Every year, hundreds of Native American Children in South Dakota are removed from their families and institutionalized, or placed in non Native foster care, in direct violation of the Indian Child Welfare Act​. Innocent Native parents face a racially biased and deliberately obstructive justice system when they try to get their children back.

WE CAN END THIS. WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Sign our petition urging President Barack Obama to end these illegal seizures: lakotalaw.org/action

Read our reports to learn more about the injustices faced by Native families in South Dakota: http://lakotalaw.org/special-reports/overview

Support us in our efforts to expose and end the system of state sponsored kidnapping of Lakota children: lakotalaw.org/donate

aka when everybody who gets mad about my Pocahontas tag wants to completely forget the worst characters in the film:

That’s what we’re going to talk about today, friends. If you’ve been following me for awhile now, you already know my feelings about this film. However, this is something that I don’t think gets nearly enough attention. I’ll add a cut because this is going to be a long one:

Powerful Photos From the Indigenous Peoples March on Washington

On Friday, January 18, Indigenous organizers took their movement to the capitol, inaugurating the first-ever Indigenous Peoples March on Washington (#IPMDC19). According to organizer Roberto Borrero, who spoke with Teen Vogue, over 1,000 people representing more than 100 tribal nations marched in Washington, D.C. — traditionally Paskatawe land — calling for policies that strengthen Native sovereignty and recognition of the deep injustices that continue to affect their communities.

Organizers for the event claim that the violence of settler colonization hasn’t disappeared into the past; today, it takes form as extractive industry land violations, police brutality, disappearing Native women and girls, systematic voter suppression, contaminated natural resources, structural poverty, and other manifestations of collective oppression. These challenges afflict communities everywhere, from South Dakota to Guatemala.

Speakers at the march inspired the crowd to keep organizing to protect their rights and also facilitated group prayers and dances. The day in Washington, D.C. was as much about strengthening future coalitions as healing from past trauma. After centuries of forced assimilation, genocide, and erasure, the Indigenous movement shows tremendous resilience — as signs held by those on the ground read, “we are still here,” “we are unafraid,” and “we are rising up.”

See all photos

Google Kicks off Black History Month Honoring Black Mississauga Ojibwe Sculptor Edmonia Lewis

Edmonia Lewis (1844-1907) was an American sculptor who worked for most of her career in Rome, Italy. She is the first woman of African-American and Native American heritage to achieve international fame and recognition as a sculptor in the fine arts world. Her work is known for incorporating themes relating to black people and indigenous peoples of the Americas into Neoclassical style sculpture. She emerged during the crisis-filled days of the Civil War, and by the end of the 19th century, she was the only black woman who had participated in and been recognized to any degree by the American artistic mainstream. - Wikipedia

More about Edmonia Lewis @ Google Culture & Arts

Edmonia Lewis in Books:

A History of African-American Artists: From 1792 to the Present (1993) by Romare Bearden

Child of the Fire: Mary Edmonia Lewis and the Problem of Art History’s Black and Indian Subject (2010) by Kirsten Pai Buick