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I have been to White Clay many times. My relatives there are artists. This is the future! FINALLY! GOOD NEWS... Trace
🪶Art Replaces Alcohol 🪶
NEBRASKA - We are sure you are familiar with the work that is
happening at the Whiteclay Makerspace, but do you know the entire
origin story? Would you believe us if we told you that the Makerspace is
located in an old liquor store?
You may not know the beginnings, and we would love to share them in the
video. We are always humbled by the opportunity to be part in a
transformation that has impacted so many!
You continue to play a vital role in helping
us build a place for artists to thrive and support their families. From
this whole community we just want to send a huge THANK YOU! Summer brings increased tourist traffic, activity, and needs as we support Oglala Lakota artists and crafters. Please consider what gift you could make
through the PayPal giving link at the button below, or mail check to:
Whiteclay Makerspace, PO Box 667, Henderson, NE 68371.
Click play on the video and learn a little bit about how this space came to be!
Understanding your family history can offer a sense of identity and belonging, but for people with Indigenous ancestry, that history can be difficult to uncover. Survivors of the 60s Scoop, for example, have been told years after they were forcibly taken from their families as children that their birth records were lost or destroyed, meanwhile, churches held onto residential school records for decades.
Anne Anderson, a certified genealogist who researches family trees, has been trying to piece together the past throughout her entire life. Anderson is Métis from fur trade and has Cree, Illinois, Huron-Wendat and Huron-Abenaki ancestry.Since 2011, she has fielded calls from thousands of Indigenous people seeking information about themselves and their family histories.
Anderson spoke to Hannah Cartyabout growing up Métis in the Belle River area, the importance of community, andthe trials and triumphs ofhelping others uncover their ancestry.
HC: How has your understanding of Indigenous history in Canada deepened through your research?
AA: It’s been a lifetime of learning what happened to Indigenous people in Canada, and I don’t think I’ll ever know the whole story. I kind of always knew it, but there’s a lot of intolerance. That’s what this was all about. I’m glad that people are finally allowing Indigenous people to exist and that we’ve finally gotten to a point where they’re going to be able to at least be acknowledged. But there will not be reconciliation or justice until people not only understand that Indigenous priorities are just as important as their own, but that they also cherish them as much as their own.
Nominated for Best Documentary at The Native American Film Festival in San Francisco in 2017.
Who Will Bury the Dead? explores the experiences of the last Lakota Christian Clergy with 150 years of historical perspective. A powerful contemporary story of spiritual decolonization. Available on Amazon Prime.
I asked my relative Ellowyn many years ago why there were churches in Pine Ridge, and she said they provided food and money. But not many people went to church. - TLH
StrongHearts Native Helpline encourages wearing the color red in honor of the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) on May 5, 2024.
“An annual awareness day for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls calls attention to epidemic levels of violence against Native Americans and Alaska Natives,” said CEO Lori Jump, StrongHearts Native Helpline. “We support raising awareness to ensure that our missing and murdered relatives are not forgotten and the future of our young ones can be spared this crisis.”
Red Calls To The Ancestors
It has been said that red is a color that transcends the physical world and calls to the ancestors in the spirit world. For ceremony and pow-wow, Native Americans dressed their children in red as an introduction to the ancestors – calling upon them as guardians to the young. However, the color red had other uses and symbolic meanings that differ among Indigenous tribes in North America. On May 5th, the role of red is being used to call attention to the invisible – missing and murdered.
A Crack in the Landscape of Justice
Native Americans know that there is a crack in the landscape of justice. The underlying issue of not having jurisdictional authority over non-Natives living on Native-owned land sends a powerful message of being untouchable. It’s a flaw in the judicial system that appears to be rigged against Native women and in favor of non-Native men – a gaping loophole that has left thousands of survivors without access to justice and healing.
Topping a long list of reasons why Tribal law enforcement officials are unable to fully respond to this crisis includes lack of adequate staff and funding but the crux of this crisis points to complex jurisdictional issues impacting Tribal Nations and their citizens.
Startling Statistics
In some counties, Native women are being murdered at a rate ten times higher than other ethnicities. These higher rates of violence against Native American women are in no small part due to federal law limiting tribal court’s jurisdiction to criminally prosecute non-Native people who commit crimes on tribal lands.
“In most cases, Tribal courts do not have jurisdiction over non-Natives who commit crimes against Native people,” Jump explained. “This is where the criminal justice system largely fails to protect Native women and girls and jurisdictional gaps allow perpetrators to commit crimes on tribal land with impunity.”
According to the National Crime Information Center, 5,712 American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls were reported missing in 2016 alone, but only 116 of those cases were logged with the Department of Justice. Additionally, in a study of the National Institute of Justice, it was found that 84 percent of Native women experience violence in their lifetimes, and 56 percent experience sexual violence.
The issue of our missing and murdered Indigenous relatives is not a new one. Without public awareness or media attention, this crisis will continue to afflict Tribal communities. This is especially true in locations where the extractive industry (mining, oil, coal, gold and other minerals) has set up “man camps” (temporary housing for transient workers) located near Tribal land and resources.
“If not for complex court jurisdiction issues between Tribal, state and federal governments and a severe lack of resources, Native people might have a clearer path toward justice,” said Jump. “Instead, our relatives face jurisdictional issues that not only protects the perpetrator, it emboldens them.”
High rates of violence against Native Americans and Alaska Natives, coupled with a severe lack of resources make the services offered through StrongHearts Native Helpline even more critical.
“Our relatives need and deserve a culturally appropriate helpline that understands the issues of domestic and sexual violence and understands the jurisdictional issues which are such an important part of that equation,” concluded Jump. “Our relatives deserve opportunities for healing and StrongHearts is committed to helping them find it,” concluded Jump.
StrongHearts Native Helpline serves all individuals who reach out for their services regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, or any other factor protected by local, state, or federal law. Call or text 1-844-762-8483 or chat online at strongheartshelpline.org.
MMIP.The
Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced today it will launch a new
print and digital awareness campaign to commemorate the upcoming
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day on May 5. (WILL BE UPDATED)
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) National Day of
Recognition May 5th- Raising Awareness
The Red Sand Project Earthworks | Red Sand Project pouring red sand into sidewalk cracks highlights things we often overlook. May 5th
is recognized as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered
Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) throughout the nation (North America).
Walk With Our Sisters to continue to raise awareness surrounding MMIWG
A walk being planned for early May is hoping to raise more awareness surrounding an ongoing national crisis.
The second annual Walk With Our Sisters is being planned by a
collective of local agencies all with a goal of raising awareness around
the emergency of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
(MMIWG), along with boys and two-spirit people. The walk is scheduled
for Tuesday, May 7, 2024, and will begin at the Fort Frances Senior
Centre at 12:00 p.m. before making its way to the United Native
Friendship Centre (UNFC) on Scott and Mowat.
Rhonda Howells, the preservation worker with the Northwestern Ontario
Metis Child and Family Services (NWOMCFS), along with the UNFC’s
aboriginal healing and wellness worker Amanda Guimond and
Giishkaandago’Ikwe Health Services’ Memengwaawag liaison and case
manager Brandis Oliver have been planning this event with the intent to
give it even more of an impact than last year’s in order to really drive
home the message that the Rainy River District is not immune to the
realities of MMIWG.
“There had been some extended interest [following last year’s walk]
and so we’re hoping that this year is a bigger and better event,”
Howells said.
“We’ve got more partners that are on board, so we’re excited to bring
this awareness to the community. We were just talking earlier about the
woman that’s missing locally. We need to be bringing awareness to our
community. We are not exempt from this. Being a border town, it is
definitely something we have to be very conscientious of. We need to
raise or children to have a voice and we need to educate people so that
everyone is aware of it to keep everyone safe. That’s one of the reasons
why this Walk With Our Sisters is so important in our area. We are
directly impacted by it and a lot of people don’t necessarily realize
that it is right under our noses.”
Howells said that the walk is part of a movement seeking to end
violence against women and seeks to draw attention to high rates of
violence, disappearances and murders against Indigenous people in
Canada, particularly women and girls. She noted that the frequency of
this crisis is at such a level that there are few Indigenous people who
haven’t been affected by it in some fashion.
“Chances are that if you know an Indigenous person, they are related to someone who has gone missing,” she said.
“That’s how common it is.”
Guimond noted the walk will begin with a blessing by an elder from
Seine River who has been impacted by human trafficking in her family,
and whose granddaughter is making and will be dancing in a red jingle
dress for the event. Ribbons will be passed out to all participants in
the walk, who can then personalize them by writing the name of a missing
or murdered loved one, or simply something that is significant to them.
Once the walk arrives at the UNFC, the walkers will hang their ribbons
along the fence that borders the two main roadways, a bagged lunch will
provided for participants, and a special drum song by the UNFC’s women’s
hand drumming group will also be performed. Guimond said the song was
gifted to the drum group specifically for the missing and murdered
indigenous women, girls and two-spirited.
The most recent stats on MMIWG come from 2020, according to Howells,
and at that point in time it was reported that Indigenous women are up
to six times more likely to be murdered or sexually assaulted, and four
times more likely than non-Indigenous women to be victims of violence. The stats also reveal that one in three Indigenous women have been, or
will experience, rape in their lifetime, and that murder is the third
leading cause of death for Indigenous women. Considering the statistics
are now four years old, Oliver said it’s almost certain those statistics
are under-representing today’s reality.
“It’s a national emergency right now,” she said.
“The government has actually put in that it’s a national emergency
with the amount of victims that are now being found in landfills across
Canada, and how much of an issue it actually is. I don’t think the
numbers are correct, from what they put out.”
Howells said that after last year’s participant count of 156, the
organizing group set this year’s goal for 250 walk participants, and
even greater numbers in years to come. She said that the three of them
see the Walk as another opportunity to spread the word about MMIWG,
hoping that people will realize that it is something that is impacting
our region, and noted that conversation is the key to learning more and
taking action.
“We need to start that conversation so we can educate our children so that they’re not victims,” Howells said.
“We need to bring awareness so that if you do see something that
doesn’t feel quite right, there is a place for people to go. People need
to know what to do. We’ve got great people, we’ve got mental health
counsellors, they’re there and they are going to be present. If you need
support, we’ve got that support here. We encourage anyone to
participate. You don’t have to Indigenous, you don’t have to be a woman.
The more awareness that we can bring to our community, when the
traffickers come through here, if they know people are watching, maybe
it will discourage someone from being taken.”
“We want to stop that bystander effect,” Guimond added.
“People are not paying attention, they’re not calling to report
anything that they’re seeing. We really want that to come to an end
because that will help protect more people from violent situations.”
The Walk organizers also shared that in the lead-up to the event,
businesses in Fort Frances and along Scott Street are invited to
decorate their front windows with red dresses, handprints or other
similar symbols to show solidarity with the walk. Participating
businesses will be eligible for a prize for the best display.
Metis Society of Fort St. John to host first-ever Red Dress Day event
Local Journalism Initiative
The
Metis Society of Fort St. John is hosting its first-ever Red Dress Day
event, highlighting local Metis and Indigenous vendors and entrepreneurs
through an artisan market.
Metis Society board member Bailey
Copeland says the event came to fruition after the organization’s board,
elected in 2023, started discussing how to recognize the significant
day.
“We decided it would be a really good idea to bring some sort
of a public event to Fort St. John that brings awareness and helps move
us towards reconciliation,” said Copeland.
“I hope that people
will attend the event, speak to some of the vendors, maybe learn their
stories, and potentially learn who they've lost because most indigenous
people have lost somebody.”
Red Dress Day began as an art project
by Indigenous artist Jaime Black. In 2010, Black displayed an
installation at the University of Winnipeg that included red dresses
symbolizing the growing number of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women
and Girls (MMIWG) nationwide.
“Just like the visual of the red
dress itself, [this event] provides us with an opportunity to consider
the pain and loss experienced by Indigenous people,” says Copeland.
According
to Statistics Canada, 490 Indigenous women and girls were killed
between 2009 and 2021. Of those who were murdered, 60 per cent were
First Nations, eight per cent were Inuit, and seven per cent were Métis.
Locally,
the Indigenous community can point to the disappearances of Renee
Didier and Darlyn Supernant, who were last seen in Dawson Creek in 2023.
Copeland says there is the hope that more will come involved as the date draws near.
“Bead
workers and individuals from Indigenous businesses will come and
display their products,” said Copeland. “Several Indigenous businesses
are in town, so we’re still reaching out and hoping for more sign-ups.”
The market will be available on May 5th at Festival Plaza (Fort St. John Metis Society)
She
wants the event to open up conversations between the community,
non-Indigenous and Indigenous, as people in Canada strive toward
reconciliation.
According to Copeland, she feels that listening
and sharing their stories allows non-Indigenous people to experience a
bit of what Indigenous people have lost.
“Every event that we have in the public just makes our community more culturally diverse,” said Copeland.
The market will occur from noon to 3:00 p.m. at the Festival Plaza at 96th Avenue and 100th Street in Fort St. John.
A solemn walk to remember all Missing & Murdered Indigenous
Peoples (MMIP) is happening in Red Deer on May 5, or what is known
nationally as Red Dress Day.
The walk begins at 8 a.m. with an opening ceremony at the Common Ground Garden Project (5581 45 Street).
Hundreds of Sixties Scoop survivors who attended a Winnipeg conference on Sunday to share their stories, reconnect with their communities and access support. The event, hosted by the Southern Chiefs' Organization and the Anish Corporation — which promotes health, wellness and emotional support for Indigenous peoples — is welcoming survivors from across Canada and from the U.S.
2021 Alison Piepmeier Book Prize, National Women's Studies Association
2022 Outstanding Book Award, Disability History Association
Finalist, 2024 ACLS Open Access Book Prize (History Category), American Council of Learned Societies
Between
1902 and 1934, the United States confined hundreds of adults and
children from dozens of Native nations at the Canton Asylum for Insane
Indians, a federal psychiatric hospital in South Dakota. But detention
at the Indian Asylum, as families experienced it, was not the beginning
or end of the story. For them, Canton Asylum was one of many places of
imposed removal and confinement, including reservations, boarding
schools, orphanages, and prison-hospitals. Despite the long reach of
institutionalization for those forcibly held at the Asylum, the tenacity
of relationships extended within and beyond institutional walls.
In
this accessible and innovative work, Susan Burch tells the story of the
Indigenous people—families, communities, and nations, across
generations to the present day—who have experienced the impact of this
history. Drawing on oral history interviews, correspondence, material
objects, and archival sources, Burch reframes the histories of
institutionalized people and the places that held them. Committed expands the boundaries of Native American history, disability studies, and U.S. social and cultural history generally.
MVSKOKE
RESERVATION, Okla. – The weekend of April 27-28 saw intense severe
weather storms that left at least four dead and dozens injured in the
state of Oklahoma. Among those killed included a four-month-old infant.
The City of Sulphur in Murray County was hit particularly hard by
tornadic activity, its downtown area covered in fallen building debris. MORE
Sindy Ruperthouse was last seen on April 23, 2014, in the Val-d’Or hospital in northwestern Quebec. (Submitted by Johnny Wylde)
In 10 years, Johnny Wylde has never changed his phone number.
He says he never will.
It's the same one he had on April 23, 2014, the day his daughter, Sindy Ruperthouse, went missing.
Even though a decade has passed, he still keeps the ringer on, the phone glued to his hip.
"She knows what my number is if she's still alive," said Wylde, taking a pause. "I don't know what to think."
All
Wylde wants to hear is Ruperthouse's voice on the other end of the line
— a woman his family remembers as a caring big sister who loved life
and made her parents proud.
He says his family needs closure and that it was not like her to skip town.
Wylde thinks there's only a one per cent chance she's still alive.
Ruperthouse,
an Algonquin woman from the Pikogan community in northwestern Quebec,
was last seen April 23, 2014, at the hospital in Val-d'Or, Que. The
44-year-old had been injured with multiple broken ribs.
Wylde and
his wife, Émilie Ruperthouse Wylde, last spoke to her by phone, when she
asked for money to bail her boyfriend out of jail, says Wylde. They had
refused.
"Today we think about that," said Wylde.
Her parents allege she was beaten by her boyfriend — who they have since written to, begging for information.
For
years, Wylde travelled across Quebec, putting up billboards and
conducting searches in forests and cities in the James Bay area,
Montreal, Quebec City and Ottawa.
Joan
Wylde, her mother, Émilie Ruperthouse-Wylde and sister Kathy
Ruperthouse want answers to what happened to Sindy Ruperthouse. (Jessica Gélinas/Radio-Canada)
"Every big city [but] I didn't find her," said Wylde.
"The family encouraged me to do that. If I'm still alive, I'm going to do everything."
A few days before the anniversary of her disappearance, Wylde received a call from provincial police who informed him that the $40,000 reward first issuedby Sun Youth would be reinstated for anyone who has information that can lead to finding Ruperthouse.
A
news release from provincial police says Ruperthouse's case remains the
subject of an investigation, and since April 1, 2020, has been under
the division of disappearances and unsolved cases.
"Since the start, several searches and verifications have been carried out in an attempt to find her," read the release.
But Wylde says not enough was done to find her.
"We just want to know," he said.
'It's like running out of air,' says sister
Radio-Canada's investigative program Enquête looked into her case, in the process, uncovering a larger story about allegations of assault by police against Indigenous women.
"If I put my energy on the SQ [Sûreté du Québec], I'm gonna get mad all the time," said Wylde.
John
Wylde and Emily Ruperthouse Wylde have been searching for their
daughter for more than two years. They say police have not done enough
to help. (CBC)
"They do what they want to do, and I do what I have to do. I've been waiting for 10 years … and nothing happened."
He says the case has changed investigators five times. No one has ever been charged.
Joan Wylde, Ruperthouse's youngest sister, says they didn't get answers from police.
"The police never told us anything," said Wylde.
She says her sister's disappearance "hurts like it was yesterday."
"We
need to know. You can't live like this. It's like running out of air.
That's how we feel," said Wylde, speaking with Radio-Canada.
WATCH | Joan Wylde describes sister as 'someone who loved life':
Sindy Ruperthouse's sister still prays for her to come home
A decade after her sister disappeared, Joan Wylde says her family is still trying to heal.
She says finding out what happened will provide the family with closure.
But she fears that her parents, now elderly, won't be around when the truth finally comes to light.
A billboard, pictured years ago with the photo of Sindy Ruperthouse outside her hometown of Pikogan, Que. (Julia Page/CBC)
"My father doesn't even go into the woods anymore because there's no signal," says Wylde.
She says he's always looking at his cell phone, "afraid he'll miss the call if they ever find Sindy."
"It
shakes us so much that we don't even have words, you don't even know
how to continue living," said Wylde, her voice quivering.
"I want my sister to come home. That's what I always say. I pray all the time that Sindy returns. It's time."
'There is no mechanism for accountability,' says senator
The
family's efforts have had far-reaching consequences, helping to shine a
light on policing problems in the Val-d'Or area and, ultimately,
prompting the Viens Commission — the provincial inquiry into the way
Indigenous people are treated by police and other authorities.
Channelling
his grief, in 2018, Johnny Wylde travelled to Montreal to testify at
the federal inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls
to tell his daughter's story. Over the years, he says he's helped
search for other missing Indigenous women.
Senator Michèle
Audette, one of the five commissioners responsible for the federal
inquiry, says cases like Ruperthouse's which have dragged on for years
act as a reminder for the need to "shake the system from inside."
Audette,
who is Innu from Uashat mak Mani-Utenam, says there is still an absence
of data for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, as well as
a lack of commitment.
Joan
Wylde wears a pendant of a woman wearing a red dress, symbolizing
Indigenous women and children who have disappeared or were killed. (Jessica Gélinas/Radio-Canada)
"There's always a new face, a new beautiful person on Facebook that we're looking for," said Audette.
"It doesn't stop, it doesn't slow down. My feeling [is] it's not stable. My feeling is it's increasing."
She says it's frustrating not having the same power as some levels of government to enact change in policy and approach.
"I can ask, I can demand, but they're the one with the priorities," said Audette.
"There is no mechanism for accountability."
Support
is available for anyone affected by these reports and the issue of
missing and murdered Indigenous people. Immediate emotional assistance
and crisis support are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week
through a national hotline at 1-844-413-6649.
You can also access, through the government of Canada, health support services
such as mental health counselling, community-based support and cultural
services, and some travel costs to see elders and traditional healers.
Family members seeking information about a missing or murdered loved one
can access Family Information Liaison Units.
Three
Indigenous children separated during the Sixties Scoop struggle to find
their own identities, their other siblings and each other. They finally
reconnect with their brother, whose two names reflect the family’s
divide and his own fragile role as a bridge between two sides, only to
lose him to the opioid crisis and the justice system. READ IT HERE
In a photo of Mary Ellen and three children, she looks like a girl
herself. Her eyes don’t quite catch the lens. Apparently lost in
thought, her tough guard is down. Or maybe she’s just exhausted.
Mary Ellen Bissonnette, 22, holds her baby Danny. On the right, her son Stan, and in the middle is the boys’ cousin Bobby.
Kevin Ost-Vollmers and Shelise Gieseke at Land of Gazillion Adoptees Blog said Feb. 26th begins BLOG WEEK to answer this question: “Why ...
Bookshop
You are not alone
To Veronica Brown
Veronica, we adult adoptees are thinking of you today and every day. We will be here when you need us. Your journey in the adopted life has begun, nothing can revoke that now, the damage cannot be undone. Be courageous, you have what no adoptee before you has had; a strong group of adult adoptees who know your story, who are behind you and will always be so.
Diane Tells His Name
click photo
60s Scoop Survivors Legal Support
GO HERE:
https://www.gluckstein.com/sixties-scoop-survivors
Lost Birds on Al Jazeera Fault Lines
click to read and listen about Trace, Diane, Julie and Suzie
We conclude this series & continue the conversation by naming that adoption is genocide. This naming refers to the process of genocide that breaks kinship ties through adoption & other forms of family separation & policing 🧵#NAAM2022#AdoptionIsTraumaAND#AdopteeTwitter#FFY 1/6 pic.twitter.com/46v0mWISZ1
As the single largest unregulated industry in the United States, adoption is viewed as a benevolent action that results in the formation of “forever families.” The truth is that it is a very lucrative business with a known sales pitch. With profits last estimated at over $1.44 billion dollars a year, mothers who consider adoption for their babies need to be very aware that all of this promotion clouds the facts and only though independent research can they get an accurate account of what life might be like for both them and their child after signing the adoption paperwork.
NEW MEMOIR
Original Birth Certificate Map in the USA
Why tribes do not recommend the DNA swab
Rebecca Tallbear entitled: “DNA, Blood, and Racializing the Tribe”, bearing out what I only inferred:
Detailed discussion of the Bering Strait theory and other scientific theories about the population of the modern-day Americas is beyond the scope of this essay. However, it should be noted that Indian people have expressed suspicion that DNA analysis is a tool that scientists will use to support theories about the origins of tribal people that contradict tribal oral histories and origin stories. Perhaps more important,the alternative origin stories of scientists are seen as intending to weaken tribal land and other legal claims (and even diminish a history of colonialism?) that are supported in U.S. federal and tribal law. As genetic evidence has already been used to resolve land conflicts in Asian and Eastern European countries, this is not an unfounded fear.
