Category Archives: native press

When Censors Take On Indigenous America

The Case of the San Francisco Mural Should we censor art when it offends our sensibilities? The Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati made headlines in 1990 when it displayed photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe: images of human nudes and acts of … Continue reading

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This Book will Haunt You

Watch out for Teddy I’m beginning to hear voices. Ted Van Alst’s latest story about growing-up-Indian in Chicago has a captivating spirit that won me over. Completely. His character—Teddy—gets inside your head. Here’s a scene in the book (Sacred Smokes) … Continue reading

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Never Stop Learning  

It takes guts to examine your failures, but that’s just what we need to do in order to learn and grow. The take-away in a brief news item in today’s New York Times notes that taking time to consider why … Continue reading

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Threading the Needle

Closing the Osage-Buddhist Circle We spent the last weeks—months—on a sewing project, creating a Rakusu: a garment worn when you become a practicing Buddhist. The Rakusu has a rich tradition. The garment is a rectangular cloth with straps that you … Continue reading

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Honoring Ancestors

  My heritage—in addition to being a North American native–is English, French, Osage and Lakota. Turns out, I know more about my Indian ancestors than my English or French relatives. It’s not because my relatives kept good records: they didn’t. … Continue reading

Posted in american, american indian, authenticity, NAGPRA, Naia, national native american history month, native american, Native American Heritage Month, native press, Native Science, nativescience, pine ridge, Plains Indians: Artists of Earth and Sky, zen | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

But how long are they going to be here?

The Rajneeshis in Oregon One of my favorite reads is Frances FitzGerald’s Cities on a Hill (1987), which explores five diverse communities in the United States, including the town in Oregon that became headquarters for the Rajneesh community. A new … Continue reading

Posted in american, american indian, framing, native american, native press, Native Science, nativescience, Paiute | 3 Comments

Powerful Lessons from Indian Country

  Infusing Indian Thought in Social Theories I teach a course for college sophomores on social theories and how they relate to my field: communication. Writers who set the stage for Western thought—lots of French, German, British, Italian and American … Continue reading

Posted in american indian, Kennewick Man, Kennewickman, NAGPRA, native american, native press, Native Science, nativescience | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

The fight for environmental sanity

Yet another oil spill Bill McKibben, a college professor and environmental scholar, writes eloquently in the New Yorker that objections to oil pipelines—actual and proposed—that cut through North America (from Canada through the Dakotas and end in Texas) are a … Continue reading

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Green or Blue?

Digging into words can be tricky And not everyone agrees with the theories about how words mean, which can drive you crazy. The most basic, common-sense idea is that people who hear messages invoke their own sense of what they … Continue reading

Posted in american indian, authenticity, communication, Indian, Lakota, native press, Native Science, nativescience, Osage | Tagged | 2 Comments

I’m embarrassed

Folks who study environmental communication internationally shared stories over the last few days at the University of Leicester. I heard about news coverage of the oil pipeline cutting through Lakota territory in North American, the trope of dying animals in … Continue reading

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