The “Early Days” statue being removed on September 14, 2018 ~Neeta Lind is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and writes about Native issues. We won. After decades of debate, a deeply painful reminder to all Native peoples and particularly the many tribes in California is now gone. Early this morning before sunrise a … Continued
The Southwest Culture Area is a culturally diverse area. Geographically it covers all of Arizona and New Mexico and includes parts of Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and Texas as well as parts of the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua. Much of this area is semi-arid; part of it is true desert (southern Arizona); and part … Continued
In major museums, only a small fraction of the artifacts held by the museum are on display and interpreted for the public. Most of the museum’s artifacts are in vaults where they are available only to researchers. The Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History maintains a Visible Vault in which visitors can view hundreds … Continued
One of the displays in the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands, California, is entitled Sacred Earth and subtitled Understanding our past and honoring cultures that thrive today. The nature of California and Southwestern Indian culture began to change with the European invasion four centuries ago. One of the displays in the Museum looks at … Continued
Water Protectors barred from entering the National Museum of the American Indian for wearing a Stand with Standing Rock patch that said “Water is Life, Mni Wiconi.” In a stunning violation of free speech, Water Protectors attending the four-day Native Nations Rise event in D.C. were barred March 11, 2017 from wearing their Mni Wiconi, … Continued
Daily Kos Director of Community Neeta Lind stands with Dale Ramsey and Duane Red Water, volunteer canvassers of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, which straddles the border of North Dakota and South Dakota. Less than a month before the midterm elections, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the Native American Rights Fund’s (NARF) emergency application to … Continued
For thousands of years the Cahuilla lived in what would become Southern California. It is not known when the Cahuilla had their first contact with the European explorers/invaders. In 1540, the Spanish explorers Hernando de Alarcón and Melchor Díaz reached the area near present-day Yuma, Arizona. The Spanish had sailed up the Gulf of California … Continued
In providing a broad overview of the hundreds of distinct American Indian cultures found in North America, it is common for museums, historians, archaeologists, and ethnologists to use a culture area model. This model is based on the observation that different groups of people living in the same geographic area often share many cultural features. … Continued
What is now Glacier National Park in Montana was an important resource and spiritual area for the Salish-speaking Pend d’Oreille and Flathead, for the Kootenai, and for the Blackfoot. The visitor center at St. Mary entrance has a small Native American display. Salish and Pend d’Oreille Salish leader Sam Resurrection drew this map of the … Continued
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D. MA) Received this e-mail today from U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D. MA) in support of Xochitl Torres Small’s (D. NM-02) campaign: Xochitl Torres Small (D. NM-02) I represent Massachusetts in the Senate — a long way from southern New Mexico. But one thing is clear even all the way across the … Continued
