El Salvador Bitcoin City: ‘Absurd Political Stunt by a Delusional Dictator’, Says Steve Hanke

By Jeffrey Gogo27 November 2021, 11:30 GMT+0000
Updated by Ryan James27 November 2021, 11:20 GMT+0000

Steve Hanke questioned the wisdom of funding the construction of a Bitcoin city in a country of abject poverty and inadequate social amenities.

Amidst the criticism, President Bukele revealed that the country added another 100 bitcoins to its growing stash.

Gold analyst Dan Popescu said El Salvador fits perfectly with the definition of a "banana republic governed by an authoritarian regime."

The Trust Project is an international consortium of news organizations building standards of transparency.



El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced on Nov. 20 that he plans to build a city that runs entirely on bitcoin. The city will be constructed at the base of Conchagua volcano in the country’s south-east.

El Salvador, a poor country in Central America, recently became the first nation-state to use bitcoin (BTC) as an official currency, alongside the U.S. dollar. While the global bitcoin community is excited about the development, the project has not been a runaway success.
Sponsored

Hanke, a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University, questioned the wisdom of funding the construction of a crypto city in a country with searing poverty and inadequate social amenities, according to a tweet posted on Nov. 26.

“Dictator Bukele has announced plans to build a Bitcoin city…this is an absurd political stunt by a delusional dictator. Why doesn’t [he] focus on what Salvadorans actually need, like access to healthcare?” quipped the popular bitcoin skeptic.
‘Casino finance’

As part of the Bitcoin city funding plan, El Salvador is expected to issue $1 billion in bonds backed by the cryptocurrency in 2022. Half of the money raised will be used to buy BTC, and the remainder will go toward energy and bitcoin mining infrastructure.

Hanke criticized the plan sharply. He said:

This type of casino finance is bound to put Bukele in very hot water with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The IMF previously raised concern with El Salvador using bitcoin as legal tender. The financial institution cautioned that plans by the country to buy more of the digital asset required “very careful analysis” of the implications for its financial stability.

But as the price of bitcoin declined to multi-week lows of around $55,000 this week, President Bukele revealed on Nov. 26 that the country added another 100 bitcoins to its growing stash.

El Salvador “bought the dip”, he says, referring to a practice in financial investment of buying an asset after it drops in price, believing that to be a bargain.

In an earlier tweet, Hanke ranted about El Salvador’s falling dollar-denominated bonds, suggesting that Bukele intended to “replace” these with bitcoin bonds.

“But, a bitcoin bond would offer lower yields despite carrying greater risk. Looks like Bukele is trying to invent a new financial arithmetic,” he opined.

‘Banana republic’

While the economist routinely throws shade at bitcoin and crypto in general, he is not the only one to rail at Bukele’s Bitcoin city plans.

Gold analyst Dan Popescu said El Salvador fits perfectly with the definition of a “banana republic governed by an authoritarian regime.” Popescu took issue with the presence of foreign cryptocurrency firms in the Latin American country.

He alleged “economic exploitation” as foreign bitcoin entities “conspire with local corrupt government officials.” El Salvador is working with Blockstream, a crypto and blockchain tech firm based in Canada, in its $1 billion bitcoin bond raise.

According to Bukele, the Bitcoin city will take on the sign of the cryptocurrency in shape and will be powered by geothermal energy from the Conchagua volcano. Apart from value added tax of 10%, residents of that city will not pay any other taxes.

WALES

‘Hostile Conservative govt:’ Plaid Cymru members green light co-operation deal with Labour

“In the face of the pandemic and a hostile Conservative government in Westminster – a government determined to do everything it can to undermine our long-contested national institutions – it is in our nation’s interests for the two parties to work together for Wales.”

 by Joe Mellor
2021-11-28 09:06


Members of Wales’ nationalist party Plaid Cymru have voted to pass the Senedd co-operation deal with Welsh Labour.

On Saturday, the last day of the party’s annual conference, 94% of members decided in favour of the three-year deal.

The wide-ranging deal covers 46 policy areas including providing free school meals for all primary school children, the establishment of a free-at-point-of-need national care system and building a north-south railway.

It does not amount to a coalition, meaning Plaid will not enter government, and party leader Adam Price has assured members and supporters the party will remain in opposition.

Following the vote, Mr Price said: “The co-operation agreement will bring immediate, tangible and long-term benefit for the people of Wales.

“From feeding our children to caring for our elderly, this is a nation-building programme for Government which will change the lives of thousands of people the length and breadth of our country for the better.”

Self-government

He added: “Almost a quarter of a century ago, people in Wales voted for self-government for Wales, with a promise of a new type of politics. They placed their trust in a new democracy with an instruction to work differently – inclusively and co-operatively.

“In the face of the pandemic and a hostile Conservative government in Westminster – a government determined to do everything it can to undermine our long-contested national institutions – it is in our nation’s interests for the two parties to work together for Wales.”

Mr Price had addressed the conference on Friday saying the agreement, if passed, would be “a down-payment on independence” – the party’s main goal.

Discussions between the two parties were announced in September, months after Labour won 30 of the 60 seats in the Welsh Parliament, allowing it to remain in government but without a majority.

Plaid Cymru gained an extra seat in the election, bringing its total to 13, but dropped to third behind the Conservatives.

A deal was reached by the parties’ executive committees on November 21, which also proposed expanding the Welsh parliament, rent controls, and local tourism taxes, as well as a pledge to move the net zero target from 2050 to 2035.

Related: Mark Drakeford secures ‘radical programme’ for Wales containing many Corbyn policies

Coronavirus: Omicron cases found in four European countries, South Africa says it’s being ‘punished’

South Africa said the decision of several nations to ban flights from the country was ‘akin to punishing it for its advanced genomic sequencing’.

Scroll Staff

Travellers arriving at London's Heathrow airport will now have to take RT-PCR tests upon arrival. | Tolga Akmen/AFP

Cases of the Omicron strain of the coronavirus were reported in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and the Czech Republic a day after it was declared a variant of concern by the World Health Organization, The Guardian reported on Saturday.

The B.1.1.529 or the Omicron variant was first discovered in South Africa on November 24 with cases gradually occurring in Botswana, Israel, and Hong Kong. The virus variant has some concerning mutations, according to the World Health Organization, that suggest an increased risk of reinfection.

On Saturday, two cases of the Omicron variant were detected in the United Kingdom and Germany each, while one patient in Italy and another in Czech were infected with the new strain, The Guardian reported.

The two Omicron cases in the United Kingdom were connected to travel to southern Africa, British Health Minister Sajid Javid said, according to Al Jazeera. The country has now asked all travellers to take an RT-PCR test once they arrive in the United Kingdom.

Currently, the country has banned travellers from ten countries. The nations are South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Angola.

Meanwhile, Germany had isolated two of its citizens who were infected with the Omicron variant. However, the health ministry has not yet revealed where the citizens had travelled to.

The Italian government has also isolated the person infected with the variant. They had travelled to Mozambique, the country’s National Health Institute said, according to Al Jazeera.

Apart from European nations, no Omicron cases were detected in other countries till Sunday morning. However, countries such as Australia and India have called for rigorous testing of travellers from South Africa at the airport.

On Saturday, health officials in Sydney started urgent testing at the airport after two travellers on a flight from southern Africa tested positive for the coronavirus, Reuters reported.

Being punished, says South Africa

South Africa on Saturday said it was being “punished” for detecting the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, AFP reported. The country’s foreign ministry, in a statement, called out the countries that have banned flights from South Africa.

It said that the decision to ban flights from southern Africa “is akin to punishing South Africa for its advanced genomic sequencing and the ability to detect new variants quicker”.

“Excellent science should be applauded and not punished,” the foreign ministry said.

Currently, along with the United Kingdom, Germany, France Italy, Singapore and Israel have banned flights from South Africa. The United States will ban most travellers from eight countries of southern Africa from November 29.

Hong Kong confirms two cases of virulent new COVID-19 variant, one of which travelled from Canada

Global authorities around the world have already reacted with alarm Friday to the new coronavirus variant, dubbed Omicron, detected in South Africa


Stephanie Nebehay
Publishing date:Nov 26, 2021 • 

People leave the Regal Airport Hotel at Chek Lap Kok airport in Hong Kong on November 26, 2021, where a new Covid-19 variant deemed a 'major threat' was detected in a traveller from South Africa and who has since passed it on to a local man whilst in quarantine. 

PHOTO BY PETER PARKS / AFP
Article content

Two cases of the new COVID-19 strain raising alarm in parts of southern Africa and unnerving financial markets worldwide have been found in travellers in compulsory quarantine in Hong Kong.

A traveller from South Africa was found to have the variant — B.1.1.529, dubbed Omicron — while the other case was identified in a person who had travelled from Canada and was quarantined in the hotel room opposite his, the Hong Kong government said late Thursday. The traveller from South Africa used a mask with a valve that doesn’t filter exhaled air and may have transmitted the virus to his neighbour when the hotel room door was open, a health department spokesperson said Friday.

Twelve people who were staying in rooms close to the two Hong Kong cases are now undergoing compulsory 14-day quarantines at a government facility, according to the statement out Thursday.

Global authorities around the world have already reacted with alarm Friday to the new coronavirus variant detected in South Africa. The EU and Britain were among the first to tighten border controls as researchers seek to determine whether the mutation was vaccine-resistant

Canada is now closing its borders to all foreigners who have recently been to southern Africa. The ban and new testing and quarantine requirements for Canadians returning home applies to people who have been to South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini in the last two weeks.

The United States will restrict entry to travellers from eight southern African nations, President Joe Biden said on Friday. The policy does not ban flights or apply to U.S. citizens and lawful U.S. permanent residents, a Biden administration official said.

The U.S. restrictions will be effective Monday and apply to South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday classified the B.1.1.529 variant detected in South Africa as a SARS-CoV-2 “variant of concern,” saying it may spread more quickly than other forms.

Preliminary evidence suggested there is an increased risk of reinfection and there had been a “detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology,” it said in a statement after a closed meeting of independent experts who reviewed the data.

“This variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning. Preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant, as compared to other (variants of concern), it said.

Omicron is the fifth variant to carry such a designation.

“This variant has been detected at faster rates than previous surges in infection, suggesting that this variant may have a growth advantage,” the WHO said.

Current PCR tests continue to successfully detect the variant, it said.

Earlier, the WHO cautioned countries against hastily imposing travel restrictions linked to the variant of COVID-19, saying they should take a “risk-based and scientific approach.”

The head of the UN World Tourism Organization called for a quick decision.

“It depends on WHO recommendations, but my recommendation will be to take decisions today, not after one week, because if it continues to spread as we are expecting then it will be late and will make no sense to apply restrictions,” organization chief Zurab Pololikashvili told Reuters.

One South African scientist expert labelled London’s ban a symptom of “vaccine apartheid,” though European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the EU also aimed to halt air travel from the region and several other countries toughened curbs, including India, Japan and Israel.

“It is now important that all of us in Europe act very swiftly, decisively and united,” von der Leyen said, calling for EU citizens to get vaccinated and improve their protection with booster jabs. “All air travel to these countries should be suspended until we have a clearer understanding about the danger posed by this new variant.”

The new cases of the new variant may also prompt Hong Kong to further tighten what is already one of the toughest quarantine regimes in the world, with travellers from some places isolated in hotels for up to 21 days.

The city is one of the few places in the world that’s yet to have a recorded community outbreak of delta, the contagious variant first detected in India that has now become the dominant virus strain worldwide. The mutation has forced some countries who were able to keep COVID-19 out through quarantines and border curbs in 2020 to abandon that approach, instead pivoting to treating the virus as endemic.

David Hui, a professor of respiratory medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a member of the city’s COVID advisory panel, told local radio Friday that Hong Kong should ban all returnees from Africa because of the variant, according to thestandard.hk.

South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla said on Friday that preliminary studies suggest a new COVID-19 variant detected in his country may be more transmissible, but the decision of other countries to impose travel restrictions is “unjustified.”

Phaahla told a media briefing that South Africa was acting with transparency, and that travel bans contravened the norms and standards of the WHO.

The WHO said it would take weeks to determine how effective vaccines were against the variant , which was first identified this week.

The news pummeled global stocks and oil amid fears about what new bans would do to the global travel industry and already shaky economies across southern Africa.

The variant has a spike protein that is dramatically different to the one in the original coronavirus that vaccines are based on, the UK Health Security Agency said, raising fears about how current vaccines will fare.

“As scientists have described, (this is) the most significant variant they’ve encountered to date,” British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told Sky News.

WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told a UN briefing that it would take several weeks to determine the variant ‘s transmissibility and the effectiveness of vaccines, noting that 100 sequences of it had been reported so far.

In this file photo taken on November 01, 2021 passengers walk with their luggage upon their arrival at Ben Gurion Airport near Lod, as Israel reopens to tourists vaccinated against COVID-19. PHOTO BY JACK GUEZ / AFP

South African sport began to shut down on Friday, with the imposition of travel bans forcing international rugby teams and golfers to scramble to leave.

Belgium identified Europe’s first case, adding to those in Botswana, Israel and Hong Kong. Denmark has sequenced all COVID-19 cases and found no sign of the new mutation, Danish health authorities said on Thursday.

Israel imposed a travel ban covering most of Africa.

“We are currently on the verge of a state of emergency , ” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement. “Our main principle is to act fast, strong and now.”

One epidemiologist in Hong Kong said it may be too late to tighten travel curbs.

“Most likely this virus is already in other places,” said Ben Cowling of the University of Hong Kong.

European states had already been expanding booster vaccinations and tightening curbs as the continent battles a fourth COVID-19 wave, with many reporting record daily rises in cases.

Discovery of the new variant comes as Europe and the United States enter winter, with more people gathering indoors in the run-up to Christmas, providing a breeding ground for infection.

Italy imposed an entry ban on people who have visited southern African states in the last 14 days, while France suspended flights from southern Africa and Bahrain and Croatia will ban arrivals from some countries.

India issued an advisory to all states to test and screen international travelers from South Africa and other “at risk” countries, while Japan tightened border controls.

The coronavirus has swept the world in the two years since it was first identified in central China, infecting almost 260 million people and killing 5.4 million.

Omicron: How Dangerous Is The B.1.1.529 Variant Found In South Africa?

On Nov 26, 2021
By Adam Vaughan

A new variant of SARS-CoV-2, known first as B.1.1.529 and now named omicron, has an unusually high number of mutations and appears to have triggered a recent surge in cases in South Africa.

When was omicron first identified?

It was first detected on 23 November in South Africa using samples taken between 14 and 16 November. Joe Phaahla, South Africa’s health minister, said on 25 November that he believes the variant is behind an exponential daily rise in covid-19 cases across the country in recent days. The same day, the UK Health Security Agency (HSA) designated it a variant under investigation, triggering travel restrictions for people travelling to the UK from South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Namibia. The World Health Organization had listed B.1.1.529 as a variant under monitoring, but its Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution decided on 26 November to class it as a variant of concern. The WHO has now named it omicron after the Greek letter.

What is happening in South Africa?

National daily cases have gone from 274 on 11 November to 1000 a fortnight later. While the rate of growth has been fast, absolute numbers are still relatively low compared with the UK, which saw 50,000 cases on 26 November. More than 80 per cent of South Africa’s cases are currently in the country’s Gauteng province. All of the 77 cases sequenced in the province between 12 and 20 November were identified as being caused by the variant. The estimated reproduction number, the average number of people that an individual is likely to infect, is almost 2 in Gauteng compared with nearly 1.5 nationally.

What do B.1.1.529’s mutations tell us?

The variant has a “very unusual constellation of mutations”, says Sharon Peacock at the University of Cambridge. There are more than 30 mutations in the spike protein, the part of the virus that interacts with human cells. Other mutations may help the virus bypass our immune systems, make it more transmissible and less susceptible to treatments, according to the HSA. But the body notes that “this has not been proven”.

What the mutations mean is currently theoretical and based on experience of past mutations of SARS-CoV-2 rather than lab tests. Wendy Barclay at Imperial College London says “we don’t really know” if it will reduce the effectiveness of vaccines. Nonetheless, she adds that, in theory, the number of changes across the antigenic sites on the variant’s spike means the effectiveness of antibodies produced by covid-19 vaccines would be compromised.

Mutations on a part of the virus known as the furin cleavage site are similar to those seen in the alpha and delta variants, which could help the variant spread more easily. Barclay says “it’s very biologically plausible” that B.1.1.529 has greater transmissibility than delta.

The mutations also mean that the new variant is likely to be more resistant to antibody treatments such as those developed by Regeneron, which have been shown to save lives. “That is really a cause for concern,” says Barclay. One small bright spot is that, to date, there are no signs that the variant causes more severe disease.

How far has it spread?

Genomic sequencing has found the variant in South Africa, Botswana and Hong Kong. There are also reported cases in Israel, apparently originating from a traveller from Malawi, and in Belgium, from someone who had travelled from Egypt. UK health secretary Sajid Javid said it is “highly likely” that the variant has spread to other countries. As of 27 November, two cases had been detected in the UK, where about a fifth of positive cases are sent for genomic sequencing. Even in countries with low levels of sequencing, it may be possible to get early warning signs, because the variant is linked to a mutation called S-gene dropout, which is picked up by PCR tests, says Jeffrey Barrett at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Hinxton, UK.

How have other places responded?

The UK and EU have both imposed restrictions on people travelling from countries in southern Africa, with Javid saying the variant is of “huge international concern”. Prime minister Boris Johnson announced further travel restrictions on 27 November.

Is it a given that this will outcompete the delta variant?

We don’t know. “We don’t have definitive evidence at the moment that this is more transmissible, but there are hints there that it may be,” says Peacock, pointing to the growth in South Africa and the higher R number in Gauteng. Some earlier variants have failed to get a toehold in certain countries because of the competition from other variants: beta hasn’t become established in the UK, for example, while alpha spread from Europe but never reached high levels in South Africa. “If this variant is not as transmissible as delta that would be good news for sure,” says Barrett.

What can I do?

All the usual measures of social distancing, handwashing, mask-wearing, getting vaccinated and having a booster shot still apply. The emergence of such a potentially worrying variant is, however, a reminder of the risk of uneven vaccination rates globally – only 24 per cent of people are fully vaccinated in South Africa.

How much do we really know about this variant?

Most of our knowledge is from the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa, and the South African government, both of which have been praised by researchers for acting fast to share information on the variant. But there is more that we don’t know than we do. Tulio de Oliveira at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, said yesterday that the full significance of the variant’s mutations “remain uncertain.” Peacock adds: “It’s important to stress how much we don’t know this new variant.“

How vaccine makers plan to address the new COVID-19 omicron variant


November 27, 2021
NPR
DUSTIN JONESTwitter

A gas station attendant stands next to a newspaper headline in Pretoria, South Africa, on Saturday. The new omicron variant has spread from South Africa to parts of Europe, and as far as Hong Kong.

Denis Farrell/AP

A new strain of COVID-19 first discovered in South Africa was declared a variant of concern by the World Health Organization on Friday. Here's how the pharmaceutical industry plans to address the latest coronavirus curve ball.

Vaccine makers are already pivoting their efforts to combat the new variant: testing higher doses of booster shots, designing new boosters that anticipate strain mutations, and developing omicron-specific boosters.

In a statement sent to NPR, Moderna said it has been working on a comprehensive strategy to predict variants of concern since the beginning of 2021. One approach is to double the current booster from 50 to 100 micrograms. Secondly, the vaccine maker has been studying two booster vaccines that are designed to anticipate mutations like those found in the omicron variant. The company also said it will ramp up efforts to make a booster candidate that specifically targets omicron.

"From the beginning, we have said that as we seek to defeat the pandemic, it is imperative that we are proactive as the virus evolves," said Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel. "The mutations in the Omicron variant are concerning and for several days, we have been moving as fast as possible to execute our strategy to address this variant."


The omicron variant spreads across Europe as new travel bans take effect

Pfizer and BioNTech told Reuters that it expects more data about the omicron variant to be collected within two weeks. That information will help determine whether or not they need to modify their current vaccine. Pfizer and BioNTech said that a vaccine tailored for the omicron variant, if needed, could be ready to ship in approximately 100 days.

Johnson & Johnson said in a statement sent to NPR that it too is already testing its vaccine's efficacy against the new variant.

The omicron variant was first reported to the WHO on Nov. 24, the WHO said. Preliminary evidence indicates the variant poses an increased risk for reinfection due to the large number of mutations. Until recently, cases across South Africa have predominantly been from the delta variant, an earlier strain that has pushed health care systems to the max since early summer. But omicron infections have been on the rise in recent weeks, the WHO reported.

More concerning, omicron cases have emerged across the globe. Al Jazeera reported that cases have been confirmed in the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Israel and Hong Kong.

News of the rapidly spreading variant led to a new set of air travel restrictions from South Africa and seven other countries, implemented by President Joe Biden, that go into effect Monday. The president made the announcement the day after Thanksgiving, one of the busiest travel periods of the year.

Unlike last year, when millions of people traveled against the advice of health experts, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and chief medical advisor to the president, Dr. Anthony Fauci, more or less condoned Thanksgiving get-togethers for vaccinated Americans. And, according to an American Automobile Association travel forecast, over 53 million people were expected to travel for Thanksgiving — an 18% jump compared to last year — including more than 4 million by air.

As of Friday, the CDC said that no cases of the omicron variant had been identified in the United States. However, Fauci said on Saturday that he would not be surprised if the variant is already here.

"We have not detected it yet, but when you have a virus that is showing this degree of transmissibility and you're already having travel-related cases that they've noted in Israel and Belgium and other places ... it almost invariably is ultimately going to go essentially all over," he said in an interview on the Today show.

As Americans prepare to transition from one busy holiday to the next, the CDC is predicting that coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths will increase over the next four weeks. More than 776,000 people in the U.S. have died of COVID-19 to date, according to Johns Hopkins University's tracker, and the country is projected to surpass 800,000 deaths by Christmas.

PRO LIFE USA
Murder Is A Leading Cause Of Death In Pregnancy In The US

“We have shouted it out for years, but no one is really paying attention," one expert said.

Dan Vergano BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on November 24, 2021

Kali9 / Getty Images

A woman in Houston who showed an ultrasound to her boyfriend, a mother of five who was carrying a sixth child, and a pregnant woman coming home from a baby shower were all recent victims of homicide, a top cause of death for pregnant people in the US.

Pregnant people are more than twice as likely to be murdered during pregnancy and immediately after giving birth than to die from any other cause, according to a nationwide death certificate study. Homicide far exceeds obstetric causes of death during pregnancy, such as hemorrhage, hypertension, or infection.

Nationwide, there were around 10,000 homicides reported last year, according to FBI statistics, and only 1 in 5 victims were female. But pregnant women face a risk of being murdered 16% higher than women the same age who are not pregnant, the recently released Obstetrics & Gynecology journal study concludes. (The paper focused on people identified as female based on their death certificate.)

This new nationwide analysis was enabled by a change in how death certificates are recorded. As of 2017, certificates in all states now have a checkbox for “pregnancy.”

Investigators looked at all deaths among women ages 10 to 44 held in a federal database from 2018 and 2019. They found 273 homicides of pregnant women, which make up almost 6% of all murdered women in the US. Most of them were shot at home; guns were involved in 7 out of 10 such homicides, an increase from past decades.

“It is surprising to many people,” said study author Veronica Gillispie-Bell, medical director of the Louisiana Perinatal Quality Collaborative. An earlier finding that homicide was a leading cause of death for pregnant people in her state, followed by overdoses and car crashes, led the study’s team to look nationwide. “We wanted to see if pregnancy, in and of itself, was a more dangerous time, and it was.”

Though it is well understood by victims of domestic violence, the danger that pregnant people face — often from their partners — receives little public notice.

"We have shouted it out for years, but no one is really paying attention," Jacquelyn Campbell, an intimate partner violence researcher at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, told BuzzFeed News. "We have to do a better job of assessing the lethal risks to pregnant women."

According to the study, homicide rates were particularly high among pregnant women 24 and younger, and for pregnant Black women, who were three times more at risk than their white counterparts. That mirrors the overall risk of dying during pregnancy from all causes, including obstetric ones, which is about 2.5 times higher for Black people, pointing to an overall lack of access to healthcare and, in turn, screening for domestic violence. The racial gap in US wealth also plays a role, as studies have found a link between poverty and intimate partner violence.

“All of this means we need to look beyond the hospital for what is really a risk to women,” Gillispie-Bell said. Simply screening for domestic violence doesn’t help if there aren’t resources to assist with jobs, housing, and other reasons that people stay in dangerous relationships.

The homicide finding mirrors two decades of past reports, Campbell said, and it’s still likely a conservative estimate because death records are often incomplete. Part of the reason that the murder statistic is relatively unknown, she added, lies in the way that maternal deaths are reported in the US. Medical causes such as hemorrhage are considered "related" to pregnancy, while homicide, overdose, and suicide, other leading causes of death in pregnant people, are merely "associated" with pregnancy in federal statistics.

Causes of death that are “related” and “associated” with pregnancy are reported separately, and medical boards tend to focus on the former, believing they can be solved by medical professionals.

A general explanation for the higher homicide risk that pregnant people face at this time is that their relationships face heightened stress, which might exacerbate an already dangerous situation. “Nobody who works in intimate partner violence will be surprised by this finding,” said Penn State’s Penelope Morrison, an assistant professor of biobehavioral health. However, she added, specific risk factors for homicide during pregnancy beyond a history of intimate partner violence aren’t well established.

“Sadly, we cannot hear from the women what happened,” she said.

The US homicide rate rose by 30% in 2020, which has experts worried about the trend for pregnant people in the pandemic.

“We expect that domestic violence has only gotten worse during the pandemic, with people more confined,” Gillispie-Bell said. “We expect we will see this has only gotten worse.”


MORE ON THIS
Domestic Violence Survivors Are Turning To Social Media After Gabby Petito’s Death To Support Each Other And Pass On The Warning Signs Nicole Fallert · Oct. 21, 2021
A Man Who Killed His Girlfriend And Five Members Of Her Family Was Angry He Wasn't Invited To A Party, Police Said Stephanie K. Baer · May 11, 2021
Angelina Jolie Has Advice For Anyone Experiencing Abus e larryfitzmaurice · Dec. 8, 2020
Photos Show The Devastating Long-Term Effects Of Domestic Assault Kate Bubacz · Nov. 28, 2020


Dan Vergano is a science reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC.
Contact Dan Vergano at dan.vergano@buzzfeed.com.

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New Zealand politician cycles to hospital while in labour for second time: ‘Genuinely wasn’t planning to’

This was the second time the Green Party politician cycled to a hospital to give birth

Maroosha Muzaffar

Julie Anne Genter rides a bicycle to hospital while in labour in Wellington, New Zealand on 28 November 2021

(Julie Anne Genter/Facebook via Reuters)

A New Zealand politician cycled to hospital while in labour and delivered her baby an hour later.

Member of Parliament Julie Anne Genter announced the “big news” on her social media pages on Saturday, saying that “at 3.04am this morning we welcomed the newest member of our family”.

“I genuinely wasn’t planning to cycle in labour, but it did end up happening,” Ms Genter added. “So glad we didn’t walk,” she told New Zealand-based media network Stuff.

She gave birth at Wellington Hospital, according to local media reports.

“My contractions weren’t that bad when we left at 2am to go to the hospital — though they were 2-3 min apart and picking up in intensity by the time we arrived 10 minutes later,” the 41-year-old Green Party politician said on social media on Saturday.

“Feeling blessed to have had excellent care and support from a great team, in what turned out to be a very fast (and happily uncomplicated) birth,” Ms Genter wrote.

Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson​ commented on her post on Facebook. “So happy for you all. Aunty Marama can’t wait to hug (when it’s very safe so not for a while) congratulations everyone!!”

Several other women commended her on social media. One user called her a “superwoman”.

“You’re awesome Julie Anne!” wrote another person.

This is the second time the MP has cycled to the hospital during labour. She had made headlines in August 2018 when she cycled “because there was insufficient space in the car.”

“This is it, wish us luck! (My partner and I cycled because there wasn’t enough room in the car for the support crew... but it also put me in the best possible mood!),” she had written in a post in 2018 before delivering her first born.

Ms Genter had then said that her journey was “mostly downhill” and that she used an electric bike. “Probably should have cycled more in the last few weeks to get the labour going!” she quipped.

Ms Genter is an outspoken cycling advocate. Her Twitter bio reads: “I’m into lively streets, real food, and bicycles.”

File: New Zealand politician Julie Anne Genter cycled to the hospital to deliver her second child. She cycled while in labour in 2018 as well

(Getty Images)

A New Photo Exhibition Challenges Assumptions About Native Americans

"The whole goal with Indigenous Photograph is to show that there's not one way to be Native.”

Kate Bubacz BuzzFeed News Photo Director
Posted on November 23, 2021

Kapulei Flore
Pelekane Beach below Puʻukoholā Heiau National Historic Site on the Island of Hawai'i, March 13, 2021.

Unity about anything is rare these days in the United States, but there is a remarkable show of consensus among Native American people about what issues are most important to them. A survey of more than 6,000 Native citizens from over 400 tribes around the country was conducted by the nonprofit IllumiNative. The results, which were published in October 2020, are now visualized in an online exhibition, The Indigenous Futures Storytelling Project, that highlights mental health, violence against women, loss of language and cultural practices, protection of the land, and care for older adults.

"It was one of the craziest things, no matter how we slice the data, whether it's looking at geography, age, gender, the same five or so priorities kept coming up in the same way for all of these groups," said Leah Salgado, the chief impact officer of IllumiNative.

They partnered with Indigenous Photograph, a collective of primarily Native American photographers, to curate and commission photos that would bring these issues to life in a meaningful way. Ultimately, eight projects were selected for inclusion, with at least one per subject.

"The whole goal with Indigenous Photograph is to show that there's not one way to be Native. This project was another way that we were able to do that," said Tailyr Irvine, one of the cofounders of Indigenous Photograph who helped with the curation. "It was intentional to include work from as many different parts of the country as we could."

The broad inclusion within the online show helps visualize these issues more cohesively and serves to connect otherwise distant tribes. Some of the issues, such as violence against women and mental health, are of national social importance, although they particularly impact Native American people. Despite the heaviness of the topic, Irvine sidesteps the usual narrative that is associated with missing women by including a project of hers on boxing that provides a welcome solution-oriented approach that is apparent throughout the exhibition. Another example would be Kalen Goodluck's images of seedkeeping, which show how the past directly affects the future.


Kalen Goodluck



Santiago Romero of Cochiti Pueblo collects red amaranth seeds by sifting the seeds and gently blowing the debris away, revealing the precious grain at the Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute’s new seed bank in Española, New Mexico, on Oct. 7, 2021.


Alejandra Rubio
Yavapai-Apache Elder with her daughter-in-law at home in Cottonwood, Arizona, Oct. 10, 2021.

While Native Americans make up just under 3% of the overall US population according to recent census data, there has been growing awareness over the past several years of the present challenges they face — and how those challenges are often intertwined with the wider population.

The coronavirus pandemic hit reservations particularly hard, and highlighted a stark disparity as residents often lack access to healthcare or running water. Land recognition has become a more commonplace practice, and the Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that a significant portion of Oklahoma was actually Native American land, upending long-standing legal assumptions. Native Americans also played a crucial role in swing states during the 2020 election, including Arizona and Wisconsin. Despite this, Native Americans are often overlooked in data collection, making it hard to track trends.

"I think a lot of people have had a misconception that Native people are too small a population to make any difference, or that we're a politically unengaged group, and the Indigenous Futures exhibition is in direct contradiction to all of these negative narratives that people have about Native people [have] about the democratic process," Salgado said.

She pointed out that Illuminative was able to reach such a large range of people by working with local researchers and organizers to overcome common obstacles, such as lack of access to broadband internet or regular mail services. They intend to conduct regular surveys in the coming years to counteract the dearth of representation.

The exhibition is intended to be used as a starting resource, as the organizers hope that the issues will become outdated over time. They encourage people from all backgrounds to familiarize themselves with not only these issues, but the creative approaches being taken to solve them and to counteract the often negative narratives around Native Americans.

"The fun part about this work is that it's so expressive and I think it makes it different and interesting, and it makes people want to read more and want to look into more," Irvine said.


Tailyr Irvine
Lee Looking Calf helps his daughter Dustilee, 7, put on her boxing gloves at the Blackfeet boxing gym on Oct. 12, 2019. Lee said he wants his daughter to learn the sport not only for self-defense but to give her the confidence to become an unapologetically strong woman.


Eli Farinango
"I grew up by a river. I would sit on the hill that overlooked the river and watch the water flow. The dogs ran freely, the cows ate the grass, and 8-year-old me came to dream here," photographer Eli Farinango said. This photo was taken at Monocacy Creek in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 14, 2021.

MORE ON THIS
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Pia Peterson · Nov. 25, 2020

These Photos Capture The Native American History That's All Over The US

Kate Bubacz · July 25, 2021



Kate Bubacz is the Photo Director for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.
Contact Kate Bubacz at kate.bubacz@buzzfeed.com.

Reviving Ojibwe spiritual traditions, one pet at a time
By GIOVANNA DELL'ORTO


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Leech Lake Legacy volunteers Cindy Ojczyk, left, and Engress Clark unload a kennel with some of the kittens that were abandoned in Cass Lake, Minn., Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021. Fifteen kittens were found in a plastic tote left in the local Walmart parking lot and were brought to the Legacy's clinic. For a decade, the nonprofit has been bringing veterinary services and taking away surrendered animals on the Leech Lake Reservation. (AP Photo/Jack Rendulich)


CASS LAKE, Minnesota (AP) — Animal neglect used to be such a problem on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota, with basic services like sterilization out of reach for many due to poverty and remoteness, that packs of stray dogs would sometimes bring traffic to a halt on the main highway.

Today, strays are rare. Kids are helping their elders in animal rescues, pet food and supplies are routinely distributed in the community and the first veterinary clinic in the main town, Cass Lake, is one final permit away from breaking ground.

It’s all thanks to a yearslong and increasingly organized push by several community members to improve animal welfare that is deeply rooted in cultural and spiritual values regarding the Ojibwe people’s relationship with all living creatures.

“It helps animals, but it brings people up too,” said Rick Haaland, who has been leading the efforts among his fellow Ojibwe as community outreach manager with the Leech Lake tribal police. “Our pets are the ones who walk with us.”

Animals are central to Ojibwe beliefs and sacred origin stories.

According to one, which by tradition may be told only once snow blankets the northland, the Creator asked the original man and his wolf to travel the earth together, and on their journey they became as close as brothers. Their task completed, the Creator told them to go on separate paths, even though they both would be “feared, respected and misunderstood” by the people later joining them on earth.

Since dogs are the wolf’s relatives, the story teaches, they should be brothers to today’s Native people, honored though separate.

So things like promoting pet care and bringing much-needed vet services to the reservation nestled among forests and lakes reinforce the Creator’s intentions for harmony between humans and animals — a value that some say faded over the years.

“Traditionally we were told to be grateful to animals. Cats and dogs have chosen to be with us and comfort us. But as we were assimilated, and went into deep poverty, our stories weren’t told. People forgot we need to care for them,” said Elaine Fleming, who started rescuing animals 10 years ago after holding a ceremony for them with prayers, singing and drums.

Now, “We’re taking back our culture,” added Fleming, a Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe elder and teacher at Leech Lake Tribal College.

Nearly 40% of Leech Lake’s population lives in poverty, making it hard to afford routine spaying and neutering, let alone emergency care that can run up to hundreds of dollars per surgery.

That meant that all too often, injured animals would die or be abandoned, as would litters of puppies and kittens nobody could afford to care for.

Things started to turn around about a decade ago, when the Twin Cities-based nonprofit Leech Lake Legacy began taking in surrendered animals — more than 9,000 to date — for adoption elsewhere and regularly bringing a visiting mobile clinic to the reservation for low-cost vet services.

The pandemic has dealt a setback as care, especially spaying and neutering, was shut down for several months in 2020, according to Leech Lake Legacy founder Jenny Fitzer, and now it’s a scramble to get back on track.

“I can’t imagine when we’ll be able to catch up,” she said, adding that more than 400 animals are on her waitlist and might not get fixed for a year.

But a game changer for Leech Lake will be the permanent veterinary clinic, which Haaland hopes to start construction on before the winter deep freeze and could open its doors in the spring, supported by national animal welfare organizations as well as local fundraising. A veterinarian living right on the reservation would not only take care of routine sterilizations but also treat emergencies — currently it costs $500 just to get a doctor to come into Cass Lake after hours, according to Haaland.

He envisions having informational screenings playing in the waiting room, building on awareness programs the community is already doing on best practices like leashing and kenneling to keep pets from harm.

“I don’t think people don’t care,” said Haaland, who owns three dogs and a cat. “It’s education. That’s our way out of this.”

Rick Haaland of Bena, Minn., poses for a portrait on Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021. Haaland is the Community Outreach Manager for the Leech Lake Tribal Police. He and his fellow Ojibwe community members have been leading efforts to care for animals, something centrally important to Native American spiritual beliefs and traditions. (AP Photo/Jack Rendulich)

In the meantime, Haaland has been rescuing abandoned pets and driving injured animals to far-flung veterinaries, putting some 27,000 miles in just a year on a new van he acquired thanks to a grant from the Humane Society’s Pets for Life program. At $115,000 this year, the grant has also allowed him to work on animal care full-time.

Pets for Life’s national director, Rachel Thompson, said the communities it serves from Louisiana to Alaska face the same challenge: structural inequalities that perpetuate poverty also put animal care out of reach.

At the end of a recent day spent rescuing a cat, two kittens and two 10-week-old golden-haired puppies, Haaland pulled up pictures on his phone of a pit bull stuck with hundreds of porcupine quills that required months of surgeries and treatment, donated by a veterinarian college. Fights with porcupines can kill dogs that are not properly housed, leashed and trained.

The yard where Haaland found the pit bull had garbage strewn all over, so Haaland offered the owners help cleaning up before returning the dog. When he arrived one early morning with other tribal members, the family had already done most of the work.

“They wanted to do better,” he said. “We are a proud people, with a chance to rise above the trauma of the past.”

Erik Redix, a scholar of Ojibwe history and member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe, said that “animals have spirits, just like us,” and their neglect is both an affront to the spiritual imperative of treating all living beings well and a symptom of broader social distress in impoverished Native lands.

So animal care revivals like the one in Leech Lake also signify a revitalization for Ojibwe society, he added — “to get us back to where it should be.”

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Sierra Clark: Opinion: Seek Indigenous perspectives beyond Native American Heritage Month


Sierra Clark, The Record-Eagle, Traverse City, Mich.
Sat, November 27, 2021

Nov. 27—For nearly three decades, November has been recognized as Native American Heritage Month — a national time for observance, and celebration of the rich and diverse cultures, histories, and contributions of the original peoples.

The month of recognition draws its roots to a number of historical figures and Indigenous communities across the nation that repeatedly petitioned for commemoration that honored the storied legacy of tribes.

Since 1990, a joint resolution passed by Congress and signed by the president designated November as National American Indian Heritage month. Similar proclamations with a variety of titles have been issued over the years from former sitting presidents, including the rebranded, more appropriately named NAHM.

Though NAHM is more of a symbolic gesture by the U.S. government, I do believe that it's a good opportunity for representation on the local level.

But the amount of extraction that comes during this time of year is enough to burn out many Indigenous people, me included.

It is not quite clear why November was chosen to be NAHM, the period between Indigneous Peoples' Day (October 11 this year) and Thanksgiving, is a time when Native American speakers, like me, are called upon to share an "Indigneous perspective."

It's important to point out that the perspective to which I refer is Odawa, because my position in journalism is different from my lived experiences as a Native American in Michigan.

From personal observation and perspective, these requests come as a constant stream of questions and demands for (free) emotional labor to educate others using our resources, that include time and experience, whether professional or personal.

Most of the time the requests are well meaning, but they always come with a colonial pressure to be "extra Anishinaabe" this time of year.

I am Kitchi Wiikwedongsing Odawa every day of the year, and our histories, culture, and traditions are valid everyday of the year as well.

But Anishinaabek identities are more than stories of colonial trauma and pain.

As an Anshinaabe, I am instructed to think of the next seven generations. My decisions to write, or speak on issues come from a deep-cultural drive to improve the world for our children, and future generations.

And more representation, discussions, and education of Anishinaabek histories and contemporary lives are important for our community.

But Indigenous people do not owe substantiation of our contemporary existence by breaking them into digestible pieces about our traumas, and lived experiences.

There is more beauty in being Odawa Anishinaabe than is visible through that colonialist lens.

Native Americans in the U.S. are presently surviving more than 500 years of genocide, and more than 250 years of colonial government policies aimed to annihilate us, and what we hold sacred.

Our past and contemporary lives are intertwined with the complex, and collective histories of what is now the United States. And our existence extends beyond NAHM and more importantly beyond the country that built itself on top of our ancestors and sacred sites.

Our stories and our voices do not need to be amplified only for one month of the year.

They deserve the respect to be commonly known on the lands they come from, and represented in a way that is honest and truthful.

Listening to just me should not make up for any lack of understanding and absence of Anishinaabek culture, traditions, and histories.

Anishinaabek communities are full of doctors, lawyers, philosophers, teachers, farmers, writers, and land and water protectors. We are business owners, students, parents, and come from the land.

Mine is only one voice, and certainly not the only one, you should hear representing Indigenous people throughout the year.

Sierra Clark is an Indigenous affairs reporter for Traverse City Record-Eagle. Her reporting is made possible through a partnership between the Record-Eagle and the journalism service program Report for America. Go to www.record-eagle.com/RFA to support this and other work by RFA reporters in the Record-Eagle newsroom.

A first step

Jennifer Levin, The Santa Fe New Mexican
Fri, November 26, 2021, 

Nov. 26—Sam Brownback wants the United States government to repair its relationship with Native Americans, an act which he believes starts with a formal apology from the president. The former governor of Kansas and U.S. senator spent five years trying to get an official apology passed through legislation and in 2009 succeeded in getting it added as an amendment to an appropriations bill. That the government should and will apologize is the "law of the land," Brownback says, but nothing has actually happened. Neither Barack Obama nor Donald Trump held a ceremony in the Rose Garden with tribal leaders, as he'd hoped.

Now, he says it's up to President Biden to make the apology official. To shine a light on the issue, Brownback is producing a short, three-part documentary called The Apology, the first two installments of which can be viewed at theapologynow.com.

In The Apology, Brownback discusses his deep feelings of guilt and remorse around the government's treatment of Native Americans, which includes broken treaties, stolen land, and massacres. Negiel Bigpond (Yuchi) is the apostle of Morning Star Church of All Nations in Oklahoma. He worked with Brownback on the language of the apology in the appropriations bill and co-produced the documentary. He would like an apology specifically for the horror of Indian boarding schools, where Indigenous children were "separated from their families, made to cut their hair and stop speaking their language, and were dressed in odd clothes," he says. "They were somewhat mistreated, which left ill feelings."

The Apology was directed by Matt Lockett and co-written by Lockett and Ben Stamper. The latter is also credited with the gorgeous cinematography. In the documentary, Brownback explains that his passion for the apology stems to a day when as a young man, he was standing on his farmland and was overcome by a feeling of death, which led him to think about the Trail of Tears and the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Eventually, he came to believe that an apology from the government was the only way to "lance the boil so that the healing can begin."

Brownback makes it clear that the apology isn't about giving land back to tribes or any kind of financial reparations. This is about something deeper, he says. "There's a repentance piece to it. There's a process, and you can't skip steps. That's really what we're talking about for a nation to do, to heal. We've done other things wrong, as a government, but this is a really big one."

Bigpond says that the apology is just a first step. "I'm hoping that it will release spiritual healing to our people. When it comes to land and things of that nature, that's in the treaties. Those still exist, and the United States government will still have to deal with those treaties, as well as the tribes."

How Native students fought back against abuse and assimilation at US boarding schools

Sarah Klotz, Assistant Professor of English, College of the Holy Cross
Fri, November 26, 2021

Native American students at the Carlisle Indian School, circa 1899. Library of Congress/Corbis Historical Collection/VCG via Getty Images

As Indigenous community members and archaeologists continue to discover unmarked graves of Indigenous children at the sites of Canadian residential schools, the United States is reckoning with its own history of off-reservation boarding schools.

In July 2021, nine Sicangu Lakota students who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania were disinterred and returned to their homelands at Whetstone Bay in South Dakota.

Black-and-white portrait of young man seated in chair

One of these young people was Ernest Knocks Off. Ernest, who came from the Sicangu Oyate or Burnt Thigh Nation, was among the first group of students to arrive at Carlisle, in 1879. He entered school at age 18 and attempted to run away soon after arriving. He ultimately went on a hunger strike and died of complications of diphtheria on Dec. 14, 1880.

My new book “Writing Their Bodies: Restoring Rhetorical Relations at the Carlisle Indian School” explores how Indigenous children resisted English-only education at Carlisle, which became the prototype for both Indian schools across the U.S. and residential schools in Canada.

While digging into archives of Carlisle students’ writing, I found that young people like Ernest were not passive victims of U.S. colonization. Instead, they fought – in Ernest’s case, to his death – to retain their languages and cultures as the assimilationist experiment in education unfolded.

‘Unspoken traumas’

U.S. Army Gen. Richard Henry Pratt opened the government-funded Carlisle Indian Industrial School in 1879. Following his model, more than 350 government-funded and church-run boarding schools later opened across the U.S. The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition estimates that hundreds of thousands of young Native people attended these schools in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The first students were recruited by Pratt and sent by their nations in hopes that they could learn English to continue fighting against treaty violations by U.S. settlers. In 1891, attendance became compulsory under federal law.

Boarding schools sought to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Western culture by separating them from their communities. The schools forced them to learn English and practice Christianity and trained them to work in a capitalist economy – often as servants and laborers on farms and in the households of white people.

Students experienced physical abuse, sexual violence and hunger, and hundreds died of diseases like tuberculosis that spread rampantly in institutional settings.

Canada’s national Truth and Reconciliation Commission identified 3,201 children who died in Canadian residential schools. No such estimate exists in the U.S., where a formal reckoning has yet to occur. However, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo Nation, has pledged to “address the intergenerational impact of Indian boarding schools to shed light on the unspoken traumas of the past.”

Even as Indigenous students faced teachers and a government trying to replace their cultures, languages and identities, they resisted the assimilationist education. Their strategies were at times blatant, but often covert.

A tombstone of a young Oglala Lakota student buried at the old Carlisle Indian School cemetery. Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis News Collection via Getty Images

Running away

Ernest may have been one of the first boarding school students to run away, but he certainly wasn’t the last. Scholars have found that running away was a tactic used by students in boarding schools across the U.S. and Canada. It became such a significant shared experience that celebrated Native authors such as Louise Erdrich and Leslie Marmon Silko capture this act of resistance in their writings.

Running away was a way for students to communicate their rejection of assimilationist education and to fight their separation from their homeland and community. Runaways sometimes succeeded and got back home. But I believe that even when they were forcibly returned to school, running away represented courage and reminded the other students to keep fighting.
Plains Sign Talk

Plains Sign Talk is a sign language that serves as a lingua franca for trade and diplomacy among the Pawnee, Shoshone, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Crow and Siouan peoples in the Southern Plains. It became a powerful tool at Carlisle, where teachers demanded that students give up their languages for another shared tongue – English. Plains Sign Talk was a way for students to communicate with one another and across tribes that was unintelligible to their teachers.

Carlisle teachers underestimated the importance of Plains Sign Talk, viewing it as a primitive form of communication that students would leave behind as they learned English. When Pratt and his colleagues witnessed students using it, they created a new curriculum based on techniques used to teach deaf students. They did not realize that students were using the sign language to circumvent the English-only policy.

Kamloops Indian Residential School former student Evelyn Camille, 82, at a makeshift memorial to the 215 children whose remains were discovered buried near the facility in British Columbia.

  Cole Burston/AFP via Getty Images

Pictographic writing

Students also drew on Plains pictography to tell their stories. Plains tribes originally painted pictographs – elements of a graphic writing system – on buffalo hides to document victories in battle and record “winter counts,” or annual historical records. After increased contact with settlers, many tribes began to document pictographic histories in ledger books. These texts served as communal histories that would prompt oral retellings of battles and other significant events.

Students at Carlisle regularly used pictographs on slates or chalkboards. On June 25, 1880, for example, a Cheyenne student who was renamed Rutherford B. Hayes at school drew a pictograph of a horse and rider on his slate. He labeled the image John Williams – the Carlisle name of an Arapaho boy who was his classmate and friend.

I argue that these pictographic records show how some students understood their time at school in the context of their developing warrior identities, underscoring their desire to act bravely and return home to recount their stories for their nations’ collective memory.

Speaking Lakota

When students spoke their languages, they faced harsh penalties. This included corporal punishment, incarceration in the campus barracks and public shaming in the school newspaper.

Pratt and his supervisors at the Bureau of Indian Affairs hoped that they could break up tribes by disrupting the transmission of language and culture from one generation to the next. By destroying tribal identities, they hoped to take land in communally held reservations and guaranteed by treaties. For U.S. settlers to gain access, the land would have to shift to a private property system. Boarding schools thus became part of the federal Indian policy later codified as the 1887 Dawes Act.

Although students were supposed to speak only English, they began to learn one another’s languages as well. Lakota, or Sioux, became particularly popular, as it was a majority language in the school’s early years when many students came from the Rosebud and Pine Ridge reservations.

In 1881, Pratt was troubled that students were still speaking their languages two years into their term. When student Stephen K. White Bear was found “talking Indian,” he received a common punishment, which was writing a composition about his discretion. In his essay “Speak Only English” Stephen revealed that “every boy and every girl would like to know how to talk Sioux very much. They do not learn the English language they seem to want to know how to talk Sioux.”

Seeds of pan-Indian resistance

As students met peers across nations as geographically far-flung as the Inuit and the Kiowa, they sowed seeds for the pan-Indian resistance movements of the 20th century. From the founding of the Society of American Indians in 1911 through the American Indian Movement of the 1960s and ‘70s, Native activists unified for advocacy and cultural revitalization. Scholars argue that these movements can trace their roots to intertribal communities of solidarity that were built in the boarding schools.

The outcry against boarding schools that we see today across Canada and the U.S. reflects not only a shared experience of trauma, but a longstanding solidarity among Indigenous peoples working together to maintain land, language, culture and identity in the face of oppression at the hands of Euro-Americans.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Sarah Klotz received funding from CCCC/NCTE Emergent Researcher Award including a grant of ,000 for monograph project, Writing Their Bodies: Restoring Rhetorical Relations at the Carlisle Indian School, 2016