Free Republic

“I want to apologize to the people of Israel for the horrible thing the South African government did. We are sorry.” Regent Xami Thomas, leader of the Khoi Kingdom of Southern Africa, delivered this message to a packed audience at the Friends of Zion Museum (FOZ) in the heart of Jerusalem on the night of February 1. The crowd cheered their approval. This was, after all, words of support from the citizens of the nation that had dragged Israel to the International Court of Justice on accusations of genocide. Thomas was not done, though. “The government does not represent all...

truth should triumph over nationalistic narratives. And the truth about Thanksgiving should be learned by all Americans, as it is a part of our complicated history of savage betrayal and removal of indigenous people and the colonization of their land. The actual date for the first Thanksgiving is somewhat disputed. Most put the first Thanksgiving in 1621, when the Pilgrims had a feast with the Wampanoag, an Indigenous Nation in and around Plymouth. Scholars say "Thanksgiving" is a misnomer, since the Pilgrims would have given thanks by fasting and "quiet contemplation." It would have been referred to as a "Rejoicing."...

Early in 2020, an Indigenous artist urged the owners of a new music venue in town to change its name. It was called The Winnebago, after the street on which it stands. Many Indigenous people and allies let the owners know that wasn’t the best name for a white-owned music venue. One of them was nibiiwakamigkwe, also known as Kay LeClaire, a founding member and co-owner of the queer Indigenous artists’ collective giige, and budding leader of Madison’s Indigenous arts community. It took several months, but the venue eventually relented and rebranded as The Burr Oak. “I’m glad the owners...

Democratic Washington Gov. Jay Inslee held a recent equity summit that included a governor-appointed state education agency telling other state agencies that concepts like "objectivity" and "individualism" are rooted in "White supremacy culture" and should be rejected in favor of "indigenous relational pedagogy." During Inslee’s "2022 Governor’s Equity Summit" in Tacoma on Nov. 30, the interim executive director of the state’s Professional Educator Standards Board (PESB), which consists of 12 governor-appointed members dedicated to advancing "educational justice," gave a PowerPoint presentation titled "Internal Transformation: How an Education Agency is Transforming Itself in the Name of Justice." PESB’s presentation began with...

MINNEAPOLIS -- The federal government recently renamed hundreds of lakes, streams, summits and other places to remove an offensive term for Indigenous women. The new name for the lake formerly known as Squaw Lake, which is located in Pine County, is Manidoons Zaaga'igan Zhaawanor. It's one of the nearly 650 changes that have been made by the government in order to avoid the use of the slur. Among the states with the most instances include California, which had 80 name changes, and Arizona, which had 66. Wisconsin had 28 instances of names being changed, the closest of which is the...

Pope Francis issued a historic apology Monday for the Catholic Church's cooperation with Canada's 'catastrophic' policy of Indigenous residential schools, saying the forced assimilation of Native peoples into Christian society destroyed their cultures, severed families and marginalized generations. 'I am deeply sorry,' Francis said to applause from school survivors and Indigenous community members gathered at a former residential school south of Edmonton, Alberta. The visit, part of a greater tour across the country for the pontiff, marks a radical rethink of the Catholic Church's missionary legacy in the Americas, and was spurred by Francis and the discovery of hundreds of...

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) on Friday apologized for the state’s role in crimes against Native American children who attended boarding school. Sisolak met with Native American leaders on Friday amid a federal investigation into the government’s role in the potential deaths of children at the state's Stewart Indian School, which operated from 1890 to 1980, the Reno Gazette Journal reported.

“I didn’t drink because I’m Native," said Melissa Rose, an Akwesasne Mohawk midwife. "I drank to survive colonialism."

We apologize deeply for the email that was sent today. $14.92 was our average donation amount this week. It was an oversight on our part to not make the connection to a year of colonization, conquest, and genocide for Indigenous people, especially before Thanksgiving.

Hundreds of protesters led by Indigenous activists from across the country demonstrated in front of the White House on Monday to demand that Joe Biden stop approving fossil fuel projects and declare the climate crisis a national emergency. The rally marks the start of five days of demonstrations calling for greater attention to climate injustices as Native American leaders and tribal members head to the capital to publicize their demands. The demonstrations are part of People v Fossil Fuels protests, organized by a coalition of groups known as Build Back Fossil Free, who are urging the Biden administration take further...

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (CNS) — Bishop Douglas J. Lucia, whose downtown Syracuse office sits on the ancestral lands of the Onondaga Nation, hopes to meet with Pope Francis “to re-examine” 15th-century Vatican documents that justified colonization, land takeovers and oppression of Indigenous peoples. In the last decade, numerous congregations, denominations and faith-based organizations — including several women’s religious communities — have urged the Vatican to repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery, which asserts European Christianity’s superiority and power over other lands. Bishop Lucia appears to be the first U.S. Catholic bishop to publicly call for the Vatican and the U.S. Catholic Church...

One autumn evening four years ago, Ivan Bender, a Hualapai man in his mid-50s, took a walk with his fluffy brown-and-white Pomeranian, Sierra Mae, to check on the ranchland he tends. Nestled in western Arizona’s Big Sandy River Valley, the ranch protects Ha’ Kamwe’ - hot springs that are sacred to the Hualapai and known today in English as Cofer Hot Springs. As the shadows lengthened, Bender saw something surprising - men working on a nearby hillside. “I asked them what they were doing,” Bender recalled. “They told me they were drilling.” As it turns out, along with sacred places...

Best touted as the beacon of democracy, Canadian values are supposed to be emulated by the rest of the world. Its good governance practices and rich Human Development Index are categorised as a cornucopia of an ideal modern society. However, the way it is dealing with its persecuted indigenous people reflects the legacy of its dark colonial past. Behind its glittering facade of social justice and equality lies the legal discrimination and violence against the natives. Racial discrimination and violence towards the indigenous people is not new to North America. The history, culture and society of countries in the region...

Ted Baird and crew do a Bushcraft build of a bark longhouse.

When Braden Holtby signed with the Vancouver Canucks, he knew he needed new gear for the occasion and, most importantly, a new mask. That meant turning to his long-time mask designer David Gunnarsson, who designs many masks for NHL players, including former Canucks Jacob Markstrom and Eddie Lack. The new mask design from Holtby and Gunnarsson sparked controversy, however, when Gunnarsson posted the mask on his Instagram. It was clearly inspired, if not directly copied from, Indigenous art of the northwest, but the Swedish Gunnarsson is not Indigenous.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled a statue honoring Mother Frances Cabrini in Battery Park City Monday to mark Columbus Day. The Columbus Day Parade went virtual this year thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and Cuomo served as the parade’s grand marshal. Cuomo announced the state would commission the Mother Cabrini statue after First Lady Chirlane McCray left Mother Cabrini out of the first group of statues being constructed as part of the"She Built NYC" initiative despite Cabrini having the highest number of public nominations. Cabrini was an Italian American Catholic nun who helped Italian American immigrants living in the United States....

Anger over the death of George Floyd has spread to Australia, with Black Lives Matter protests being held across the country. But Australian demonstrators are not just expressing solidarity. Many are using the moment to vent fury about indigenous deaths in custody in Australia. So what is the situation? How many indigenous Australians have died in custody? Almost three decades on from a major inquiry into this issue, there is no easily accessible record. In 1987, the Committee to Defend Black Rights found that one indigenous person was dying in custody every 11 days. It spurred a royal commission, completed...

In modern minds, the term “human sacrifice” conjures up macabre satanic rituals performed by bloodthirsty barbarians. In the ancient Americas, however, cultures now considered to be highly influential and civilized saw human sacrifice as a necessary part of everyday life. Whether it was to appease the gods or ensure success in battle and agriculture, for the following peoples, the lines between sacrifice and simple survival were often blurred. The Mayans are mostly known for their contributions to astronomy, calendar-making, and mathematics, or for the impressive amount of architecture and artwork that they left behind. They are also believed to be...

The Dallas City Council on Tuesday approved a resolution that recognizes Indigenous People’s Day. The resolution calls for a day that honors the Native Americans who lived on the continent before settlers from Europe arrived and eventually forced out the native tribes. The day takes place on what has been the Columbus Day holiday.

Demonstrations against a giant telescope planned for Hawaii's tallest peak have spread to New York, Las Vegas and Honolulu's tourist mecca of Waikiki as Native Hawaiians push to protect what they say is a sacred place. In Nevada, a few hundred Native Hawaiians and former Hawaii residents gathered under the famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign to show their solidarity with protesters back home.