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Tohono O'odham law enforcement attempted to notify and remove the intruders but were met with a cbp vehicle blockade and a tethered ballon that was being used to surveil the area. Drone video taken at the site shows multiple law enforcement officers and the blockade. The so called united states is aware that they are not allowed within the Reservation borders but chose hypocritically to cross it anyw6 in order to construct a wall that they believe will protect theirs.

The Tohono O'odham steward a swath of land that extends from the so called united states into the land now known as mexico. That land is sacred to them. It binds them together even as your imaginary border has tried for generations to tear them apart.

In an effort to protect their land, people, and inherent sovereignty the Tohono O'odham updated their code on June 26 to bar the contractors and anyone associated with the construction of the wall. On August 7 the Tohono O'odham Nation announced the closure of the Reservation to any non tribal citizens who are associated with the construction of the border wall. The next day "No Trespassing" signs were placed throughout their Nation.

This wall will not only be environmentally destructive it will physically separate the upper and lower Tohono O'odham from each other, dividing and separating them from important cultural and sacred sites that lay on either side of the abominable wall. It will damage their lifeways, foodways, and land they have tended since time immemorial and that your country has tried its level best to destroy.

All this to protect something that isn't even real. Borders don't exist. They are a made up construct put in place to aid in land conquest. A Native Nation has been living across your fairy tale border for centuries. If they were real y'all wouldn't need a wall to stop people from crossing them. The Tohono O'odham are the best example of that.

This wall is but another cog in a colonial wheel that harms Indigenous Peoples. Current federal policy has already torn Indigenous families and communities apart. Now it threatens to do the same thing to an entire Nation.

That it is being built without consultation or consent from the Tohono O'odham is a violation of Tribal Sovereignty, Tohono O'odham law, and a desecration of sacred lands.

It's also a prime example of who and what your country really is. You are not your declaration of independence. You are not your constitution. You are not blessed by an exceptionalism that is as much as a lie as the history your ancestors wrote by simply being born in "america". You are what you do or condone.

In 1862 more than 1700 Dakota men, women, and children were forced into a concentration camp at ft. snelling in Minnesota. In 2026 an ice detention center sits on that same land, once again imprisoning Indigenous Peoples.

The current actions by your illegitimate government that is currently illegally occupying Native homelands are not outliers or gross aberrations. They aren't a bug. They are a feature of a system steeped in white supremacy and colonialism that is working as designed.

It's past time for you to understand that, recognize it for the monstrosity it is, and put everything on the e line to stop it.

It wasn't true.

I'm very forthright about my mental health diagnoses. I live with schizoaffective disorder bipolar type, anxiety, panic disorder, insomnia, PTSD, agoraphobia, and a driving phobia. I used to self harm. I regularly see a psychiatrist and I've been in therapy for most of my adult life.

In early June I made a decision that I knew would most probably negatively affect my mental health (which was already in a steep decline anyway). I had weighed the risks and considered all outcomes for a couple of weeks before making a decision.

I chose to get a steroid shot.

I was not well in May and June. My agoraphobia began to take hold again, bringing with it isolation and then a deepening depression. I didn't go outside for over a month. I was having severe pain in my right side that began radiating across my abdomen. Two ultrasounds found nothing. We still don't know what's going on but I have an appointment on Friday with my PCP in hopes of figuring it out. I've lived with bone spurs in my mid and lower back for years that also began to flare up. The pain from my trigger finger began to move into my palm and stopped being the kind of soreness I was used to and morphed into a burning pain I've never felt before.

The agoraphobia made it hard to get to the NDN Clinic to have everything looked at. I did some telehealth visits but eventually had to go see a lot of doctors. I was on the waiting list for a therapist at the clinic but I needed to talk to someone ASAP. I ended up making an appointment with my therapist from when I lived in Okmulgee. Since I hadn't seen her in a year I had to do an in person visit so Chase drove me, shaking and sobbing, 100 miles to get help. During this time I faithfully took my psych meds even as I knew they weren't working as well as they once did.

I had been accepted to The Giniw Collective Fellowship in Minnesota and I was determined to go, which was terrifying for me to even think about. I couldn't walk out into the hallway but I really thought I was going to fly all by myself across the country to live in a camp with strangers.

During a telehealth visit with Council Oak I was told that I could stop the pain from my trigger finger with a simple steroid shot in my palm. It would bring down the swelling of the sheath that covers the tendon in my ring finger, allowing for movement without pain. Seems simple, right? Get the shot, all better, go to Minnesota.

There's a little known side effect that steroid shots have on people with bipolar. It's not rare but it's not common either, affecting between 11% to 28% of patients, including those without any history of mental health diagnoses. A lot of medical professionals aren't aware of it either, so much so that I was once called a liar by a nurse because I wanted to refuse one to protect my mental health. The doctor backed me up.

Steroid shots and steroids in general can throw people into a severe manic episode, especially those living with bipolar. It happens to me so often I avoid steroids if at all possible. I'm currently treating my severe degenerative tricompartmental osteoarthritis that requires a total knee replacement with 800mg ibuprofen because they don't prescribe pain medication until after surgery and the treatment for pain prior to surgery is corticosteroid shots.

I had already missed my flight to the fellowship because I was in the emergency room with a gallstone attack but when I spoke with Tara I learned I could rebook my flight when I was ready.

I lost 10 years of my life to agoraphobia. There's so much I could have experienced during that time but I was stuck inside, social media taking the place of a social life, talking out loud to myself just so I could hear a live voice (I still do this, not because of agoraphobia but because it's a habit at this point). I was bound and determined not to let it take anything else from me, especially not a fellowship I was uniquely unqualified for yet got the chance to be in community with anyway.

The fellowship required a lot of physical activity. I knew it was going to be a challenge when I applied and I was honest in my interview that nature was not my wheelhouse. I still really wanted to go and was ecstatic when I was accepted.

So I mentally prepared myself for the flight, using lots of self talk and grounding techniques. My side pain had lessened and the ultrasounds showed no evidence of any more gallstones. I was used to my bone spurs, having ignored them for years.

That left my trigger finger. It's on my dominant hand so if I was to make the fellowship happen I'd have to get the shot because I'd exhausted all conservative treatment and it was getting worse.

There was just so much pain and most of it couldn't be fixed easily but this could. I just wanted the pain to stop. I wanted to experience life again and the only way to do that was to get a shot so, after agonizing about it every minute of every day for weeks, I took myself to an orthopedist and got one.

It did relieve some swelling and the pain became somewhat bearable, though my hand was nowhere near 100%. I stuck a finger brace on, packed my bag, and flew to Minnesota.

I was fine at camp. I fished, soaked in the Boundary Waters, and slept in a tent on the ground in nature at a pow wow. It was wonderful and healing and one of the best times of my life. The mania that I could depend on showing up like clockwork was nowhere to be found.

Unfortunately that would not continue to be the case. I have had insomnia since I was a child and routinely have days where I can't sleep so when I got back and couldn't sleep I didn't realize what was going on.

I felt so energized from my trip, like I could take on the world. I mistook that superhuman feeling you get during the first 1-3 days of mania with renewed self confidence. Part of it was confidence but, like most mental health episodes, mania is a liar. The first few days feel great. I got a ton accomplished and it was such a change from the depression I was experiencing before that I thought it just meant I was getting better.

But by the 4th day I knew the truth. Usually my manic episodes are done by the end of the 4th day. The longest ever lasted until the early morning of the 6th day. Once I'm aware of it I get very logical. When the toll of not sleeping starts to become paranoia, which is usually how it manifests, I'm able to remind myself it's just mania and I'm fine and it will be over soon. If it gets to the point where I'm not able to ground myself I take myself to Oakwood Springs and check in. I've been impatient several times and I've always checked myself in.

This episode wasn't like others I've lived through. It would not stop. I don't remember much after the 5th day except being scared and exhausted. I don't remember writing or posting anything. Time did not exist at that point so it wasn't until I woke up from crashing into a heavy and much needed sleep to a lot of concerned messages and posts on my profile that I found out what I'd done and how long I'd been manic.

Seven days. A full week. That's never happened before. It was pretty scary, for me as much as it was for you. I got lucky. All I did was make a social media post. It could have been so much worse.

I'm so sorry that I put anyone through that. I try to stay on top of my mental health but there are going to be times when it's not going to go to plan and it's not going to be pretty. But sometimes it's not all doom and gloom, which brings me to my news.

Since I was already struggling before the shot it became clear that I needed an adjustment to my meds. My beloved psychiatrist Dr. G retired before I left for Minnesota. He'd been my psych for 12 years. He'd guided me through the social security disability process and so many med changes. He wouldn't make me stay on medication that had horrible side effects or tell me to give it time to get used to them. He celebrated my wins and never made me feel like a failure for having to go inpatient, something that my brain and certain people who are supposed to love me can't seem to manage.

There's one thing he was never able to do though and it was something I really needed.

When you go inpatient you're usually in crisis so they focus on getting you stabilized as quickly as possible. The first time I was admitted I was given an Aristada shot which was supposed to accomplish that quickly and safely. It did much more than that.

For the first time in my life I felt level. I don't know how to describe it but I'm pretty sure it's how most of you feel the majority of the time. I wasn't anxious, I could sleep, I stopped grinding my teeth all the time. I had a sense of clarity and capability that I never knew was possible. With that shot most of my symptoms simply disappeared. To say I was excited is an understatement. Finally, after my entire life, I felt like I could actually start living. Which makes what happened next all the more heartbreaking.

I've had a lot of different insurance since that time and, while Aristada was always on the formulary, it was a tier 5 medication, which is the most expensive tier. Every year I checked to see if it was more affordable but it was always almost $1,000/month. The lowest I ever saw it was almost $400/month. I can't even keep a roof over my head. There's no way I could ever afford it.

But I'm Mvskoke and Semvnole. Natives are swimming in casino money and freeload off the federal government for healthcare so I just needed not to buy more shoes and lobster dinners or just use my race to get free government medical care and I'd be golden, right?

If you believe that then please put your phone down and go learn how not to be racist.

I don't get casino money. As a citizen of the Mvskoke Nation per cap (payments made to certain tribal citizens from their respective Nations from pooled proceeds from casinos/investments) isn't available to me. It's not available to any Mvskoke citizen. Heck, I have trouble getting any kind of services from my Native Nation because I don't live on the Reservation.

The Mvskoke Nation takes that money and invests it into infrastructure and services for our government, citizens, and the surrounding communities within the Reservation boundaries. I'm not complaining. I think it's wonderful that we honor our ancestors by taking responsibility for our relationship with others. If my getting per cap stops a kid from eating during the summer because Mvskoke Nation isn't able to cover for what the state of Oklahoma refuses to do then I don't want it.

As for all that free healthcare, well, you get what you pay for. Don't get me wrong. The NDN Clinic has come a long way from the decrepit hole in the wall on Hudson that always had at least one blinking florescent light but that wasn't because of the so called united states government. Indian Health Services is chronically underfunded so the NDN Clinic applies for grants and holds fundraisers to make improvements. If the government wasn't bound and determined to continue to ignore or half ass meet their treaty obligations maybe I'd be able to get my shot there but government healthcare has never been comprehensive and that's by design.

Natives are not a single monolithic race. We weren't racialized until invasion. Race is a colonial construct made up to aid in land conquest. If Natives are a race then we don't possess inherent political sovereignty and the government can more easily ignore their promises to us while continuing to squat on our homelands.

Governments don't make treaties with races. They make them with governments, which is what we are. They also don't make them with people they've "conquered" because no one is going to continue providing support for people they beat. We were removed from our lands and were promised these things in lieu of them. Fishing rights, hunting rights, healthcare, jurisdiction over our own people. It's a debt that will not only never be paid in full, especially since your government doesn't bother to meet the bare minimum, but was meant to be in perpetuity. Hence the racialization and the lie of blood quantum, which is paper genocide invented to breed us out of existence so y'all have the land free and clear. Well, as clear as any conscience can be when you've been complicit in upholding a system of governance that brought an apocalypse to our shores and inflicted an ongoing genocide upon us because y'all can't grasp the concept of sharing. So no, the government is not going to pay a thousand dollars a month to ensure my health and wellbeing.

It's been heartbreaking to know there exists a medication that can give me a quality of life I've never had the chance to really live and that it will forever be out of my reach.

Despite your premeditated governmental funding shortfall NDN Clinic behavioral health moved way Northside to a bigger facility and have expanded. They're offering a lot of services that weren't available before. Since they're so far from the NDN Clinic pharmacy now they've partnered with an outside pharmacy to fill some medications.

When I met my new psychiatrist, Dr Do, I had to go over my history, picking at still tender wounds in hopes that by telling her everything she would be in a position to offer me more focused treatment. It was during this initial meeting that I told her about Aristada. She assigned me a caseworker who was going to call my insurance company and try to negotiate a better price. I was not optimistic.

So I wasn't disappointed when I spoke with my new case manager Caroline and she told me that while she was able to negotiate a better copay it was still going to be an untenable $277.72 every 2 months. She also let me know that there was an alternative, Abilify Maintaina, which was a monthly shot whose copay she was able to negotiate down to $787/month.

Most pharmaceutical companies offer financial aid for low income patients who can't afford their medications. I'd checked into this before and I didn't qualify for help with Aristada because I am on Medicare. Just another doorway to hope slammed in my face.

But Caroline is no quitter. She spent hours researching and found that the makers of Abilify Maintaina offered financial assistance that might be able to provide assistance even with my having Medicare. It took me awhile but I went in and filled out the paperwork last week. I wasn't holding my breath.

I should have because on Saturday morning I got a text that allowed me to breathe again for the first time in forever. The text said I had been enrolled in the program and that I needed to call on Monday for further information. Too impatient to wait I googled what it meant to be enrolled and then commenced to crying.

Enrollment meant that I'd been approved to receive the Abilify Maintaina shot for FREE.

Caroline called me Monday to tell me the news and I was too excited to think I might be bursting her bubble by telling her I already knew. We just had to wait for them to let us know when it would be shipped to the outside pharmacy partner and then I could get my shot.

It's almost 4 AM right now and I'm awake. Don't worry. It's because I'm a night person and not anything bonkers with my brain. I got the text with my FedEx tracking number yesterday and I've been obsessively checking it because again, I'm impatient. About an hour ago it updated. My shot will be delivered by 1 PM today.

There's a better than good chance Abilify Maintaina will work as well as the Aristada. They are essentially the same medication.

Things are changing rapidly for me: New knees, new apartment, new meds, new life. I'm excited to see where this takes me even as I'm nervous it won't really come true. But today I have something that's been in very short supply in my life: Hope.

No medication is full proof. I can't promise you I won't have a recurrence of any or all of my symptoms. What I can promise is that I'm going to make the most of this chance I've been gifted and will do so in the fiercest way I know how.

Mvto for helping me get this far family, framily, Sisters, Aunties, Uncles, Cousins, Community. As I've s

aid before it takes a village to raise a Frances and I am forever grateful you are a part of mine.

I woke today to the news that Russell Westbrook has retired from the NBA. I'm surprised at how emotional I am about it, though I shouldn't be. I love Russell Westbrook.

I always had this silly dream that for Russell Westbrook's last season the Thunder would bring him back. That it would be a dream season, Russ seamlessly blending with the team who would work decisively together to get him the ring that should have been on his finger long ago.

Some dreams aren't meant to come true but that this one didn't doesn't matter. Not really.

Because there exists no stat, no record, no accomplishment that can measure up to the absolute love, support, and respect that OKC has for him.

He wasn't supposed to be who he is or achieve what he has. At 5 foot 8 and a high school back up player he was considered too small. It wasn't until a senior year growth spurt that he landed on UCLA's radar.

The Thunder wasn't supposed to be who they are or achieve what it has. We were never seriously considered for an NBA team because we are a small market that didn't have an arena or a major corporate base that could be counted on to buy sponsorships and fill luxury boxes. It wasn't until we hosted the New Orleans Hornets post Hurricane Katrina and filled our new arena (and NBA coffers) that we finally proved what we'd been saying all along: OKC could not only support a team we could do it louder and with more commitment than any other city.

And so it was that Westbrook and OKC, both where they weren't ever supposed to be, proved the naysayers wrong. Historic triple-doubles, an MVP award, and the loudest fans in the league. So much history made, it was a triumph for us all.

When Westbrook committed to that final season in OKC even I, a fan who still can't tell you how a player gets an and one, knew there was a chance he'd put a ring on the line.

It breaks my heart a little to know now that I was right.

What brings me solace is the fact that though Westbrook left the Thunder he never left OKC. "Russell's Reading Rooms" still dot schools across the city and he recently attended the groundbreaking of a soccer stadium for our new team, OKC United, of which he is an investor.

The Thunder brought home rings as NBA champions in 2025. Westbrook was later quoted as being extremely happy for OKC fans because we are the best fans in sports.

Well, these best fans in sports have never stopped being a fan of Russell Westbrook and one day, at the dedication of his sure to be first of its kind in OKC bronze statue, no one will remember the lack of a ring because Westbrook has something better, something more personal, something only a few other players will ever have.

Russell Westbrook, who for so long was the physical embodiment of it, has the heart of OKC, now and forever.

Thank you, Russell Westbrook, for who you are and all you've meant to us. Wishing you nothing but the best on your retirement. OKC can't wait to see what more we can accomplish together.

Taking some not so tentative steps back into community artist bunky echo-hawk has begun posting on social media again, asking for healing as he moves forward. He also asks for honest conversation.

Ok. I'll start.

I was at one of bunky's first court appearances in March 2022. I sat through the hearing and, once court was adjourned, I followed bunky, his father, Walter Sr., and his attorney Dan Good into the hallway and asked a very simple question:

"bunky, don't you have anything to say to community?"

I ended up with the first statement he'd made since being charged with lewd or indecent acts to a child under age sixteen and pornography- procure/produce/distribute/poss juvenile pornography. Those charges were eventually dismissed, the first without prejudice (meaning the charge could be refiled). That statement never saw the light of day due to the fact that the way it was written would have identified the alleged survivor and, while bunky clearly had no issue with that, victims advocates, the Director of Mvskoke Media, and I weren't about harming a child.

Which brings us full circle where, in the spirit of honest conversation and moving forward, I'm once again going to ask a very simple question:

"bunky, don't you have anything to show community?"

Or 8,049 things to show community to be exact.

The juvenile pornography charge stemmed from a search of the echo-hawk house in order to obtain evidence. In the course of serving that warrant the police seized an iPad named ‘IBunk Pro’ with the owner listed as walter echo-hawk, bunky's government name. Of the 9,978 images on the device 8,049 were classified as possibly containing images of child sexual abuse.

The juvenile pornography charge was eventually dropped. To hear bunky tell it it was because he is innocent. According to court records it was actually because the electronics weren't listed on the warrant and had therefore been illegally seized. Since the iPad was illegally obtained bunky's attorney, Dan Good, filed a motion to suppress the iPad and its images which was granted on 04/28/23 leading to the dismissal of the juvenile pornography charge on 06/09/23.

Everyone is entitled to the most vigorous defense possible and Atty Good was right to move to suppress that iPad. Police can't just go grabbing whatever they want from your house and then prosecute you if they happen to find anything illegal. But getting a charge dismissed because the cops messed up is not same as being innocent of having 8,049 images of alleged child pornography on your personal tablet.

We can go round and round about this in the court of public opinion. People have already begun showing exactly where they stand in regards to bunky and, for an issue that he states has been "legally resolved", it's still causing harm to community.

There's an easy way to let the healing begin for us all. That's for bunky to remove all doubt as to what that iPad actually contained.

Release the images.

All 9,978 of them ideally but those 8,049 in dispute definitely and immediately.

An innocent man has nothing to fear by their release and it would not only silence critics, at least as to the CP charge, but would put an end to this once and for all, and then we can all move forward.

It won't happen of course. There will be an excuse justifying as to why not, if bunky bothers to acknowledge this at all. But excuses aren't reasons. Excuses are used to avoid accountability and we've had quite enough of that. Reasons are factual explanations as to why not.

"Not wanting to relitigate" is a deflective excuse. Something like "I can't release them because they didn't give me back my iPad due to what was on it", for example, would be a reason.

Your turn, bunky. Let's have a really honest conversation.

Principal Chief David Hill and Mvskoke citizenry have raised concerns regarding the timing of the increase, the seeming rushed nature of the passage of the bill, and the lack of transparency and accountability by Council in not only passing the bill but in overriding Chief's veto with a vote of 11-5 during Regular Session on June 20, despite vocal resistance. Representatives Robin Whitecloud, Dode Barnett, Galen Cloud, Charles McHenry, and Thomasene Osborn opposed the veto override.

At the heart of the transparency concerns is the "Compensation Analysis" that is the basis for the raises. The analysis was not included with the bill and has not been made available outside of National Council, though it has been mentioned by Council members during what little discussion was had prior to the bill being passed.

Chief Hill makes it a point to mention the report in his veto stating,

"The bill references a “compensation analysis” that provides full-time and part-time compensation ranges based on equivalent positions on the market. I have not been provided this analysis for myself to determine if the purported compensation ranges are in line with equivalent positions for tribal governments similar in size and responsibilities that exist for Muscogee (Creek) Nation."

Here is the Mvskoke Nation National Council Compensation Analysis Report, as provided by a source in the National Council office who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The analysis, which runs 11 pages long and purportedly cost almost $10,000, was conducted by REDW Advisors and CPAs, a firm which boasts 40 years of experience serving more than 200 unique Native Nations and 500 tribal entities. The report states it was conducted in alignment with the scope outlined in the original compensation review proposal. It is unknown at this time if REDW submitted their proposal in a competitive bidding process that would ensure the most cost effective use of money for the Mvskoke Nation and its citizens in obtaining the analysis.

The report, dated April 17, 2026, nineteen days prior to the introduction of NCA 26-071 by Representative Sandra Golden, was delivered to the McCombs building, not the National Council office, and was addressed to Representatives Lucian Tiger (Tvlse District-Seat B) and William Lowe (Okmulke District-Seat B).

According to the National Council source REDW conducted their analysis based upon a single page questionnaire distributed to Council Representatives. The company reportedly made their compensation determinations without ever visiting the Council office to observe day to day activities or operations.

In the EXECUTIVE SUMMARY-PUBLIC COMMUNICATION portion of the analysis REDW states, "Looking ahead, this approach establishes a framework that can be revisited and updated over time. By documenting the methodology, using compensation ranges rather than fixed amounts, and supporting periodic reviews, the Nation promotes transparency, accountability, and long-term alignment between compensation for National Council positions and the responsibilities of these elected offices."

Council has thus far not provided their reasoning for the refusal to make the analysis public, a decision that seemingly runs counter to the Public Communication recommendation for transparency and accountability in the Executive Summary.

Compensation transparency is nothing new to The Mvskoke Nation. MCN Code Title 37 Chapter 3 Subsection 301 provides for publication of all employee names, grades, and compensation.

The subsection states that within 10 days of February 25, 1989 and on July 31 each year thereafter the Principal Chief shall submit to the National Council a list of all tribal positions and names, grades, and step levels of persons in those positions which would then be published in The Muscogee Nation News (now known as Mvskoke Media).

Mvskoke Media last published the full list on August 15, 2025 in accordance with Title 37.

In response to the Council salary increase citizens have begun collecting signatures for initiatives to be brought to a vote of Mvskoke Nation citizens which would set salaries for Principal Chief ($150,000, a $50,000 increase), Second Chief ($90,000, a $30,000 increase), Speaker of National Council ($75,000), Second Speaker ($50,000), and National Council Representatives ($48,000).

The initiatives provide for an annual cost of living increase based on the US Department of Labor and US Bureau of Labor Statistic's annual report for all, with fringe benefits paid at the same rate as Tribal employees in accordance with the personnel policy of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation for Chief and Second Chief only. If passed National Council would be barred from increasing compensation for Chief, Second Chief, and Council without a vote of Mvskoke citizens who are also registered voters.

The initiative regarding Chief and Second Chief compensation appears to have a typo, referencing both MCNCA Title 16 Chapter 5 and Section 2 of Title 16. I reached out to Lisa Deere, a Mvskoke citizen who has been making the initiatives available for signatures, for comment but had not heard back as of publication.

It would be easy to say that you should have known since they wrote an entire manifesto about what they were going to do once in power but that's too easy and a pass you don't deserve.

You don't say the N word and think you've done something moral, even as you allowed for other, "softer" words to be weaponized. Black people became thugs. Ongoing Native genocide became toothless land acknowledgements. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion became "woke". And you remained silent because the only "slur" you consider to be offensive anymore is when someone calls you white.

This didn't start with project 2025. It started with language. They always come for language first because words have power. They cradle cultures, traditions, and sacred beliefs. But you didn't stop it. Instead you embraced the pretender in chief being called creepy so you could have a brat girl summer and vote for a nominee who was having one too, never minding that whole Native languages were stomped to death under the feet of the colonization you continue to uphold, fretting over a future you have the ability to change if only you'd be willing to put everything on the line for community.

First they come for language then they come for hair. While I know that could be easily (and unwisely) dismissed as silly, an overreaction to what amounts to a day at SuperCuts, I also know that it's the truth.

It's a brutal truth for Damon Landor, a Rastafarian man who was handcuffed to a chair while incarcerated in Louisiana who had his dreadlocks, locks he'd been growing for 20 years as a sacred tenet of his faith, violently shaved off without his consent and in violation of a binding court order that stayed unequivocally that doing so would be a violation of his religious rights.

Today your scotus ruled in a 6-3 decision that Damon Landor could not sue the officers and warden who spit on the sacred and made it profane in their defilement and dehumanizing savagery.

It's an american tradition to take marginalized people's hair from them. They did it to our Native youth in your reeducation camps for the same reason. It's not the reason you think though.

The violation of what we hold sacred is the cherry on top of the sundae that is the continued policing of Black and Brown people, stripping away our beliefs, our safety, and eventually our lives. That didn't start at the beginning of the boarding "school" era. It's been happening since invasion and enslavement.

white supremacy is the lifeblood of your country and subjugation of Black and Brown folks make up the curves its DNA.

You're on stolen land built by stolen hands and yet still have the audacity to be shocked by whatever new atrocity this country thinks to inflict upon us because "all of a sudden" there's a very real possibility you'll be next.

You didn't need the 2025 manifesto and we didn't need a scotus opinion to know this was coming because the hard truth is this is how it has always been.

News report on the assault of Damon Landor that your scotus is totally fine with

When people think of #LandBack (if they do at all) it's generally as some nebulous land acknowledgement that recognizes the sacred stewardship of the land they're standing on by Natives "since time immemorial". These "acknowledgements" are just that: Acknowledgement that non Natives are standing on stolen land and a vague recognition of it without any actionable steps to honor that stewardship and our sovereignty by letting us use our traditional ecological knowledge to fix what colonization has wrought.

While that's generally true there's another aspect of Land Back that deserves honor and it's a path that leads directly to the 5 Southeastern Treaty Nations whose forcible removal from their homelands displaced and dispossessed the Native Nations whose ancestral homelands made up what would become Indian Territory then Oklahoma then would once again be affirmed as Indian Country.

Those Nations are the Gáuigú (Kiowa), Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo), Nʉmʉnʉʉ (Comanche), 𐓏𐒰𐓓𐒰𐓓𐒷 𐒼𐓂𐓊𐒻 𐓆𐒻𐒿𐒷 𐓀𐒰^𐓓𐒰^(Wahzhazhe/Osage), and Kitikiti’sh (Wichita).

While each of these Native Nations are still based in what is now known as Oklahoma the truth is the Mvskoke, Semvnole, Chickasha, Chahta, and Ani'-Yun'wiya' Reservations are their ancestral homelands.

While we are stewarding them as we await the rightful return to stewarding our homelands in the Southeast it doesn't make the land we're currently standing on any more ours or any less theirs.

So how does this kind of Land Back work? Certainly if settler land acknowledgements are not enough then our recognition of that fact shouldn't be enough either.

I'm no legal expert so I don't know if this is even possible but I'd like to see co-stewardship agreements made across the so called state of Oklahoma between the Gáuigú (Kiowa), Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo), Nʉmʉnʉʉ (Comanche), 𐓏𐒰𐓓𐒰𐓓𐒷 𐒼𐓂𐓊𐒻 𐓆𐒻𐒿𐒷 𐓀𐒰^𐓓𐒰^(Wahzhazhe/Osage), and Kitikiti’sh (Wichita) and the Mvskoke, Semvnole, Chickasha, Chahta, and Ani'-Yun'wiya' (Cherokee) Nations. I suspect it would be easier than one might expect. After all agreements between Native Nations such as this would not only be an exercise of our inherent sovereignty but would bind us together in a way that could only strengthen our governments and Peoples.

There's nothing that can stop us when we stand together and, in the current political climate of the so called united states, now is the time to stand strong for everything they tried to so very hard, and failed, to destroy.

I filed for SSDI with diagnoses that included schizoaffective disorder bipolar type, agoraphobia, anxiety, panic disorder, PTSD, and a driving phobia. I'd tried to stay employed, utilizing short term disability/FMLA, but eventually with the agoraphobia and driving phobia I couldn't even leave my apartment to go to work.

Despite decades of paperwork showing my therapy and psychiatric history I was denied after 2 years.

I tried to hang on. My friends usually had an extra room or couch for me. I worked from home for a major tech company for a bit. Soon though I found myself unhoused, a resident of city rescue mission. I stayed there as I fought in court to get my determination appealed.

When my court date finally arrived 13 months later I had to convince the judge that despite my lack of spotty work history (short term disability/FMLA ftw!) I hadn't just decided to be lazy and try to get at all that not a lot of money I'd paid into social security.

There's a person whose only job is to come to court with a list of jobs that would pay comparably to what you were making before you up and "chose" to be disabled and that list is what they use to deny your appeal. If jobs exist that you can do then you're expected to go out and get one of them regardless if any of them are available or not.

At my hearing the judge turned to old dude of the denial list and asked if there were any jobs I could perform for comparable pay.

We were all shocked as hell when he simply said "No."

A stunned silence filled the air for a solid minute before the judge slowly turned to look at me and say, "Well I guess that's that."

They don't immediately hand you a win and a check. We had to wait for the official ruling. That took a couple more months. All told I spent 15 months at the mission.

That was 16 years ago.

I'm still housing insecure but got my housing assistance voucher recently and am currently looking for permanent housing. I must depend on community for most basic needs after that first week and a half.

Navigating a system designed to deny your disability when you actually have one is hell. Take it from someone still trying to survive: No one is putting themselves through that to live on what you've earned through SSDI.

As the so called united states celebrates its 250th year of couch surfing on Native land I'd like to give you another number to keep in mind that recognizes "america" for exactly what it is: 196

It was 196 years ago today that the architect of Native genocide, andrew jackson, signed the Indian removal act of 1830. That act is the reason why I'm here. By that I mean here in Oklahoma, not here on Earth. No, that act was just one of the myriad of federal policies meant to ensure I would have never been born.

Here's another number for you: 15,000

That's the estimated number of Native lives lost during forced removal. They marched (or sometimes sailed: Check out the Monmouth disaster for information on that) 100,000 of us all the way to Indian Territory, lands promised to us as long as grass grows and water flows. They broke that promise, though it's a novel idea of yours to destroy the environment as you've done since invasion in order to avoid your treaty obligations. No grass, no water, no stolen land, right?

It seems so long ago. Why should this one act define america?

First of all it wasn't just one act. It was a conscious and premeditated genocide that's embedded in your foundational documents (Google declaration of independence and Indians) and has been ongoing since y'all came over for dinner and then wouldn't leave.

Second, I have one last number for you: 2

Two is the number of times your president has hung a portrait of andrew jackson in the oval office. It was there his entire first term and rehanging it was literally the first thing he did when he took the office back. trump has laid a wreath upon and stood at jackson's grave giving him a salute (just like he's seen all the people who actually served in the armed forces do on TV).

And before you dismiss that as just trump being trump and this isn't who america really is go ahead and count the number of times you've pulled money out of an ATM and paused to think, remember, and take actionable steps to help with #landback or fight for Native voting rights or hold the government and religions accountabile for the reeducation camps (federal Indian boarding "schools") or press law enforcement to investigate Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives or insist that schools teach the true history of this country, Indian removal included. I'll wait.

The $20 bill is the most frequently used denomination in day to day transactions including ATMs. You hold in your hands almost daily a portrait of jackson. Got that number yet? No need to say it out loud. We both know exactly how many times you think about Natives when you drop a twenty at target or buy a very overpriced coffee at starbucks. Native erasure is so ingrained it never occurred to you to remember, not because you are on par with war criminals morally, but because no one wants to be the villain in the story. That's why they wrote history the way they did and then consigned us there as relics of a past in which they succeeded in "conquering" us. To recognize us as contemporaries, actual human beings, who run our own governments would mean admitting to every small pox blanket, every Wounded Knee or Sand Creek Massacre, to every step any Native took away from their homelands at gunpoint.

This country was built on soil stained with our blood, the soil that cradles the bones of our ancestors, the soil that remembers our words, our ceremonies, and our Peoples. We may have been physically removed from our homelands but there's an unbroken connection that can never be severed.

You fight *for* land. We are *of* the land. So while the illegal occupation of Native homelands by your illegitimate government may be celebrating 250 years of squatting this land isn't your land.

It never was.

"By persuasion and force they have been made to retire from river to river and from mountain to mountain, until some of the tribes have become extinct and others have left but remnants to preserve for awhile their once terrible names. Surrounded by the whites with their arts of civilization, which by destroying the resources of the savage doom him to weakness and decay."

-andrew jackson on Indian removal

It's too bad it's just the same song second verse.

https://apnews.com/article/pope-apologizes-slavery-role-holy-see-vatican-78df993c5604eb098b19f255b89b3155?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=2026-05-25-Breaking+News

For an institution that holds the act of confession in reconciliation as one of its seven holy sacraments they are really bad at it.

Hedging before he'd even gotten started leo tries to explain away the sin of enslavement as an issue of ecclesiastical growing pains, that instead of the absolute moral failure it actually is the church's actions in service to subjugation and genocide were a "whoopsie" that we shouldn't judge as people back then didn't know any better. That they had a whole ass religion, a pipeline to god pope, and an entire book that literally gave them a list of things not to do at their disposal and they still enslaved and genocided people every chance they got shouldn't hold them to the standards of today, completely disregarding that despite the papal bulls that stated otherwise it's never been ok or moral to enslave or attempt to exterminate entire Peoples. My latin is pretty rusty but I don't think "do unto others" had a completely different meaning years ago.

The encyclical references papal bulls romanus pontifex and dum diversas as the basis for the church legitimizing enslavement but again leo wiggles out of true contrition, noting that the holy see only made these pronouncements at the request of "sovereigns". Not only does that gloss over the fact that those bulls bestowed the divine right to own and abuse other human beings it gives catholicism an easy out: if political leaders hadn't asked the vatican never would have agreed. One only has to look at the current back and forth between leo and trump to see that the church has a mind of its own and is beholden only to their faith, the holy trinity, and their catechism. No one tells rome what to do. They do what they believe is divinely right with not a single thought of the harms they visit upon non catholics.

Leo calls enslavement a "wound in christian memory" and states that it is one that modern catholics must recognize and atone for as he then *sincerely* asks for pardon.

The catholic right of reconciliation has very specific steps one must undertake in order to obtain forgiveness. The first is to recognize your sins in their totality. Then there is confession, naming aloud all your wrongs to a priest. You can't just phone up god yourself and let him know what an asshole you've been because in being an asshole doing asshole things you've damaged your relationship with him and are therefore unworthy of him taking your call. The priest listens and then assigns you penance, usually a bunch of prayers that'll get you off the naughty list, which you must pray in order to be forgiven. You pinky swear not to be an asshole anymore by praying the act of contrition and the priest says go do your penance and you're good.

That's all well and good if you're trying to get back in the good graces of a guy so willing to damn you to hell that he makes sure you're born with original sin (for non catholics: original sin is the sin of adam and Eve who ate from the tree of knowledge and so offended god that everyone born after that has to take responsibility for it so much so that it can only be washed away by baptism and if you don't get baptized before you die, well, sorry about your luck) but for the rest of us it's not anywhere near enough.

I'm Mvskoke and Semvnole. I am of the Tribal Majority Diaspora, those that due to the ongoing scourge of colonialism didn't get to grow up in our cultures. We are on the lifelong journey to reclaim what was brutally stolen from our ancestors due to the so called united states policies of physical, spiritual, and cultural ongoing genocide. You may be wondering what that has to do with enslavement. Just follow the bouncing ball and I assure you it will all make horrible sense.

Remember those papal bulls I wrote about earlier? Those, along with the bull inter caetera, formed the basis of the doctrine of discovery. Those bulls gave papal blessing to the colonization of the "new world" and with the full force of the church behind them immoral people who thought themselves both superior and righteous set about stealing land through genocide and assimilation, seeking to destroy anyone who stood in the way of conquest.

The history of the "americas" is predicated upon the idea that white colonizers had such incredible purpose, ordained by the heavens themselves, that it necessitated they spread like entitled locusts, greedily eating up all the land while gnashing their teeth on the bones of its original people, spitting us out like the gristle you wouldn't even feed your dog. It in turn gave birth to the fallacies of american exceptionalism and manifest destiny, lies that were so destructive and uncivilized it's basis was the destruction of every non white person that originally lived here or was forced here so your white ancestors could be lazy and rich. And the kicker is y'all still believe them to be true.

The so called united states was built on the blood of the Indigenous and the backs of Black people. The atrocities committed with the blessing of the catholic church are not a "wound in christian memory". They are ongoing, built into the systems we must navigate every day in order to survive.

It would be easy to dismiss this as hyperbolic or alarmist but only if you don't know federal Indian law.

The marshall trilogy was a series of three opinions handed down by the supreme court that reenforced the paternalistic role of "america" in its relations with Native Nations. It took our inherent sovereignty, which has existed since time immemorial prior to invasion and depends on no recognition by a foreign government to be real or deserving of honor, and twisted it into the grotesquery that is the domestic dependent Nations status we endure today. That trilogy was based upon the doctrine of discovery. The same doctrine of discovery that wouldn't exist if it were not for the papal bulls inter caetera, romanus pontifex, and dum diversas.

This is not some long ago wound that christians bear that pope leo didn't apologize for. It was used in 2005 in a SCOTUS opinion, written by everyone's favorite progressive justice rbg, that denied the Onieda Nation sovereignty over their ancestral homelands after they had reclaimed them by purchasing them, proving that even when we play by the rules your ancestors wrote we'll lose anyway.

The church has attempted to address these wrongs but again, for folks that confess a lot, they can't seem to get it right when it comes to accepting responsibility.

In 2023, when pope francis did his apology tour for Indian residential "schools" in so called canada, he repudiated the doctrine of discovery. These were empty words however as the church had not issued the doctrine. They issued the papal bulls that formed the basis for it. It's an important distinction because it makes the repudiation all the more insidious. The doctrine itself was not technically ever endorsed by the church so repudiating it means nothing. It's as empty as a land acknowledgement.

That he could stand there and apologize for the doctrine without formally repudiating and rescinding inter caetera, romanus pontifex, and dum diversas, the bulls that borne the international law that gave divine right to ongoing Indigenous genocide and enslavement of Black people, was a gross slight of hand, convincing the world at large that he was atoning for the injustices that the church blessed, all while the bulls are still very much tenets of the church. That apology, just like leo's, was meant more to appease the masses than any actual act of contrition. Even worse, it's a bold faced lie meant to assuage catholic guilt at the expense of real reparative work and concrete actions to acknowledge, atone, and start the healing of the wounds they are still inflicting.

Black and Indigenous Peoples deserve those repudiations and recensions.

We deserve better than the lies and obfuscation from an entity that is so convinced of its righteousness that it can look the world in the eye and performatively repudiate a doctrine that "technically" was never part of church teaching but whose divine instruction almost caused Black and Indigenous extinction and created systems that not only subjugate us but rely on that subjugation to prosper, while continuing to hold sacred the basis from which it sprung in the form of those papal bulls, and still call itself the one true church.

It's time for a reckoning. It's time for truth. It's time to end hollow apologies that only serve as cynical PR for a church who demands penance for forgiveness yet will not do any of its own.

This, and only this, will begin to address the horrors that have been visited upon Black and Brown people by the catholic church.

https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html#_ftnref174

You heard me right. This 100% Urban Native who is strictly an indoor girl is going to stay at a camp, in nature, with the intention that I will be touching dirt.

I'm excited (and a little nervous) but as a member of the Tribal Majority Diaspora who was detribalized due to colonialism I have never had a chance to be in community like this for an extended period of time. I know it will be an adjustment, that there are things that will be challenging, that for the most part I'm not completely prepared for but I'm committed to meeting those things head on and embracing this opportunity to learn and heal a part of myself that has been neglected for far too long.

Mvto Ginew Collective for this incredible opportunity to be in a space that was denied my ancestors. I hope to honor them and you during my time there and after.

PS If you're a fluffy girl who has clothes or shoes or boots that are used to being in nature that you no longer need I'd be super happy to take them off your hands. I literally have nothing appropriate for this and could really use an assist.

If anyone has camping/gardening things I could borrow (a flashlight, work gloves, whatever else I need for nature idk) that would be awesome too.

I may be putting together an Amazon wishlist soon so also look for that. MVTO!!

Justice Supernaw was one of the Justices who ruled in favor of The Plaintiffs in SC-2023-10, CITIZENSHIP BOARD OF THE MUSCOGEE (CREEK) NATION V. RHONDA K. GRAYSON, ET AL. which ordered enrollment for Freedmen and struck "by blood" from the Mvskoke Nation Constitution.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/681cdef655f05d76e9fd3e36/t/69de704a2b5e186e12cd257a/1776185418421/Admin.+Order+2026-03%2C+Notice+of+Retirement%2C+Justice+Kathleen+Supernaw%2C+04142026.pdf

In what has to be a complete coincidence a couple of government folks viewed my profile this week. No, not just viewed. They specifically searched to find my profile to view it.

I hope they enjoyed my writing and that it was interesting reading for that air force officer and the public safety professional from homeland security who works in the homeland security investigations office, especially since they made such a concerted effort to find me.

They must really be fans to seek out a Mvskoke Semvnole journalist and Native Rights Advocate who vocally opposes the current administration as well as their entire system of governance that was built upon the backs of Black people and the blood of the Indigenous and that continues to rely on our subjugation to exist.

First let me say that I'm so appreciative that these no kings get togethers have solved racism against Natives. Despite being a demographic that's incredibly likely to be mistaken for one of our Southern relatives and thus harassed, detained, and possibly deported we are not being terrorized by ICE like Latino, Black, and Asian people are. At least according to the no kings we aren't because we didn't make that thoughtfully curated list provided in their talking points.

See this is the problem a lot of people have with these no kings play dates and potlucks. They're rewriting the resistance playbook, one already written and perfected by Black women, and they're doing it via a very colonial and racialized lens.

They politely ask for a return to a democracy that they either don't know or don't care never actually existed. They do it in part by using graphics that rely on colonial documents and frameworks of what "america" should be, ignoring the fact that it never was any of the things it said it was.

It's all "We the people" "rejecting kings since 1776" "rejected our first king and we'll do it again". Those are seemingly great slogans for the 2 second attention span society we're currently enmeshed in but they exist in a colonial vacuum, one in which Natives are once again erased.

There were people and still existing governments here prior to 1776 and we weren't rejecting a king. We were rejecting the colonizing ancestors of the protesters that ally themselves with the no kings movement, a movement which isn't working towards equity. It's more like they're vying for an award for Best Performative Action By white People Who Finally Got Uncomfortable. They certainly aren't working for democracy. For a democracy to work it has to represent *all* people.

How is no kings going to "save democracy" when they can't even represent Natives, the population most vulnerable to being racialized as the stereotype of what an "illegal" immigrant looks like and who will therefore bear the brunt of the trauma of that misidentification, in their talking points of people who have been terrorized by ICE?

The answer is they can't and even if they could they wouldn't.

You see they're not advocating for change. They're advocating for a return to the status quo, a world in which their skin color afforded them the privilege of not having to know how to organize and, more importantly, not having to care that marginalized communities have spent their entire existences navigating a society which was set up specifically for them to fail.

That's not democracy. That's not equity. That's advocating for a return to a system built upon white supremacy that has harmed generations of Black and Brown people but had such a good PR campaign white people have convinced themselves it was the greatest country ever when that couldn't be further from the truth.

I'm not saying that your frog suited flash mobs won't bring about the fall of fascism. Maybe they will. I'm saying that if it does there needs to be a reckoning of what this country truly is instead of what you want to pretend it to be otherwise we're going to have this same problem again and the next time your bouncy houses and creative signs might not "save" us.

Also there's no such thing as whiteface.

Y'all don't get to be offended when your ancestors committed ongoing physical, spiritual, and cultural genocides on marginalized Peoples to make us conform to your ideas of what is the correct way to be civilized, modern, and right with a christian god.

Your government literally had a reeducation policy called kill the Indian save the man that you inflicted on our vulnerable Native children to make them be, live, and act white.

You've either been actively supporting or passively complicit in upholding the tenets of white supremacy by benefitting from a system that relies on Black and Brown folks' assimilation to your ideas of how society should work in order to have 1/10th of the success you've enjoyed because you're melanin deficient.

You could have helped tear it down and rebuild an equitable system but instead you participated in it anyway because, whether consciously or not, you did a cost benefit analysis of the status quo v equity and decided that cost was a small price for someone else to pay for your comfort.

So no, someone slapping on some makeup and prosthetics to hold a mirror up that shines back a reflection that is true but that you don't like isn't crossing any line except the one white people drew when they expected us to give up our own beliefs, cultures, and traditions to be like them.

You can't expect us to act white then crucify us when we do it.

And if you don't like what you see maybe it's time to stop blaming others and examine just what brand whiteness represents and make the needed changes so you're not rightfully skewered again.

As part of the 250th anniversary of the illegal occupation of Native homelands (well, almost anniversary because it'll be on Friday, July 3) the fireworks display is specifically open to so called united states residents via a lottery system, from April 8-12, on recreation.gov.

The park will be closed off to the general public and only those with tickets and valid IDs will be allowed entry. IDs considered valid, per the recreation website, are U.S. State or Territory-Issued Driver’s License or State ID, U.S. Passport (book or card), Permanent Resident Card (“Green Card”).

Not included on the valid ID list? Tribal ID.

This is not merely an oversight it's a slap in the face to the Lakota for whom the Paha Sapa are not only sacred but are being held illegally by the so called united states in violation of the 1868 treaty of ft laramie. This has been recognized by the supreme court who in 1980 ruled that the seizure of the land was illegal and awarded the Lakota $102 million as compensation, ignoring the fact that the land was stolen, not sold. One cannot buy what was never for sale.

The money, valued at $1.76 billion as of 2023, has never been claimed as accepting the money would legally mean agreeing that the land was sold. The money is held by the bureau of indian affairs and is still accruing interest as the Lakota await the fair return of the sacred Pahá Sápa.

It's grotesque how on brand it is for your government to deny entry to the Paha Sapa for the Original Peoples using a Tribal ID to lands they're currently illegally occupying.

We looked out at the expanse of the parking lot which ordinarily served as our only playground. The usually foreboding lot, known as The Blacktop, was calm that day with no spots of random gooey tar that would melt the bottom of shoes. It was a good thing it was cool because it allowed for the tape to stick to The Blacktop. 

The third graders were already lined up waiting for us. We ran towards them, the boys having a much easier time than the girls who stumbled over unfamiliar long calico skirts. 

When we were all together the teachers hustled everyone into a single file line facing the taped off squares that were a new, if temporary, addition to The Blacktop. 

Well, almost everyone. 

I was told to stand by the teachers, my legs bare because I had no calico skirt. The Indians didn't wear calico, at least not at the time we were playacting. 

There was a sense of excitement in the air with all the other kids ready to play their part, anxiously awaiting the starting "gun" (in actuality a whistle) that would be their cue to run and choose a square.

I wouldn't be running. Indians didn't make this run back in the day. They were too busy being removed from their ancestral homelands and from the land that the other kids would be claiming as their own, a microcosm repeating our displacement and genocide. 

I stood alone, the only Native in either grade, representing all Natives in what I'd been assured was "a special role", alone. The sound of the whistle reverberated in my ears as I watched my classmates gleefully try to outrun each other to get the square they wanted. 

I did not grow up in my Mvskoke and Semvnole cultures. We are the first generation of our family not to be forced into the reeducation camps (federal Indian boarding "schools") since their inception. I used to wear the fact that I was two of the 5...Tribes as a badge of honor, unaware that the name wasn't a compliment. But as I stood and watched what was happening I suddenly knew this wasn't right. I may not have known why but I felt it in my spirit.

What I was watching, what had left me othered and resting in a humiliation I would not understand for years, was an Oklahoma land run reenactment and I was the token Native.

When I was born my skin was red, a hue that years ago would have had me identified by that color. In elementary school I was a shade of warm brown, my Indigeneity on display for all to see. By junior high, the beginning of my commitment to goth/80s new wave style that saw me avoiding the sun and dancing in the night, my skin had faded to a beautiful cafe au lait. These days my face is of the moon, light enough to be white presenting even as my arms carry the color of our ancestors, a face that betrays my roots as my brown hands tends to them.

I tell this story not to play the Oppression Olympics. I know I will never have the same experiences and struggles those who were born into their culture/s live and I respect that I'm not a spokesperson for my relatives from the Rez. I understand that I have privilege to navigate systems that others may not. 

I tell this story to illustrate that there are experiences that we have as Urban Natives that are also singular to us, experiences that are damaging in a way that leaves us struggling to find our place in worlds that tell us we don't belong. Not white enough. Not traditional enough. Not enough. 

There are days when this dual rejection sends me back to The Blacktop, the sound of that whistle calling me back to a time when I stood alone. 

But most days I speak the words of my ancestors. I send up smoke. I rest in the beauty of community. 

On those days reconnecting or Rez doesn't matter. The judgments of those that have not lived my life don't matter. Those who would question just how Native I'm allowed to be don't matter. 

On those days I am enough. 

Initial work began in March and PCI Guidehouse received funds on March 24, May 13, and September 23 totalling $1,806,496.00, meeting the obligation.

According to the Contract Summary at USA Spending the contract provides ICE Office of the Chief Financial Officer with project management, administrative, position management analysis, and IT systems support.

I reached out to The Poarch Creek Band of Indians but have not yet heard back. I will update with any new information.

So tell me why, with my “check out the big brain on Brad" smarts, I neglected to read the flyer for the Trudell screening in Tvlse this Saturday, which I assumed was first come, first served, and and was being help at Circle Cinema instead of the Center for Creativity.

This is particularly embarrassing because I write words a lot and just cavalierly ignored the ones on the flyer. Now I have zero tickets when I need three.

I'm really bad at math because that portion of my brain is filled with song lyrics, movie quotes, and random trivia (see above) but even I can puzzle out that zero is less than three.

Can anyone whose plans have changed help me out please? I'd really appreciate it.