Indigenous

What is value and how should we value things?

December 8, 2020
Finance, Indigenous, Culture

Can we tease apart the relationship between money, value, and the underlying physics around what we do? Can we create a precise physical definition to measure value like we have established for the measure of Volts and Amps? Or will money and economics be forever past the realm of hard physics and engineering because the relationships are not defined precisely or consistently enough? Do we even understand what it is that money does well enough to have that discussion?

A History of Amazon Deforestation

November 14, 2019
History, Indigenous, Amazon

The problem with Brazil doing any settler-colonizer style agriculture is they have just the smallest bit of suitable land. They have just the smallest bit of natural prairie at the south side of the country. It’s only in the State of Rio Grande do Sol. That same prairie bioregion extends down into Uruguay and Buenos Aires, but it’s absolutely tiny in Brazil (Overbeck et al., 2008). So what’s Brazil to do? The grileiros (from grilos, locusts) come to plague the land. They tear down existing biospheres. They steal land and kill Indigenous people. (Butler, 2011), (Arsenault & Mendes, 2017), (Zaitchik, 2019)

Root Beer’s Indigenous Roots

July 21, 2019
Herbs, Indigenous, Culture

Root beer is now a ubiquitous soft drink in America, but it’s modern form is nothing like the original teas brewed by Indigenous peoples on the American continent. It’s loaded with sugar. It’s made with artificial flavoring. It’s much less of a medicine than it originally was made to be.

The Origin of Concentration Camps

July 21, 2019
History, Indigenous, Culture

Concentration camps or internment camps are any mass imprisonment of people without charges, typically of citizens of an enemy or anyone suspected of terrorism. Often times, these camps are not called concentration camps or interment camps, as the intention at first may vary. No matter the original intent, concentration camps or interment camps always seem to evolve into situations where death reigns.

The Plundering of Nations, Elder Nathan Phillips, the MAGA Boys, and MMIW

January 20, 2019
Culture, Indigenous

The conflict between elder Nathan Phillips and the #MAGA kids is more than racism. The kids who were harassing the Omaha Nation elder may have been racist, but it’s still about the plundering of nations. Women and children disappear from reservation territory daily. The current laws make #MMIW cases likely fall under federal jurisdiction, but with additional complications and holes.