Latest Posts by rainbow-submarine-blog - Page 7

Today we’ll take a look at one of the most disturbing serial murder cases in American history, one largely forgotten because the victims were Native Americans on a reservation. In the 1920s, after oil deposits discovered in Oklahoma, members of Osage Indian Nation were among the wealthiest people in the world. Journalist David Grann says an appalling series of murders followed as local whites targeted the Osage for their money. “These were crimes committed by people who the victims trusted, in many cases thought they loved,” says Grann. “It involved a level of betrayal, an almost Shakespearean level of dishonesty, of hiding your face, hiding the conspiracy.” We’ll talk with Grann about his book, The Killers of the Flower Moon. ‘

Photo: Mollie Burkhart (second from right) lost all three of her sisters under suspicious circumstances. Rita Smith (left) died in an explosion, Anna Brown (second from left) was shot in the head and Minnie Smith (right) died of what doctors referred to as a “peculiar wasting illness.” The Osage National Museum/Courtesy of Doubleday

Listen: 

Largely Forgotten Osage Murders Reveal A Conspiracy Against Wealthy Native Americans

You know that age old saying of leave only footsteps implying a lot of native americans didn’t leave a trace.  That isn’t always correct.  Around here the Anishinabe bands would sometimes leave birch bark staked into the ground near the riverbank campgrounds like a modern sign. It had basic pictographic messages for other Anishinabe bands to know what is going on. It provided valuable info like which clans crossed, If they were a visiting, hunting, peace or war delegation, What direction they went, If there was death or illness and approx time they camped. 

an unprecedented moment in native american history happened this week

6 Native American girls explain the tragic story behind Thanksgiving

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Adopted Native, Happier Connected with his Roots

@sire-aie asked:

my MC is half native half white.he is not close to his culture+background because his native parent doesn’t not live with him.where he lives it is also considered by others shameful to be native because of political reasons.he later on meets a group of natives and starts to become more spiritual and happy w/ himself. is it bad to make him happy only when he starts to learn more about his heritage? is it cliche? he also starts to grow his hair at this time to feel more connected to his heritage.

Alright so. I’m going to remind everyone that if you’re going to send in a question, pick a tribe. But this question in particular is hitting a note with Indigenous cultural experience that I feel very, very necessary to address.

Forced seizure and adoption of Native individuals is a very real part of being Native. A Cree elder I spoke to is a lawyer who specializes in stopping these seizures. One particularly memorable reason she had to stop a child being taken from an “unfit parent” was the parent didn’t have laundry on site. That’s just one of many ridiculous examples that happened, and still happens to this day.

If you’re dealing with somebody mixed who doesn’t have his Native parent live with him, you’re potentially dealing with an unfair custody ruling and a whole whacking bunch of racism around the start of it. The assumption that he lives in an area where it’s shameful to be Native points to a massive lack of cultural sensitivity from the white parent, which is sadly extremely common. As a result: it would be very much not cliche to have him be happier when he reconnects with his heritage. He’s going to stop learning to be ashamed of himself and start undoing the colonial legacy of the 60s Scoop and residential schools. He could always feel conflicted about what to pick, but starting to accept part of your racial identity is a good thing! It means your self hate goes down, it means you stop feeling like you can’t exist the way you are, it means you start to breathe.

I wouldn’t treat it as a completely magic pill— the amount of work that goes into not hating part of your identity is an incredible amount— but no, it is absolutely not cliche to have reconnection= an increase in happiness. 

Just please, please educate yourself on the reason Native kids are taken away from their cultures, and understand the white parent should be treated as not a very good person for putting their child through that. Because they aren’t. Teaching your child to be ashamed of their identity is abusive. While you haven’t mentioned the parent directly, that parent still moved to a place where there weren’t many other Natives and there was a cultural message of white as superior. Unless they advocated for the child’s identity, they’re an abuser, full stop.

~ Mod Lesya

Double Trouble

The names Minnesota, in the US, and Winnipeg, in Canada, have the same meaning. Minnesota means “murky water” in Sioux. Winnipeg means “murky water” in Cree.

Hand-colored ambrotype portrait of an Iroquois man posing with a knife and spear, c. 1855.

Source: Heritage Auctions.

Native Americans watching Americans fight each other during the Civil War

A Native American man poses outdoors, he smiles. - 1880/1910

via reddit

Source

A: Yes

I’ve read a ton of books in my day (BOOKWORMZ 4 LIFE), and out of all of them, if I had to make a list of 10 books that I considered “most important,” this book would be in it. 

READ. THIS. BOOK.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West

this is so cool! aren't people cool

Arctic Inuit and Native Americans carry a specific genetic adaptation for severe cold climates. It allows the body to generate heat from a specific type of body fat. This gene, from Greenland Inuits, was compared to DNA from ancient Neanderthals and Denisovians in a recent study. The results suggest that the genetic advantage came from an archaic, extinct hominid population, probably related to Denisovians.

Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte;

Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte was the first Native American woman to earn a medical degree. She attended the Women’s Medical College in Philadelphia, graduating in 1889. La Flesche Picotte grew up on the Omaha Reservation and returned there after completing her studies, opening a hospital for its residents in 1913 which was the first privately funded hospital in Omaha.

The hospital building still remains today and has been converted into a museum in her honour, featuring her work as a doctor and preserving the legacy of Omaha and the Ho-Chunk tribes that resided their. It also has a centre for the care of children named in Susan’s honour and has been designated as a National Historical Landmark.

Queen Elizabeth receives a bouquet from a young First Nations girl named Verna Wyse, Nanaimo, British Columbia, July 1959

Michael, a Native American young man on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana - Boos - 1905/07

via reddit

The Indian Placement Program

From  1956 to 1996, the Mormon Church operated a program where Native American kids were baptized and placed in Mormon foster homes during the school year. The idea was fostering would “lighten” them. The Mormon Church teaches that Native Americans were originally white, but God punished them, and made them darker.

It began being criticized in the 1970s for weakening the children’s connection to their Native American families and communities, and causing psychological damage. And today the Mormon Church is being sued in tribal court for allegations of abuse while in their foster homes.

Portrait of an Ojibway, or Chippewa Indian girl Roland W. Reed. 1907

A short lesson from @karnythia.

I feel like even if this wasn’t a majority white country, white supremacy would still definitely function in a way that preserves itself.

Ada Blackjack: the real Robinson Crusoe

An Alaskan Inupiat woman named Ada Blackjack was hired in 1921 as a cook and seamstress, to go on an expedition to Russia’s Wrangel Island, north of Siberia. The hope was to claim it for Canada. Four men plus Ada set out. And they reached the island! Unfortunately, the expedition was poorly planned. They soon ran out of rations and were unable to trap enough animals to eat. So, on January 28th, 1923 three men decided to try crosssing 700 miles across the frozen Chukchi Sea to Siberia for help and food. The left behind Ada and one other man who was sick with scurvey. She cared for him until he died, and then Ada was left alone, on a Siberian island, with just the expedition’s cat, Vic.

The three men were never heard from again. But Ada survived. She learned to live in the extreme freezing conditions for seven months! Ada was rescued on August 19th, 1923 by a former colleague of the expedition’s leader. She made no money on the subsequent publicity and books, just her pay for the expedition and a couple hundred dollars from the furs she trapped while on the island. Ada returned to Alaska and lived there till her death at the age of 85.

You know in the movies where the white guys are paddling down a river and come across the skulls of animals hanging from tree’s as the music turns to eerie and somber.  A hunter once told me that signs like that aren’t dire or meant to be scary. The idea is to tell other hunters which animals have been hunted recently. The skulls are hung up by their soft tissue and eventually they’ll fall to the ground.  In this way they are able to practice conservation by not hunting the most recent kills in the area. 

NATIONAL ABORIGINAL DAY

National Aboriginal Day is on June 21st. If it doesn’t coincide with another event (I remember a few years back that it did with BlackOut, but was worked around), I think we should celebrate. If you’re Aboriginal / Indigenous, upload your selfies, post art, talk about Aboriginal characters that you know and love, talk about books and films made by and for Indigenous people. We are still here but we are individually unique and have our own experiences and stories to tell. 

Use #HappyAboriginalDay and spread the word.

EDIT: The date for BlackOut is June 6th. We’re in the clear!

SECOND EDIT: 

This post has gained a lot of attention over the last couple of days! Thank you to everybody who has shared and reblogged it. I want to take a moment to address a question that keeps popping up: if you are indigenous/aboriginal, you can participate if you choose to! This is not limited just to Native American / First Nations people. If you are Ainu, Maori, Saami, native Hawaiian, etc, feel free to participate! It’s great opportunity for us to represent ourselves, our cultures, our lives, our heroes, and celebrate both our differences and similarities. 

I can’t wait to see you all on June 21st! Keep boosting this post and don’t forget to use the #HappyAboriginalDay tag!

There was a “Bowling Green massacre” — in 1643, white settlers slaughtered 110 Native Americans

Last week on MSNBC, Kellyanne Conway invented a massacre that never happened in Bowling Green, Kentucky. 

But here’s one that’s real: In 1643, white settlers massacred 30 indigenous people in what is now Bowling Green Park, one of the oldest sections of New York City, Indian Country Media Network reported.

Back then, New York City was known as New Amsterdam and was a struggling colonial outpost under Dutch rule. 

The then-governor of New Netherlands, Willem Kieft, sent groups of European soldiers to an area at the tip of Manhattan island, which was then home to Lenape tribe. 

The soldiers killed 80 members of the tribe in what is now Pavonia, New Jersey, and massacred another 30 in Manhattan. Read more

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Bertha Parker Pallan (1907-1978) was a Native American archaeologist, of Abenaki and Seneca descent. Her parents were Behula Tahamont, a Native American actress, and Arthur C. Parker, the first president for the Society of American Archaeology. 

Parker discovered and participated in many archaeological sites during her career, but she is best known for her work at the site of Gypsum Cave. Although she was originally hired her as the expedition cook and secretary, she was allowed to explore the cave and was able to reach more inaccessible areas. It is here that she uncovered the first giant ground sloth remains in association with humans, a discovery that received national attention among anthropologists. After her time at Gypsum Cave, she discovered two additional sites: Corn Creek Campsite, and a pueblo site at Scorpion Hill. She worked for over 10 years as an Assistant in Archaeology and Ethnology at the Southwest Museum, where she published a number of archaeological and ethnological papers in the museum journal. In her later years, she acted as a technical advisory and consultant on TV shows and movies depicting American Indians, and hosted her own TV show on Native American history and folklore.

Bertha Parker Pallan was a ground-breaker in many aspects. She is considered the first female Native American archaeologist, and she is one of the first women  recognized for conducting her work at a high level of skill in the field without a university education. Additionally, her role as a consultant for TV and movies influenced how American Indian cultures and their histories were depicted in the media.

This is probably one of the most depressingly heart-wrenching photos I’ve ever seen. Native American children taken from their families and put into school to assimilate them into white society. the slogan for this governmental campaign ’“kill the Indian to save the man”. no official apology has ever been issued. never forgotten.

english teacher: why is there so much conflict throughout history?

me:

You know that whole thing fedora-wearing neckbeards like to tote out about how misandry is real because women won’t work in coal mines which is totally only true in the sense that men have been actively trying to keep women out of said mines for like a hundred years? Well, as usual with these things, there’s a flip-side to the bad argument that’s entirely true. To whit, it isn’t women who refuse to attempt jobs coded as “male”. It’s men who refuse to attempt jobs coded as “female”. You know, like nursing.

Albany Ledger, Missouri, September 9, 1898

Celebrating The First Americans Means Green, Not Red White and Blue

American jade is made up of a group of semiprecious hard stones. Chief among them is a dense rock composed almost entirely of the mineral jadeite, a sodium aluminum silicate of the pyroxene family noted for its beautiful color when worked. All American works of art in jade are basically green, but they are vary widely in tone, ranging from a pale apple hue, like below, to a distinctive blue green, to almost black.

As in China, where semiprecious hard stones — also known collectively as jade — were worked from very early times, the initial use of jade in the Americas is thought to have developed from the production of tools, weapons, and ornaments of more common stone. Jade is particularly hard and therefore useful for tools and weapons. But jade’s beautiful color, and shine when polished, would have made it stand out. Over time, jade became more and more favored for works of special status, like jewelry and ceremonial items. By the Olmecs in 1000 BCE, jade was high enough of a status symbol that the stone was being carved into non-useful sculptures and being placed in royal burials, never to be seen or used again.

1844 Daguerreotype of Agrippa Hull, a Free Born Black and Veteran of The American Revolution.

via reddit