For many Native Americans, the Covid-19 toll and the struggle over racial inequity make this high time to re-examine the holiday, and a cruel history.
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Tag Archives: Native Americans
Book Review: ‘Oak Flat,’ by Lauren Redniss
In her latest work of graphic nonfiction, Lauren Redniss recounts what happened when a copper mining company decided to develop an Arizona tribe’s land.
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How to Do Thanksgiving With Less Waste
For environmental advocates, it includes small measures like reusing ingredients, and broader efforts like rethinking our relationship to the holiday.
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Sky Hopinka: Songs of the Earth and the Road
The Indigenous American artist and filmmaker is the subject of two concurrent shows. His work “rivals in visual and linguistic beauty any new art I’ve seen in some time,” our critic says.
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Before Kamala Harris, This Vice President Broke a Racial Barrier
Charles Curtis, who served as vice president from 1929 to 1933, grew up in part on Kanza land and spoke proudly of his Native American ancestry.
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The Pandemic’s Real Toll? 300,000 Deaths, and It’s Not Just From the Coronavirus
A C.D.C. analysis finds that overall death rates have risen, particularly among young adults and people of color.
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Rebecca Cryer, 73, Tribal Judge and Oklahoma City Bomb Survivor, Dies
Judge Cryer, who traced her ancestry to the Pottawatamie people, traveled the country to assist poorly funded native courts. She died of the coronavirus.
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For the Navajo Nation, ‘Everything Takes Time,’ Including Voting
Post offices are few and far between on the reservation, and mail can take a week and a half to reach the county seat. In this year’s election, that has more profound implications than ever before.
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‘We Are Losing Parts of Our Culture’: Virus Tears Through Choctaw Community
More than 10 percent of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians has had the coronavirus, and the tribe is bracing for a second wave and more devastation.
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Alarmed by Scope of Wildfires, Officials Turn to Native Americans for Help
Indigenous groups have a long history of intentionally setting fires to keep ecosystems healthy. Policymakers are now more interested in the practice.
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Pandemic Highlights Deep-Rooted Problems in Indian Health Service
Few hospital beds, lack of equipment, a shipment of body bags in response to a request for coronavirus tests: The agency providing health care to tribal communities struggled to meet the challenge.
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Why New Mexico’s 1680 Pueblo Revolt Is Echoing in 2020 Protests
Indigenous groups in the Southwest are imbuing their activism this year with commemorations of the 340-year-old Pueblo Revolt, one of Spain’s bloodiest defeats in its colonial empire.
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Inside a Nursing Home Devoted to Treating Those With Covid-19
In a New Mexico long-term care facility, residents rely on care providers for medical care and moments of connection.
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Black, Native American and Fighting for Recognition in Indian Country
Enslaved people were also driven west along the Trail of Tears. After a historic Supreme Court ruling, their descendants are fighting to be counted as tribal members.
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A Nostalgic (if Isolating) Road Trip Along Route 66
Driven by an early fascination with the American West, a photographer set off to travel part of America’s most celebrated highway.
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Justice Dept. Executes Lezmond Mitchell, a Native American Man Convicted of Murder
It was the fourth time this summer the Trump administration has carried out the death penalty. The case had raised issues of tribal sovereignty.
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Justice Dept. Is Set to Execute Native American Prisoner
Lezmond Mitchell faces the death penalty for his part in the 2001 murder of a Navajo woman and her 9-year-old granddaughter, a case that has raised issues about tribal sovereignty.
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Kansas City Chiefs Ban Headdresses and Native American-Themed Face Paint at Stadium
The announcement came just over a month after Washington’s football team announced, under pressure from corporate sponsors, that it would drop its logo and the Redskins name.
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Lezmond Mitchell’s Death Sentence Is an Affront to Navajo Sovereignty
Trump should commute his sentence to life without parole before his Aug. 26 execution date.
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Junipero Serra’s Sins
In California, protesters have toppled statues of Junipero Serra, whose missions brutalized Native Americans. How should we think of him now?
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‘We’ve Already Survived an Apocalypse’: Indigenous Writers Are Changing Sci-Fi
Long underrepresented in genre fiction, Native American and First Nations authors are reshaping its otherworldly (but still often Eurocentric) worlds.
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On Native American Land, Contact Tracing Is Saving Lives
As the coronavirus spread on the Fort Apache reservation in Arizona, medical teams sought out residents who might have been exposed. The effort paid off in unexpected ways.
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In 1920, Native Women Sought the Vote. Here’s What’s Next.
The 19th Amendment did not bring the right to vote to all Native women, but two experts in a conversation said it did usher in the possibility of change.
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Are More Car-Free Streets in N.Y.C.’s Future?
The tension between “those who see cars as evil and those who see cars as essential” intensifies as social distancing puts a premium on space.
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A Historic Supreme Court Ruling Upends Courts in Oklahoma
Local prosecutors are referring criminal cases to the federal and tribal courts, which are now flooded with new cases.
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For the Navajo Nation, a Fight for Better Food Gains New Urgency
As the pandemic has brought home the importance of the global movement for food sovereignty, members are planting and sharing.
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Why One Team Named the Indians Won’t Be Changing Its Name
A minor league team in Spokane, Wash., has steadfastly stood by its nickname with the support of the local Native American community.
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Native Americans Feel Devastated by the Virus Yet Overlooked in the Data
Statistical gaps can make it difficult to properly allocate public resources to Native Americans. When that’s the case, one leader said, “tribal nations have an effective death sentence.”
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N.Y.C. Seal, With a Native American in Loincloth, Faces Scrutiny
Mayor Bill de Blasio said it was worth examining if the seal, which dates to 1914, “makes sense for the 21st century.”
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This 19th-Century Law Helps Shape Criminal Justice in Indian Country
And that’s a problem — especially for Native American women, and especially in rape cases.
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Cave’s Clues Show It’s More Than Just Oldest Outhouse in the Americas
Preserved dung in Oregon’s Paisley Caves is helping to fill in some mysteries about some of the earliest people on our continent.
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A Team by Any Other Name Is Fine, It Turns Out
The Washington N.F.L. franchise is picking a new name. As other pro franchises have learned, the process of rebranding can be as unique as the result.
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Seeing Native Americans Nowhere, and Everywhere
As Washington’s professional football team retires a team name, a curator at the National Museum of the American Indian talks about our attachment to Native American imagery.
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Washington Name Change Was ‘a Long Time Coming’
The Washington N.F.L. team has long been a target of protests but now that its owner has budged, activists are pushing for other teams to follow suit.
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San Gabriel Mission Is Badly Damaged by Fire
The fire broke out one day after $200,000 in renovations had been completed at the church, which is more than 200 years old.
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For Muscogee (Creek) Tribe in Oklahoma, at Long Last Vindication
After decades of betrayals and broken treaties, the Supreme Court ruled that much of Oklahoma is their land, after all.
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In a Term Full of Major Cases, the Supreme Court Tacked to the Center
Doling out victories to both sides, the court led by Chief Justice John Roberts seemed to strive to avoid charges of partisanship.
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In Campaign Against Racism, Team Names Get New Scrutiny
It is not just the N.F.L.’s Washington team that could get a name change. A number of schools are also reconsidering nicknames, though some are resisting any switch.
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Some Polynesians Carry Native American DNA, Study Finds
A new genetic study suggests that Polynesians made an epic voyage to South America 800 years ago.
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New data indicates that some Polynesians carry Native American DNA
Enlarge / The Tongariki site, built by Polynesians on Rapa Nui. New data suggests that by the time their ancestors arrived on the island, they had already had contact with South America. (credit: Andres Moreno-Estrada)
The Polynesians were the greatest explorers of the world. Starting from the vicinity of Taiwan, they sailed across vast stretches of the Pacific, settling—and in some cases, continuing to trade between—astonishingly remote islands from New Zealand to Hawaii. But it’s never been quite clear whether they made the final leap, sailing from Rapa Nui to reach the nearest major land mass: South America.
There are some hints that they have, primarily the presence of South American crops throughout the Pacific. But there has been no clear genetic signature in human populations, and the whole analysis is confused by the redistribution of people and crops after the arrival of European sailors.
Now, a new study finds clear genetic indications that Polynesians and South Americans met—we’ve just been looking at the wrong island—and wrong part of South America—for clear evidence. The researchers also raise a tantalizing prospect: that South Americans were already living on a Polynesian island when the Polynesians got there.
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University of Kentucky Is Sued Over Mural With Slavery Scene
An alumnus has filed a suit to save a fresco at the University of Kentucky that depicts enslaved people; a Black artist whose work is shown with it also wants the mural to stay.
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Dakota Access Pipeline to Shut Down Pending Review, Federal Judge Rules
The ruling, a victory for the Native American and environmentalist groups who oppose the pipeline, said that it must be emptied of oil by Aug. 5.
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Cleveland Indians Say They Will ‘Determine Best Path Forward’ on Name
The announcement came hours after the Washington Redskins of the N.F.L. made a similar statement. Both teams have been the subject of protests and criticism from Native Americans and others.
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Washington and the N.F.L. Might Change the Redskins Name. Why Now?
The move toward changing a mascot name after decades of complaints underscores how America’s most popular sport has scrambled to keep up with shifts in public opinion.
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How Mount Rushmore Became Mount Rushmore
The South Dakota landmark has drawn criticism over the land it occupies, the main sculptor behind it and the legacies of the men it memorializes.
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Tribe in South Dakota Seeks Court Ruling Over Standoff on Blocking Virus
The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe set up checkpoints to limit the spread of the coronavirus. After the state objected, the White House got involved. Now the tribe has asked a federal judge to intervene.
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Tribes in a Battle for Their Share of Virus Stimulus Money
Legal fights over how a pot of $8 billion should be allocated have complicated distribution to some of the nation’s poorest and most vulnerable communities.
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Aunt Jemima Is Gone, Time to End Other Racist Branding
Companies and sports teams are trying to correct America’s painful history of overtly hurtful advertising. But not all.
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BIPOC: What Does It Mean?
The acronym, which stands for black, Indigenous and people of color, is suddenly everywhere. Is it doing its job?
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New Mexico Takes Down Statue of Its Conquistador
The agitation against honoring Juan de Oñate reflects a tension that has long festered between Native Americans and Hispanics over Spain’s conquest of New Mexico more than four centuries ago.
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