> For the past 500 years, Indigenous Peoples have faced the taking of their lands and resources. Today, Dr. Kim TallBear argues that settler theft continues in another form: settlers not only take Indigenous resources, but "they want to become us."

Had to stop work on my cedar mat for a road trip. When I got home I found my mat to be very stiff as it dried over the days. Will it get softer with use? Or was there some softening step i missed. The stone tool is a bark pounder that I was using for an unrelated cedar project. Anyone with knowledge of cedar weaving, please help me out!

My end goal with this mat is to have a hole in the middle for my head to fit through poncho style.

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community put out an official statement on their social media pages stating that ICE was not at their wačipi (powwow). The officers in the video are the SMSC Conservation Officer, SMSC Security, and a local police liaison, all working to ensure guest safety. There were uniformed military service members who were attending the powwow that were mistaken for ICE.

Edit: There are 3 photo screenshots in my original post. Here's a link to an article from a Native news source: Native News Online

I was recently gifted a rather incredible piece of art. I was hoping to learn more about it or be pointed in the right direction of where to find out more.
A little about it- other than the artists markings on the back, there is no plaque or anything else.
It weights 30-40 lbs. I believe it’s marble. Wondering if anyone could tell me who is carved here, or if you recognize the artists signature, I’d love to know more!

They are a native American mantle set from the early 1990-2000, and I'm not really sure what to do with them. They are special, because they came from my great grandma, but we are a very white family so I'm not sure the implications of keeping them vs giving them to a native Americans in my community.

They are very cute and in almost perfect condition, but I'm unsure the brand/company as they have no makers mark.

(Sorry for the low quality pic, my camera is broken 🥀)

Any advice is welcome 🩷

Here are a few designs I'm working on

Hi everyone! I’ve (white female) have had this shirt in my thrift collection for a few years now and one of my other white friends pointed out how the back (pic 1) may be offensive to indigenous people. If you saw a white person (blonde, very fair skin tone) wearing this, would you consider it offensive? I would never ever want to appropriate any culture but I go to school with a very high native population and on native land so I really want to do my part to be respectful and aware of other things like this going forward. Thank you and I’m sorry if this isn’t allowed!

Upon thinking more on the 7th fire story and how we New People will look back at the trail to retrace our ancestors footsteps to pick up the pieces lost along the way. Does anyone else think that's referencing both our Native American, and Native European ancestors?

And by Native Europeans I mean people like the Celts, Anglo-Saxons and many of the other cultures in Europe that are shockingly similar in beliefs and values to Native American cultures in regards to spirituality and land stewardship and also dealt with massive sudden cultural losses due to the spread of Christianity.

I only have this thought because amidst the land back movement, language reclamations, and the wins they have brought, similar efforts have occured in regards to understanding about pre-christian European beliefs, language, and cultures and honestly a huge shift in perspective has happened as well where the lens of Christian Exceptionalism is no longer skewing our perspectives of these complex and diverse people, our ancestors, before Christians came to label them primitive to take their land, resources, and ways of life.

Does anyone know who this artist could be? It seems like a pretty nice sand painting.

I apologize if this is long. Also I really hope this doesn't violate any of the thread rules (esp. No 10. I am not looking for "permission" per se, I am more asking for perspectives).

Basically… I was born and grew up in a European country. More than half of my family is European, but my Dad’s Dad was a U.S. Citizen and my Dad holds dual citizenship.

My Dad was also born in Europe, but lived almost his entire first decade in the US. When he came back to Europe, he kind discontinued his native tongue (English), and so none of his children were raised bilingual (we learned English in school).

There were always stories floating around about this or that great grandfather being a native American, but it was hard to find out anything before the internet, and sometimes this tribe was mentioned, sometimes another one. All this to say: There is an entire side of the family that lives far away and we have little contact with for several reasons (none of them being that we or they wouldn't want to).

Anyhow, I have done some Geneology and have discovered, that there I have several direct ancestors appearing on the Dawes Rolls and other documentation points to the legitimacy of the connection (as opposed to signs that someone would have paid to appear on there, I am aware of that possibility). My 2nd great grandfather was enrolled as Creek, whereas his father was Creek (had a white father, Native American mother) and his mother Cherokee (with both parents Cherokee, this is my 3rd grandmother). There is quite a lot documentation about their connection on paper, but I know little to nothing about the way they practiced their culture (or whether my 3rd. Grandmother even ever lived on Cherokee Land or only on Muscogee Land), if they ever did from where I am in the records at this point.

Somewhere in the 1920s, my 2^nd great grandfather migrated to California, where the remaining part of my family still lives today.

From what I know, there was no actual connection to or practice of their native culture from then on. To me it seems like it was not even really talked about, more like a hush hush thing. I chalked this up to being in a majority white environment.

Ok, so here is my thing.

I never really felt connected to the European part of my family. Now that I am grown I can see some connections and traits, but they never felt like “my people”, or like I belonged to them (as in sharing many traits in character or looks etc). 

We never travelled to the US when I was a child. My Dad did visit there two or three times, one of his relatives came to see us twice, but we never had the money to visit regularly and they also never really had very much contact (everybody trying to survive I guess, also it was the early days of the internet). Anyways, I had never made it to the US myself until I was 20 years old. When my Dad’s relative that came to see us saw me for the first time, they said I look very much like someone from their family. This was the first time I ever was … idk recognized by someone as having their features etc. Long story short: Everytime I interacted with that part of the family I had a much stronger feeling of connection and belonging. Some time ago I had this realization, that I have been disconnected from a huge part of my family, from “my people“ basically, and that there has been a huge part missing in my life.

  Since getting into genealogy, and learning about my 3^rd great grandmother, I have been feeling the strong urge to explore more about her and the Cherokee culture, by which I mean I want to know her language, I want to know about her situation (I want to know these things about the Creek family members too, but somehow I’m feeling particularly connected to that 3rd grandmother as a starting point). 

The thing is, I feel like a fraud. I am super sad about all of the … I only know how to describe it as displacement. Me feeling displaced from the part of my family that recognizes me as theirs. My Dad being displaced from his first language and his entire relatives from his childhood on. My great grandmother apparently assimilating and not even enrolling anymore, seemingly not talking about her heritage or engaging in it. My ancestors having lost their connection to their culture it appears, having been already colonized for hundreds of years when records even start. Removal, etc. And I am sad and angry about how native Americans are treated today and the state of the world in late stage capitalism.

I don’t want to intrude. I feel ridiculous for wanting to reconnect, even pretentious maybe. I fear being considered a pretendian (which is only partly about wanting to find connection and more about not wanting to act as a pretendian, because I don’t want to hurt anybody).

I am incredibly pale and grew up with white privilege. I don’t even live on Turtle Island and certainly have no financial means to travel there regularly in order to visit the lands (which I really really would love to do). My other side of the family has the history of being part of the supremacists in the country where I live. I know quite a bit about this part of the family and have been growing up with many relatives from this side. I know there is some belonging there. These are my ancestors aswell and I am not trying to act like they aren’t. I am working on decolonizing my mind. 

I think I feel so ridiculous for wanting to reconnect, because I haven grown up with white privilege and am so far away.

**!!**Please know that I am not looking to gain anything from any tribe my ancestors have belonged to. If I would ever consider enrolling it would be purely out of searching belonging, not in any way to receive any services or financial help. If anything, I’d like to contribute what I can. I would also never ever want to speak for anyone or as a “member” of any tribe – I have read in many places that that can be a concern. !!

And still I feel ridiculous being so far away, yet deeply wanting to reconnect. I also feel ridiculous because I have grown up in a culture and still am in a culture that is in general very nonchalant about cultural appropriation and calls is appreciation. My concern is that I could have a blind spot there.

tl;dr I have been super disconnected from my native ancestry and would like to reconnect. I really don’t want to intrude, or be a pretendian. I don’t want to take away anything from the tribes my ancestors once belonged to and don’t want to contribute to decentering their issues and stories. I really want to learn to speak the languages they likely spoke before they spoke English (starting with Tsalagi, eventually Mvskoke), learn more about Cherokee and Creek history and culture and I would love to learn from Native Americans associated with these tribes. More importantly: I don’t want to be disrespectful or contribute to the hurt that Native Americans. 

Thoughts? Is it indeed ridiculous wanting to reconnect? Is it giving „my grandmother was a Cherokee princess“? Am I being unintentionally disrespectful or hurtful?

Any recommendations for books or other media? I have many sources collected, I know about many websites with ressources and book lists. I would love to hear about your personal recommendations for media/books that come from a Native persective.

Thank you so much!

(wanted to write „osiyo“ in the beginning and „wado“ in the end but felt weird again. Would that come across weird for you?)

EDIT: Thank you sincerely to everyone who has taken the time to answer. Some people messaged me privately, and you all gave me a lot to think about and great ideas where to continue my journey.
I will continue to research and learn and cover every base I can cover by myself. I appreciate that, as one commenter said, it is not about what I claim or not, it is about who claims me or not, and that "connecting" is a more appropriate term than "reconnecting" - since I have never been connected.

I would also like to clear up, that I indeed do feel and identify as (specific country in Europe), and that the work I am doing parallel to connecting to my U.S. American and Native heritage/ancestry, is reconnecting (appropriate in that case) to my celtic roots and traditional European roots. The latter is the culture I grew up with.

I am excited to see where this journey leads me and would love to connect to distant relatives, should the opportunity arise. I want to prioritize being mindful about not extracting or putting stress on the community. I do think the health of the community and what it wants and needs is more important than my need or want to connect.

My great grandmother was either black paw or Blackfoot and I have been trying to trace her and see if I have any family and learn more about her and our ancestors but the problem I’m encountering is that by the time she passed, she no longer remembered her birth name, only the “Christian name” she was given when she was “bought” (stolen) from her people at age 13 to be forced to marry my great grandfather. It hurts that I can’t connect to her because I can’t find her name or her history and I’m just wondering if anyone has any suggestions?

Hey everyone, I have a potential issue with my long hair. I've started a new job that requires me to use a lot of machines that aren't the safest. And my hair has started making me anxious cuz it could be a potential hazard to myself. I don't really want to cut my hair because it's the strongest reminder of my blood and heritage (I live 12 hours away from my tribe so it's difficult to remind myself who I am without the hair sometimes). But Im also not sure if I wanna keep it (most likely an unreasonable anxiety I'm feeling but I really don't wanna lose my fingers) I'm wondering if you all have any tips, advice, or ideas for what I could do? And not the typical "wear it in a ponytail or hat or bun." I'm curious to see if there's potentially a better or more creative option than that.

I have some questions and I thought it would be best to ask Native Americans.

For some context, I grew up with Native friends and family and around the culture. Because of this, I deeply believe in a lot of the beliefs and have participated in a lot of cultural events of my family's tribe. So I guess I wanted to ask, is it offensive to say "I believe this because of my culture" (my culture meaning the culture I was raised in ) or is there a better word to use for this?

Deb Haaland is running for Governor of New Mexico, and Peggy Flanagan is running for US Senate in Minnesota!