Opinion: Florida wants to bar schools from talking about menstruation. What would Judy Blume say?


Rachel McAdams co-stars in the new film “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” based on Judy Blume’s 1970 book about puberty.
(Chris Pizzello / Invision via Associated Press)

BY JENNIFER WEISS-WOLF

APRIL 23, 2023 

The film “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” an adaptation of Judy Blume’s iconic 1970 book about preteen firsts, debuts on the big screen this month, and in anticipation, social media has been abuzz with fans spanning generations. Many credit the book with bringing important topics like puberty and menstruation into the open.
And yet here we are 53 years later, watching lawmakers try to silence “period talk” and other facts of life — including in Blume’s home state of Florida, where on Wednesday the state’s Board of Education barred discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity at all grade levels and where first periods were recently the subject of a contentious legislative hearing.
Republican state Rep. Stan McClain acknowledged that a broadly restrictive sex education bill he sponsored would prohibit students younger than sixth grade from learning about or talking about menstruation at school. If the bill passes the state Senate as drafted and is signed into law, fourth- and fifth-graders who start their period — a common occurrence — would have to be rebuffed if they approached a trusted teacher or the school nurse for guidance.

Even without that restriction, children are quite likely to learn nothing about menstruation at school. Education about puberty and reproductive health is not federally required, and Florida is among the more than 30 states that do not require sexuality curricula to be medically accurate.
The new bill preventing discussion of periods wouldn’t just censor health teachers. It would have broad and probably unintended effects across many facets of education, such as literature, history and civics. Even Anne Frank’s “The Diary of a Young Girl” could be barred solely for its references to menstruation.
Blume herself initially weighed in with a simple tweet: “Sorry, Margaret.” She later issued a full-throated rebuke of the politics behind the proposal, wishing Florida lawmakers “good luck” in their attempts to police girls in elementary school from discussing periods and puberty.


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters to the Editor: I moved to Florida. Then, I came back to California. What a relief
March 20, 2023

However, state legislatures are now moving beyond policing information — and are going after proposals that would ensure students have access to period products themselves. Republican lawmakers in Idaho recently killed a bill that would have provided free pads and tampons in public schools. One female state legislator who opposed the bill remarked that the topic of menstruation is itself “embarrassing.” Another said, “I think it’s a stretch to say that we have to provide these products in order for women to be educated.” The bill was mocked for being “too liberal” and “woke.”
These are harmful statements. Among young teens, lack of support around menstruation, including accurate information and accessible products, can lead to compromised mental and physical health, lost classroom time and productivity, and even disciplinary action.

The adverse impact of ignoring or marginalizing menstruation extends beyond school buildings. Those experiencing homelessness or extreme poverty describe infections from using tampons and pads for longer than recommended, or resorting to makeshift alternatives like wadded toilet paper or discarded newspapers.

Lawmakers began to take this issue seriously starting in 2016, when New York City became the nation’s first jurisdiction to pass laws mandating free menstrual products in its public schools, shelters and jails. Since then, California has stepped up as a leader in passing menstrual access policies. It is among the now 21 states, as well as local school boards across the country, that mandate or freely provide pads and tampons in schools.
Notably, these initiatives have successfully skirted partisan rancor, with both Republican- and Democrat-led legislatures and statehouses embracing and advancing menstrual access bills.

Suddenly, though, the tide is shifting. Activists fighting to ensure menstruation does not pose a barrier to education and personal dignity may find themselves swept up in a culture war as their message is shouted down in the name of parental rights and “anti-wokeness.”

Brazil's Lula kicks off visit to European ally Portugal

By HELENA ALVES
ASSOCIATED PRESS • April 22, 2023

Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa reviewing the troops during welcome ceremony outside the 16th century Jeronimos monastery in Lisbon, Saturday, April 22, 2023. Lula da Silva is in Lisbon for a four day state visit to Portugal. (Armando Franca/AP)

LISBON — Portugal's president welcomed President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil on an official visit Saturday, as the Brazilian leader looks to strengthen ties with his country's natural partner in the European Union.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa received Lula and Brazilian first lady Rosangela da Silva in an official ceremony at the Jeronimos Monastery in Lisbon. Portugal is home to over 250,000 Brazilians, and some were on hand to cheer the visiting president.

During his first joint press conference with Sousa, Lula avoided feeding the controversy regarding his recent comments about Western military aid fueling Ukraine and Russia's conflict.

"My country took the decision long ago to condemn Russia for the occupation of the space and violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine, in the first days, and we have voted in the U.N. in this regard," he said.

The Brazilian leader reiterated his proposal that a group of nations including Brazil mediate a peaceful resolution to the war.

"I never equaled both countries, because I know what an invasion is and what territorial integrity is. And all of us think Russia is wrong and we already condemned it in every UN decision", he stated. The trip is Lula's first to a European country since he defeated incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and won a third non-consecutive term in October. While in Portugal, the left-wing leader aims to secure about a dozen agreements on trade and migration. The relaunch of a Portugal-Brazil summit, which was last held in 2016 when Michel Temer was Brazil's president, was planned as the diplomatic highlight of the trip. The event will be the setting for the signing of 13 bilateral agreements, including a cooperation deal between the space agencies of Brazil and Portugal.

Before departing for Spain on Tuesday, Lula's itinerary includes a prize-giving ceremony on Monday to honor renowned Brazilian musician Chico Buarque and a visit to Brazilian airline manufacturer Embraer's factory near Lisbon.

Carla Bridi contributed from Brasilia and Raquel Redondo from Madrid.

ALL CAPITALI$M IS STATE CAPITALI$M

Yoon joined by chaebol leaders on US trip amid concerns of protectionism

By Jo He-rim
Published : Apr 23, 2023

From left: Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong attend a Korea-Japan business roundtable held in Tokyo on March 17 upon President Yoon Suk Yeol's summit there with his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida. (Yonhap)

South Korea’s top conglomerate chiefs are heading to the US this week to accompany President Yoon Suk Yeol on his state visit, hoping to find a breakthrough in business uncertainties surrounding increasingly protectionist policies in the all-important market.


Taking his biggest economic delegation to date in his weeklong state visit to the US from Monday, Yoon is expected to relay the difficulties Korean companies face with the US' introduction of the CHIPS and Science Act and Inflation Reduction Act, while also stressing the need to cooperate in advanced technology.

“The economic delegation plans to make tangible results in summit diplomacy centered on the economy, together with South Korea’s No. 1 salesperson, the president,” said Choi Sang-mok, senior presidential aide for economic affairs.

The economic delegation is the biggest in size for Yoon, involving the chiefs of 122 Korean companies, according to the Federation of Korean Industries.

It is also the first time for the chiefs of the country’s top five conglomerate groups -- Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin -- and all six economic organizations to accompany a presidential trip.

One of the main agenda items of the state visit is expected to focus on the uncertainties the US protectionist policies have created for Korean companies.

“Korean conglomerate chiefs are expected to address various pending issues that come in the way of their business operations in the US,” an industry official said under the condition of anonymity, explaining that Samsung and SK would likely focus on the US’ CHIPS Act and Hyundai on the IRA.

In summits and other bilateral meetings from encounters with the US President Joe Biden in international events, Yoon has relayed the industrial concerns to the US government to create favorable exceptions for Korean companies, a presidential official said under condition of anonymity.

But Korean businesses feel the US government should be able to make more adjustments, since they are making some tens of billions of dollars investments to the US, industry officials here say. This week's US trip, therefore, would provide the business leaders the opportunity to directly consult with the US on their concerns.

South Korea's chip industry, led by the world's top memory chip makers, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, has been feeling the pressure caused by the US' CHIPS Act, which was initially intended to attract foreign investment to boost the US’ semiconductor industry.

Introducing a chips support program, the US has required global chipmakers to share with them sensitive business information and excess profit in order to receive the subsidies deemed critical for operation on US soil.

With the intention to foster competitive edge in the chips industry, especially against its strategic rival China, the support program also limits the subsidy recipients from expanding production volume and investment in any "country of concern" – among which China is included -- for a decade, posing burdens for chipmakers that have production facilities in China.

Samsung, the world's top memory chip maker, has reportedly submitted an application for the US chips subsidy program. It is currently building a foundry plant in Taylor, Texas. SK hynix is also currently searching for a site for its planned $15 billion advanced chip packaging plant in the US, the company’s first production facility there.

US President Joe Biden (left) and President Yoon Suk Yeol (center) take a look around Samsung Electronics' semiconductor factory in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, under the guidance of Samsung Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong on May 20, 2022. (Yonhap)

Hyundai Motor Group will likely address its stance over the IRA, which excludes its automotive brands, Hyundai and Kia, from the tax credits available for electric vehicles sold in the US due to its protectionist production requirements.

The Korean EV maker, which produces its vehicles in Korea, was left out of the list of the total 16 EV models the US announced as eligible for consumer tax credits of up to $7,500 per unit sold.

Hyundai is speeding up the construction of its EV manufacturing plant in Georgia -- slated to be operational by the end of 2024.

While worries mounted that the Korean automaker would likely see a drastic drop in US sales following the IRA legislation, the presidential office asserted that its diplomatic efforts have led for the US government to offer subsidies for EVs on lease and rentals, securing a meaningful number of sales for Hyundai.

"As the result (of the diplomatic efforts), Hyundai's US sales has been increasing since August last year. For instance, the number of EVs exported to the US in the August was 5,500 units, and the figure increased to 14,400 units in March this year," Choi, the senior presidential secretary told reporters.

In the summit with the US president slated on Wednesday, Yoon is expected to address the overall direction of the two countries’ bilateral cooperation in advanced technology, as well as sensitive issues related to the US' policies, the official added.

Eyes are also on whether Korean companies will announce additional investment plans in the US.

Hyundai Motor is joining hands with two Korean battery makers, LG Energy Solution and SK On, to build EV battery plants in the US, with investments totaling 7 trillion won ($5.3 billion).

Samsung had also announced the investment plan of $17 billion to build the Taylor foundry when Biden visited Seoul in May last year.

Meanwhile, heads of the top Korean conglomerates are also expected to meet with their industry counterparts during their US trip.

Samsung's Lee Jae-yong, making his first business trip to the US since he became the chairman in November last year, may stay longer in the US after the official conclusion of the delegation’s trip on Sunday. His next trial date in Korea over the 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates is set on May 26.

Lee is reportedly planning to meet with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, traveling to Silicon Valley in California in the later part of his US trip.

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)

Aitkin County Dismisses Line 3 Trespassing Charges Against Winona LaDuke

Yahoo News

Two charges of trespassing against Winona LaDuke have been dismissed by a county judge in Minnesota. 

(Photo: StopLine3.org)

BY DARREN THOMPSON 

 APRIL 22, 2023

A county judge in central Minnesota dismissed two counts of trespassing against activist Winona LaDuke this week.

The charges are related to an incident on December 5, 2020, when LaDuke was charged with two counts of misdemeanor trespass for participating in a prayer lodge on the banks of the Mississippi River. On the day Line 3 construction was scheduled to begin, law enforcement posted “no trespassing” signs around a group of people conducting a ceremony and then demanded that everyone leave.

“I’m grateful for the dismissal,” LaDuke, founder and former executive director of Honor the Earth, said in an interview with Native News Online. “The charges were wrong. We are Anishinaabe and we are water protectors.”

LaDuke’s attorneys defended her right to participate in her religious freedom and alleged the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) in their court documents, “violations of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”

“Judge Metzen’s prudent decision to dismiss these exaggerated charges against Ms. LaDuke once again illustrates that Winona’s rights to exercise her religious and First Amendment freedoms were not in any way criminal trespass,” Frank Bibeau, one of LaDuke’s attorneys, said in a statement.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) made agreements with Enbridge to reimburse for extra policing during the construction of the Line 3 Oil Pipeline Replacement Project. In total, both the Minnesota DNR and Aitken County Sheriff’s Office received at least $8.6 million in reimbursement funding for Line 3 related activity. Nearly 900 people were arrested during the construction of Line 3, from December 2020 to October 2021.

“Aitkin County received over $350,000 from Enbridge to turn water protectors into criminals,” LaDuke said. “There are still many other water protectors who have been charged, all while Enbridge is gunning for the Straits of Mackinac risking the Great Lakes.”

While the courts dismissed the trespassing charges against LaDuke, a White Earth Ojibwe citizen, she is still a defendant in Aitkin and Wadena counties on separate charges related to her opposition of Enbridge’s Line 3 Oil Pipeline Replacement Project.

Enbridge Line 5 was built in 1953 and is a 30-inch oil pipeline that transports crude oil from western Canada to eastern Canada, 645 miles from Superior, Wisconsin to Sarnia, Ontario via the state of Michigan. The most controversial part of the pipeline is in the Straits of Mackinac, the narrow waterway that connects Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

In 2018, an anchor from a freight ship struck and damaged the Line 5 pipeline while passing through the Straits of Mackinac. While damage from the passing didn’t lead to an oil spill, then-Republican Governor Rick Snyder made an agreement with Enbridge to protect the pipeline from future damage and keep it operational. Enbridge later built a $500 million tunnel under the lake to enclose the Line 5 pipeline.

Two years later, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, ordered Enbridge to cease operations in the Straits of Mackinac, effectively shutting the Line 5 oil pipeline down.Enbridge has refused to end operations, saying it earns an estimated $2 million daily and has been operating the pipeline safely and reliably for decades.

Enbridge wants to replace the pipeline inside a utility tunnel drilled beneath the Straits, arguing that would heighten protections against environmental damages. Enbridge already received permits to build the tunnel from Michigan state environmental regulators and the Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has already begun its environmental impact statement (EIS), and is expected to take several years to complete.

Scramble for clean energy metals confronted by calls to respect Indigenous rights


Protester of Thacker Pass lithium mine.

 (Image courtesy of Max Wilbert via Mongabay)

BY SARAH SAX, MONGABAY

 APRIL 22, 2023

This story is published as part of the Global Indigenous Affairs Desk, an Indigenous-led collaboration between Grist, High Country News, ICT, Mongabay, and Native News Online.

NEW YORK — When Francisco Calí Tzay, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples, spoke at the world’s largest gathering of Indigenous peoples, he listed clean energy projects as some of the most concerning threats to their rights.

“I constantly receive information that Indigenous Peoples fear a new wave of green investments without recognition of their land tenure, management, and knowledge,” said Calí Tzay. His statement at the 22nd United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), and those made by other delegates, made clear that without the free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) of Indigenous people, these green projects have the capacity to seriously impede on Indigenous rights.

FPIC has always been an important topic at the UNPFII, but this year it’s taken on a renewed urgency.

“The strong push is because more and more of climate action and targets for sustainable development are impacting us,” said Joan Carling, executive director of Indigenous Peoples Rights International, an Indigenous non-profit that works to protect Indigenous peoples’ rights worldwide. Indigenous people around the world are experiencing the compounding pressures of clean energy mining projects, carbon offsets, new protected areas and large infrastructure projects on their lands as part of post-COVID-19 economic recovery efforts, according to The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) 2023 report.

As states around the world trend towards transitioning to clean energy to meet their national and international climate goals, the demand for minerals like lithium, copper and nickel needed for batteries that power the energy revolution are projected to skyrocket. The demand could swell fourfold by 2040 and by conservative estimates, pull in $1.7 trillion in mining investments. Although Indigenous delegates say they support clean energy projects, one of the issues is their land rights: more than half of the projects extracting these minerals currently are on or near lands where Indigenous peoples or peasants live, according to an analysis published in Nature.

This can either lead to their eviction from territories, loss of livelihoods or the deforestation and degradation of surrounding ecosystems.

“And yet […] we are not part of the discussion,” said Carling. “That’s why I call it green colonialism — the [energy] transition without the respect of Indigenous rights is another form of colonialism.”

However, standing at the doorway of a just clean energy transition is FPIC, say Indigenous delegates. FPIC is the cornerstone of international human rights standards like the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the International Labor Organization Convention 169 (ILO Convention 169). Though more than one hundred countries have adopted UNDRIP, this standard is not legally binding. It is rather an instrument to interpret national laws. ILO Convention 169 is legally binding, but only to the 24 states that have ratified the convention.

Because of this, delegates are calling on countries and companies to create binding policy and guidelines that require FPIC for all projects that affect Indigenous people and their lands, as well as financial, territorial and material remedies for when companies and countries fail to do so. According to Carling, this will be the mandatory inclusion of FPIC in international standards such as the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and putting more pressure on national governments to implement policy reforms that include accountability.

However, there is undoubtedly some pushback. The free prior, informed consent process can lead to a wide variety of outcomes, including the right for communities to decline a highly profitable project, which can often be difficult for countries, companies, and investors to abide by, explains Mary Beth Gallagher, the director of engagement of investment at Domini Impact Investments, who spoke at a side event on shareholder advocacy.

A cobalt mine in central Africa. 

Image by Fairphone via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0).

Indigenous Sámi delegates from Norway drew attention to their need for legally enforceable FPIC protection as they continued to protest the Fosen Vind project farm that the country’s Supreme Court ruled was violating their rights. “We have come to learn the hard way that sustainability doesn’t end colonialism,” said a Sámi delegate during the main panel on Tuesday.

In the United States, the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, the People of Red Mountain, and members of the Fort McDermitt Tribe filed lawsuits against the Bureau of Land Management for approving the permits for an open-pit lithium mine without proper consultation with the tribes. In the Colombian Amazon, the Inga Indigenous community presented a successful appeal for lack of prior consultation from a Canadian company that plans to mine copper, molybdenum, and other metals in their highly biodiverse territory.

Consternation over governments and multinational companies setting aside FPIC has long extended over other sectors, like conservation and monoculture plantations for key cash crops. In Peru, the Shipibo-Konibo Indigenous people are resisting several large protected areas that overlap with their territory and were put in place without prior consultation. In Tanzania and Kenya, the Maasai are being actively evicted from their landsfor a trophy hunting and safari reserve. Indigenous Ryukyuan delegates condemned the ongoing use of their traditional lands and territories by the Japanese government and the United States military for U.S. military bases without their free, prior, and informed consent.

Eyes on the private sector

While delegates put a lot of emphasis on the lack of FPIC, they put equal emphasis on FPIC as a crucial part of the long-term sustainability of energy projects.

“FPIC is more than just a checklist for companies looking to develop projects on Indigenous lands,” said Carling. “It is a framework for partnership, including options for equitable benefit sharing agreements or memorandum of understanding, collaboration or conservation.”

The focus of this year’s conference has emphasized the growing role of FPIC in the private sector. Investors and developers are increasingly considering the inclusion of FPIC into their human rights due diligence standards. Select countries such as Canada have implemented UNDRIP in full, although First Nation groups pointed out irregularities in how it is being implemented. The EU is proposing including specific mandatory rights to FPIC in its corporate sustainability due diligence regulation. Side events at the UNPFII focused on topics like transmitting FPIC Priorities to the private sector and using shareholder advocacy to increase awareness of FPIC.

Gallagher of Domini Impact Investments says companies have a responsibility to respect human rights, which includes FPIC. “If they have a human rights commission or they have a commitment in their policies not to do land grabs, we have to hold them to account for that.”

In 2021, the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, published an expectation that companies “obtain (and maintain) the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous peoples for business decisions that affect their rights.” Large banks like Credit Agricole have included FPIC in their corporate social responsibility policy. But in most cases, even when companies have a FPIC policy, it doesn’t conform to the standard outlined in UNDRIP and is not legally binding.

“It doesn’t do the work it’s supposed to do to protect self-determination. It becomes a check-the-box procedure that’s solely consultations and stakeholder consultation instead of protection of rights and self-determination,” says Kate Finn, director at First Peoples Worldwide.

If communities aren’t giving their consent, the company has to respect that, says Gallagher. “There’s obviously points of tension where investors have different agendas and priorities but ultimately, it’s about centering Indigenous leadership and working through that.”

Not properly abiding by FPIC can be costly to companies in countries that operate where it is a legal instrument. It comes with risks of losing their social operation to license, and financial damages. According to a study First Peoples Worldwide, Energy Transfer Partners and banks that financed the now-completed Dakota Access Pipeline, lost billions due to construction delays, account closures, and contract losses after they failed to obtain consent from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in the United States.

Ultimately, Indigenous people need to be part of decision-making from the beginning of any project, especially clean energy projects mining for transition minerals on their territories, said Carling. “For us, land is life, and we have a right to decide over what happens on our land.”

Indigenous Scholars Release New Report at U.N. on Determinants — and Protectants —of Indigenous Health



(photo: Jenna Kunze)

BY DARREN THOMPSON 

 APRIL 20, 2023

NEW YORK — Indigenous scholars presented a report on Tuesday on Indigenous determinants of health at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) 22nd session.

The study was delegated during UNPFII 21st session and aims to create positive health and wellness outcomes for Indigenous communities worldwide. The study also responds to the U.N.’s adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to eliminate poverty and improve health and economic development for all populations globally.

The 20-page report outlines how social determinants — genetics, behavior, environment and culture — influence the health outcomes of the world’s Indigenous populations. The authors noted that while Indigenous populations vary around the globe, they share critical commonalities: an approach to health as an “equilibrium of spirituality, traditional medicine, biodiversity and the interconnectedness of all that exists” and oppression of culture via colonization.

“The Indigenous determinants of health are varied and cannot possibly capture everybody’s need and truth in one document,” Stacy Bohlen, (Sault Ste. Marie Ojibwe) CEO of the National Indian Health Board (NIHB) said at Tuesday’s announcement. “But the one commonality we share as Indigenous peoples is colonization, and the consequences of colonization internationally have led us to common grounds of cultural erasure, intergenerational trauma, and loss of language and culture, all supported by policies designed to specifically do those things.”

Dr. Donald Warne, Co-Director for the Center for Indigenous Health at John Hopkins University and a contributor to the report, told Native News Online that the report not only highlights determinants of health that contribute to disparities but determinants that support — or “protect” — positive health outcomes, such as connectedness to language, culture, and ceremony.

“Social determinants of health are typically linked to bad health outcomes,” Warne told Native News Online. “What we want to emphasize is that for Indigenous determinants of health, is that we have some very unique strengths.”

The report pinpoints 33 Indigenous determinants and protectants of health, divided into three categories: (a) Intergenerational holistic healing; (b) Health of Mother Earth; (c) Decolonizing and re-Indigenizing culture.

Determinants include institutionalized Indigenous-specific racism, ongoing trauma exposure, erosion of traditional lifeways and more. Protectors of health include acknowledgment of sovereignty and Indigenous rights and belief systems, access to traditional medicine, and land and sacred place.

“The protective factors of Indigenous health and that needs to be promoted,” Warne said.

Scholars hope that more resources will be put toward the research to establish guiding principles of how to improve the overall health and wellness of the world’s Indigenous peoples.

“This is not a document that’s produced with hopeful aspirations, but to actually make commitments and to measure outcomes based on the work related to this,” said Warne. “We’re hoping that it leads to long-term commitment internationally so that it leads to positive Indigenous outcomes.”

At Tuesday’s discussion, the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus —comprised of Indigenous youth from all seven regions within the U.N. — supported the report.

“We strongly support and stand by the report,” Makanalani Gomes, a representative of the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus, said. “We know that inclusion, cultivation, and nurturing of Indigenous youth are social determinants of youth. When we take care and honor the rights of Indigenous youth and Indigenous peoples, we in turn, take care of Earth, our Mother.”

The full report is available here.

New York Public Schools Banned from Using Native American Mascots

Protesters gather against the name of the Washington Redskins in Minneapolis, Minn. (Photo/Fibonacci Blue via CC-by-2.0)

BY NATIVE NEWS ONLINE STAFF APRIL 19, 2023

The New York Board of Regents has officially banned all uses of Indigenous imagery and names as school mascots, per a report from Albany-based paper Times-Union.


The vote came unanimously Tuesday morning following a proposal announced by New York State’s education department in November. Some districts have gotten ahead of the curve by preemptively changing their mascots, the Times-Union reports, but others attempted to make slighter changes in a bid to keep names like “raiders” or “warriors” sans Indigenous imagery.

An advisory group of Indigenous people roundly rejected those proposed changes and called an argument that such terms communicated respect for their subject matter untrue, pointing to the phrases’ implication of “revering an exterminated group.”

The announcement caused a flurry of protests among residents in Rotterdam, N.Y., in the Mohonasen Central School District, which uses the term “Warriors” as their mascot alongside a logo of three Indigenous faces. Facebook groups surrounding the district were inundated with complaints of changing too much, too fast, in the midst of an overly sensitive public.

Mohonasen Superintendent Shannon Shine wrote in a letter to the community that he planned to seek legal counsel regarding the name change.

“Time is needed to digest the information, to seek legal counsel, to see what additional information is put forward from the NYS Education Department and the NYS Board of Regents, and to plan to further engage with our community stakeholders (parents, alumni, students, faculty/staff, and residents) regarding the new regulations,” Shine wrote.

One route could be securing the blessing of an Indigenous tribe, a venue left open in the Board of Regents’ announcement — but New York State tribes such as the Oneida have already promised to deny such support to anyone, per the Times-Union report.

Tuesday’s vote represents the culmination of an effort that began in 2001 under former Commissioner of Education Richard P. Mills, according to the proposal summary published to the Board of Regents’ website. Mills issued a memorandum “concluding that the Use of Native American symbols or depictions as mascots can become a barrier to building a safe and nurturing school community and improving academic achievement for all students.”

The proposal also builds off of legal precedent established through Cambridge Central School Dist. et al. v New York State Education Dept., et al. in which the Cambridge education board first retired the use of its “Indians” mascot and then attempted to walk that back, prompting a community petition to the Commissioner of Education Betty A. Rosa.

Both Rosa’s initial decision and a later appeal before the State Supreme Court held that Cambridge’s attempt to walk back their retirement of the “Indians” name was “arbitrary” and that the original resolution to retire the name should be upheld.

The decision will go into effect officially on May 3, though education officers expect legal resistance from some schools in the state, the Times-Union reports.

In the wake of historic storms, Māori leaders call for disaster relief and rights


Kerry Marshall / Getty Images

BY JOSEPH LEE, 

GRIST APRIL 19, 2023

This story is published as part of the Global Indigenous Affairs Desk, an Indigenous-led collaboration between Grist, High Country News, ICT, Mongabay, and Native News Online.

In February, Cyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand, bringing devastating floods and powerful winds, destroying homes, displacing thousands, and killing at least eleven people. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins called it “the most significant weather event New Zealand has seen in this century.” Around 70 percent of destroyed homes were occupied by Indigenous Māori, but Māori leaders say that they have been left out of recovery services and funding.

“Because climate events have gotten more and more intense, it’s at a point of our communities will either get wiped out through more storms or have to choose to leave their homelands,” Renee Raroa, a Ngati Porou Māori representative from Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti in eastern New Zealand, said. “We’re running out of options.”

With the frequency and severity of storms increasing, along with other climate impacts like rising sea levels, Māori peoples are facing increasingly dire climate crises and calling on the United Nations for help. At the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, or UNPFII, Māori representatives called on New Zealand to include Māori people in disaster recovery plans, provide support for Indigenous-led climate initiatives, and fully implement the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – a nonbinding resolution that affirms international Indigenous rights. Māori representatives also called on the U.N. to pressure New Zealand to support Indigenous land rights.

“Cyclone Gabrielle exposed the human rights dimensions of climate change disaster,” said Claire Charters, Māori Indigenous Rights Governance Partner at the New Zealand Human Rights Commission. “Māori rights must be part of all climate change and emergency policy and law.”

The Māori say neglect in the aftermath of the storm is just the latest violation of their human rights by the New Zealand government that could be solved by a national action plan to implement the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In 2019, Indigenous leaders and the New Zealand Human Rights Commission began discussions to do just that, but talks were postponed last year, with the government saying that the general public needed more awareness of the plan and its purposes.

But Māori leaders say that the plan fell victim to political maneuvering, with politicians unwilling to tackle a contentious issue ahead of elections. With limited room to work at home, they say bringing their concerns to the U.N. can get conversations moving again in the national system. “We can add pressure back home by being here and by having our public statement heard on the global stage,” Raroa said.

“We must ensure that Māori are centered in the discussions on mitigation and adapting to climate change, and that Indigenous knowledge is more deliberately considered,” a representative from New Zealand’s government said in a statement delivered at the Forum. The representative also highlighted the importance of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, but did not mention any steps to implement it.

Hannah McGlade, an Indigenous Noongar member of the Permanent Forum from Australia, says that New Zealand’s reluctance to actually implement the declaration is common around the world. The U.S., Canada, and Australia have also been called out at UNPFII for their lack of action to implement the human rights standards. “We do see too great a gap between the declaration principles and the actions and conduct of countries globally,” McGlade said. “There has to be proactive commitments made through the plans.”

Meanwhile, as Māori continue to rebuild their own communities, they are also developing climate and environmental programs based on Indigenous traditions and practice, including reforestation and invasive species control. To fully realize these programs, the Māori say they need both more funding and more freedom to make land use decisions.

“We’re going to make the right choices for our land, so just provide the resources to help us get better,” Raroa said.

This article originally appeared in Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

America Was Conceived in Violence; Seemingly, Nothing Has Changed


(Photo/Taken from a banner at the FNX studio in San Bernardino, California by Levi Rickert)

BY LEVI RICKERT

 APRIL 23, 2023

Opinion.

 A week ago on a Thursday evening, Ralph Yarl, a 16-year-old black teenager, was asked by his mother to pick up his 11-year-old twin brothers from their friend’s home in Kansas City. Ralph made an innocent mistake of going to the wrong address.

The mistake almost cost him his life.

He went to the door and rang the doorbell. He was met with a bullet to his head without any conversation other than being told his kind did not belong there. He fell to the ground, and was hit by a second bullet in his arm. Somehow, he made it to a door two houses from where he was shot. The resident there told him to stay on the ground with his hands above his bleeding head, as the occupant called the police.

The shooter was a 84-year-old white man, who told the police he was “scared to death.” So, he shot the 5’8” 140-pound teen.

By all accounts Ralph is an exemplary student who is taking college-accredited courses with hopes of someday attending Princeton. Frankly, does that really matter? If Ralph were a black juvenile delinquent who rang the wrong doorbell, he still should not have been shot.

The story of the shooting made national news. When I first read about it, I was appalled.

Of course, I am constantly dismayed by all of the gun violence in the United States. Breaking news comes to my phone all day; oftentimes I find myself reading about another mass shooting in process. Schools are not safe. Shopping malls are not safe. Even churches and synagogues are not safe from gun violence.

When the shootings occur, politicians are quick to say the victims and families of the victims are in their “thoughts and prayers.” The refrain is worse than a broken record, because absolutely nothing changes.

As Native Americans, we know America was conceived in violence. Our ancestors faced an onslaught of violence from the beginning of European contact. It has been said that the non-Natives came with a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other. If they could not “save” us, they would kill us.

Wars were waged against Native Americans for centuries. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), now under the U.S. Department of the Interior, originated in the War Department, the forerunner to the U.S. Department of Defense, in 1824. Given its origin, it is clear the War Department’s BIA was not created to help Native tribes to become prosperous.

Throughout the 1800s, our ancestors faced massacres filled with violence. As Native Americans we remember the gun violence of Wounded Knee in 1890 and the Sand Creek Massacre where hundreds of men, women, and children were massacred. Those are only two of the acknowledged massacres.

We know that violence is not only perpetrated against Native Americans. American society is so obsessed with guns, it bleeds over to innocent segments of society often.

A new KFF-Washington Post partnership survey released earlier this month says “about one in five adults saying that they have personally been threatened with a gun (21%) or had a family member killed by a gun, including by suicide (19%). One in six say they personally witnessed someone being shot.

The American obsession with guns is literally killing us.

Sadly, guns are still causing the deaths of Native Americans and the trend is worsening. Giffords reported in October 2022, that from “2000 to 2020, the total number of gun deaths among American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) people more than doubled, and from 2019 to 2020 alone, gun deaths in this group rose 34 percent.”

To be clear, I am not a proponent of taking away all guns in American society. Clearly, Native Americans have been hunters since before European contact and have used guns to hunt since they were introduced to our ancestors. However, I am a proponent of establishing gun control with strong background checks so that mentally unstable people and criminals cannot own guns.

Further, I believe Americans need to push back hard on the politics of hate that causes unfounded fear. That was the case of the Kansas City elderly man who shot an innocent teen who was only trying to pick up his twin brothers.

As a Native American man, I can hope that America gets over its obsession with guns.

Senators Push Universities, Museums to “Expeditiously Return” Native Ancestors

Repatriation
Yahoo News

Sens. Lisa Murkowski (left) and Brian Schatz (right) 

at an Indian Affairs Committee oversight hearing on 

NAGPRA on Feb. 2, 2022. 

(Photo: Senate Committee on Indian Affairs). 

 BY BRIAN EDWARDS APRIL 21, 2023

WASHINGTON – A bipartisan group of 13 U.S. Senators is asking universities and museums with large collections of Native American human remains why they’ve failed to repatriate them to tribes—more than 30 years after a federal law was passed that compelled them to do so.

In letters sent to the University of California-Berkeley, Harvard University, Illinois State Museum, Indiana University, and the Ohio History Connection, the senate group—led by Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Lisa Murkwoski (R-AK) of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs—urged the institutions to comply with the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and “expeditiously return” cultural items and ancestral remains.

Signed into law in 1990, NAGPRA directs federal agencies and museums with possession or control over holdings or collections of Native American human remains and funerary objects to inventory them, identify their geographic and cultural affiliation, and notify the affected Indian tribes or Native Hawaiian organization.

The five institutions that received the letters possess some of the largest collections of Native American human remains, according to federal records. Many were identified in recent media reports, including Native News Online reporting and a ProPublica and NBC News investigation that highlights how prestigious universities and museums have delayed repatriation requests and failed the mandate set by NAGPRA.

“Delayed repatriation is delayed justice for Native peoples,” the senators said in letters to the five institutions. “For too long, Native ancestral remains and cultural items have been unconscionably denied their journey home by institutions, desecrated by scientific study, publicly displayed as specimens, left to collect dust on a shelf, or simply thrown in a box and forgotten in a museum storeroom.”

In the letters, the senators requested that the universities and museums provide an update over the next 60 days on their current process and pace of repatriation, as well as information about their policies and practices pursuant to NAGPRA.

The letters were also signed by Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Patty Murray (D-WA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), Tina Smith (D-MN), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

The letters note positive impacts that NAGPRA has created, but also mentions “troubling testimony” about the failure of institutions to complete repatrations in a timely manner.

“While NAGPRA has had positive and far-reaching impacts, such as improved relationships between museums, institutions, federal agencies, and Native peoples, and significant, successful repatriation of many cultural items and ancestral remains, Congress continues to receive troubling testimony detailing ongoing issues related to the timely completion of NAGPRA repatriations,” the senators write.

National Congress of American Indians President Fawn Sharp issued a statement commending the Senators' bipartisan efforts. "For centuries, our cultural items, our sacred items, and our ancestors have been taken from us and kept from us, but today's efforts acknowledge what we have long said: there is no acceptable reason to continue this practice and no acceptable reason for delays—now is the time to right this historic and ongoing wrong," Sharp said.