Tag: indigenous

fieldbears:

fullmetalquest:

robotsandfrippary:

99laundry:

gogomrbrown:

I learned in a Latin Studies class (with a chill white dude professor) that when the Europeans first saw Aztec cities they were stunned by the grid. The Aztecs had city planning and that there was no rational lay out to European cities at the time. No organization.

When the Spanish first arrived in Tenochtitlan (now downtown mexico city) they thought they were dreaming. They had arrived from incredibly unsanitary medieval Europe to a city five times the size of that century’s london with a working sewage system, artificial “floating gardens” (chinampas), a grid system, and aqueducts providing fresh water. Which wasn’t even for drinking! Water from the aqueducts was used for washing and bathing- they preferred using nearby mountain springs for drinking. Hygiene was a huge part if their culture, most people bathed twice a day while the king bathed at least four times a day.
Located on an island in the middle of a lake, they used advanced causeways to allow access to the mainland that could be cut off to let canoes through or to defend the city. The Spanish saw their buildings and towers and thought they were rising out of the water. The city was one of the most advanced societies at the time.

Anyone who thinks that Native Americans were the savages instead of the filthy, disease ridden colonizers who appeared on their land is a damn fool.

They’ve also recently discovered a lost Native American city in Kansas called Etzanoa It rivals the size of Cahokia, which was very large as well.

Makes me happy to see people learn about the culture of my country 😀

Also, please remember that the idea of a nomadic or semi-nomadic culture being “less intelligent”, “less civilized” (and please unpack that word) was invented by people who wanted to make a graph where they were on the top.

Societies that functioned without 1) staying exclusively in one location or 2) having to make complicated, difficult-to-construct tools to go about their daily lives… were not somehow less valid than others.

A B.C. reserve has been 17 years without safe drinking water. Many don’t even have tap water

allthecanadianpolitics:

allthecanadianpolitics:

Tu-ninq’ez. Cold, fresh water in the Tsilhqot’in language spoken on the remote reserves west of Williams Lake, B.C.

On Xeni Gwet’in First Nation — the most remote of the six Tsilhqot’in member bands — tu-ninq’ez (pronounced “too-ning-KAWZ”) is at the cultural heart of their salmon-fishing, wild horse-coralling, hay-baling lifestyle.

Despite that, the 252-resident community has been under a boil-water advisory for 17 years, which Ottawa originally announced in 2001 because of a high risk of sewage contamination, according to documents.

Continue Reading.

“Recently elected Xeni Gwet’in chief Jimmy Lulua doesn’t have running water in his own house. He brushes his teeth from a cup. It is a daily reminder of how precious water is to his people — but, he noted, “It’s not by choice.”

“We’ve never been high on the government’s priority list,” he said. “We live in a third world country in one of the richest countries in the world.”

A B.C. reserve has been 17 years without safe drinking water. Many don’t even have tap water

Concerns mount over federal government’s Indigenous housing contest

wetwareproblem:

allthecanadianpolitics:

The Canadian government will launch a contest this fall for First Nations communities to win $30 million toward innovative housing projects on reserve.

The Indigenous Homes Innovation Challenge has been billed by the federal government as a national competition designed to help close the housing gap for First Nations people on reserves.

But the concept is drawing some negative attention from the public — it’s been referred to as the “Hunger Games of on-reserve housing,” by advocate Arnell Tailfeathers.

“This issue of housing and poverty is not to be relegated to something as demeaning as a contest in order to win prize money,” said Mary Teegee, chair of the Delegated Aboriginal Agencies Provincial Forum.

“I do believe that, while however well-intentioned it may be, it absolutely misses the mark of dealing with the issues, which is really that housing issues within First Nations communities, they’re at a crisis point.”

Continue Reading.

“I mean, sure, $30 mil is only a drop in the bucket and doesn’t even begin to touch the constructive neglect we’ve treated you with for centuries, but dance for your scraps or we’ll let you starve.”

Concerns mount over federal government’s Indigenous housing contest

First Nations Prof From B.C.-Alaska Territory Forced To Leave Canada

cheatthis:

allthecanadianpolitics:

A First Nations woman working to revive a threatened language in her traditional territory of northern British Columbia says she’s being forced to leave the country on Canada Day.

Mique’l Dangeli belongs to the Tsimshian First Nation, whose territory straddles the border between Alaska and British Columbia. She says Canada won’t recognize her right to live and work in B.C. because she was born on the American side on Annette Island Indian Reserve.

Her visa expires July 1, she said.

“For me, what I consider home is my home community and my people’s traditional territory, which is northern B.C.,” she said. “We’re not immigrants to our people’s traditional territory.”

Continue Reading.

“The colonial border between the U.S. and Canada dissects Indigenous territories in ways that sever the lifelines between First Nation families, communities, languages and ceremonies,” Dangeli’s petition says.

Dangeli says she considered applying for Indian status in Canada, but learned the two-year process hinged on the baptismal record of her great-great-great grandmother in Prince Rupert, B.C., in the 1860s.

“So if she decided not to convert to Christianity I would not be considered an Indian under the Indian Act. The whole process is about one colonial institution affirming the power of another. It has nothing to do with our inherent Indigenous rights that predate colonial law,” Dangeli said.

This whole article is worth a read but this part deserved highlighting.

First Nations Prof From B.C.-Alaska Territory Forced To Leave Canada

Ancient people farmed the Amazon 4,500 years ago … and they did it better than we do

plantyhamchuk:

flowersandfutures:

Modern farmers clearcut the rainforest, which destroys the soil’s nutrients over time and doesn’t actually give you much food, a fun fact that makes me want to bash my head into a tree.

“People thousands of years ago developed a nutrient rich soil,” explained Dr. Yoshi Maezumi, the University of Exeter professor who led the study. “They farmed in a way which involved continuous enrichment and reusing of the soil, rather than expanding the amount of land they clear cut for farming. This was a much more sustainable way of farming.”

It was so efficient that they could grow crops in unusual places. Conventional wisdom states that the ancients should only have been able to grow maize near nutrient-rich lakes. But these ancient farmers grew it all over the place.

Here’s the key part: 

“This is a very different use of the land to that of today, where large areas of land in the Amazon is cleared and planted for industrial scale grain, soya bean farming and cattle grazing.

“ which is fairly repetitive, because most of that grain and soya bean farming? Is animal feed. 

What were the ancient people farming instead? 

“Ancient peoples had farmed maize, manioc, sweet potato and squash there 4,500 years ago.

…

Ancient communities likely did clear some understory trees and weeds for farming, but they maintained a closed canopy forest, enriched in edible plants which could bring them food

“

“

Brazil is the largest exporter of beef which is causing 80% of all deforestation in the Amazon.

“ Source

Ancient people farmed the Amazon 4,500 years ago … and they did it better than we do

ichiboob:

fury-and-beardies:

“Sometimes when I tell strangers I’m Cherokee they ask,”How much are you?” They’re not asking if I know myself as a Cherokee and if I am considered by other Cherokees as Cherokee. That would be a valid, though invasive, question. Instead, they’re asking, “What percentage of ‘Indian blood’ do you have?” This question implies that the degree to which one is Cherokee is defined by racial purity. By this logic, the higher percentage of “ Indian blood” you have, the more cherokee you would be. It’s a racist question because it implies that Cherokees are defined by race, not by culture. People tend to forget that “race” is a concept created by cultures. The concept of race continues to have power only because we continue to believe in it. Funny thing is, in all my life I’ve never been asked by another Cherokee, “How much are you?” Instead, the questions are: “Where do you come from?” “Who are your people ?” “Who’s your mother?” They are questions of beginnings and continuities, kin and relationships.”

— Christopher B. Teuton, from “Cherokee Stories of the Turtle Island Liars’ Club”

As someone who doesn’t necessarily fit the bill when it comes to what a native woman should look like, I get white people trying to one up me when talking about my own culture. “My grandmother was a Cherokee princess.” Or, “Well, I’m Cherokee and so and so doesn’t bother me.” Etc, etc.

And white people, for GENERATIONS upon GENERATIONS have wanted a say in what we do as tribes and how they should be ran when we ran our tribes just fine before colonization.

Just because we’re a half, a quarter, a tenth, or even a hundredth, that doesn’t devalue us as a Cherokee within the Cherokee community. I was raised traditionally, so if someone was able to speak they were immediately considered Cherokee no matter the blood quantum.

Never assume that whoever you’re asking is mainly white just from their appearance or blood quantum.