Episode Notes
Season 2, Episode 6 – Samantha
Native American Children Follow-up
This was an amazing episode thanks to Samantha! She is a huge advocate for Native people and had so much to share. Here is what she shared with us in hopes our listeners will take interest. Sorry about the audio glitches! Zoom is never a garuntee. If you have any pointers, we'd grateful appreciate any feedback.
By the way, Whitney's Heritage is Sioux Indian (Great, Great Grandmother)
List of things listeners can do to help
Right now they are trying to overturn the Indian child welfare act, which dictates that native children can only be adopted by native families so as to not take kids away from native families and by proxy forcibly assimilate them. Write to your senators and representatives in support of ICWA.
Divest from big banks and switch to a credit union. A lot of big banks fund oil pipelines and pipeline workers are the biggest perpetrators of violence and trafficking of our women, not to mention other kinds of violence against our water protectors. If you have savings, checking, credit card or retirement/investment accounts with any of the following banks, you are unknowingly signing the paychecks of men that traffic our women: (in the US, Canada) Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank, TD Bank, Bank of Montreal, Scotiabank, RBC, CIBC, National Bank of Canada, and MUFG (Japan). You can change your accounts over to a credit union, where you have a say in how your money is invested, and you can talk to your investment professional about switching your growth accounts over to green energy investments instead of fossil fuel investments which have a comparable growth rates. (Visit RAN.ORG for more information of the damage of oil pipelines and how it relates to the aftermath of historical trauma against indigenous groups, like boarding schools and forced assimilation, and MMIW.)
KNOW WHOSE LAND YOU’RE ON, always always always. Know what traditional lands your home is on, your work, the places you visit, when you travel, consider making monthly donations to these nations to empower them to rebuild—think of it like rent. Visit NATIVE-LAND.CA or download the NATVE LAND app on your phone. IF YOU WANNA TAKE IT A STEP FURTHER—If you own land or property, consider leaving it in trust to the native nation your land sits on. If you have a studio or guest suite on your property, consider housing an indigenous person for free for an allotted amount of time to give them an opportunity to save for a downpayment on their own property. AT THE VERY, VERY LEAST, reach out to local communities and try to make deliveries. Ask what their needs are, and how you can meet them on their terms. Sure they might need money, but they also might just need volunteers for a food drive or organizers for a demonstration—stuff you can do in an afternoon that builds a relationship with these communities.
Team up with local organizations that petition to remove native sports mascots. Native mascots are dehumanizing and relegate us to the status of animals forced to fight for sport which in turn desensitizes society at large to our hardships. Look up local native mascots in your region and write to the superintendents of the school requesting their removal and replacement. Along these lines—
Don’t dress up as sexy natives for Halloween. It might seem innocuous but like mascots, fetishization of our women desensitizes people to the horrific acts of violence our women experience. Our culture is not a costume. We are still here.
Watch the words you say. Try not to call meetings “pow-wows”, or say that someone went “off the reservation” the historical context of these phrases are difficult, as at one point it was illegal for natives to leave their reservations and were often shot for trying to escape. Do not ever, EVER, say the word RSKN (which is akin to calling a black person the N word), or SQW (which is a derogatory word for a native woman relegated to the status of a sex slave).
MOST IMPORTANTLY—if you witness someone in your privileged circles behaving in these ways, I know its hard, it takes so much courage, but please use your privilege and power to make our voices heard and SPEAK UP. Our lives depend on it. Natives have the highest rate of suicide out of any demographic in the history of the world and the systemic and societal oppression we face developed intentionally over decades. We need brave allies acting consistently to help reconcile that (and most people who do that offensive stuff have no idea the implications of their actions and don’t want to cause harm—by speaking up you’re helping them not cause harm).
If you’d like to donate money, that's awesome, but I might suggest recurring donations since the healing we are trying to achieve takes time. Give to organizations that meet people on their own terms and use culturally sensitive, community based approaches to mental health treatment like: Native Wellness Institute, Rising Hearts, Well for Culture, Dream of Wild Health, Frontline Medics, Seeding Sovereignty, NABCHC, and many of the accounts on the instagram list.
Follow and share on social media some accounts that keep up to date with issues in the native community and regularly post calls to action:
MMIWhoIsMissing @mmiwhoismissing
NDNCollective @ndncollective
Illuminative @illuminative
International indigenous youth council @iiycfamily
Native Wellness Institute @nativewellness
Rising Hearts @rising_hearts
WELL FOR CULTURE @wellforculture
Dream of Wild Health @dreamofwildhealth
Urban Indigenous Collective @urbanindigenouscollective
Wetsuweten Checkpoint @wetsuweten_checkpoint
Stop Line 3 @stopline3pipeline
Giniw collective @giniwcollective
Frontline medics @frontlinemedics
Seeding Sovereignty @seedingsovereignty
NABSHC Boarding school healing group @nabshc
Indian Country Today @indiancountrytoday
Representative/Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland @repdebhaaland
Standing Rock Sioux @standingrocksioux
Tonizhoniani-sacred water speaks @tonizhoniani
Native Land @nativelandnet
Raven Trust @raven_trust
First Americans Museum @firstamericansmuseum
The Autry Museum @theautry
RAVEN READS @raven_reads
Indigenous food lab @indigenousfoodlab
Natifs @natifs_org
Native Voices at the Autry @nativevoices
Vision Maker Media @visionmakermedia
Cherokee Nation Film Office @cherokeefilmoffice
Indigenous Rising media @indigenousrising
Native American Media Alliance @native_american_media_alliance
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Let me know if you need clarification on anything at all.
Best
If you have a survivor story please email us at [email protected]
We are also on Patreon! Please search us up at #Stillhere Podcast
This was recorded and edited by rocketskatesrecording.com We love you Nate!
Support #StillHere: A Survivor Podcast by contributing to their Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stillhere
Find out more at https://stillhere.pinecast.co
This podcast is powered by Pinecast.
