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WHY DOES OUR HISTORY BEGIN ON THE EAST COAST?

Jack D. Forbes, Professor Emeritus Native American Studies
Heretofore the history of the United States has been largely treated as the story of a process, rather than the complete history of a land “from sea to shining sea.” And this process always begins either in Europe or on the Atlantic Coast of North America.

‘Avatar:’ An eye-opener about indigenous peoples

By Steven Newcomb
Ever since its release this past December, James Cameron’s blockbuster 3D movie “Avatar” has generated a tremendous amount of discussion. Even the Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, stepped into the fray, criticizing “Avatar” because of concerns the movie promoted “nature worship” and “neo-paganism.”

An uncomfortable truth

By Steven Newcomb
For some 40 years now, Indian people have been attending law schools, getting their law degrees, passing bar exams, and entering the non-Indian legal profession. Federal Indian law attorneys are practitioners of a non-Indian law system that was historically designed by the United States to control and contain Indian nations, and to seize [...]

The smoking gun

By Steven Newcomb
It is a gem of religious racism that fully documents the illegitimate foundation of U.S. Indian law and policy.
We now have conclusive evidence: In a legal brief filed in the case Tee Hit Ton, the United States government traced the origin of Indian title in U.S. law to the ideology that discovering Christian [...]

Concerning the deaths in Sedona

By Arvol Looking Horse
As Keeper of our Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe Bundle, I am concerned for the two deaths and illnesses of the many people who participated in a sweat lodge in Sedona, Ariz. that brought our sacred rite under fire in the news. I would like to clarify that this lodge, and many [...]

Indigenous Peoples Southern Border Rights Campaign

By Brenda Norrell
TUCSON — In the new Southern Border Rights Campaign, the Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras/Indigenous Alliance Without Borders, is working toward national guidelines to ensure border rights for Indigenous Peoples in their homelands, from California to Texas.

No casino, but fight rages on

Union-Tribune Editorial
EAST COUNTY - The weeds growing through a massive but unfinished driveway at the Jamul Indian Village give testament to a casino that probably never will be.
A gambling emporium on the tiny tribe’s six-acre property may be moot, a problematic project finally doomed by a sour economy. While prospects for a casino may have [...]

The sinister roots of ‘territory’

By Steven Newcomb
Alpheus Snow, in his book “The Administration of Dependencies,” examined “the Evolution of the Federal Empire” of the United States, “with Special Reference to Colonial Problems.” How to get Indian land has always been a central colonial issue for the United States. This is otherwise known as “the Indian problem,” or, how to [...]

What’s behind door No. 2?

21st century Indian removal
By Roberto Rodriguez
Upon arrival recently from Mexico City, after inspecting my passport, a U.S. immigration official at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport instructed me to “Please go to door No. 2.”
When the same thing first happened to me at DFW several years ago, I replied: “Did I win a prize?”

Buffalo deeds and semantic trickery

By Steven Newcomb
In an article published in “The Journal of Libertarian Studies” in 1983, Carl Watner examined the subject of American Indian land rights. He began with a quote from Rosalie Nichols, a fan of Ayn Rand. When asked “if the Indians had ever had a title deed to North America,” Nichols replied: “Who should [...]