Sovereignty, Memory, and Ritual

• Read:
  • “Tribal Sovereignty Movements Compared: The Plains Region” in Beyond Red Power: American Indian Politics and Activism Since 1900 — Analyzes sovereignty movements across the Plains region.
  • “Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee,” Paul Chaat Smith — Chronicles key moments in the American Indian Movement.
• Watch: “The Battle at Standing Rock” (The Atlantic) — A documentary on resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
• Listen:
  • "This Land" Podcast, Rebecca Nagle — On legal battles that shape Indigenous rights.
  • “Finding new relevance in the history of tribal governance” (Native America Calling Podcast)
• Make: A one-page nation breif. Choose one nation with ties to Chicagoland, such as the Potawatomi, Odawa, and Ojibwe nations of the Council of Three Fires, or the Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Miami, Sauk, or Meskwaki nations.
  1. Find the nation’s own government website and read how it describes itself.
  2. Note its governing structure, one current priority, and one way it invites outside support.
  3. Write three sentences in your own words and cite the nation’s site, not a secondary source.
  4. Share your brief at the Sand Creek Making Activity or with a friend.

 💬 Reflection Prompts:

• When you hear “sovereignty,” what picture comes to mind: a government, a land base, a people, a practice? Which picture did school give you, and which did you have to find yourself?
• Treaties carry obligations on both sides. Which obligations does the United States still carry, and who is responsible for knowing them?
• Pick one sovereignty struggle from these materials. What would solidarity look like if it followed that nation’s lead rather than your assumptions?

• Experience:  Thursdays, 6-8pm, CNAIR House (515 Clark St. Evanston, IL) | Attend the Ojibwe Language Circle. Come hang out and practice Ojibwe in a casual, friendly environment. Food is served. Open to all ages and skill levels. Email:ForrestBruce2024@u.northwestern.edu for more details
• Read:
  • “War Against Children” — Interactive exploration on the impact of boarding schools.
  • “Learning from the land: Indigenous land based pedagogy and decolonization” — On Indigenous educational practices rooted in land.
  • Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875-1928, David Wallace Adams
• Watch:
  • “Native American Reservations, Explained” (A People’s History, PBS)
  • Our Spirits Don’t Speak English (dir. Chip Richie) — Documentary on the legacy of boarding schools.
• Listen:
  • “Star Wars Anangong Miigaading: A new hope for language revitalization” (Unreserved, CBC Radio)
  • “Decolonizing the Classroom” (Unreserved, CBC Radio)
• Make: Create Language Learning Resources
  • Design flashcards with basic words and phrases in the Indigenous language you're learning.
  • Include pronunciation guides and contextual meanings.
  • Use these flashcards to practice daily or share them at the language table.
  • Consider: How might your learning materials become part of a larger effort to document and preserve linguistic knowledge?

 💬 Reflection Prompts:

• Boarding schools targeted the passing of language between generations. What does it take today (time, funding, policy, relationships) to rebuild that passing, and who is carrying the work?
• What is the difference between a language being preserved and a language being spoken? Which does your support help?
• Which languages did your own family keep or lose? What did that cost them, or give them?

• Read:
  • “Acre by acre, the Prairie Band Potawatomi bought back their land” — Details the Prairie Band Potawatomi’s land reclamation.
  • “Land as a Social Relationship” (Briarpatch Magazine) — Discusses relational views of land beyond ownership.
  • As Long as Grass Grows, Dina Gilio-Whitaker — On Indigenous environmental justice.
• Attend: November 21, 6 pm, Ruggles Hall or Zoom | “Indigenous People and the Chicago Portage” – Historian John William Nelson discusses Indigenous histories of Chicago waterways.
• Explore: NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building Indigenous power
• Make: Design a Digital or Physical Map
  1. Start with Northwestern’s Evanston campus, your neighborhood, or a place you feel connected to.
  2. Use Native Land Digital as a starting point, then check it against tribal nations’ own sources and the Gichigamiin Indigenous Nations Museum’s Indigenous Chicago exhibition.
  3. Mark at least one current Indigenous-led land, water, or food project nearby.
  4. Add one action you will take in support of that project.
  5. Share the map with a friend and ask what they would add.
• Listen:
  • “The latest on the Land Back movement, in which Native American tribes reclaim land” (All Things Considered, NPR)
  • "Land Back w/ Nickita Longman, Emily Riddle, & Lindsay Nixon” (The Red Nation Podcast)
• Attend: Tuesday, November 3, 3:00–4:30pm | Sand Creek Commemoration Film & Discussion, The Women’s Center (2000 Sheridan Rd.)

 💬 Reflection Prompts:

• Land Back asks for decision-making power, not only acreage. What would that look like for one piece of land you know well?
• What separates a land acknowledgment from land return? What would move an institution from one to the other?
• Name three relationships you have with land: where you live, eat, and travel. What do you take, and what do you give back?

• Attend: Wednesday, November 6 @ 4pm Sand Creek Commemoration Film Screening at the Women's Center (Evanston)
• Make: Tuesday, November 10, 5:30–7:30pm | Sand Creek Commemoration Making Activity, University Library Main Book Nook
• Experience: Tuesday, November 17, 5:30–7:30pm | Sand Creek Commemoration Procession & Fire, from the John Evans Center to the CNAIR Lawn
• Read:
  • This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving, David J. Silverman
  • Our Hearts Fell to the Ground: Plains Indian Views of How the West Was Lost, Colin G. Calloway
• Explore: Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site
• Watch: "We Shall Remain" — PBS documentary series on Native history and resistance.
• Listen:
  • “Lies Your Teacher Taught You” (All My Relations Podcast)

💬 Reflection Prompts:

• The procession begins at a building named for John Evans and ends on the CNAIR lawn. What does that route ask Northwestern, and you, to reckon with?
• Commemoration can comfort, and it can challenge. What should remembering a massacre leave you uncomfortable with?
• What do Sand Creek descendants ask of institutions today, and how would you learn that in their own words?

• Read:
  • "From Warriors to Soldiers: A History of American Indian Service in the United States Military,” Pamela D. Bennett
• Watch:
  • “Chester Nez: One of the Original 29 Navajo Code Talkers, World War II”
  • "Way of the Warrior" documentary (PBS) — On Native service members and their stories.
• Listen:
  • “Remembering Native American World War II Veterans” (Native American Calling Podcast)
• Make:
  • Veterans Day, revisited. Veterans Day falls on November 11. Find one Native veteran’s story told in their own words, for example through the Smithsonian’s Why We Serve online exhibition. Write a short note on what service meant to them and what their nation’s relationship with the United States was at the time.

💬 Reflection Prompts:

• Native people have long served in the U.S. military at high rates. How do veterans themselves hold that service alongside the history of U.S. violence against Native nations?
• Code talkers used languages that boarding schools tried to erase. What does that contradiction reveal?
• Whose service gets a parade, and whose gets a footnote?

• Read:
  • "'All the Real Indians Died Off': And 20 Other Myths About Native Americans" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
• Watch:
  • Gather (dir. Sanjay Rawal)— A documentary on Indigenous food sovereignty.
  • *More Than a Word* (dir. John Little)— On Native mascots and representation.
• Listen:
  • "ThanksTaking or ThanksGiving?" (All My Relations Podcast) — Reflects on Thanksgiving from an Indigenous perspective.
• Experience:
  • Attend Indigenous Peoples' Day celebrations
• Make:
  • Ritual serves an important purpose for all of us. Now that you have been thinking about “Thanksgiving” and Indigenous People’s Day, try to create an alternative celebration that honor this new knowledge.
    • Document your ritual: What elements will you preserve? What stories will guide it? How might it evolve over time?

💬 Reflection Prompts:

• What would you have to give up to change a ritual you love? What might you gain?
• Where is the line between honoring a tradition and borrowing one? Who gets to draw it?
• If your gathering told a truer story this year, who at the table most needs to hear it, and how would you say it with care?