Social Movements & the Law

"There is powerful evidence that the colonization of Indigenous people was and is a crime, and that that crime is on-going. Achieving historical colonial goals often meant committing acts that were criminal even at the time. The consequences of this oppression and criminal victimization is perhaps the critical factor explaining why Indigenous people today are overrepresented as victims and offenders in the settler colonist criminal justice systems. This book presents an analysis of the relationship between these colonial crimes and their continuing criminal and social consequences that exist today. The authors focus primarily on countries colonized by Britain, especially the United States. Social harm theory, human rights covenants, and law are used to explain the criminal aspects of the historical laws and their continued effects. The final chapter looks at the responsibilities of settler-colonists in ameliorating these harms and the actions currently being taken by Indigenous people themselves." --Amazon.com.

"Who counts as an American Indian? Which groups qualify as Indian tribes? These questions have become increasingly complex in the past several decades, and federal legislation and the rise of tribal-owned casinos have raised the stakes in the ongoing debate. In this revealing study, historian Mark Edwin Miller describes how and why dozens of previously unrecognized tribal groups in the southeastern states have sought, and sometimes won, recognition, often to the dismay of the Five Tribe--the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles."--Publisher's website

""Since the arrival of European settlers, Native American cultural sovereignty has been under attack. Self-determination is a tribal right of Native people, but colonial oppression banned their traditions and religion, purloined and misused sacred sites, and betrayed treaties when convenient. Over time, the settlers usurped Native American culture to make room for white settlers, and these destructive behaviors continue today. Within the dearth of Native American culture left after forced assimilation, American Indians still struggle to retain their rights. In this historical account of the despotism against Native American culture, the altercations of sovereignty, territory, and pluralistic democracy are analyzed in an effort to provide a path towards justice."-Provided by publisher"--

"Jason Edward Black examines the ways the US government's rhetoric and American Indian responses contributed to the policies of Native-US relations throughout the nineteenth century's removal and allotment eras. Black shows how these discourses together constructed the perception of the US government and of American Indian communities. Such interactions--though certainly not equal--illustrated the hybrid nature of Native-US rhetoric in the nineteenth century. Both governmental, colonizing discourse and indigenous, decolonizing discourse shaped arguments, constructions of identity, and rhetoric in the colonial relationship. American Indians and the Rhetoric of Removal and Allotment demonstrates how American Indians decolonized dominant rhetoric through impeding removal and allotment policies. By turning around the US government's narrative and inventing their own tactics, American Indian communities helped restyle their own identities as well as the government's. During the first third of the twentieth century, American Indians lobbied for the successful passage of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 and the Indian New Deal of 1934, changing the relationship once again. In the end, Native communities were granted increased rhetorical power through decolonization, though the US government retained an undeniable colonial influence through its territorial management of Natives. The Indian Citizenship Act and the Indian New Deal--as the conclusion of this book indicates--are emblematic of the prevalence of the duality of US citizenship that fused American Indians to the nation, yet segregated them on reservations. This duality of inclusion and exclusion grew incrementally and persists now, as a lasting effect of nineteenth-century Native-US rhetorical relations"--

"A powerful and historically accurate graphic portayal of Indigenous resistance to the European colonization of the Americas, beginning with the Spanish invasion under Christopher Columbus." "Other events depicted include the 1680 Pueblo Revolt in New Mexico; the Inca insurgency in Peru from the 1500s to the 1780s; Pontiac and the 1763 Rebellion & Royal Proclamation; Geronimo and the 1860s Seminole Wars; Crazy Horse and the 1877 War on the Plains; the rise of the American Indian Movement in the 1960s; 1973's Wounded Knee; the Mohawk Oka Crisis in Quebec in 1990; and the 1995 Aazhoodena/Stoney Point resistance."--back cover

The Borderlands are both geographical and cultural spaces. This fluid space between worlds is a place of cultural wealth that hosts several communities. This libguide, the first of many centered on the people of the Borderlands, looks at the experiences of Black people in the Borderlands, from Baja, California to Tamaulipas, Mexico.

Women's History Month book recommendations from University of Arizona Press Publicity Manager Mary Reynolds include We Are the Stars, Ladies of the Canyons, and No Place for a Lady – all written by women authors.

Follow Us On Your Fav Podcasting App Review & Rate if you really love it! Queer News is an intersectional approach to a daily news podcast where race & sexuality meet politics, entertainmen…

Trump-appointed federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled that free birth control for teens from a federal program violates Texas law and parental rights. For now, it's still available in other states.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is blocking the funding after the drug store chain said it would no longer dispense abortion drugs in some states.

To commemorate and celebrate Women's History Month, WorldCat.org, the website that connects online searchers to the world's libraries, has collaborated with some of the most renowned women's organizations and scholars to share thought-provoking lists of important works about, by, and for women.

Women’s History Month has historically taken place during March and in 1980 “President Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation declaring the Week of March 8th 1980 as National Women’s History Week.” Though this proclamation was made 43 years ago, women still experience a gender gap to t

Be a changemaker in the legal industry by supporting gender diversity: See 5 Top Tips, including how to get involved. Get the resources you need.

In celebration of Women’s History Month, Zief Library Assistant Randall Seder takes a look at the social and legal history of the commemorative month, highlights Zief research resources, and presents some Bay-Area events of interest.

From a Joint Announcement (via Harvard Library): The HBCU Library Alliance and Harvard Library this week announced a project to sustain and deepen capacity for the digitization, discovery, and preservation of African American history collections held in HBCU libraries and archives. Harvard’s support for the HBCU Library Alliance’s ongoing work is a step in addressing […]

Tribal sovereignty in the United States is the concept of the inherent authority of indigenous tribes to govern themselves within the borders of the United States.

Pėhéveéšeēva (good day). I am an Assistant Professor of Sociology and American Indian Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. As a social demographer, I apply critical quantitative and mixed methods to research at the intersection of race, indigeneity, data, and inequality. I specialize in survey research in partnership with Indigenous communities and other marginalized populations. I ground my research in the following disciplinary lenses: Indigenous studies, sociology of race and ethnicity, political sociology, sociology of knowledge, critical demography, health policy research, and science and technology studies. As an Indigenous woman (Northern Cheyenne and Chicana), I believe that I cannot be a good researcher and teacher without being a good relative. Building strong relationships with Indigenous communities, organizations, Native Nations, and students requires humility, flexibility, and honoring the lived experiences of Indigenous Peoples—past, present, and future. I nurture these relationships by directing the Data Warriors Lab, which is an Indigenous social science laboratory. We connect researchers, students, and Indigenous communities to build data that support strong self-determined Indigenous futures. Our research model is grounded in the principles of Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance. Our work is driven by Indigenous communities (reservation, urban, and rural) and their pursuit of robust and meaningful data systems, policies, and practices. More on the Data Warriors Lab is coming soon.

PROMOTING INDIGENOUS DATA SOVEREIGNTY THROUGH DECOLONIZING DATA AND INDIGENOUS DATA GOVERNANCE

During the summer of 2019, Library staff members from various divisions collaborated on a reading circle around Indigenizing library instruction. This informal group continued into the fall of 2019, when we read sources focused more on politics prior to the federal election. The time and space offered participants a place to examine their practices and knowledge in a way that was supportive and safe. Based on the feedback, more informal learning and sharing was desired. One topic that was strongly requested was land acknowledgements, and how to authentically deliver them. Out of all this, the Decolonizing the Library Interest Group (DIG) was formed in late fall of 2019.

As big data, open data, and open science advance to increase access to complex and large datasets for innovation, discovery, and decision-making, Indigenous Peoples’ rights to control and access their data within these data environments remain limited. Operationalizing the FAIR Principles for scientific data with the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance enhances machine actionability and brings people and purpose to the fore to resolve Indigenous Peoples’ rights to and interests in their data across the data lifecycle.

American Indians (AIs) have some of the poorest documented health outcomes of any racial/ethnic group. Research plays a vital role in addressing these health disparities.Historical and recent instances of unethical research, specifically the Havasupai ...

The Red Paper follows a tradition of Indigenous analysis and agenda making reports, like the first Red Paper released in 1970 by the Indian Association of Alberta in response to Canada’s 1969 White Paper. Our report, “Land Back,” breaks down the current status of land dispossession in Canada, focusing on alienation through resource extraction.

Land Acknowledgment Resources

Northwestern is a community of learners situated within a network of historical and contemporary relationships with Native American tribes, communities, parents, students, and alumni. It is also in close proximity to an urban Native American community in Chicago and near several tribes in the Midwest. The Northwestern campus sits on the traditional homelands of the people of the Council of Three Fires, the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa as well as the Menominee, Miami and Ho-Chunk nations. It was also a site of trade, travel, gathering and healing for more than a dozen other Native tribes and is still home to over 100,000 tribal members in the state of Illinois.

After a long history of misuse and mistrust, Indigenous data require special care from librarians and others who manage them. Yet libraries and data reposi...

This position paper on Indigenous Protocol (IP) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a starting place for those who want to design and create AI from an ethical position that centers Indigenous concerns. Each Indigenous community will have its own particular approach to the questions we raise in what follows. What we have written here is not a substitute for establishing and maintaining relationships of reciprocal care and support with specific Indigenous communities. Rather, this document offers a range of ideas to take into consideration when entering into conversations which prioritize Indigenous perspectives in the development of artificial intelligence.

The University of Oregon is located on Kalapuya Ilihi, the traditional indigenous homeland of the Kalapuya people. Following treaties between 1851 and 1855, Kalapuya people were dispossessed of their indigenous homeland by the United States government and forcibly removed to the Coast Reservation in Western Oregon. Today, descendants are citizens of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians of Oregon, and continue to make important contributions in their communities, at UO, and across the land we now refer to as Oregon.*

California College of the Arts educates students to shape culture and society through the practice and critical study of art, architecture, design, and writing. Benefitting from its San Francisco Bay Area location, the college prepares students for lifelong creative work by cultivating innovation, community engagement, and social and environmental responsibility.

Following is a slightly extended version of comments I made as part of a panel, “Courage and Social Justice in Our Time,” which was held at the University of Alberta on March 14, 2016. My fellow panelists included:  Dr. Isabel Altamirano-Jimenez, Associate Professor,

Our goal in this article is to remind readers what is unsettling about decolonization. Decolonization brings about the repatriation of Indigenous land and life; it is not a metaphor for other things we want to do to improve our societies and schools.