#indigenous issues

Colonial America, maybe.

The way Europeans talk about North America when they say it reveals everything about the way they think.

To them, history here didn’t start until they arrived. Not until the so called real people with real culture and real architecture and real timelines stepped off a boat.

Everything before that gets treated like fog, like background noise, like a blank landscape waiting to be drawn on.

Like the Europeans arrived here and just found a land untouched by human hands ready for them to Manifest (European) Destiny in, instead of, like, a continent full of nations older than most European countries, with civilizations, trade routes, astronomy, agriculture, laws, stories, cities, innovations, relationships to the land that go further back than many of the languages used to belittle them.

When Europeans say “America is big,” they don’t even mean the actual land full of over 500 nations of distinct peoples.

They mean the unmarked page they imagine they wrote on. When they say “Europe is old,” they mean “ours is the old that matters.” The implication is always that Indigenous history doesn’t count as history at all, that Indigenous people were somehow outside the timeline until colonialism kicked the clock into motion.

I’m tired of watching it walk by unchallenged and seeing it drift by unchallenged.

North America wasn’t waiting to be discovered.

It wasn’t empty wilderness.

It wasn’t without time or culture or memory.

It was already ancient when the Europeans arrived.

Treating Indigenous people like footnotes or shadows just makes it embarrassingly obvious that a lot of Europeans still don’t see them as real people with real history, real innovation, and real presence.

Almost a year has passed since Julia del Carmen Chuñil Catricura, a 72-year-old Mapuche elder and community leader, disappeared in Máfil, southern Chile.

She was last seen on November 8, 2024, walking with her dog Cholito to check on livestock and care for her land. She never returned. Now, we have confirmation that she has been murdered.

Julia was more than a victim of disappearance, she was a dedicated defender of Indigenous Mapuche lands and culture. As president of the Putreguel Indigenous Community, she led the protection of approximately 2220 acres of native forest, an area known as “Reserva Cora Número Uno-A.” She worked tirelessly to preserve biodiversity, raise livestock sustainably, and safeguard the rights and heritage of her people. Julia was also a mother of five and a grandmother of ten, an elder deeply respected in her community.

As it usually happens with indigenous women, her work was not without risk. Since 2015, she and her family report threats and intimidation linked to attempts to seize or exploit her land.

At the moment of her and her 3-month-old sheepdog Cholito's disappearance, tire marks from an unknown pickup truck were reportedly found near her property, which made her family suspect foul play was involved.

Recently, lawyers representing Julia’s family revealed that in a court-approved phone interception, suspect Juan Carlos Morstadt (owner of an agricultural, livestock, and forestry company, descendant of German settlers who came to Valdivia, south of Chile, and started exploiting indigenous land for economic profit) was allegedly recorded saying “they burned her” in at least two conversations. The lawyers say they located a prosecutor’s memo referencing these intercepted calls, but after requesting more information, they were reportedly blocked from accessing the Prosecutor’s Office online case portal.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has called on Chile to intensify search and investigative efforts, and the National Institute of Human Rights (INDH) is monitoring the case. Yet, nearly a year later, Julia’s family and community still have no answers.

Julia Chuñil’s disappearance is not just a tragedy, and it's not the first time an indigenous person has been murdered in Chile. Camilo Catrillanca was killed by the Chilean police. Matías Catrileo was killed by the police too. Jaime Mendoza Collío was murdered too by the police. The same police that dismissed Julia's family's concerns about her disappearance. The same police that historically has NEVER protected mapuches.

She was murdered. She deserves justice. Her family deserves the truth. The Mapuche people and all Indigenous communities deserve safety and recognition of their rights. WALLMAPU LIBRE. MARICHI WEU.

Say her name, JULIA CHUÑIL CATRICURA.

DON'T STAY SILENT ABOUT INDIGENOUS WOMEN.

For those following the Chinook Indian Nation's work toward regaining federal recognition, this is an important endorsement. I posted a while back about a petition for the state of Washington to give the now-closed Naselle Youth Camp to the Chinook. The NYC is on unceded Chinook land, and specifically the portion of land the Chinook asked to retain almost two centuries ago as part of an unfulfilled treaty with the U.S. government.

A state task force formed to determine the fate of the NYC has officially recommended the NYC be given to the Chinook Indian Nation. Not only would this put the facility into the hands of people who will make excellent use of it, but the Chinook have also stated their intention to restore the on-site wastewater treatment facility and salmon hatchery. The former would additionally be a boon to the entirety of Pacific County, which currently ships its wastewater all the way to Centralia, WA, over 100 miles away from southern portions of the county.

"The Yurok will be the first Tribal nation to co-manage land with the National Park Service under a historic memorandum of understanding signed on Tuesday [March 19, 2024] by the tribe, Redwood national and state parks, and the non-profit Save the Redwoods League, according to news reports.

The Yurok tribe has seen a wave of successes in recent years, successfully campaigning for the removal of a series of dams on the Klamath River, where salmon once ran up to their territory, and with the signing of a new memorandum of understanding, the Yurok are set to reclaim more of what was theirs.

Save the Redwoods League bought a property containing these remarkable trees in 2013, and began working with the tribe to restore it, planting 50,000 native plants in the process. The location was within lands the Yurok once owned but were taken during the Gold Rush period.

Centuries passed, and by the time it was purchased it had been used as a lumber operation for 50 years, and the nearby Prairie Creek where the Yurok once harvested salmon had been buried.

Currently located on the fringe of Redwoods National and State Parks which receive over 1 million visitors every year and is a UNESCO Natural Heritage Site, the property has been renamed ‘O Rew, a Yurok word for the area.

“Today we acknowledge and celebrate the opportunity to return Indigenous guardianship to ‘O Rew and reimagine how millions of visitors from around the world experience the redwoods,” said Sam Hodder, president and CEO of Save the Redwoods League.

Having restored Prarie Creek and filled it with chinook and coho salmon, red-legged frogs, northwestern salamanders, waterfowl, and other species, the tribe has said they will build a traditional village site to showcase their culture, including redwood-plank huts, a sweat house, and a museum to contain many of the tribal artifacts they’ve recovered from museum collections.

Believing the giant trees sacred, they only use fallen trees to build their lodges.

“As the original stewards of this land, we look forward to working together with the Redwood national and state parks to manage it,” said Rosie Clayburn, the tribe’s cultural resources director.

It will add an additional mile of trails to the park system, and connect them with popular redwood groves as well as new interactive exhibits.

“This is a first-of-its-kind arrangement, where Tribal land is co-stewarded with a national park as its gateway to millions of visitors. This action will deepen the relationship between Tribes and the National Park Service,” said Redwoods National Park Superintendent Steve Mietz, adding that it would “heal the land while healing the relationships among all the people who inhabit this magnificent forest.”"

Oxford’s first Indigenous scholar was honoured

A pioneering Māori scholar believed to be the first Indigenous woman to study at the University of Oxford, England, has been awarded a posthumous degree certificate almost a century after she died. Mākereti Papakura (pictured) passed away in 1930, just weeks before she was due to present her thesis. With the agreement of her family, the university published her work in a book titled The Old-Time Māori. It became the first ethnographic study published by a Māori author, offering a unique insight into Indigenous culture.  Now the university has awarded Papakura a posthumous degree, which was presented to more than 100 of her descendants in Oxford on Sunday.  “Mākereti Papakura has been a legend in our family for over a hundred years,” said June Northcroft Grant. “Our family have been quietly and patiently telling her story over many decades. We … are humbled by the recognition and conferment of this great honour from Oxford University.” 

Image: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford