Sacred Water, Sacred Air, Sacred Land, Sacred Life
Sacred Water, Sacred Air, Sacred Land, Sacred Life
With October just around the corner, we need your help to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day in recognition that Indigenous Peoples are still here. Community organizers are coming together to get an Indigenous Peoples Day resolution passed in Boston to recognize the true history of the city and honor the continued resiliency of Indigenous communities in Boston today. Moonanum James, of the Wampanoag tribe of Aquinnah, explains: "The Massachusett people had villages here.
February 21, 2012 is International Mother Language Day, or Mother Tongue Day, first observed by the international community in 2000 expressly to promote linguistic diversity and multilingualism—this year’s theme is “Mother tongue instruction and inclusive education.”
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Cultural Survival's Endangered Languages Program invites you to explore American Indian language revitalization efforts nationwide in preparation for the November 17 national broadcast of the triumphant story of the reawakening and return home of the Wampanoag language. We Still Live Here - ?s Nutayune?n, starring the W?pan?ak Language Reclamation Project, airing nationally on PBS's Independent Lens series,
This year the Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award was awarded to Cultural Survival board member, Ramona Peters (Mashpee Wampanoag) for her commitment to sustaining the cultural values of her people by the First Peoples Fund. Ramona works with clay and other natural materials making ceramic vessels.
From my apartment door, I see a blue sky hovering over the tin roof of the neighboring house. I see the blended tops of coconut trees standing so close, their palms so intertwined, that it’s hard to tell where one ends and the next begins. I see lined telephone poles and a busy road down to my right, the bus stop and grocery store across the street, and wild chickens running around below. They almost always seem to be in a hurry, but I never know where they’re going.
Long before the arrival of the settlers, the land which we call Turtle Island was bountiful of rich foods, clean water, and a vast amount of biodiversity. Cornfields wrapped around the coastline for miles, schools of fish swam so thick, and trees were so healthy they produced many nuts and fruits. Our ancestors celebrated thanksgiving about 13 times a year. In the Northeast, the first thanksgiving is the Strawberry Thanksgiving as it is the first berry of the season.
With Native American Heritage Month well underway and Thanksgiving/National Day of Mourning occurring tomorrow, it is an excellent time to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ brilliance, honor and acknowledge truth in history, recognize whose land we are on, and work towards true allyship. We call upon our Cultural Survival community to learn from Indigenous Peoples and their true account of this federal holiday, confront settler mythologies of this country's history, understand how American colonialism and imperialism continue to impact Indigenous communities today, and to take steps towards tru
I am a Na Ñuu Savi (Person of the Place of Rain, Mixtec) born in Santa Maria, California, United States, to Nivi Ñuu Savi (People of the Place of Rain) who migrated there to work as farmers in the California agricultural economy. Ñuu Savi (the Place of Rain) is in Oaxaca, Puebla, and Guerrero, Mexico, where many pueblos are known by names that describe our history.
In the Northeastern Coastal Algoquin language, our word for dugout canoe is “mishoon.” Our coastal Tribes have utilized the waterways as ancient highways for thousands of years traveling in mishoon which are considered carbon neutral water vessels. As the original population of the American northeastern region, we have faced European assimilation.
For 50 years, Cultural Survival has partnered with Indigenous communities to advance Indigenous Peoples' rights and cultures worldwide. We envision a future that respects and honors Indigenous Peoples' inherent rights and dynamic cultures, deeply and richly interwoven in lands, languages, spiritual traditions, and artistic expression and rooted in self-determination and self-governance.
By Wakinyan LaPointe (Sicangu Lakota) and Thorne LaPointe (Sicangu Lakota)
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.