Library Guides: Kupferberg Holocaust Center Exhibition: Native American Survivance: Life and Land

Loss of Native Land

Time Lapse Map Depicting the Loss of 1.5 Billion Acres of Land stolen from Native People from 1776-1887

Books

Listening to the Land: Native American Literary Responses to the Landscape Lee Schweninger
By examining the literature of several different Native American writers in the context of their attitudes toward the land, this study focuses on questions about the ways in which they profess and articulate their complex and nuanced sense of an ethical relationship with the earth while at the same time often confronting and even refuting imposed stereotypes of American Indians. The writers offer views of their own attitudes toward and relationships with the land as unique, and in their writings they thus simultaneously embrace and deny a land ethic stereotype themselves.
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.
X-Marks: Native Signatures of Assent
Drawing on his personal experiences and family history on the Leech Lake Ojibwe Reservation in northern Minnesota, discourses embedded in Ojibwemowin (the Ojibwe language), and disagreements about Indian identity within Native American studies, Lyons contends that Indians should be able to choose nontraditional ways of living, thinking, and being without fear of being condemned as inauthentic. Arguing for greater recognition of the diversity of Native America, X-Marks analyzes ongoing controversies about Indian identity, addresses the issue of culture and its use and misuse by essentialists, and considers the implications of the idea of an Indian nation.
Native and Christian: Indigenous Voices on Religious Identity in the United States and Canada
Native and Christian is an anthology of essays by indigenous writers in the United States and Canada on the problem of native Christian identity. This anthology documents the emergence of a significant new collective voice on the North American religious landscape.
Skull Wars: Kennewick Man, Archaeology, And The Battle For Native American Identity
The 1996 discovery, near Kennewick, Washington, of a 9,000-year-old Caucasoid skeleton brought more to the surface than bones. The explosive controversy and resulting lawsuit also raised a far more fundamental question: Who owns history? Many Indians see archeologists as desecrators of tribal rites and traditions; archeologists see their livelihoods and science threatened by the 1990 Federal Reparation Law, which gives tribes control over remains in their traditional territories

Videos

Articles

This Land Is Whose Land? Indian Country and the Shortcomings of Settler Protest
This thoughtful piece was written by Mali Obomsawin, a member of the Missisquoi Band of Abenaki, for Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Examines many of the atrocities of the past leveraged against Native people and how they connect to the land and life of Indigenous people.
Indigenous Land Acknowledgement
The Native Governance Center addresses the importance of Land Acknowledgement and provides resources to create your own land acknowledgments appropriate to your location.
Native Perspectives on the 40th Anniversary of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act
In 2018, The National Museum of the American Indian assembled the thoughts of Native people after the 40th anniversary of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA). The First Amendment of the Constitution—the first article of the Bill of Rights—states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Yet Native Americans were not allowed to practice their religion and were persecuted for conducting tribal ceremonies integral to the continuation of traditional culture. At the same time, the federal government supported Indians' Christian conversion. It was not until 1978 that the federal government provided Native people the same protection under the law afforded to every other citizen.

Reclaiming the Land

Oklahoma is – and always has been – Native land
In 2021, a landmark Supreme Court ruling found that much of eastern Oklahoma belongs to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. This article explores the implications of this ruling as well as the complicated history of Oklahoma, itself, and how it is connected to the “Doctrine of Discovery”, Manifest Destiny, and a long history of institutionalized racism.
How Indigenous voters swung the 2020 election
Article illuminating the importance of the Native vote in the 2020 Presidential Election across several states, which is likely to only grow because of an increasingly young population aging into the electorate and a strong level of community support.
Oregon Court Affirms Klamath Tribes' Water Rights
The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) celebrates a victory in the Klamath Tribes' decades-long battle for water rights in Oregon. The ruling held the need to maintain a healthy and productive habitat to meet the Tribes’ treaty right to fish, hunt, trap, and gather. NARF also provides links to more information on Water Rights and other Social Issues facing Native people throughout the country.

Addressing Life and Land from Survivance & Sovereignty on Turtle Island

Pena Bonita (Apache)
Skywalker Series, 2016

Who built the New York City skyline? Pena Bonita pays homage to Skywalkers, the remarkably skilled Native American iron and steel workers who built much of New York City including the Empire State Building. These photographs show an ironworker and a friend of the artist wearing the customary welding helmet. The drawings on the surface of the photos are Apache symbols and references to the trade.

Prior to contemporary safety regulations, the life-threatening work of building the skyscrapers was rejected by many non-Native people. Some of the early ironworkers were Kanienkehaka or Mohawk people involved with steelwork as part of a trade agreement with contractors that were interested in developing their land. At least one contract for obtaining land rights in the 1880s stipulated that the company hire men from the reservation, though they were paid lower than average wages. More recently, Skywalkers participated in the perilous rescue missions at the Twin Towers on 9/11, and they contributed to the construction of the Freedom Tower.

Kupferberg Holocaust Center Exhibition: Native American Survivance: Life and Land