Song & Crest Standard

HERITAGE IS IMPERATIVE __________________________ Native American, Tlingit, Formline, Masks, Representation of People of Color, Minority Comic Book Characters. Hiphop.

[beggars-opera]

Secretary Of Interior Orders Mashpee Wampanoag Reservation 'Disestablished,' Tribe Says

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe's reservation will be disestablished and their land taken out of trust, per an order from the secretary of the interior.

I have not seen news of this traveling outside locals in Massachusetts, so if you have a minute, please, please read the following message from the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (yes, the one you learned about in elementary school for your Thanksgiving play), whose lands are being taken out of trust, under the radar, in the midst of a global crisis. We have reason to believe that this is directly related to Donald Trump’s personal grudges against casinos not run by his cronies.

I encourage everyone to sign this petition, contact your politicians, and spread the word to prevent this injustice.

More information available here, and at the official Mashpee Wampanoag site.

Thank you.

 ————————————–

At  4:00 pm today – on the very day that the United States has reached a record 100,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and our Tribe is desperately struggling with responding to this devastating pandemic –  the Bureau of Indian Affairs informed me that the Secretary of the Interior has ordered that our reservation be disestablished and that our  land be taken out of trust.  Not since the termination era of the  mid-twentieth century has a Secretary taken action to disestablish a reservation.

Today’s action was cruel and it was unnecessary. The Secretary is under no court order to take our land out of trust.  He is fully aware that litigation to uphold our status as a tribe eligible for the benefits of the Indian Reorganization Act is ongoing.

It begs the question, what is driving our federal trustee’s crusade against our reservation?

Regardless of the answer, we the People of the First Light have lived here since before there was a Secretary of the Interior, since before there was a State of Massachusetts, since before the Pilgrims arrived 400 years  ago.  We have survived, we will continue to survive.  These are our lands, these are the lands of our ancestors, and these will be the lands of our grandchildren.  This Administration has come and it will go.  But we will be here, always.  And we will not rest until we are treated equally with other federally recognized tribes and the status of our reservation is confirmed.

I  will continue to provide updates on this important issue in the coming days as we take action to prevent the loss of our trust status.

Kutâputunumuw;

Chairman Cedric Cromwell Qaqeemasq (Running Bear)

[rage-city]

radical gardener vol. 7: land recognition

This is Dena’ina ełnena.

In recent years, more and more events and rally open with a land recognition. A land recognition, or territory acknowledgement, is a statement that recognizes the indigenous people who have been dispossessed of their land by settler-colonial nations.

In Alaska, 1/7 of the population is Alaska Native or Native American. Native people and culture are integrated into the general population. It is crucial that indigenous peoples’ claim to the land is recognized, as their rights to land and livelihood has been degraded for centuries.

Prior to colonization, indigenous people did not “own” the land. Property was not a concept. The land did not belong to the people – people belonged to the land. People stewarded the land, and its bounty was shared by all.

Land recognition is one of the first steps of the larger process of decolonization. But it is not enough to simply state who lived on the land first; land recognitions must also recognize the broken treaties, the fact that indigenous people were dispossessed and evicted from their land, and that the settler-colonial system continues to oppress indigenous people to this day, by depriving them of their health and wellbeing, culture and traditions.

Settlers must recognize that they are guests on indigenous land, and that they are not entitled to its governance.

Scope of Project

In this volume, there are two maps.

The first is the Indigenous Peoples and Languages of Alaska, published by the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. This map is so familiar to me, as it is posted at all levels of educational institutions throughout Alaska. There are high resolutions available online, where you can see the indigenous place names for most major communities within Alaska. It is important to note that the delineation between regions is not a strict border. I was inspired by the ANLC map to create my own version, featuring place names within southcentral Alaska, which is the second map shown.

Southcentral Alaska is home to more than half of Alaska’s population, and is the most densely populated region of Alaska. This map features the Anchorage Bowl and the southern half of the Matanuska-Susitna River valleys. It is within the traditional territory of the Dena’ina people, and Ahtna people have also lived in the area, and they frequently intermingled. The Dena’ina and the Ahtna people are Dene (Athabascan) people, and are related to other Dene peoples within Alaska, Canada, along the Pacific coast, as well as the Navajo and Apache nations.

Shem Pete’s Alaska: The Territory of the Upper Inlet Dena’ina, James Kari’s seminal work about Dene place names, was invaluable in the creation of my map. The man interviewed by James Kari, Shem Pete (1896-1989), was an intrepid traveler who had a vast repository of knowledge about Dena’ina place names. In his work, there is a wealth of stories and legends. For Alaskans, it is a must-read.

Where there is only one place name present, it is in Dena’ina only; where there are two places names, it is in both Dena’ina and Ahtna. I decided to insert recorded Ahtna place names when they were present, to recognize the fact that this is a traditionally bilingual region. Dene people in this area were versed in both languages as they traveled, traded, and intermarried, and in the later colonial period, Native people here frequently spoke four or more languages: Dena’ina, Ahtna, Russian, and English.

I am someone who is descended from settlers. The purpose of this volume is to convey and amplify what I have learned from my Native friends and colleagues to the public at large. My goal is that settlers in Alaska will become more comfortable using longstanding indigenous places names, instead of marking familiar geographical features with colonial names. Captain Cook does not need the attention that he receives.

I encourage my readers to engage with the indigenous peoples of the land that they are living on.

[formlines]

Eagle 

Grant Pauls

[hobo-pixie-deactivated20200707]

Tlingit mood board for your viewing pleasure

@elnas-studies

[jadedownthedrain]

How cool is this?!

[fieldtomatoes]

Here’s a link to a news article and some videos about production (posted before the film was released)

Their Moana is very talented, and their Maui is a local newscaster whose daughters made him audition!

Rachel House still voices Grandma Tala, Temuera Morrison still voices the Chief, and Jemaine Clement still voices Tamatoa.

Rob Ruha and Jemaine Clement translated and rearranged the music so that the songs still worked while sung in a different language, which is super impressive.

Also: Air New Zealand will feature the Maori version on their in flight entertainment starting in November!

[itzbatz-deactivated20240722]

this news is from earlier this year, you can now actually listen/watch the te reo version in clips on youtube now. this one is pretty exemplary of the original and new voice actors together! <3

[themightyglamazon]

Where can I buy the soundtrack tho?????

[dovewithscales]

I am a language nerd and this makes me really happy.

Language and culture are intimately linked. The loss of a language is always a tragedy, so efforts to preserve them are wonderful.

[littlewitchlingrowan]

Re-reblogging this to add this comment from the YouTube video, because it’s so damn relatable and important.

[epic-summaries]

Creation Myths - How Raven Brought Light and Why Seagulls Cry

This is a story from the Tlingit people from Southeastern Alaska and Northwestern British Columbia. Here, their trickster and my favourite trickster is Raven!

Before humans, the animals lived on the Earth. Each were given a cedar box from the Great Spirit, and when they opened the boxes mountains, rivers, trees and everything nice came out. (It’s the reserve Pandora’s Box!) Thus, the geography of the Earth was made. However, there was a problem. Why was it so dark?!

The animals were walking into each other. Birds were flying into mountains. All in all, it was a bad time. So, where was the box full of light? Oh shit. Seagull had it. Not good. Seagull is like it’s MINE! No one is allow to touch it. Then he holds the box protectingly under his wings.

But what is a trickster if they don’t have a plan? So, Raven flew up the Seagull and was like, can’t you open the box? Seagull is like mine. Raven flattered Seagull. He begged Seagull. He lied to Seagull. He tried every trick up in his arsenal. And what does Seagull do?

Raven, totally done with Seagull’s shit, stabs Seagull in the foot. Raven is like open the box the now. Seagull is like I will not crack under torture! You can torture me all you want! (Well he makes the normal Seagull squawk because this explains why seagulls sound like they do. I will never look at seagulls the same way again.) But, Raven digs deep into Seagull’s foot. Seagull out of pain drops his box. I can only imagine it breaks when it falls on the ground and thus the sun, the moon and stars explore out of the box. I can also imagine Seagull crying. Nooo I lost it!

The animals celebrate! YAY! Let there be light! And everyone was happy, expect for Seagull.

The moral of the story? When in doubt, violence is the answer.

BTW, there a few version of this story out there, because it’s Mythology, there’s no one version of anything. Anyway, sometimes the Great Spirit isn’t mentioned. I just though it made it flow better.

[tonyblairwitchproject-deactivat]

Lingít Phrases

Gunalchéesh - Thank you

Wáa sá si yatee? - How are you?

Ax̱ toowu yak'éi - I feel fine

Yak'éi i x̱wsateení - It’s good to see you

Ix̱six̱án - I love you

Aaá - Yes

Tléik’ - No

Haagú - Come!

K'idéin natá - Sleep well

Eesháan - Poor thing

Gunalchéesh haat yigoodí - Thank you for coming

Chúk - Scram

[songandcrest]

[troweltime-deactivated20260129]

my ancestors didn’t endure centuries of colonial violence just to watch me fail

[realfits]

Anna Brown Ehlers (right) and her art, made using Chilkat weaving techniques. Ehlers is Tlingit, born and raised in Juneau

h/t twitter.com/womensart1

[segledepericles]

Minoritized languages moodboard: Tlingit

Tlingit or Lingít is a language spoken by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada.

For @nauseababe

[songandcrest]

Fox's New Mutants Finds Its Danielle Moonstar

Relative newcomer Blu Hunt will play Danielle Moonstar in director Josh Boone's X-Men spinoff The New Mutants.

[aishwaryaaraiii]

Priyanka Chopra and Dev Patel discuss about their Indian heritage on “The View”

[curiousmiscellanies-blog]

Grizzly Bear Mask early 19th century Tlingit

[lizzie-mcguire]

There’s not a lot of brown superheroes. And you know, I’m half-Polynesian and what that’s gonna represent to every Islander, to every brown kid that’s out there… it’s really cool what they’re doing with that, so that’s an honor to represent that.

[acrosscenturiesandgenerations]

▪Mask. Date: ca. 1825 Place of origin: United States, Alaska Culture: Tlingit Medium: Wood, paint

[canadiangeekgirl]

‘The Expanse’: How The Syfy Series Found the Unfindable Actress (Which Means Other Shows Can, Too)

The men behind adapting the popular “Expanse” novels to the screen faced a massive challenge in Season 2 — finding the perfect actor to play a beloved favorite.

The key priority for them was finding someone who matched the book’s description to a T: “Someone who is of Polynesian descent or looks Polynesian and six feet tall and can have this strength and then also this vulnerability behind it,” in Ostby’s words.

[spikeghost-deactivated20240530]

[sleepynegress]

“Unfindable” Hollywood usually just doesn’t bother to make an effort.  They just spray-tan a white person.

[spikeghost-deactivated20240530]