Sibling hoop dance champions broke new ground, artists came to the fore, and the alternative fact universe came to bear on Indian country. All this and more during The Week That Was, February 26, 2017.
RIP ANCIENT ONE: Kennewick Man, or the Ancient One, an ancestor of the First People of the Columbia Plateau, finally returned home and was buried in a private ceremony with more than 200 of his relatives in attendance. They came from the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, from the Nez Perce Tribe, from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation and the Wanapum Tribe and the Yakama Nation. He walked on 9,000 years ago.
DNC COURTS INDIAN COUNTRY: In the interests of bringing certain communities that had been overlooked into the fold, candidates for chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee shared their views on issues important in Indian country.
TRUMPIAN DISTRACTIONS AND SHENANIGANS: While President Donald Trump distracts everyone with a travel ban and inflammatory statements, Congress is running amok, according to ICMN contributor Tanya H. Lee in an op-ed that lists nearly a dozen bills that could kneecap many programs, regulations and entire agencies. National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) President Brian Cladoosby, meanwhile, spoke of the importance of mutual trust in the federal-sovereign relationship in his address to the 115th Congress Executive Council meeting. And at the same time, a stark reminder of how far we may be from that came in Albuquerque, where an anti-Trump art installation by Hollywood actor Shia LaBeouf of the Transformers franchise and Albuquerque-based indigenous activist group The Red Nation was shut down after reported gunshots, safety concerns and vandalism.
SAD FAREWELL, AND THE BATTLE CHANGES VENUE: After nearly a year of occupancy of Treaty land overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the last water protectors remaining in the Oceti Sakowin camp left or were carried out and arrested. The remaining structures were bulldozed. But the battle had already moved to the courts and the banks, with moves for divestment and disinvestment growing as investors representing $653 billion in assets wrote to 17 banks urging them to stop investing in the Dakota Access Pipeline or risk severing ties. Mark Fogarty gave options, with a look at 18 American Indian-owned banks as possibilities.
CAUGHT IN AN ALTERNATIVE FACT: At the very same moment that Oceti Sakowin was being razed, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was telling reporters in a daily press briefing that the Trump administration was in touch with all parties related to the Dakota Access Pipeline and was working with them. Not even close, said Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault II. The statement was “absolutely false.”
WHITEWASHING HISTORY: Peter Cozzens’ The Earth is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West struck a discordant note in Peter d’Errico, who noted that it was one of three genocide-denying books about Indian country published over a five-year period. “America has a renewed case of anxiety about its past,” he wrote.
OSCARS SO… SO? With the Academy Awards nigh upon us, commentator Kyle T. Mays took the opportunity to write about the James Baldwin documentary I Am Not Your Negro, nominated for best feature-length documentary. Mays focuses on the importance of viewing Black History Month, indigenous sovereignty and the overall fight for undocumented rights and humanity through the lens of decolonization—decolonial love, to be exact.
CHILDREN SCHOOL THE BIA: Havasupai children, their families and the Native American Disability Law Center have filed a landmark civil rights lawsuit alleging that the Bureau of Indian Education “knowingly failed to provide basic general education” to students at the tribe’s only school, “resulting in indefensible deficits in academic achievement and educational attainment.”
OUTRAGE OF THE WEEK: First, Billings, Montana radio host Paul Mushaben said that the Montana High School Association (MHSA) should consider creating a separate basketball tournament for Native American students because they are “unruly” and “disrespectful of the facility.” That didn’t sit well in Indian country. Then an off-duty Los Angeles Police Officer fired his gun during an altercation with a group of mostly brown and black kids in Anaheim, California—and didn’t get charged.
KICKING BUTT: And in uplifting news, Actress Amber Midthunder, Fort Peck Assiniboine Sioux, plays superhero Kerry Loudermilk, with yet-to-be-unveiled powers, in the series Legion on the FX Network. She sat down with ICMN for a chat about what it’s like to play a Native superhero.
NO SIBLING RIVALRY HERE: Putting art and family cohesiveness first this time, we bring you Tyrese Jensen, 18-year-old championship dancer, and his 9-year-old sister, Kailayne. The Navajo/Maricopa duo are the first brother and sister to win world hoop dance titles in the same competition, the 27th Annual Heard Museum Hoop Dance World Championship Contest. Kailayne is the new youth division champion, while on his first try in the adult division, Tyrese won the world championship.
IN GOOD COMPANY: Accomplished Navajo jeweler and sculptor Fritz Casuse is the newest resident of the Institute of American Indian Arts Artist-in-Residence program, bringing the total to 28 artists from the Pacific Northwest, the Upper Midwest and the Southwest. Fritz Casuse is a well-known and respected artist in the Santa Fe Native art community that has won top awards at the SWAIA Indian Art Market and the Heard Museum Indian Fair and Market.
WILD FOR ART: Raw, in-your-face Native pop art is all the rage, and a traveling showcase will bring it to a city near you. Bold colors and iconic images offer a platform for activism, which much of the art has grown out of.
THIS WEEK IN CULTURAL APPROPRIATION: Of course, not all “Native” art is Native art. Witness the arrest of five people charged with violating the Indian Arts and Crafts Act after they allegedly imported and fraudulently marketed fake Native American jewelry. Sales involved more than $300,000 total, in amounts ranging from $1,100 to $60,000. While that was an actual crime, the stilettos marketed by entertainer turned designer Jessica Simpson are a non-persecutable fashion/culture crime. The Jessica Simpson Erienne Beaded Strappy Dress Sandals are available in several colors and sport Native-themed beadwork.
FEMINISM MATTERS: With Women’s History Month coming up in March, it’s fitting to preview it with some reasons that feminism matters in Indian country.