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Welcome to Different Matters Podcasts. We kind of see it
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as like a platform or like a safe space that
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like amplify, serves highlights underrepresented communities here at Calpoli. And
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so the goal with this episode is just really to
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like know more about the tribe. Like I'm sure students
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know of White to Tea, but we want to dive
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deeper and clarify a few questions. I think it's important
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to clarify whether they're like very.
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Obvious or not.
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So yeah, it's really just to educate the listeners and
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viewers who are going to listen to this episode, and
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also just dive deeper as to like why Native Americans
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are indigenous peopils. It's why is it important to like
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include them in society, like maybe clarify that and then
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also maybe bring up some like questions or topics that
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you all would like for students to know about, like
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the ytt or tribal nations or indigenous peopils in general.
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It's just me and Kate in this podcast, So we
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welcome you, and if we want to start off with
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some brief introductions, we can start wherever. I can popcorn
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somebody too.
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My name is Becca Lucas. I am a lecturer in
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the Ethnic Studies and the Natural Resources departments, and I
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am a tribal member of the Yakutichu Tchuo Yaktilhini Northern
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Tumash tribe of San Luisbethpo County and Regent. I teach
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classes that talk about ytt as we call ourselves because
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yaktch yak Tilhini is a very long ning to repeat
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multiple times, and our relationship to land, the history, the
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presence as it relates to indigenous nations within the boundaries
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of our current country and California in general.
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My name is Sophia Morassin. I'm a fourth year computer
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science senior with a minor in Ethnic Studies. Although I'm
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not indigenous to the United States, these issues are important
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to me as an indigenous person from the Southwest Asian
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North African region. And having taken Professor Lucas's class, I've
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become much more aware of everything and I would advise
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every single person in this university to take this class
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well classes that so that would be Ethnic Studies through
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sixty Ethnicity in the Land, and I'm one of the
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four researchers that's on the cal Pola Indigenous Walking Tour. Hi.
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Yeah, thank you so much for having us here today.
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My name is doctor Lydia Heberling. I am an assistant
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professor in the Ethnic Studies Department. This is my third
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year here, so I always say I'm a third year professor.
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I teach classes in American Indian Studies and literature when
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I can get away with it. That's my academic background
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is in literary studies and Indigenous studies. Those are the
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classes I teach. I do a lot of scholarship on
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California Indian literary studies. That was what I wrote my
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dissertation on. I come to Native studies in the United
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States as someone who's not an American Indian person. I
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am Latina, and we have our own kind of complex
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indigenous kind of backgrounds and origins there, and that's a
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that's a different story. But I always kind of acknowledge
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that as a professor of American Indian Studies and someone
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who does scholarship kind of in a North American context,
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you got to kind of mark those distinctions really carefully
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and thoughtfully because that establishes different kinds of relations to
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the work that we do.
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My name is Kay, also a part of the podcast
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team Different Matters with Amy and then I'm also involved
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in KCPR. I'm a DJ on KCPR. So very fun.
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But yeah, very excited to be a part of this team.
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It's just it's super important to you know, recognize voices
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that typically go unheard, and it's also a learning experience
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for students to also tune into and they can learn
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new things. So very excited to have all of you
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guys here. Thank you.
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Hi.
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This is Amy Osa the Different Matters Podcast, fourth year
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Ethnic Sudies major with Spanish minor. And yeah, I'm excited
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for this episode and let's get.
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Right into it.
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As how, like every event and guest speaker or keynote
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speaker event start, it always begins with like the land acknowledgment,
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So I do want to start off with the land acknowledgement.
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Kalpoli sits on the traditional lands of the Yaktitutuo yak
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Tilhini Northern Chumas tribe of San Luiso Bispo County and region.
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The Yuktitutu yuc Tilhini have a documented presence in this
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area for over ten thousand years. The Tilhini peoples have
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stewarded their ancestral and unseated homelands, which include all of
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the city's communities, federal and state open spaces within the
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San Luiso Bispo County region. These homelands extend east into
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the Carrizo Plains toward Kern County, south to the Santa
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Maria River, north to Ragged Point, and west beyond the
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ocean's shoreline, in an unbroken chain of lineage, kinship, and culture.
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I started off this kind of on purpose because I
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want to like break it down a bit. What does
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the land acknowledgment like mean? When was it like established?
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You can like interpret it any way, you can anything
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to put it like in simple terms, like for anyone's listening.
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They're like, oh, okay, now I understand, you know, it doesn't.
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Have to be all perfect, but yeah, I can take
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this in two different directions. Amy, do you want or
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it sounds like you kind of want both, maybe some
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of the context of that land acknowledgment and also land
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acknowledgments in general and what they mean.
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Yeah, I would say, yeah, both of those.
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Okay.
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So in now this is the part that I need
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fact checking on the dorm. So many are familiar with
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the Yaki tout dorms Yaki two tou a slightly sounds
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the same, looks similar to Yakutichu teach you. So it's
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an important distinction between the dorm complex, which translates roughly
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to community versus Yakutichu ti Chu, which is the beginning
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of our tribal name. When that project began in twenty eighteen,
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how Poly embarked on a real or I'm sorry it
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began before that. I can't remember when construction was completed,
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so you're all of the fact checking things.
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I think construction was finished in twenty eighteen.
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That sounds right.
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I think the like fall quarter incoming class of like
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twenty eighteen, like the class of twenty twenty two. People
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like those people. That was like their first time with
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their first time Yeah.
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Okay, cool, okay. So the project that led to the
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twenty eighteen completion of the Yaki Tutu Dorm Complex was
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a really targeted relationship and interaction with the tribe. So
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cal Poly really intentionally worked with the tribe to develop
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all the names and even the orientation as best they
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could with the dorm complex, which is something we talk
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about in more detail on the Indigenous Walking tour. Should
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you be interested in learning more while we are at
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the actual dorm complex. But in that process, in going
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through the language and the namings or the spatial awareness,
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I think that's where the impetus to begin with land
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acknowledgments came from, because that wasn't a practice really generally
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in the US, but definitely not here. You might notice
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that there's not a standardized land acknowledgment. This one is
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the one that we use. This is the one that
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ethnic studies tends to use before different events. But some
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people you know, on email signatures might have something different,
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or some people might say something different at other events.
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So there are a variety of different ways that people
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have a land acknowledgment and interpret the land acknowledgment. But
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the sort of core basis of it is recognizing ytt
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as the people of this land, and that's what remains
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the constant.
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I would just add as a practice at universities in
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particular and institutions more broadly in Canada and the United States,
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land acknowledgments really started becoming a norm. And I say
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that loosely but like a norm in probably like twenty
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fourteen or twenty fifteen is when you really start seeing,
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specifically in spaces with more Indigenous populations, who are really
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driving the need for the land acknowledgment. But twenty fourteen
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twenty fifteen is when you kind of start seeing this
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adopted as a more standardized practice at institutions. So cow
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Poly is kind of right on track with recognizing the
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need to acknowledge the original peoples of the land, and
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a land acknowledgement is really important because it establishes a
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baseline understanding, right that universities, in particular, we're at a university,
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so we'll talk about those are built on and often
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benefit from or are complicit in kind of the occupation
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of Indigenous lands. And that's always a really really important
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place to start, right, is to recognize that where we're
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learning and where we're living, where we're playing is indigenous lands.
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And there's usually a historical context behind, like how that
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transition from being an indigenous ownership to university ownership in
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the evolution I would say, from it becoming again quote
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unquote the norm, which still isn't like widespread norm, right,
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but things happening more and more there is, just as
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with everything, the sort of counter of that saying, you
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know what, why are we even doing this? It seems
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really empty, right, We're just saying this, but we're not
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actually doing anything. So I have to insert in here
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because our tribal chair I want to leave us Tucker again.
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We'll always say a land acknowledgment needs to come with
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the deliverable. So land acknowledgment is an important step, and
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it doesn't mean that you shouldn't be doing it if
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you can't deliver on a deliverable.
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Right.
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Not everyone is in a position of power or in
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a position to enact or deliver a deliverable, but for
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those who are right cal Poly right, they should be
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acting on that deliverable. And one really important piece of
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that was the dorm complex. Right, So they're acknowledging YTT
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and they have a whole dorm complex that is named
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for our village sites. So that's a really important foundation
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of recognizing and acknowledgeable.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, So, particularly as people and as cal Poly students
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frequently ask like, what can I do? Right? Is a
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land acknowledgment enough? Is it? Is it meaningless? Is it not?
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I don't think there's an answer to whether or not
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it's meaningless, but I just like to think, imagine if
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every single event you went to ever started off just
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naming the people who are there first anywhere in the world,
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what would that actually look like?
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Right?
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And that's one of the ideal responses to land acknowledgment, right,
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is like, really, I want to know more, And that's
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that's the ideal. And then from there that catalyzes the
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desire to move beyond to the land acknowledgment, because a
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lot of Indigenous people will say, like, land acknowledgments are
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empty and performative, right, Oh, we stole this land a
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long time ago. We acknowledge that we stole this land
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a long time ago.
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The I'm sure familiar with this, but the language of
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land acknowledgments is hotly contested within communities who are creating
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land acknowledgments or analyzing or criticizing land acknowledgments. Right, if
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we say guests, we are implying that you are invited
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at some point. Even if we say uninvited guests, right,
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we're not necessarily talking about what the actual history is.
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So it if you say unseated, then people are maybe like,
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what's unseated mean? And then you have to hold of
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all other conversations, so it's like what's the entry point,
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And this in itself it is a controversial topic, right,
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some people think that like entry points shouldn't be slow,
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or they shouldn't really be entry points. We should just
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be really honest. But we need to be aware of
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the community that we're in and make sure that we
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are bringing the community along with us, because if if
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we're not, if people are not open to learning more,
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they're not gonna learn more. And if they're not gonna
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learn more, then what are we doing.
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I also think it's important to recognize that like whenever
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you do like a land acknowledgement, or whenever you have
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some like recognition of indigenous people, it doesn't just depend
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on like the faculty or not the faculty. It doesn't
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depend on like just administration, but also like the faculty.
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So like in the case of the University of Washington,
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there was this one like very famous like computer science
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professor who essentially said that like this land acknowledgement was
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like worthless or like something like that, and everybody got
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like up in arms about him, but like nothing really happened,
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like there was no consequences, like the words that he
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was saying that's crazy.
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He basically his position is that sellers have occupied the land,
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and a land acknowledgment is vacuous because there's no need
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to recognize or validate the ongoing existence of indigenous peoples,
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as if seller colonialism is already a finished project. Lots
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of response like body responses there, yeah, and tenured he
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is very kind of infamous within the university system there.
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This, I think like the deeper part of this is
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something that doctor Heberly and I experience in our classes
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in particularly three sixty constantly because we are talking about
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native nations, we are talking about sovereign nations within the
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boundaries of the United States as a country. Right now,
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what does that actually mean? What does that look like?
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And as soon as we start to talk about that,
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and this is sort of the implicit of land acknowledgment, right,
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You're acknowledging these tribes, You're acknowledging these sovereignties. When people
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get really uncomfortable with that, maybe it's because they feel
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like it's a direct threat to their existence. It is
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what I like to sort of pose in my classes
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and just in general, is like, what is this threatening?
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Right?
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What is the ideal that this is threatening that is
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causing such an intense reaction among people, Like what is
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the point of responding that way?
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Right?
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Like what is it actually threatening to just state something?
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Because it's really uncomfortable for a lot of people to
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imagine what respecting sovereignty of five hundred and seventy four
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federally recognized nations, not to mention all the other tribes
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that are not federally recognized. What does it look like
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to acknowledge your sovereignty within our borders? It's hard to imagine.
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Maybe you're like I support land back, but I really
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like where I live. Yeah, you know, like people get
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really uncomfortable at that because what does it mean? How
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do you support and be an ally to a tribe's
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sovereignty while occupying their land? I don't know.
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I feel like what I find like in sand with
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that too, Like you know, there could be students there
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even like here too, like if you know, higher officials
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didn't you know, respect my acknowledgment or anything to do
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with all the tribes. And it's like you're not just
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hurting like the school's image, but you're also hurting your
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students here that are a part of that too. And
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by doing that, like they're not gonna want to stay
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here because of that. And it's like, I don't know,
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like I feel like if you're a higher official, like
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you should understand take everything into consideration, even like learn
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you know, I get it. You know, some people may
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be confused about it, but learn about it and then
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you can come to an understanding and how to you know,
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respect faculty and students that are a part of this.
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So just interesting how that you know, who is it
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a professor or.
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Yeah, uh never you see Washington.
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Yeah, that is just super messy. And the fact that
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he just like went off on it, like not even
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like oh yeah, like it you know, maybe a problem,
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but I'm gonna say it, you know anyway, she just
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straightforward to it. That's so unprofessional.
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I wanted to also clarify maybe a question that I
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feel like a lot of students would have is like,
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obviously it's straightforward, but like, what is the difference between
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like a federally recognized tribe and a non federally recognized one,
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Like what do each like what's the difference? And obviously
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one has less like advantages than the other, So maybe
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just clarifying as to that and then I don't know
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we can bring in white tt in the mix and stuff.
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Oh my god, I've lectured on this so much in
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the last few weeks. I feel like all the words
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have actually left my brain. The process of becoming a
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federally recognized tribe is an incredibly complex process it and
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there are a lot of kind of different historical iterations
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of how tribes have entered into federal recognition. We started
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as a settler nation with treaty making rights. We would
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engage in this kind of diplomatic political recognition of the
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sovereign status of tribal nations, and that process has evolved
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over time. Currently recognition is up to the Department of
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the Interior, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as well as
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sometimes Congress. But there's a lot of different criteria for
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entering into this federal relationship or relationship between a sovereign
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nation and in the federal government. And it's ironic because
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the federal government creates the criteria by which they then
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recognize the politically sovereign status of tribal nations, and that
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criteria is largely made up of kind of myth the
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logical notions of what a native tribe or native nation
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can or should be. And so in the criteria are
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things like, you have to demonstrate a long standing commitment
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to or life on your traditional homelands. And we know
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through the processes of removal and dispossession that few tribes
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can actually demonstrate a long standing kind of commitment to
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an original homeland of sorts.
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Right.
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You have to have a government that looks kind of
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like a constitutional government, right, and so a lot of
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tribal governments prior to European settlement didn't always look like
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European forms of government. And one of the criteria now
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is that you have to be able to demonstrate that
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your governance system looks like Western forms of democracy or
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government and things like that. It's expensive, it's time consuming,
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right to kind of put for all of this, The
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list goes on. It's you have to be validated as
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a tribe by someone from not your tribe, whether that's
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an academic, which is funny, or other tribes have to
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recognize you as a nation. So the process is tedious.
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The process is not rigged, but rigged, right, And that's
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because it's it's costly to the United States to enter
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into that trust relationship with recognized tribal nations politically costly
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financially costly. Recognized tribes have a trust based or domestic
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dependency based relationship with the federal government, which means that
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the federal government has an obligation to recognize limited forms
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of sovereignty of those nations but also uphold things like
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treaty rights and whatnot. And we're not great honoring that
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trust responsibility historically, but the recognition recess is created so
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that once that is extended, that it costs the US
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government something. It limits the sovereignty of the United States
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government in its process of recognizing this armonty.
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Of a tribe.
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So that's your big broad overview with that helpful Yeah.
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I just wanted to to say, it's like pretty interesting
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to hear that too. I feel like a lot of
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people don't know like the whole like lengthy process of everything.
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They're kind of like, oh, like let's talk about it
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and then just like deny something. But I feel like
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there's just like so many steps to it. It could either
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be like denied something or I don't know, you need
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I don't know, like they need more information or like
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something about it that it's like then you have to
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go out and do petitioning and get you know, people involved,
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and I feel like that's just something that like even
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like in journalism. I'm a journalist major, like I that's
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another thing to with like Native Americans and all indigenous tribes.
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It's so hard to know like what's going on, like
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what's being passed, what you know, what's going is like
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it's never covered, and I feel like I want, I
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want to know more about that, and it honestly makes
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me but like I don't hear much about it. I'm like,
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why why aren't they getting that recognition and if like
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more people need to know about this, and it's honestly
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sad that people don't, so think thank you for that.
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Well, we need journalists like you to be asking these
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questions and telling me stories. And this is a total sidebar,
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but there's this awesome resource called the Native American Journalists Association,
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and it's an association of Native American journalists who provide
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all kinds of resources for how to report an Indian country,
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and so I definitely recommend checking that out.
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Well, I was just gonna underscore the lengthy process. There
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are tribes who've had their petitions in for thirty years, yes,
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who still haven't gotten recognition. Right, So, like this is
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not an easy thing to do, and it also creates
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really unfortunate situations between tribes because you're fighting for or
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part of being a federally recognized tribes means that you
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have access to services from the federal government, right, so
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there are benefits in that way. You enter into this
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legally defined federal trust responsibility relationship with the government in
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which the original spirit of the law right was tribes
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seeded quote unquote their land to the government in exchange
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for this relationship. So the government is supposed to act
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in the best interest of the tribe because the tribes
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seeded their land in exchange for that. So this, I mean,
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is a really important legal concept. It is like it
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seems really amorphous, but federal trust responsibility is what some
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tribes are able to take to court and point to
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and say you didn't act in our best interest and
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you actually have the legal obligation to do that. Whether
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or not those arguments bear out right is a different conversation,
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but that is legally defined relationship. And I think the
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other thing that's really important, particularly when we're talking about
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land right, land back the acknowledgments, et cetera. The one
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thing that I find is often most shocking for students
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to learn is that reservation lands, part of this trust
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responsibility right, is not actually owned by the tribe. It
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is still owned by the federal government. It's just held
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in trust by the tribe or I'm sorry, yes, held
400
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trust federal government. Thank you, held in trust by the
401
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federal government. So I think that's a really important thing.
402
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And we're talking about what that means, particularly with federally
403
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recognized tribes, right, we talk about them like they have
404
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more access to services, they have land, But the underscore
405
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there is the government still owns the land, right because
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in assuming this special flavor, this domestic dependency of sovereignty
407
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that was established by the Supreme Court in the eighteen hundreds,
408
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they said, you are not fit to own your own land,
409
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we will own it for you, and you can.
410
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Got a whole Britney Spirits situation happening here.
411
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Yeah, truly. So that's like, so that's federal recognition. Right.
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There's five hundred and seventy four tribes right now in
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the United States, five hundred and seventy six, five hundred
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and seventy six federally recognized tribes in the United States,
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many more non federally recognized tribes because of all of
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those barriers, because they weren't made treaties and the seventeen
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hundreds and eighteen hundreds because of political pressure. Is because
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of a number of different things.
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I have a question when it comes to like, in
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the process of becoming like a federally recognized tribe, does
421
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is there like costs involved for the tribe. Does it
422
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have anything to do with casinos or.
423
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The legal fees, the time and labor that it takes
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to put into putting the petition for federal recognition together,
425
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the effort that it takes often to travel to Washington,
426
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DC or to meet with representatives. It's costly and timely.
427
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And when you are tried vibe without those resources like
428
00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:05.000
a casino, that you're saying some kind of economic engine
429
00:25:05.079 --> 00:25:07.319
that's that's subsidizing or kind.
430
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Of underwriting.
431
00:25:10.039 --> 00:25:13.599
Tribal efforts, and things like who's paying for that? Where
432
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does the time come from?
433
00:25:15.480 --> 00:25:18.839
Things like that, which typically to have a casino you
434
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need to be So that's I mean, that's a good
435
00:25:21.160 --> 00:25:23.079
way to sort of ground this idea of sovereign nation,
436
00:25:23.279 --> 00:25:26.200
right like, why can there be casinos and states where
437
00:25:26.400 --> 00:25:31.039
that's not legal? Right, Chumash casino right. To be clear,
438
00:25:31.240 --> 00:25:33.279
that is a standin as band of Chumash, that is
439
00:25:33.319 --> 00:25:36.240
a federally recognized tribe that is not related to YTG.
440
00:25:36.960 --> 00:25:41.799
There are originally eight different bands of Chumash, so named
441
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because of Spanish colonizers saying, hey, look at all these
442
00:25:45.440 --> 00:25:48.000
people right here. They sound similar in there, look similar,
443
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and they do similar things. They gotta be related, right.
444
00:25:52.039 --> 00:25:57.400
All eight were distinctly different language, culture, everything share a region, sure,
445
00:25:57.640 --> 00:26:02.359
but different. So the name as a name to sort
446
00:26:02.359 --> 00:26:05.039
of bring all these different tribes together isn't really accurate.
447
00:26:05.759 --> 00:26:09.599
So sna and has Banduchumash right, they have a reservation land.
448
00:26:09.799 --> 00:26:13.200
So in this constant sort of layering and grounding we're
449
00:26:13.200 --> 00:26:15.799
talking about in sovereignty that is a sovereign nation, that
450
00:26:15.880 --> 00:26:18.519
is sovereign land, they are able to, because of a
451
00:26:18.559 --> 00:26:22.200
court case from California, enter into a compact with the
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state of California to dictate how gambling will go. This
453
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is something that is particular to states that allow for
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00:26:30.079 --> 00:26:34.319
the state compact interaction between federally recognized tribes. So that
455
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I mean it varies from state to state. But that's
456
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one of the reasons why we can have casinos within
457
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borders of states where that's not allowed because it's happening
458
00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:44.440
on sovereign territory. Oh the other thing I was gonna say, sorry,
459
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I'm federally recognized tribes. So there's provision and services, right,
460
00:26:48.200 --> 00:26:51.039
but there's also just the acknowledgment and consultation that goes
461
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with that, which is a really important part of government
462
00:26:54.559 --> 00:26:55.880
to government relationships.
463
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Right.
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So if you are a federally recognized tribe, will you
465
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have to be consulted on things that relate to your
466
00:27:02.720 --> 00:27:05.839
land or your tribe legally, which isn't the same right
467
00:27:06.039 --> 00:27:09.880
or privilege afforded to non federally recognized tribes. Federally recognized
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00:27:09.960 --> 00:27:14.200
tribe is a government right. That is a political entity.
469
00:27:14.279 --> 00:27:16.079
It is a culture, it is many other things, but
470
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ultimately is an organizing body, a politically organized body. So
471
00:27:20.759 --> 00:27:24.960
these are the people, right. A federal reservation, in its
472
00:27:25.039 --> 00:27:27.920
sort of truest form, is an area of land that's
473
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set aside for a federally recognized tribe. Right. This might
474
00:27:30.880 --> 00:27:33.160
be multiple tribes, and it has been in the past,
475
00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:37.640
but it is separate. So so we have a number
476
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of tribes, and then we also have federal Indian reservations
477
00:27:41.440 --> 00:27:44.319
and they're not one and the same when we talk
478
00:27:44.359 --> 00:27:47.920
about this right sovereignty versus land, because this is one
479
00:27:47.960 --> 00:27:54.000
of the ultimate sort of fulcrum points. Fulcrum doesm just
480
00:27:54.039 --> 00:27:56.880
mean point without point saying this is one of the
481
00:27:56.960 --> 00:28:01.640
key points in the trail of here's what most people
482
00:28:01.720 --> 00:28:05.240
learn about in public school. Right is the decision to
483
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maintain your sovereignty right leave your homelands. The five civilized
484
00:28:09.880 --> 00:28:13.880
tribes were forcibly removed but offered quote unquote to leave
485
00:28:13.920 --> 00:28:16.200
their homelands in the Southeast and go east to the
486
00:28:16.200 --> 00:28:20.720
Mississippi for permanent homeland potential, which ended up not being
487
00:28:20.759 --> 00:28:26.799
true surprise surprise, to keep their sovereignty versus staying in
488
00:28:26.839 --> 00:28:30.359
one place, staying in their homelands right, but essentially having
489
00:28:30.359 --> 00:28:33.400
their sovereignty dismantled because they would be then assumed does
490
00:28:33.480 --> 00:28:36.680
part of the new states that were forming in the southeast.
491
00:28:37.039 --> 00:28:39.559
And this question, I think for a lot of people
492
00:28:39.799 --> 00:28:42.359
or a lot of students will ask, like, well, how
493
00:28:42.400 --> 00:28:44.599
can we have tribes that are sovereign nations if they
494
00:28:44.640 --> 00:28:47.839
don't have land that like that as a concept doesn't
495
00:28:47.880 --> 00:28:52.119
always land. And the example that we both use is
496
00:28:52.640 --> 00:28:54.079
have you seen thor Ragnarok?
497
00:28:55.240 --> 00:28:55.440
Right?
498
00:28:55.720 --> 00:28:58.680
How does people not a place as guard as a
499
00:28:58.720 --> 00:29:01.039
people not a place? Right? That is like the most
500
00:29:01.039 --> 00:29:04.079
grounded example. And when we do that, people are like, oh, right,
501
00:29:04.759 --> 00:29:06.759
but that's what it is, right, This is a people,
502
00:29:06.839 --> 00:29:08.720
not a place, And so we don't they're not one
503
00:29:08.720 --> 00:29:11.599
and the same, right, So you don't. Not every friendly
504
00:29:11.640 --> 00:29:15.279
recognized tribe has a reservation. It's a really important point,
505
00:29:16.440 --> 00:29:19.799
particularly when we're talking about land based cultures, right, Like,
506
00:29:20.440 --> 00:29:23.759
we have to constantly distinguish that we're talking about people
507
00:29:24.119 --> 00:29:27.519
versus place, because the story of this country is people
508
00:29:27.599 --> 00:29:28.440
removed from place.
509
00:29:28.920 --> 00:29:34.400
And I think that's just a good question or concept
510
00:29:34.480 --> 00:29:37.599
to think with us students, right is, we want to
511
00:29:37.640 --> 00:29:40.559
ask this question about what is federal recognition and what
512
00:29:40.599 --> 00:29:43.960
does it mean to be recognized versus unrecognized? But it
513
00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:46.839
also like what does it mean to just get really
514
00:29:46.880 --> 00:29:50.079
specific when you're asking these questions who are the people
515
00:29:50.240 --> 00:29:53.039
of this place? Like, what is their status? What is
516
00:29:53.079 --> 00:29:56.000
their relationship to land? Like, what is their kind of
517
00:29:56.079 --> 00:29:59.240
political relationship to each other? There are members a federally
518
00:29:59.279 --> 00:30:03.440
recognized tribe to live quote unquote off reservation in cities
519
00:30:03.480 --> 00:30:05.559
elsewhere in other parts of the country or other parts
520
00:30:05.559 --> 00:30:07.799
of the world, and that doesn't make them any less
521
00:30:08.880 --> 00:30:12.000
citizen of that particular tribal nation just because they're not
522
00:30:12.119 --> 00:30:14.160
on that land base. And so I think just learning
523
00:30:14.200 --> 00:30:17.279
to get really curious and specific and start to ask
524
00:30:17.319 --> 00:30:20.839
these questions is really really useful way to approach kind
525
00:30:20.880 --> 00:30:23.880
of some of these questions. And it might be uncomfortable.
526
00:30:23.880 --> 00:30:26.039
I know a lot of students get really anxious about
527
00:30:26.079 --> 00:30:28.440
asking questions because they're like, I'm gonna say it wrong
528
00:30:28.519 --> 00:30:31.039
or I'm going to mess up, and but that's because
529
00:30:31.079 --> 00:30:33.440
you don't know how to ask these questions because we
530
00:30:33.480 --> 00:30:35.759
don't have the education and we don't this is not
531
00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:39.160
common kind of discourse, right, and so just don't be
532
00:30:39.160 --> 00:30:42.160
afraid to ask, and to make the mistake and apologize
533
00:30:42.160 --> 00:30:45.000
and try again, but just try to figure out those
534
00:30:45.039 --> 00:30:48.559
relationships because they're highly nuanced depending on where you are.
535
00:30:49.319 --> 00:30:53.960
Recently, we made like a little questionnaire thing for students
536
00:30:54.000 --> 00:30:56.759
to ask us questions, you know, they had about indigenous
537
00:30:56.799 --> 00:30:59.680
tribes and all that. And when I was typing everything out,
538
00:31:00.160 --> 00:31:03.720
Amy pointed out that it's important to capitalize the eye
539
00:31:03.920 --> 00:31:06.480
and Indigenous, and I had no clue about that, And like,
540
00:31:06.920 --> 00:31:09.160
typically I would have thought that I would have learned that.
541
00:31:09.240 --> 00:31:11.319
You know, I took a Multicultural journalsm class on how
542
00:31:11.359 --> 00:31:15.440
to like report correctly on certain like racism backgrounds, and
543
00:31:15.480 --> 00:31:17.400
I mean we did tap on a little bit of
544
00:31:17.440 --> 00:31:20.319
like indigenous tribes, but more like you know from the
545
00:31:20.359 --> 00:31:23.480
past of how like journalists kind of just like stereotype them,
546
00:31:23.839 --> 00:31:26.000
and the wording in there was just not accurate at all.
547
00:31:26.039 --> 00:31:28.200
So I feel like it's definitely important for US journalists
548
00:31:28.200 --> 00:31:31.079
to have everything accurate in there, whether it's tribe names
549
00:31:31.359 --> 00:31:34.119
or capitalizations or like anything to add in there. And
550
00:31:34.200 --> 00:31:37.960
I just wanted to know why is that important for
551
00:31:38.079 --> 00:31:40.720
the I to be capitalized on there? Is there any
552
00:31:40.759 --> 00:31:41.079
kind of.
553
00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:42.480
Like background to it.
554
00:31:42.559 --> 00:31:45.200
I would love to know anyone can answer on this.
555
00:31:45.559 --> 00:31:51.119
As Professor Lucas mentioned before, Indigenous and Native people it's
556
00:31:51.200 --> 00:31:54.640
not a race, so it's not like, oh, like you're
557
00:31:54.720 --> 00:31:59.240
white or like you're Asian or something. But it's also
558
00:31:59.279 --> 00:32:03.240
like a political entity to be an indigenous person. And
559
00:32:03.319 --> 00:32:06.359
also it's also proper to capitalize where it's like Asian
560
00:32:06.519 --> 00:32:10.319
or black when you're talking about race. So that same
561
00:32:11.160 --> 00:32:15.519
notion applies to indigenous people, but also like because indigenous
562
00:32:15.519 --> 00:32:18.680
can also refer to like plants and animals and stuff
563
00:32:18.720 --> 00:32:21.400
like that, I think it's also important separated by saying,
564
00:32:21.400 --> 00:32:24.279
like these are people and these are not like plants
565
00:32:24.279 --> 00:32:26.119
and animals, you know what I mean. It's like a
566
00:32:26.200 --> 00:32:30.119
really simple distinction, but it's really important to like divide
567
00:32:30.160 --> 00:32:30.480
it up.
568
00:32:30.759 --> 00:32:34.079
See that's interesting because I didn't know that, So it's
569
00:32:34.359 --> 00:32:36.559
good to know like that separation. I feel like it's
570
00:32:36.559 --> 00:32:39.119
also important for like, you know, anyone if they're I
571
00:32:39.119 --> 00:32:41.440
don't know, doing like research on that topic, or if
572
00:32:41.440 --> 00:32:43.799
they're talking to like a friend who's like involved with something,
573
00:32:43.799 --> 00:32:45.839
I feel like it's just important to make sure that
574
00:32:45.839 --> 00:32:48.359
they're comfortable with it. I mean, yeah, they can call
575
00:32:48.400 --> 00:32:52.799
them out too, but but no, I feel like, uh, yeah,
576
00:32:52.839 --> 00:32:54.400
it's a very important distinction.
577
00:32:54.839 --> 00:33:00.119
I will not forget ever being in one of the
578
00:33:00.160 --> 00:33:05.880
most uncomfortable zoom calls I had ever witnessed. Maybe I
579
00:33:05.960 --> 00:33:09.000
was there as this is my previous job, which was
580
00:33:09.039 --> 00:33:12.640
in state policy, and I had been invited not to
581
00:33:12.680 --> 00:33:14.759
like participate on the tribal end of it, but to
582
00:33:14.839 --> 00:33:19.759
participate in a tribal roundtable with academics and tribal leaders
583
00:33:19.839 --> 00:33:24.160
throughout the state to comment on language that was being
584
00:33:24.200 --> 00:33:28.960
proposed for state policy. And it was the you know,
585
00:33:29.400 --> 00:33:34.240
well meaning, well intentioned adults who had been doing this
586
00:33:34.400 --> 00:33:38.240
in their career for decades, right, who are policy specialists,
587
00:33:38.279 --> 00:33:42.039
who are putting forward language that doesn't resonate with tribes
588
00:33:42.039 --> 00:33:48.160
at all or does not accurately or adequately respect tribes.
589
00:33:48.200 --> 00:33:51.000
And I remember just the process of like watching this
590
00:33:51.079 --> 00:33:53.839
and I was truly like observer on zoom, just like
591
00:33:53.920 --> 00:33:55.839
seeing how this all went. In one of the people
592
00:33:55.880 --> 00:33:59.440
who was reviewing it, the first thing she said was like, okay,
593
00:33:59.480 --> 00:34:02.519
first singing. Need to do is capitalize tribe and tribal
594
00:34:02.640 --> 00:34:05.759
every single time it's mentioned. And this is again career
595
00:34:05.799 --> 00:34:09.920
professionals and policy who are writing state policy language who
596
00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:12.840
have no idea about that, right. So it's like this
597
00:34:13.039 --> 00:34:15.519
is structural. This is these are things that we don't
598
00:34:15.639 --> 00:34:20.159
learn because our structure is not to respect tribal sovereignty,
599
00:34:20.440 --> 00:34:20.719
you know.
600
00:34:20.679 --> 00:34:23.920
How we say, well, I don't know about the term
601
00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:31.039
American Indian, Like what's the difference between American Indian Native Americans?
602
00:34:31.199 --> 00:34:33.440
You know, I don't know. I heard something about American
603
00:34:33.599 --> 00:34:36.880
Indian so I don't know if that's euphemism, it's.
604
00:34:36.880 --> 00:34:42.559
Potato potato really, excuse me. It's an imperfect categorization, right,
605
00:34:42.679 --> 00:34:46.119
that clusters indigenous people who now live in the settler
606
00:34:46.239 --> 00:34:49.920
nation state of the United States. So there have been
607
00:34:49.960 --> 00:34:55.360
over time, like preferences around Native American versus American Indian,
608
00:34:55.559 --> 00:35:00.480
and we can quibble with those terms in indigenous studies
609
00:35:00.519 --> 00:35:05.119
in particular. Now it's like neither of them is awesome
610
00:35:05.320 --> 00:35:09.880
or ideal. Right, Indigenous is probably the biggest umbrella category
611
00:35:10.039 --> 00:35:13.880
to talk about the original peoples of a place. And
612
00:35:13.920 --> 00:35:16.559
then you have American Indian or Native American for in
613
00:35:16.599 --> 00:35:20.599
the United States, First Nations in Canada, and so on
614
00:35:20.679 --> 00:35:23.280
and so forth. And these are all imperfect kind of
615
00:35:23.360 --> 00:35:27.800
categories that are useful sometimes sometimes they're legal categories or
616
00:35:27.920 --> 00:35:32.480
legal terminology that we use to define very specific political
617
00:35:32.519 --> 00:35:37.360
obligations or legal obligations. But neither of them is awesome,
618
00:35:37.679 --> 00:35:40.960
And it's always best to use the tribe's specific name
619
00:35:41.079 --> 00:35:44.199
if that's if you're talking about a specific tribe.
620
00:35:43.960 --> 00:35:47.480
Right, just as we sort of mention like what's in
621
00:35:47.519 --> 00:35:51.679
a name and the walking tour, right when we talk
622
00:35:51.719 --> 00:35:55.440
about this, when we use the terms like Native American
623
00:35:55.719 --> 00:36:01.320
or American Indian. We are validating the existence of people
624
00:36:01.519 --> 00:36:04.760
in the context of America. Right, We're saying Native American,
625
00:36:04.800 --> 00:36:09.119
they are Indian America, and you are you are validating
626
00:36:09.119 --> 00:36:12.239
your existence as it relates to the current country. Right.
627
00:36:12.360 --> 00:36:17.119
So like even that in itself, right, is slow invisibilization
628
00:36:17.280 --> 00:36:19.559
instead of if we were to refer to everyone with
629
00:36:19.639 --> 00:36:24.320
their nation name. Right. So it's it's it's hard because
630
00:36:24.320 --> 00:36:26.440
these are these are the you know, these are the
631
00:36:26.519 --> 00:36:28.519
terms that we use. We have to speak to people
632
00:36:28.559 --> 00:36:30.960
on a people on a We have to speak to
633
00:36:31.000 --> 00:36:33.519
others on a level that they will understand. Otherwise we
634
00:36:33.559 --> 00:36:36.440
can't like have a conversation here if someone's not even
635
00:36:36.480 --> 00:36:40.000
in the same stratosphere. Right, But we still need to
636
00:36:40.039 --> 00:36:44.639
talk about what the terms that we're using imply, and
637
00:36:44.679 --> 00:36:48.280
that is your existence is validated within the context of
638
00:36:48.280 --> 00:36:52.000
the US to the euphemism, though the number of times
639
00:36:52.039 --> 00:36:56.760
you will see on a cal fire, a US Forest Service,
640
00:36:57.039 --> 00:37:00.559
Bureau of Land Management, and any sort of government website
641
00:37:00.639 --> 00:37:06.079
that says, following years of fire suppression policy, we are
642
00:37:06.199 --> 00:37:09.920
now dealing with blah blah blah, or the amount of
643
00:37:09.920 --> 00:37:15.039
brush that we have after decades of fire suppression activities. Unfortunately,
644
00:37:15.159 --> 00:37:21.800
blah blah blah, like that was intentional anti indigenous policy period, right,
645
00:37:22.400 --> 00:37:26.679
that was, fire was outlawed because they were trying, in
646
00:37:26.719 --> 00:37:30.000
particular in California to get people off the land. The
647
00:37:30.039 --> 00:37:32.480
Government for the or I'm sorry, the Act for the
648
00:37:32.559 --> 00:37:37.119
Protection and Government of Indians in California in eighteen fifty
649
00:37:37.599 --> 00:37:44.039
specifically outlawed, or any fire that was set should be
650
00:37:44.119 --> 00:37:47.039
put out immediately, and if anyone sets a fire intentionally,
651
00:37:47.079 --> 00:37:49.599
they could be fined or sent to jail with the
652
00:37:49.639 --> 00:37:53.719
intention of stopping this practice among Native Americans of Native
653
00:37:53.719 --> 00:37:58.440
California and specifically, So from this we can trace a
654
00:37:58.480 --> 00:38:02.000
through line of fire suppress policy throughout the entire United States.
655
00:38:02.320 --> 00:38:05.000
So this is like kind of off track to the
656
00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:08.920
whole seriousness. But like language revitalization in the tribe, you
657
00:38:09.000 --> 00:38:11.519
guys like to speak about the language, how is that
658
00:38:11.599 --> 00:38:14.920
being rejuvenated like now been like taking into consideration like
659
00:38:14.960 --> 00:38:17.559
the policies and stuff like that. Wouldn't it be cool
660
00:38:17.599 --> 00:38:20.320
to have like a policy with the tribe's language, like
661
00:38:20.360 --> 00:38:22.480
for the tribe and stuff like. I feel like that's
662
00:38:22.519 --> 00:38:24.639
a good way of like inclusivity.
663
00:38:25.920 --> 00:38:29.599
So when I first came to CalPoly, I really didn't
664
00:38:29.639 --> 00:38:32.360
like know anything about the school. When I saw that
665
00:38:32.400 --> 00:38:36.719
there were storms which were made in conjunction with a tribe,
666
00:38:36.960 --> 00:38:39.079
I kind of got like more interested in. I was like,
667
00:38:39.159 --> 00:38:42.039
I want to know more about this history, and so
668
00:38:42.119 --> 00:38:44.400
I tried looking it up myself, but like I really
669
00:38:45.320 --> 00:38:47.719
it was like kind of hard, which is why I
670
00:38:47.800 --> 00:38:50.159
was like so excited to join this project. Especially like
671
00:38:50.159 --> 00:38:53.360
in California, you don't see that many places and names
672
00:38:53.519 --> 00:38:56.039
or like you don't see like streets or cities or
673
00:38:56.079 --> 00:38:58.239
anything that's like named after tribes that often. I think,
674
00:38:58.320 --> 00:39:01.559
like Tohunga is only place in Los Angeles that's like
675
00:39:01.639 --> 00:39:04.280
named after the talk about people. So I thought, like
676
00:39:04.960 --> 00:39:11.840
seeing that in like a school was incredibly incredibly interesting. Yeah, awesome, splendid,
677
00:39:11.960 --> 00:39:14.400
But especially like growing up in Washington, like we're always
678
00:39:14.400 --> 00:39:19.760
surrounded by places like named like some Amish squah, it's
679
00:39:19.800 --> 00:39:23.880
a commish like all this stuff you're more like immersed
680
00:39:24.000 --> 00:39:28.119
in too, like indigenous namesake, but like in California, I
681
00:39:28.119 --> 00:39:30.400
really didn't see any of that until I saw the dorms.
682
00:39:30.480 --> 00:39:33.760
So I thought that was really interesting. Indigenous languages are
683
00:39:33.800 --> 00:39:36.199
like often like they're like is such like a rarity,
684
00:39:36.320 --> 00:39:38.719
like why do you think the United States name used
685
00:39:38.800 --> 00:39:41.599
Navajo when they were in World War Two? Because they
686
00:39:41.639 --> 00:39:43.800
knew that like it would be impossible for any like
687
00:39:44.440 --> 00:39:49.039
German spice like infiltrate that language. So like when you
688
00:39:49.159 --> 00:39:51.360
view it as a commodity or like when you view
689
00:39:51.400 --> 00:39:53.159
it as something that like you can exploit, it's a
690
00:39:53.199 --> 00:39:54.760
lot different than like you need us something that you
691
00:39:54.760 --> 00:39:57.679
can like celebrate and acknowledge.
692
00:39:58.000 --> 00:39:59.079
And I don't know if this is kind of like
693
00:39:59.119 --> 00:40:01.559
similar to but just like how a lot of the
694
00:40:01.679 --> 00:40:06.519
names or pronunciation is kind of like americanized, taking like
695
00:40:06.599 --> 00:40:09.480
the name suan wisl Be School, for example, Like the
696
00:40:09.480 --> 00:40:12.719
way I pronunciate it is obviously you know, like in
697
00:40:12.760 --> 00:40:18.199
a Spanish accent, but like I'm pretty sure it's very controversial.
698
00:40:18.440 --> 00:40:20.559
I don't know this is like a good answer, or
699
00:40:20.559 --> 00:40:22.719
I mean, a good question to ask, But like how
700
00:40:22.760 --> 00:40:26.679
do you all feel about like just this city being
701
00:40:26.760 --> 00:40:28.159
called sanluisl Be School.
702
00:40:28.360 --> 00:40:30.239
I mean, I feel like I'm really gonna turn this
703
00:40:30.280 --> 00:40:33.960
one over to Professor Lucas over here. But naming and
704
00:40:34.199 --> 00:40:39.559
languages give us an opportunity to get curious about colonial
705
00:40:39.679 --> 00:40:43.280
histories or setlar colonialism right, because it's an invitation to
706
00:40:43.440 --> 00:40:48.639
kind of learn more about those those kind of naming layers.
707
00:40:48.960 --> 00:40:49.119
Right.
708
00:40:51.280 --> 00:40:56.079
So San Luis Obispo is a mission town. I think
709
00:40:56.199 --> 00:41:01.599
once you take Yes two fifty three learn about mission history,
710
00:41:01.760 --> 00:41:04.400
or take one of Professor Lucas's class, any one of
711
00:41:04.440 --> 00:41:07.880
them and learn about mission history, you'll feel differently about
712
00:41:07.960 --> 00:41:10.400
the name of the town, right, just kind of given
713
00:41:10.559 --> 00:41:14.960
the historical relationship between the Spanish who gave the town
714
00:41:15.039 --> 00:41:18.719
its name, and the original people of the land. So
715
00:41:18.920 --> 00:41:23.760
names are really good point of departure or starting point
716
00:41:23.840 --> 00:41:27.119
for really getting curious and digging into those histories and
717
00:41:27.199 --> 00:41:29.719
understanding how power works in a particular place.
718
00:41:30.320 --> 00:41:32.559
It's such a hard just all the things you have
719
00:41:32.599 --> 00:41:35.559
to keep in mind for change to be possible. You
720
00:41:35.639 --> 00:41:40.119
have to meet people where they are right, and names
721
00:41:40.199 --> 00:41:44.639
are important, consistencies important. It is only really recently that
722
00:41:44.760 --> 00:41:48.639
people have started referring to ytt as ytt as opposed
723
00:41:48.679 --> 00:41:52.440
to just Chumash. You can look back through documents, through
724
00:41:52.559 --> 00:41:56.719
records Chumash right, as we talked about before, with the
725
00:41:56.719 --> 00:42:02.159
Spanish naming Chumash, the Chumash of this area, ytt was Obispano. Right.
726
00:42:02.199 --> 00:42:07.360
So again contextualized within obispo in the Spanish context, within
727
00:42:07.440 --> 00:42:11.079
the mission here, it's confused, or it's not confusing. But
728
00:42:11.119 --> 00:42:14.000
if without that added context, when you're looking at documents
729
00:42:14.079 --> 00:42:16.719
or when you're looking at you know that which exists
730
00:42:16.719 --> 00:42:20.880
that documents, the tribes, you need to know who the
731
00:42:20.920 --> 00:42:27.079
obispo o Bispanos are and who till Heini is and was.
732
00:42:27.280 --> 00:42:31.280
So there's such a dearth, there's such a lack of
733
00:42:31.599 --> 00:42:34.400
knowledge and information that's widespread when it comes to this
734
00:42:34.599 --> 00:42:38.840
that it's hard to it's hard to change it without
735
00:42:39.519 --> 00:42:44.039
still using existing terms, as complicated as they might be.
736
00:42:44.360 --> 00:42:47.840
That's I mean, it's just sort of our reality, right,
737
00:42:48.119 --> 00:42:52.719
that Obispanol Chumash. This is really till Heini, right, this
738
00:42:52.880 --> 00:42:55.039
is the place of the full moon, but we're also
739
00:42:55.159 --> 00:42:58.400
northern Tumash because we're the northernmost Tumash, which Tumash really
740
00:42:58.440 --> 00:43:00.000
means nothing to us.
741
00:42:59.760 --> 00:43:04.840
She could auditorily capture Professor Lucas's facial expressions in that
742
00:43:04.920 --> 00:43:06.119
last sentence.
743
00:43:06.719 --> 00:43:09.079
I've been told so many times that like, I am
744
00:43:09.159 --> 00:43:11.960
not a sneaky person whatsoever, because you can always tell
745
00:43:11.960 --> 00:43:13.880
what I'm thinking based on my face, which is like
746
00:43:14.320 --> 00:43:19.320
problematic because of what I teach. But I'm like, I guess,
747
00:43:19.360 --> 00:43:21.199
actually it is because I feel like I treat things
748
00:43:21.199 --> 00:43:23.840
with a lot of humor as a coping mechanism. So
749
00:43:23.920 --> 00:43:26.800
and I'm like, ha, ha, isn't that great? People know that.
750
00:43:26.880 --> 00:43:28.639
I'm like, actually, no, this is where it is.
751
00:43:28.800 --> 00:43:35.000
But anyways, I wanted to tie in a question from
752
00:43:35.039 --> 00:43:36.559
a student they sent to us, kind of tying one
753
00:43:36.599 --> 00:43:38.679
of the courses you were talking about, So I'm just
754
00:43:38.719 --> 00:43:41.920
gonna read exactly what they said they said. I feel
755
00:43:41.920 --> 00:43:44.760
like how poll showcases the white tted dorms during freshman
756
00:43:44.800 --> 00:43:48.480
events like slow Days and poly Cultural Weekend, but fails
757
00:43:48.480 --> 00:43:51.599
to educate students on the importance of recognizing and respecting
758
00:43:51.679 --> 00:43:54.360
land on which the dorms are built. My question is,
759
00:43:54.719 --> 00:43:57.239
what is cal Polly doing to educate the student's house
760
00:43:57.320 --> 00:43:59.639
in the white tte to respect and honor the lands
761
00:43:59.679 --> 00:44:01.840
of the most stripes. So you can even bring in
762
00:44:01.920 --> 00:44:04.760
like a brief introduction of the walk in tours and
763
00:44:04.840 --> 00:44:07.559
also like either other courses that you didn't mention. And
764
00:44:07.639 --> 00:44:09.480
I feel like a lot of things too, even if
765
00:44:09.480 --> 00:44:13.119
there are courses here that are taught, you know, regarding
766
00:44:13.800 --> 00:44:16.280
indigenous people, IFE like a lot of people kind of
767
00:44:16.599 --> 00:44:18.639
are wondering, like, oh, like what if I'm not majoring,
768
00:44:18.800 --> 00:44:21.239
you know, and for that certain class that people might
769
00:44:21.239 --> 00:44:23.079
not seem like encouraged to take it, you can also
770
00:44:23.159 --> 00:44:25.079
like mention to like, oh it's it's open, you know,
771
00:44:25.119 --> 00:44:28.000
to any major if they're really wanting to know about
772
00:44:28.000 --> 00:44:29.960
any of that history, that they can be open to that.
773
00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:33.400
So you can talk anything walking tours courses here. Just
774
00:44:33.440 --> 00:44:36.320
to inform any students who are interested in wanting to
775
00:44:36.599 --> 00:44:38.159
know more about indigenous tribes.
776
00:44:38.320 --> 00:44:41.920
I mean, I think in general we'll just say really quick,
777
00:44:43.760 --> 00:44:45.800
a couple of years ago, I think in twenty twenty
778
00:44:46.000 --> 00:44:50.159
one is when it started, but California passed maybe fourteen
779
00:44:50.239 --> 00:44:53.239
sixty one. And so now every college student out a
780
00:44:53.320 --> 00:44:58.639
CSU has to take an Introduction to and Ethnic Studies
781
00:44:58.679 --> 00:45:01.199
class and Introductory Ethnics Sudies class. And you can take
782
00:45:01.880 --> 00:45:04.840
Introduction to American Indian Studies and that's a great class
783
00:45:04.840 --> 00:45:07.280
to take if you're curious about any of this, right,
784
00:45:07.480 --> 00:45:10.800
you can take Introduction to Asian American Studies, Introduction to
785
00:45:10.920 --> 00:45:14.679
LATINX Studies, Introduction to African American Studies. Any of those
786
00:45:14.719 --> 00:45:17.519
are going to be awesome entry points to start asking
787
00:45:17.760 --> 00:45:23.119
questions and to develop a critical vocabulary for any kind
788
00:45:23.119 --> 00:45:25.280
of range of topics or issues related to what we're
789
00:45:25.280 --> 00:45:29.239
talking about. Obviously, American Indian Studies has the specificity kind
790
00:45:29.280 --> 00:45:34.199
of built in to these issues. But it's awesome that
791
00:45:34.320 --> 00:45:36.599
cal Poly students now have to take one of those
792
00:45:36.599 --> 00:45:39.719
four classes. That's such a great and foundational kind of point.
793
00:45:40.360 --> 00:45:43.920
From there, we hope to create kind of more legible
794
00:45:43.960 --> 00:45:49.119
pathways for Indigenous Studies classes. There's the Indigenous Studies and
795
00:45:49.199 --> 00:45:52.719
Natural Resources and environment minors, and that's an awesome kind
796
00:45:52.719 --> 00:45:55.800
of especially for folks in environmental sciences and natural resources
797
00:45:55.840 --> 00:45:58.719
to kind of create a pathway through the Indigenous Studies
798
00:45:58.760 --> 00:46:01.519
courses that are offered specifically kind of cater to these
799
00:46:01.559 --> 00:46:06.880
questions of land and stewardship, and Professor Lucas teaches those classes,
800
00:46:06.960 --> 00:46:10.119
and I teach those classes, and that's such a great
801
00:46:10.119 --> 00:46:16.039
way to kind of develop kind of a baseline knowledge
802
00:46:16.840 --> 00:46:20.119
around these issues and these topics. And then there are
803
00:46:20.119 --> 00:46:24.039
other Ethnic Studies classes that kind of engage with Indigenous
804
00:46:24.039 --> 00:46:26.320
Studies topics and issues, and you can kind of be
805
00:46:26.440 --> 00:46:28.960
really intentional in how you like if you minor and
806
00:46:29.039 --> 00:46:32.199
Indigenous or in ethnic studies. Yeah, like our our beloved
807
00:46:32.239 --> 00:46:35.159
Sophie here, you can kind of create a pathway through
808
00:46:35.199 --> 00:46:39.119
that minor where you focus on or attend to, you know,
809
00:46:39.320 --> 00:46:43.440
Indigenous studies specifically, if you wanted to do that. And
810
00:46:43.519 --> 00:46:46.239
we're hopeful that someday there's an Indigenous studies minor within
811
00:46:46.280 --> 00:46:50.599
Ethnic studies, you know, and then from there the world
812
00:46:50.719 --> 00:46:51.320
is our oyster.
813
00:46:52.519 --> 00:46:57.960
Okay. So since January of last year, for amazing women,
814
00:46:58.280 --> 00:47:04.239
including myself, tirelessly it worked hard to create this interactive
815
00:47:05.320 --> 00:47:09.960
digital and physical map of how polyly through a lens
816
00:47:10.599 --> 00:47:17.159
which amplifies the Indigenous past, present and future at the school.
817
00:47:17.719 --> 00:47:19.679
It makes its way around the dorms and we talk
818
00:47:19.679 --> 00:47:22.440
about the like rocks. When you go to Yakichi, you
819
00:47:22.440 --> 00:47:24.280
see the rocks and you're like, what are these rocks?
820
00:47:24.480 --> 00:47:26.920
That actually tells you on the ground essentially, like all
821
00:47:26.960 --> 00:47:30.199
the rocks represent the Nine Sisters, So like if you
822
00:47:30.199 --> 00:47:34.039
see them around slow, it's like moral rock, Bishop's Peak.
823
00:47:34.320 --> 00:47:36.559
I'm not gonna name them all, but essentially like those
824
00:47:36.559 --> 00:47:38.840
are located within the dorm complex that a lot of
825
00:47:38.840 --> 00:47:41.320
people don't know about. And the next step is the
826
00:47:41.400 --> 00:47:45.039
Native American and it's just an Indigenous Cultural Center, and
827
00:47:45.079 --> 00:47:50.079
then we go to Mirror and Tenaya Hall, where we
828
00:47:50.119 --> 00:47:54.920
talk about the histories and the intricacies that lie between
829
00:47:55.800 --> 00:47:58.159
those two names. And then we make our way to
830
00:47:58.239 --> 00:48:04.760
Chuwash Hall where Professor it's a very compelling piece on
831
00:48:04.840 --> 00:48:07.480
what is in a name and how does the school
832
00:48:07.519 --> 00:48:11.039
decide what gets named too Mush Hall. And then there
833
00:48:11.039 --> 00:48:14.559
are two art pieces that Professor Heberlink talks about, one
834
00:48:14.599 --> 00:48:19.360
of which is the mural within the Bagker Science Building.
835
00:48:19.400 --> 00:48:21.679
It's like on the second floor. And then the next
836
00:48:21.719 --> 00:48:25.760
one is the Filipino Landing Utility light Box, which was
837
00:48:25.800 --> 00:48:29.440
painted by the Filipino Cultural Exchange, which is a land
838
00:48:29.440 --> 00:48:33.679
acknowledgement by a PCEE. But it's also like a representation
839
00:48:33.719 --> 00:48:35.960
of like what it means to like be like another
840
00:48:36.000 --> 00:48:38.840
person who is like impacted by like like the Spanish Empire.
841
00:48:39.199 --> 00:48:43.280
It shows like how the Filipinos were the first people
842
00:48:43.400 --> 00:48:46.239
to like or like the first Filipinos in the United
843
00:48:46.280 --> 00:48:49.159
States came to Moral Rock. And then we end at
844
00:48:49.159 --> 00:48:51.400
the white stage that's in front of Ray. It's about
845
00:48:51.400 --> 00:48:53.920
how like white stage has been like commodified and it's
846
00:48:53.920 --> 00:48:56.679
like super like trendy and like you go on TikTok
847
00:48:56.760 --> 00:49:02.239
and it's like my stage, so talking about why that's
848
00:49:02.280 --> 00:49:06.000
wrong and why you probably shouldn't be doing that.
849
00:49:06.079 --> 00:49:08.280
Yeah, YELDR, don't buy it.
850
00:49:08.559 --> 00:49:11.239
Yeah, don't buy it if you see it like the store,
851
00:49:12.480 --> 00:49:13.480
maybe we should tell them.
852
00:49:13.360 --> 00:49:16.239
But yeah, you need to cost us store people because
853
00:49:16.239 --> 00:49:19.159
they probably don't know. But just don't buy it. Yeah,
854
00:49:19.239 --> 00:49:21.039
you can take the tour if you're interested more.
855
00:49:21.159 --> 00:49:23.840
Yeah, what are some challenges the tribe is facing today
856
00:49:23.840 --> 00:49:25.360
and what are you guys doing to overcome it?
857
00:49:27.360 --> 00:49:35.159
Number one challenge facing Native people today and is part
858
00:49:35.199 --> 00:49:38.280
of the reason why this Indigenous Walking Tour was born,
859
00:49:38.840 --> 00:49:39.880
is invisibility.
860
00:49:40.320 --> 00:49:40.440
Right.
861
00:49:40.519 --> 00:49:42.920
We talked about this in three sixty. That is part
862
00:49:42.960 --> 00:49:45.639
of the reason why three sixty focuses exclusively on the
863
00:49:45.679 --> 00:49:48.760
Indigenous experience because this is not something that's talked about
864
00:49:48.920 --> 00:49:52.480
at an unequal right. So I think the number one
865
00:49:52.679 --> 00:49:57.320
challenge is just being believed that we're still here. There
866
00:49:57.400 --> 00:50:02.280
were still people that we come from here, we're here
867
00:50:02.320 --> 00:50:06.639
now knowing who we are. There is a growing awareness
868
00:50:07.000 --> 00:50:09.639
in the community, a cal poly in the community at
869
00:50:09.719 --> 00:50:13.280
large in Sanlu's Obispo, which is really encouraging, but there
870
00:50:13.599 --> 00:50:21.920
is not a societal Indigenous literacy that has grown alongside that.
871
00:50:22.199 --> 00:50:25.119
So people are becoming more aware of tribes, but people
872
00:50:25.159 --> 00:50:28.760
aren't necessarily also becoming aware of how to understand what
873
00:50:28.800 --> 00:50:31.119
a tribe is and what it means and what it does.
874
00:50:31.800 --> 00:50:37.480
So that's a challenge in itself. Land access to land, right,
875
00:50:37.519 --> 00:50:41.679
this is a challenge facing everyone, everyone, regardless of whether
876
00:50:41.719 --> 00:50:45.440
your tribal member or not. Even in the face of
877
00:50:45.519 --> 00:50:50.559
potentially being able to access land, which is you know,
878
00:50:50.880 --> 00:50:53.800
Diablo Canyon, which is a different conversation we can have.
879
00:50:54.119 --> 00:50:57.239
What does that mean for the community and what reactions
880
00:50:57.280 --> 00:50:59.400
will the community have and what will that mean for
881
00:50:59.440 --> 00:51:03.000
the tribe. I think it's this like continual process of
882
00:51:03.199 --> 00:51:07.920
awareness building. But then also what happens once you have awareness.
883
00:51:08.000 --> 00:51:12.960
I think people oftentimes non native people can feel paralyzed
884
00:51:12.960 --> 00:51:17.760
by guilt right, feel totally unsure of what to do again,
885
00:51:17.800 --> 00:51:19.960
back to like wanting to be an ally for land
886
00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:23.599
back and still holding on to fear of I live here,
887
00:51:23.679 --> 00:51:25.559
this is my home. I don't know how to be
888
00:51:25.599 --> 00:51:29.119
an ally for land back if that means removing myself, right,
889
00:51:29.280 --> 00:51:31.440
I don't know what that looks like. Everyone needs safety
890
00:51:31.480 --> 00:51:33.880
and security at a home that is base need right,
891
00:51:34.519 --> 00:51:38.039
So I think the challenge of how to deal with
892
00:51:38.159 --> 00:51:41.199
increased awareness and at the same time that sort of
893
00:51:41.239 --> 00:51:44.719
inherently comes with increased discomfort, right, And how do we
894
00:51:44.760 --> 00:51:51.519
meet people there to say, Yes, you are feeling uncomfortable,
895
00:51:51.840 --> 00:51:54.840
I get that, I see that. I am not asking
896
00:51:54.880 --> 00:51:58.800
you to feel bad or feel guilty or feel like
897
00:51:58.880 --> 00:52:01.079
it is your ANSWER's faults.
898
00:52:01.800 --> 00:52:02.000
Right.
899
00:52:02.039 --> 00:52:06.159
We all have complicated identities and histories. We are all
900
00:52:06.239 --> 00:52:09.360
a product of the system that has been created before us.
901
00:52:09.599 --> 00:52:14.760
We are living in a structurally racist, sexist, et cetera,
902
00:52:14.880 --> 00:52:20.280
et cetera society right today it is mostly not the
903
00:52:20.360 --> 00:52:22.440
people who want to help. It is not their faults.
904
00:52:22.599 --> 00:52:22.800
Right.
905
00:52:23.360 --> 00:52:27.440
What you can do is no more so that you
906
00:52:27.599 --> 00:52:30.840
can do better, don't know more so that you feel
907
00:52:30.840 --> 00:52:33.480
bad about the past, Yes, that is important, but then
908
00:52:33.519 --> 00:52:38.159
you need to move on. So I think, like, how
909
00:52:38.480 --> 00:52:42.960
we bring truth and reconciliation? Right? These are like full
910
00:52:43.000 --> 00:52:45.840
on committees that are being formed by governments. Right now,
911
00:52:46.159 --> 00:52:50.159
what's that next step? Right? Once we reconcile, what do
912
00:52:50.199 --> 00:52:52.880
we do after that? Because most people are like, it's
913
00:52:52.920 --> 00:52:55.280
too much, I can't even think about it. Like what
914
00:52:55.559 --> 00:53:00.599
there's one hundred and one nations within California's borders, uncomfortable
915
00:53:00.679 --> 00:53:03.400
that you don't know what that means or that you
916
00:53:03.440 --> 00:53:05.079
don't know what that's gonna look like in the future.
917
00:53:05.679 --> 00:53:07.800
And when a student asked me last quarter, like how
918
00:53:07.800 --> 00:53:10.480
do I become an ally? I said, you have to
919
00:53:10.599 --> 00:53:13.800
learn how to live and be fine with the discomfort
920
00:53:13.920 --> 00:53:17.119
of not knowing if you could stay on your land.
921
00:53:17.800 --> 00:53:21.159
Right if not? I if just like the awareness or
922
00:53:21.199 --> 00:53:25.679
the ability to sort of sit with like, maybe I
923
00:53:25.719 --> 00:53:28.559
won't be here on this land anymore. Maybe that is
924
00:53:28.559 --> 00:53:30.880
what true ally should means. I'm not saying that it is,
925
00:53:31.519 --> 00:53:34.480
but you have to be okay with that as an idea.
926
00:53:34.800 --> 00:53:36.800
I'm getting into a really different space than I thought
927
00:53:36.840 --> 00:53:44.239
I was going. But humans are meaning making species purpose
928
00:53:44.320 --> 00:53:47.239
driven species, right, is really hard to have conversations where
929
00:53:47.280 --> 00:53:49.960
we don't have a set answer, where we don't have
930
00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:52.840
a set outcome. And these conversations don't have set answers
931
00:53:52.960 --> 00:53:55.400
or set outcomes because we can't conceptualize what it looks
932
00:53:55.440 --> 00:53:59.400
like because it doesn't exist. So we have to be
933
00:53:59.480 --> 00:54:01.639
okay with not knowing what it's going to look like.
934
00:54:01.920 --> 00:54:05.519
Yeah, like there's no guidebook. There's no guidebook, right, Just
935
00:54:05.559 --> 00:54:08.280
like how we know about being a tribal chair. There's
936
00:54:08.320 --> 00:54:11.960
no guidebook for that. Yeah, yeah, And I'm laughing because
937
00:54:12.079 --> 00:54:15.360
I saw one of the responses. When we ask students
938
00:54:15.400 --> 00:54:17.599
any questions they want to ask, They're like, not really
939
00:54:17.679 --> 00:54:19.920
a question, but I would reach out to Becca Lucas
940
00:54:19.920 --> 00:54:23.360
from the EES apartment. But then it says her mom
941
00:54:23.519 --> 00:54:26.239
is the head of the Yett Northern Too Much Tribal Council.
942
00:54:26.519 --> 00:54:30.679
I think they got confused talking about but they did
943
00:54:30.679 --> 00:54:33.880
say Becca and her mom have some great information about
944
00:54:33.960 --> 00:54:36.519
issues that currently affect them in the area today. So
945
00:54:36.960 --> 00:54:39.119
I thought it was funny to just mention that.
946
00:54:39.119 --> 00:54:41.559
It's very funny my mom is the vice president of
947
00:54:41.599 --> 00:54:45.880
the tribal nonprofit Mona Lavas Tucker is the tribal chair
948
00:54:46.159 --> 00:54:49.760
of YTT. It's different. We could have a whole podcast
949
00:54:49.800 --> 00:54:51.159
on governance structure.
950
00:54:50.840 --> 00:54:53.960
But I just wanted to say a little bit about
951
00:54:54.000 --> 00:55:01.000
the discomfort is such a disorienting experience and it's also invitation, right.
952
00:55:01.119 --> 00:55:04.000
This is what I tell my interest students all the time.
953
00:55:04.000 --> 00:55:07.159
I'm like, just sit with that and let it kind
954
00:55:07.199 --> 00:55:09.960
of manifest for ten weeks while you're in this class,
955
00:55:09.960 --> 00:55:11.760
and then you can put it down and never think
956
00:55:11.800 --> 00:55:13.719
about it again. Or you can use that as an
957
00:55:13.719 --> 00:55:17.000
invitation to kind of reorient and redirect yourself. And I
958
00:55:17.039 --> 00:55:19.320
want to offer maybe like a shout out and an
959
00:55:19.360 --> 00:55:23.159
example of what stepping into that discomfort can look like.
960
00:55:23.320 --> 00:55:26.679
And I've been doing a little bit of work with
961
00:55:26.719 --> 00:55:29.760
the cal Poly chapter of the Surf Writer Foundation, right,
962
00:55:30.199 --> 00:55:33.960
because members of Surfrider took Professor Lucas's class and then
963
00:55:34.000 --> 00:55:38.880
got really curious about what do we do and how
964
00:55:38.920 --> 00:55:41.039
do we what does that look like? And so that
965
00:55:41.239 --> 00:55:44.599
club has been going through a process of learning right
966
00:55:44.719 --> 00:55:48.320
and getting to know and and figuring out how to
967
00:55:48.360 --> 00:55:52.800
be in right relationship this and this is a club
968
00:55:52.840 --> 00:55:55.800
that is exploring the fact that, especially as a surf
969
00:55:55.920 --> 00:55:59.599
rider chapter like this is a national organization that has
970
00:55:59.639 --> 00:56:03.880
a lot of power in the environmental world, right, And
971
00:56:03.960 --> 00:56:06.360
so they're beginning the process of thinking about what it
972
00:56:06.400 --> 00:56:10.239
looks like to kind of wield that power as a
973
00:56:10.280 --> 00:56:14.440
surf rider chapter to specifically advocate for some of these
974
00:56:14.480 --> 00:56:17.199
issues that Becca has raised here right the land back
975
00:56:17.239 --> 00:56:23.599
out at Diablo Canyon, figuring out what good consultation and
976
00:56:23.679 --> 00:56:27.360
relationship actually looks like. And so that is a group
977
00:56:27.440 --> 00:56:31.679
here at cal Poly right that has begun wrestling with
978
00:56:31.760 --> 00:56:35.800
the discomfort and really is kind of modeling what it
979
00:56:35.840 --> 00:56:38.559
could look like to find a way to use their
980
00:56:38.599 --> 00:56:42.119
position as students and as a club to step out
981
00:56:42.159 --> 00:56:45.719
beyond that acknowledgment or kind of like general process. And
982
00:56:47.719 --> 00:56:50.599
I keep wanting to say, weaponize their power. That's absolutely
983
00:56:50.599 --> 00:56:54.559
not what they're doing. But they're leveraging a great deal
984
00:56:54.639 --> 00:56:57.440
of power in an environment. It's like a powerful environmental
985
00:56:57.519 --> 00:57:03.360
organization to create eight amplified kind of recognition of ytt
986
00:57:03.519 --> 00:57:04.320
Land based issues.
987
00:57:04.400 --> 00:57:07.719
So so we have this at the end of the
988
00:57:07.760 --> 00:57:12.159
walking tour. But if you're from Seattle, you should be
989
00:57:12.159 --> 00:57:17.519
paying your rent to do Amish. They have this that's
990
00:57:17.559 --> 00:57:21.400
like slogan called like real rent, real rent, do Amish.
991
00:57:21.719 --> 00:57:24.480
They can put a sign on your yard and they'll say,
992
00:57:24.960 --> 00:57:28.480
I pay my rent to do Amish. And essentially it
993
00:57:28.599 --> 00:57:30.880
like it brings more attention to the fact that like
994
00:57:30.960 --> 00:57:33.559
Duamish is not a federally recognized tribe. They do not
995
00:57:33.599 --> 00:57:37.559
get any money from the federal government. In Professor Lucas's class,
996
00:57:37.599 --> 00:57:40.440
I actually like went through their application to like become
997
00:57:40.480 --> 00:57:43.480
a federally recognized tribe and it like literally made one explode.
998
00:57:44.039 --> 00:57:46.480
So about a tribe that's been fighting for recognition for
999
00:57:46.519 --> 00:57:47.480
like thirty years.
1000
00:57:47.519 --> 00:57:51.599
Like Chief Seattle is literally from Douamish tribe and the
1001
00:57:51.760 --> 00:57:54.840
entire city is named after him, but their tribe doesn't
1002
00:57:54.840 --> 00:57:56.760
get federal recognition for whatever reason.
1003
00:57:56.880 --> 00:57:58.199
That was all that we had.
1004
00:57:58.760 --> 00:57:59.719
Really so.
1005
00:58:01.280 --> 00:58:03.639
Well, thank you, Thank you so much.
1006
00:58:03.760 --> 00:58:07.320
I appreciate and yeah, thank you guys for making time
1007
00:58:07.719 --> 00:58:09.599
to be in this podcast. I know it initially could
1008
00:58:09.639 --> 00:58:14.199
be very intimidating with so much like technology, but I
1009
00:58:14.199 --> 00:58:17.239
want to thank you guys because I'm sure it's definitely
1010
00:58:17.559 --> 00:58:20.159
like helped us. Even though I'm part of the walking
1011
00:58:20.199 --> 00:58:22.320
tour and stuff. You know, there's a few things I
1012
00:58:22.360 --> 00:58:26.840
didn't know, but I'm excited to just see the results
1013
00:58:27.280 --> 00:58:29.920
and see what students have learned and who knows.
1014
00:58:30.039 --> 00:58:31.519
Yeah, I just want to say thank you for like
1015
00:58:31.599 --> 00:58:34.800
clarification over. I didn't know a lot of the topics
1016
00:58:34.880 --> 00:58:36.920
you guys brought up, so I was like like literally
1017
00:58:36.960 --> 00:58:38.800
like my I was like glued to like either any
1018
00:58:38.840 --> 00:58:41.239
of you like say anything. I was like, do tell more?
1019
00:58:42.000 --> 00:58:45.480
But no, I really enjoyed hearing everything, and I love
1020
00:58:45.519 --> 00:58:47.920
the energy all of you guys brought here today. I
1021
00:58:47.960 --> 00:58:50.239
don't know, it was just I feel like with like
1022
00:58:51.119 --> 00:58:53.039
talking about top like this, Like people think, oh, it's
1023
00:58:53.079 --> 00:58:56.280
going to be a serious, you know podcast. No, actually
1024
00:58:56.360 --> 00:58:58.880
I liked like you guys interpreted, you know, like your
1025
00:58:58.880 --> 00:59:00.320
own meanings to certain top books.
1026
00:59:00.360 --> 00:59:02.320
And it was very entertaining.
1027
00:59:02.400 --> 00:59:04.559
So thank you for bringing that energy today.
1028
00:59:04.760 --> 00:59:09.199
And ask your professors about this content. Ask them first
1029
00:59:09.199 --> 00:59:12.760
of all, any room you're in, any conversation you're having
1030
00:59:12.840 --> 00:59:15.320
as it relates to this country and any part of
1031
00:59:15.320 --> 00:59:18.719
this land, ask yourself who is missing? Who is not
1032
00:59:18.840 --> 00:59:23.320
being included? Right? And then ask your professors what about
1033
00:59:23.360 --> 00:59:27.679
the indigenous peoples? What about And if they say not
1034
00:59:27.880 --> 00:59:31.599
just here but anywhere, oh they didn't do anything, show
1035
00:59:31.639 --> 00:59:34.199
them the freaking receipts. We are living right now in
1036
00:59:34.239 --> 00:59:37.639
a state of just general cognitive dissonance in this country.
1037
00:59:37.719 --> 00:59:39.719
We know a lot of things because we have a
1038
00:59:39.719 --> 00:59:41.280
lot of smart people who are doing a lot of
1039
00:59:41.320 --> 00:59:43.320
stuff as it relates to this and this information is
1040
00:59:43.360 --> 00:59:46.039
out there, but it doesn't match the story that we
1041
00:59:46.119 --> 00:59:49.679
grew up with, or we tell or we still perpetuate now.
1042
00:59:50.079 --> 00:59:52.239
So what do we have to do to make those
1043
00:59:52.280 --> 00:59:55.159
parallel right? What do we have to change? And it
1044
00:59:55.199 --> 00:59:58.480
starts with asking the questions and so, and then also
1045
00:59:58.519 --> 01:00:01.079
bringing the receipts. If the question the answer you get
1046
01:00:01.199 --> 01:00:06.800
is wrong, which oftentimes it is right. So anyways, like you,
1047
01:00:07.519 --> 01:00:11.119
asking questions is a powerful tool. It is not a
1048
01:00:11.159 --> 01:00:14.480
privilege that everyone has, so if you have that privilege,
1049
01:00:14.719 --> 01:00:15.000
use it,
1
00:00:03.160 --> 00:00:06.960
Welcome to Different Matters Podcasts. We kind of see it
2
00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:10.720
as like a platform or like a safe space that
3
00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:17.359
like amplify, serves highlights underrepresented communities here at Calpoli. And
4
00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:20.519
so the goal with this episode is just really to
5
00:00:20.719 --> 00:00:24.280
like know more about the tribe. Like I'm sure students
6
00:00:24.519 --> 00:00:26.559
know of White to Tea, but we want to dive
7
00:00:26.600 --> 00:00:30.160
deeper and clarify a few questions. I think it's important
8
00:00:30.199 --> 00:00:32.399
to clarify whether they're like very.
9
00:00:32.200 --> 00:00:33.359
Obvious or not.
10
00:00:34.880 --> 00:00:37.920
So yeah, it's really just to educate the listeners and
11
00:00:38.119 --> 00:00:41.719
viewers who are going to listen to this episode, and
12
00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:45.200
also just dive deeper as to like why Native Americans
13
00:00:45.200 --> 00:00:48.359
are indigenous peopils. It's why is it important to like
14
00:00:48.439 --> 00:00:52.479
include them in society, like maybe clarify that and then
15
00:00:52.520 --> 00:00:57.079
also maybe bring up some like questions or topics that
16
00:00:57.159 --> 00:01:00.320
you all would like for students to know about, like
17
00:01:00.359 --> 00:01:03.719
the ytt or tribal nations or indigenous peopils in general.
18
00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:07.200
It's just me and Kate in this podcast, So we
19
00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:09.359
welcome you, and if we want to start off with
20
00:01:09.400 --> 00:01:13.480
some brief introductions, we can start wherever. I can popcorn
21
00:01:13.599 --> 00:01:14.239
somebody too.
22
00:01:14.680 --> 00:01:17.799
My name is Becca Lucas. I am a lecturer in
23
00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:21.640
the Ethnic Studies and the Natural Resources departments, and I
24
00:01:21.719 --> 00:01:25.799
am a tribal member of the Yakutichu Tchuo Yaktilhini Northern
25
00:01:25.799 --> 00:01:31.120
Tumash tribe of San Luisbethpo County and Regent. I teach
26
00:01:31.959 --> 00:01:36.959
classes that talk about ytt as we call ourselves because
27
00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:40.079
yaktch yak Tilhini is a very long ning to repeat
28
00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:46.159
multiple times, and our relationship to land, the history, the
29
00:01:46.280 --> 00:01:49.959
presence as it relates to indigenous nations within the boundaries
30
00:01:50.040 --> 00:01:53.760
of our current country and California in general.
31
00:01:54.200 --> 00:01:57.719
My name is Sophia Morassin. I'm a fourth year computer
32
00:01:57.799 --> 00:02:01.680
science senior with a minor in Ethnic Studies. Although I'm
33
00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:05.200
not indigenous to the United States, these issues are important
34
00:02:05.200 --> 00:02:08.120
to me as an indigenous person from the Southwest Asian
35
00:02:08.120 --> 00:02:12.680
North African region. And having taken Professor Lucas's class, I've
36
00:02:12.759 --> 00:02:15.159
become much more aware of everything and I would advise
37
00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:18.000
every single person in this university to take this class
38
00:02:18.199 --> 00:02:21.240
well classes that so that would be Ethnic Studies through
39
00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:24.280
sixty Ethnicity in the Land, and I'm one of the
40
00:02:24.599 --> 00:02:29.000
four researchers that's on the cal Pola Indigenous Walking Tour. Hi.
41
00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:31.599
Yeah, thank you so much for having us here today.
42
00:02:31.800 --> 00:02:34.680
My name is doctor Lydia Heberling. I am an assistant
43
00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:39.199
professor in the Ethnic Studies Department. This is my third
44
00:02:39.280 --> 00:02:41.759
year here, so I always say I'm a third year professor.
45
00:02:42.439 --> 00:02:47.199
I teach classes in American Indian Studies and literature when
46
00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:50.240
I can get away with it. That's my academic background
47
00:02:50.360 --> 00:02:53.560
is in literary studies and Indigenous studies. Those are the
48
00:02:53.560 --> 00:02:56.520
classes I teach. I do a lot of scholarship on
49
00:02:58.199 --> 00:03:01.560
California Indian literary studies. That was what I wrote my
50
00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:06.039
dissertation on. I come to Native studies in the United
51
00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:09.120
States as someone who's not an American Indian person. I
52
00:03:09.159 --> 00:03:12.280
am Latina, and we have our own kind of complex
53
00:03:12.360 --> 00:03:15.719
indigenous kind of backgrounds and origins there, and that's a
54
00:03:15.960 --> 00:03:18.120
that's a different story. But I always kind of acknowledge
55
00:03:18.159 --> 00:03:20.840
that as a professor of American Indian Studies and someone
56
00:03:20.840 --> 00:03:23.319
who does scholarship kind of in a North American context,
57
00:03:23.479 --> 00:03:27.000
you got to kind of mark those distinctions really carefully
58
00:03:27.039 --> 00:03:30.000
and thoughtfully because that establishes different kinds of relations to
59
00:03:30.039 --> 00:03:30.800
the work that we do.
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00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:33.280
My name is Kay, also a part of the podcast
61
00:03:33.280 --> 00:03:36.639
team Different Matters with Amy and then I'm also involved
62
00:03:36.639 --> 00:03:41.120
in KCPR. I'm a DJ on KCPR. So very fun.
63
00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:44.120
But yeah, very excited to be a part of this team.
64
00:03:44.120 --> 00:03:47.919
It's just it's super important to you know, recognize voices
65
00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:51.360
that typically go unheard, and it's also a learning experience
66
00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:53.639
for students to also tune into and they can learn
67
00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:56.000
new things. So very excited to have all of you
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00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:57.319
guys here. Thank you.
69
00:03:58.080 --> 00:03:58.240
Hi.
70
00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:02.800
This is Amy Osa the Different Matters Podcast, fourth year
71
00:04:02.840 --> 00:04:07.120
Ethnic Sudies major with Spanish minor. And yeah, I'm excited
72
00:04:07.360 --> 00:04:09.919
for this episode and let's get.
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Right into it.
74
00:04:10.800 --> 00:04:14.719
As how, like every event and guest speaker or keynote
75
00:04:14.759 --> 00:04:19.519
speaker event start, it always begins with like the land acknowledgment,
76
00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:23.240
So I do want to start off with the land acknowledgement.
77
00:04:23.879 --> 00:04:27.160
Kalpoli sits on the traditional lands of the Yaktitutuo yak
78
00:04:27.240 --> 00:04:30.800
Tilhini Northern Chumas tribe of San Luiso Bispo County and region.
79
00:04:31.439 --> 00:04:34.639
The Yuktitutu yuc Tilhini have a documented presence in this
80
00:04:34.800 --> 00:04:38.120
area for over ten thousand years. The Tilhini peoples have
81
00:04:38.199 --> 00:04:42.160
stewarded their ancestral and unseated homelands, which include all of
82
00:04:42.199 --> 00:04:45.839
the city's communities, federal and state open spaces within the
83
00:04:45.879 --> 00:04:50.079
San Luiso Bispo County region. These homelands extend east into
84
00:04:50.120 --> 00:04:53.879
the Carrizo Plains toward Kern County, south to the Santa
85
00:04:53.879 --> 00:04:57.240
Maria River, north to Ragged Point, and west beyond the
86
00:04:57.240 --> 00:05:02.079
ocean's shoreline, in an unbroken chain of lineage, kinship, and culture.
87
00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:05.519
I started off this kind of on purpose because I
88
00:05:05.560 --> 00:05:07.680
want to like break it down a bit. What does
89
00:05:07.720 --> 00:05:12.720
the land acknowledgment like mean? When was it like established?
90
00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:16.160
You can like interpret it any way, you can anything
91
00:05:16.199 --> 00:05:19.079
to put it like in simple terms, like for anyone's listening.
92
00:05:19.199 --> 00:05:22.399
They're like, oh, okay, now I understand, you know, it doesn't.
93
00:05:22.199 --> 00:05:26.199
Have to be all perfect, but yeah, I can take
94
00:05:26.199 --> 00:05:28.800
this in two different directions. Amy, do you want or
95
00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:30.839
it sounds like you kind of want both, maybe some
96
00:05:30.920 --> 00:05:35.319
of the context of that land acknowledgment and also land
97
00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:37.439
acknowledgments in general and what they mean.
98
00:05:37.639 --> 00:05:39.439
Yeah, I would say, yeah, both of those.
99
00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:39.879
Okay.
100
00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:44.120
So in now this is the part that I need
101
00:05:44.120 --> 00:05:48.680
fact checking on the dorm. So many are familiar with
102
00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:54.120
the Yaki tout dorms Yaki two tou a slightly sounds
103
00:05:54.120 --> 00:05:57.920
the same, looks similar to Yakutichu teach you. So it's
104
00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:01.920
an important distinction between the dorm complex, which translates roughly
105
00:06:01.959 --> 00:06:05.199
to community versus Yakutichu ti Chu, which is the beginning
106
00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:10.879
of our tribal name. When that project began in twenty eighteen,
107
00:06:11.439 --> 00:06:15.480
how Poly embarked on a real or I'm sorry it
108
00:06:15.519 --> 00:06:19.160
began before that. I can't remember when construction was completed,
109
00:06:19.199 --> 00:06:20.560
so you're all of the fact checking things.
110
00:06:20.839 --> 00:06:23.720
I think construction was finished in twenty eighteen.
111
00:06:23.959 --> 00:06:24.680
That sounds right.
112
00:06:24.759 --> 00:06:29.040
I think the like fall quarter incoming class of like
113
00:06:29.079 --> 00:06:34.839
twenty eighteen, like the class of twenty twenty two. People
114
00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:37.279
like those people. That was like their first time with
115
00:06:37.319 --> 00:06:38.519
their first time Yeah.
116
00:06:38.279 --> 00:06:43.759
Okay, cool, okay. So the project that led to the
117
00:06:43.839 --> 00:06:49.480
twenty eighteen completion of the Yaki Tutu Dorm Complex was
118
00:06:49.480 --> 00:06:55.120
a really targeted relationship and interaction with the tribe. So
119
00:06:55.199 --> 00:06:59.199
cal Poly really intentionally worked with the tribe to develop
120
00:06:59.480 --> 00:07:02.439
all the names and even the orientation as best they
121
00:07:02.439 --> 00:07:04.560
could with the dorm complex, which is something we talk
122
00:07:04.600 --> 00:07:08.120
about in more detail on the Indigenous Walking tour. Should
123
00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:10.360
you be interested in learning more while we are at
124
00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:14.959
the actual dorm complex. But in that process, in going
125
00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:17.720
through the language and the namings or the spatial awareness,
126
00:07:18.519 --> 00:07:22.560
I think that's where the impetus to begin with land
127
00:07:22.600 --> 00:07:26.959
acknowledgments came from, because that wasn't a practice really generally
128
00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:30.759
in the US, but definitely not here. You might notice
129
00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:34.759
that there's not a standardized land acknowledgment. This one is
130
00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:36.839
the one that we use. This is the one that
131
00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:43.199
ethnic studies tends to use before different events. But some
132
00:07:43.240 --> 00:07:46.399
people you know, on email signatures might have something different,
133
00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:48.839
or some people might say something different at other events.
134
00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:52.800
So there are a variety of different ways that people
135
00:07:53.519 --> 00:07:56.199
have a land acknowledgment and interpret the land acknowledgment. But
136
00:07:56.399 --> 00:08:01.120
the sort of core basis of it is recognizing ytt
137
00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:03.199
as the people of this land, and that's what remains
138
00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:03.759
the constant.
139
00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:07.839
I would just add as a practice at universities in
140
00:08:07.879 --> 00:08:13.079
particular and institutions more broadly in Canada and the United States,
141
00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:18.399
land acknowledgments really started becoming a norm. And I say
142
00:08:18.399 --> 00:08:21.160
that loosely but like a norm in probably like twenty
143
00:08:21.199 --> 00:08:24.199
fourteen or twenty fifteen is when you really start seeing,
144
00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:31.680
specifically in spaces with more Indigenous populations, who are really
145
00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:34.600
driving the need for the land acknowledgment. But twenty fourteen
146
00:08:34.639 --> 00:08:36.480
twenty fifteen is when you kind of start seeing this
147
00:08:36.559 --> 00:08:41.679
adopted as a more standardized practice at institutions. So cow
148
00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:45.720
Poly is kind of right on track with recognizing the
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need to acknowledge the original peoples of the land, and
150
00:08:49.039 --> 00:08:53.279
a land acknowledgement is really important because it establishes a
151
00:08:53.440 --> 00:08:58.519
baseline understanding, right that universities, in particular, we're at a university,
152
00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:02.320
so we'll talk about those are built on and often
153
00:09:02.399 --> 00:09:07.039
benefit from or are complicit in kind of the occupation
154
00:09:07.159 --> 00:09:09.919
of Indigenous lands. And that's always a really really important
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place to start, right, is to recognize that where we're
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learning and where we're living, where we're playing is indigenous lands.
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And there's usually a historical context behind, like how that
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transition from being an indigenous ownership to university ownership in
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the evolution I would say, from it becoming again quote
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unquote the norm, which still isn't like widespread norm, right,
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but things happening more and more there is, just as
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with everything, the sort of counter of that saying, you
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know what, why are we even doing this? It seems
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really empty, right, We're just saying this, but we're not
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actually doing anything. So I have to insert in here
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because our tribal chair I want to leave us Tucker again.
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We'll always say a land acknowledgment needs to come with
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the deliverable. So land acknowledgment is an important step, and
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it doesn't mean that you shouldn't be doing it if
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you can't deliver on a deliverable.
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Right.
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Not everyone is in a position of power or in
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a position to enact or deliver a deliverable, but for
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those who are right cal Poly right, they should be
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acting on that deliverable. And one really important piece of
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that was the dorm complex. Right, So they're acknowledging YTT
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and they have a whole dorm complex that is named
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for our village sites. So that's a really important foundation
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of recognizing and acknowledgeable.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, So, particularly as people and as cal Poly students
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frequently ask like, what can I do? Right? Is a
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land acknowledgment enough? Is it? Is it meaningless? Is it not?
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I don't think there's an answer to whether or not
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it's meaningless, but I just like to think, imagine if
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every single event you went to ever started off just
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naming the people who are there first anywhere in the world,
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what would that actually look like?
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Right?
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And that's one of the ideal responses to land acknowledgment, right,
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is like, really, I want to know more, And that's
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that's the ideal. And then from there that catalyzes the
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desire to move beyond to the land acknowledgment, because a
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lot of Indigenous people will say, like, land acknowledgments are
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empty and performative, right, Oh, we stole this land a
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long time ago. We acknowledge that we stole this land
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a long time ago.
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The I'm sure familiar with this, but the language of
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land acknowledgments is hotly contested within communities who are creating
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land acknowledgments or analyzing or criticizing land acknowledgments. Right, if
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we say guests, we are implying that you are invited
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at some point. Even if we say uninvited guests, right,
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we're not necessarily talking about what the actual history is.
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So it if you say unseated, then people are maybe like,
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what's unseated mean? And then you have to hold of
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all other conversations, so it's like what's the entry point,
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And this in itself it is a controversial topic, right,
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some people think that like entry points shouldn't be slow,
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or they shouldn't really be entry points. We should just
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be really honest. But we need to be aware of
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the community that we're in and make sure that we
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are bringing the community along with us, because if if
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we're not, if people are not open to learning more,
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they're not gonna learn more. And if they're not gonna
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learn more, then what are we doing.
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I also think it's important to recognize that like whenever
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you do like a land acknowledgement, or whenever you have
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some like recognition of indigenous people, it doesn't just depend
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on like the faculty or not the faculty. It doesn't
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depend on like just administration, but also like the faculty.
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So like in the case of the University of Washington,
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there was this one like very famous like computer science
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professor who essentially said that like this land acknowledgement was
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like worthless or like something like that, and everybody got
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like up in arms about him, but like nothing really happened,
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like there was no consequences, like the words that he
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was saying that's crazy.
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He basically his position is that sellers have occupied the land,
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and a land acknowledgment is vacuous because there's no need
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to recognize or validate the ongoing existence of indigenous peoples,
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as if seller colonialism is already a finished project. Lots
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of response like body responses there, yeah, and tenured he
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is very kind of infamous within the university system there.
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This, I think like the deeper part of this is
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something that doctor Heberly and I experience in our classes
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in particularly three sixty constantly because we are talking about
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native nations, we are talking about sovereign nations within the
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boundaries of the United States as a country. Right now,
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what does that actually mean? What does that look like?
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And as soon as we start to talk about that,
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and this is sort of the implicit of land acknowledgment, right,
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You're acknowledging these tribes, You're acknowledging these sovereignties. When people
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get really uncomfortable with that, maybe it's because they feel
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like it's a direct threat to their existence. It is
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what I like to sort of pose in my classes
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and just in general, is like, what is this threatening?
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Right?
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What is the ideal that this is threatening that is
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causing such an intense reaction among people, Like what is
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the point of responding that way?
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Right?
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Like what is it actually threatening to just state something?
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Because it's really uncomfortable for a lot of people to
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imagine what respecting sovereignty of five hundred and seventy four
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federally recognized nations, not to mention all the other tribes
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that are not federally recognized. What does it look like
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to acknowledge your sovereignty within our borders? It's hard to imagine.
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Maybe you're like I support land back, but I really
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like where I live. Yeah, you know, like people get
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really uncomfortable at that because what does it mean? How
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do you support and be an ally to a tribe's
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sovereignty while occupying their land? I don't know.
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I feel like what I find like in sand with
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that too, Like you know, there could be students there
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even like here too, like if you know, higher officials
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didn't you know, respect my acknowledgment or anything to do
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with all the tribes. And it's like you're not just
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hurting like the school's image, but you're also hurting your
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students here that are a part of that too. And
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by doing that, like they're not gonna want to stay
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here because of that. And it's like, I don't know,
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like I feel like if you're a higher official, like
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you should understand take everything into consideration, even like learn
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you know, I get it. You know, some people may
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be confused about it, but learn about it and then
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you can come to an understanding and how to you know,
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respect faculty and students that are a part of this.
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So just interesting how that you know, who is it
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a professor or.
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Yeah, uh never you see Washington.
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Yeah, that is just super messy. And the fact that
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he just like went off on it, like not even
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like oh yeah, like it you know, maybe a problem,
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but I'm gonna say it, you know anyway, she just
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straightforward to it. That's so unprofessional.
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I wanted to also clarify maybe a question that I
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feel like a lot of students would have is like,
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obviously it's straightforward, but like, what is the difference between
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like a federally recognized tribe and a non federally recognized one,
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Like what do each like what's the difference? And obviously
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one has less like advantages than the other, So maybe
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just clarifying as to that and then I don't know
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we can bring in white tt in the mix and stuff.
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Oh my god, I've lectured on this so much in
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the last few weeks. I feel like all the words
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have actually left my brain. The process of becoming a
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federally recognized tribe is an incredibly complex process it and
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there are a lot of kind of different historical iterations
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of how tribes have entered into federal recognition. We started
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as a settler nation with treaty making rights. We would
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engage in this kind of diplomatic political recognition of the
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sovereign status of tribal nations, and that process has evolved
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over time. Currently recognition is up to the Department of
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the Interior, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as well as
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sometimes Congress. But there's a lot of different criteria for
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entering into this federal relationship or relationship between a sovereign
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nation and in the federal government. And it's ironic because
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the federal government creates the criteria by which they then
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recognize the politically sovereign status of tribal nations, and that
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criteria is largely made up of kind of myth the
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logical notions of what a native tribe or native nation
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can or should be. And so in the criteria are
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things like, you have to demonstrate a long standing commitment
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to or life on your traditional homelands. And we know
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through the processes of removal and dispossession that few tribes
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can actually demonstrate a long standing kind of commitment to
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an original homeland of sorts.
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Right.
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You have to have a government that looks kind of
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like a constitutional government, right, and so a lot of
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tribal governments prior to European settlement didn't always look like
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European forms of government. And one of the criteria now
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is that you have to be able to demonstrate that
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your governance system looks like Western forms of democracy or
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government and things like that. It's expensive, it's time consuming,
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right to kind of put for all of this, The
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list goes on. It's you have to be validated as
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a tribe by someone from not your tribe, whether that's
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an academic, which is funny, or other tribes have to
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recognize you as a nation. So the process is tedious.
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The process is not rigged, but rigged, right, And that's
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because it's it's costly to the United States to enter
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into that trust relationship with recognized tribal nations politically costly
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financially costly. Recognized tribes have a trust based or domestic
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dependency based relationship with the federal government, which means that
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the federal government has an obligation to recognize limited forms
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of sovereignty of those nations but also uphold things like
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treaty rights and whatnot. And we're not great honoring that
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trust responsibility historically, but the recognition recess is created so
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that once that is extended, that it costs the US
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government something. It limits the sovereignty of the United States
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government in its process of recognizing this armonty.
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Of a tribe.
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So that's your big broad overview with that helpful Yeah.
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I just wanted to to say, it's like pretty interesting
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to hear that too. I feel like a lot of
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people don't know like the whole like lengthy process of everything.
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They're kind of like, oh, like let's talk about it
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and then just like deny something. But I feel like
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there's just like so many steps to it. It could either
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be like denied something or I don't know, you need
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I don't know, like they need more information or like
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something about it that it's like then you have to
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go out and do petitioning and get you know, people involved,
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and I feel like that's just something that like even
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like in journalism. I'm a journalist major, like I that's
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another thing to with like Native Americans and all indigenous tribes.
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It's so hard to know like what's going on, like
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what's being passed, what you know, what's going is like
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it's never covered, and I feel like I want, I
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want to know more about that, and it honestly makes
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me but like I don't hear much about it. I'm like,
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why why aren't they getting that recognition and if like
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more people need to know about this, and it's honestly
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sad that people don't, so think thank you for that.
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Well, we need journalists like you to be asking these
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questions and telling me stories. And this is a total sidebar,
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but there's this awesome resource called the Native American Journalists Association,
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and it's an association of Native American journalists who provide
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all kinds of resources for how to report an Indian country,
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and so I definitely recommend checking that out.
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Well, I was just gonna underscore the lengthy process. There
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are tribes who've had their petitions in for thirty years, yes,
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who still haven't gotten recognition. Right, So, like this is
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not an easy thing to do, and it also creates
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really unfortunate situations between tribes because you're fighting for or
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part of being a federally recognized tribes means that you
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have access to services from the federal government, right, so
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there are benefits in that way. You enter into this
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legally defined federal trust responsibility relationship with the government in
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which the original spirit of the law right was tribes
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seeded quote unquote their land to the government in exchange
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for this relationship. So the government is supposed to act
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in the best interest of the tribe because the tribes
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seeded their land in exchange for that. So this, I mean,
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is a really important legal concept. It is like it
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seems really amorphous, but federal trust responsibility is what some
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tribes are able to take to court and point to
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and say you didn't act in our best interest and
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you actually have the legal obligation to do that. Whether
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or not those arguments bear out right is a different conversation,
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but that is legally defined relationship. And I think the
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other thing that's really important, particularly when we're talking about
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land right, land back the acknowledgments, et cetera. The one
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thing that I find is often most shocking for students
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to learn is that reservation lands, part of this trust
397
00:23:06.920 --> 00:23:11.960
responsibility right, is not actually owned by the tribe. It
398
00:23:12.039 --> 00:23:14.640
is still owned by the federal government. It's just held
399
00:23:14.680 --> 00:23:17.559
in trust by the tribe or I'm sorry, yes, held
400
00:23:17.680 --> 00:23:20.880
trust federal government. Thank you, held in trust by the
401
00:23:20.920 --> 00:23:23.480
federal government. So I think that's a really important thing.
402
00:23:23.480 --> 00:23:27.039
And we're talking about what that means, particularly with federally
403
00:23:27.079 --> 00:23:29.960
recognized tribes, right, we talk about them like they have
404
00:23:30.079 --> 00:23:33.480
more access to services, they have land, But the underscore
405
00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:38.160
there is the government still owns the land, right because
406
00:23:38.319 --> 00:23:43.400
in assuming this special flavor, this domestic dependency of sovereignty
407
00:23:43.839 --> 00:23:47.839
that was established by the Supreme Court in the eighteen hundreds,
408
00:23:48.759 --> 00:23:51.920
they said, you are not fit to own your own land,
409
00:23:52.160 --> 00:23:54.160
we will own it for you, and you can.
410
00:23:54.599 --> 00:23:57.000
Got a whole Britney Spirits situation happening here.
411
00:23:57.119 --> 00:24:02.640
Yeah, truly. So that's like, so that's federal recognition. Right.
412
00:24:02.640 --> 00:24:04.640
There's five hundred and seventy four tribes right now in
413
00:24:04.680 --> 00:24:07.799
the United States, five hundred and seventy six, five hundred
414
00:24:07.839 --> 00:24:11.680
and seventy six federally recognized tribes in the United States,
415
00:24:12.519 --> 00:24:17.039
many more non federally recognized tribes because of all of
416
00:24:17.079 --> 00:24:22.519
those barriers, because they weren't made treaties and the seventeen
417
00:24:22.599 --> 00:24:25.880
hundreds and eighteen hundreds because of political pressure. Is because
418
00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:26.920
of a number of different things.
419
00:24:27.519 --> 00:24:31.079
I have a question when it comes to like, in
420
00:24:31.119 --> 00:24:34.599
the process of becoming like a federally recognized tribe, does
421
00:24:34.960 --> 00:24:38.240
is there like costs involved for the tribe. Does it
422
00:24:38.279 --> 00:24:40.480
have anything to do with casinos or.
423
00:24:41.119 --> 00:24:44.559
The legal fees, the time and labor that it takes
424
00:24:44.599 --> 00:24:48.960
to put into putting the petition for federal recognition together,
425
00:24:49.599 --> 00:24:52.519
the effort that it takes often to travel to Washington,
426
00:24:52.599 --> 00:24:58.839
DC or to meet with representatives. It's costly and timely.
427
00:24:58.960 --> 00:25:02.160
And when you are tried vibe without those resources like
428
00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:05.000
a casino, that you're saying some kind of economic engine
429
00:25:05.079 --> 00:25:07.319
that's that's subsidizing or kind.
430
00:25:07.119 --> 00:25:08.640
Of underwriting.
431
00:25:10.039 --> 00:25:13.599
Tribal efforts, and things like who's paying for that? Where
432
00:25:13.599 --> 00:25:14.920
does the time come from?
433
00:25:15.480 --> 00:25:18.839
Things like that, which typically to have a casino you
434
00:25:18.920 --> 00:25:21.160
need to be So that's I mean, that's a good
435
00:25:21.160 --> 00:25:23.079
way to sort of ground this idea of sovereign nation,
436
00:25:23.279 --> 00:25:26.200
right like, why can there be casinos and states where
437
00:25:26.400 --> 00:25:31.039
that's not legal? Right, Chumash casino right. To be clear,
438
00:25:31.240 --> 00:25:33.279
that is a standin as band of Chumash, that is
439
00:25:33.319 --> 00:25:36.240
a federally recognized tribe that is not related to YTG.
440
00:25:36.960 --> 00:25:41.799
There are originally eight different bands of Chumash, so named
441
00:25:41.880 --> 00:25:45.440
because of Spanish colonizers saying, hey, look at all these
442
00:25:45.440 --> 00:25:48.000
people right here. They sound similar in there, look similar,
443
00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:50.440
and they do similar things. They gotta be related, right.
444
00:25:52.039 --> 00:25:57.400
All eight were distinctly different language, culture, everything share a region, sure,
445
00:25:57.640 --> 00:26:02.359
but different. So the name as a name to sort
446
00:26:02.359 --> 00:26:05.039
of bring all these different tribes together isn't really accurate.
447
00:26:05.759 --> 00:26:09.599
So sna and has Banduchumash right, they have a reservation land.
448
00:26:09.799 --> 00:26:13.200
So in this constant sort of layering and grounding we're
449
00:26:13.200 --> 00:26:15.799
talking about in sovereignty that is a sovereign nation, that
450
00:26:15.880 --> 00:26:18.519
is sovereign land, they are able to, because of a
451
00:26:18.559 --> 00:26:22.200
court case from California, enter into a compact with the
452
00:26:22.279 --> 00:26:27.240
state of California to dictate how gambling will go. This
453
00:26:27.319 --> 00:26:29.960
is something that is particular to states that allow for
454
00:26:30.079 --> 00:26:34.319
the state compact interaction between federally recognized tribes. So that
455
00:26:34.519 --> 00:26:36.240
I mean it varies from state to state. But that's
456
00:26:36.279 --> 00:26:38.920
one of the reasons why we can have casinos within
457
00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:41.400
borders of states where that's not allowed because it's happening
458
00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:44.440
on sovereign territory. Oh the other thing I was gonna say, sorry,
459
00:26:44.440 --> 00:26:48.160
I'm federally recognized tribes. So there's provision and services, right,
460
00:26:48.200 --> 00:26:51.039
but there's also just the acknowledgment and consultation that goes
461
00:26:51.039 --> 00:26:54.519
with that, which is a really important part of government
462
00:26:54.559 --> 00:26:55.880
to government relationships.
463
00:26:55.960 --> 00:26:56.039
Right.
464
00:26:56.119 --> 00:26:58.480
So if you are a federally recognized tribe, will you
465
00:26:58.599 --> 00:27:02.640
have to be consulted on things that relate to your
466
00:27:02.720 --> 00:27:05.839
land or your tribe legally, which isn't the same right
467
00:27:06.039 --> 00:27:09.880
or privilege afforded to non federally recognized tribes. Federally recognized
468
00:27:09.960 --> 00:27:14.200
tribe is a government right. That is a political entity.
469
00:27:14.279 --> 00:27:16.079
It is a culture, it is many other things, but
470
00:27:16.279 --> 00:27:20.279
ultimately is an organizing body, a politically organized body. So
471
00:27:20.759 --> 00:27:24.960
these are the people, right. A federal reservation, in its
472
00:27:25.039 --> 00:27:27.920
sort of truest form, is an area of land that's
473
00:27:27.920 --> 00:27:30.880
set aside for a federally recognized tribe. Right. This might
474
00:27:30.880 --> 00:27:33.160
be multiple tribes, and it has been in the past,
475
00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:37.640
but it is separate. So so we have a number
476
00:27:37.680 --> 00:27:41.400
of tribes, and then we also have federal Indian reservations
477
00:27:41.440 --> 00:27:44.319
and they're not one and the same when we talk
478
00:27:44.359 --> 00:27:47.920
about this right sovereignty versus land, because this is one
479
00:27:47.960 --> 00:27:54.000
of the ultimate sort of fulcrum points. Fulcrum doesm just
480
00:27:54.039 --> 00:27:56.880
mean point without point saying this is one of the
481
00:27:56.960 --> 00:28:01.640
key points in the trail of here's what most people
482
00:28:01.720 --> 00:28:05.240
learn about in public school. Right is the decision to
483
00:28:05.319 --> 00:28:09.839
maintain your sovereignty right leave your homelands. The five civilized
484
00:28:09.880 --> 00:28:13.880
tribes were forcibly removed but offered quote unquote to leave
485
00:28:13.920 --> 00:28:16.200
their homelands in the Southeast and go east to the
486
00:28:16.200 --> 00:28:20.720
Mississippi for permanent homeland potential, which ended up not being
487
00:28:20.759 --> 00:28:26.799
true surprise surprise, to keep their sovereignty versus staying in
488
00:28:26.839 --> 00:28:30.359
one place, staying in their homelands right, but essentially having
489
00:28:30.359 --> 00:28:33.400
their sovereignty dismantled because they would be then assumed does
490
00:28:33.480 --> 00:28:36.680
part of the new states that were forming in the southeast.
491
00:28:37.039 --> 00:28:39.559
And this question, I think for a lot of people
492
00:28:39.799 --> 00:28:42.359
or a lot of students will ask, like, well, how
493
00:28:42.400 --> 00:28:44.599
can we have tribes that are sovereign nations if they
494
00:28:44.640 --> 00:28:47.839
don't have land that like that as a concept doesn't
495
00:28:47.880 --> 00:28:52.119
always land. And the example that we both use is
496
00:28:52.640 --> 00:28:54.079
have you seen thor Ragnarok?
497
00:28:55.240 --> 00:28:55.440
Right?
498
00:28:55.720 --> 00:28:58.680
How does people not a place as guard as a
499
00:28:58.720 --> 00:29:01.039
people not a place? Right? That is like the most
500
00:29:01.039 --> 00:29:04.079
grounded example. And when we do that, people are like, oh, right,
501
00:29:04.759 --> 00:29:06.759
but that's what it is, right, This is a people,
502
00:29:06.839 --> 00:29:08.720
not a place, And so we don't they're not one
503
00:29:08.720 --> 00:29:11.599
and the same, right, So you don't. Not every friendly
504
00:29:11.640 --> 00:29:15.279
recognized tribe has a reservation. It's a really important point,
505
00:29:16.440 --> 00:29:19.799
particularly when we're talking about land based cultures, right, Like,
506
00:29:20.440 --> 00:29:23.759
we have to constantly distinguish that we're talking about people
507
00:29:24.119 --> 00:29:27.519
versus place, because the story of this country is people
508
00:29:27.599 --> 00:29:28.440
removed from place.
509
00:29:28.920 --> 00:29:34.400
And I think that's just a good question or concept
510
00:29:34.480 --> 00:29:37.599
to think with us students, right is, we want to
511
00:29:37.640 --> 00:29:40.559
ask this question about what is federal recognition and what
512
00:29:40.599 --> 00:29:43.960
does it mean to be recognized versus unrecognized? But it
513
00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:46.839
also like what does it mean to just get really
514
00:29:46.880 --> 00:29:50.079
specific when you're asking these questions who are the people
515
00:29:50.240 --> 00:29:53.039
of this place? Like, what is their status? What is
516
00:29:53.079 --> 00:29:56.000
their relationship to land? Like, what is their kind of
517
00:29:56.079 --> 00:29:59.240
political relationship to each other? There are members a federally
518
00:29:59.279 --> 00:30:03.440
recognized tribe to live quote unquote off reservation in cities
519
00:30:03.480 --> 00:30:05.559
elsewhere in other parts of the country or other parts
520
00:30:05.559 --> 00:30:07.799
of the world, and that doesn't make them any less
521
00:30:08.880 --> 00:30:12.000
citizen of that particular tribal nation just because they're not
522
00:30:12.119 --> 00:30:14.160
on that land base. And so I think just learning
523
00:30:14.200 --> 00:30:17.279
to get really curious and specific and start to ask
524
00:30:17.319 --> 00:30:20.839
these questions is really really useful way to approach kind
525
00:30:20.880 --> 00:30:23.880
of some of these questions. And it might be uncomfortable.
526
00:30:23.880 --> 00:30:26.039
I know a lot of students get really anxious about
527
00:30:26.079 --> 00:30:28.440
asking questions because they're like, I'm gonna say it wrong
528
00:30:28.519 --> 00:30:31.039
or I'm going to mess up, and but that's because
529
00:30:31.079 --> 00:30:33.440
you don't know how to ask these questions because we
530
00:30:33.480 --> 00:30:35.759
don't have the education and we don't this is not
531
00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:39.160
common kind of discourse, right, and so just don't be
532
00:30:39.160 --> 00:30:42.160
afraid to ask, and to make the mistake and apologize
533
00:30:42.160 --> 00:30:45.000
and try again, but just try to figure out those
534
00:30:45.039 --> 00:30:48.559
relationships because they're highly nuanced depending on where you are.
535
00:30:49.319 --> 00:30:53.960
Recently, we made like a little questionnaire thing for students
536
00:30:54.000 --> 00:30:56.759
to ask us questions, you know, they had about indigenous
537
00:30:56.799 --> 00:30:59.680
tribes and all that. And when I was typing everything out,
538
00:31:00.160 --> 00:31:03.720
Amy pointed out that it's important to capitalize the eye
539
00:31:03.920 --> 00:31:06.480
and Indigenous, and I had no clue about that, And like,
540
00:31:06.920 --> 00:31:09.160
typically I would have thought that I would have learned that.
541
00:31:09.240 --> 00:31:11.319
You know, I took a Multicultural journalsm class on how
542
00:31:11.359 --> 00:31:15.440
to like report correctly on certain like racism backgrounds, and
543
00:31:15.480 --> 00:31:17.400
I mean we did tap on a little bit of
544
00:31:17.440 --> 00:31:20.319
like indigenous tribes, but more like you know from the
545
00:31:20.359 --> 00:31:23.480
past of how like journalists kind of just like stereotype them,
546
00:31:23.839 --> 00:31:26.000
and the wording in there was just not accurate at all.
547
00:31:26.039 --> 00:31:28.200
So I feel like it's definitely important for US journalists
548
00:31:28.200 --> 00:31:31.079
to have everything accurate in there, whether it's tribe names
549
00:31:31.359 --> 00:31:34.119
or capitalizations or like anything to add in there. And
550
00:31:34.200 --> 00:31:37.960
I just wanted to know why is that important for
551
00:31:38.079 --> 00:31:40.720
the I to be capitalized on there? Is there any
552
00:31:40.759 --> 00:31:41.079
kind of.
553
00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:42.480
Like background to it.
554
00:31:42.559 --> 00:31:45.200
I would love to know anyone can answer on this.
555
00:31:45.559 --> 00:31:51.119
As Professor Lucas mentioned before, Indigenous and Native people it's
556
00:31:51.200 --> 00:31:54.640
not a race, so it's not like, oh, like you're
557
00:31:54.720 --> 00:31:59.240
white or like you're Asian or something. But it's also
558
00:31:59.279 --> 00:32:03.240
like a political entity to be an indigenous person. And
559
00:32:03.319 --> 00:32:06.359
also it's also proper to capitalize where it's like Asian
560
00:32:06.519 --> 00:32:10.319
or black when you're talking about race. So that same
561
00:32:11.160 --> 00:32:15.519
notion applies to indigenous people, but also like because indigenous
562
00:32:15.519 --> 00:32:18.680
can also refer to like plants and animals and stuff
563
00:32:18.720 --> 00:32:21.400
like that, I think it's also important separated by saying,
564
00:32:21.400 --> 00:32:24.279
like these are people and these are not like plants
565
00:32:24.279 --> 00:32:26.119
and animals, you know what I mean. It's like a
566
00:32:26.200 --> 00:32:30.119
really simple distinction, but it's really important to like divide
567
00:32:30.160 --> 00:32:30.480
it up.
568
00:32:30.759 --> 00:32:34.079
See that's interesting because I didn't know that, So it's
569
00:32:34.359 --> 00:32:36.559
good to know like that separation. I feel like it's
570
00:32:36.559 --> 00:32:39.119
also important for like, you know, anyone if they're I
571
00:32:39.119 --> 00:32:41.440
don't know, doing like research on that topic, or if
572
00:32:41.440 --> 00:32:43.799
they're talking to like a friend who's like involved with something,
573
00:32:43.799 --> 00:32:45.839
I feel like it's just important to make sure that
574
00:32:45.839 --> 00:32:48.359
they're comfortable with it. I mean, yeah, they can call
575
00:32:48.400 --> 00:32:52.799
them out too, but but no, I feel like, uh, yeah,
576
00:32:52.839 --> 00:32:54.400
it's a very important distinction.
577
00:32:54.839 --> 00:33:00.119
I will not forget ever being in one of the
578
00:33:00.160 --> 00:33:05.880
most uncomfortable zoom calls I had ever witnessed. Maybe I
579
00:33:05.960 --> 00:33:09.000
was there as this is my previous job, which was
580
00:33:09.039 --> 00:33:12.640
in state policy, and I had been invited not to
581
00:33:12.680 --> 00:33:14.759
like participate on the tribal end of it, but to
582
00:33:14.839 --> 00:33:19.759
participate in a tribal roundtable with academics and tribal leaders
583
00:33:19.839 --> 00:33:24.160
throughout the state to comment on language that was being
584
00:33:24.200 --> 00:33:28.960
proposed for state policy. And it was the you know,
585
00:33:29.400 --> 00:33:34.240
well meaning, well intentioned adults who had been doing this
586
00:33:34.400 --> 00:33:38.240
in their career for decades, right, who are policy specialists,
587
00:33:38.279 --> 00:33:42.039
who are putting forward language that doesn't resonate with tribes
588
00:33:42.039 --> 00:33:48.160
at all or does not accurately or adequately respect tribes.
589
00:33:48.200 --> 00:33:51.000
And I remember just the process of like watching this
590
00:33:51.079 --> 00:33:53.839
and I was truly like observer on zoom, just like
591
00:33:53.920 --> 00:33:55.839
seeing how this all went. In one of the people
592
00:33:55.880 --> 00:33:59.440
who was reviewing it, the first thing she said was like, okay,
593
00:33:59.480 --> 00:34:02.519
first singing. Need to do is capitalize tribe and tribal
594
00:34:02.640 --> 00:34:05.759
every single time it's mentioned. And this is again career
595
00:34:05.799 --> 00:34:09.920
professionals and policy who are writing state policy language who
596
00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:12.840
have no idea about that, right. So it's like this
597
00:34:13.039 --> 00:34:15.519
is structural. This is these are things that we don't
598
00:34:15.639 --> 00:34:20.159
learn because our structure is not to respect tribal sovereignty,
599
00:34:20.440 --> 00:34:20.719
you know.
600
00:34:20.679 --> 00:34:23.920
How we say, well, I don't know about the term
601
00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:31.039
American Indian, Like what's the difference between American Indian Native Americans?
602
00:34:31.199 --> 00:34:33.440
You know, I don't know. I heard something about American
603
00:34:33.599 --> 00:34:36.880
Indian so I don't know if that's euphemism, it's.
604
00:34:36.880 --> 00:34:42.559
Potato potato really, excuse me. It's an imperfect categorization, right,
605
00:34:42.679 --> 00:34:46.119
that clusters indigenous people who now live in the settler
606
00:34:46.239 --> 00:34:49.920
nation state of the United States. So there have been
607
00:34:49.960 --> 00:34:55.360
over time, like preferences around Native American versus American Indian,
608
00:34:55.559 --> 00:35:00.480
and we can quibble with those terms in indigenous studies
609
00:35:00.519 --> 00:35:05.119
in particular. Now it's like neither of them is awesome
610
00:35:05.320 --> 00:35:09.880
or ideal. Right, Indigenous is probably the biggest umbrella category
611
00:35:10.039 --> 00:35:13.880
to talk about the original peoples of a place. And
612
00:35:13.920 --> 00:35:16.559
then you have American Indian or Native American for in
613
00:35:16.599 --> 00:35:20.599
the United States, First Nations in Canada, and so on
614
00:35:20.679 --> 00:35:23.280
and so forth. And these are all imperfect kind of
615
00:35:23.360 --> 00:35:27.800
categories that are useful sometimes sometimes they're legal categories or
616
00:35:27.920 --> 00:35:32.480
legal terminology that we use to define very specific political
617
00:35:32.519 --> 00:35:37.360
obligations or legal obligations. But neither of them is awesome,
618
00:35:37.679 --> 00:35:40.960
And it's always best to use the tribe's specific name
619
00:35:41.079 --> 00:35:44.199
if that's if you're talking about a specific tribe.
620
00:35:43.960 --> 00:35:47.480
Right, just as we sort of mention like what's in
621
00:35:47.519 --> 00:35:51.679
a name and the walking tour, right when we talk
622
00:35:51.719 --> 00:35:55.440
about this, when we use the terms like Native American
623
00:35:55.719 --> 00:36:01.320
or American Indian. We are validating the existence of people
624
00:36:01.519 --> 00:36:04.760
in the context of America. Right, We're saying Native American,
625
00:36:04.800 --> 00:36:09.119
they are Indian America, and you are you are validating
626
00:36:09.119 --> 00:36:12.239
your existence as it relates to the current country. Right.
627
00:36:12.360 --> 00:36:17.119
So like even that in itself, right, is slow invisibilization
628
00:36:17.280 --> 00:36:19.559
instead of if we were to refer to everyone with
629
00:36:19.639 --> 00:36:24.320
their nation name. Right. So it's it's it's hard because
630
00:36:24.320 --> 00:36:26.440
these are these are the you know, these are the
631
00:36:26.519 --> 00:36:28.519
terms that we use. We have to speak to people
632
00:36:28.559 --> 00:36:30.960
on a people on a We have to speak to
633
00:36:31.000 --> 00:36:33.519
others on a level that they will understand. Otherwise we
634
00:36:33.559 --> 00:36:36.440
can't like have a conversation here if someone's not even
635
00:36:36.480 --> 00:36:40.000
in the same stratosphere. Right, But we still need to
636
00:36:40.039 --> 00:36:44.639
talk about what the terms that we're using imply, and
637
00:36:44.679 --> 00:36:48.280
that is your existence is validated within the context of
638
00:36:48.280 --> 00:36:52.000
the US to the euphemism, though the number of times
639
00:36:52.039 --> 00:36:56.760
you will see on a cal fire, a US Forest Service,
640
00:36:57.039 --> 00:37:00.559
Bureau of Land Management, and any sort of government website
641
00:37:00.639 --> 00:37:06.079
that says, following years of fire suppression policy, we are
642
00:37:06.199 --> 00:37:09.920
now dealing with blah blah blah, or the amount of
643
00:37:09.920 --> 00:37:15.039
brush that we have after decades of fire suppression activities. Unfortunately,
644
00:37:15.159 --> 00:37:21.800
blah blah blah, like that was intentional anti indigenous policy period, right,
645
00:37:22.400 --> 00:37:26.679
that was, fire was outlawed because they were trying, in
646
00:37:26.719 --> 00:37:30.000
particular in California to get people off the land. The
647
00:37:30.039 --> 00:37:32.480
Government for the or I'm sorry, the Act for the
648
00:37:32.559 --> 00:37:37.119
Protection and Government of Indians in California in eighteen fifty
649
00:37:37.599 --> 00:37:44.039
specifically outlawed, or any fire that was set should be
650
00:37:44.119 --> 00:37:47.039
put out immediately, and if anyone sets a fire intentionally,
651
00:37:47.079 --> 00:37:49.599
they could be fined or sent to jail with the
652
00:37:49.639 --> 00:37:53.719
intention of stopping this practice among Native Americans of Native
653
00:37:53.719 --> 00:37:58.440
California and specifically, So from this we can trace a
654
00:37:58.480 --> 00:38:02.000
through line of fire suppress policy throughout the entire United States.
655
00:38:02.320 --> 00:38:05.000
So this is like kind of off track to the
656
00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:08.920
whole seriousness. But like language revitalization in the tribe, you
657
00:38:09.000 --> 00:38:11.519
guys like to speak about the language, how is that
658
00:38:11.599 --> 00:38:14.920
being rejuvenated like now been like taking into consideration like
659
00:38:14.960 --> 00:38:17.559
the policies and stuff like that. Wouldn't it be cool
660
00:38:17.599 --> 00:38:20.320
to have like a policy with the tribe's language, like
661
00:38:20.360 --> 00:38:22.480
for the tribe and stuff like. I feel like that's
662
00:38:22.519 --> 00:38:24.639
a good way of like inclusivity.
663
00:38:25.920 --> 00:38:29.599
So when I first came to CalPoly, I really didn't
664
00:38:29.639 --> 00:38:32.360
like know anything about the school. When I saw that
665
00:38:32.400 --> 00:38:36.719
there were storms which were made in conjunction with a tribe,
666
00:38:36.960 --> 00:38:39.079
I kind of got like more interested in. I was like,
667
00:38:39.159 --> 00:38:42.039
I want to know more about this history, and so
668
00:38:42.119 --> 00:38:44.400
I tried looking it up myself, but like I really
669
00:38:45.320 --> 00:38:47.719
it was like kind of hard, which is why I
670
00:38:47.800 --> 00:38:50.159
was like so excited to join this project. Especially like
671
00:38:50.159 --> 00:38:53.360
in California, you don't see that many places and names
672
00:38:53.519 --> 00:38:56.039
or like you don't see like streets or cities or
673
00:38:56.079 --> 00:38:58.239
anything that's like named after tribes that often. I think,
674
00:38:58.320 --> 00:39:01.559
like Tohunga is only place in Los Angeles that's like
675
00:39:01.639 --> 00:39:04.280
named after the talk about people. So I thought, like
676
00:39:04.960 --> 00:39:11.840
seeing that in like a school was incredibly incredibly interesting. Yeah, awesome, splendid,
677
00:39:11.960 --> 00:39:14.400
But especially like growing up in Washington, like we're always
678
00:39:14.400 --> 00:39:19.760
surrounded by places like named like some Amish squah, it's
679
00:39:19.800 --> 00:39:23.880
a commish like all this stuff you're more like immersed
680
00:39:24.000 --> 00:39:28.119
in too, like indigenous namesake, but like in California, I
681
00:39:28.119 --> 00:39:30.400
really didn't see any of that until I saw the dorms.
682
00:39:30.480 --> 00:39:33.760
So I thought that was really interesting. Indigenous languages are
683
00:39:33.800 --> 00:39:36.199
like often like they're like is such like a rarity,
684
00:39:36.320 --> 00:39:38.719
like why do you think the United States name used
685
00:39:38.800 --> 00:39:41.599
Navajo when they were in World War Two? Because they
686
00:39:41.639 --> 00:39:43.800
knew that like it would be impossible for any like
687
00:39:44.440 --> 00:39:49.039
German spice like infiltrate that language. So like when you
688
00:39:49.159 --> 00:39:51.360
view it as a commodity or like when you view
689
00:39:51.400 --> 00:39:53.159
it as something that like you can exploit, it's a
690
00:39:53.199 --> 00:39:54.760
lot different than like you need us something that you
691
00:39:54.760 --> 00:39:57.679
can like celebrate and acknowledge.
692
00:39:58.000 --> 00:39:59.079
And I don't know if this is kind of like
693
00:39:59.119 --> 00:40:01.559
similar to but just like how a lot of the
694
00:40:01.679 --> 00:40:06.519
names or pronunciation is kind of like americanized, taking like
695
00:40:06.599 --> 00:40:09.480
the name suan wisl Be School, for example, Like the
696
00:40:09.480 --> 00:40:12.719
way I pronunciate it is obviously you know, like in
697
00:40:12.760 --> 00:40:18.199
a Spanish accent, but like I'm pretty sure it's very controversial.
698
00:40:18.440 --> 00:40:20.559
I don't know this is like a good answer, or
699
00:40:20.559 --> 00:40:22.719
I mean, a good question to ask, But like how
700
00:40:22.760 --> 00:40:26.679
do you all feel about like just this city being
701
00:40:26.760 --> 00:40:28.159
called sanluisl Be School.
702
00:40:28.360 --> 00:40:30.239
I mean, I feel like I'm really gonna turn this
703
00:40:30.280 --> 00:40:33.960
one over to Professor Lucas over here. But naming and
704
00:40:34.199 --> 00:40:39.559
languages give us an opportunity to get curious about colonial
705
00:40:39.679 --> 00:40:43.280
histories or setlar colonialism right, because it's an invitation to
706
00:40:43.440 --> 00:40:48.639
kind of learn more about those those kind of naming layers.
707
00:40:48.960 --> 00:40:49.119
Right.
708
00:40:51.280 --> 00:40:56.079
So San Luis Obispo is a mission town. I think
709
00:40:56.199 --> 00:41:01.599
once you take Yes two fifty three learn about mission history,
710
00:41:01.760 --> 00:41:04.400
or take one of Professor Lucas's class, any one of
711
00:41:04.440 --> 00:41:07.880
them and learn about mission history, you'll feel differently about
712
00:41:07.960 --> 00:41:10.400
the name of the town, right, just kind of given
713
00:41:10.559 --> 00:41:14.960
the historical relationship between the Spanish who gave the town
714
00:41:15.039 --> 00:41:18.719
its name, and the original people of the land. So
715
00:41:18.920 --> 00:41:23.760
names are really good point of departure or starting point
716
00:41:23.840 --> 00:41:27.119
for really getting curious and digging into those histories and
717
00:41:27.199 --> 00:41:29.719
understanding how power works in a particular place.
718
00:41:30.320 --> 00:41:32.559
It's such a hard just all the things you have
719
00:41:32.599 --> 00:41:35.559
to keep in mind for change to be possible. You
720
00:41:35.639 --> 00:41:40.119
have to meet people where they are right, and names
721
00:41:40.199 --> 00:41:44.639
are important, consistencies important. It is only really recently that
722
00:41:44.760 --> 00:41:48.639
people have started referring to ytt as ytt as opposed
723
00:41:48.679 --> 00:41:52.440
to just Chumash. You can look back through documents, through
724
00:41:52.559 --> 00:41:56.719
records Chumash right, as we talked about before, with the
725
00:41:56.719 --> 00:42:02.159
Spanish naming Chumash, the Chumash of this area, ytt was Obispano. Right.
726
00:42:02.199 --> 00:42:07.360
So again contextualized within obispo in the Spanish context, within
727
00:42:07.440 --> 00:42:11.079
the mission here, it's confused, or it's not confusing. But
728
00:42:11.119 --> 00:42:14.000
if without that added context, when you're looking at documents
729
00:42:14.079 --> 00:42:16.719
or when you're looking at you know that which exists
730
00:42:16.719 --> 00:42:20.880
that documents, the tribes, you need to know who the
731
00:42:20.920 --> 00:42:27.079
obispo o Bispanos are and who till Heini is and was.
732
00:42:27.280 --> 00:42:31.280
So there's such a dearth, there's such a lack of
733
00:42:31.599 --> 00:42:34.400
knowledge and information that's widespread when it comes to this
734
00:42:34.599 --> 00:42:38.840
that it's hard to it's hard to change it without
735
00:42:39.519 --> 00:42:44.039
still using existing terms, as complicated as they might be.
736
00:42:44.360 --> 00:42:47.840
That's I mean, it's just sort of our reality, right,
737
00:42:48.119 --> 00:42:52.719
that Obispanol Chumash. This is really till Heini, right, this
738
00:42:52.880 --> 00:42:55.039
is the place of the full moon, but we're also
739
00:42:55.159 --> 00:42:58.400
northern Tumash because we're the northernmost Tumash, which Tumash really
740
00:42:58.440 --> 00:43:00.000
means nothing to us.
741
00:42:59.760 --> 00:43:04.840
She could auditorily capture Professor Lucas's facial expressions in that
742
00:43:04.920 --> 00:43:06.119
last sentence.
743
00:43:06.719 --> 00:43:09.079
I've been told so many times that like, I am
744
00:43:09.159 --> 00:43:11.960
not a sneaky person whatsoever, because you can always tell
745
00:43:11.960 --> 00:43:13.880
what I'm thinking based on my face, which is like
746
00:43:14.320 --> 00:43:19.320
problematic because of what I teach. But I'm like, I guess,
747
00:43:19.360 --> 00:43:21.199
actually it is because I feel like I treat things
748
00:43:21.199 --> 00:43:23.840
with a lot of humor as a coping mechanism. So
749
00:43:23.920 --> 00:43:26.800
and I'm like, ha, ha, isn't that great? People know that.
750
00:43:26.880 --> 00:43:28.639
I'm like, actually, no, this is where it is.
751
00:43:28.800 --> 00:43:35.000
But anyways, I wanted to tie in a question from
752
00:43:35.039 --> 00:43:36.559
a student they sent to us, kind of tying one
753
00:43:36.599 --> 00:43:38.679
of the courses you were talking about, So I'm just
754
00:43:38.719 --> 00:43:41.920
gonna read exactly what they said they said. I feel
755
00:43:41.920 --> 00:43:44.760
like how poll showcases the white tted dorms during freshman
756
00:43:44.800 --> 00:43:48.480
events like slow Days and poly Cultural Weekend, but fails
757
00:43:48.480 --> 00:43:51.599
to educate students on the importance of recognizing and respecting
758
00:43:51.679 --> 00:43:54.360
land on which the dorms are built. My question is,
759
00:43:54.719 --> 00:43:57.239
what is cal Polly doing to educate the student's house
760
00:43:57.320 --> 00:43:59.639
in the white tte to respect and honor the lands
761
00:43:59.679 --> 00:44:01.840
of the most stripes. So you can even bring in
762
00:44:01.920 --> 00:44:04.760
like a brief introduction of the walk in tours and
763
00:44:04.840 --> 00:44:07.559
also like either other courses that you didn't mention. And
764
00:44:07.639 --> 00:44:09.480
I feel like a lot of things too, even if
765
00:44:09.480 --> 00:44:13.119
there are courses here that are taught, you know, regarding
766
00:44:13.800 --> 00:44:16.280
indigenous people, IFE like a lot of people kind of
767
00:44:16.599 --> 00:44:18.639
are wondering, like, oh, like what if I'm not majoring,
768
00:44:18.800 --> 00:44:21.239
you know, and for that certain class that people might
769
00:44:21.239 --> 00:44:23.079
not seem like encouraged to take it, you can also
770
00:44:23.159 --> 00:44:25.079
like mention to like, oh it's it's open, you know,
771
00:44:25.119 --> 00:44:28.000
to any major if they're really wanting to know about
772
00:44:28.000 --> 00:44:29.960
any of that history, that they can be open to that.
773
00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:33.400
So you can talk anything walking tours courses here. Just
774
00:44:33.440 --> 00:44:36.320
to inform any students who are interested in wanting to
775
00:44:36.599 --> 00:44:38.159
know more about indigenous tribes.
776
00:44:38.320 --> 00:44:41.920
I mean, I think in general we'll just say really quick,
777
00:44:43.760 --> 00:44:45.800
a couple of years ago, I think in twenty twenty
778
00:44:46.000 --> 00:44:50.159
one is when it started, but California passed maybe fourteen
779
00:44:50.239 --> 00:44:53.239
sixty one. And so now every college student out a
780
00:44:53.320 --> 00:44:58.639
CSU has to take an Introduction to and Ethnic Studies
781
00:44:58.679 --> 00:45:01.199
class and Introductory Ethnics Sudies class. And you can take
782
00:45:01.880 --> 00:45:04.840
Introduction to American Indian Studies and that's a great class
783
00:45:04.840 --> 00:45:07.280
to take if you're curious about any of this, right,
784
00:45:07.480 --> 00:45:10.800
you can take Introduction to Asian American Studies, Introduction to
785
00:45:10.920 --> 00:45:14.679
LATINX Studies, Introduction to African American Studies. Any of those
786
00:45:14.719 --> 00:45:17.519
are going to be awesome entry points to start asking
787
00:45:17.760 --> 00:45:23.119
questions and to develop a critical vocabulary for any kind
788
00:45:23.119 --> 00:45:25.280
of range of topics or issues related to what we're
789
00:45:25.280 --> 00:45:29.239
talking about. Obviously, American Indian Studies has the specificity kind
790
00:45:29.280 --> 00:45:34.199
of built in to these issues. But it's awesome that
791
00:45:34.320 --> 00:45:36.599
cal Poly students now have to take one of those
792
00:45:36.599 --> 00:45:39.719
four classes. That's such a great and foundational kind of point.
793
00:45:40.360 --> 00:45:43.920
From there, we hope to create kind of more legible
794
00:45:43.960 --> 00:45:49.119
pathways for Indigenous Studies classes. There's the Indigenous Studies and
795
00:45:49.199 --> 00:45:52.719
Natural Resources and environment minors, and that's an awesome kind
796
00:45:52.719 --> 00:45:55.800
of especially for folks in environmental sciences and natural resources
797
00:45:55.840 --> 00:45:58.719
to kind of create a pathway through the Indigenous Studies
798
00:45:58.760 --> 00:46:01.519
courses that are offered specifically kind of cater to these
799
00:46:01.559 --> 00:46:06.880
questions of land and stewardship, and Professor Lucas teaches those classes,
800
00:46:06.960 --> 00:46:10.119
and I teach those classes, and that's such a great
801
00:46:10.119 --> 00:46:16.039
way to kind of develop kind of a baseline knowledge
802
00:46:16.840 --> 00:46:20.119
around these issues and these topics. And then there are
803
00:46:20.119 --> 00:46:24.039
other Ethnic Studies classes that kind of engage with Indigenous
804
00:46:24.039 --> 00:46:26.320
Studies topics and issues, and you can kind of be
805
00:46:26.440 --> 00:46:28.960
really intentional in how you like if you minor and
806
00:46:29.039 --> 00:46:32.199
Indigenous or in ethnic studies. Yeah, like our our beloved
807
00:46:32.239 --> 00:46:35.159
Sophie here, you can kind of create a pathway through
808
00:46:35.199 --> 00:46:39.119
that minor where you focus on or attend to, you know,
809
00:46:39.320 --> 00:46:43.440
Indigenous studies specifically, if you wanted to do that. And
810
00:46:43.519 --> 00:46:46.239
we're hopeful that someday there's an Indigenous studies minor within
811
00:46:46.280 --> 00:46:50.599
Ethnic studies, you know, and then from there the world
812
00:46:50.719 --> 00:46:51.320
is our oyster.
813
00:46:52.519 --> 00:46:57.960
Okay. So since January of last year, for amazing women,
814
00:46:58.280 --> 00:47:04.239
including myself, tirelessly it worked hard to create this interactive
815
00:47:05.320 --> 00:47:09.960
digital and physical map of how polyly through a lens
816
00:47:10.599 --> 00:47:17.159
which amplifies the Indigenous past, present and future at the school.
817
00:47:17.719 --> 00:47:19.679
It makes its way around the dorms and we talk
818
00:47:19.679 --> 00:47:22.440
about the like rocks. When you go to Yakichi, you
819
00:47:22.440 --> 00:47:24.280
see the rocks and you're like, what are these rocks?
820
00:47:24.480 --> 00:47:26.920
That actually tells you on the ground essentially, like all
821
00:47:26.960 --> 00:47:30.199
the rocks represent the Nine Sisters, So like if you
822
00:47:30.199 --> 00:47:34.039
see them around slow, it's like moral rock, Bishop's Peak.
823
00:47:34.320 --> 00:47:36.559
I'm not gonna name them all, but essentially like those
824
00:47:36.559 --> 00:47:38.840
are located within the dorm complex that a lot of
825
00:47:38.840 --> 00:47:41.320
people don't know about. And the next step is the
826
00:47:41.400 --> 00:47:45.039
Native American and it's just an Indigenous Cultural Center, and
827
00:47:45.079 --> 00:47:50.079
then we go to Mirror and Tenaya Hall, where we
828
00:47:50.119 --> 00:47:54.920
talk about the histories and the intricacies that lie between
829
00:47:55.800 --> 00:47:58.159
those two names. And then we make our way to
830
00:47:58.239 --> 00:48:04.760
Chuwash Hall where Professor it's a very compelling piece on
831
00:48:04.840 --> 00:48:07.480
what is in a name and how does the school
832
00:48:07.519 --> 00:48:11.039
decide what gets named too Mush Hall. And then there
833
00:48:11.039 --> 00:48:14.559
are two art pieces that Professor Heberlink talks about, one
834
00:48:14.599 --> 00:48:19.360
of which is the mural within the Bagker Science Building.
835
00:48:19.400 --> 00:48:21.679
It's like on the second floor. And then the next
836
00:48:21.719 --> 00:48:25.760
one is the Filipino Landing Utility light Box, which was
837
00:48:25.800 --> 00:48:29.440
painted by the Filipino Cultural Exchange, which is a land
838
00:48:29.440 --> 00:48:33.679
acknowledgement by a PCEE. But it's also like a representation
839
00:48:33.719 --> 00:48:35.960
of like what it means to like be like another
840
00:48:36.000 --> 00:48:38.840
person who is like impacted by like like the Spanish Empire.
841
00:48:39.199 --> 00:48:43.280
It shows like how the Filipinos were the first people
842
00:48:43.400 --> 00:48:46.239
to like or like the first Filipinos in the United
843
00:48:46.280 --> 00:48:49.159
States came to Moral Rock. And then we end at
844
00:48:49.159 --> 00:48:51.400
the white stage that's in front of Ray. It's about
845
00:48:51.400 --> 00:48:53.920
how like white stage has been like commodified and it's
846
00:48:53.920 --> 00:48:56.679
like super like trendy and like you go on TikTok
847
00:48:56.760 --> 00:49:02.239
and it's like my stage, so talking about why that's
848
00:49:02.280 --> 00:49:06.000
wrong and why you probably shouldn't be doing that.
849
00:49:06.079 --> 00:49:08.280
Yeah, YELDR, don't buy it.
850
00:49:08.559 --> 00:49:11.239
Yeah, don't buy it if you see it like the store,
851
00:49:12.480 --> 00:49:13.480
maybe we should tell them.
852
00:49:13.360 --> 00:49:16.239
But yeah, you need to cost us store people because
853
00:49:16.239 --> 00:49:19.159
they probably don't know. But just don't buy it. Yeah,
854
00:49:19.239 --> 00:49:21.039
you can take the tour if you're interested more.
855
00:49:21.159 --> 00:49:23.840
Yeah, what are some challenges the tribe is facing today
856
00:49:23.840 --> 00:49:25.360
and what are you guys doing to overcome it?
857
00:49:27.360 --> 00:49:35.159
Number one challenge facing Native people today and is part
858
00:49:35.199 --> 00:49:38.280
of the reason why this Indigenous Walking Tour was born,
859
00:49:38.840 --> 00:49:39.880
is invisibility.
860
00:49:40.320 --> 00:49:40.440
Right.
861
00:49:40.519 --> 00:49:42.920
We talked about this in three sixty. That is part
862
00:49:42.960 --> 00:49:45.639
of the reason why three sixty focuses exclusively on the
863
00:49:45.679 --> 00:49:48.760
Indigenous experience because this is not something that's talked about
864
00:49:48.920 --> 00:49:52.480
at an unequal right. So I think the number one
865
00:49:52.679 --> 00:49:57.320
challenge is just being believed that we're still here. There
866
00:49:57.400 --> 00:50:02.280
were still people that we come from here, we're here
867
00:50:02.320 --> 00:50:06.639
now knowing who we are. There is a growing awareness
868
00:50:07.000 --> 00:50:09.639
in the community, a cal poly in the community at
869
00:50:09.719 --> 00:50:13.280
large in Sanlu's Obispo, which is really encouraging, but there
870
00:50:13.599 --> 00:50:21.920
is not a societal Indigenous literacy that has grown alongside that.
871
00:50:22.199 --> 00:50:25.119
So people are becoming more aware of tribes, but people
872
00:50:25.159 --> 00:50:28.760
aren't necessarily also becoming aware of how to understand what
873
00:50:28.800 --> 00:50:31.119
a tribe is and what it means and what it does.
874
00:50:31.800 --> 00:50:37.480
So that's a challenge in itself. Land access to land, right,
875
00:50:37.519 --> 00:50:41.679
this is a challenge facing everyone, everyone, regardless of whether
876
00:50:41.719 --> 00:50:45.440
your tribal member or not. Even in the face of
877
00:50:45.519 --> 00:50:50.559
potentially being able to access land, which is you know,
878
00:50:50.880 --> 00:50:53.800
Diablo Canyon, which is a different conversation we can have.
879
00:50:54.119 --> 00:50:57.239
What does that mean for the community and what reactions
880
00:50:57.280 --> 00:50:59.400
will the community have and what will that mean for
881
00:50:59.440 --> 00:51:03.000
the tribe. I think it's this like continual process of
882
00:51:03.199 --> 00:51:07.920
awareness building. But then also what happens once you have awareness.
883
00:51:08.000 --> 00:51:12.960
I think people oftentimes non native people can feel paralyzed
884
00:51:12.960 --> 00:51:17.760
by guilt right, feel totally unsure of what to do again,
885
00:51:17.800 --> 00:51:19.960
back to like wanting to be an ally for land
886
00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:23.599
back and still holding on to fear of I live here,
887
00:51:23.679 --> 00:51:25.559
this is my home. I don't know how to be
888
00:51:25.599 --> 00:51:29.119
an ally for land back if that means removing myself, right,
889
00:51:29.280 --> 00:51:31.440
I don't know what that looks like. Everyone needs safety
890
00:51:31.480 --> 00:51:33.880
and security at a home that is base need right,
891
00:51:34.519 --> 00:51:38.039
So I think the challenge of how to deal with
892
00:51:38.159 --> 00:51:41.199
increased awareness and at the same time that sort of
893
00:51:41.239 --> 00:51:44.719
inherently comes with increased discomfort, right, And how do we
894
00:51:44.760 --> 00:51:51.519
meet people there to say, Yes, you are feeling uncomfortable,
895
00:51:51.840 --> 00:51:54.840
I get that, I see that. I am not asking
896
00:51:54.880 --> 00:51:58.800
you to feel bad or feel guilty or feel like
897
00:51:58.880 --> 00:52:01.079
it is your ANSWER's faults.
898
00:52:01.800 --> 00:52:02.000
Right.
899
00:52:02.039 --> 00:52:06.159
We all have complicated identities and histories. We are all
900
00:52:06.239 --> 00:52:09.360
a product of the system that has been created before us.
901
00:52:09.599 --> 00:52:14.760
We are living in a structurally racist, sexist, et cetera,
902
00:52:14.880 --> 00:52:20.280
et cetera society right today it is mostly not the
903
00:52:20.360 --> 00:52:22.440
people who want to help. It is not their faults.
904
00:52:22.599 --> 00:52:22.800
Right.
905
00:52:23.360 --> 00:52:27.440
What you can do is no more so that you
906
00:52:27.599 --> 00:52:30.840
can do better, don't know more so that you feel
907
00:52:30.840 --> 00:52:33.480
bad about the past, Yes, that is important, but then
908
00:52:33.519 --> 00:52:38.159
you need to move on. So I think, like, how
909
00:52:38.480 --> 00:52:42.960
we bring truth and reconciliation? Right? These are like full
910
00:52:43.000 --> 00:52:45.840
on committees that are being formed by governments. Right now,
911
00:52:46.159 --> 00:52:50.159
what's that next step? Right? Once we reconcile, what do
912
00:52:50.199 --> 00:52:52.880
we do after that? Because most people are like, it's
913
00:52:52.920 --> 00:52:55.280
too much, I can't even think about it. Like what
914
00:52:55.559 --> 00:53:00.599
there's one hundred and one nations within California's borders, uncomfortable
915
00:53:00.679 --> 00:53:03.400
that you don't know what that means or that you
916
00:53:03.440 --> 00:53:05.079
don't know what that's gonna look like in the future.
917
00:53:05.679 --> 00:53:07.800
And when a student asked me last quarter, like how
918
00:53:07.800 --> 00:53:10.480
do I become an ally? I said, you have to
919
00:53:10.599 --> 00:53:13.800
learn how to live and be fine with the discomfort
920
00:53:13.920 --> 00:53:17.119
of not knowing if you could stay on your land.
921
00:53:17.800 --> 00:53:21.159
Right if not? I if just like the awareness or
922
00:53:21.199 --> 00:53:25.679
the ability to sort of sit with like, maybe I
923
00:53:25.719 --> 00:53:28.559
won't be here on this land anymore. Maybe that is
924
00:53:28.559 --> 00:53:30.880
what true ally should means. I'm not saying that it is,
925
00:53:31.519 --> 00:53:34.480
but you have to be okay with that as an idea.
926
00:53:34.800 --> 00:53:36.800
I'm getting into a really different space than I thought
927
00:53:36.840 --> 00:53:44.239
I was going. But humans are meaning making species purpose
928
00:53:44.320 --> 00:53:47.239
driven species, right, is really hard to have conversations where
929
00:53:47.280 --> 00:53:49.960
we don't have a set answer, where we don't have
930
00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:52.840
a set outcome. And these conversations don't have set answers
931
00:53:52.960 --> 00:53:55.400
or set outcomes because we can't conceptualize what it looks
932
00:53:55.440 --> 00:53:59.400
like because it doesn't exist. So we have to be
933
00:53:59.480 --> 00:54:01.639
okay with not knowing what it's going to look like.
934
00:54:01.920 --> 00:54:05.519
Yeah, like there's no guidebook. There's no guidebook, right, Just
935
00:54:05.559 --> 00:54:08.280
like how we know about being a tribal chair. There's
936
00:54:08.320 --> 00:54:11.960
no guidebook for that. Yeah, yeah, And I'm laughing because
937
00:54:12.079 --> 00:54:15.360
I saw one of the responses. When we ask students
938
00:54:15.400 --> 00:54:17.599
any questions they want to ask, They're like, not really
939
00:54:17.679 --> 00:54:19.920
a question, but I would reach out to Becca Lucas
940
00:54:19.920 --> 00:54:23.360
from the EES apartment. But then it says her mom
941
00:54:23.519 --> 00:54:26.239
is the head of the Yett Northern Too Much Tribal Council.
942
00:54:26.519 --> 00:54:30.679
I think they got confused talking about but they did
943
00:54:30.679 --> 00:54:33.880
say Becca and her mom have some great information about
944
00:54:33.960 --> 00:54:36.519
issues that currently affect them in the area today. So
945
00:54:36.960 --> 00:54:39.119
I thought it was funny to just mention that.
946
00:54:39.119 --> 00:54:41.559
It's very funny my mom is the vice president of
947
00:54:41.599 --> 00:54:45.880
the tribal nonprofit Mona Lavas Tucker is the tribal chair
948
00:54:46.159 --> 00:54:49.760
of YTT. It's different. We could have a whole podcast
949
00:54:49.800 --> 00:54:51.159
on governance structure.
950
00:54:50.840 --> 00:54:53.960
But I just wanted to say a little bit about
951
00:54:54.000 --> 00:55:01.000
the discomfort is such a disorienting experience and it's also invitation, right.
952
00:55:01.119 --> 00:55:04.000
This is what I tell my interest students all the time.
953
00:55:04.000 --> 00:55:07.159
I'm like, just sit with that and let it kind
954
00:55:07.199 --> 00:55:09.960
of manifest for ten weeks while you're in this class,
955
00:55:09.960 --> 00:55:11.760
and then you can put it down and never think
956
00:55:11.800 --> 00:55:13.719
about it again. Or you can use that as an
957
00:55:13.719 --> 00:55:17.000
invitation to kind of reorient and redirect yourself. And I
958
00:55:17.039 --> 00:55:19.320
want to offer maybe like a shout out and an
959
00:55:19.360 --> 00:55:23.159
example of what stepping into that discomfort can look like.
960
00:55:23.320 --> 00:55:26.679
And I've been doing a little bit of work with
961
00:55:26.719 --> 00:55:29.760
the cal Poly chapter of the Surf Writer Foundation, right,
962
00:55:30.199 --> 00:55:33.960
because members of Surfrider took Professor Lucas's class and then
963
00:55:34.000 --> 00:55:38.880
got really curious about what do we do and how
964
00:55:38.920 --> 00:55:41.039
do we what does that look like? And so that
965
00:55:41.239 --> 00:55:44.599
club has been going through a process of learning right
966
00:55:44.719 --> 00:55:48.320
and getting to know and and figuring out how to
967
00:55:48.360 --> 00:55:52.800
be in right relationship this and this is a club
968
00:55:52.840 --> 00:55:55.800
that is exploring the fact that, especially as a surf
969
00:55:55.920 --> 00:55:59.599
rider chapter like this is a national organization that has
970
00:55:59.639 --> 00:56:03.880
a lot of power in the environmental world, right, And
971
00:56:03.960 --> 00:56:06.360
so they're beginning the process of thinking about what it
972
00:56:06.400 --> 00:56:10.239
looks like to kind of wield that power as a
973
00:56:10.280 --> 00:56:14.440
surf rider chapter to specifically advocate for some of these
974
00:56:14.480 --> 00:56:17.199
issues that Becca has raised here right the land back
975
00:56:17.239 --> 00:56:23.599
out at Diablo Canyon, figuring out what good consultation and
976
00:56:23.679 --> 00:56:27.360
relationship actually looks like. And so that is a group
977
00:56:27.440 --> 00:56:31.679
here at cal Poly right that has begun wrestling with
978
00:56:31.760 --> 00:56:35.800
the discomfort and really is kind of modeling what it
979
00:56:35.840 --> 00:56:38.559
could look like to find a way to use their
980
00:56:38.599 --> 00:56:42.119
position as students and as a club to step out
981
00:56:42.159 --> 00:56:45.719
beyond that acknowledgment or kind of like general process. And
982
00:56:47.719 --> 00:56:50.599
I keep wanting to say, weaponize their power. That's absolutely
983
00:56:50.599 --> 00:56:54.559
not what they're doing. But they're leveraging a great deal
984
00:56:54.639 --> 00:56:57.440
of power in an environment. It's like a powerful environmental
985
00:56:57.519 --> 00:57:03.360
organization to create eight amplified kind of recognition of ytt
986
00:57:03.519 --> 00:57:04.320
Land based issues.
987
00:57:04.400 --> 00:57:07.719
So so we have this at the end of the
988
00:57:07.760 --> 00:57:12.159
walking tour. But if you're from Seattle, you should be
989
00:57:12.159 --> 00:57:17.519
paying your rent to do Amish. They have this that's
990
00:57:17.559 --> 00:57:21.400
like slogan called like real rent, real rent, do Amish.
991
00:57:21.719 --> 00:57:24.480
They can put a sign on your yard and they'll say,
992
00:57:24.960 --> 00:57:28.480
I pay my rent to do Amish. And essentially it
993
00:57:28.599 --> 00:57:30.880
like it brings more attention to the fact that like
994
00:57:30.960 --> 00:57:33.559
Duamish is not a federally recognized tribe. They do not
995
00:57:33.599 --> 00:57:37.559
get any money from the federal government. In Professor Lucas's class,
996
00:57:37.599 --> 00:57:40.440
I actually like went through their application to like become
997
00:57:40.480 --> 00:57:43.480
a federally recognized tribe and it like literally made one explode.
998
00:57:44.039 --> 00:57:46.480
So about a tribe that's been fighting for recognition for
999
00:57:46.519 --> 00:57:47.480
like thirty years.
1000
00:57:47.519 --> 00:57:51.599
Like Chief Seattle is literally from Douamish tribe and the
1001
00:57:51.760 --> 00:57:54.840
entire city is named after him, but their tribe doesn't
1002
00:57:54.840 --> 00:57:56.760
get federal recognition for whatever reason.
1003
00:57:56.880 --> 00:57:58.199
That was all that we had.
1004
00:57:58.760 --> 00:57:59.719
Really so.
1005
00:58:01.280 --> 00:58:03.639
Well, thank you, Thank you so much.
1006
00:58:03.760 --> 00:58:07.320
I appreciate and yeah, thank you guys for making time
1007
00:58:07.719 --> 00:58:09.599
to be in this podcast. I know it initially could
1008
00:58:09.639 --> 00:58:14.199
be very intimidating with so much like technology, but I
1009
00:58:14.199 --> 00:58:17.239
want to thank you guys because I'm sure it's definitely
1010
00:58:17.559 --> 00:58:20.159
like helped us. Even though I'm part of the walking
1011
00:58:20.199 --> 00:58:22.320
tour and stuff. You know, there's a few things I
1012
00:58:22.360 --> 00:58:26.840
didn't know, but I'm excited to just see the results
1013
00:58:27.280 --> 00:58:29.920
and see what students have learned and who knows.
1014
00:58:30.039 --> 00:58:31.519
Yeah, I just want to say thank you for like
1015
00:58:31.599 --> 00:58:34.800
clarification over. I didn't know a lot of the topics
1016
00:58:34.880 --> 00:58:36.920
you guys brought up, so I was like like literally
1017
00:58:36.960 --> 00:58:38.800
like my I was like glued to like either any
1018
00:58:38.840 --> 00:58:41.239
of you like say anything. I was like, do tell more?
1019
00:58:42.000 --> 00:58:45.480
But no, I really enjoyed hearing everything, and I love
1020
00:58:45.519 --> 00:58:47.920
the energy all of you guys brought here today. I
1021
00:58:47.960 --> 00:58:50.239
don't know, it was just I feel like with like
1022
00:58:51.119 --> 00:58:53.039
talking about top like this, Like people think, oh, it's
1023
00:58:53.079 --> 00:58:56.280
going to be a serious, you know podcast. No, actually
1024
00:58:56.360 --> 00:58:58.880
I liked like you guys interpreted, you know, like your
1025
00:58:58.880 --> 00:59:00.320
own meanings to certain top books.
1026
00:59:00.360 --> 00:59:02.320
And it was very entertaining.
1027
00:59:02.400 --> 00:59:04.559
So thank you for bringing that energy today.
1028
00:59:04.760 --> 00:59:09.199
And ask your professors about this content. Ask them first
1029
00:59:09.199 --> 00:59:12.760
of all, any room you're in, any conversation you're having
1030
00:59:12.840 --> 00:59:15.320
as it relates to this country and any part of
1031
00:59:15.320 --> 00:59:18.719
this land, ask yourself who is missing? Who is not
1032
00:59:18.840 --> 00:59:23.320
being included? Right? And then ask your professors what about
1033
00:59:23.360 --> 00:59:27.679
the indigenous peoples? What about And if they say not
1034
00:59:27.880 --> 00:59:31.599
just here but anywhere, oh they didn't do anything, show
1035
00:59:31.639 --> 00:59:34.199
them the freaking receipts. We are living right now in
1036
00:59:34.239 --> 00:59:37.639
a state of just general cognitive dissonance in this country.
1037
00:59:37.719 --> 00:59:39.719
We know a lot of things because we have a
1038
00:59:39.719 --> 00:59:41.280
lot of smart people who are doing a lot of
1039
00:59:41.320 --> 00:59:43.320
stuff as it relates to this and this information is
1040
00:59:43.360 --> 00:59:46.039
out there, but it doesn't match the story that we
1041
00:59:46.119 --> 00:59:49.679
grew up with, or we tell or we still perpetuate now.
1042
00:59:50.079 --> 00:59:52.239
So what do we have to do to make those
1043
00:59:52.280 --> 00:59:55.159
parallel right? What do we have to change? And it
1044
00:59:55.199 --> 00:59:58.480
starts with asking the questions and so, and then also
1045
00:59:58.519 --> 01:00:01.079
bringing the receipts. If the question the answer you get
1046
01:00:01.199 --> 01:00:06.800
is wrong, which oftentimes it is right. So anyways, like you,
1047
01:00:07.519 --> 01:00:11.119
asking questions is a powerful tool. It is not a
1048
01:00:11.159 --> 01:00:14.480
privilege that everyone has, so if you have that privilege,
1049
01:00:14.719 --> 01:00:15.000
use it,