Recently in Native News

At Partnership With Native Americans, it’s our goal to help you stay informed on the top stories from Native American life and culture from across the country. Below we’ve compiled our favorite stories from the month of November. Stay up to date with more articles by following us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Native American Students Fight Discrimination By Celebrating Their Heritage via KUNC.org

• “Ask students in the Mohawk Club at Massena Central High School whether they’ve been on the receiving end of negative stereotypes, and the answer is quick and sharp. ‘We see that we’re always the troublemakers or that we’re bad kids,” says Amanda Rourke, the club’s president. Member Mallory Sunday adds, “It’s funny because they don’t understand who we are as a people.’”

Five myths about American Indians via The Washington Post

• “Thanksgiving recalls for many people a meal between European colonists and indigenous Americans that we have invested with all the symbolism we can muster. But the new arrivals who sat down to share venison with some of America’s original inhabitants relied on a raft of misconceptions that began as early as the 1500s, when Europeans produced fanciful depictions of the “New World.” I hear those concepts repeated in questions from visitors to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian every day. Changing these ideas is the work of generations. Here are five of the most intransigent.”

Native Americans use their growing clout to reclaim tribal remains and relics via Los Angeles Times

• “Nearly a century ago, an amateur archaeologist and showman named Ralph Glidden dug up Native American burial sites on Catalina and other Channel Islands off Southern California’s coast. To him, the human remains and relics were treasures to be displayed in the so-called Indian Museum he opened as a tourist attraction overlooking Avalon Harbor. It was a macabre place — and to Native Americans, highly offensive… What Glidden didn’t use in the museum he sold.”

Native American culture, contributions via Fort Hood Sentinel

• “Fort Hood joined the nation in celebrating the culture and contributions of Native Americans during a ceremony Nov. 16 at Club Hood. Following years of efforts for official recognition, November has been designated as National Native American Heritage Month since 1994. This year’s theme, Standing Together, illustrates Native Americans’ and Alaska Natives’ profound influence on our character and our culture, Col. Curtis King, commander, 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, said.”

‘This is not a trend’: Native American chefs resist the ‘Columbusing’ of indigenous foods via The Washington Post

• “Earlier this fall, Karlos Baca, an indigenous food activist known for cooking beautiful foraged meals using traditional Native American ingredients and cooking methods, was approached by a regional food magazine: Would he like to provide a recipe for their Thanksgiving issue? “Instead of getting a recipe from me, they got three pages of activism,” he says. Baca, along with some other Native Americans who see the holiday as whitewashing the harm colonists did to indigenous people, refers to it as “Takesgiving” or “Hatesgiving.” Typically, he won’t participate in the dinner: “I have a tradition of fasting,” he says.”