Yall we really gotta talk about these child graves, pls I can't do this alone. Its so horrible.
The discovery of the remains of 215 children at the site of a defunct boarding school in British Columbia has rekindled discussion of a sini
I'm not seeing enough coverage in the news. Whatsoever. I've tried searching on different search engines and Google flat out will not show enough results.
(Google on the left, Duckduckgo on the right, both showing past 24 hour news)
215 children found, the youngest was 3 years old. Possibly thousands more still to find. I've done the math and harrowingly, 2 children a day would have been murdered in just over 100 years of this schools history alone to account for the missing numbers.
If this was a grave of enslaved children on US soil, there would be outrage in the streets, and yet that's exactly what indigenous people are facing in Canada. Textbook indoctrination, and a mass grave.
Pls, someone, anyone, help these children who have no voice of their own any longer. This article isn't even a week old. We need more eyes on this.
Today is NATIONAL MISSING AND MURDERED NATIVE WOMEN AND GIRLS AWARENESS DAY!! Please spread the word!! The numbers are catastrophic!! And and some of these women/girls don't even make it into the database.. This is truly unacceptable!! #standupforthesewomenandgirl #mmiw #mmip #mmiwg #mmiwgactionnow #mmiwawareness #spreadtheawareness https://www.instagram.com/p/CdLqYDrrHgHVBT-RusSMmMYDtfgcrWevFT3Kk00/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
Thunder Bay—Superior North's incumbent, Patty Hajdu, has continued with Stephen Harper's do-nothing legacy on the MMIWG report.
Despite representing a district with a high FNMI population, this doesn't seem to be a priority for Patty or the Librerals who have gotten at least 3 failing grades from NWAC in their six years.
Enough is enough!
Elect NDP's Chantelle Bryson in Thunder Bay—Superior North in #Elxn44!
Saw this add on a bus today and I’m so happy that this movement is gaining attention
Translation: “You have information about a native woman missing or killed? 1 855 547-5938/ Justice for our sisters/ iskweu project/ nwsm.info/iskweu-project/ with Montreal’s support”
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) is a human-rights crisis that needs to be addressed. But this unjust problem won’t change if people aren’t aware of it.
I did a project focused on MMIWG and how it can associate with the communication theory Muted Group Theory, which allowed me to learn how truly disproportionate violence and proper police investigations are when it comes to Canadian and American Indigenous women and girls.
You may have heard about the Savanna’s Act and/or the Not Invisible Act, and if you haven’t, it’s important to know about.
I don’t want to give a huge lecture on this problem; I just want people to know that I support these women and girls and I am helping to push for a change.
I might not be able to relate to the same difficulties and human-rights crises that others face, but I will always support these fights because human beings are human beings, no matter their skin color or where/how they were raised.
I listen to the audiochuck podcast, Crime Junkie and their recent episode focused on this problem with the mysterious death of Kaysera Stops Pretty Places.
I also wanted to share the change.org petition that is pushing to earn her case a proper investigation and hopefully some answers. The two Crime Junkie hosts, Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat, also take the time to mention and petition and stress to sign it. I signed it as well, and it seriously only takes two minutes top.
http://chng.it/xPkTY7xWXV
Justice for Kaysera
Support this important movement with me. We need to see a change in this, much like other human-rights crises.
Okay I said before I was going to get more in depth with blood quantum eventually so now is as better time than any I guess. Mind you I'm speaking as a Native American meaning an Indigenous person from America. Specifically from 2 southern California tribes. I cannot speak for all Native or Indigenous people. I can only speak for myself, I can’t even speak for my tribe. However most Natives tend to have the same view when it comes to the blood quantum debate. From this point on blood quantum will be shortened to BQ & Native American to Native(s).
Originally this was gonna be a reply to another comment but decided to make it it's own post so I don't associate my blog with that anti Indigenous one. Please try to read the whole post before clicking the articles. I screenshotted the main parts to keep the discussion going. Feel free to click on all the articles because they are good & most of them are from Native run news websites.
I was gonna do this with a read more tag but my laptop doesn't want to work. I'm literally getting anyther one on Thanksgiving but my old one doesn't cooperate sorry so y'all are gonna get a long post. 😕
So let's start with the basics. What is blood quantum?
"Blood quantum laws or Indian blood laws are laws in the United States and the former Thirteen colonies that define Native American identity by percentages of ancestry. ... For instance, a person who has one parent who is a full-blood Native American and one who has no Native ancestry has a blood quantum of 1/2."
In case that was confusing if one person is "full blood native" they are considered 4/4. Meaning they have no relatives who are of any other race or ethnicity. If the "full blood native" has a child with a non Native person the child would have a BQ of 1/2 Native blood. If that child has a child with a non Native that child will be considered 1/4. This will continue to get lower & lower unless the child has a baby with another Native. Then the BQ raises or stays the same depending on the other parents BQ.
Now that the definition is out of the way lets get into the issue with this.
Oh, Pharrell Is Part Native American? Here’s Why It Doesn’t Matter
This is a good article that narrowed down an issue with Pharrell wearing a headdress. I wanna focus on one part of the article though.
"... deeply connected to their Native culture & live it every day."
"Having Native American ancestors doesn't get you off the hook if you don't bother to do the homework."
So I mentioned before that a lot of Natives don't consider BQ as a proper way of measuring your culture. Being Native isn't something you can pull out when it's convenient like for a photoshoot. Its every single day. It's in the words we speak, in the clothes we wear & in the food we cook. Same as any other culture.
Asian people don't wake up not Asian. Black people don't wake up not Black.
So why is do some people pull out the Native card when it is convenient? Like Pharrell did or Elizabeth Warren claims.
This article sums it up well but I wanna focus on the last 2 paragraphs.
Link to the full article:
There's similarities in both articles by 2 different Native authors from 2 different news websites.
They both speak about connections to our culture. A DNA test cannot measure ones Indigenous Ancestry because being Indigenous is much more than something in your blood.
I made a post asking some questions that might help understand if one is Indigenous or not. Now I'm not saying these are all the questions nor that I'm the expert on this. These are just STARTER questions to help people understand what it means to be Native.
Does the tribe you claim, claim you?
Have you been to the reservation?
Do you participate in the community?
Have you met your family from the tribe?
Do you know your history, traditions, anything about the tribe you claim?
The big one is are you claimed. You cannot claim a tribe that doesn't claim you. Now I'm not saying the entirety of the tribe has to know you personally. I'm not even saying you have to stand in front of the tribal council & ask them if they claim you. A claim can be made as little as just your family saying "this person is one of us".
The reason I bring this up is because multiple tribes have in the past & continue the practice of "adopting" a person into their tribe. There's many examples of this. Some can be adopted because they married into a tribe. Non Natives & Natives of other tribes alike have been adopted into tribes. There can be legal adoptions like adopting a child. And countless other examples.
A lot of the time biologically those members aren't apart of the tribe & cannot be enrolled but are still viewed as a member by the community.
For personal example, my sister has been adopted by my tribe. She's actually an enrolled member from another tribe & technically my cousin but was taking away by CPS & my family took her in. She grew up & still lives on my reservation. She is from another reservation. Although her tribe still claims her as a member my tribe also does. People in my community know her as a member of my family & have grown up with her. She knows many of our traditions & practices some ceremonies with us that are specific to my tribe. No one in our tribe has expressed any issue with this so far & even if they did they would have a stern talking to. We are even in the process of organizing her to be buried on our tribal land instead of hers. Her choice & we are okay with it.
Now I want to point out another way people can be considered Native even if they aren't enrolled or cannot answer those questions properly.
Let's look at something called "reconnecting Natives".
What is a reconnecting Native?
A reconnecting Native is someone of Native Ancestry who for whatever reason has been removed from their culture, family, reservation, etc so they do not know them & are actively trying to learn those things so they can reclaim their Native roots.
So, how does this happen? This is actually a very common issue in the community.
One of the main ways a Native might become disconnected is through the process of Residential Schools or Indian Boarding Schools. What is that? Here's a snippet of an article to help explain.
Of course here is the link:
By the late 1800s, assimilation — in the form of compulsory boarding schools — became another tool the U.S. government used to address
The official motto of these schools was "kill the Indian, save the man” and if you think it sounds awful I promise you, it was much worse than you could imagine.
There's a movie on Netflix called Indian Horse which I have not watched yet but is based off a novel by an Indigenous author that looks at these Boarding Schools if you wish to check that out.
The goals of these schools were to strip Indigenous children of their culture. They were beaten, starved, punished of things as simple as speaking in their languages. A lot of them didn't even speak English. It was illegal to keep your kids from this school & often times tribal children went to these schools and never returned to their family. Natives who attended these schools or are children of children who attended these schools more often than not stop practicing their culture or forget it. In that way they become "disconnected".
Those members can if chosen too began the process of reconnecting.
I found this really good article going a little more in depth on the do's & don't's of reconnecting.
Have you ever felt hesitant to claim your Native roots? In your family stories, are there hints or mentions of a Native family member? Do yo
But here's a screenshot of important parts.
Granted this is a long process. Lifelong. Every journey to reconnect is difficult & very different from others. It depends on your tribe & community. Some of them make it easier & some make it harder. It's up to the individual to put in the work.
Now I don't want to make it like being a connected Native is easy. Yes it's easier but connected Natives also put in work to live their culture everyday.
Now what does this have to do with blood quantum? As you can see none of these articles about being Native or even a reconnecting Native mention blood quantum or DNA being a requirement.
If one is Japanese & someone asks "how are you Japanese?" What would the answer be?
"Because I just am. Because my parents are Japanese."
If someone is white & has kids those kids are white, correct?
So if it's so easy to explain for other cultures why does mine require math? Why are some of my family members not enrolled members despite having Native parents & growing up on the reservation? Why do my people have to actively think about the DNA results of our children if we choose to have them?
Because of BQ. Its a tool created by colonizers that are forced upon us. If we do not abide by the rules & requirements the government sets in place we run the very big risk of
Losing our status of a Native American tribe.
Losing our land & land rights.
Losing funding from the federal government.
Losing our housing.
Losing Healthcare.
Losing our basic citizenship rights.
The thing about BQ is it's designed so that we fail. If we fail to keep a certain amount of enrolled tribal members in a tribe then the government can break treaties & take away our land & things that are rightfully ours.
BQ is a lose/lose situation all around for us as well as extremely racist.
Because of the BQ requirements Natives actively worry about who they have children with. Some don't date outside of the their culture in fear of their children not being seen as legally Native. The problem here is a lot of the tribe is related. The issue of inbreeding increases. How do we solve that problem? Well we can have children with Natives of another tribe. But there's a problem here too. Most tribes do not allow what we call dual enrollment. Both of my tribes for example don't allow this. Which means one would have to pick which tribe to enroll their child. That means one of the tribes will lose out on a member. So that's another way identities are erased using BQ.
Okay I think I'm going to end this here. There is so much more I could've added. I also could've expanded on residential schools, what it means to be Indigenous, & reconnecting Natives but I wanted to keep it focused on BQ. If you have anymore questions feel free to ask or research on your own. We're still here. We aren't stuck in the 1800's. We weren't all killed by cowboys but the government is still actively trying to erase us.
Help us commemorate the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls on May 5th. Join in the advocacy on this critical issue and help restore safety for Native women and girls. Learn more about #MMIWG from the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center. #MMIWGActionNow
