A carved wooden mask is on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue in New York City, in Gallery 746. According to the Met, it was made and used by the Alutiiq/Sugpiaq people of northern North America and “collected” from them in about 1870. The image is now part of the Met’s Read More
Tag: Indigenous Issues
Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ
The Lakota phrase Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ describes Reality by addressing it as “All My Relations.” All humans, all animals, all plants, all the waters, the soil, the stones, the mountains, the grasslands, the winds, the clouds and storms, the sun and moon, stars and planets are our relations and are relations to one another. We are Read More
Circling Back Home
Twelve years ago this month, we had to leave our beloved ranch in Northwestern Nebraska. The programs that we ran on the land there were life-changing for people who participated. While it was incredibly hard to leave, we had no choice because of the financial consequences of the wildfire that had swept through the ranch Read More
Nature is not a resource
Canada recently announced it is holding an international summit in April concerning the protection of nature. I was excited about the announcement because I believe that nature needs all the protection it can get nowadays. I eagerly clicked on the announcement. When I read the first sentence, I froze. It reads, “Nature is our most Read More
Of Pipelines and Rivers: Science and Indigenous Ways
A metaphor carries more cultural significance and greater meaning than first meets the eye. Casual acceptance and use of a metaphor reinforces the package of beliefs and values that come with it, even if we don’t realize that’s happening. Metaphor is, after all, more than mere simile. It’s one of the things that makes story Read More