Let's Talk Native with John Kane

After 40 years of tobacco sales on native territories New York state is still criminalizing native businesses. As one native wholesaler faces fines in excess of $1,000,000 for transporting native brands to native retailers, the state continues its legacy of racism against a people they cannot claim.

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Have Native communities become a part of the assimilation process? Police, churches and the governing systems implemented on most Native territories have no ties to our traditional forms leadership and conflict resolution. Very few people teach the true history of what happened to the Native population on this continent, and as a result of this knowledge gap, our people have been absorbed into the settler colonial system of oppression.

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Throughout history the use of metaphors in Native cultures has often been mischaracterized as proof of a broader spiritual or religious belief. European settlers used these mischaracterizations to cast us as primitive savages with pagan beliefs ready to be dominated. In reality the use of metaphors to describe our immediate surroundings and environment are really about the emotional, not spiritual, connections we felt to the world around us.

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How can we learn about the history of colonialism, genocide, slavery and American imperialism and not feel a tremendous amount of anger? We must use our anger and outrage to drive our fight for change.

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John discuses how allies and other Native people can get involved in social justice activism. Learn what you can do to help create spaces where Native activists can grow and effectively communicate their messages. Most importantly, John discusses what you should not do if you want to get involved and support Native and social justice activists.

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Our system is different from the hierarchy based systems of Europe and the United States. Our sovereignty is a birthright.

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Line 3 is the next battle line for Native people fighting the extractive industries and fossil fuels. Enbridge plans to run this tar sands oil pipeline through treaty lands and the wild rice region of Minnesota.

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In a follow up to episode #522, Tiny DeCory and Eileen Janis join John to talk about the Bear Program and its suicide prevention outreach initiatives on the Pine Ridge territory. Beginning as a youth education group, the Bear Program shifted its focus to suicide prevention after a wave of teen suicides swept across Pine Ridge. Tiny and Eileen discuss their ongoing efforts to tackle this mental health crisis.

Want to support the Bear Program? Check out their Facebook page and make a donation today! https://www.facebook.com/Bear-Program-336607163039770/

Documentary filmmaker Noel Bass joins the show to talk to John about his new documentary focusing on the catastrophic youth suicide epidemic affecting the Pine Ridge territory and the two women fighting back with limited resources to stem the tide of a mental health crisis.

The 31 billion dollars included in the most recent COVID-19 stimulus bill is not reparations and it's a long way from back-filling the gross under funding of the past. It doesn't make us "even" or anywhere near square with the debts and obligations that the U.S. government has fallen behind on. If you think this was a "gift" John is here to remind of the Cobell suit that the Obama administration settled for pennies on the dollar.

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