability of tribes to govern themselves. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the state lost. The court affirmed, in 1973, the Yurok Tribe's treaty rights to fish by traditional means, including gillnetting, and declared that the Yurok Reservation was indeed a part of Indian Country, a legal term that refers to lands held by tribes. Mattz's stand on Brooks Riffle is not only part of Cordalis' family lore but is also recorded in federal Indian law.

The Mattz case became part of a broader conflict in the Northwest called the Fish Wars. Triggered in part by the political momentum of the civil rights era, the Fish Wars included civil disobedience, such as "fish-ins," in which Indigenous fishermen would flagrantly practice their treaty-held fishing rights, only to be arrested. The movement was also galvanized by the landmark Boldt Decision of 1974, which reaffirmed the rights of tribes to co-manage their fisheries and to harvest according to various signed treaties.

"The fact that we won that right in the Supreme Court, you'd like to think that they decided the way that things should be," Bowers said.

Still, after the case was concluded in 1973, California found other means to invalidate the tribe's fishing rights. A Supreme Court decision in 1977 gave states the power over tribes to regulate tribal fishing for conservation purposes. In 1978, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife closed down Indian fishing on the Klamath River, ostensibly for conservation reasons. Lavina's son (and Amy's father), Bill Bowers, remembers that period well. Signs and bumper stickers put up by disgruntled non-Native fisherman appeared on and near the reservation: "Can an Indian, Save a Fish." Federal agents in riot gear enforced the moratorium by pulling up nets and ramming boats, and, the Yurok allege, by using physical violence and intimidation. "The hostility that was there was intense," Bill told me. They began fishing at night again, leaving their flashlights in the truck.

It was into this moment of unrest that Cordalis was born, in March 1980.

Cordalis was the first of five siblings. From the time she was 5, Cordalis and her dad, a Yurok citizen and parole and probation officer, would drive from their family's home in Oregon to Requa, on the reservation, when the salmon began their spring run from the Pacific up the Klamath, and again in the fall when the fish returned to the ocean. The pair would hang out at the seasonal fishing camps along the river and at their family fishing hole at Brooks Riffle, where, Cordalis says, "it all began."

They would watch the salmon move up the river, scales glinting in the sun, and they would talk about the Yurok's history. The Yurok people have fished and eaten the same runs of Klamath salmon for so many generations, Bill told her, that their DNA is intertwined. He told Amy fishing stories and family history as they drove home, bouncing down the road, the truckbed full of chinook salmon. Bill would talk politics with his fishing buddies, as Amy listened from the backseat of the cab of her dad's truck. "She was my cruising buddy," Bill told me.

Bill was forthright about the hardships the Yurok were up against - the drug and alcohol abuse and poverty that existed alongside pervasive racism, and social and environmental injustices. "You can change things," he would tell her, "but you have to do that within the prevalent system. The most effective way is working with that system."

In 2004, two years after the fish kill, a 24-year-old Cordalis began classes at the Pre-Law Summer Institute through the American Indian Law Center at the University of New Mexico, an intensive program for Indigenous law students that replicates the first eight weeks of law school. Helen Padilla, director of the center and a tribal member of Isleta Pueblo, told me the program is designed to "open the door for the opportunity for Indian people to be able to have a voice" in the legal issues that affect them. Many of the students who go through the program do so for the same reasons as Cordalis, Padilla said: to give back to their tribe and improve their communities. "An Indian attorney has a much more vested interest in advocating for their Indian clients, and a better understanding of why a tribe might want to litigate or negotiate," Padilla said.

There, Cordalis began to learn the full scope of tribal sovereignty, the power of treaties, and the authority that tribes have in government-to-government relationships with the United States. Because tribes remain the sovereign nations they were before colonizers arrived, they have a unique relationship with the United States. Cordalis had known few lawyers before, and even fewer who were Indigenous. That experience, coupled with mentorship from the Indian law firm Berkey Williams, which often represented the Yurok, helped her understand how much could be done within a legal framework, inside the system. "It was the first time that I'd encountered these issues my family has been dealing with for hundreds of years, in an academic way," Cordalis said. It revealed how much agency the law could provide, and how legal decisions in one part of Indian Country could affect all tribes. "Up until that point, we were the clients," she told me. "We were the victims, frankly."

She also learned the limits of the law. A thesis she co-authored in law school analyzed a Supreme Court case that permitted the logging of Yurok ancestral lands, even though they had deep spiritual importance to the tribe. The justices decided that because the Forest Service owned the lands, the Yurok had no legal right to their management. Historically, she wrote, the United States has attempted to sever tribes like the Yurok from their lands, especially once legal title is forcibly transferred, regardless of a tribe's past relationship to the land. The justices, she argued, ignored history. "The tribal narratives underlying (the case) suggest the opposite is true - that tribal attachment to place persists before, during, and after legal conquest."

Cordalis graduated from Sturm College of Law, at the University of Denver, in 2007, and went to work as an attorney for the Native American Rights Fund in nearby Boulder. There, she learned the complexities of water law and how it intersects with Indian law. NARF was established in Boulder in 1971, with an all-Indigenous board. John Echohawk, NARF's executive director since 1977, was in the first class of students to graduate from the pre-law institute that Cordalis attended. "For so long, the only choices were non-Indian attorneys," said Rodina Cave Parnall, a Quechua Peruvian Indian, director of the institute. Since the institute's inception in 1967, when there were just a handful of Indigenous lawyers, some 1,200 students have graduated, including former Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn, a member of the Chickasaw Nation. Native American lawyers and leaders have steadily established themselves across Indian Country and beyond, as a new, younger generation is filling the ranks.

As Cordalis began practicing law, the issues on the Klamath continued to evolve. In 2006, the license to operate the Klamath Hydroelectric Project expired. The project's eight aging dams cut off miles of habitat for salmon, blocking their ability to run up the river, and that year, due to the low salmon numbers, commercial fishing was closed along more than 400 miles of coastline. The hydropower operator, PacifiCorp, faced the possibility of environmental lawsuits if it did not retrofit the dams to help salmon, but the cost of doing so outweighed their profitability. So, in 2009, PacifiCorp began working with a coalition of politicians, conservation groups and tribal nations. The working group, which called itself the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, reached an agreement to remove four of the eight dams on the Klamath, pending federal approval, beginning in 2020 - the largest dam removal project in the United States.

In litigation, Klamath Basin irrigators remain agnostic about the dam removal, because its effect on their interests is unclear. Some proponents say removing the dams could alleviate legal pressure on agriculture, because without dams, a more natural water cycle could help flush out fish diseases - and decrease lawsuits. Meanwhile, the farmers and ranchers on the Upper Klamath continued to struggle. During the drought of 2010, the Klamath Basin received $10 million from Congress. Two years later brought another drought, as did the following year, and the year after that (and the next year, and the next).

In 2013, severe drought meant that farmers' water was cut off during critical parts of the growing season. Amid rising discontent, Oregon state watermasters - a state position that helps track water rights - had to personally visit farms and shut off their irrigation water. "People are hurt, they are angry, and I think there's grieving," Roger Nicholson, a cattle rancher in the Wood River Valley near Fort Klamath, told HCN at the time. "To lose the productive ability of our land is almost like the loss of a family member. It's deep down."

The emotional events of that year drove one watermaster, Scott White, to become the new director of the Klamath Water Users Association in 2016. "At the end of the day, farmers are the backbone of America," White told me. "To be able to grow food and feed America: It's hard to do that without water."

The Klamath Basin's non-Native agricultural ties to the land are deeply entrenched. In 1902, Oregon and California both ceded land to the federal government, which then opened it to homesteading with the promise of water rights for farmers. Veterans of both world wars were given preference, as wetlands were drained and dams were raised on the Klamath. The Bureau of Reclamation's mission for the Klamath Project was to "reclaim the sunbaked prairies and worthless swamps."

Ever since, these communities of farmers and ranchers have hung on like stalwart junipers, enduring economic hardship and drought, with the support of the federal government. But that's been changing slowly, particularly since endangered and threatened species have gained priority under the law, and since tribes began exercising their senior water rights. (Tribal water rights, which can date back to original treaties, often provide the oldest rights on a river.) That long history means that farming out here is more than an income; it's a culture. And that produces a binding knot of paradoxes between river users. "When I do have those conversations with those folks, whether it's the Klamath Tribes or the Yurok Tribe, and they talk about their issues and concerns, I mean, it sounds like I'm talking to my guys," White, the most frequent legal opponent of the downstream tribes, told me. "It's just different perspectives that are out there, but they are identical issues."

In 2014, the Yurok Tribe offered Cordalis a position on its legal team. It had always been her intention to return to Requa, so Cordalis and her husband, Daniel Cordalis, a citizen of the Navajo Nation and an attorney, moved back with their 2-year-old son, Brooks - named for the family riffle on the Klamath. But they found it difficult going; they couldn't find a house, or daycare, or a good grocery store. Food insecurity is prevalent across Del Norte and Humboldt counties, and the closest store to Klamath Glen is about 30 minutes away. After a few months, Daniel was offered a position as an attorney with the environmental law group Earthjustice, in Boulder, so they returned to Colorado.

Later that year, the Yurok Fisheries Department recorded a sweeping epidemic on the Klamath River: 81 percent of its juvenile salmon were infected with Ceratanova shasta, a deadly parasite that thrives when water flows are low. As Cordalis resettled in Colorado, C. shasta infection rates rose, hitting 91 percent the following year, an outbreak that would damage the fish population for years to come. In August 2015, Cordalis had her second son, Keane, named after the Yurok word for fisherman. A year later, when the Yurok Tribe asked her to be the tribe's general counsel, she agreed. She moved her family to McKinleyville, an ocean-side town just south of the Yurok Reservation, and got to work.

Cordalis, who is now 38, is only the second tribal attorney in the tribe's history. The first, John Corbett, started in the 1990s with few resources to work with. "When he first started, they gave him a milk crate, a pad and a pencil," Cordalis told me. By contrast, Cordalis now has a staff of five that prioritizes water issues, dam removal and reacquiring Yurok land for Yurok ownership. While her team represents a broader trend in Indian Country, Native Americans still make up just .2 percent of lawyers nationwide. Still, an Indigenous-led team can change the way law is practiced.

Chief Justice of the Yurok Tribe Abby Abinanti, herself a tribal member, was the first Native woman to pass the bar in California, in 1974. Cordalis' role as both a general counsel and a Yurok citizen is an important development, Abinanti told me. "A lot of what you do as a lawyer is communicate with people who don't know the story," Abinanti said. "And the best storytellers are the ones who are a part of that story." Reclaiming the legal narrative allows the tribe to litigate in the Yurok way. While law is often about individual rights, that's not all the tribe focuses on. "It isn't, 'I have the right to do this to you,' it's, 'I have a responsibility to do this for the community,' and that is a very different approach to the world," Abinanti said.

"Having a Yurok person in this role can have an impact," Cordalis said, "because there's a lot of ways to interpret the law. It's going to make a difference, because we'll exercise that sovereignty like Yuroks, not a county or state government."

Cordalis told me there are many avenues to effect change, be it through science, activism or litigation. Her legal approach, she said, is to identify common ground where possible. With the irrigators, it's the Klamath. "That creates the tension, but it also means we both rely on the Klamath River for our livelihood," she said. "And I think that connection to place and a resource creates a sense of respect and duty to protect." Cordalis said she feels less personal resentment toward the upstream irrigators and the feds than some of her elders and peers do. After all, it was her father, uncle and aunts, not her, who endured armed standoffs on the Klamath. Even so, the family stories drive her, she said. They carry a weight that brings momentum to her work.

"Lawyers aren't born, they're made," Abinanti said. "It's a lot of hard work, and she's going to do the work. I do believe she is the future."

Within her first six months on the job, Cordalis was involved with two major water cases that have implications for salmon survival and the Klamath's health. One of them is the case against the feds currently in the 9th Circuit. The other was a battle over water allocation on the Trinity River, a major tributary to the Klamath, and whether water should go to salmon, or be diverted to California agriculture. In 2017, the 9th Circuit ruled that the amount of evidence demonstrating the salmon's need was "staggering," and that the restoration of the fisheries on the river was "unlawfully long overdue." The court ordered the flushing flows to rehabilitate the Trinity, which had lost 80 percent of its salmon habitat due to the irrigation project on the river, to continue.

Both cases represent progress, but an even bigger task may yet lie ahead. While piecemeal litigation addresses problems one by one, no successful, large-scale agreement to deal with water allocation on the Klamath exists. "It's a living, organic basin, and it will be there forever, and people need to have long-term solutions that they control, rather than courts," said Paul Simmons, who represents the Klamath Water Users Association and was involved with negotiating the last agreement. Cordalis agrees. While lawsuits can be a useful tool, she said, "nobody really wins through litigation." Water is not the only answer to restoring the fishery, and a comprehensive review of river management is needed to support both sustainable agriculture and the return of a pre-dammed river, she said.

The last attempted negotiation, the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, died after Congress failed to pass the necessary legislation to support it. That agreement took years to formulate and was propelled by a friendship between the former executive director for the Yurok Tribe, Troy Fletcher, and the former director of the Klamath Water Users Association, Greg Addington, who used to golf together. "The real beauty of the past agreement was the relationships that were built," said White, the current director. "The tragedy is that I think that we're back in that era of litigation." He's still looking for his "golfing partner," he said. In the meantime, the severity of this year's drought has him worried. "Yes, absolutely we want to get to a long-term solution of some sort, where we don't have to face these issues year in and year out. But on the other hand, if we don't survive this year, we're not going to be at a table to talk about that."

The irrigators and river tribes have a long road to rebuild, starting from the rubble of three previously failed agreements. Under the Trump administration, Alan Mikkelsen, a senior advisor to the secretary of Interior, has begun contacting stakeholders about the potential of a new agreement, because at this point, it's obvious that no one who depends on the river is doing well - not the farmers, not the fishermen, and certainly not the salmon.

Last August, the Yurok Tribe held its annual Salmon Festival, a public celebration of the first return of native chinook to the Klamath each fall. The 2017 festival was overshadowed by painfully low salmon runs, so much so that festivalgoers ate salmon from Alaska instead. (The year before, they'd had hamburgers and hot dogs.) Because of the long life cycle of chinook, the juvenile salmon populations plagued by C. shasta in 2014 and 2015 were returning as adults, with deeply thinned ranks. The tribe cancelled commercial fishing for the second year in a row, and, for the first time, it cancelled subsistence fishing, a particularly personal blow to families on the Klamath. As the festival got underway, the nearby docks were unusually quiet - devoid of boats, burger shacks and sun-beaten fishermen. A parade went on under skies smudged with smoke from southern Oregon wildfires.

"It's saddening and sickening to see what's happening to our salmon runs in the Klamath River," Chairman Thomas O'Rourke told me in his office, a few days after the parade. "The impacts are major; it's a way of life. In the modern world, people take things for granted and say, 'You can eat other things.' Here, our people depend on our resources to live."

Two months later, Oregon's irrigators appealed the lower court's decision to allow increased flows for the salmon - the next step in a potentially long path to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In January, I drove with Cordalis to the mouth of the Klamath, where the river empties into the Pacific Ocean. We were supposed to take a boat upriver, to see Brooks Riffle, but the boat had broken down, so we walked the quiet docks instead, the estuary water in the afternoon light glinting like fish scales. Little Keane ran ahead, as Cordalis told me about the sense of loss she feels at not having seen the Klamath at its wildest and healthiest. She's never seen the salmon runs she heard about in her dad's stories. "Grandma and Great-Uncle Ray talk about huge fish runs; I've never seen that," Cordalis said.

The Yurok's ancestral lands were once called the Redwood Empire, a vast swath of land that stretched inland through old growth and rocky cliffs, with the Klamath running through it like an artery, the coho salmon red and thick as blood. As Yurok lands were taken, the Klamath suffered, and today, even if the four dams come down, even if the fish got all the water in the Klamath, the salmon would still have to contend with an unhealthy ocean.

We returned to the car with Keane in tow, and, as the sun set, began the drive home. "You talk about the American Dream," Cordalis said, the coastal mists and forest shadows darkening in the twilight. "My family has experienced the exact opposite, through assimilation and genocide - just taking, taking, taking."

Despite all that, the Yurok have always had the Klamath and its salmon. Today, that sense of place sustains the tribe's persistence and underpins Cordalis' work. A generation ago, no one would have thought it possible that the four dams could come down. Now, it seems it's just a matter of time. "We see who we are, and our core values don't change," Cordalis said. "And the funny thing is that we've been fighting that same thing since white people came here, so we're kind of good at it by now."

Anna V. Smith is an assistant editor for HCN. Follow @annavtoriasmith

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How the Yurok Tribe is reclaiming the Klamath River

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On a warm September Saturday in 2002, Amy Cordalis stood in a Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department boat on the Klamath River, in response to reports from fishermen that something was amiss on the river.

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Matika Wilbur—photographer, activist, writer, and educator—has undertaken Project 562, an endeavor of unprecedented impact and scope. Project 562 seeks to photograph every Federally recognized tribe in the United States and reveal in a brilliant spectrum of art, media, and curricula, the rich and complex twenty-first century image and reality of contemporary Native Americans.

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Author Tommy Orange in Conversation with Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Samuel Getachew

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Native American Studies at Humboldt State is more than an academic discipline. We're a continuation of Indigenous knowledge from time immemorial, presenting a depth of Native American experience from a distinctly tribal perspective. As the first CSU campus to offer a baccalaureate degree in Native American Studies, and still the only program of its kind in the CSU, NAS continues to develop as a stand-alone department, with active input from tribes.

Humboldt State is not only a proven leader in serving Native American students in California, but our broad program appeals to non-Native students who are passionate about issues of social justice, sustainable living and natural resource management.

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Native American Studies at Humboldt State is more than an academic discipline. We're a continuation of Indigenous knowledge from time immemorial, presenting a depth of Native American experience from a distinctly tribal perspective.

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Transcripts and links to archival audio recordings of three native Wiyot speakers can be found at the links below:

Weaver Denman audio (1 word list, 83 words)

Della Prince audio (multiple word & phrase lists and narratives, about 14 hours total)

Nettie Rossig audio (1 word list, 161 words)
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There are no remaining fluent speakers of Wiyot (no one alive today grew up speaking Wiyot as their first language). However, there is a great deal of documentation of the Wiyot language that was compiled when the language was still spoken natively.

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Geography

Yurok has been spoken in northwest California for many hundreds of years. The traditional territory of the Yurok language and people lies along the Klamath River from Wechpues (Weitchpec) to Rekw'oy (Requa), and also south along the Pacific coast to Chuerey (Trinidad). Neighboring languages include Tolowa (north along the coast), Wiyot (south along the coast), Chilula (in the hills south of the Klamath), Hupa (along the Trinity River, which meets the Klamath at Wechpues), and Karuk (upriver along the Klamath).

People

Before the arrival of Euro-Americans in the mid-nineteenth century, the Yurok language had two or three thousand speakers*; it was the living language of a thriving community. Today, while Yurok is not used as the language of ordinary daily communication in any households, there remain a few elderly first-language speakers who learned the language as children. There is also a very active language revival program in the community and local schools, with formal classes for all ages (preschool through high school, and evening adult classes) and informal immersion groups sponsored by the Yurok Tribe. If you visit Wechpues (Weitchpec) or Hop'ew (Klamath), you may meet an elder who speaks Yurok, but you may also hear young people using the language of their heritage.

*It is hard to estimate the pre-contact population: there are no written records, and many Yurok people died of new diseases or were killed in the decades after White arrival. Population estimates are based on counts of villages and the number of people believed to live in villages.

Related languages

Yurok is distantly related to its neighbor Wiyot, and to languages belonging to the Algonquian language family spoken across central and eastern North America; the Algonquian languages include Blackfoot, Cree, Ojibwe, and many others. Linguists believe that Wiyot, Yurok, and all the Algonquian languages descend from a single common ancestor spoken thousands of years ago, perhaps somewhere in present-day eastern Washington or Oregon or northern Idaho. The relations and history of these languages are areas of active research among linguists, archaeologists, and historians.

Grammar and sounds

The following web pages present general information about the Yurok language:

Other resources with more detailed information include R. H. Robins's book The Yurok language: Texts, grammar, lexicon (1958) and a Yurok Language Project booklet Basic Yurok grammar (2010), which you can download here.

Teaching, learning, and documenting Yurok

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Yurok has been spoken in northwest California for many hundreds of years. The traditional territory of the Yurok language and people lies along the Klamath River from Wechpues (Weitchpec) to Rekw'oy (Requa), and also south along the Pacific coast to Chuerey (Trinidad).

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You are visitor # since January 10, 1997

Last updated: 9/08

Disclaimer

This page is not an official page of any tribe, Indian organization, or educational institution.

Please send me email with any comments you may have regarding these pages: danny_ammon@hotmail,com.

The major learning experience I have had is working with fluent speakers for 3 years in a Master/Apprentice program which was sponsored by the Native California Network in Sebastopol, CA. I have worked with Hupa speakers Calvin Carpenter and Ruth Beck. Other Hupa teams have also participated in this program.

Hupa I Class, 2007-2008, Hoopa Valley High School

Mr. Ammon, Demetrius Villegas, Shaylynne Masten, Clayton McCovey

Harwood Starritt, Angela McConnell, Shanley Masten, Naomi Van Pelt, Tashone Rice, Melissa Phines, Willie Simms

Vivian Tello, Chance Carpenter Jr., Shirley Hurley, Carlos Estrada

Sample Conversations using Transcriber

Danny and Muriel Ammon, Summer 2008

Hupa Language Lessons Developed with ACORNS software

Family Dinner by Ginger Rogers

Set 1 Lessons (Animals, Fruit, Colors, My Body, My River Home) by Ginger Rogers

More information on ACORNS = Acquisition of Restored Native Speech by Dan Harvey, Southern Oregon University

Books, Papers, Videos on Hupa Language

Hupa Linguistics

C. Hart Merriam

J.P. Harrington interview with Saxey Kidd at the South Fork of the Trinity River. Interpreted by Carrie Bussell. 1928. Available on microfilm. Extensive information on places around Willow Creek, the South Fork, Burnt Ranch, and New River.

Mary Woodward

Downloadable Software useful for Language Work

Transcriber
Can put in audio and add text that follows audio

Acorns
Acquisition of Restored Native Speech by Dan Harvey, Southern Oregon University

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You are visitor # since January 10, 1997 Last updated: 9/08 This page is not an official page of any tribe, Indian organization, or educational institution. Please send me email with any comments you may have regarding these pages: danny_ammon@hotmail,com.

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Native American Indian Publications & Magazine Resources Crazy Crow Trading Post offers this list of Native American Indian related links to help you in your search for information about American Indian tribes, associations, history and related information.

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There are nearly 600 Native American groups in the U.S., each with its own culture. But within that incredible diversity, there is much common ground. Many of the same issues and interests are at the forefront across Native America.

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Native America Calling refers to itself as a "national electronic talking circle." The live call-in show " is heard on nearly 70 public, community and tribal radio stations in the United States and in Canada."

Topics range from news and politics to arts and culture to daily life for Native people across North America, and the show's web site offers audio and additional reporting on the topics covered on the broadcasts. This thought-provoking show provides a unique, on-the-ground view of the most important issues across Native America.
Story to listen to right now: Reviving voices from the past.
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High Country News is dedicated to the Western U.S. The web site and magazine offer in-depth reporting particularly on environmental news and issues.

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Native Business focuses on business, finance, and entrepreneurship amongst Native Americans. Coverage spans all major industries along with sections featuring startups, disruptors, and future leaders.

Going well beyond gaming, the magazine emphasizes the diversity of Native American businesses from small to large. In its May 2019 issue, Native Business named the Native Business Top 50 Entrepreneurs.
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Founded in 2012, Native Max was the nation's first Native American fashion magazine. While the concentration is firmly on fashion, Native Max mixes in arts, cuisine, entertainment, and culture to provide a complete and modern view of the Native Americans making marks on their fields.
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Nicole Howard is a product manager at Cision, as well as an editor and freelance writer. When not working or reading, she enjoys word puzzles and the outdoors.

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From time to time, an industry or subject inspires us to create a best-of list. These are sites that produce out-of-this-world coverage in a crowded arena. In case you've missed some, you can find them here. If you think your site should be considered, give us a holler and tell us why.

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Native Businesses to Support

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Posted By Toyacoyah Brown Last Updated on: March 26th, 2020

As you might have seen from past articles and gift guides, we love supporting our Native & First Nations entrepreneurs!

We wanted to put a spotlight on some of these amazing Native-owned and First Nations-owned businesses that might not get the attention they deserve. Also on the list are some businesses that, while not native-owned, help to sell Native products and keep the pow wow going.

Update - Because of the popularity of this article, we have opened a full online directory of places to shop for Native products!

Native American Beauty Supplies and Products

ArXotica - The Sparck sisters, members of the Qissunamiut Tribe, source their own ingredients to produce skincare products made with TLC - Tundra Loving Care.

Bison Star Naturals - Based in Taos, New Mexico, this body care company is run by a husband and wife team. Their products are made with organically, naturally and locally sourced ingredients and never contain animal products, dyes or perfumes.

Cheekbone Beauty - This cosmetics company based out of Ontario, Canada, was founded by Jennifer Harper (Anishinaabe). They're known for creating high quality, cruelty-free beauty products.

Indigenous Cosmetics - Based out of Colorado, Indigenous Cosmetics is Sicangu Lakota/Chippewa Cree owned. Their products are made with natural ingredients in small batches, and hand-poured.

Mother Earth Essentials - A Canadian indigenous-owned company, Mother Earth Essentials creates luxurious bath & beauty products from natural ingredients and traditional recipes.

QUW'UTSUN' MADE - Founder Arianna Johnny-Wadsworth is from the Quw'utsun'/Cowichan Peoples. She started the company as a way to preserve the traditional knowledge of the Coast Salish Nation, like good medicine, through sustainable skin care.

Sequoia Soaps - 100% native-owned and operated, and handmade with natural ingredients.

Sister Sky - A certified Native American, women-owned company that creates natural hair and body care products. Real life sisters, Monica Simeon and Marina TurningRobe, are both enrolled citizens of the Spokane Tribe in Washington.

Blankets

Eighth Generation - Living by the motto "Inspired Natives, not Native-inspired", this native-owned and operated company sells 100% Native designed products. Founded by artist and activist Louie Gong (Nooksack), they're the first native-owned company to produce wool blankets!

Kotah Bear - Owned by a husband and wife team who are both enrolled members of the Diné (Navajo) tribe. The company is known for their plush blankets as well as handcrafted items like jewelry and home goods.

Kraff's - Located on the Yakama Indian Reservation, Kraff's has been a longtime fixture in the native community. Not native-owned, but they travel to some of the bigger pow wows and have gotten to know many folks along the pow wow trail. World famous for their blankets and apparel.

Pendleton - Not native-owned but they've been a big presence in the Native community for many years. Pendleton blankets are usually gifted in ceremonies, pow wows, or other significant milestones.

Teton Trade Cloth - Started by making wool trade cloth. Teton now has a full line of blankets.

Books

Birchbark Books - Owned by Louise Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Chippewa), based in Minneapolis, and has a large selection of books written by Indigenous authors as well as books about Indigenous peoples.

Red Planet Books & Comics - Native Realities, the Albuquerque-based company behind the Indigenous Comic Con, opened this store to feature comics, toys, games, kid's books and pop art from Native and Indigenous artists and writers.

Clothing & Accessories

49 Design - A small Native-owned company that specializes is all-over print products like clothing, shoes, accessories and home décor.

Aconav - A native-owned and operated couture fashion brand, based in Phoenix, AZ. The brand celebrates the strength and empowerment of women through positive expressions in designs that tie culture to modern style.

Ataumbi Metals - Raised on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, Keri Ataumbi was exposed to both traditional Native American aesthetics and contemporary art theory and practice from an early age. Her Kiowa mother ran a trading post and her Italian-American father is famous for his bronze sculptures. Ataumbi and her sister were encouraged to pursue their individual interests in art, and the results are gorgeous.

B. Yellowtail - The clothing is designed by Northern Cheyenne & Crow fashion designer Bethany Yellowtail, and their accessories are 100% handmade by a collective of Native American artisans whom hail from Tribal Nations throughout North America.

Beyond Buckskin - Launched in 2009 by Jessica R. Metcalfe (Turtle Mountain Chippewa) to promote Native artists and designers. They soon expanded to include an online boutique and work with over 40 artists throughout Turtle Island.

Edzerza Gallery - Alano Edzerza is a Tahltan multimedia artist and entrepreneur based in West Vancouver, British Columbia. His business focuses on art, apparel, and jewelry for everybody.

Eighth Generation - Living by the motto "Inspired Natives, not Native-inspired", this native-owned and operated company sells 100% Native designed products. Founded by artist and activist Louie Gong (Nooksack).

Emmett Navakuku - An award-winning artist from the Hopi Reservation. Be sure to follow his Facebook to see what stunning jewelry he's been working on!

Etkie - A company that creates luxury cuffs handcrafted by Native American artisans in New Mexico to create timeless, ethical heirloom jewelry, designed to empower the women who make and wear them.

Ginew - The only native-owned denim brand! They focus on American-made materials, and fuse that with elements of their Native American (Ojibwe, Oneida, and Mohican) heritage to express a contemporary Native voice through premium apparel and accessories.

Gourd Jewels - Created by Hopi artist Michael Adams, his unique jewelry combines his background in woodcarving and painting. They even have a jewelry subscription service, a unique gift for anyone!

J. Okuma - A Native American artist (Luiseño and Shoshone-Bannock) known for her intricate beadwork, mixed-media soft sculpture, and fashion design.

Manitobah Mukluks - An indigenous-owned company that specializes in mukluks, the original winter boot of Canada!

Marco Arviso - A Navajo (Diné) artist who draws from his past experience in painting and sculpting and brings it to the world of jewelry design.

N8V Ace - Founded by Ricky Nelson, aka N8V ACE, a Diné (Navajo) Entrepreneur/Author/Videographer/Rap Artist who promotes culture, Native language preservation, and positivity to all. He sells a fun mix of clothing and accessories with the Navajo language on it.

Native Gorilla - Native Gorilla is a hand printed clothing company dedicated to supporting nonprofits (Stronghold Society & Native Women's House of the Rockies) through sports, art, and community service!

Native Works by Chief Seattle Club - In partnership with its parent organization, Chief Seattle Club, Native Works honors Native tradition while fostering a healthier Native future. Their goods are handcrafted by a local apprentice, and 100% of proceeds go directly to providing meals, mental healthcare, drug and alcohol counseling, housing referrals, legal consultation and more to those in need within Seattle's Native community.

NotAbove - Founded by Nanibaa Beck, a 2nd generation Diné (Navajo) jeweler, Known for her hand sawn original language necklaces.

The NTVS - A Native apparel company that uses art and streetwear, mixed with culture, to create one-of-a-kind designs that embrace Native American culture and heritage.

OxDx Clothing - A Diné-owned fashion label operating out of Arizona. Their artwork brings to light indigenous issues and challenges.

Peace Love & TSOul - Diné-owned and started by a brother & sister team, this jewelry & accessories house specializes in unique statement pieces for both Men and Women.

Salish Style - A Women and Native American-owned company based in the ancestral Coast Salish Territory of the spuyaləpabš (Puyallup) people in Tacoma, Washington.

SheNative - An Indigenous-owned company that creates inspiring leather handbags and apparel that share Indigenous teachings embedded with positive values passed down by ancestors.

Shumakolowa - Owned and operated by the 19 Pueblo Indian Tribes of New Mexico, Shumakolowa showcases original, handcrafted works of Native American art, whether that's jewelry, pottery, or other home goods.

Totem Design House - A contemporary clothing and home decor brand that focuses on Northwest Coast art.

TPMOCS - Founded by Maria Running Fisher Jones (Blackfeet), they specialize in handcrafted moccasins while providing employment opportunities and resources to Native American communities in need.

Tribal Trade Co. - Founded in 2013 by Mallory Graham (Rose), an Ojibway woman from Curve Lake First Nation. They offer clothing, accessories, and giftware from all across Turtle Island.

Trickster Company - Founded by siblings Rico and Crystal Worl, their mission is to promote innovative indigenous design, particularly Northwest Coast art.

Urban Native Era - A clothing company that is striving to create a vision and a voice for the 7th generation of Native America.

Food & Drink

Bedré Fine Chocolate - Owned by the Chickasaw Nation, the only tribe to own a chocolate brand! You can't beat a sweet treat that supports the local community.

Native Coffee Traders - Based in New York, and run by Native Americans (Unkechaug and Shinnecock Nations) they know the importance of working with native communities and cooperative family farms throughout South and Central America.

Native Harvest - Part of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, their mission is to facilitate recovery of the original land base of the White Earth Indian Reservation, while preserving and restoring traditional practices and strengthening our spiritual and cultural heritage. Their most popular products include maple syrup and wild rice.

Red Lake Nation Foods - From their reservation in northern Minnesota, this natural food company specializes in hand harvested wild fruit jellies, jams & syrups, and wild rice.

Sarjesa - A socially focused tea company based in Canada that raises awareness for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

Star Village Coffee - A native-owned and family operated coffee roasting company located on the Reno Sparks Indian Colony.

Tanka Bar - Owned by Oglala Lakotas on the Pine Ridge Reservation, SD, with a mission to provide the very best foods that are sustainably grown by Native American producers, minimally processed with care and respect, to help you feed mind, body and spirit.

Thunder Island Coffee Roasters - A native-owned & operated coffee roasting company, located on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation, Long Island, New York.

Home Goods

Indigo Arrows - Inspired by their Anishinaabe roots, they wanted to bring these patterns out of the museums and into the home to inspire the next generation.

Native Northwest Select - Located in Musqueam (Coast Salish) territory, they focus on home goods and apparel with a Northwest Coast style.

Shumakolowa - Owned and operated by the 19 Pueblo Indian Tribes of New Mexico, Shumakolowa Native Arts showcases original, handcrafted works of Native American art, whether that's jewelry, pottery, or other home goods.

Totem Design House - A contemporary clothing and home decor brand that focuses on Northwest Coast art.

Trickster Company - Founded by siblings Rico and Crystal Worl, their mission is to promote innovative indigenous design, particularly Northwest Coast art.

Music

Canyon Records - Located in Phoenix, Arizona, they're a producer and distributor of Native American music, one of the oldest independent record labels in the music industry!

Drum Hop - Offers the largest online library of old music recordings as well as listing pow wows for Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas and Canada.

Indian House Records - A 50-year-old record company in Taos, NM, that specializes in recordings of traditional and powwow music.

RPM.FM - Revolutions Per Minute is a global new music platform, record label, and boutique agency where you can discover the most talented Indigenous musicians from across Turtle Island and around the world.

Tribal Spirit Music - Based in Canada, they specialized in powwow drums in a variety of sizes and styles.

Pow Wow Supplies & Regalia

Bead & Powwow Supply - Specializes in offering supplies for powwow regalia and contemporary American Indian art. Based in Mt Pleasant, Michigan but you can find them at powwows throughout the Great Lakes region during the powwow season.

Crazy Crow - One of the largest sources of Native American craft supplies.

Noc Bay - A great online resource of quality Native American Indian crafts, craft supplies and craft kits.

Sharps Indian Store - Based in Oklahoma, they carry quality, handmade regalia and beadwork for all your powwow needs.

Shokota Pow-Wow Supply, LLC. - A small home-based business located in Fort Hall, Idaho carrying ribbons, jingles and so much more.

Wandering Bull - Suppliers of Native American Craft Supplies, Vintage and Antique Native Art with a focus on the Northeast Woodlands. Family owned and operated for over 40 years, in Washington, NH.

Did your favorite artist or business make the list?

If not, please drop a line let us know who we can include for future gift guides and articles!
Let's lift one another up!

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About Toyacoyah Brown

Toyacoyah Brown is an enrolled member of the Comanche Nation, currently living in Chicago. She received her B.A. in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma and an M.A. in Media Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. When she's not scouring the Internet for fun things to share with PowWows.com readers you can find her digging for vinyl in her local record store or curling up with a good book.
View all posts by Toyacoyah Brown

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Our Favorite Places to Shop for Native Products

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Posted By Toyacoyah Brown Last Updated on: March 26th, 2020 As you might have seen from past articles and gift guides, we love supporting our Native & First Nations entrepreneurs! We wanted to put a spotlight on some of these amazing Native-owned and First Nations-owned businesses that might not get the attention they deserve.

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James Welch was a prominent author of novels and poetry featuring the American West. He was born in Browning, Montana, and he attended school on the Blackfeet and Fort Belknap reservations. He studied with Richard Hugo at the University of Montana. Welch received honorary doctorates from Rocky Mountain College and the University of Montana. In 1997 he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas.

In a review of Welch's first book of poetry, Riding the Earthboy Forty, a Saturday Review critic made this prediction: "His poems are alert, sorrowful, and true. For a young man he is very strong. ... If Welch stays put in his own life, I think his strengths should develop; his voice is clear, laconic, and it projects a depth in experience of landscape, people, and history that conveys a rich complexity. You realize his is not looking at a thing, but seeing into it-which is vision."

Welch's promise was realized in his first novel, Winter in the Blood (1974), the story of a young Native American living on a reservation in Montana. The unnamed narrator is, like Welch, part Blackfoot and part Gros Ventre. He describes himself as a "servant to a memory of death." Both his father and brother are dead; in the course of the novel, his beloved grandmother dies as well. In the New York Times Book Review, Reynolds Price described the narrator's life as a "black sack tied firmly shut." But just as the story "threatens to die in its crowded sack," Price wrote, "it opens onto light-and through natural, carefully prepared, but beautifully surprising narrative means; a recovery of the past; a venerable, maybe lovable, maybe usable past."

Welch's next work, The Death of Jim Loney (1979), about an alienated alcoholic of white and Native American parentage, continues the themes of identity and purpose set down in Winter in the Blood. Fools Crow (1986), Welch's acclaimed third novel, marks a change in direction for the author, telling the story of a band of Blackfoot Native Americans in the Montana Territory in the 1870s. The book follows the life of Fools Crow, who grows from a reckless young warrior to become the tribe's medicine man. A vision Fools Crow has of his tribe's bleak future foreshadows the end of the entire Native American prairie culture-a culture already threatened by disease, the extinction of the buffalo herds, and the encroachment of white settlers.

Welch's ability to recapture the Blackfoot way of life, especially its spiritual aspects, was cited by critics as one of the strengths of the novel. As reviewer Dennis Drabelle commented in Washington Post Book World, "If Fools Crow succeeds ... it does so because Welch, himself part Blackfoot, manages to convey a sense of his people's world view." Peter Wild of the New York Times Book Review noted similarly that "the book becomes a series of dreams acted out, a chronicle of the Indians' visions as applied to daily life." Lewis D. Owens, writing in the Los Angeles Times Book Review, stated: "In this novel, Welch is remembering the world of his ancestors, putting that world together again in a way that will tell both author and reader what has been lost and what saved."

Owens argued that Welch's work was significant for other reasons as well. "Perhaps the most profound implication of this novel," Owens suggested, "is that the culture, the world-view brought so completely to life in Fools Crow, is alive and accessible in the self-imagining of contemporary Blackfeet and other American Indians. In recovering the world found in this novel, Welch serves as storyteller, bearer of oral tradition and definer of what it means to be Indian today."

After Fools Crow, Welch returned to a contemporary setting for his next novel, The Indian Lawyer (1990), a tale of corruption involving prominent Native American attorney Sylvester Yellow Calf. Yellow Calf, a leading congressional candidate who also serves on the Montana prison parole board, falls victim to a blackmail scheme after he is seduced by the wife of a prison inmate whose case is under study by the parole board. Afraid that he has compromised his personal ethics as well as his political standing, Yellow Calf drops out of the congressional race and begins a law practice on the reservation where he was born.

Some critics thought The Indian Lawyer accurately reflects the conflicts that exist between white and native cultures. In Washington Post Book World, reviewer Walter Walker remarked, "The concept of a man caught between two worlds is fresh and alive when it comes to American Indians, and Welch handles that beautifully, as he does his physical descriptions of virtually every location in the book." Walker also believed, however, that the novel's weak storyline undermined the author's message, stating, "Like many a human being, The Indian Lawyer starts off with great promise and ends marred by the scars of what might have been." He continued, "James Welch clearly had a very serious idea in mind that is all but lost in the banality of his plot."

After The Indian Lawyer, Welch collaborated with filmmaker Paul Stekler on the PBS documentary Last Stand at Little Bighorn (1992), about the famous 1876 battle in which Native American warriors overwhelmed the forces of U.S. General George Custer. Welch used this documentary experience to produce his first nonfiction work, Killing Custer: The Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Fate of the Plains Indians (1994). The book is not a straightforward historical account but rather a mix of history, narrative, and Welch's ruminations on "how various people-Indian and white-portray the event, remember it, commemorate it and attach meaning to it," explained New York Times Book Review contributor Richard White. Although White criticized Welch for his "heavy-handedness" in dealing with some nuances of the historical event, he praised Welch for creating "both an evocative work of rediscovery and a multilayered examination of how we tell contested stories." Helen Carr, writing in New Statesman & Society, also commended Welch, noting that "The book is evocatively and compellingly written. Welch turns such figures as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse-and Custer-from exotic icons into understandable men."

The Heartsong of Charging Elk (2000), based loosely on real-life happenings, has as its protagonist a young Oglala Sioux man who witnessed the Battle of the Little Bighorn as a child. Disdaining reservation life after his people surrender to the US Army, in his early 20s he joins Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. While touring Europe with the show, Charging Elk tries to perform while sick with the flu, but falls from his horse and is injured. He is hospitalized in Marseilles, France, while the rest of the troupe members continue their tour, having made no arrangements for him to join them. US government representatives are unable to have him sent him home, so Charging Elk is left alone in a land where he does not speak the natives' language, nor they his. Eventually he finds work and friends in Marseilles, but his love affair with a prostitute sets in motion a chain of events that culminate with Charging Elk killing a man. He is tried, convicted, and imprisoned, but several years into his sentence he receives a pardon, after which he begins to rebuild his life and think of France as his home.

"Charging Elk is a metaphor for those without a country, or ones who have lost their country in an invasion of force and culture," related Brad Knickerbocker in Christian Science Monitor. The narrative, told partly in flashbacks and dreams, "is sometimes sorrowful, as it would have to be given the way things have turned out for native Americans," Knickerbocker commented. "But in the end, the book is healing and redemptive, a revelation of the human heart and spirit." A Publishers Weekly reviewer remarked that "this story has the potential of melodrama, but Welch tells it quietly, in clear, lucid prose suitable to the restraint of his hero. ... This is a stirring tale of a man's triumph over circumstances." New York Times Book Review contributor Brigitte Frase, who called the novel "the coming-of-age story in the key of tragedy," noted that "Welch, who began as a poet, has devised a strong plain style for Charging Elk that suggests the rhythms and concepts of the Lakota language. Readers share the constant shocks of strangeness that Charging Elk absorbs as he tries to make sense of an alien civilization." Library Journal reviewer Debbie Bogenschutz described The Heartsong of Charging Elk as "a moving story of cultural alienation and assimilation," while Booklist 's Kathleen Hughes deemed it "beautifully written" and "both poignant and enjoyable."

Welch remains best known for his novels. He told Will Nixon in Publishers Weekly, "I think Indians tend toward poetry instead [of fiction]. A lot of people have said that poetry more closely approximates the rhythms of their own traditions, such as songs. And Indians prefer to write poetry because they have something to say about their culture and society and it's harder to be political and polemical in fiction." Welch, though, seems committed to using the novel as a showcase for what Nixon called the author's "real subject ... the American Indian's search for identity in his native land."

He died in Missoula, Montana, on August 4, 2003.

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James Welch was a prominent author of novels and poetry featuring the American West. He was born in Browning, Montana, and he attended school on the Blackfeet and Fort Belknap reservations. He studied with Richard Hugo at the University of Montana. Welch received honorary doctorates from Rocky...

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native american heritage month celebration

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celebrate native american heritage month

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Native American Heritage Month - Powell's Books

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November is National Native American Heritage Month and in honor of this nation's first people and their rich history, we are featuring books by Indigenous authors who continue the tradition of storytelling to explore Native identity, challenge stereotypes and historical fallacies, and to connect the past with the present.

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WASHINGTON - Native American youth are increasingly using social media to counter harmful stereotypes about Indians that persist in the media and popular American culture.

"I think here in the United States, we are pretty much an afterthought," said journalist Tristan Ahtone, a member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma and a 2018 Nieman Fellow working to improve mainstream media coverage of indigenous communities.

"These folks on Twitter and other social media outlets who are trying to have their voices heard are, if nothing else, looking to supplement the American education system, which has done absolutely nothing to inform citizens about indigenous people," he said.

Some tweets look to dispel the myth that Indians are relics of the past.

They'd like non-Natives to stop lumping them into a single, generic culture...

?...and to stop romanticizing them.

They'd like textbooks to stop sanitizing U.S. history.

They'd like non-Natives to stop using "Indian" imagery to name sports teams and mascots.

"It's a common problem in the United States," said Ahtone. "Our images have been appropriated for selling everything from tobacco to tires to insurance."

Some Native Americans get depressed around American holidays, especially Columbus Day, which honors the Italian explorer whose arrival in 1492 opened the door to the slaughter and oppression of indigenous populations...

...and Thanksgiving, which commemorates a 17th Century harvest feast British settlers shared with Wampanoag in Plymouth, Massachusetts. To many Native American minds, the holiday promotes colonization as something peaceful and advantageous to everyone.

Native Americans would like non-Natives to stop appropriating their clothing and ceremonial regalia...

...as well as their spirituality, especially for commercial profit.

They would like non-Natives to stop "educating" them about their own history or telling Natives how they should feel.

And they want a voice in mainstream media.

"Mainstream media isn't designed to have voices outside of affluent, white America," said Ahtone, a sentiment VOA has heard from several Native journalists.

"I talk a lot about diversity in media and newsrooms. But as far as I am concerned, you can throw all the diversity you want at a newsroom, but if that newsroom doesn't actually think the stories those people can produce are important, then it's a complete waste of everybody's time."

Ahtone cautions that these posts in social media represent only a small cadre of individuals in Indian Country, which comprises 573 tribes with distinct cultures and experiences.

"And a lot of times in social media, its just political posturing, just rhetoric," he said. "If you want to get to real, in-depth stuff, you're going to have to go past the facade of what social media offers."

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#DearNonNatives: What Native Americans Want Non-Natives To Know

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Native American youth are increasingly using social media to counter harmful stereotypes about Indians that persist in the media and popular American culture."I think here in the United States, we are pretty much an afterthought," said journalist Tristan Ahtone, a member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma and a 2018 Nieman Fellow working to improve mainstream media coverage of indigenous communities.

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November is Native American Heritage Month, which celebrates the history, community, culture, and traditions of indigenous people. This commemorative month originated from the efforts of the Native community to establish an official day, and later, a week that celebrated their people. A month was later officially designated on August 3, 1990 by President George H. W. Bush.

The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) states, "Heritage Month is also an opportune time to educate the general public about tribes, to raise a general awareness about the unique challenges Native people have faced both historically and in the present, and the ways in which tribal citizens have worked to conquer these challenges."

In honor of this month, we're providing a guide to five Native American trailblazers that you should know.

Dr. Adrienne Keene
Dr. Adrienne Keene is a writer, college professor, podcast host, and a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. She aspires to change how the world views Native cultures in today's society through a variety of mediums. Adrienne is most known for being the creator and author of "Native Appropriations", a blog that discusses cultural appropriation and stereotypes of Native people in pop culture. She's also an Assistant Professor at Brown University, where she teaches courses on Indigenous Education, Native representations, and Native American Studies. Her research centers on the accessibility of college education for Native students and the role of pre-college access programs in student success.

Philip Yenyo
Philip Yenyo is a civil rights activist and Executive Director of the American Indian Movement of Ohio. He is one of several prominent figures in his community to spearhead a movement against the use of Native American imagery as sports mascots. Hailing from Cleveland, Ohio, his hometown's very own Major League Baseball (MLB) team has been a main focus of Yenyo's activist work. The Cleveland Indians' previous mascot - which has mostly beeen retired due to the collective efforts of the aforementioned movement - was an insulting depiction of Native people. He has stated, "I think our people and others have come to realize that this caricature of our people as a red-face, smiling savage does great harm to us and our culture and has done so for many years."

Sydney Freeland
Sydney Freeland is an Emmy-nominated film/TV writer and director, who has had several of her projects receive critical acclaim. She has used film to examine intersectionality and build cohesive narratives that negate stereotypes attributed to Native culture. One of her most known films is "Drunktown's Finest", which was inspired by her motivation to challenge a controversial ABC News report about her hometown of Gallup, New Mexico. Sydney, who is transgender, also directed an online series about the lives of queer and trans women called "Her Story". This series went on to be nominated for a 2016 Emmy Award. She has most recently directed television episodes of "Grey's Anatomy", "Chambers", and "Fear the Walking Dead".

Vincent Schilling
Vincent Schilling is a Native American media executive and member of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe. Currently serving as Executive Vice President of Media and Public Relations for Schilling Media, Inc., Schilling is also an author of a popular book series that highlights prominent Native American figures, the host of an acclaimed indigenious radio show, and has won awards for his work as a photojournalist for several national and regional news publications. He strives to uplift the faces and voices of Native people in media and pop culture to raise awareness of the issues that his people have historically faced as well as the ones that they face now.

Tara Houska
Tara Houska is the National Campaigns Director of Honor the Earth, a tribal attorney, and a former advisor on Native American affairs to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. A citizen of Couchiching First Nation, she has worked to advocate on both the local and federal level for tribal nations. She has become a prominent force in her community's efforts to raise awareness of environmental issues harming indigenous people and their land. Tara is also a co-founder of Not Your Mascots, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting against stereotypical Native representations in sports. Additionally, Tara is a prolific speaker who has been featured on the networks of MSNBC, CNN, CBS, and BBC. She has also been featured as a speaker at TEDWomen.

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November is Native American Heritage Month, which celebrates the history, community, culture, and traditions of indigenous people. This commemorative month originated from the efforts of the Native community to establish an official day, and later, a week that celebrated their people. A month was later officially designated on August 3, 1990 by President George H.

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1 Online Resource for Native American Sports News

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ABOUT CALIE
MISSION STATEMENT

EVENTS BOARD

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FAMOUS NATIVE AMERICAN ATHLETES

CALIE honors and remembers the greatest Native American Indian athletes of recorded history to provide important historical references for Native American students, teachers and the sports community for on-line research and positive role models to inspire young Native American Indians.

To date, our list of famous American Indian tribal athletes include profiles, photographs, biographies and statistics of urban and enrolled tribal members of the Kumeyya-Iipay, Cahuilla, Luiseño, Blackfeet, Sac and Fox, Cherokee, Oglala Lakota Sioux, Modoc Klamath, Hopi, Nomlaski Wintun, Wintu, Potawatomi, Navajo, and Penobscot Indian nations of North America.

CALIE editors welcome your help in developing our Famous Athletes section - please let us know the athletes we are missing, and any additional pictures and information you may have.

FEATURED SOCAL HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETE:

by Ernie Salgado Pauma's Edward Hill, CIF Football
At six foot three and 285 pounds, 15-year-old Edward Hill a Junior at Valley Center High School in Escondido....

FEATURED AMERICAN INDIAN GAMES:

July 15-20, 2018 Jim Thorpe All Indian Games
'THE NATIVE AMERICAN OLYMPICS'
San Diego and Riverside counties
REGISTER NOW!

To add your K-12 sports standout to our CALIE Native Americian Indian Sports STANDOUTS, please contact ERNIE SALGADO.

VIDEOS SPORTS MOVIES:

Watch Joseph Burton (Soboba band) video who shattered Oregon State University Beavers' college basketball records with over 1,000 points scored, 700 rebounds, and 300 assists.

NEWS ARTICLES about

"This game has been in our blood for a thousand years...".

WATCH official Crooked Arrows theatrical movie trailer-visit: crookedarrows.com website.

Kent Eanes/Peck Entertainment
Tyler Hill, in "Crooked Arrows."

A reluctant new coach faces the challenge of leading a team of unhappy youths to a championship. On the way, setbacks are encountered and eventually overcome, and everyone, from the coach to the star to the last guy on the bench, learns something. Wouldn't it be great if "Crooked Arrows," a new movie about a Native American lacrosse team that takes on the prep school snobs, upended sports movie convention?

Not going to happen. Joe Logan (Brandon Routh), the son of the chief of the fictional Sunaquat tribe and onetime lacrosse star, manages the casino on the tribe's land; at his boss's insistence, Joe wins the tribal council's approval for an expansion, over the objections of his father, Ben (Gil Birmingham).

First, though, the council says Joe must go on a spiritual quest, which Ben decides means coaching the Sunaquat's disorganized high school squad. "Restore pride to our people and their game," Ben tells Joe. It's called "the medicine game" for a reason, he adds. "Let it heal you."

Initially, the team keeps losing. But when Joe introduces Crooked Arrow (Dennis Ambriz), his lacrosse guru and general wise man, the team starts to immerse itself in lacrosse's meaning to the tribe's culture. Soon on a winning path, it is headed for the big game against the Coventry School, where Joe once played.

Directed by Steve Rash, "Crooked Arrows" gets points for its glimpses of Native American culture and history - the film's backers include the Onondaga Nation.

Submitted by Roy Cook

Do you have children who are interested in participating in organized Southern California tribal sports programs?

Go to: InterTribal Sports for more info.

FEATURED AMERICAN INDIAN ATHLETES

JIM THORPE (Sac & Fox) 1987-1953,
"The Greatest Athlete of All Time"...

CHIEF MEYERS (Cahuilla, Riverside, CA), 1880-1971, MLB teams played for: New York Giants, Boston Braves, Brooklyn Robins. Career batting average .291, played in four World Series (1911, 1912, 1913, 1916)....

JOE "THE BOSS" HIPP (Blackfeet) World Boxing Federation (WBF) World Heavyweight Champion (1999) forms the All Nations Foundation and sets out on a mission to tutor and mentor tribal youth...

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WHO PRODUCED THIS Tribal Resource?

Ernie C. Salgado Jr.Tribal: Luiseño

Reservation: Soboba Indian Reservation
EDITOR: The Indian Reporter www.theindianreporter.com
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RESEARCH & PRESENTATION by Gary G. Ballard

Please CONTACT the webmaster to contribute articles or links for publication.

Back to CALIE Native American Veterans page.

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GREATEST NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN SPORTS Athletes Amature Professional Olympic Indian Legends

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Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond takes a look at the Hollywood Indian, exploring the portrayal of North American Natives through a century of cinema

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About the Documentary

Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond takes a look at the Hollywood Indian, exploring the portrayal of North American Natives through a century of cinema. Traveling through the heartland of America, and into the Canadian North, Diamond looks at how the myth of "the Injun" has influenced the world's understanding - and misunderstanding - of Natives.

Reel Injun traces the evolution of cinema's depiction of Native people from the silent film era to today, with clips from hundreds of classic and recent Hollywood movies, and candid interviews with celebrated Native and non-Native film celebrities, activists, film critics, and historians.

Diamond meets with Clint Eastwood ( The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; A Fistful of Dollars; Unforgiven) at his studios in Burbank, California, where the film legend discusses the evolution of the image of Indians in Westerns and what cowboy-and-Indian myths mean to America. Reel Injun also hears from legendary Native American activists John Trudell, Russell Means, and Sacheen Littlefeather.

Celebrities featured in Reel Injun include Robbie Robertson, the half-Jewish, half-Mohawk musician and soundtrack composer ( Raging Bull, Casino, Gangs of New York); Cherokee actor Wes Studi ( Last of the Mohicans, Geronimo), filmmakers Jim Jarmusch ( Dead Man) and Chris Eyre ( Smoke Signals); and acclaimed Native actors Graham Greene ( Dances with Wolves, Thunderheart) and Adam Beach ( Smoke Signals, Clint Eastwood's Flags of our Fathers). Diamond also travels North to the remote Nunavut town of Igloolik (population: 1,500) to interview Zacharias Kunuk, director of the Caméra d'or-winning The Fast Runner.

Diamond takes the audience on a journey across America to some of cinema's most iconic landscapes, including Monument Valley, the setting for Hollywood's greatest Westerns, and the Black Hills of South Dakota, home to Crazy Horse and countless movie legends. It's a loving look at cinema through the eyes of the people who appeared in its very first flickering images and have survived to tell their stories their own way.
The Filmmaker
Neil Diamond
One of Canada's foremost Aboriginal filmmakers and photographers, Neil Diamond hails from the Cree community of Waskaganish. His recent credits include The Last Explorer, a feature-length docudrama retracing the steps of his great uncle, Aboriginal guide George Elson, on an ill-fated voyage into the heart of uncharted Labrador.

Full Credits

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Reel Injun | Native Americans Portrayal in Hollywood | Independent Lens | PBS

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Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond takes a look at the Hollywood Indian, exploring the portrayal of North American Natives through a century of cinema. Traveling through the heartland of America, and into the Canadian North, Diamond looks at how the myth of "the Injun" has influenced the world's understanding - and misunderstanding - of Natives.

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Catch 'Empire of Dirt' and 'Rhymes For Young Ghouls' and other amazing films on Google Play, YouTube, Amazon Video, iTunes and VUDU today!

In late 2013, we brought you an important list of 10 current Native American films - The 5 Must-See Native Films of 2013 and 5 More Must-See Native Films From 2013 - that had scored big at film festivals and reaped praise from critics. You responded with a mixture of unbridled enthusiasm and puzzlement:
Sounds like a great movie! How the hell will I ever be able to see it?
A few years later, these Native American films are available online. And as on-demand video continues to become a completely valid method of releasing movies, festival and indie features are going the streaming route at the same time distributors are booking brick-and-mortar showings. So you can't make it to the festivals and big-city arthouse theaters where many of these films screen? Doesn't matter! Here are 11 Native American films you can watch in your own home, right now on Google Play, YouTube, Amazon Video, iTunes and VUDU and more.

Pop some popcorn, dim the lights, and hold your own Native Film Festival...

Wesley, a young, successful novelist, long ago left Arizona and the San Carlos Apache Reservation in his rear view mirror. He remains close to his mother but alienated the rest of the family with his autobiographical bestseller. He has no intention of returning for his parents anniversary party but finds himself pulled back into the fold. Coming home only underlines what a mess Wesley's life has become, but he's not alone in that. Shouting Secrets tells a present day story about a Native-American family with unique struggles but universal truths.??
https://youtu.be/-G3Yu0O5o7Q
Awards for Shouting Secrets:

Best Film, American Indian Film Festival 2011
Best Actor: Chaske Spencer, American Indian Film Festival 2011
Best Supporting Actor: Tyler Christopher, American Indian Film Festival 2011
Outstanding Actress in the Leading Role: Q'Orianka Kilcher, Red Nation Film Festival 2012
Best of the Fest Audience Award, Arizona Film Festival 2012
Feature Film Audience Award, Big Island Film Festival 2012
Best Feature Film Audience Award, Breckinridge Festival of Film 2012
Best Narrative Feature, Great Lakes Film Festival 2012
Best Ensemble Cast, Philadelphia FirstGlance Film Festival 2012
Best Feature, Rhode Island International Film Festival 2012
Best Feature Film Audience Award, San Diego Film Festival 2012

A young single First Nations mother struggling to bridge the generation gap with her daughter Peeka and her mother Minerva.
https://youtu.be/ob6oEyuNxQI
Awards for Empire of Dirt:

Best Canadian Feature Film-Special Jury Citation, Toronto International Film Festival 2013
Best Actress: Cara Gee, American Indian Film Festival 2014
Best Original Screenplay, Shannon Masters, Genie Awards 2014

Director Sterlin Harjo heard a story hundreds of times growing up; the story of when his grandfather disappeared. Pete Harjo mysteriously went missing in 1962 after his car crashed on a rural bridge in Sasakwa, Oklahoma. The Seminole Indian community began a day and night search for his body. As they combed the riverbanks it is told that they sang songs of faith and hope that had been passed on for generations. In This May Be The Last Time, the director revisits his grandfather's mysterious death and how hymns played a role then and now in uniting families and communities in times of worship, joy, mourning, hope, tragedy. This deeply personal journey starts in Oklahoma's Native churches and carries on through astounding connections to slavery in the deep American South and onward as far away as the Scottish highlands.
https://youtu.be/mX5mq9gwFdk
Award for This May Be the Last Time:

Best Documentary Feature, American Indian Film Festival 2014

Native American protagonist Wolf is on the run after avenging his mother's murder. As he flees across the desolate American West on his motorcycle, he'll discover that justice has a cost-Wolf's search for redemption will reveal secrets and take him on a journey where the roads have some very unexpected turns.
https://youtu.be/ejkqB_Hl0xU
Through the eyes of Larry Sole, a First Nation teenager filled with bravado and angst, fragile and yet angry, seeking clarity clouded by confusion, seeking to belong without belonging, comes the story of three unlikely friends isolated in a small rural town discovering what they can of life and love amid racial tensions and the recklessness of youth, in a world clouded by a dark mystery from his past.
https://youtu.be/r8xPCUXHOl0
Awards for The Lesser Blessed:

Best Supporting Actor: Kiowa Gordon, American Indian Film Festival 2013
Best Picture, Red Nation Film Festival 2013
Outstanding Actor in the Leading Role: Joel Evans, Red Nation Film Festival 2013

Red Crow Mi'g Maq reservation, 1976: By government decree, every Indian child under the age of 16 must attend residential school. In the kingdom of the Crow, that meansimprisonment at St. Dymphna's. That means being at the mercy of "Popper", the sadistic Indian agent who runs the school. At 15, Aila is the weed princess of Red Crow. Hustling with her uncle Burner, she sells enough dope to pay Popper her "truancy tax", keeping her out of St. Ds. But when Aila's drug money is stolen and her father Joseph returns from prison, the precarious balance of Aila's world is destroyed. Her only options are to run or fight... and Mi'gMaq don't run.
https://youtu.be/81JcYmXLcXo
Awards for Rhymes for Young Ghouls:

Best Director: Jeff Barnaby, American Indian Film Festival 2014
Best Actor: Glen Gould, American Indian Film Festival 2014
Best Canadian Feature Film, Vancouver International Film Festival 2013
Best Director of a Canadian Film: Jeff Barnaby, Vancouver Film Critics Circle 2014
Best Canadian First Feature: Jeff Barnaby, Vancouver Film Critics Circle 2014
Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role: Roseanne Supernault, Red Nation Film Festival 2014

A political thriller set during the Wounded Knee insurrection in 1973. Two activists are arrested and maintain in custody in a sheriff's office. They will meet a Nixon advisor, a lawyer, a senator and a movie star who is also an activist.
https://youtu.be/K0VWMFL8Q-4
Awards for The Activist:

Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role: Tonantzin Carmelo, Red Nation Film Festival 2014
Best Independent Spirit Award, Sedona Film Festival 2014
Best Feature, Naturman Tenerife Film Festival 2014

Set in the early 1980s, The Cherokee Word For Water begins with the return of Wilma Mankiller to her rural Oklahoma Cherokee community where many houses lack running water and others are little more than shacks. After centuries of being dehumanized and dispossessed of their land and identity, the people no longer feel they have power or control over their lives or future. This is the true story of the struggle for, opposition to, and ultimate success of a rural Cherokee community to bring running water to their families by using the traditional concept of "gadugi" - working together to solve a problem.
https://youtu.be/9h5TsMBO_nQ
Awards for The Cherokee Word for Water:

Outstanding Actress in the Leading Role: Kimberly Guerrero, Red Nation Film Festival 2013
Best Theatrical Motion Picture, Western Heritage Awards 2014

Dennis Banks co-founded the American Indian Movement (A.I.M.) in 1968 to call attention to the plight of urban Indians in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The film presents an intimate look at Dennis Banks' life beginning with his early experience in boarding schools, through his military service in Japan, his transformative experience in Stillwater State Prison and subsequent founding of a movement that, through confrontational actions in Washington DC, Custer South Dakota and Wounded Knee, changed the lives of American Indians forever.
https://youtu.be/D6eXL91L6SY
Awards for A Good Day to Die:

Best Documentary Feature, American Indian Film Festival, 2011
Best Documentary, deadCENTER Film Festival 2010
Best Documentary, Dreamspeakers Film Festival 2010
Best Documentary, LA Skins Festival 2010
Best Documentary, Twin Cities Film Festival 2010
Best Documentary, Frozen River Film Festival 2010

Two teenage boys who have grown up like brothers go about their lives in the comfortable claustrophobia of an isolated Alaskan town. Early one morning, on a seal hunt with another teenager, an argument between the three boys quickly escalates into a tragic accident. Bonded by their dark secret, the two best friends are forced to create one fabrication after another in order to survive. The shocked boys stumble through guilt-fueled days, avoiding the suspicions of their community as they weave a web of deceit. With their future in the balance, they are forced to explore the limits of friendship and honor.
https://youtu.be/Uz3Mwo-4Kcc
Awards for On the Ice:

Best Director: Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, American Indian Film Festival 2011
Best First Feature, Berlin International Film Festival 2011
Crystal Bear Award, Berlin International Film Festival2011
Haskell Wexler Award for Best Cinematography, Woodstock Film Festival 2011
Jury Prize for Best Feature Film, Woodstock Film Festival 2011
Best New American Film, Seattle International Film Festival 2011
Nominated for Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival 2011

(Note: Strictly speaking, Tiger Eyes isn't a "Native American film" in the same sense as the others listed here, as its protagonist, screenwriters and director were all non-Native. But we include it in this list because of the critically-lauded performance by Tatanka Means, which was found award-worthy by Native film festivals.)

Forced by her grieving mother to move from her home in Atlantic City to the strange "atom bomb" town of Los Alamos, New Mexico, Davey (Willa Holland) no longer knows who to be or how to fit in. Everything that once mattered-the friends, reputations, parties and expectations that fuel high school days-suddenly seems insignificant and Davey is certain no one has the first clue about the turmoil she is going through. But when she meets Wolf (Tatanka Means), a mysterious Native American climber exploring the surrounding canyons, she feels he is able to see right into her most wild and secret emotions. Their intense relationship brings Davey back from the edge as she finds the courage to embark on the first great adventure of her life.

Awards for Tiger Eyes:

Best Actor: Tatanka Means, American Indian Film Festival 2012
Best Picture, Red Nation Film Festival 2012
Outstanding Actor in the Leading Role: Tatanka Means, Red Nation Film Festival 2012
Best Director: Lawrence Blume, Red Nation Film Festival 2012
This story was originally published November 28, 2014.
Have another Native film you'd like us to share? reach out to Vincent Schilling, ICMN's Arts and Entertainment editor on Twitter at @VinceSchilling.

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11 Essential Native American Films You Can Watch Online Right Now

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Catch 'Empire of Dirt' and 'Rhymes For Young Ghouls' and other amazing films on Google Play, YouTube, Amazon Video, iTunes and VUDU today! In late 2013, we brought you an important list of 10 current Native American films - The 5 Must-See Native Films of 2013 and 5 More Must-See Native Films From 2013 - that had scored big at film festivals and reaped praise from critics.

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The Right To Vote

The enthusiastic participation of Native voters in 2018 was as significant as the surge of Native elected officials. Though 2018 election data by ethnicity was not yet out at press time, there were reports of high turnout on reservations.

If the Democratic Party wants to stay relevant in these changing times, it needs to listen to Native voices, says OJ Semans. He and his wife, Barb, codirect Four Directions, a voting-rights group headquartered in South Dakota on the Rosebud Sioux reservation. Both are tribal members.

"Yes, we Native American Indians are mostly Democrats, in some areas nearly exclusively so, but that's not the point," he says. "We want the political parties to interact with tribal members. Tell us what you're about and what you're going to do. Let us decide."

Overwhelming support in Indian country tipped Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester to re-election in a Trump state. Semans says Tester earned that support with field offices on reservations: "He talked to us. The critical issue for us is not the party, but equality: the equal right to vote guaranteed by the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act."

Native Americans have been U.S. citizens for less than a century-since the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924-and couldn't vote in some states for decades longer, explains University of Utah political science professor Daniel McCool in Native Vote: American Indians, the Voting Rights Act and the Right to Vote. "To achieve that, Indians would have to overcome a panoply of state laws, constitutional clauses and court decisions that blocked the way."

Americans have periodically stepped up to expand and protect voting rights, with the civil-rights marches of the 1960s and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, for example. For Native people, scores of federal lawsuits since the 1960s-notably by the Native American Rights Fund, Four Directions and the American Civil Liberties Union-have won them better ballot-box access. There have been steps backward, though, as when a 2013 Supreme Court decision, Shelby v. Holder, eliminated a key protection for voters. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, the decision swept away Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which had required federal approval of changes in voting procedures in jurisdictions with a history of discrimination.

In 2018, North Dakota took another big step backward. The nation was agog at the conservative state's last-ditch attempt to keep typically Democratic Native Americans from the polls. When North Dakota required that voting IDs have detailed street-address information that is usually not available for reservation residences, tribes and advocacy groups (including Four Directions) scrambled to put the data in place. The suppression effort ended up energizing the Native vote and driving turnout; on the Standing Rock reservation, for example, turnout doubled from the last midterm election.

Semans sees the ID laws as "overt" vote suppression, but also sees "covert" suppression in poll workers giving misinformation. In the 2018 midterms, one Four Directions volunteer witnessed a county official refuse to accept a Native voter's in-person absentee ballot, telling them they had to go home and mail it (which was untrue). On another day, Semans personally witnessed a poll worker tell a Native voter that a document was invalid because it had been signed in black ink, rather than blue. That, too, was untrue; black ink is valid. "To cast a ballot in North Dakota, Native voters had to know the details of voting-rights law backwards and forwards," Semans says.

John Arnold, North Dakota's state elections director, claims that the new ID requirements were not intended to discriminate. Problems should be taken up with the counties where they occurred, he says, where local officials should have "had the sense to know" correct procedures.

Semans disagrees. "State and local election officials took an oath to administer fair and democratic elections," he says. "They're not. The bar has to be raised."

He believes election officials closest to the voting process-county workers across the country who decide where the voting offices will be, who staffs them, their hours and much more-are where the power lies. It's where the proponents of the racial and financial privilege that Shelton describes are fighting their last-ditch battles against Native and other minority voters.

In an important development, Crow Creek tribal resident Yvette Isburg garnered 56 percent of the vote to become head elections official in Buffalo County, S.D., which had a history of extreme gerrymandering. Some 14 years ago, the county settled a federal lawsuit that found it packed 1,500-plus Crow Creek Sioux Tribe members into one county-commission district, while 100-plus and 300-plus mostly non-Native residents made up the other two districts. The districts were evened up, and now a Native woman will be sworn in March 4 to the influential role of ensuring fair and equal elections. She will monitor the point at which voters register, vote and otherwise interact personally with the nation's election system.

Four Directions is already working toward 2020. The group is looking outside North Dakota, talking to tribes in Arizona and in other swing states. "Navajo has a total of some 115,000 voting-age citizens across three states, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah-with 70,000 in Arizona alone," Semans says. "We are opening the doors for them." The organization aims to establish 15 early-voting offices on the Navajo reservation in Arizona, where there were only three in 2016.

In Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, Native voters-if they get to the polls-can affect the presidential contest, Semans says. "We are looking at Denver," he adds, "doing field surveys and seeing how we can make a difference for its urban-Indian population. North Carolina has 60,000 Lumbees. We are talking to them." The Democratic Party may well benefit from the increased Native voter turnout, he says, but for tribal people it will likely mean more Native officeholders in federal, state and local seats.

Voting is critically important for Native people, says Heinert. "Voting is how we exercise our sovereignty. We are here, we are part of the process. We've been an afterthought, and that's not the case anymore."

Stephanie Woodard is an award-winning journalist who has reported investigative articles for In These Times. Her new book is American Apartheid: The Native American Struggle for Self-Determination and Inclusion.

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The Right To Vote The enthusiastic participation of Native voters in 2018 was as significant as the surge of Native elected officials. Though 2018 election data by ethnicity was not yet out at press time, there were reports of high turnout on reservations.

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Why Are Jim Thorpe’s Olympic Records Still Not Recognized?

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Leslie Marmon Silko at the NYS Writers Institute

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Sherman Alexie talking about his young adult novel

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Fiction, History, Poetry, and Primary Sources - all at your library!

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