Donate to the UUSC Emergency Relief Fund
Support their efforts in Eastern Europe
to meet the needs of Ukrainian refugees

ACTION:

• Prepare yourself to interrupt racial jokes about Indigenous people or other people of color. 
  • How Do You Handle a Racist Joke? (MTV News video)  
• Attend a Pow Wow. Here's how to prep for Pow Wow:
  • Watch this short video: What is a Pow Wow? (Washington University, MO)
  • Learn about Pow Wow etiquette and more: Pow Wow Visitor's Guide (video, popwows.com)
  • Read about the importance of Indigenous Peoples' cultural dance: How the Indigenous Community Is Using Dance as a Way to Heal (Christian Allaire, Vogue, March 2020)
  • Explore the online cultural community space in the Social Distance Powwow Facebook group.
• Join and support Indigenous Organizations in Massachusetts, such as the United American Indians of New England (UAINE), the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project (WLRP), the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, and the North American Indian Center of Boston (NAICOB).

Articles:

• *Four Ways to Honor Without Appropriating Culture by Taté Walker (Lakota). 
• Josias Wampatuck sold Scituate for 14 pounds!  Scituate Mariner; Aug. 1993 (PDF)
• *Native Perspectives on the 40th Anniversary of the American Religious Freedom Act – by Dennis Zotigh (Kiowa, San Juan Pueblo, Santee Dakota). Smithsonian Magazine Nov 2018.
• A Guide to Indigenous Land Acknowledgement – short article from Native Governance Center; Oct. 2019
  Beyond Land Acknowledgement Series – Additional online articles posted in 2021
• The 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was created in response to the systematic removal of many Native American children from their homes in the 1950’s and 60’s to support Indigenous tribes’ efforts to maintain cultural and familial ties to its children.  Its constitutionality is being contested in recent court cases that have landed in the US Supreme Court. Some reading as reference:

• ICWA History and Purpose – a brief description of the law and its rationale — Montana Dept of Public Health and Human Services
• The Nation’s First Family Separation Policy – by Christie Renick; The Imprint (from non-profit news outlet FMC), Oct 2018  
• Brackeen v Haaland, Part 2: Challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act – Non-partisan summary of the basic facts and issues of the case as well as lower court outcomes; by Meredith Polm; Close Up (non-profit civic engagement org), Nov 2021
• Both Sides Ask the Supreme Court to Decide Fate of Indian Child Welfare Act – by Chuck Carroll; The Imprint, Sept 2021

• In 1621, the Wampanoag Tribe Had Its Own Agenda – by David J. Silverman; The Atlantic Magazine, posted online 11/27/19
• Anti-racism: Including the Indigenous First Nation Perspective – by Claudia A. Fox Tree (Arawak) on the 'Native American Resources' blog; posted 6/07/20.
• Eight Native American Scientists You Should Know – by Marisa Sloan; Discover Magazine, posted Nov. 16, 2021

Video:

• Here is a list of documentaries on pbs.org that raise up the voices of Native Americans and Alaska Natives:
  • Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On - Available Nov. 22. Experience the story of the Oscar-winning Indigenous artist from her rise to prominence in New York’s Greenwich Village folk music scene through her six-decade groundbreaking career as a singer-songwriter, social activist, educator and artist.
  • Alter-NATIVE: Kitchen - Meet three talented young Indigenous chefs — Brian Yazzie, a Navajo/Diné chef originally from Arizona, now based in Minnesota; Kalā Domingo, a Hawaiian culinary student and heir to his dad’s catering throne; and Hillel Echo-Hawk, a Pawnee-Athabaskian chef and caterer in Seattle – all preparing foods from their native cultures that sustained their communities for generations.
  • If Cities Could Dance: Indigenous Enterprise Brings Powwow Dance to the World Stage - Indigenous Enterprise, made up of a new generation of Native American Powwow dancers from across the U.S. and Canada, is on a mission to bring Native culture to new heights and audiences.
  • A Qayaq to Carry Us - Get to know the Sugpiat community as they come home to Kodiak Island in Alaska to learn and build Indigenous knowledge. Merging Indigenous knowledge with western science, Dr. Sven Haakanson and other Sugpiat people in Akhiok pass along the ingenuity of traditional knowledge in a living context to young Sugpiat while building a kayak from wood gathered on the treeless beaches of Cape Alitak.
  • Local USA, Season 6. Ep 8: In Their Element - The film features indigenous leaders from four communities across the United States, each working to protect a different natural resource: earth, air, fire, and water. For people whose existence is inseparable from their native land, climate change is not a tale of the future - it is the present.
  • Conscience Point, Season 21, Episode 4 - A Native American activist fights to protect her tribe from the onslaughts of development in the Hamptons.
    
• Bounty  Penobscot parents and children read and react to one of many government-issued bounty proclamations that led to settlers hunting and scalping indigenous men, women, and children. (9 minute video)
• *A Conversation with Native Americans on Race (6 minute video)
• Dear Georgina A Passamaquoddy woman who was removed from her home and indigenous community in 1942 tries to fill in some of the details of her early life in foster care. (14 minute video)
• *Tedx Talk "We the People" by Mark Charles (Navajo): "The three most misunderstood words in US history" (17 minute video)
• *Dawnland – Documentary about the investigation by the first official Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the United States into the removal of Native American children from their homes in Maine to teach them how to be white. Next online screening March 9, 2022. Emmy award winner (86 minutes).
• Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World - 2017 documentary by filmmaker Catherine Bainbridge examining the role of Native Americans in contemporary music history.  She exposes a critical missing chapter, revealing how indigenous musicians helped influence popular culture.  Available on Amazon Prime, also in local libraries.  (1 hour 42 minutes)
• Reservation Dogs – Sitcom about Native American Teens streaming on Hulu.  Link here is to an article about the series.

Audio:

• *The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women from Across the U.S. NPR host Sacha Pfeiffer interviews Annita Lucchesi (Cheyenne). Transcript included. (4 minute radio feature)
• *Unreserved with Rosanna Deerchild – What it Means to be an Elder. (O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree) Six elders from Mi'kmaq, Wolastoqey and Passamaquoddy communities in New Brunswick share their stories – about their life, the work they do and the change they're bringing for their people. (50 minute podcast)
• *Uprooted: The 1950’s Plan to erase Indian country.  Podcast about the genocidal Indian relocation and termination policies of the US government in the 1950s and 60s.  At the time, "blackness" was defined by the "one-drop rule," but "Indianness" could be washed away in just a few generations through intermarriage with whites.  More black Americans meant more workers to exploit.  Fewer Native Americans meant more land to take.  (52 minute podcast)  List of all episodes
• *All My Relations: Episode entitled, “Beyond Quantum Blood”  Podcast hosted by Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip), Desi Small-Rodriguez & Adrienne Keene (Cherokee Nation); a discussion on what blood quantum means, its complexities, and how it has been used historically and is being used and discussed currently.  10/8/2019 (55 minute podcast)
• What Would Tribal Leaders Want from the First Native American to Lead the National Parks Service? – Podcast episode (and transcript) hosted by Dave Miller (non-Indigenous) of Think Out Loud; a discussion with a journalist on 3 Native American leaders about their hopes for Biden’s nomination for the Director role, Chuck Sams III, who was later confirmed (18 minutes).

Social Media 

• Explore organizations:
  • Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women
  • IllumiNative
  • Indian Country Today
• Explore hashtags: #MMIW, #NODAPL, #Idlenomore, #NativeVoices

The 21-Day Challenge

• The 21-Day Racial Equity Indigenous Challenge  Many of the resources included above (*asterisked) appear in America & Moore's comprehensive list of resources and ideas that challenge non-Indigenous people to select one activity per day for 3 weeks that will broaden your knowledge and perspective regarding Indigenous Peoples.

350 Mass is a statewide, grassroots, member-led, campaign-focused network committed to a just transition for a climate-safe world. Members meet regularly to plan and work together to mobilize riends and neighbors to hold elected officials accountable as cities and towns transition off of fossil fuels. Their work ranges from educational programs to the passage of climate action plans, to pushing for 100% renewable content in community choice aggregation. 

UU the Vote was imagined as an “all hands on deck” project to articulate UU values in the public square and activate and organize Unitarian Universalists on a mass scale.

South Shore Peer Recovery is creating a safe space in the heart of the community where people with lived experience join together to build skills, provide support and find hope in recovery. All programs are free.

Since 2006, UU Mass Action has been mobilizing the 142 UU congregations in Massachusetts to confront oppression. Their pathways to justice are selected by engaging in our coalition partners shared priorities, assessing legislative momentum and identifying who are most vulnerable people in our Commonwealth.

STRIDE works within the community of Scituate, Massachusetts to affirm the value of representation, inclusion, diversity, and equity for the well-being and success of the community.

The UUSC is a nonprofit, nonsectarian organization advancing human rights. Striving to center the voices of people most affected by injustice, UUSC creates eye-to-eye relationships with frontline grassroots movements across the world that support marginalized communities in determining their steps for the future.

The Scituate Food Pantry works with churches, clubs, schools and individuals throughout the town to bring awareness of the issue of hunger in our community. Since 1993, they have assisted over 500 families totaling approximately 1100 people. Currently, The Pantry serves 250+ families who are eligible to receive a monthly order of nutritious non-perishable food. The Scituate Food Pantry receives no government funding but relies solely on the generous donations of businesses, organizations, schools and the people of our community.

The UU Urban Ministry is a social justice organization based in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. Their work includes safer shelter and workforce development programming for survivors of domestic violence; academic enrichment for Boston-area youth of color; Arts and Humanities programming grounded in a social justice message that amplifies artists and historians of color in our neighborhoods.

SSRAC is a nonprofit, community-based domestic violence program that has been assisting survivors of domestic violence and their families for more than 40 years. SSRAC is committed to providing comprehensive services for intimate partner and familial violence, as well as victim services and prevention for survivors and loved ones of impaired driving crashes, and loved ones who have lost someone to homicide. Services are free and confidential to all.

The Massachusetts Bail Fund is a non-judgmental, abolitionist bail fund, posting bail for people regardless of charge or court history. They share grassroots organizations’ abolitionist vision of a future where communities have the resources to address harm when it happens; seek community accountability; have healthcare, healing and trauma services; employment and economic opportunity; education; and housing. They work toward abolishing pretrial detention alongside fellow abolitionists who are leading community organizing to end cycles of harm and poverty and create processes for healing and well-being.