Adam Sandler Finally Addresses Ridiculous Six Controversy

January 1, 2016 POSITIVE HEALTH CHANGE

12/17/15

One week before Adam Sandler’s “The Ridiculous Six” officially debuted on Netflix on December 11, Adam Sandler finally talked about the Native actors who walked off his set in protest. Sandler’s remarks appear in an online video interview posted by the Washington Postthat was shot at the movie’s premiere in Hollywood.

Sandler said in the video, “I certainly didn’t want anyone to be offended… Once they see the movie we are making - it is so not trying to be hurtful. We were just trying to show how great American Indians are.”

However, despite the walk-offof the film’s cultural advisor, Native American actor Loren Anthony, and other extras last Spring, Sandler insists he has Netflix’s full support.

Dollar General v. Choctaw: Cherry-picking Indian Sovereignty

January 1, 2016 POSITIVE HEALTH CHANGE

The oral argument in Dollar General v. Choctaw Indians opened on an inauspicious note. The lawyer for Dollar General summarized and challenged the Choctaw argument that "when the Tribes entered the United States and were incorporated into this country, [civil jurisdiction] was understood to be an element of their sovereignty." The Dollar General lawyer denied the Choctaw position: "That is not correct." Moments later, responding to a question from Justice Ginsburg, the lawyer said, "Everyone agrees that the Tribes have a form of [civil jurisdiction] upon consent. They don't have it inherently."
One expects the opposing party to deny one's arguments. No surprise. The inauspicious note stems from the part of the Choctaw argument Dollar General didn't deny: namely, the notion that "the Tribes entered the United States and were incorporated into [the] country." Dollar General didn't deny that part of the Choctaw argument because it agrees with it.

Indigenous Empowerment and Resistance: Voices from the Frontlines

January 1, 2016 POSITIVE HEALTH CHANGE

Streamed live on Dec 17, 2015

Dec. 17 online Webinar moderator: Kanahus Manuel with guests Ricardo Segovia, Matthew Danes, Dini Ze Toghestiy and Freda Hudson.

US SUPREME COURT HEARS ARGUMENTS DOLLAR GENERAL CASE

January 1, 2016 POSITIVE HEALTH CHANGE

Suzette Brewer

12/7/15

As hundreds of Native people protested on the front steps of the United States Supreme Court, oral arguments were heard in Dollar General v. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians(MBCI), which is arguably one of the most important Indian law cases to go before the high court in half a century.

The company is asking the Court to annul all civil jurisdiction over non-Indians on Indian lands, which has drawn outrage from tribes across the nation who spent decades and billions building their judicial systems and legal codes to address the jurisdictional “black holes” on Indian lands. Native women’s groups, including the National Indian Women’s Resource Center, have protested the case, who say that by removing all jurisdiction over non-Indians will give perpetrators and corporate bad actors an exemption for the crimes they commit on Indian lands.

Is racism a contest?

December 26, 2015 POSITIVE HEALTH CHANGE

One has to really be full of hate to receive the title of "racist of the year" from an advocacy organization. What would compel someone, besides greed, to make it ones mission to be as hatefully racist as one could be toward an individual, or a group of people? What does it cost to be a decent human being? Nothing. The cost is nothing. There is one man who has won the not so prestigious title of "racist of the year" from a tribal advocacy organization based in the UK. The name of the organization is, Survival International. The unlucky recipient of the award, and I might go as far to say he probably wished he had not earned the award, according to the article linked below, seems to have rightfully earned the award. The man pictured above is Fernando Fertado, a Brazilian politician. A member of the Brazilian Communist Party Mr. Fertado is the winner of the award.

survivalinternational.org

If you believe attempted genocide of America's Indigenous population ended in the late 1800's, think again

December 26, 2015 POSITIVE HEALTH CHANGE

If you believe that America's attempts at genocide of the Indigenous population in this country ended in the late 1800's. Think again. America has, as recent as the latter portion of the 20th century, continued to in some way, shape, form, or fashion, made if difficult for the Indigenous population in America to thrive as a group of people. If you believe the previous statement of genocide is not true, here is evidence to substantiate the statement.

1976: Government admits forced sterilization of Indian Women

A study by the U.S. General Accounting Office finds that 4 of the 12 Indian Health Service regions sterilized 3,406 American Indian women without their permission between 1973 and 1976. The GAO finds that 36 women under age 21 had been forcibly sterilized during this period despite a court-ordered moratorium on sterilizations of women younger than 21.

Two years earlier, an independent study by Dr. Connie Pinkerton-Uri, Choctaw/Cherokee, found that one in four American Indian women had been sterilized without her consent. PInkerton-Uri’s research indicated that the Indian Health Service had “singled out full-blooded Indian women for sterilization procedures.”

THEME

Federal-Tribal Relations

REGION

California, Great Basin, Great Plains, Northeast, Northwest Coast, Plateau, Southeast, Southwest.

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices/timeline/543.html

Racism, its origin, and the implications that still exist today.

December 19, 2015 POSITIVE HEALTH CHANGE

The Oxford English Dictionary's first recorded utterance of the word racism was by a man named Richard Henry Pratt in 1902. Pratt was railing against the evils of racial segregation.

Segregating any class or race of people apart from the rest of the people kills the progress of the segregated people or makes their growth very slow. Association of races and classes is necessary to destroy racism and classism.

Although Pratt might have been the first person to inveigh against racism and its deleterious effects by name, he is much better-remembered for a very different coinage: Kill the Indian...save the man.

"A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one," Pratt said. "In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man."

We're still living with the after-effects of what Pratt thought and did. His story serves as a useful parable for why discussions of racism remain so deeply contentious even now.

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/01/05/260006815/the-ugly-fascinating-history-of-the-word-racism

Abuse of power? I believe so.

December 19, 2015 POSITIVE HEALTH CHANGE

From Indian Country Today;

An officer charged with repeatedly using a Taser on an allegedly intoxicated man was found not guilty by a federal jury last week in Rapid City.

Rebecca Sotherland, 33, was fired from the Oglala Sioux Tribe police force in 2014 after a cell phone video surfaced showing her using a Taser approximately 28 times on Jeffery Eagle Bull while he was lying unresponsive on the ground in Manderson.

A 12-person jury found Sotherland not guilty of three criminal charges, including deprivation of Constitutional rights, assault with a dangerous weapon and obstruction of a federal investigation by filing a false report.

In the cell phone video shot by a passerby, which went viral after the August 15, 2014 incident, approximately 17 Taser jolts can be counted. However, according to the Associated Press, 28 jolts can reportedly be detected in the 26-minute video Sotherland’s body camera recorded during the encounter, which was played during the trial.

Appropriation train wreck. Miss Canada.

December 19, 2015 POSITIVE HEALTH CHANGE

On our show, we try very hard to bring to light solid concrete examples where we try to demonstrate how our native culture is bastardized. Here is one such example. This is Miss Canada. We don't know if she thinks she is being sensitive or elevating the First Nations people of Canada, We think Not! Maybe she had a brain fart and thinks she is Cher from the 1970's.

In any case, we as native Indigenous or first nations people are perfectly capable of of elevating our own culture and art properly. We do not need help from the "outside" to do so. Please Miss Canada...go sit back back down....