Let's Talk Native with John Kane

We are NOT mascots! And don't tell me about polls suggesting Native people are just fine with the mockery and racial slurs. The are more Americans falsely claiming to be Native people than real Native people. These are the clowns that are polled. I remember Chanie Wenjack who died on this date in 1966 of exposure attempting to escape from a boarding school almost 400 miles from his home in Ontario

We choose our path: ours or theirs. Ours was laid down by millions of feet of our ancestors. Theirs is a path of slavery, war and genocide.

The Arts: and what we need to do to support them. We need more resources to support creativity. This is more than economic development. It's community development; Human Development!

Well, we survived another "Indigenous Peoples Day versus Columbus Day" media battle and I think we won this one! Our latest Let's Talk Native TV video is climbing the charts and we are ready for our next one.

Check out "Columbus: In His Own Words" at youtu.be/Nd8K7GGt2YU

Today is the 527th anniversary of a white man washing up on the shores of the Arawak. We'll talk Columbus, promote our new video and talk of events and the crazy world of WBAI.

Check out "Columbus: In His Own Words" at https://youtu.be/Nd8K7GGt2YU

Federal recognition (Fed Wreck)for Native people is defined as "a tribe, band or nation of Indians subordinate to the laws of the United States and under US jurisdiction." So who's signing up? Far too many but most of the 573 recognized "tribes" have never agreed to this definition and most of the others ignore it. But none of that changes how they view us and how far too many of our own people identify themselves.

Some say our existence is our resistance. Well, I say it depends on our existence. What are we existing as? Shadows of who we once were? Assimilated versions of those people? Or as Onkwehohnwe? How do we define ourselves? What is our identity?

Yesterday was Orange Shirt Day to honor the children of residential school, those that survived, those who suffered and those who perished. So tonight we talk about those schools; the deaths, the genocide and the legacy.

What's with the obsession with where Native people come from and when we got here. There is a motive to these questions and it's not about a quest for knowledge. We'll start with the ever changing Bering "land bridge" myth and go from there.

The climate wars came to NYC and the UN. Kids walked out of school all over the world in protest and one girl spoke to the world. Greta Thunberg grabbed headlines and plenty of unwanted attention from critics on the right and some just plain jealous of her success. In the meantime, the moron in chief continues to Tweet his ignorance and will finally face a formal impeachment inquiry.