Posts filed under Cherokee Scholars

Cherokee Scholars Stand in Solidarity with Idle No More Movement

On Jan 28, 2013, a group of Cherokee citizen scholars and educators issued this formal statement of support and solidarity with the Idle No More Movement:

In Solidarity with the Idle No More Movement

ᏗᎦᏓᏤᎴᎢ

We are writing as educators and Cherokee citizens from the Cherokee Nation, Eastern Band of Cherokees and United Keetoowah Band. Digadatsele’i (“We all belong to each other”), which was formed in 2009, supports the ongoing, grassroots struggles of our Indigenous brothers and sisters across the medicine line as treaty-based, sovereign Nations. The Idle No More movement is more than a reaction to the harmful legislation passed or proposed by Canada’s Harper government – it is about standing up to new threats to First Nations’ treaties, self-determining authority, inherent rights, and responsibilities to our waters, homelands, communities, and cultures. Whether north or south of the medicine line, our struggles are shared. As treaty-based peoples, we recognize and reaffirm that:

  • Idle No More originated and is sustained through the leadership of Indigenous women. Women are the strength of our communities and the colonial legacies of missing and murdered Indigenous women on Turtle Island must be confronted and addressed. The recent refusal to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act in the US further demonstrates a systematic failure to address ongoing violence against Indigenous women;

  • All of our futures depend on upholding our ongoing relationships to our homelands and waters. This is also about respecting Indigenous forms of traditional governance and relationships grounded in gadugi and the seven clans that have sustained our communities for thousands of years;

  • Indigenous treaties with governments such as Canada and the U.S. are not the only ones being challenged – our sacred covenants with other Native Nations and with the land, water, plants, animals, and all forms of life on our territories are at stake. The treaties must be upheld if our current and future generations are to thrive;

  • Educational self-determination is vital to the health and well-being of Indigenous Nations. Teaching our languages, stories, and living histories to our current and future generations is critical to our survival;

  •   Several Indigenous Nations are split by the US/Canadian border, which crosses over their traditional territories. This transnational movement understands that borders cannot impede Indigenous liberation and unity. We also exhort Canada to recognize and practice its obligations to the provisions of the Jay Treaty (1794), Treaty of Ghent (1814), and other appropriate statutes when it comes to Indigenous peoples traveling across the medicine line.

    We stand in solidarity with the Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island fighting for the future of Indigenous Nationhood – we will rise together to meet these new challenges as persistent and enduring Indigenous Nations. Digadatsele’i. 

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Stacy Leeds and filed under Cherokee Scholars, Sovereignty, Indian Scholars.

New Book - Cherokee Stories of the Turtle Island Liars’ Club

Congrats to Professor Chris Teuton and contributors Hastings Shade, Sammy Still, Sequoyah Guess and Woody Hansen for a refreshing new book.  

Here's part of the publisher's blurb:  

"A collection of forty interwoven stories, conversations, and teachings about Western Cherokee life, beliefs, and the art of storytelling, the book orchestrates a multilayered conversation between a group of honored Cherokee elders, storytellers, and knowledge-keepers and the communities their stories touch."

19780807835845.jpg
Posted on January 17, 2013 by Stacy Leeds and filed under Humor, Books, Cherokee Scholars, Indian Scholars, Language.

A New Cherokee Blog of Interest

Ryan Mackey's new blog on Cherokee-related and other things has been on-line for a few months and I'd like to call attention to it.  To check out the blog, click here.  Below you'll find an early excerpt from the blog to give you a flavor of his introspection: I used to be a sovereignty sort of fellow, I even wanted to be a tribal attorney and "fight" as a modern ᏗᏟᎯ. That was until I spent some time in our communities as an adult.  I still think that we need those sort of legal warriors, I have since realized that’s not my path.  I know our ᎠᏂᎦᏚᏩᎩ people have always been an ᎠᏰᎵ, a Nation, but not by ᎠᏂᎦᎵᏏ definitions.  Those ᏲᏁᎦ people had to remake us in their own image.  I know how they used colonialism and hegemony to oppress our ancestors but now they don’t even need too.  We can do that ourselves - that’s self determination for you....  I had better explain myself, I am not anti-Indian or completely self loathing or even unstable - not really.  I am just afraid that we are focused on the wrong things.  It maybe that we are on the right path, but it is likely that if we take the time to re-evaluate our system we will find that we are beyond our scope and out of step with our needs and priorities.  I am only suggesting that we re-evaluate our foundation while we still have the means.

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Stacy Leeds and filed under Cherokee Humanities, Cherokee Scholars, Education, General, Language, Next Generation, Research, Sovereignty.

Steve Russell's New Book

2016

2016

Cherokee author Steve Russell's new book is out - as blogged by Matthew Fletcher.  Steve humbly failed to shamelessly self-promote this, so I'll do it for him.  Congrats Steve and happy semi-retirement!  The book can be purchased (at a very reasonable price) by Carolina Academic Press here.

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Stacy Leeds and filed under Books, Cherokee Humanities, Cherokee Nation, Cherokee Scholars, Education, Humor, Indian Scholars, Press, Sovereignty.