A Tale of Two Standoffs.

UrbanNativeEra.

UrbanNativeEra.

Jacobin has a good article up:

The federal response to Lakota protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline couldn’t be more different than their reaction to this year’s Bundy occupation.

[…]

The Lakota, on other hand, are resisting a real and all too familiar danger. Their numbers grow every day. And, unlike the standoff in Oregon, almost no major national news outlets are covering the story. This too participates in a great American tradition: the true fight against oppression is the one nobody notices.

Is that ever the truth. Mainstream media is doing their damndest to ignore us, to ignore the issue. Thanks to Michael McLean at Jacobin for a very good story. Go read, please!

Via Jo-Ellen’s petition.

The Sioux Chef: An Indigenous Kitchen.

Schef

I know I have been asking half the world of people lately, and yes, here I am again, asking. This too, is important. Chef Sean Sherman, Oglala Lakota from the Pine Ridge rez, wants to change a serious absence in the food scene. Where’s all the Indigenous food? Traditionally based indigenous food is delicious, healthy, and sustainable. This also marks a great potential for so many Indigenous kids, who are looking more and more to traditional foods, and would like to be able to earn a living cooking, doing what they love. The kickstarter for the restaurant is so close, so very close. If you have a few bucks, please become a backer in this most important venture. (Oh yeah, I’m a backer. I want travel over and eat, so gotta make this happen.)

There is a great deal of information at the site, so I’ll just include a bit here, but I’m putting up lots of photos of amazing, delicious food. Foooooooooood. If you haven’t eaten Indigenous food, seriously, you are so missing out. If we can get one Native restaurant up and running, others will happen. So please visit, and back if you can. If you can’t, please signal boost, spread the word everywhere!

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[Read more…]

Hamilton: Where Are the Natives?

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Dr. Adrienne Keene at Native Appropriations has tacked a tough question: where are the Natives in Hamilton? Indigenous people were, naturally, a very large presence during the actual time, and within the framework of the play everyone loves.

I have not seen the highly acclaimed, Tony-award winning, ground breaking, race-bending new musical Hamilton. Not due to lack of trying. I enter the digital lottery nearly every single day on my phone, though if I do somehow win it will mean the most panicked four hours of my life trying to get from Providence to NYC in time for the show. But that’s an aside. What I have done is listened to the soundtrack hundreds of times (not exaggerating), as well as listened to interviews of Lin Manuel Miranda on Another Round–we’re fellow Another Round alums!–and a couple other places.

I truly have had the soundtrack on repeat for months, including right now, except for “Quiet Uptown,” because sad. So, while I haven’t seen the show, I feel like I’ve consumed enough media surrounding the actual production to offer this review–or offer this question, really. But I will add these disclaimers: I have not seen the show. I have not read the HamilTome with insight from Miranda into the writing and production of the show. I have not read the Hamilton book that inspired the show. So, if I’m wrong or there are specifics I don’t know about, feel free to let me know (Or take me with you to see it? Please?).

But, I still feel qualified to ask: Where the heck are the Native people in Hamilton?

[Read more…]

URGENT Petition Call and Solidarity Sings III

Stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline which endangers the water supply to Native American reservations.

 
Please, please sign – we need many, many, lots of signatures by September 14th. We are all in this together!

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Hupa

There continue to be problems, like this:

People at Pine Ridge rez are being harassed by cops, and turned back in their attempts to travel to the camps. This has been going on a while. The concrete roadblocks remain in place here in ND, and the state is bristling with armed cops. The camps continue to grow, as more people from all roads join us, there are 3 camps now, Sacred Stone Camp, Oceti Sakowin (Seven Councils) Camp, and Red Warrior Camp. There are ways into the camps, keep coming, people, join us! The usual caveat: no feds, no guns, no alcohol. We need supplies, donations, signatures, signal boosting! Yell, talk, dance, light the cedar and sage, please, please stand up, stand with us, join us.

Dakota Access Pipeline Standoff. – Feds Grant TRO Against Standing Rock Members. – Dakota Access Protest: We’re being sued – help us fight it! – Dakota Access Standoff Calls on Obama. – Among Those Arrested… – Sacred Stone Camp: Calling Water Warriors! – Dakota Access: About That Oil… – Dakota Access Purchaser Looking Like Enron. – Standing Rock and IITC File Urgent Communication to UN. – Sacred Stone Camp. – North Dakota: State of Emergency Declared. – Solidarity Sings! – Settling into Camp – Washington DC: Action Alert – Solidarity Sings Along. – WE ARE… –

Support Sacred Stone Camp. Legal Fund Help. Rezpect Our Water.  Sign the Petition. Sign urgent petition.

Dakota Access: Democracy Now! Profiles Water Protectors at Sacred Stones Camp.

Absolutely Amazing. Wow.

Kestrel is an incredibly talented and skilled artist, who not only makes full miniature tack, also makes jewelry, and braids horsehair. I have worked with human hair, exactly one time, embroidered a bit with it, and it is the devil to work with, to say the least. Everything Kestrel does is so beautiful and polished. Stunning work. Today is a look at some miniature tack.  Click for full size.

Bridle with romal reins, braided of hand cut kangaroo leather and thread, hand made sterling silver hardware. For a traditional sized model horse such as a Breyer. Horse is an artist’s resin sculpture by Carol Williams, painted by Liesl Dalpe, haired by Faye Cohen.

Bridle with romal reins, braided of hand cut kangaroo leather and thread, hand made sterling silver hardware. For a traditional sized model horse such as a Breyer. Horse is an artist’s resin sculpture by Carol Williams, painted by Liesl Dalpe, haired by Faye Cohen.

From the other side:

Bridle with romal reins, braided of hand cut kangaroo leather and thread, hand made sterling silver hardware. For a traditional sized model horse such as a Breyer. Horse is an artist’s resin sculpture by Carol Williams, painted by Liesl Dalpe, haired by Faye Cohen.

Bridle with romal reins, braided of hand cut kangaroo leather and thread, hand made sterling silver hardware. For a traditional sized model horse such as a Breyer. Horse is an artist’s resin sculpture by Carol Williams, painted by Liesl Dalpe, haired by Faye Cohen.

 

Detail of the floral-tooled popper and knots on the romal. Notice the knot tied inside the loop at the end of the romal.

Detail of the floral-tooled popper and knots on the romal. Notice the knot tied inside the loop at the end of the romal.

 

Detail of connection between romal and reins, again with a knot tied inside the loop at the connector.

Detail of connection between romal and reins, again with a knot tied inside the loop at the connector.

 

To show scale, in Kestrel's hand.

To show scale, in Kestrel’s hand.

You can see much more of Kestrel’s amazing work at Beautiful Horses, the horsehair braider.

WE ARE…

Protect

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These are the lies oil is spreading all over about us, especially out Dickinson way. We are not radical extremists. Indians are not busy body out-of-staters. Bad news, Mr. Oil, we were here first. We are not, and have not been violent in any way. Indians can’t be violent, it would be the excuse to finish the genocide.

Out of staters are more than welcome! Everyone is welcome! (Well, no fuckin’ feds. No guns. No alcohol.) Join us! Help us! Stand with us, fight. Fight for our rights to say no. We have a right to safety, to clean water, to healthy land. We stand. We resist. Boost the signal, every and any platform. Donate if you can, supplies, a few dollars, your wireless signal for a few moments, whatever you can do. We have the ability to stand strong. We have the ability to fight for our land, our earth, our water, our people, all people, everywhere. We can stand against corporations and greed. Rise!

#MattRemle – #Honor the Earth – #ProtectorsNOTProtesters – Sacred Stone Camp – Legal Defense Fund. Want a hoodie? (Winter’s coming, stock up!)

Louisiana Floods, But Climate Change A Chinese Hoax.

CREDIT: AP Photo/Max Becherer.

CREDIT: AP Photo/Max Becherer.

…According to Elizabeth Crisp, a reporter for The Advocate in Baton Rogue, Trump drove through areas littered with flood debris in his motorcade, and then visited a local church where he spoke with both flood victims and disaster relief volunteers. He then signed autographs before leaving.

[…]

But Trump’s visit, coupled with his calls for sympathy for the victims of the flooding, is ironic, considering his denial of climate change, which is expected to increase the likelihood that devastating floods like the one in Louisiana will occur.

“Climate change has already been shown to increase the amounts of rain falling in the most intense events across many parts of the world, and extreme rainfall events like this week’s Louisiana storm are expected to grow increasingly common in the coming years,” Bob Henson and Jeff Masters explained over at Weather Underground. Which is to say that while climate change can’t cause a single weather event — and while floods certainly would occur in a world without climate change — global warming is making the odds of these extreme events more and more likely.

Trump, however, does not believe that climate change is a problem worth solving. He has called it a “hoax” and argued that it was concept “created by and for the Chinese.” He has called for the United States to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, which many view as the best chance for avoiding the most catastrophic effects of global climate change. Under a Trump administration, policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions would take a backseat to his promises to mine for as many fossil fuels as possible.

If Trump truly is concerned for the people of Louisiana, supporting policies that would make devastating flooding like this more likely is a strange way of showing it. Environmental groups took notice, with the Sierra Club decrying his visit as “campaign theatrics.”

“Let’s be clear: Donald Trump is taking his reckless and dangerous denial of climate science to the heart of a crisis fueled in part by climate change,” Sierra Club Political Director Khalid Pitts said in a statement. “That’s like a tobacco lobbyist offering health tips at a cancer ward.”

Trump’s running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence (R), asked Republicans in Congress in 2005 to cut spending before sending disaster relief funds to Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In 2012, then-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney faced backlash when he visited Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Isaac; Romney and running-mate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) supported a budget that would have slashed federal disaster funding.

[…]

Trump apparently kept his own plans for a visit quiet, and did not call Edwards before planning his trip. Edwards welcomed Trump’s visit, but warned against using the visit as a photo-op, suggesting that instead Trump volunteer or donate money to the LA Flood Relief Fund. According to reporters in Louisiana, Trump’s visit included no volunteer time or announcement of financial contributions.

Trump isn’t just a con man who owes massive amounts of money to all manner of people and a habitual fraud, he’s a dyed in the wool conspiracy kook. This man makes only one life better, his own. As far as he’s concerned, the rest of us can go to hell, a hell he’d be more than happy to usher in.

Full story at Think Progress.

Marcus Amerman.

Marcus Amerman's work recently appeared in an issue of Sports Illustrated - Courtesy photo.

Marcus Amerman’s work recently appeared in an issue of Sports Illustrated – Courtesy photo.

Marcus Amerman (Choctaw-Hopi) is a very well known artist in Indian Country, and he’s been commissioned to do a series of beaded portraits in a national media campaign to promote the American Indian College Fund. The originals will be auctioned at their next gala fundraiser. ICTMN has a great interview with Marcus.

Amerman: Wieden + Kennedy, an international ad firm with an office in Portland, OR, contacted me about doing beaded ads for the AICF. They send me photos of current students who benefit from the AICF and I choose which ones I want to do based on their potential visual impact and bead-ability. They would run as full page ads in a number of national magazines such as, but not limited to, Sports illustrated, Harper’s Bazaar, Native Peoples, etc. They have just finished shooting photos of current students in New Mexico and Montana. I should receive them in two weeks and begin the third in a series of five 6.5″ x 8″ portraits which are enlarged to a full page bleed (8″ x 10″). This first image is Akisa Milk and he’s Oglala Lakota from Pine Ridge, South Dakota. The AICF will retain possession of all the pieces and auction them off at their gala fundraiser, I believe. I don’t know when it is.

The ad firm gives me 4 weeks to complete a 6.5” x 8” portrait and I use that format all that time. I only work on one piece at a time because of the time it takes to configure the trays full of separated beads specific to each project.

Marcus Amerman - Courtesy Photo.

Marcus Amerman – Courtesy Photo.

Marcus is also busy making bracelets and other wondrous works for the Indian Market in Santa Fe. http://www.marcusamerman.com/

Full interview is at ICTMN.