The description of ¨heartbreaking¨ and ¨painful reminder¨ to this news is not enough. Apologies are not enough. I want the names of the people responsible. I want the government to actually perform some act of repayment for what was done. I am tired of the governments in the world sadly shaking their heads – and then continuing with the rape, pillage, killing, and the stealing of indigenous resources. These things continue because there has never been a full accounting or payback. Until they are forced to actually pay for what they have done – it will continue. I also want names of the people responsible. I want those names remembered for their atrocious deeds. What we have are un-named victims and un-named perpetrators. The killers hide in anonymity and that has to end. IMHO
Anna Mehler PapernyFri, May 28, 2021, 3:19 PM
By Anna Mehler Paperny
TORONTO (Reuters) – The remains of 215 children, some as young as three years old, were found at the site of a former residential school for indigenous children, a discovery Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described as heartbreaking on Friday.
The children were students at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia that closed in 1978, according to the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation, which said the remains were found with the help of a ground penetrating radar specialist.
“We had a knowing in our community that we were able to verify,” Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Chief Rosanne Casimir said in a statement. “At this time, we have more questions than answers.”
Canada’s residential school system, which forcibly separated indigenous children from their families, constituted “cultural genocide,” a six-year investigation into the now-defunct system found in 2015.
The report documented horrific physical abuse, rape, malnutrition and other atrocities suffered by many of the 150,000 children who attended the schools, typically run by Christian churches on behalf of Ottawa from the 1840s to the 1990s.
It found more than 4,100 children died while attending residential school.The deaths of the 215 children buried in the grounds of what was once Canada’s largest residential school are believed to not have been included in that figure and appear to have been undocumented until the discovery.
Trudeau wrote in a tweet that the news “breaks my heart – it is a painful reminder of that dark and shameful chapter of our country’s history.”
In 2008, the Canadian government formally apologized for the system.
The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation said it was engaging with the coroner and reaching out to the home communities whose children attended the school. They expect to have preliminary findings by mid-June.
In a statement, British Columbia Assembly of First Nations Regional Chief Terry Teegee called finding such grave sites “urgent work” that “refreshes the grief and loss for all First Nations in British Columbia.”
(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
Winter has turned to spring here in the Dakotas, and the yearly promise of new life and fresh growth has arrived. In that spirit, I write to you today with an update on the progress of our new Standing Rock teen center project, which I’m happy to say your generous support is making into a reality. As can happen with projects of this magnitude, we’re working through a small snag. But we won’t let anything get in the way of its completion!
Please watch this original music video produced by our co-director, Daniel Paul Nelson, about violations of the Indian Child Welfare Act by South Dakota.
As of a few weeks ago, we’d identified a wonderful building for sale on Main St. in the city of McLaughlin, Standing Rock’s second largest town. It’s just a couple blocks from our foster home, and we were excited about the location. Importantly, our vision for putting the teen center on Main St. includes helping revitalize the primary artery in a community struggling to keep businesses open and buildings from decaying.
Sadly, though, the non-Native property owner of the building — once he realized our goals — took the building off the market “due to family issues.” So it’s disappointing, to say the least, that his for-sale sign came down for just two weeks before it was back up in the window. Surprise, surprise, blatant racism is alive and well in South Dakota, even at Standing Rock. So we’re now talking to lawyers about the Fair Housing Act and considering a threat to sue, as we also look at other properties in town.
It has been more than five years since Standing Rock had a safe, fun place for teenagers to go after school. Even as Standing Rock captured the attention of the world during NoDAPL in 2016, the children of this community had no place to enjoy themselves in the afternoons. As managers of McLaughlin’s Lakota-run foster home, we’ve seen youth drift into substance abuse and other bad behavior because of neglect. Making kids feel supported is so important; that’s why, in partnership with you, we’re continuing to do our part.
We’ve been protecting Lakota children now for 15 years; our work began with a focus on fixing the foster care crisis in Lakota Country, and we still prioritize efforts to enforce the Indian Child Welfare Act. In solidarity with the children, Lakota Law co-director Daniel Paul Nelson produced this original music video highlighting the urgent need to make South Dakota stop taking Native kids from Native communities. We hope you’ll accept a gift from us and download the tune for free here.
Wopila — thank you for standing with our children! Madonna Thunder Hawk Cheyenne River Organizer The Lakota People’s Law Project
Small museums and private institutions that accept federal CARES Act money or other stimulus funds could be forced to relinquish thousands of Indigenous items and ancestral remains now in their collections.
Under the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, museums or other institutions that accept federal funding must compile an inventory of Indigenous cultural items and initiate repatriation of the collections and remains to tribes or family members.
At least two museums are now facing possible scrutiny – the nonprofit Favell Museum of Native American Artifacts and Contemporary Western Art in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and the End of the Trail Museum, which is connected to the Trees of Mystery gift shop in the redwood forest in Klamath, California.
Hundreds of other small museums and institutions could also face scrutiny of their Indigenous collections if they have accepted federal funds.
“This will likely have an impact on private collections that previously did not have NAGPRA obligations,” Melanie O’Brien, manager for the national NAGPRA program, wrote in an email to Indian Country Today.
Museum representatives did not respond to requests for comment from Indian Country Today.
California Assembly member James C. Ramos, a citizen of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and the first Native American elected to the state’s legislature, said institutions should step up and comply with NAGPRA.
“If these museums across the state and nation received federal funding in the form of the CARES Act, maybe now is the opportunity for those items to be given back to Indian peoples,” Ramos said.
California Assembly member James C. Ramos is a member of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and the first Native American elected to the state’s legislature. (Vince Bucci / AP Images for San Manuel)
The CARES Act – the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act – was signed into law in March 2020, providing $2.2 trillion in stimulus funds to families, expansion of unemployment benefits and loans to small businesses, corporations and state and local governments.
A subsequent law, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, invested $200 million in pandemic funding for libraries and museums, including nearly $24 million in California, $19 million in Texas and $14 million in Florida, according to the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Favell Museum
Data provided by the NAGPRA office in Washington, D.C., indicate the Favell Museum received two loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration to “aid small businesses in maintaining a work force during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The museum received a loan for $24,200 on May 6, 2020, and one for $24,273 on Jan. 23, 2021, according to data collected at USAspending.gov.
As of May 11, the museum’s website stated that it “receives no government funds and little money from grants.”
Founded by Klamath Falls businessman Eugene “Gene” Favell and his wife, Winifred, the museum opened in 1972 with the family’s private collection of artifacts, including Indigenous baskets collected by Favell’s mother, Ruth.
Today, the museum is home to more than 100,000 Native artifacts, including a fire opal arrowhead from Nevada’s Black Rock Desert along with other arrowheads, obsidian knives, Native clothing, stone tools, beadwork, baskets and pottery, according to the museum website. It also houses a collection of contemporary Western artists, including an original painting by Charles M. Russell, and century-old photos of Native people from Edward Curtis.
It is not known to have any human remains, as are found in holdings of other museums. But information presented on the Favell website implies cultures represented at the museum from throughout the Americas are now extinct.
According to the museum’s collections page, “The collections on display give the visitor a suggestion of the richness and variety of societies no longer here and they illustrate how creative and adaptive the native people were.” Some of the living tribes and cultures referred to in the past tense are the Chumash, Klamath, Modoc, Apache, Washoe, Pomo and Tlingit people.
Favell purchased the fire opal arrowhead and some other artifacts from California dentist H.H. Stuart, another collector, according to the museum website. Scholar and author Tony Platt said in his book, “Grave Matters: Excavating California’s Buried Past,” that Stuart collected items from hundreds of burial sites.
In a recent interview with Indian Country Today, Platt said that during his last visit to the Favell Museum, he noticed that labels on Stuart’s items indicated that the bulk of the collection came from Yurok and Wiyot graves.
Three years before he died in 1976, Stuart sold many of the items to Favell for $13,500, Platt reported in his book.
Favell died in 2001 at age 75 but the museum has continued on without him.
A Favell representative responded to a request for comment from Indian Country Today by saying via email that the museum manager was on vacation and that the person who had overseen the collections had retired. A subsequent request has not been answered.
Ted Hernandez, chair of the Wiyot Tribal Council, said the tribe has not received a list of Favell holdings.
“All of our art, they have a spirit and a life and they (the Favell) are not taking care of our ancestors as they should be,” he said. “Each basket is a living being. They are too close together in those cases, so they can’t breathe.”
End of the Trail
About 200 miles southwest of the Favell Museum, the End of the Trail museum operates as part of the Trees of Mystery roadside attraction in northern California.
Trees of Mystery has received three federal Small Business Administration loans totaling $650,000 related to the pandemic, according to USAspending.gov.
On April 28, 2020, and again on Feb. 25, 2021, Trees of Mystery received two SBA loans, each for $250,000, to provide help in maintaining a work force during the pandemic. The business also received a $150,000 loan from the SBA on June 11, 2020, to help restore the company to pre-disaster conditions, according to government records.
According to the Trees of Mystery website, the End of the Trail Museum is attached to the gift shop, which provides the only access into the free museum.
The Trees of Mystery attraction on storied Highway 101 has operated in some form in Klamath, California, since the 1930s. It first opened as a fishing camp and evolved into the Wonderland Redwood Park, the Kingdom of Trees and then the Trees of Mystery. In 1946, Marylee and Ray Thompson purchased the site and began operating the attraction, according to RoadsideAmerica.com.
The attraction features walkways through the redwood trees, a crude carving of “The End of the Trail” statue and a large statue of Paul Bunyon, according to RoadsideAmerica.com.
A newly constructed Redwood Canopy Trail includes a suspended walkway 50 to 100 feet off the ground that winds through the trees. The new canopy trail opened just as the pandemic was forcing shutdowns but has since reopened, according to the website.
The museum opened on March 10, 1968, largely to display items collected by Marylee Thompson.
It is described on the museum’s website as “one of the largest privately owned world class museums,” and cites “artifacts and history of the First Americans.” Photos on the website show display cases filled with basketry, cradle boards, drums, masks, carvings, Native clothing and other items.
A Trees of Mystery representative responded to a request for comment from Indian Country Today by asking that questions be emailed to a museum owner identified only as Debbie. That person has not yet responded to the questions.
The Better Business Bureau lists Trees of Mystery as a sole proprietorship with four employees, though far more workers can be seen there on a typical day. The owner is listed as John Thompson, who has been identified as the son of Marylee and Ray Thompson.
Repatriation has begun
NAGPRA has already hit a number of other museums across the nation, including the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.
The California State Auditor’s office conducted an analysis in 2019 of the university system’s compliance with the federal NAGPRA law and a state counterpart, known as CalNAGPRA, and found that the university had fallen short of requirements for repatriation of ancestral remains and artifacts.
Berkeley had nearly 500,000 Native American remains and artifacts as of 2019, and had returned only about 20 percent, the auditor’s office concluded.
The remains and objects are stored at the Hearst Museum and are not on display. Research on them has stopped, and they are not accessible to the public, students or faculty, university officials told Indian Country Today.
The auditor’s office found that the three universities reviewed – the Berkeley, Los Angeles and Davis campuses – needed to do more to comply with NAGPRA.
The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, meanwhile, issued an apology in March over its handling of ancestral remains and funerary objects and pledged to work with tribes to facilitate the returns. The Yale University Peabody Museum of Natural History is also working to repatriate some of its collections.
Several hundred ancestral remains and artifacts are being repatriated to the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma by the state of Mississippi. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
The state of Mississippi recently returned items to the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma. The remains had largely been found during excavations over the past 50 or more years, and more than 1,000 still must be identified and returned to tribes.
And Indiana University also returned more than 700 ancestral remains excavated from the Angel Mounds State Historic Site. The remains had been in the university’s Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology since 1971.
Spiritual ties
For California assembly member Ramos, repatriation is personal.
Baskets woven by Ramos’ great-grandmother and great-great-aunt were recently returned to the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians by a local county museum. During a celebration of Yaamava’ – which means Spring in the Serrano language – they honored the baskets with a ceremony that included Serrano Bighorn sheep and Cahuilla bird songs.
Ramos said the songs that welcomed his elders’ baskets home now live inside him and aid in his continuing efforts to bring cultural artifacts home.
“Regaining those baskets opens up advocacy that those items are tied spiritually to a people,” he said.
Ramos said some museums don’t understand the importance of non-funerary items and do not recognize them as part of the Indigenous cultural identity. Many tribes recognize baskets as relations, he said.
“Different cultures throughout the state of California that weave baskets breathe life into those baskets,” he said.
Looking ahead
What happens next is unclear.
When asked about possible investigations of museums or institutions that received pandemic funds, O’Brien said her office was unable to comment on the status of any investigations regarding failure to comply with NAGPRA.
Officials with the Wiyot and Hoopa Valley tribes, however, said they had not received any notifications from the Favell or the End of the Trail museums about cultural items contained within the collections.
Hernandez said the Wiyot Tribe is ready to send out a cultural liaison to validate any inventory of items they might receive.
“The museums that have our items and are not taking care of them,” he said, “it’s a high disrespect to the Native community.”
Nanette Kelley, Osage/Cherokee, is the 2021 California Arts Council Administrators of Color Fellow for the Greater Northern Region.
Tens of millions of stories disappeared from Instagram last week.
While the stories were from different parts of the world, they shared a common theme: protests against injustice, including posts about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, protests in Colombia, and unrest in East Jerusalem.
Because of the common theme, people said the social posts removal was a deliberate action by Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. Instagram says that’s not so.
I do not believe the excuse. It is too convenient to blame it on a technical issue. If your platform is that bad that it erases content on such a massive scale, then maybe you are in the wrong industry. To truly be free, we need to build our own networks and platforms. Screw Facebook, Google, and Instagram. We need to make and support our own and stop propping up these elite platforms that do not give one iota for the people. WE DON¨T NEED THEM; WE DO NOT NEED ANYTHING FROM THEM: MAKE FOR OURSELVES.
As you know, after the past election cycle, American democracy is in trouble. Not because of phantom issues with fraudulent voters, as some people would have you believe, but because far too many voters — especially those of color — continue to be discriminated against and disenfranchised through obscene voter suppression tactics. And that’s why the Lakota People’s Law Project is going to fight back in court.
We’ve joined a lawsuit — as a plaintiff — against the State of South Dakota. Because the state has consistently violated elements of the National Voter Registration Act, tribes like the Oglala and Rosebud Nations, organizations like us, and individuals like McLaughlin city council member Hoksila White Mountain have valid cause to sue.
The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) will represent the tribal entities in the suit. We hope the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe will also join as a plaintiff and seek monetary compensation from South Dakota for failure to offer voter registration opportunities in a way consistent with federal law.
Lakota Law and Hoksila, among others, will be represented by Demos, a legal organization dedicated to winning voting rights justice. This will be a true team effort, bringing a number of great legal minds and passionate people together to fight for the community and expose the state for its litany of abuses.
As an example, you may recall that we have already shared quite a bit about the troubles in McLaughlin, the Standing Rock Nation’s second largest town. Hoksila was kept from mounting a valid mayoral campaign, and he was only granted a promised vacant city council seat in his own ward after intense pressure you helped us create.
McLaughlin also has suspicious zoning, seemingly designed to prevent its Native residents from voting in local elections. So NARF will provide support as we undertake an effort to improve voting access within the town. As you can see, access for people of color is an issue on our reservations in the Dakotas, just as it’s a national and statewide problem in places like Georgia and Arizona. Bottom line: we must fight, right now and on every level, to protect our democracy from those who want to move it backward. We’re drawing a line in the sand — and I’m so grateful you’re standing with us for fairness.
Wopila tanka — thank you for helping us make good trouble! Chase Iron Eyes Co-Director and Lead Counsel The Lakota People’s Law Project
In case you missed it, CNN commentator and former Pennsylvania GOP Senator Rick Santorum brazenly displayed his staggering ignorance once again last week. Speaking at a conference for conservative youth, he made sure to misinform young people by claiming that European colonizers “birthed a nation from nothing” and “there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.”
I know ratings are king — and that controversial comments beget ratings — but it’s past time this man was fired by CNN and removed from any position of influence. I urge you to watch Takin’ Out the Trash, a new segment we introduced on the most recent episode of “Cut to the Chase.” I discuss the former senator’s ridiculous statements and some of the many ways in which Native culture informs the larger society.
Because Rick Santorum’s racist rhetoric is obviously a steaming pile of hot garbage, we took him out with the trash on this week’s episode of “Cut to the Chase.”
As a Lakota Law supporter, you’re already aware of the breadth and depth with which Indigenous cultures of the Americas have long made and continue to make deep impacts. From Native cultivation of corn, to the world’s oldest representative democracy (demonstrated by the Iroquois nation), to the movement we birthed against the Dakota Access pipeline at Standing Rock, our contributions are legion. It’s no accident that the names of several states and countless cities, towns, and counties pay homage to the Native peoples who first inhabited these lands.
It sure would be great if media outlets like CNN would stop platforming people like Rick Santorum so we can move beyond harmful, whitewashed notions of history. To create a better future — one in which we consistently progress based upon lessons learned from our past — we must be willing to take previously subverted perspectives into account, revise inaccuracies, and understand the deeper implications. Because, while Native cultures have already given much to those who came to our shores, we still have far more to say to the ears that know how to listen.
Wopila — thank you for lending your ear! Chase Iron Eyes Co-Director & Lead Counsel The Lakota People’s Law Project
I’m writing to thank you for supporting us water protectors here in the Dakotas, and to update you about my court case at Cheyenne River Tribal Nation near Standing Rock. Last year, construction of the Keystone XL pipeline was in full swing through my homelands. So my allies and I created a protest camp, similar to the one everyone knows about at Standing Rock four years ago (only smaller). Two days before Thanksgiving last year, I chained myself to an oil pump station and got arrested for trespassing. I’m facing up to a year in prison and I will be going to trial soon.
We won our fight against KXL — Biden has shut the pipeline down — but my allies and I are still facing potential prison time for our civil disobedience. Please pray for us, as we continue to face down the Oil Industrial Complex allied with law enforcement, and decipher the best path forward to serve Unci Maka, Grandmother Earth.
Please watch this new video that explains my court case.
Climate change has become a dominant topic of conversation in recent weeks because of Biden’s strong pivot away from Trump’s denialism. Even more is needed. As the ice caps melt and coastlines face dangerous flooding, Indigenous people all over the world are leading the fight for eco-sanity. Some are in Minnesota resisting Line 3, while many of us are still pushing the White House to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock.
Last month, I traveled with other Indigenous young people to D.C. to make our ongoing commitment to Standing Rock top of mind for policymakers. As a 24-year-old Lakota woman, I look forward to many more years of movement building. We cannot let up, not while our waters, lands, and climate are endangered by fossil fuel extraction. Renewables work. There is no excuse.
I will work with my attorneys at Lakota People’s Law Project to keep you updated in the coming months. Thank you for keeping your attention on Lakota country. Your solidarity is appreciated.Wopila, Jasilyn Charger via Lakota Law
Water is Life 