Mexico will soon elect its first female president – but that landmark masks an uneven march toward women's rights

Xavier Medina Vidal, University of Texas at Arlington 

and Christopher Chambers-Ju, University of Texas at Arlington
Mon, November 13, 2023 
THE CONVERSATION

Claudia Sheinbaum, the favorite to become Mexico's first female president. AP Photo/Marco Ugarte

Mexico will elect its first female president in 2024, barring any surprises between now and the June vote.

The looming landmark moment was all but guaranteed in September after the country’s leading parties each nominated a woman as its candidate – the ruling Morena party named former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum as its nominee days after the main opposition coalition, Broad Front for Mexico, announced Xóchitl Gálvez, a senator for the center-right National Action Party, as its own.

But as scholars who study politics and gender in Mexico, we know that optics are one thing, actual power another. Seventy years after women won the right to vote in Mexico, is the country moving any closer to making changes that would give women real equality?

Uneven fight for gender equality

Women now represent half of Congress, after electoral reforms nearly a decade ago mandated gender parity in nominations to Mexico’s legislatures. And two women, Ana Lilia Rivera and Marcela Guerra Castillo, occupy the top posts in both chambers of Congress. Meanwhile, Norma Lucía Piña is the first woman to serve as chief justice of Mexico’s Supreme Court.

But electing women to high office doesn’t necessarily shift power in meaningful ways. It’s what experts on women in politics call “descriptive representation” – when political leaders resemble a group of voters but fail to set policies designed to protect them. In contrast, “substantive representation” occurs when officials enact laws that truly benefit the groups that they claim to represent.

Scholars who study the difference between the two, including Sonia Alvarez, Mala Htun and Jennifer Piscopo, have found that wins in public spheres, such as the right to vote or hold office, have rarely led to progress for women in private spaces – such as the right to reproductive freedom or protections against domestic violence.

Members of feminist organizations demonstrate in favor of the decriminalization of abortion in Mexico City on Sept. 28, 2023. Photo by Silvana Flores/AFP via Getty Images)

In other words, Mexico may have surpassed many countries – including the U.S. – in promoting women to political leadership positions, but it still hasn’t shed its stigma of machismo and its history of authoritarianism.

In the 1990s, a resurgent feminist movement throughout Latin America led to major breakthroughs in women’s rights. By the end of the decade, many countries had passed legislation against gender-based violence and reforms requiring gender quotas in party nomination lists. In the past 17 years, seven women have been elected president across Central and South America.

Yet the fight for gender equality has advanced unevenly. Mexico is a country still rattled by high rates of femicide. Government data shows that, on average, 10 women and girls are killed every day by partners or family members.

Government accused of harassment

During his term, the current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and his party, Morena, have been accused of downplaying the extent of the femicide crisis, with at least one critic claiming he’s “the first president to outright deny” the violence.

Rather, López Obrador has used his daily “mañanera” news conference to issue verbal assaults against women in office, including 2024 nominee Gálvez. In July 2023, the independent National Electoral Institute found López Obrador guilty of targeting Gálvez in derogatory statements related to her gender.

López Obrador has also denounced Supreme Court chief justice Piña in what Mexico’s National Association of Judges has described as hate speech and the federal judiciary condemned as “gender-based violence” and hatred against her. His statements at a rally in March incited his followers to burn Piña in effigy, prompting critics to suggest that such attacks don’t simply reflect López Obrador’s distaste for checks and balances, but aim to undermine women in positions of power.

Mexico’s patronage politics

Observers view current 2024 front-runner Sheinbaum as López Obrador’s handpicked successor: He has publicly endorsed her, and she has vowed to continue his “fourth transformation,” a campaign promise to end government corruption and reduce poverty that’s had mixed results.

Sheinbaum’s record as mayor of Mexico City has been equally mixed. She has publicly described herself as a feminist and has criticized state prosecutors for covering up the killing of Ariadna Lopez, a 27-year-old woman. At the same time, Sheinbaum attempted to criminalize participants of a mass protest against the thousands of women who’ve disappeared in recent years, claiming that these demonstrations were violent.

Political scientists have shown that even when the faces of politics change, the operatives behind the scenes can stay the same – especially in Mexico, where political parties are mired in patronage politics – when party leaders reward loyalty by deciding who gets to run for office and who gets to keep their jobs when the government is handed over to a new administration.

If Sheinbaum is elected, she’ll likely still be beholden to the Morena coalition and will rely to a large degree on López Obrador to help push through her policies.

A feminist future?

Both Sheinbaum and Gálvez have championed women and shared their experiences as women on the campaign trail. But, so far, neither has signaled that her legislative agendas would advance the interests of women through policies, such as expanding access to health care or fighting for family leave and equal pay in the workplace.

As criticism of López Obrador has overshadowed Sheinbaum’s campaign, we believe she faces a greater challenge in convincing voters of her commitment to women’s rights.

While Gálvez’s path to the presidency is narrow, her ability to advocate for a pro-women agenda seems more plausible. She has publicly supported LGBTQ+ rights in Mexico even as a member of the conservative National Action Party, suggesting she’s capable of speaking and acting independently of party leadership when it matters.

Aside from front-line politics, women’s rights in Mexico have moved forward when leaders have committed to substantive change.

Notably, Mexico’s Supreme Court under Pinã has declared all federal and state laws prohibiting abortion unconstitutional. When Piña took office, she promised to take on women’s rights in her agenda. So far, she’s delivered.

If either presidential candidate hopes to have similar success, they’ll need to follow Pinã’s lead by centering their platforms around the issues that most affect women in their day-to-day lives, beginning with rising femicide rates. Women may be gaining political power in Mexico, but the question now is whether they’ll use it to fight for the women they represent.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world.

It was written by: Xavier Medina Vidal, University of Texas at Arlington and Christopher Chambers-Ju, University of Texas at Arlington.

Read more:

• Mexico’s other epidemic: Murdered women

• Mexican women are angry about rape, murder and government neglect – and they want the world to know

Everything to Know About Climate Activist Group Just Stop Oil

Mallory Moench
Sun, November 12, 2023 a


Members of the Just Stop Oil environmental protest group are seen as they block traffic during a demonstration in Whitehall on Nov. 06, 2023 in London, England. Credit - Leon Neal–Getty Images

You may have seen the headlines: Tomato soup thrown on Van Gogh’s famous Sunflowers painting, vegan chocolate cake launched in the face of King Charles III’s Madame Tussauds wax figure and protesters interrupting a live performance of musical Les Misérables.

These viral protests were the work of Just Stop Oil, a British activist group opposed to new U.K. fossil fuel projects in order to combat climate change, that has garnered heaps of attention and ignited both praise and criticism in less than two years of activity.

With the group making headlines in the news again, here’s what you need to know about the climate activist organization.

What is Just Stop Oil and what does the group want?

Just Stop Oil describes itself as a “nonviolent civil resistance group demanding the U.K. Government stop licensing all new oil, gas and coal projects.”

In its campaign description and public research document, the group claims that extracting new fossil fuels “will kill our children and condemn humanity to oblivion” and human-induced climate change “will destroy human civilisation unless emergency action is taken to rapidly reduce our Greenhouse Gas Emissions to zero in a very short timescale.”

The group aims to achieve this by switching U.K. government subsidies for oil and gas industries toward clean energy, public transportation and insulation to reduce energy consumption. It calls on the government to transition to sustainable energy by “creating millions of proper skilled jobs and protecting the rights of workers in sunset industries” or wait for the “unavoidable collapse” of society.

Who is behind the group?

Just Stop Oil is a non-hierarchical coalition of organizers, scientists, lawyers and former oil industry workers who operate in autonomous blocs with no formal leadership, Indigo Rumbelow, a public face of the organization, told The Guardian last year. She said the group was formed in December 2021, although it went public in February 2022.

The group’s “adviser,” according to the same article, identified elsewhere as a co-founder, is Roger Hallam. He has said he was an organic farmer in Wales before turning to activism. Hallam also founded similar climate protest group Extinction Rebellion.

Just Stop Oil gets its funding via donations from the public, private individuals and grants. From March to August 2023, the group received 51% of its funding from public donations, 21% from donations over £20,000, 16% from green energy industrialist Dale Vince, 10% from Hollywood filmmaker Adam McKay and 2% from the U.S.-based Climate Emergency Fund, the group told TIME in an emailed statement on Nov. 11. The group did not provide total numbers in donations received.

Vince, who wrote in The Guardian that he gave the group more than £340,000, announced he was withdrawing his financial support in Oct. 2023, arguing change at the ballot box was more effective than protest and urging people “to vote to save the planet.”

The Climate Emergency Fund was started with funding from heiress Aileen Getty, the granddaughter of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, who said in an op-ed for The Guardian she was proud to support Just Stop Oil.

The group’s website says it uses its money for recruitment, training, capacity building, education, refreshments, accommodation and travel costs.

What are the group’s most prolific protests to date?

Just Stop Oil set an ultimatum for the U.K. government to meet its demands by March 14, 2022. When the government did not, the group began staging protests and disruptions to call attention to their cause—from climbing on oil tankers to interrupting the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) red carpet event.

In some of the most high-profile incidents, two group members were photographed launching chocolate cake at King Charles III's Madame Tussauds wax figure in October 2022. The pair denied criminal charges, but were convicted at trial and ordered by a judge to pay £3,500 ($4,278) as compensation to the museum to repair the figure in January. The group has also repeatedly targeted artwork in museums, inspiring similar acts of protest around Europe.

In July 2022, five activists were arrested after super-gluing their hands to the frame of a replica of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper painting in London’s Royal Academy, with one spray-painting “NO NEW OIL” on the wall.

Last October, two people in Just Stop Oil’s bright orange T-shirts opened cans of tomato soup and threw the liquid on to Van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square before gluing their hands to the wall. The painting was not damaged as it was covered by glass.

Why is Just Stop Oil in the news once again?

On Oct. 4, 2023, Just Stop Oil interrupted a live performance of West End musical Les Misérables, causing for the production to be halted.

On Nov. 6, two protesters were arrested after smashing the glass protecting the 1600s-era Rokeby Venus painting by Diego Velazquez at the National Gallery. The same painting was slashed by suffragette Mary Richardson in 1914 in protest.

In the most recent controversial incident on Nov. 8, protesters laid down on Waterloo Bridge in London. Police accused the group’s protest of causing a traffic jam that impeded an ambulance with blue lights on. The ambulance driver told The Telegraph he was responding to a “life or death emergency” and pleaded with police to let him through.

In posts on X (formerly Twitter), Just Stop Oil accused police of blocking the ambulance. In another post and an emailed statement to TIME, the group said its policy is to move to let ambulances with blue lights through but added that “nevertheless, we accept that our actions do cause disruption.”

“There are a limited range of options available to ordinary people to resist government criminality,” the statement read.

The group said it was too soon for freedom of information requests to show whether there were ambulance delays in this incident, but pointed to past requests, where the group was similarly accused, but they say no ambulance delays were shown.

The group said on its website that it tracked more than 300 arrests of its members from Oct. 30 to Nov. 11 amid a string of protests.

In an update shared on Nov. 8, police said they’d made 219 arrests and charged 98 activists during that time period. "Ultimately it is Londoners who are bearing the brunt and cost of Just Stop Oil’s disruption," the Metropolitan Police wrote.

Just Stop Oil is also in the midst of planning a "People vs. Oil" protest march in London on Nov. 18. "Everyone is invited—come send a clear message that we won't stand for new oil and gas," the group posted on X.

Are the group’s actions having an impact?

The U.K. government has moved in the opposite direction of Just Stop Oil’s goal—to halt the licensing of new British fossil fuel facilities—since the climate activist group began.

Under Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the U.K. government has said it will license new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, which was affirmed in the King’s Speech, the monarch’s annual address to the British Parliament, on Nov. 7.

Sunak’s government said that the move was to ensure British energy independence, especially when the country saw prices skyrocket during the Ukraine war because of its dependence on Russian energy sources.

To try to assuage climate concerns, the government said that each annual licensing round will only take place if key tests are met supporting the transition to net zero emissions. Sunak’s government had already watered down policies and pushed back some deadlines to get the country to net zero.

However, change may well be on the horizon. Sunak’s Conservative Party, which cycled through two other prime ministers in a chaotic 2022, has suffered defeats in local elections and could struggle in the general election.

Keir Starmer, the head of the Labour Party, had said in June that he would stop new licensing for oil and gas fields if in power, but in August he clarified he would not end existing or promised licenses to ensure a managed energy transition and called Just Stop Oil’s demands “contemptible.”

When asked whether the group’s actions have had an impact, or what it would take to do so, Just Stop Oil claimed in its emailed statement that with the exception of the Conservatives, its demand is supported by major British political parties, the U.N. and other international bodies. “We have no doubt that we will win,” the group said. “It is a matter of when, not if.”

FIRST NATIONS

Preserving Our Culture and Our Land Through Climate Action



(photo courtesy of Samish Indian Nation)

BY TOM WOOTEN, CHAIRMAN OF SAMISH INDIAN NATION NOVEMBER 03, 2023

Every day, we see dramatic examples of how climate change is affecting the world around us. This trend is threatening to the livelihoods and economies of Indigenous Peoples everywhere. As we are deeply connected to our land and sea, we are among the first to feel the actual effects of climate change.

One of the greatest repercussions of climate change is the significant impact on the availability and quality of crops that are traditionally grown, as well as those that are cultivated for subsistence. In several regions, global warming has been associated with an increased level of disease and mercury in shellfish due to the rise of sea surface temperatures. This poses a threat to our families above and beneath the waves.

Beyond sheer physical damage, climate change also impacts our culture. It leads to direct material losses, displacement of tribes, as well as loss of territory, cultural heritage, mobility, local knowledge, and language elements. With the rise of sea levels and storm erosion, coastal tribes also experience concern for cultural resources. This affects Indigenous people more than any other group, and we are doing something about it.

As a direct result of this significant impact, Tribes like Samish now take on a pivotal role in climate change mitigation and adaptation, demonstrating a proactive approach towards safeguarding their communities and natural heritage. The Samish Indian Nation's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) began to combat climate change in 2016 with the creation of our Climate Adaptation Program, created to better understand Samish citizens' concerns about climate change impacts and develop mitigation strategies to address them.

This work has included conducting several studies, one of which is a regional GIS-based (geographic information system) survey of habitats that support Samish First Food, First Medicine and Cultural Use plants. The survey focuses on working with landowners to be aware of these species and advocate for proper land management to create climate refugia, thus allowing these species of cultural significance to persist for future generations. Our DNR is also active in kelp forest monitoring and restoration efforts in Samish Traditional Territory throughout the San Juan Archipelago. Samish DNR employs a dive team to monitor temperature and ocean acidification in these critical keystone habitats and are working to restore areas where kelp has disappeared.

Furthermore, Samish DNR is very active within Skagit County, partnering with a variety of entities to replant riparian zones for stream cooling, salmon habitat and carbon sequestration. Samish also has lands enrolled in the Skagit Valley Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) and is dedicated to riparian planting and healthy streams on their own property.

A comprehensive survey of all the beaches in Samish Traditional Territory is underway to better understand the risks posed by sea level rise and storm erosion to cultural resources of concern. This information will be used to identify potential restoration areas with soft shore and living shoreline techniques, identify areas where Tribal Archaeology staff need to monitor or take action, and develop a comprehensive plan to protect those cultural resources at risk.

We are not the only Tribe in the country doing this work. Tribes across the United States are contributing impactfully to keep culture alive while preserving land for future generations. Through collective action and shared knowledge, we are fostering a legacy of environmental stewardship, ensuring that our land continues to thrive.

Given the tribe's unique history, we have come to realize that we cannot do this alone, and we all must work together in sharing the responsibility and, at the same time, doing our own part to make a difference for all our generations to come.

Tom Wooten is chairman of the Samish Indian Nation, located in Anacortes, Washington.

Native American Students Have the Least Access to Computer Science



(Photo/Courtesy Navajo Technical University)

BY JAVERIA SALMAN, THE HECHINGER REPORT NOVEMBER 10, 2023

Editor's Note; This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet focused on education.

After an elder passed away recently in their community, the students at Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School in Dzántik’i Héeni, the Tlingit name for Juneau, Alaska, got to work creating a special gift.

Using skills they’d learned in their computer science lessons, the students designed a traditional button blanket on a laser cutting machine. “They found a meaningful way to apply all of that skill and knowledge that they have learned and in such a way that it was authentic,” said Luke Fortier, the school librarian and math teacher.

Fortier’s school participates in a program operated by the American Indian Science and Engineering Society to expand access to computer science and science, technology engineering and math, or STEM, among Native American, Alaska Native and Pacific Islander students. The program trains educators at K-12 schools whose students include Native children on different ways they can introduce young people to programming, robotics and coding.

But computer science lessons like the ones at Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School are relatively rare. Despite calls from major employers and education leaders to expand K-12 computer science instruction in response to the workforce’s increasing reliance on digital technology, access to the subject remains low — particularly for Native American students. 

Only 67 percent of Native American students attend a school that offers a computer science course, the lowest percentage of any demographic group, according to a new study from the nonprofit Code.org. A recent report from the Kapor Foundation and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, or AISES, takes a deep look at why Native students’ access to computer and technology courses in K-12 is so low, and examines the consequences.

Director of “seeding innovation” at the Kapor Foundation and report coauthor Frieda McAlear, who is Native Alaskan of the Inupiaq tribe, said the study “forefronts the context of the violence of centuries of colonization and its continuing impacts on Native people and tribal communities as the driver of disparities in Native representation in tech and computing.” 

Schools serving higher proportions of Native students are more likely to be small institutions that lack space, funding and teachers trained in computer science, according to the report. In addition, many Native students attend schools that may lack the hardware, software and high-speed internet needed for these classes.

Even when the instruction is available, courses often lack cultural relevance that would allow Native students to authentically engage with the material, the report says.

Given the history of settler colonialism and the use of Native boarding schools that sought to erase Native identity, making sure that students’ tribal knowledge and traditions are celebrated and integrated into the curriculum will allow students to succeed, the report’s authors say.

“For Native young people and Native professionals to be excluded systematically from the computing and tech ecosystem, it really means that they don’t have access both to the wealth generation possibilities of tech careers, but also access to creating technology tools and applications that can support the continual thriving and growth of cultural and language revitalization in our tribal communities,” McAlear said.

The situation isn’t much better at the post-secondary level, according to report co-author and director of research and career support for AISES, Tiffany Smith, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and a descendant of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Since 2020, Native student enrollment in computer science courses has declined at most two-year and four-year institutions, she said, even as more students overall have received degrees in the subject. Part of the reason is that Native students don’t necessarily see a place for themselves and their culture in tech classes and spaces at predominantly white institutions, Smith said.

But the relatively few Native students who do graduate with these degrees are making significant contributions to their communities, according to Smith. She noted that graduates are using their computer science knowledge and emerging technologies to help revitalize Native languages and alleviate other issues tribal nation communities face, including climate change, biases in data collection and poverty. 

Because tribal nations are at the forefront of job growth and development in their communities, they “should be considered critical partners in the future of the technology sector,” the report’s authors write.

The report calls for more investment in training Native educators to teach computer science and related fields, and integrating Indigenous culture, traditions and languages into those classes.

A 4-year-old program run jointly by the Kapor Foundation and AISES, for example, partners with school districts and Native-serving schools to develop tribe-specific culturally relevant computer science curriculum. That instruction doesn’t only happen in computer science class, said McAlear. The program’s staff work with schools to develop project-based, culturally relevant computer science lessons that are woven into other classes including science, language and history.

In Fortier’s district, students in science classes were recently tasked with using robots to code the life cycle of a salmon. Through that activity they gained knowledge of their local tribal economies while being introduced to new tech, he said.

Before the pandemic, Fortier’s school had eliminated some computer science and technology courses due to budget cuts. But with federal Covid relief funding, along with grants from Sealaska Heritage Institute, a nonprofit arm of a regional Native corporation, and programmatic support from AISES, the school was able to restore some of that instruction.*

Fortier said he believes these courses are essential for his students — not necessarily because they’ll have to learn all the latest cutting-edge technology for their future careers, but so they can use contemporary methods to share Native practices, knowledge and skills with the wider community.

“We can learn a lot from the elders in the traditional knowledge,” he said. “But our kids need to apply it in a new, modern, meaningful way. They need to be able to communicate to and within the world.”

U$A

What Native American Heritage Month Means to Me

November is Native American Heritage Month 

(Photo/Levi Rickert for Native News Online)

BY DR. NICHOLE KEWAY BIBER 

 

NOVEMBER 11, 2023

Guest Opinion. Growing up in the inner city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, my childhood family’s primary community event as Anishinaabe would be to walk down to the Grand River for the September powwow back when it was held at Ah-Nab-Awen Park. This was the one time and place that our very protective mother would relax the creased forehead of her worry and suspicion, as well as her close watch over me and my three sisters.

Not yet dancing, I found myself laughing and running free in the drum circle; ducking into teepees that smelled comfortably of what I now recognize as smudge; and marveling to watch our mother smile, talk, feel at ease with, and just plain know so many people.  People who looked like us, and who on that day helped me feel proud and happy to be “Indian.” At a time when the textbooks mentioned our ancestral relatives for maybe two paragraphs in the past tense, next to a mortifying picture depicting a red, scowling figure wielding a hatchet over the heads of some cringing damsels, this experience of joy and belonging was deeply impactful. Self-preservation and shame that had me denying my heritage at school became transformed into excitement and pride next to the river, once a year, on that wonderful weekend.

As I grew into adulthood and took the paths of scholarship and grassroots activism, connections with the Anishinaabe community have become steadily more integrated into daily life experience for me and my own three children. For this I am grateful to all the elders and teachers and culture carriers who have welcomed us in the spirit of love for our teachings and lifeways, motivated to uplift the path of Minobimaadiziwin that together we can make ever more attainable. Living as Anishinaabe provides the foundational intellectual, spiritual, and emotional framework for we the people of the 7th fire who share in the responsibility to turn the current tides back towards restoration and recovery of our lifeways and the lives of all our more-than-human relatives.  This is how I begin thinking about the meaning of our ancestral heritage.  

As for the meaning of Native American Heritage Month, that can at times feel more complicated, as the marker of a “month” indicates a limited time offer. Does the wording imply that some measure of permission is being given, in contrast to the remaining majority of time marked by erasure, or shame, or embarrassment, or even danger? The sense that this recognition is perhaps used as a consolation is disturbing: the proverbial bone thrown by a dominant culture still normalizing the exploitative and extractive policies of land abuse and displacement. This all can understandably become problematic. The tension of a small window in which to feel pride in identity hearkens back to the imbalances in my own childhood between powwow weekend and the rest of the year, and more painfully to the boarding school era that systematically punished and terrorized children for even the smallest connection to their tribal heritage.

My mother and father met as young children at the Holy Childhood of Jesus Indian Boarding School in Harbor Springs, Michigan. Those traumas disconnected them from experiencing peace in their spirits, because they were not permitted to live as Anishinaabe. They spent their lives injured by an ubiquitous system of soul-killing institutions, doing their best to find solace in the midst of the perpetual home-sickness of cultural alienation steeped in severance from Akiing.

That terrible struggle and pain of so many survivors, and those who never made it back, can perhaps provide us with an empowering way to meet the month of November.  When other direct and community descendents of the victims and survivors of ongoing cultural violence and I are approached for comment this one time of year in particular, what does that mean and how ought one respond?

It is a personal decision, foremost, and can also depend on where someone is in their learning or their healing. 

For myself, I take it as an opportunity to speak honestly as an Anishinaabekwe, proud to be Mishiike Dodem (Turtle Clan), and ever ready to help us meet our collective responsibilities to protect and restore the land and water at this critical time.

Native American Heritage Month means that more people will be paying attention. That means more ears that might hear us say something that will resonate, and thereby help our more-than-human relatives, our children, and our elders. Dabasendiziwin (humility) keeps us centered in gratitude for the gifts of the living Earth. Fortified by our Grandfather teachings, we can become the necessary link between awareness of heritage and practices of healing. 

November is as good a month as any to keep on being exactly who we are.

Dr. Nichole Keway Biber is a tribal citizen of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians. She serves on the Anishinabek Caucus in Michigan, where she leads the Wolf/Wildlife Preservation Team. 

U$A

Hospitalized Lakota Elder's Waist-length Hair Cut without His Permission; Family and AIM Demand Answers

Levi Rickert
Mon, November 13, 2023

Arthur Janis remains in a Colorado healthcare facility. (Photo/Courtesy)

Some 20 members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota journeyed to Aurora, Colorado to demand answers from a Colorado health system about why a Lakota elder’s waist-length hair was cut without his permission while he was under the care of the healthcare facility.

The AIM members made local news when they protested on the lawn of the University of Colorado Health (UCHealth) facility last Thursday waving the AIM flag.

They were there to support 65-year-old Arthur Janis (Oglala Sioux Tribe), who was airlifted from Rapid City, South Dakota in September to receive care at the UCHealth hospital for complications from an abdominal illness that caused him to have blood clots.

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Janis, who is a traditional Lakota man, wore his hair long for cultural reasons.

In early November, his sister, while participating in a video conference call, to get an update on her brother’s health condition, she noticed his hair had been cut. Upon seeing Arthur’s hair was cut, she became upset and made inquiries about the Arther’s hair.

In Lakota culture, long hair is saced and not to be but unless someone is mourning due to a loved one.

The hospital staff would not give her a straight answer, so she and other family sought the involvment of AIM.

Ruddy Reddog, Oyuhpe Tokala Society and AIM, who lives in Manderson, South Dakota, has taken the lead on finding answers about Janis' hair being cut short.

In an interview with Native News Online on Sunday, Reddog said the UCHealth Hospital has confirmed Janis’ hair was cut while he was under its care. However, Reddog says the hospital is not certain when or why it was cut. Since Janis entered the hospital’s system for care, he was transferred to an nursing home in Denver that the hospital maintains a partnership.

UC Health is reviewing their video history. Reddog said hospital officials said the videos will not be released without a court order. So, Reddog said AIM will have some fundraisers in order to raise money to pay for legal counsel.

Reddog calls what happened to Janis was an assault and robbery.

“They have yet to identify specifically the day and time this theft took place and by who did the assault,” Reddog said.”The family and friends of Arthur are concerned about this theft because we also know how highly Native American people's hair could be of value to big city venues. So we wonder if it was stolen for the black market used for wigs and extensions found popular in inner city fashions?”

The Janis’ family and AIM wants to know why Arthur’s hair was cut and where the hair is now.

“If it was just a mistake by caregivers, what did they do with his hair? Did they just throw it away? Or sell it to a program like "locks of love" that creates wigs for cancer patients? We just don't have any answers to are worries and concerns,” Reddog said.

Reddog said there may be other reasons for the theft of Janis’ hair.

“Could he have been robbed for someone else's religious impressions such as satanic ritual or new age ceremony play? Or could this be a racist act and someone just believed a man should not have long hair. Or like the times of Indian boarding schools that it was heathen to wear our hair long?”

On Friday, UC Health released this a statement to the press:

“UCHealth and its nurses, physicians and staff members have deep respect for our patients and their individual beliefs and customs. We agree that a patient should be fully informed and should consent to any medical care, and that their culture must be honored. We are committed to working with family members to investigate any concerns and to help determine if an incident happened at one of our care locations.”

Reddog said he filed criminal complaints with the Aurora Police Department and the UC Health Police Department on Friday. On Monday, AIM plans to file a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Division

“We hope that this will never happen again to our Native men who proudly grow their hair long,” Roddog said.

Referring to November being Native American Heritage Month, Reddog said what happened to Janis, in a twist on words, “this truly becomes Native American Injustice Month.”

About the Author: "Levi \"Calm Before the Storm\" Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) is the founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online. Rickert was awarded Best Column 2021 Native Media Award for the print\/online category by the Native American Journalists Association. He serves on the advisory board of the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association. He can be reached at levi@nativenewsonline.net."

Contact: levi@nativenewsonline.net

Maya warrior statue with serpent helmet discovered at Chichén Itzá

Owen Jarus
Sun, November 12, 2023 

The anthropomorphic sculpture of the Maya warrior.

Archaeologists in Mexico have discovered a 1,000-year-old statue of a Maya warrior in the basement of a temple at Chichén Itzá in the Yucatán Peninsula.

The statue depicts a warrior wearing a helmet shaped like a serpent with its jaws open, as well as a feathered headdress, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said in a translated statement. The statue is 13 inches (33 centimeters) tall and 11 inches (28 cm) wide, and aside from a crack, it's in good shape, according to the statement. The head may have once been part of a larger sculptural design.

Chichén Itzá flourished between the ninth and 13th centuries and covers more than 740 acres (300 hectares). At the center of the site, a pyramid known as El Castillo (The Castle) rises 100 feet (30 meters) high. The site has many temples, as well as a massive ball court and an astronomical observatory.

Related: Palatial 1,500-year-old Maya structure unearthed in Mexico

The carving shows a snake's head over the human's likeness.

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The site is a popular tourist destination, and over the past few years, the INAH has been modifying and building new visitor centers and museums, as well as a new train line, known as the "Tren Maya," near the site, the statement said. The statue was found during archaeological work accompanying that railway construction.

A wealth of other archaeological finds have been made during this construction work, including about 660 human burials, over 1 million ceramic fragments, the remains of numerous architectural structures, and a variety of other artifacts, the statement said.

Florida Transportation Crews Unearth "Nearly Intact" 19th Century Shipwreck

Stephanie Gallman Jordan
Sun, November 12, 2023 

"It's truly an incredible find"

Courtesy Florida Department of Transportation

Construction crews in Florida recently made an “incredible find” after unearthing a 19th-century shipwreck.

The “nearly intact” vessel was discovered by Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) crews during construction activities near the Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine, Florida.

The ship is believed to be a “small single-masted, shallow-draft sailing craft … that was likely used to extract fish and shellfish from coastal waterways and directly offshore,” according to Dr. James Delgado who led the excavation and recovery on behalf of SEARCH, the archaeology group onsite for the project.

Courtesy Daniel Fiore (SEARCH, Inc.) & Florida Department of Transportation, District Two

Officials believe the ship sank unexpectedly and became fully encapsulated in mud and “silted in” helping to preserve it so well.

“There was no air contact for it to decay,” Greg Evans, District 2 Secretary for FDOT said.

Because of the historic area, FDOT requires an archeologist to be onsite throughout construction to handle any and all potential historic finds like this one. When crews spotted the older timber, they paused what they were doing for the SEARCH archeologist to investigate.

“At first it did not look like an impressive find,” Hampton Ray, Community Outreach Manager with FDOT admits.

Courtesy Daniel Fiore (SEARCH, Inc.) & Florida Department of Transportation, District Two

Crews kept the vessel wet throughout the excavation and used small tools to help remove layers of mud, sediment and a thick layer of marine shells covering it.

Artifacts including a wooden handle, the base of an oil-fired lantern, and the remains of a leather shoe were also found buried within the mud near the vessel.

Turning a construction site into an archeological dig and then back into a construction site took “great care” and a significant amount of coordination “between archeologists, construction crews and community stakeholders.”

Courtesy Daniel Fiore (SEARCH, Inc.) & Florida Department of Transportation, District Two

“FDOT is grateful to the city, the project managers and every partner that lent a hand to make this excavation successful,” Ray said.

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No fun in Acapulco: Smashed buildings, overturned boats and broken lives in wake of Hurricane Otis

Patrick J. McDonnell
Mon, November 13, 2023 at 4:00 AM MST·11 min read

The pool area of Hotel Los Flamingos, where Johnny Weissmuller, John Wayne and other Hollywood notables once hung out, is destroyed.

 (Patrick McDonnell / Los Angeles Times)

Acapulco's iconic cliff divers are ready to resume daily shows, but there are no spectators to witness their death-defying leaps from the craggy heights of La Quebrada into the churning sea below.

"We live off tourism, and there are no tourists now," lamented Brandon Palacios, one of the divers.

Likewise, Tomás Mayo, a familiar figure in a cowboy hat and boots who has strummed his guitar for decades along Acapulco's beaches, has no audience for his serenades. "The beaches are empty," he noted.


Others face more profound troubles. Relatives of four crew members of the sunken yacht Litos still hold out hope that their missing loved ones survived.

"We want the navy and the government to keep doing everything they can to continue the search," said Mei-li Chew Irra, whose husband, Ulises Díaz Salgado, was the captain. "We cannot give up."

This is the grim reality of Acapulco more than two weeks after Hurricane Otis — packing Category 5 winds of more than 165 miles an hour — ripped through the fabled Pacific resort and wrought unprecedented devastation, leaving at least 48 dead and 31 still listed as missing, and exacting up to $15 billion in damage.

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Acapulco's glitziest hotels and condominiums are mostly windowless hulks. The one-time hideaway of Johnny (“Tarzan”) Weissmuller and Hollywood pals like John Wayne is a pile of rubble. Overturned yachts and smashed fishing vessels bob in picturesque bays.

Residents queue beneath a blazing sun for handouts of food and water, as soldiers with assault weapons make their rounds along a once-rocking coastal boulevard now lined with tattered palms, downed power lines and piles of fetid trash.

Residents arrive for food handouts in Acapulco in the shadow of damaged hotels and condos. (Patrick McDonnell / Los Angeles Times)

Acapulco’s normally verdant tropical slopes have assumed a dull, brownish patina: The cyclone uprooted stands of palms and stripped others to the bark.

Read more: This woman is the front-runner to be Mexico's next president

“I never thought I would live to see Acapulco in such a state,” said Baltazar Quintera, 53, who earned his living at a now-shuttered beach kiosk specializing in chile-spiked beer concoctions — just as his mother had once hawked hand-woven robes to beach denizens.

“Acapulco is unrecognizable," Quintera added as he gestured towards the ruins of a series of seaside bars and cafes, their palapas (palm-thatch roofs) caved in atop jumbles of white plastic tables and chairs.

Crews from throughout Mexico are working to remove rubble from streets and beaches and to restore electricity, running water, telephone and Internet service to a city and environs that was home to about 1 million when Otis struck shortly after midnight on Oct. 25.

Most of the boats are damaged at the Acapulco Yacht Club. (Patrick McDonnell / Los Angeles Times)

Roads are now mostly passable compared with the mayhem in the first days post-Otis, a testament to the efforts of intrepid cleanup brigades, who are applauded as heroes here.

Soldiers guard gas stations and the hulks of shops emptied of most everything including food, appliances, beer and liquor during the industrial-sized looting frenzy at outlets big and small — from Walmart and Sam's Club to neighborhood groceries — that immediately followed the storm.

Schools remain closed. People share tales of survival and loss.

Read more: How many people work for the Mexican drug cartels? Researchers have an answer

Rebuilding the ravaged hotel infrastructure — 80% of it destroyed or damaged — may take years, experts say. And that poses an existential challenge for a city that for generations has been dependent on tourism.

“The problem is the hotels — visitors need a place to stay,” said Palacios, 30, a member of an association of more than 50 cliff divers, who began their perilous, extreme-sport vocation as youngsters learning from elders how to read the tides and ocean depths to avoid potentially fatal mishaps. "Without tourists, what can we do?"

A mural of one of Acapulco's famed cliff divers next to a beachside boulevard that has been cleared of debris from the storm. (Patrick McDonnell / Los Angeles Times)

Otis is the strongest storm on record to have ever battered Mexico’s Pacific Coast, scientists say. And it hit Acapulco head-on, picking up intensity over warm offshore waters with stunning velocity — wind speeds increasing by 115 miles an hour during a 24-hour period.

Its sudden fury left authorities, residents and tourists with little time to prepare as Otis plowed a broad swath of destruction.

The upcoming peak holiday season appears a near-total write-off.

"Right now we have no water or power,” said César Olivares, who runs a budget 10-room hotel close to Caletilla Beach, a popular destination for working-class vacationers who can rent a room for $25 a night or so. “We have seen the same families here for generations. Acapulco is not just for rich people or movie stars. Average families come here for a break.”

Unlike Olivares' facility, many of Acapulco's large luxury hotels need near-complete reconstruction that will drag on well beyond the full restoration of power and other services.

Scuba divers at Caleta Beach, Acapulco, return from searching for sunken fishing boats. (Patrick McDonnell / Los Angeles Times)

Acclaimed for its spectacular bays and Pacific vistas, Acapulco evolved in the 20th century from a sleepy fishing village and port to a playground for the international jet-set. John F. and Jackie Kennedy honeymooned here, Frank Sinatra hosted a legendary birthday bash at the Las Brisas Hotel, and the town inspired the 1963 Elvis Presley musical lark "Fun in Acapulco," whose opening shots focused on a hotel along Caletilla Beach.

In recent years, however, Acapulco has acquired a reputation as a faded haunt plagued by drug cartels and gang shootouts — even attaining the ignominy of being Mexico’s murder capital for a few years, though police say crime is down and other cities have assumed that inauspicious label.

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Foreign tourists have increasingly diverted to Cancún and Mexico’s Caribbean coast. But despite its wilted grandeur, Acapulco has remained the go-to coastal getaway for Mexico City’s landlocked multitudes, just a four-and-a-half-hour drive away along the Autopista del Sol, a toll expressway completed in the early 1990s.

Next to Caletilla is equally popular Caleta Beach, where, last week, a wayward yacht thrust ashore during the storm was perched incongruously on the sand. Teams of fishermen with scuba tanks were scouring the offshore seabed for their lost vessels. They used buoys and ropes to nudge the wooden boats to the surface and then to the beach for damage assessment.

Wrecked boats along the beach in Acapulco. (Patrick McDonnell / Los Angeles Times)

“It’s like the Titanic!” said Liliana Castrejón, 28, whose family craft, Siete Vientos (Seven Winds), was pulled from a depth of 30 feet in the ocean. It has some holes to patch and a missing motor but is otherwise intact. “This is our livelihood.”

A mile or so up the hills from Caleta stand the ruins of the Hotel Los Flamingos, a relic of Acapulco's Hollywood glory days, its rooms flooded, swaths of palm littering its grounds, its pink walls smeared with mud. Still on display outside the lobby, however, are black-and-white snaps of two of the hotel’s former movie-star co-owners — "Duke" Wayne and his buddy Weissmuller, the Olympic swimmer later famed for "Tarzan," partially filmed in and around Acapulco.

“When will we reopen? Who knows?” said Joaquín Cienfuegos, dazed front-desk man at Los Flamingos, as a dozen workers were busy with repairs. “Not for a while.”

Severe flooding and mudslides inundated poor hillside neighborhoods, while the winds carried away roofs of tin. Residents complained that aid was slow to arrive — even as authorities hastened to clean up Avenida Costera Miguel Alemán, the trendy coastal strip of bars, hotels and seafood eateries, now mostly wrecks.

"My home was full of mud and water," said Mayo, 74 , who has played his guitar for Acapulco beachgoers for more than 50 years.

Tomas "El Bronco" Mayo, 74, has played guitar for beachgoers in Acapulco for more than 50 years. He wrapped the guitar in plastic during the hurricane but lost seven pairs of boots. (Patrick McDonnell / Los Angeles Times)

Mayo, known professionally as El Bronco, lost seven pairs of specially made boots to the muck in his home in Acapulco's gritty La Garita district. On a recent afternoon, as he sipped a beer in one of the few reopened seaside restaurants, Mayo wore his sole remaining pair and his trademark cowboy hat.

His guitar — which features decals with flags of the United States, Mexico and Canada — also survived: He wrapped plastic around its case and held the instrument above his head as Otis raged.

“Acapulco will come back,” vowed the strapping Mayo. “People will always return to the beach.”

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Otis didn’t discriminate among rich and poor.

A week after the tempest, the anchorage of the Acapulco Yacht Club still looked like it had suffered intense bombardment. Adrift offshore were a plethora of stricken yachts, some overturned, others displaying deep gashes; masts, motors and radio equipment were squished together with coconuts, fishing lines, palm fronds and other maritime detritus.

Storm surges tore 20-ton sections of pier from their moorings and tossed them onto the shore. About 85% of the 350 boats at the club were sunk or damaged, said the commodore, Juan Emilio Proal, as he escorted a visitor along water's edge, in full view of the cemetery of luxury vessels swaying in the bay.

“We never imagined this,” Proal said, still in disbelief at the magnitude of destruction. “No one did.”

Acapulco's marinas are home to many pleasure boats of owners who live elsewhere. Hundreds of locally based captains and crews are tasked with caring for the multimillion-dollar craft. A key responsibility is to ensure that the vessels are safe during periodic storms. As Otis slashed the coast, some crew members lost their lives or went missing trying to save the yachts.

Among those who narrowly escaped is Leonel Avila, 20. He and the captain of the yacht on which he worked, along with a fellow deckhand, managed a harrowing flight from the yacht club through hurricane hell.

Leonel Avila, 20, fled the yacht where he was a crewman along with two other workers and made a harrowing escape through hurricane winds. (Patrick McDonnell / Los Angeles Times)

“I was frozen in fear,” Avila recalled of the moment before the three abandoned the boat that they were trying to safeguard. “Then my colleague yelled: ‘It’s time to react! The boat is going to sink! We have to go'!”

The three managed to leap one by one from the stricken vessel as it bounced in 15-foot waves, to a pier — dreading that they would be tossed into the water, crushed and drowned. Once off the boat, they huddled together and trudged on foot against the gale and airborne debris. They made their way to the clubhouse, where injured and shocked crew members waited out the storm.

The experience clearly traumatized Avila. He lost his source of employment and almost lost his life. He was hoping to score alternative work on a cleanup brigade. His long-term plan, though, is to return to the sea, where he has labored since he was 12, starting his nautical career as a helper on Acapulco’s signature glass-bottom boats. The tourist craft — many damaged in the storm — allow passengers to view fish swimming beneath the boats.

“The sea is my life,” Avila said. “I was born and raised in the sea. That’s where I want to be.”

Still listed as missing are the four crew members from the doomed yacht Litos. Among them is Abigail Andrade Rodríguez, 29, who served as the Litos' hostess and is a single mother of three — Jimena, 11, Yoseph, 10, and Alexi, 8. As the storm gained intensity, a desperate Andrade telephoned her sister, Yesmin Andrade Rodríguez, 37, from the wavering craft.

A shrine to the Virgen de Guadalupe survived on a bridge at Caleta Beach.

 (Patrick McDonnell / Los Angeles Times)

“The yacht is shaking back and forth, the windows are broken, and water is coming in,” Yesmin recalled Abigail saying. “Please, Yesmin, if you never hear from me again, if we never see each other again, tell my three children that I love them very much. That I’m so sorry, that I only wanted to work. I ask you, please: Take care of my kids when I’m gone.”

Special correspondents Liliana Nieto del Río in Acapulco and Cecilia Sánchez in Mexico City contributed to this report

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.