Free Republic

President Biden appeared to suggest Friday that former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) is either dead or divorced— and no longer his friend — in an apparent gaffe shortly after he told members of a Native American community that there is “nothing wrong with me.” “Thank you to Sen. Mark Kelly, a great friend — who also was married to an incredible woman who was my friend,” the 81-year-old president told the Gila River Indian Community, just south of Phoenix. Kelly, a Democratic senator from Arizona, has been married to Giffords — who is very much alive — since 2007. The...

A report by a Native American-led nonprofit group claims indigenous homelands were taken by Colorado, and the state reaped mountains of money through that action. The report shares about the apparent “dispossession” of $1.7 trillion worth of the indigenous homelands by the state and the United States, according to an Associated Press (AP) article published Friday. The outlet noted the report was compiled by the Truth, Restoration, and Education Commission (TREC). In addition, the report claims that Colorado gained nearly $550 million in mineral extraction from those homelands. The AP article continued:

In a brazen demonstration of who controls the border, Mexican smugglers set up a make-shift ramp to drive a car over the southern border of the US in Arizona 'That's the international boundary on the Tohono O'odham reservation,' posted union vice president Art Del Cueto. 'Those extra things you see are ramps that the smugglers utilize to drive a car over the boundary and into the United States. The Native American nation is on record opposing the 30-foot high, steel wall that US officials say is a crucial layer in helping to stem the flow of migrants. In some places...

American historian Howard Zinn once said, “If you don’t know history, it’s as if you were born yesterday. If you were born yesterday, then any leader can tell you anything.” The American Museum of Natural History announced Friday that it will immediately close two halls showcasing Native American cultural artifacts in order to comply with updated federal regulations on repatriating indigenous remains and sacred objects to tribes, according to NBC News. The museum is shutting down its Hall of Eastern Woodlands and Hall of the Great Plains, which together contain thousands of items related to Native American tribes. Smaller objects...

A police investigation is underway after the family of a Lakota man said staff members at a Colorado hospital cut the 65-year-old’s hair without permission. Members of UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital “lied” about having a video that allegedly showed the medical center was not at fault for cutting Arthur Janis' hair, a regent of the University of Colorado said. Arthur Janis is a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, for whom hair is sacred from the moment of birth. It is significant in many sacred rites — such as the Keeping of the Soul, Arthur Janis’s brother, Keith, said....

A tenured professor at the University of California, Riverside, who has long been accused of fabricating her Native American heritage, will be allowed to retire with full benefits and her title intact. Ethnic Studies Professor Andrea Smith will reportedly be allowed to keep her current position through August of 2024. She will be allowed to teach classes until then. The separation agreement comes in the wake of a recent complaint by more than a dozen faculty members, who accused her of violating academic integrity by lying about her Native American lineage. The agreement is unusual both in that it will...

Ben & Jerry’s has called on the US to give back “stolen Indigenous land” including Mount Rushmore — and now a Native American chief in Vermont said he’d like to talk about the land that’s under the ice cream maker’s headquarters. The “Chunky Monkey” maker — which previously has waded into controversies around Israel and Palestine — divided customers this week with a July 4 tweet that said: “The United States was founded on stolen indigenous land. This Fourth of July, let’s commit to returning it.” Ben & Jerry’s added that the US should “start with Mount Rushmore,” writing, “The...

Native American leaders are furious with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass after she abruptly replaced the first-ever Native American commissioner of the Department of Water and Power (DWP) with a “queer” white male. Mayor Bass removed Cynthia Ruiz, who had only been in office a year, and is well-liked by stakeholders, with George McGraw, a “a leading queer voice in social entrepreneurship, environmental justice, and water.”

One of Hollywood’s leading Native American figures is being accused of faking her claims of Cherokee heritage, The Post can reveal. Award-winning Heather Rae, 56, serves on the Academy of Motion Pictures’ Indigenous Alliance, previously headed up the Sundance Institute’s Native American program and claims “my mother was Indian and my father was a cowboy.” Multiple prior news reports have also cited her as having a Cherokee mother. But a watchdog group called the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds is now demanding the Academy and the producer drop her “false claims” while activists insist she’s at best 1/2048th Cherokee. The group...

In the Northeast woodlands the most feared and hated nation was the Iroquois — especially the Mohawk and Seneca. The Algonquian speaking nations and Iroquoian speaking Huron were particular enemies of the Iroquois. In the 1640s, the Iroquois unleashed a virtual genocide on the other Nations of the region, one that was not quickly forgotten. The Ojibwa defeated a number of the Iroquois incursions and ran the Sioux out of their forested homeland onto the plains. The Ojibwa (Chippewa and associated bands) occupied more land than any other tribe ever has from Manitoba to Indiana and took over smaller tribes...

Apache has been accused of cultural appropriation and Indigenous erasureNatives in Tech, a charitable organization founded to empower Native American peoples by offering networking events among other initiatives, has urged The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) to change its name out of respect for the Indigenous culture that it is said to appropriate. In a blog post(opens in new tab), the group criticizes Apache for failing to abide by its code of conduct, citing the tech firm’s words: “be careful in the words that [they] choose”. The company’s name was said to come about when co-founder, Brian Behlendorf, watched a documentary...

The co-founder of a queer Indigenous artists' collective in Wisconsin who has claimed to be Native American is being accused of being a white woman and has since stepped down from her community positions. Kay LeClaire, who also went by the name Nibiiwakamigkwe, also identifies as 'two-spirit,' which is a term many Indigenous people use to describe a non-binary gender identity.... ...She has claimed Métis, Oneida, Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Cuban and Jewish heritage, but AdvancedSmite reportedly used online records and resources to find LeClaire's true lineage – German, Swedish and French Canadian... ...LeClaire, who is a member and co-owner of the...

At least Senator Elizabeth Warren had the sense to drop the act long before she became famous. Hollywood, activism and academia though seem to be full of perpetual fake Indians. And, unlike Iron Eyes Cody, of the crying Indian garbage ad, some do real damage.Sacheen Littlefeather spent her “career” as an activist. And like most Indian activists, she was a fraud. You might not know her name, but you’ve probably seen the video that made her famous. In 1973, actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather took the stage at the Oscars dressed in a beaded buckskin dress in place of Marlon...

Jim Thorpe, one of the greatest athletes in history and the victim of what many considered a century-old Olympic injustice, has been restored as the sole winner of the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Games. Thorpe, who excelled at a dozen or more sports, had dominated his two events at the 1912 Games in Stockholm but was stripped of his medals after it emerged that he had briefly played professional baseball before his Olympic career. American officials, in what historians considered a blend of racism and a fanatical devotion to the idea of amateurism, had been among the...

The largest cave drawings in North America have been discovered in Alabama, according to a study by Jan F. Simek, Stephen Alvarez, and Alan Cressler in the archaeology journal Antiquities. The five large figures discovered include three anthropomorphs (human-like figures), one swirling, enigmatic figure, and a snake, most likely an eastern diamondback rattlesnake which was sacred to Southeast Indigenous people of the time. The smallest figure measures about 3 feet and the largest, the snake, stretches to about 10 feet in length, marking the largest known known cave drawings in North America. The drawing were not made with pigment but...

Someone asked Donald Trump, a few days ago, how he has stood up without breaking from the onslaught of fake news and false accusations they have thrown at him for years. He said he wasn't sure how he survived it but was sure most couldn't. And he is right. Donald Trump isn't just an ordinary person like most of us. Many years ago, a huge survey was taken asking the participants what was the most mentally distressing thing that could happen to them. The vast majority agreed that being falsely accused of something heinous was the most devastating. That is...

Plaintiffs’ attorney: “We’re proceeding to discovery in the district court later today and waiting on the final scheduling order, but in any event will be filing a motion for summary judgment in February. A Native American Group sought an injunction halting what they said was a discriminatory Colorado ban on the use of Native American Mascots. We covered the story in Native American Lawsuit Challenges Colorado Ban On Native American “Mascots” As Discriminatory: The banning of Native American (American Indian) depictions for sports teams gets a lot of press, most famously the Washington Redskins renaming themselves the Washington Football Team....

Republican Governor of South Dakota Kristi Noem has faced criticism from both sides of the political spectrum on Sunday for telling state residents “don’t wait until Monday to celebrate Native American heritage” in an official statement. Noem only referred to October 11 as Native Americans’ Day, and omitted any reference to the date’s long national significance as Columbus Day.“The second Monday in October has been recognized as a federal holiday since 1968. In 1990, South Dakota was the first state to do things a little differently than the rest of the nation,” Noem said. “In South Dakota, we recognize Monday,...

On this date in 1821, a chief of the Seneca Native American nation slit the throat of a woman named Kauquatau, who had been condemned as a witch. As Matthew Dennis explains in his book on the Seneca of the early American Republic, Seneca Possessed, the rapid march of European settlement and the Seneca’s recent and ambiguous incorporation into the newborn United States had strained the indigenous society in complex ways. One of those reactions was a period of gendered witch-hunting in the early 19th century, especially growing out of the religious movement of the prophet Handsome Lake. “Handsome Lake...

A resolution recognizing the harms of using Native American mascots in Utah public schools and encouraging their retirement was struck down by the Utah House of Representatives on Tuesday. HCR3 failed on a 45-27 vote, with all nays supplied by Republicans even though some of the GOP joined Democrats to vote in favor of it. Rep. Elizabeth Weight, D-West Valley City, urged her fellow lawmakers to support the nonbinding resolution, arguing that Native American mascots "often are disrespected." Weight, a retired school teacher, said in her talks with leaders of Utah tribes, she said many told her, "It's time, time...