A Great Discussion To Uncover The Often Overlooked Intricacies Of Repatriation & The Entailings To See

A great discussion to uncover the often overlooked intricacies of repatriation & the entailings to see how it’s not as much in b&w as many tend to think. Punishing nuance really isn’t gonna do anything positive, & a timeline of some sort to include the present & future would help complete the pictures showing as well as to show that the Native narratives are still alive & kicking. If ye see only in b&w like many seem to these days, ye’d miss out on many things in life & the bigger picture.

Chattin’ about my job.

Some help for fellow denizens despite disparate backgrounds.

Good day everyone. Its me again, Maria. I will never get tired of asking help for my family, just a little recap: From the start of the pandemic I was laid off on work and because of all the people who helped me and my family, I was able to helped my brother in his last days, he is a dialysis patient but unexpectedly passed away last Nov 13, 2020. I was able to provide food for my family, my mother, brother and 8 kids, they're my nephews and nieces who is orphan. We were able to live in a safer house because of the donation i received from all the generous and kind people. Its 2021 and there is still no sign on when the pandemic ends. Im asking again your help for donations for food, medicines and bills. I promise to give back to people in need when I can. 😭🙏❤️

paypal.me/MariaTheresa03

Please send it as 'FRIENDS AND FAMILY' to avoid deduction on your donation 🙏🙏🙏

Polygon

Breakout tabletop RPG by Native designers imagines an uncolonized North America

Connor Alexander says his new world is for Native and non-Native audiences alike

Here's another promising effort to liven up the RPG gardens. Glad to see my editor gave me this one, as some updates on archaeological findings could definitely be used alongside the game-making especially in TTRPG in a helpful way. Some points inside could use some elaboration, like how Cahokia was likely one of the city-states in the Mississippian cultural complex & predecessors in a way not too unlike those of the Maya Civilisation, or how it was likely mainly ruled by those living closest to its range such as the Ofo people or others.

Here's a pretty good selection to start off with.

10 Books by Indigenous Authors to Stock Your Shelves

Last week I needed to skip a post in favor of getting my classwork done for my deadline--so I'm back for this list!

Like last time, this list has summaries and cover pics from the book's publisher's or author's sites. Unlike last time, I ended up choosing a variety of demographics so I didn't just rip off other lists of indigenous authors/books. We've got books for adults, young adults, small children, chapter book readers--a book for all the readers in your life!!

If any of these interest you and if you are able, please support your favorite independent bookstores when purchasing these and other books!

I will say that if you're interested in an Indigenous author who talks a lot of fun stuff, has more recs, and has an incredible book out it '23--check out @/AriTison on twitter!!

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

From New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones comes a novel that is equal parts psychological horror and cutting social commentary on identity politics and the American Indian experience. Fans of Jordan Peele and Tommy Orange will love this story as it follows the lives of four American Indian men and their families, all haunted by a disturbing, deadly event that took place in their youth. Years later, they find themselves tracked by an entity bent on revenge, totally helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.

Rain is Not My Indian Name by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Cassidy Rain Berghoff didn’t know that the night she decided to get a life would be the same night that her best friend would lose his. It’s been six months since Galen died, and up until now Rain has succeeded in shutting herself off from the world. But when controversy arises around Aunt Georgia’s Indian Camp in their mostly white midwestern community, Rain decides to face the outside world again—at least through the lens of her camera. As the new photographer for her town’s newspaper, Rain soon has to decide how involved she wants to become in Indian Camp. Does she want to keep a professional distance from her intertidal community? And, though she mourns, will she be able to embrace new friends and new beginnings?

Fire Keeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team. Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug. Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover, drawing on her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the source. But the search for truth is more complicated than Daunis imagined, exposing secrets and old scars. At the same time, she grows concerned with an investigation that seems more focused on punishing the offenders than protecting the victims. Now, as the deceptions—and deaths—keep growing, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she’ll go for her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known.

I Sang You Down from the Stars by Tasha Spillett-Sumner; Illustrated by Michaela Goade

As she waits for the arrival of her new baby, a mother-to-be gathers gifts to create a sacred bundle. A white feather, cedar and sage, a stone from the river . . . Each addition to the bundle will offer the new baby strength and connection to tradition, family, and community. As they grow together, mother and baby will each have gifts to offer each other. Tasha Spillett-Sumner and Michaela Goade, two Indigenous creators, bring beautiful words and luminous art together in a resonant celebration of the bond between mother and child.

As We Have Always Done by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson locates Indigenous political resurgence as a practice rooted in uniquely Indigenous theorizing, writing, organizing, and thinking. She makes clear that the goal of Indigenous resistance can no longer be cultural resurgence as a mechanism for inclusion in a multicultural mosaic, calling for unapologetic, place-based Indigenous alternatives to the destructive logics of the settler colonial state.

Murder on the Red River by Marcie R. Rendon

A murdered man in a field. The sheriff calls on Cash—an almost-twenty-something tough, smart Indian woman with special seeing powers. Cash and Sheriff Wheaton make for a strange partnership. He pulled her from her mother's wrecked car when she was three. He's kept an eye out for her ever since. It's a tough place to live—that part of the world where the Red River divides Minnesota and North Dakota.Cash navigated through foster homes, and at 13 was working farms. She's tough as nails—barely over five feet, jeans and jean jacket, smokes Marlboros, drinks Bud Longnecks. Makes her living driving truck. Playing pool on the side. Wheaton is a big lawman type. Scandinavian stock, but darker skin than most. Something else in there? Cash hasn't ever asked. He wants her to take hold of her life. Get into junior college. So there they are, staring at the dead Indian lying in the field. Soon Cash was dreaming the dead man's HUD house on the Red Lake Reservation, mother and kids waiting. She has that kind of knowing. That's the place to start looking. There's a long and dangerous way to go to find the men who killed him. Plus there's Jim, the married white guy. And Long Braids, the Indian guy headed for Minneapolis to join the American Indian Movement.

The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer by Traci Sorell; Illustrations by Natasha Donovan

Mary Golda Ross designed classified airplanes and spacecraft as Lockheed Aircraft Corporation’s first female engineer. Find out how her passion for math and the Cherokee values she was raised with shaped her life and work. Cherokee author Traci Sorell and Métis illustrator Natasha Donovan trace Ross’s journey from being the only girl in a high school math class to becoming a teacher to pursuing an engineering degree, joining the top-secret Skunk Works division of Lockheed, and being a mentor for Native Americans and young women interested in engineering. In addition, the narrative highlights Cherokee values including education, working cooperatively, remaining humble, and helping ensure equal opportunity and education for all.

Healer of the Water Monster by Brian Young

When Nathan goes to visit his grandma, Nali, at her mobile summer home on the Navajo reservation, he knows he’s in for a pretty uneventful summer, with no electricity or cell service. Still, he loves spending time with Nali and with his uncle Jet, though it’s clear when Jet arrives that he brings his problems with him. One night, while lost in the nearby desert, Nathan finds someone extraordinary: a Holy Being from the Navajo Creation Story—a Water Monster—in need of help. Now Nathan must summon all his courage to save his new friend. With the help of other Navajo Holy Beings, Nathan is determined to save the Water Monster, and to support Uncle Jet in healing from his own pain.

Jo Jo Makoons: The Used-to-be Best Friend by Dawn Quigley; Illustrated by Tara Audibert

Hello/Boozhoo—meet Jo Jo Makoons! Jo Jo Makoons Azure is a spirited seven-year-old who moves through the world a little differently than anyone else on her Ojibwe reservation. It always seems like her mom, her kokum (grandma), and her teacher have a lot to learn—about how good Jo Jo is at cleaning up, what makes a good rhyme, and what it means to be friendly. Even though Jo Jo loves her #1 best friend Mimi (who is a cat), she’s worried that she needs to figure out how to make more friends. Because Fern, her best friend at school, may not want to be friends anymore…

Sabrina & Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s magnetic story collection breathes life into her Latina characters of indigenous ancestry and the land they inhabit in the American West. Against the remarkable backdrop of Denver, Colorado—a place that is as fierce as it is exquisite—these women navigate the land the way they navigate their lives: with caution, grace, and quiet force. In “Sugar Babies,” ancestry and heritage are hidden inside the earth but tend to rise during land disputes. “Any Further West” follows a sex worker and her daughter as they leave their ancestral home in southern Colorado only to find a foreign and hostile land in California. In “Tomi,” a woman leaves prison and finds herself in a gentrified city that is a shadow of the one she remembers from her childhood. And in the title story, “Sabrina & Corina,” a Denver family falls into a cycle of violence against women, coming together only through ritual. Sabrina & Corina is a moving narrative of unrelenting feminine power and an exploration of the universal experiences of abandonment, heritage, and an eternal sense of home.

Sorry for such a wide range of books, but I've been really excited about these titles and wanted to share them will y'all! Next week I'll try to do a specifically kidslit list.... maybe for Asian authors?!!

Here's some examples of how horticulture & agriculture have helped us since time immemorial.

Someone I know not well enough to voice my opinion on the subject said something like why didn’t God make potatoes a low-calorie food so I am here to say: God made them like that because their nutrition density IS what makes them healthy. By God I mean Andean agricultural technicians. Potato is healthy BECAUSE potato holds calories and vitamins. Do not malign potato

Maybe this would be a truly universal place to start (the peaceful kind of universal), perhaps with other planets in this case. It may’ve even come along with folkwanderings (migrations) to all spots.

The world's oldest story? Astronomers say global myths about 'seven sisters' stars may reach back 100,000 years https://phys.org/news/2020-12-world-oldest-story-astronomers-global.html

phys.org

The world's oldest story? Astronomers say global myths about 'seven sisters' stars may reach back 100,000 years

In the northern sky in December is a beautiful cluster of stars known as the Pleiades, or the "seven sisters." Look carefully and you will p

Holy shit, this is cool!

So many cultures call the Pleiades some variation of the "seven sisters" despite only having six visible stars. There only appear to be six because two of the stars are so close together as to appear as one.

The myths also mention one sister leaving or hiding to explain why there's only six. And based off observations and measurements, those two that are so close together used to be visibly separate. One literally has moved to hide.

And based off the similarities between the more commonly known Greek myth and the Aboriginal Australian myth, plus some other stuff, this myth could possibly even date back to when humanity still all resided in Africa!