The lack of tribal consultation and, subsequently, shoddy environmental justice studies, are due in large part to the fact that the consultations and environmental justice studies, unlike clean air or water, are not protected by federal law, but by executive action. As the past three years have shown, such protections therefore depend on the individual presidential administration.
In one of the more brazen attempts to skip out on tribal consultation entirely, Atlantic Coast Pipeline backers initially pointed to an environmental impact statement completed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that claimed the proposed route did not disproportionately affect any marginalized communities. But in an article for Science last fall, N.C. State associate professor and Lumbee Tribe member Dr. Ryan Emanuel reached strikingly different conclusions. “The nearly 30,000 Native Americans who live within [one mile] of the proposed pipeline make up 13.2 percent of the impacted population in North Carolina, where only 1.2 percent of the people is Native American,” Emanuel wrote. “Yet, the [draft environmental impact statement] reported that fewer than half of the areas along the proposed route had minority populations higher than county-level baseline proportions.”
“By ignoring that demographic disparity, they’re basically proliferating invisibility of Native people in North Carolina,” Emanuel told me. “If you ignore our existence in the preparation of these environmental documents, then you don’t acknowledge that we have any right to decide what happens on lands that are historically our territory, or places where our communities live today. Environmental justice and tribal consultation go hand-in-hand.”
BIG READ: The Next Standing Rock Is Everywhere | The New Republic
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Then the real massacre began: For the next five days, Colonel Jencks and his troops, assisted by vigilantes, hunted black people over a 200-mile radius. They scorched and burned homes with families inside, slaughtered and tortured others. The troops were aided by seven machine guns.
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My initial thoughts bring to mind the phrase: BIG SMOKE, NO FIRE. Don’t judge me for being skeptical because I come from a culture that lives with a 500-year history of over 500 broken treaties. Why wouldn’t I ask questions? The truth is politicians have been notorious for making promises that they do not intend to keep or cannot accomplish throughout the political spectrum.
MMIWG: Misty Upham’s Father Writes about Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women — Native News Online
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The Hopi and Navajo are among 26 tribes that will see the return of ancestral remains from Finland, where the items have been held in a museum after being taken from Colorado almost 130 years ago.
Good News: Navajo, Hopi will have objects, human remains repatriated by Finland | Cronkite News – Arizona PBS
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Top Featured Photo
SEATTLE — The word ‘decolonization’ has been bandied about all over national and regional arts outlets lately, but it is often misused or misunderstood. In Seattle, the term was used frequently to describe yəhaw̓, the first exhibition in the newly retrofitted, 7,500-square-foot Seattle Office of Arts & Culture ARTS Gallery, on the second floor of historic and still-operating King Street Station. The exhibition, which ran throughout the summer, was named for a Lushootsheed word that means “to proceed, go forward, and to do it,” and reflected “a nuanced, inclusive narrative that firmly establishes the vital contributions generated by Native thinkers and makers, here and now.” Its three curators — Tracy Rector (Choctaw/Seminole), Asia Tail (Cherokee), and Satpreet Kahlon — have been lauded for decolonizing the exhibition by accepting artworks by all self-identified Indigenous artists submitted through an open call, and for featuring the work of over 200 Indigenous artists residing in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Montana, and British Columbia, with many more artists represented in two zine publications and multiple satellite exhibitions and public programs throughout King County. But you won’t hear its curators call yəhaw̓ a decolonial exhibition. So what is it, if not that?
GREAT JOB: A Team of Curators Designs a System for Indigenous Artists to Thrive In
Note by LT: These headlines are not in mainstream media but worth a read… I have decided that history was written badly and is meant to confuse us… there is so much we do not know or rather: we are not supposed to know… and I share the same confusion: who is running this planet?
What is that saying: “you can’t herd cats?”
I’m not sure it’s working on humans, either.
My new ebook: Sleeps with Knives: Has it hit you yet?
Be back in November… xox … and most of all — THANKS for reading this blog.
You, and that last quote, are awe inspiring.
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Cindy, you inspire me every time I read your blog. ALWAYS!
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Thanks for your thoughtful and intelligent article once again.
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Thank you Paul – and keep up with the fabulous reviews!
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Most of the time, I am left speechless at the atrocities human beings commit against other human beings. But it eventually passes the numbing stage and I cry or scream or seethe with rage. I do not know it if is good or bad, but the speechless phase keeps lasting for a shorter ad shorter period time. Warmest regards, Ed
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We have that in common Ed. It’s important we do keep up with news from Native people, since there are so few places to find it and read it.
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Thanks for the links to such interesting articles. I had never heard of the Elaine Massacre before, and it certainly needs to be remembered.
Well done to Finland for returning those artifacts. Not before time though.
Best wishes as always, Pete.
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Hey Pete, thank you! Best wishes to you as well.
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Great summary of under-reported news stories, Trace. The only way we can hope to make change is to clearly understand the world as it is.
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I agree so much Dr. Bramhall – we barely know anything with the MSM.
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“The Creator has left the sky too low. We are going to have to do something about it, and how can we do that when we do not have a common language? …We can all learn one word, that is all we need. That word is yəhaw̓ – that means to proceed, to go forward, to do it.”
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Great post, well-written, important information.
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Thanks for putting it out there…and I’m sorry it continues to need to be said.
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Reblogged this on Becoming is Superior to Being and commented:
This is history not known by most Americans. — kenne
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Thank you so much kenneturner
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Nicely put. A telling chain of stories that the world should be taking more note of.
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Thanks Cath (sorry for the late reply)
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The Vietnam War finally woke us up to the fact that people in power often lie to benefit their own version of truth. Soon after came the realization that history was not exactly as we had been led to believe. I, for one, had such hopes! Instead, it seems that rather than admit all people make mistakes and misjudgments of others even with the best of intentions, we are hell-bent not only on absolving ourselves of any responsibility to make course corrections, but we wrap ourselves in injured pride as though to do otherwise insults our forebears. With so many people clamoring to survive while clinging to the top of a narrow pyramid, mistakes not only happened but continue to happen — sometimes by accident, too often on purpose. And now we are doing it again to our allies the Kurds. We will face judgment… if not by our peers, then by our Creator. I’d rather settle debts now… but then, I know my ancestors’ feet were made of sand, and so are ours. Maybe some of us ought to look down more often…
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The chaos of this administration is serving someone who is not thinking about the common man/woman and humanity’s future. This chaos is murdering innocent people again and again. We are not powerless.
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Hi Lara,
What an excellent post you have written here! Well done!
I would like to concur with KC Redding-Gonzalez and to add that “[t]he lack of tribal consultation and, subsequently, shoddy environmental justice studies” have also affected the Alaskan native tribes as their lands and way of life are being sacrificed for development, mining and oil extraction.
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Yes Sound Eagle, yes! Indeed, all tribes in North America are in a serious danger to mining and development – and they have since first contact.
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humbly bowing to this truth
of justice & continued injustice
towards the sacred stewards
of the earth, Lara!
may your efforts be an alarm
to awaken those not aware
they are asleep 🙂
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Thank you smilecalm
alarms are ringing
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Reblogged this on charles french words reading and writing and commented:
This is an excellent post from https://laratracehentz.wordpress.com !
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Thank you, Lara/Trace—especially for that insightful reminder about ‘fragility’.
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Word bombs, kutukamus, are especially needed at this fragile moment.
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This is very sad. For us europeans these facts are very unknown. Thank you🙂
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I am afraid that here in the US we don’t know much either. Thank you for visiting Poverta.
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