In honour of National Indigenous Peoples Day today here in , let us remember Demasduit, a Beothuk woman from the early 19th century -- one of the last of her people on Newfoundland

#IndigenousPeoplesDay #Newfoundland #Beothuk #IndigenousHistory #TruthAndReconciliation
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I had the remarkable privilege of attending Pope Francis’s pilgrimage to Lac Ste Anne, west of Edmonton, where he prayed for forgiveness for the Catholic Church’s role in colonialism and cultural genocide against Canada’s Indigenous peoples. It was an extraordinary powerful moment of reckoning and reconciliation - and an act of courage and grace. I am not Roman Catholic. But I too mourn today a champion of justice, who spoke truth to the very end. #PopeFrancis #TruthandReconciliation #Alberta

#PortlandME - TONIGHT!

"All are welcome and invited to attend a free screening of the Upstander Project's documentary film, #Dawnland, hosted by the USM Libraries and Learning Outreach Committee.

A"fter the film, there will be a Talk-Back and Q and A with the film's director, Adam Mazo (who will join us live, virtually). "

Details:

Date: Wednesday, April 2nd
Time: 5pm-7pm
Location: Talbot Hall, Luther-Bonney, USM Portland Campus
Add it to your calendar here.

"Light refreshments available. Please share with students, colleagues, friends, etc."

About the film:
"For decades, child welfare authorities have been removing Native American children from their homes to 'save them from being Indian.' In Maine, the first official Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the United States begins a historic investigation. Dawnland goes behind-the-scenes as this historic body grapples with difficult truths, redefines reconciliation, and charts a new course for state and tribal relations.

"Dawnland aired on Independent Lens on PBS in November 2018 and 2021, reaching more than two million viewers. The film won a national Emmy® Award for Outstanding Research in 2019 and made the American Library Association’s list of 2020 Notable Videos for Adults."

Maine #TruthAndReconciliation #WabanakiReach #StolenChildren #BoardingSchools #CulturalGenocide #NativeAmericans #Film

Canada and the RCMP did/do awful things to Inuit. One of these things was the widespread slaughter of dogs. Inuit relied upon these dogs for food, transportation, and protection.

An elder I know remembers the slaughter. Her father was out on the tundra with his dog team when RCMP came to her community and killed every dog.

He stayed out on the tundra alone with his dogs for months. He had to keep the dogs hidden from the cops or those dogs would've been killed too. He and his dog team kept that community fed all that time. Without his hunting, they would have starved. https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1732300419996/1732300456676 #Inuit #Canada #RCMP #DogSlaughter #SledDog #TruthAndReconciliation #genocide #colonialism

The nationalistic fervor I'm seeing in Canada creeps me out. The Canadian flag is not the great balm for the soul so many settlers think it is. It is a symbol of colonial oppression for Indigenous folks. It wasn't so long ago that those hidden graves at residential schools were discovered. More continue to be found at the sites of former residential schools, and genocide deniers have been taking over the narrative.

Indigenous communities still remain without drinking water despite political promises even while Nestle plunders nearby water sources.

A large percentage of calls to action for Truth and Reconciliation remain unmet.

I see the jingoistic flag-waving disturbing and alienating. I've already had people laughing at my alienation.

Do not alienate Indigenous people. As Jeff Doctor says over on BlueSky, "Remember who taught you about maple trees, about the food from these lands, the ways to keep safe and warm. Some of your ancestors have already resisted Americans alongside ours, learn from the true histories, not the nationalist versions."
https://bsky.app/profile/jeff.doctor/post/3liaarncgwf2x
#Canada #CanadianFlag #MapleLeafFlag #215Children #ResidentialSchool #Jingoism #TruthAndReconciliation #SystemicRacism #Genocide

The U.S. Interior Did Not Report Thousands of Children's
Deaths in U.S. #BoardingSchools

#CensoredNews, January 20, 2025

"Thousands of Native children died in U.S. boarding schools that were not reported by the U.S. Interior Department in its report, the Washington Post reveals. Suffering from malnutrition, diseases and
abuse, the largest number of unreported children's deaths were at Chemawa Indian Training School in Oregon, followed by Haskel lIndian Industrial School in Kansas. The largest total number of deaths were at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. The U.S. Interior reported only 12 deaths at Rapid City Indian Boarding School in South Dakota. However, The Washington Post reveals there were 45 children that died there. At the #PineRidge Boarding School, the Interior reported only 4 children died, when there are 10 documented deaths of children."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/01/us-interior-report-fails-to-reveal.html
#NativeAmericanChildren #Genocide #CulturalGenocide #StolenChildren #Colonialism #CarlisleSchool #ChemawaIndianTrainingSchool #HaskellIndianIndustrialSchool #ResidentialSchools #ResidentialBoardingSchools #TruthAndReconciliation #NativeAmericans #ReaderSupportedNews

Will #Biden Grant #LeonardPeltier Clemency? #Indigenous Leaders Plead, “Don’t Let Him Die in Prison”

#DemocracyNow, January 17, 2025

"After commuting the sentences of over 2,500 people imprisoned for nonviolent drug offenses, Joe Biden has set a record for most pardons and commutations by a U.S. president. But Indigenous political prisoner Leonard Peltier remains behind bars. Over 120 tribal leaders are calling on Biden to grant clemency to Peltier as one of his final acts in office, warning this may be the last opportunity Peltier has for freedom. Peltier is 80 years old and has spent the majority of his life — nearly half a century — in prison despite a conviction riddled with irregularities and prosecutorial misconduct. In December, tribal leaders, including the #NDNCollective’s Nick Tilsen, met with a pardon attorney at the Department of Justice to prepare a recommendation on Peltier’s case for Biden. With only a few days left in Biden’s term, #NativeAmericans are eagerly anticipating his decision. 'All of us see a little bit of ourselves in Leonard Peltier, and that’s why we fight so hard for him,' says Tilsen. 'This is about paving a path forward that gives us the opportunity to have justice and begin to heal the relationship between the United States government and Indian people. And so, this decision is massive.' "

Listen / watch / read transcript (available after 1pm EST): https://www.democracynow.org/2025/1/17/free_leonard_peltier_biden_clemency
#ClemencyForLeonardPeltier #AmnestyForLeonardPeltier #FreeLeonardPeltier #AmericanIndianMovement #AIM #NativeAmericanActivist #FBI #ACAB #TruthAndReconciliation

U.S. Interior Report Fails to Reveal Thousands of Deaths of Native Children in 'Prison Camps' -- U.S. Boarding Schools

'Run, run as fast as you can'

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, Jan. 13, 2025

"Thousands of #NativeChildren died in U.S. boarding schools that were not reported by the U.S. Interior Department in its report, the Washington Post reveals. Suffering from malnutrition, diseases and abuse, the largest number of unreported children's deaths were at Chemawa Indian Training School in Oregon, followed by Haskell Indian Industrial School in Kansas. The largest total number of deaths were at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.

"The U.S. Interior reported only 12 deaths at Rapid City Indian Boarding School in South Dakota. However, The Washington Post reveals there were 45 children that died there. At the #PineRidgeBoardingSchool, the Interior reported only 4 children died, when there are 10 documented deaths of children.

"At #SaintLabre Indian Mission Boarding School in Montana, the Interior reported only one child died. However, thirty-three children are documented as dying there. The same #CatholicBoardingSchool was successfully sued by the Northern Cheyenne Nation for exploiting children in fundraising scams and funneling millions to the Catholic Church.

"The year-long investigation by The Washington Post documented that 3,104 students died at boarding schools between 1828 and 1970 -- three times as many deaths as reported by the U.S. Interior Department. The actual number of deaths could be as high as 40,000, since deaths of children in unmarked graves were either never reported or the records were destroyed."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/01/us-interior-report-fails-to-reveal.html
#CarlisleSchool #ChemawaIndianTrainingSchool #HaskellIndianIndustrialSchool #ResidentialSchools #ResidentialBoardingSchools #TruthAndReconciliation #CulturalGenocide #StolenChildren #NativeAmericans #BoardingSchools

Sadness over the loss of a Canadian hero. Sinclair's commission, a culmination of sorts of his life's work fighting for indigenous justice, offers us settlers a clear path forward in the face of a cruel and complicated history of colonialism, exploitation and genocide. We absolutely need to hold our governments' feet to the fire in return.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/murray-sinclair-death-1.7372862

#Navy apologizes 142 years after shelling and burning an #Alaska #Native village to oblivion

"'The Navy recognizes the pain and suffering inflicted upon the #Tlingit people,' said the commander of the Navy’s northwest region."

AP, October 28, 2024

"Shells fell on the Alaska Native village as winter approached, and then sailors landed and burned what was left of homes, food caches and canoes. Conditions grew so dire in the following months that elders sacrificed their own lives to spare food for surviving children.

"It was Oct. 26, 1882, in Angoon, a Tlingit village of about 420 people in the southeastern Alaska panhandle. Now, 142 years later, the perpetrator of the bombardment — the #USNavy —has apologized.

"Rear Adm. Mark Sucato, the commander of the Navy’s northwest region, issued the apology during an at-times emotional ceremony Saturday, the anniversary of the atrocity.

"'The Navy recognizes the pain and suffering inflicted upon the#TlingitPeople, and we acknowledge these wrongful actions resulted in the loss of life, the loss of resources, the loss of culture, and created and inflicted #IntergenerationalTrauma on these clans,' he said during the ceremony, which was livestreamed from Angoon. 'The Navy takes the significance of this action very, very seriously and knows an apology is long overdue.'

"While the rebuilt Angoon received $90,000 in a settlement with the Department of Interior in 1973, village leaders have for decades sought an apology as well, beginning each yearly remembrance by asking three times, 'Is there anyone here from the Navy to apologize?'

"'You can imagine the generations of people that have died since 1882 that have wondered what had happened, why it happened, and wanted an apology of some sort, because in our minds, we didn’t do anything wrong,' said Daniel Johnson Jr., a tribal head in #Angoon.

"The attack was one of a series of conflicts between the American military and Alaska Natives in the years after the U.S. bought the territory from Russia in 1867. The U.S. Navy issued an apology last month for destroying the nearby village of Kake in 1869, and the Army has indicated that it plans to apologize for shelling Wrangell, also in southeast Alaska, that year, though no date has been set.

"The Navy acknowledges the actions it undertook or ordered in Angoon and #Kake caused deaths, a loss of resources and multigenerational trauma, Navy civilian spokesperson Julianne Leinenveber said in an email prior to the event.

"'An apology is not only warranted, but long overdue,' she said."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/us-navy-apologized-142-years-shelling-burning-alaska-native-village-ob-rcna177560?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

O'odham Woman Becomes Hero When Genocide Joe Comes to Town

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Oct. 25, 2024

"In the #GilaRiver Indian Community today, Biden claimed to be issuing an apology to #NativeAmerican children who were victims of U.S. #BoardingSchools. His glory campaign was short-lived.

"As Biden spoke, an O'odham woman held up this sign: 'There Are Still Babies in Mass Graves. Your Apology Means Nothing!! #LandBack!'

"Calling out to Biden, she said, 'What about the people in #Gaza! What about the people in #Palestine?'

"'How can you apologize for a #genocide while actively committing a genocide in Palestine! #FreePalestine.'

"Security removed her."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/10/oodham-woman-becomes-hero-when-genocide.html

So, I heard about this on the news. And I shouted out loud, "#ThackerPass! #OakFlat! #WhiteMesa! Ha'Kamwe'!" I mean, it's great to embrace #TruthAndReconciliation, especially when it comes to #BoardingSchools -- but not when your administration is targeting sacred places for destructive, extractive mining and processing of radioactive materials -- which will affect #FirstNations who live nearby!

'A sin on our soul': Biden delivers formal apology for Native boarding school abuses

by Debra Utacia Krol
October 25, 2024

"#Biden delivered the apology on tribal lands south of Phoenix in what could be his last visit to Arizona as president. Before leaving Washington on Thursday, he called the apology 'something that should have been done a long time ago.' He was accompanied by Interior Secretary #DebHaaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo and the first Indigenous Cabinet secretary."

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2024/10/25/president-joe-biden-arizona-apologize-native-american-boarding-school-abuse/75824575007/

UPDATE: #Texas #library committee suspended, decision to reclassify #IndigenousHistory book as "fiction" reversed

Judd Legum
Oct 23, 2024

"The change to the book review process was driven by a local #RightWing group, Two Moms and Some Books.

"After Popular Information's report, the reclassification of the book became national and international news, receiving coverage from MSNBC, The Austin-American Statesman, The San Antonio Current, The Texarkana Gazette, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Guardian, The Independent, and others. Two days after Popular Information's report, a coalition, including PEN America, the Writers Guild, and Penguin Random House, wrote a letter to the Montgomery County Commission demanding they reverse the decision.

"On Tuesday, the Montgomery County Commission 'issued a stay' against all decisions made by the citizens' reconsideration committee since October 1, and also put all future decisions of the committee on hold. That means the book will be placed back in the non-fiction section of the county’s public libraries. In addition, the Commission created a group "to review and revise library policy,' including the role and composition of the citizens' reconsideration committee."

https://popular.info/p/update-texas-library-committee-suspended

#Colonization #Censorship #Fascism #TruthAndReconciliation vs #LiesAndDenial #WampanoagTribe #WampanoagNation #TexasFreedomToReadProject #TwoMomsAndSomeBooks #ChristianRight #MontgomeryCountyTexas #Wampanog #ChildrensBooks #Librarians #NativeAmericans

Film: #MohawkMothers Taking Message to #SupremeCourtOfCanada

Posted on October 17, 2024, #MohawkNationNews

"The Mohawk Mothers and the Independent Special Interlocutor For #MissingChildren and #UnmarkedGraves and Burial Sites Associated with Indian #ResidentialSchools went officially to #Ottawa to deliver an application to the Supreme Court of Canada in the case against #SocieteQuebecoisesDesInfrastructure, #McGillUniversity, #RoyalVictoriaHospital, City of #Montreal Attorney General of Canada and Attorney General of Quebec. No. 500-09-030847-248 SCM No. 500-17-120468-221. They made a public declaration on the steps of the Supreme Court of Canada at 1.00 pm on Oct. 16, 2024 which is covered in the following film..."

Link to original post and videos:
https://mohawknationnews.com/blog/2024/10/17/film-mohawk-mothers-taking-message-to-supreme-court-of-canada/

#IndianResidentialSchools #TruthAndReconciliation #FirstNations #FirstNationsCanada #TeiohatehTwoRow #Kahnistensera #SupremeCourtOfCanada #NativeAmericanGenocide #Genocide
#StolenChildren #ResidentialSchools
#Assimilation #ChildAbuse

#Texas county sidelines #librarians, reclassifies book on abuse of #NativeAmericans as "fiction"

Judd Legum
Oct 14, 2024

"A Texas county has mandated public libraries move a well-regarded children's book documenting the mistreatment of Native Americans in #NewEngland — #Colonization and the #Wampanoag Story — from the 'non-fiction' section to 'fiction.' The decision was made after the government of #MontgomeryCountyTexas, under pressure from #RightWing activists, removed librarians from the process of reviewing #ChildrensBooks and replaced them with a 'Citizens Review Committee.' Colonization and the Wampanoag Story was 'challenged' by an unknown person on September 10, 2024. The Committee responded by ordering that the book be moved to the fiction section of public libraries in Montgomery County by October 17, 2024, according to public records obtained by the #TexasFreedomToReadProject shared with Popular Information.

"The author of Colonization and the Wampanoag Story is #LindaCoombs, a 'historian from the #WampanoagTribe.' Coombs spent three decades working at the #WampanoagIndigenousProgram, an initiative to preserve the history of the Wampanoag people. The book is published by Penguin Random House, which describes the book as '[t]he true story of the #IndigenousNations of the American Northeast, including the Wampanoag nation and others, and their history up to present day."

"Colonization and the Wampanoag Story tells the real story of the brutalization of the Wampanoag people by #EuropeanSettlers. An excerpt:

"'[C]ertain ship captain began kidnapping Wampanoag men and those of other tribal nations along the coast. Sailors invited them aboard their ships under the pretense of trading, then lifted anchor and sailed away. The men were prisoners, stolen from their families and homes.

"'They were taken to #England and #Spain to be sold into slavery and paraded through the streets as "novelties," something for the people of Europe to gawk at as curiosities — not as human beings. Imagine how these men must of felt when they realized their situation: they would never see their children, parents, wives, relatives or communities and homelands again. What a terrible shock for all their families when they realized their men were gone — just disappeared forever.'

"This is fact, not fiction."

Read more:
https://popular.info/p/texas-county-sidelines-librarians

#IndigenousPeoplesDay #Colonization #Censorship #Fascism #IndigenousHistory #TruthAndReconciliation vs #LiesAndDenial

Round Dance for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
September 30, 2024
Boyle Street Plaza
Presented by the Creating Hope Society.
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#yeg #yegdt #RoundDance #TruthAndReconciliation #BoyleStreet

Standing Together walk for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. September 30, 2024. The walk began in Mary Burlie Park, through Chinatown to Caboto Park in Little Italy.
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#yeg #yegdt #TruthandReconciliation #McCauley #Chinatown #ChinatownYEG #BoyleStreet #photojournalism #yegphotographer