"Once the Declaration of Independence is issued by Congress, then it kind of changes the calculus. Then, both sides are putting pressure on Native people to join one side or the other."
"Today, our Board took decisive action to protect what generations before us fought to build. These so-called prediction markets are an attempt to bypass tribal authority and recast gambling as a financial product. We will not allow that. We will stand united to defend tribal sovereignty and the integrity of Indian gaming."
That number represents roughly 7% of the state's land and waters. It also corresponds with the amount of land the federal government promised it would hold as reservations for Indigenous tribes after California joined the union in 1850. Congress ultimately rejected these treaties in a secret meeting - after pressure from the state - and failed to notify tribes, many of whom upheld their end of the agreement to relocate.
When California became a state in 1850, officials signed 18 treaties setting aside millions of acres for tribal reservations. Congress killed the deals in secret after pressure from state leaders. Many tribes had already moved, trusting the promises. Now California wants to make good.
The issue is really relevant now because the issue is being argued again in terms of things like states being able to pass rules to suppress votes that have been used before. For example, if a physical address is required to vote, many Indian lands have only recently gotten streets with addresses.
Wilson's work reexamines how Native peoples have been photographed and represented over time. Using modern photographic techniques and digital media, he responds to Curtis's influential project The North American Indian (1907-1930), inviting viewers to reflect on questions of identity, visibility, and who has the power to shape the images we see.
Here dwells the indigenous Tzotzil community which has kept a pastoral way of life against the march of time. Apart from the odd forest ranger and passerby, Ruvalcaba's film focuses almost entirely on the Tzotzil women. Together, they tend herds of sheep which they still shear by hand, and use traditional tools for spinning yarns and natural dye for fabrics.
When a Las Vegas jury on Jan. 30 found Nathan Chasing Horse guilty of 13 felony counts, most of them related to child sexual abuse, it sent reverberations through tribal communities across North America. One of the most powerful tremors passed through Sonoma County. I don't have the words to describe what it feels like to have this conviction come through, and to know this process started on a bench in (Santa Rosa's) Howarth Park, said Kathryn Lombera, who lives in Windsor.
"I rarely use the term collecting and collector," Hsu-Tang says. "We both see ourselves as messengers... I don't own these works of art. I'm here to be a temporary steward of these messages, and to pass on-it's my duty to connect the past, the present and the future."
To say press freedoms in the U.S. have taken a knock during the first year of Donald Trump's second term would be a gross understatement. Perhaps the most glaring example is the Department of Defense's new policy requiring journalists covering the Pentagon to sign a pledge promising not to use any information that hasn't been explicitly authorized. But the Trump administration's attacks on a free press have also included other tactics, like the effort to dismantle Freedom of Information Act processes across federal departments.
Throughout many immigrant experiences, stories collected from family members can be a starting point for migrants. The memories gleaned from parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles-who crossed dozens of borders at great risk and with immense pain-can settle into the consciousness of new host communities for decades. For the migrants, these stories and memories represent the first step into a new world and contain lifelines with the potential and promise to build new, resilient identities and a sense of belonging in often hostile environments.
It's common knowledge that we are awash in misinformation that can have severe negative consequences for society. When people hold false beliefs about the safety of vaccines, the outcomes of elections, or the causes of climate change, it is much more difficult for them to make responsible decisions on behalf of their families and communities. It is tempting to respond to this challenge by insisting that expert scientists know best and to dismiss those who challenge the experts.
The Maidu tribe of Butte County-Berry Creek, Mechoopda, Mooretown, Enterprise and Konkow Valley, come together to conduct CAL-TREX prescribed burn training to relearn how to put helpful fire back on their native lands that have been devastated by recent catastrophic wildfires. Organizers say the training camp is designed to help restore fire-scarred lands and people. While other Northern California tribes have been reintroducing cultural fire for decades,
In the environmental nonprofit sector, "centering frontline voices" has become a familiar slogan, often detached from how decisions are made or resources allocated. It appears in grant proposals, conference agendas, and organizational values statements. And yet, too often, those voices are still positioned as illustrative rather than authoritative-invited to animate strategies already decided, asked to translate lived experience into language legible to funders, or flattened into narratives that travel more easily than the truths they carry.
Kimmerer proposes kindness as an act of resistance. We need to equip ourselves with a new language, she explains, something that affirms that this is what it means to be human. In a world where kindness breeds distrust or is scorned, kindness, she affirms, is becoming a militant gesture. When you're kind to someone, it's not universally expected that they'll respond with kindness, but if that seed is planted, both people feel better,
Natives have been told our whole lives - in classrooms, through academic research and in popular myth - that humans first migrated into North America around 12,000 years ago. Native histories consistently disagree, however, asserting that humans were here much earlier than that. Using the phrase time immemorial is a way to push back; it succinctly communicates longevity without quibbling over exact numbers and dates.
I think there's a deep loneliness to her life that cohabiting with her brother kept at bay-and, now that he's gone, she is forced to face it. As more of Kim's letters are delivered, Helen becomes invested in the narrative they form, as if she were piecing together a puzzle, one that, in some ways, echoes her own past. Kim's family is Muslim, from Pakistan.
