Indigenous/Native American: Histories & Cultures (Ongoing Archive)

This Video Essay Was Not Built on an Ancient Burial Ground from Offscreen on Vimeo.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aguilar, Carlos. "Embrace of the Serpent Dir. Ciro Guerra on Indigenous Knowledge & the Amazon in Black-and-White." IndieWire (February 19, 2016)

Apple, Fiona and Eryn Wise. "In Her Own Words: Fiona Apple on New Album Fetch the Bolt Cutters & Acknowledging Indigenous Lands." Democracy Now (April 28, 2020) ["In a broadcast exclusive, world-renowned singer-songwriter Fiona Apple joins Democracy Now! for the hour to discuss her critically acclaimed new album, “Fetch the Bolt Cutters,” which was released early amid the pandemic. “I’ve heard that it’s actually making people feel free and happy,” Apple says, “and it might be helping people feel alive or feel their anger or feel creative. And that’s the best thing that I could hope for.” Her record includes an acknowledgment that the album was “Made on unceded Tongva, Mescalero Apache, and Suma territories.” We also speak with Native American activist Eryn Wise, an organizer with Seeding Sovereignty, an Indigenous-led collective that launched a rapid response initiative to help Indigenous communities affected by the outbreak."]

Baraka, Ajamu, Eli Kane and Pamela Spees. "Pipeline Resistance Groups and the film On A Knife Edge; Perpetual War and the Anti-War Movement." Law and Disorder (March 18, 2018) ["Pipeline Resistance Groups and the film On A Knife Edge: It’s now more than one year since law enforcement evicted the last Dakota Access Pipeline resistance camps. The pipeline was near completion and was supposed to cross sacred Indian land in South Dakota in order to bring Canadian tar sand oil from north to south through the United States. Then the project was stalled by a tremendous solidarity movement lead by indigenous peoples along with their allies only to be green lighted by the newly elected Trump administration which has proven to be a handmaiden of the fossil fuel industry. Guest – Eli Kane, a Brooklyn-based producer who has worked in film and music for 15 years. He has made two other documentaries for PBS about land rights and food sovereignty, including Land Rush, which won a Peabody Award in 2013. Guest – Attorney Pamela Spees is an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights and represents environmental justice groups opposing the efforts of Tigerswan, a private military company which worked with corporate and governmental entities at Standing Rock in an attempt to suppress the movement against the pipeline, to operate in Louisiana."]

Bardenwerper, Will, Stan Brewer and Tucker Malarkey. "Wild Ecologies: So Go the Salmon, So Go the World." Fiction/Non/Fiction (November 19, 2019) ["In this episode, writers Tucker Malarkey and Will Bardenwerper, as well as rancher, rider, and member of the Oglala Sioux tribe Stan Brewer talk about their connections to the natural world. Malarkey talks about efforts to save wild salmon, their vital role in the ecosystem of the Pacific Northwest, and how relations between the US and Russia on this issue might provide insight on global climate change cooperation. Bardenwerper and Brewer, the first writer-source duo to appear on the show together, discuss Indian relay horse racing, and horses’ importance to the Lakota community."]

Bourgeois, Robyn and Marion Buller. "Damning Canadian Inquiry Calls the Murder and Disappearance of Indigenous Women & Girls Genocide." Democracy Now (June 4, 2019) ["A chilling national inquiry has determined that the frequent and widespread disappearance and murder of indigenous girls and women in Canada is a genocide that the government itself is responsible for. The findings were announced by the Canadian National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls at a ceremony on Monday with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the families of victims. Many in the audience held red flowers to commemorate the dead. The national inquiry was convened after the body of 15-year-old Tina Fontaine from the Sagkeeng First Nation was found in the Red River in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 2014. The report follows decades of anguish and anger as indigenous communities have called for greater attention to the epidemic of dead and missing indigenous women, girls and two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual people. Some 1,500 family members of victims and survivors gave testimony to the commission, painting a picture of violence, state-sanctioned neglect, and “pervasive racist and sexist stereotypes” that led nearly 1,200 indigenous women and girls to die or go missing between 1980 and 2012. Indigenous activists say this number could be a massive undercount, as many deaths go unreported and unnoticed. We speak with Marion Buller, chief commissioner of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and Robyn Bourgeois, assistant professor in the Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies at Brock University."]

Brennan, Jason, Braden Te Hiwi and Justin Louis. "This Game We Love On Stolen Land." Changing on the Fly #1 (October 3, 2018) ["On this episode, we lace up the skates and hit the ice to talk about colonialism in hockey, and the Indigenous hockey experience. What does it mean to call hockey “Canada’s game” while Canada is a country built on stolen Native land? We’re gonna take a deep dive into hockey’s role in Canada’s residential schools, the presence of Native mascots in sports, and the changing role of Indigenous hockey players in the NHL today."]

Brown, Monica. "First indigenous map of its kind; U.S. map displays 'Our own names and locations.'" Tulalip News (May 22, 2013)

Cadena, Nicolas. "Embrace of the Serpent: Reframing the Colombian Amazon." NACLA (April 8, 2016)

Cornum, Lou and Nick Estes. "Red Planet." The New Inquiry (May 8, 2019) ["An interview with Nick Estes about his new book, Our History is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance."]

Dickey, Colin. "The Suburban Horror of the Indian Burial Ground." The New Republic (October 19, 2016) ["In the 1970s and 1980s, homeowners were terrified by the idea that they didn't own the land they'd just bought."]

Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne. "In Conversation with Nick Estes." Lannan Lectures (October 11, 2017) ["Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is known for her lifelong commitment to national and international social justice issues. She has been active in the international Indigenous movement for more than four decades, working with Indigenous communities on sovereignty and land rights and helping to build the international Indigenous movement. She is Professor Emerita of Ethnic Studies at California State University, East Bay. She is the author of numerous books and articles on indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination, including Roots of Resistance: A History of Land Tenure in New Mexico, The Great Sioux Nation, and An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, which received the 2015 American Book Award. A new book, Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment is forthcoming in January."]

---. An Indigenous Peoples' History of America. Beacon Press, 2014: 1-14; 133-161. ["Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million Native people who once inhabited this land. The centuries-long genocidal program of the US settler-colonial regimen has largely been omitted from history. Now, for the first time, acclaimed historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz offers a history of the United States told from the perspective of Indigenous peoples and reveals how Native Americans, for centuries, actively resisted expansion of the US empire. With growing support for movements such as the campaign to abolish Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day and the Dakota Access Pipeline protest led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States is an essential resource providing historical threads that are crucial for understanding the present. In An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz adroitly challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the Indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them. And as Dunbar-Ortiz reveals, this policy was praised in popular culture, through writers like James Fenimore Cooper and Walt Whitman, and in the highest offices of government and the military. Shockingly, as the genocidal policy reached its zenith under President Andrew Jackson, its ruthlessness was best articulated by US Army general Thomas S. Jesup, who, in 1836, wrote of the Seminoles: “The country can be rid of them only by exterminating them.” Spanning more than four hundred years, this classic bottom-up peoples’ history radically reframes US history and explodes the silences that have haunted our national narrative."]

---. "Sanitizing Our Settler-Colonial Past With ‘Nation of Immigrants’ Narratives." Citations Needed #62 (January 16, 2019) ["“The United States is a nation of immigrants.” It’s a phrase we hear constantly – often said with the best of intentions and, in today’s increasingly cruel environment, meant as a strong rebuke of Donald Trump and his white nationalist administration. The metaphor of the “melting pot” serves a similar purpose: the United States is strong and noble because we are a place that takes people in from across the globe, an inclusive, welcoming, compassionate in-gathering of humanity - e pluribus unum - "out of many, one." It’s a romantic idea – and often evoked as a counter to xenophobic, anti-immigrant rhetoric. But how historically accurate are these phrases and the national narratives they entrench? And what if, instead of combating white nationalism, they subtly promote it? On this episode, we dissect the notion that the United States is simply a rainbow collection of disparate groups coming together and breakdown how, in many ways, this absolves us of our past and present as a violent, white-settler colony."]

Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne and Abby Martin. "Native American Genocide & Resistance." Empire Files (November 25, 2015) ["Indigenous scholar Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of an ‘Indigenous People’s History of The United States’, joins Abby Martin for this week’s episode of The Empire Files to give insight on the history and present-day struggle of native peoples. Native society, despite pervasive mainstream mythology, was rich in agriculture and was advanced to such a degree that they were appropriated by colonialists. These civilizations were turned into slaves, bought and sold on the market and taken to work in mines and forcibly displaced so they did not have their housing or food supplies. The desire of the colonial forces was to weaken and control native populations so that could occupy and control the land, and use natives for slave labor. Dunbar-Ortiz discusses not only the intention of colonial forces, which included killing off cultural ties and languages, but how native people have survived despite widespread terror campaigns. Armed settlers had to fight against native people in order to maintain dominance. The Plains People, for example, had to endure a “food fight” involving their buffalo. The primary goal of a food fight was to kill off the food supply of civilians so that they starve or give in to the demands of occupying forces. Native resistance today has taken new, creative form—aimed at disrupting normalized dehumanization by the military establishment, sport establishment and school industries, all of which carry names and caricatures of natives which are deeply colonial and racist: from things like Tomahawk missiles to the Redskins sports team. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Abby Martin break down the colonialist fabrications which have long permeated our history books and follow through with how we can join the fight to amplify native voices."]

Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne, et al. "Taking the first steps of American imperialism (Native Peoples Series Part 3)." Best of the Left #1252 (February 26, 2019) ["Today we take a look at the process of systematic, government-sponsored genocide against the native peoples of North America that kicked off the wealth-accumulating, territory-expanding American empire we know and love today."]

Ellerby, Kara and Sumita Mukherjee. "How Empire Uses ‘Feminist’ Branding to Sell War and Occupation." Citations Needed #65 (February 6, 2019) ["Since the dawn of the American Empire, thin moral pretexts in our politics and press have been used to justify our wars and conquest. The invasion of Cuba and Philippines in 1898 was declared to be a fight for freedom from Spanish oppression. Vietnam was about stopping Communist tyranny. The pioneer myth of Manifest Destiny and “westward expansion” was built about “taming” and “civilizing’ the land from violent savages. But one current that flows through all of these imperial incursions has been the idea that the United States – as well as its allies the Great Britain and Israel – are out to protect women. Today's endless occupations in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan are, in large part, justified in perpetuity because the United States is a self-declared, unique protector of modernity and women’s rights. All the same, the Pentagon is increasingly promoted, in press releases and media puffy pieces, as a place where women can exercise their agency: the ultimate apex of meritocracy and a vanguard of equality. But what if this approach misses the point of equality altogether? What if this is simply a craven branding exercise, putting a liberal face on what is a fundamentally oppressive system of violence? On this episode, we explore various ways women’s rights and empowerment has been used to sell colonial objectives and how one can differentiate between actual progress and the superficial language of inclusion used cynically in service of mechanized violence."]

Estes, Nick. "Our History of the Future." Dig (June 29, 2019) ["Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance." Michael Benton -- This is one of the best discussions I have heard about indigenous cultures, settler colonialism, racism/apartheid in America and intergenerational indigenous resistance movements. I cannot laud this enough - totally revolutionized and extended my thinking/understanding of contemporary movements like Standing Rock and their place in the long history of intergenerational indigenous struggles against genocidal policies. I highly recommend this episode and check out The Dig podcast (they also just did an impressive 5 part episode on contemporary European politics)]

---. "Our History Is the Future: Lakota Historian Nick Estes on Thanksgiving & Indigenous Resistance." Democracy Now (November 28, 2019)

---. "Standing Rock and the History of Indigenous Resistance in America." BackStory (September 6, 2019) ["In 2016, protests broke out at Standing Rock – a reservation in North and South Dakota – to block the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Indigenous peoples and other activists opposed the pipeline because they believed it violated sacred sites and threatened to contaminate the Missouri River, a major source of drinking water in the region. Taking social media by storm, the #noDAPL movement quickly became an international headline. On this episode, Nathan sits down with historian and activist Nick Estes to talk about his experience at Standing Rock, the history of Indigenous resistance, and the current state of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Estes’ new book is called Our History is the Future: Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance."]

Goulet, Danis, et al. "How Indigenous and black artists are using science fiction to imagine a better future." The Current (November 14, 2017)

Haaland, Deb. "One of Nation’s First Native Congresswomen, Calls for Probe of Missing Indigenous Women." Democracy Now (November 8, 2018) ["Two Native American women have made history in the midterms, becoming the nation’s first Native congresswomen. Democrat Sharice Davids won the 3rd Congressional District in Kansas, unseating Republican Kevin Yoder. In New Mexico, Democrat Deb Haaland won in the 1st Congressional District, defeating Republican Janice Arnold-Jones. They will join more than 100 women in the U.S. House of Representatives—another historic first. We speak to Deb Haaland about her plans for Congress, the crisis of missing and murdered Native American women around the country, and whether she’ll attempt to impeach Donald Trump."]

Hamilton-Diabo, Jonathan, et al. "The Path to Reconciliation in Education and Community Work." Needs No Introduction (June 28, 2018) ["The panel you'll hear on today's program is called Path to Reconciliation in Education and Community Work. Panelists discussed the meaning of reconciliation and the strategies and initiatives that have been undertaken by educational institutions and community agencies toward the deeper integration of Indigenous perspectives, practices, and pedagogies into the curriculum and culture of their organizations."]

Hugo, Kristin. "Indigenous people want to make Amazon rainforest world's biggest protected area." The Independent (November 21, 2018)

Immerwahr, Daniel. "Empire State of Mind." On the Media (April 5, 2019) ["Recently, a member of the Trump administration called Puerto Rico “that country,” obscuring once more the relationship between the island colony and the American mainland. In a special hour this week, On the Media examines the history of US imperialism — and why the familiar US map hides the true story of our country. Brooke spends the hour with Northwestern University historian Daniel Immerwahr, author of How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States."]

---. "'How to Hide an Empire': Daniel Immerwahr on the History of the Greater United States." Democracy Now (March 5, 2019) ["“How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States.” That’s the title of a new book examining a part of the U.S. that is often overlooked: the nation’s overseas territories from Puerto Rico to Guam, former territories like the Philippines, and its hundreds of military bases scattered across the globe. We speak with the book’s author, Daniel Immerwahr, who writes, “At various times, the inhabitants of the U.S. Empire have been shot, shelled, starved, interned, dispossessed, tortured and experimented on. What they haven’t been, by and large, is seen.” Immerwahr is an associate professor of history at Northwestern University."]

Joseph, Harry, Anne Rolfes and Pamela Spees. "Critics of Bayou Bridge Pipeline in Louisiana Decry State & Company Surveillance of Protesters." Democracy Now (March 13, 2018) ["In Louisiana, newly disclosed documents reveal a state intelligence agency regularly spied on activists opposing construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline, which would carry nearly a half-million barrels of oil per day across Louisiana’s wetlands. The documents show the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness regularly drafted intelligence memos on anti-pipeline activists, including a gathering of indigenous-led water protectors who’ve set up a protest encampment along the pipeline’s route. Other newly revealed documents show close coordination between Louisiana regulators and the company building the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners. This comes just one week after a U.S. district judge in Baton Rouge ordered a temporary injunction against construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline in order to “prevent further irreparable harm” to the region’s delicate ecosystems, while court challenges proceed. For more, we speak with Pastor Harry Joseph of the Mount Triumph Baptist Church. We also speak with Pamela Spees of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Anne Rolfes, founding director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade."]

Kaur, Harmeet. "The Cherokee Nation wants a representative in Congress, taking the US government up on a promise it made nearly 200 years ago." CNN (August 25, 2019)

Kernell, Amanda. "Sami Blood." Film School Radio (June 27, 2017) ["Sami Blood is the electrifying debut feature of writer/director Amanda Kernell. Based on her own grandmother’s life and set in 1930s Sweden during the pre-Nazi eugenics movement, Sami Blood follows Elle, a young indigenous Lapland girl made to feel like an inferior species when she’s subjected to indoctrination and race biology in a Swedish boarding school. Elle escapes, and in doing so is estranged from her sister, her family and her culture. Sami Blood is a unique and intimate perspective on the history of the Sami people, and tells a story of oppression that resonates across borders and generations. The film features a breakthrough performance from its young lead actress Lene Cecilia Sparrok, who has never acted before and is Sami herself. She stars in the film alongside her sister Mia Sparrok. Director and writer Amanda Kernell joins us to talk about her heart wrenching story of a young woman struggling to find a place in an increasingly hostile world."]

King, Charles. "How A Few 'Renegade' Thinkers Helped Usher In A New Era Of Anthropology." Fresh Air (August 20, 2019) ["In his new book, Gods of the Upper Air, Charles King tells the story of Franz Boas, Margaret Mead and the other 20th century anthropologists who challenged outdated notions of race, class and gender." MB - also classifications of primitive/civilized.]

Mathiesen, Karl. "Embrace of the Serpent Star: 'My Tribe is Nearly Extinct.'" The Guardian (June 8, 2016) ["Their land was plundered for rubber while they were enslaved or killed. As Embrace of the Serpent tells the shocking story of the tribespeople of Colombia, its star relives a moving screening in the heart of the jungle"]

Miller, Andrew. "'Our House Is On Fire': Brazil Faces Global Outrage as Massive Fires Spread in Amazon Rainforest." Democracy Now (August 23, 2019) ["The United Nations is calling for the protection of the Amazon amid fears that thousands of fires raging across Brazil and some parts of Bolivia are rapidly destroying the world’s largest rainforest and paving the way for a climate catastrophe. The fires have spread a vast plume of smoke across South America and the Atlantic Ocean that’s visible from space. They’re unprecedented in recorded history, and environmentalists say most of the fires were deliberately set by illegal miners and cattle ranchers. Indigenous people in Brazil have accused far-right President Jair Bolsonaro of encouraging the destruction. Bolsonaro has worked to deregulate and open up the Amazon for agribusiness, logging and mining since he came into office in January. We speak with Andrew Miller, advocacy director at Amazon Watch."]

Noisecat, Julian Brave and Anne Spice. "A History and Future of Resistance: The fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline is part of a centuries-long indigenous struggle against dispossession and capitalist expansionism." Jacobin (September 8, 2016)

Roehl, Emily. "Deep histories and fluid futures in Awake: A Dream from Standing Rock." Jump Cut #59 (Fall 2019) ["“I am not dreaming. I am awake. I have been woken by the spirit inside that demanded I open my eyes and see the world around me, see that my children’s future was imperiled. See that my life couldn’t wait in slumber anymore. See that I was honored to be among those who are awake, to be alive at this point in time, to see the rising of the Oceti Sakowin, to see the gathering of the nations and beyond that, the gathering of all races and all faiths. Will you wake up and dream with us? Will you join our dream? Will you join us?” - Floris White Bull"  To watch the film]

Talaga, Tanya. "Big Brother's Hunger." Ideas (March 25, 2019) ["In her 2018 CBC Massey Lectures series, titled All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward, prize-winning journalist Tanya Talaga (author of Seven Fallen Feathers) explores the legacy of cultural genocide against Indigenous peoples."]

Waziyatawin and Michael Yellow Bird. "For Indigenous Eyes Only: Beginning Decolonization." (Excerpt from For Indigenous Eyes Only: A Decolonization Handbook Edited by Waziyatawin Angela Wilson and Michael Yellow Bird © 2005 School of American Research.)

Wente, Jesse. "Top Ten Indigenous Films of AllTime." CBC (October 22, 2014)

Williams, Jr., Robert A. "Moving beyond tragedy by surviving and adapting (Native Peoples Series Part 4)." Best of the Left #1265 (April 16, 2019) ["Today we take a look at just a few of the aspects of modern life for Native Peoples that we can see as stemming from the racism and colonialism that has been endemic in post-contact America."]