DNA of Iceman Otzi shocks scientists

Ötzi's old clothes

(Stone & Bone) Ötzi, "the Iceman," was a stranger in a strange land, murdered by others and left to freeze in the snow and become a mummy, not a typical European of the time as previously assumed. The Iceman is the natural mummy of a man who lived between 3350 and 3105 BC. Ötzi's remains were discovered on September 19, 1991, in the Ötztal Alps (hence the nickname "Ötzi," German œtsi) at the Austria–Italy border (Tyrol state). He is Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, offering an unprecedented view of Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Europeans -- or, at least, that's what scientists assumed until they tested his DNA and that of others from the area. [It seems "Europeans" are part space beings, hybrids, but Otzi seems to have preceded that infusion of alien DNA.] More

• VIDEO: Inside 10,800 BCE Folsom site discovery in NM
• The Clovis (Paleo Indians, Beringians) disappearance - What happened to America’s first known culture? | Watch

Cro-Magnon is still a term used in science?

• Stone & Bone; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

LA activists disrupt Trump's ICE raids

Activists disrupt ICE raid in L.A. County

(KTLA 5) Immigration rights activists have banded together to conduct patrols throughout Los Angeles communities and, in a few instances, have stopped raids as they were happening. KTLA's Carlos Saucedo reports live on Feb. 24, 2025. Details: ktla.com/news/local-news/anti... KTLA 5 News, keeping Southern Californians informed since 1947.

Native American origins: Japan, Siberia?

New study overturns idea that 1st Americans originated from Japan. It was likely Siberia.

.

Did Native Americans originally migrate from Japan [or was it Siberia]?

The Great Spirit placed us here protect it.

The long-standing theory that the earliest Native Americans migrated to the Western Hemisphere from Japan is facing significant scientific scrutiny. A new study challenges the idea that these early populations, often referred to as First Peoples, descended from the Jomon people, who lived in Japan 15,000 years ago.

• NOTE: This is of interest to Wisdom Quarterly because Indigenous populations have strong links to Buddhism both from pre-Christian missionary work (Edward Payson Vining, 1885) and from migration from either Buddhist Japan or Buddhist Siberia, where a great deal of shamanism is blended with the Buddha Dharma. 
• An Inglorious Columbus; or, Evidence that Hwui Shan and a party of Buddhist monks from Afghanistan discovered America in the 5th century, AD (by Edward P. Vining/Internet Archive)
• Buddhism in Russia (Siberia)
• Buddhism in Japan
• How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America

Chukchi nomads became American Indians?

Harsh life of Chukchi nomads in Arctic with no gadgets or Pampers

An Inglorious Columbus (Edward P. Vining)

This research, published in the journal PaleoAmerica, disrupts the established narrative by analyzing genetics and skeletal biology which, according to the authors, do not support the connection.

For decades, archeologists have pointed to similarities in stone tools to support the theory. They argue that early Indigenous populations followed a coastal route along the northern Pacific, crossing the Bering Land Bridge [between Siberia, Russia and Alaska, USA] to reach North America.

Once there, they spread rapidly across the [American] continent, reaching South America’s southernmost tip within 2,000 years.

Central to this hypothesis has been the resemblance of stone artifacts crafted by the Jomon [縄文, "straw rope pattern"] people and those found at early First Peoples sites in the Americas.

However, this latest study, conducted by experts in human teeth biology and Ice-Age genetics, suggests otherwise.

Led by Prof. Richard Scott, an anthropologist with nearly 50 years of experience studying dental structures worldwide, the research team employed advanced statistical methods to compare tooth samples from populations in the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific.

Many archeologists currently believe that Indigenous Americans, or "First Peoples," migrated to the Americas from about 15,000 years ago (© The Brighter Side of News).

.

THE RESULTS revealed minimal overlap between the Jomon and Native American samples. Only 7% of the teeth showed any connection to non-Arctic Native Americans.

"We found that the human biology simply doesn’t match up with the archeological theory," said Prof. Scott. "These people who lived in Japan 15,000 years ago are an unlikely source for Indigenous Americans. Neither the skeletal biology nor the genetics indicate a connection. The most likely origin for Native Americans appears to be Siberia."

The genetic evidence aligns with the dental findings. Co-author Prof. Dennis O’Rourke, an expert in the genetics of Indigenous Americans, explained that maternal and paternal lineages in early Jomon and American populations do not overlap.

Diorama of Jomon people at Sannai Maruyama: food gatherers, hunters, with some agriculture.

• Ancient underwater pyramid discovered in Japan
• Japanese bakery used AI to capture the essence of romantic emotions through 'Romance Bread'
• Special Japanese fruit juice can prevent and reduce lung cancer

"Recent studies of ancient DNA from Asia show that the two groups diverged from a common ancestor much earlier than previously thought," he stated.

This view was echoed by co-author Prof. Jennifer Raff, who has extensively studied the genetics of Ice-Age populations.

Their findings build on earlier work by O’Rourke and Raff, including a groundbreaking analysis of ancient DNA from Ice-Age remains in Alaska in 2016. This latest study, supported by archeological and ecological experts, adds another layer of complexity to the story of human migration to the Americas.

Adding weight to the study’s conclusions is a recent genetics paper on the Japanese population, which found evidence of three distinct migrations into Japan, rather than two as previously believed.

This supports the idea that the Jomon population’s genetic makeup is distinct from that of Indigenous Americans.

Moreover, a separate archeological discovery in New Mexico unveiled human footprints dating back 23,000 years. These footprints, described as definitive evidence of human presence in North America before the Last Glacial Maximum, challenge previous timelines. Yet, they offer no support for the theory that Indigenous Americans originated from Japan.

Jomon teeth vs. Native American teeth (G. Richard Scott, University of Nevada Reno)

.

The study’s authors acknowledge limitations, such as the relatively young age of available Jomon DNA and dental samples, which date back less than 10,000 years. Despite this, they argue these samples are reliable proxies for earlier populations in Japan.

"We assume they represent the Incipient Jomon or the people who made stemmed points in Japan 16,000–15,000 years ago," the authors wrote.

The findings call for a reevaluation of how we understand the migration of the First Peoples. While it remains likely that they reached the Americas via the Northwest Pacific coast, their origins appear to lie in Siberia, not Japan.

Prof. Scott emphasized, "The Incipient Jomon population represents one of the least likely sources for Native American peoples among non-African populations."

This study marks a significant shift in our understanding of early human migration. By combining advanced genetic and dental analyses, it highlights the importance of revisiting long-held assumptions. 

The search for definitive answers continues, with scientists exploring new evidence to refine the complex story of how humans first populated the Americas. Source

• NOTE: Materials provided above by The Brighter Side of News. Content may be edited for style and length. Like these kind of feelgood stories? Get the' newsletter.
• Joseph Shavit, 1/25/25, thebrighterside.news, Did Native Americans originally migrate from Japan?; Xochitl, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Natives who settled the Americas (PBS)

The ancient tribes that settled the Americas | First Peoples | Full Episode 1 | PBS

(PBS) PBS is an American public broadcast service. Oct. 18, 2024: As early humans spread out across the world, their toughest challenge was colonizing the Americas because a huge ice sheet blocked the route. It has long been thought that the first Americans were Clovis people, who arrived 13,000 years ago. But an underwater discovery in Mexico suggests people arrived earlier — coming by boat, not by foot.

• Originally aired in 2015: Watch more of this series with PBS Passport: to.pbs.org/3BJNXmd

Americas | First Peoples This program is made possible by viewers who support local PBS stations: pbs.org/donate. Subscribe to the PBS channel for more clips: pbs. Enjoy full episodes of favorite PBS shows anytime, anywhere with the free PBS App: to.pbs.org/2QbtzhR. FOLLOW: Facebook: pbs, X (Twitter): pbs, Instagram: pbs, TikTok: pbs, Threads: threads.net/@pbs. #anthropology #archaeology #history

ABOUT: First Peoples. See how the mixing of prehistoric human genes led the way for our species to survive and thrive around the globe or across the plane. Archaeology, genetics, and anthropology cast new light on 200,000 years of history, detailing how early humans became dominant.

DNA study reveals Japan's 1st inhabitants

Japan is perhaps best known for this giant metal Buddha statue originally built indoors.

.

Let's see what the ancient written record says

Were the kami "ancestors" the first to arrive on the islands, followed by Shinto priest-shamans to deal with them? Were the "white" Ainu in Japan before the East Asian Japanese there today? Yes. Were the Ainu aliens from neighboring Russia? No. Or could the first inhabitants of Japan come from the Koreas, China, Mongolia, Taiwan, or Tibet? If only science had a means of looking at the DNA code and giving a reliable and replicable answer to these mysteries.

Genome study cracks the mystery of Japan's first inhabitants

Kami Shinto temple, Fushimi Inari shrine, Kyoto

Some of the earliest inhabitants of Japan came from the Korean peninsula, according to a new study that sheds more light on ancient immigration patterns to the archipelago.

• [This is in line with what the Koreans have always been saying about themselves, that they were the progenitors copied by Japan and China, not the other way around. Where did the Koreans come from?]

Japan may be an international travel hub for business and pleasure today, but the islands were relatively isolated until about 3,000 BC.

Its earliest inhabitants were the Jomon people, a collection of hunter-gatherer societies that lived an isolated life on the islands since 14,000 BC.

• [What about the mysterious "white" Ainu people, who look like a blend of Russian shamans and Asians?]

It wasn’t until the Yayoi and Kofun periods between 3,000 BC and 538 AD that immigration to the islands from continental Asia started.

More than 80 per cent of the genomes of modern Japanese people consist of ancestries related to East and Northeast Asia. How the Japanese population acquired these ancestries and what was the pattern of early immigrations that contributed to them has long been a matter of debate.

Science has its say

The new study, published in the Journal of Human Genetics, analyzed the genome of a person dating to the Yayoi period whose remains were uncovered at the Doigahama archaeological site in Yamaguchi prefecture.

Scientists from the University of Tokyo compared this individual’s genome with those of ancient and modern populations in east and northeast Asia. More:

• Genome study cracks the mystery of Japan's first inhabitants
• Archaeologists are too scared to open up the tomb of China's first emperor guarded by thousands of terracotta warriors Archaeologists are terrified to open the tomb of, in the Shaanxi province of China.
• VIDEO: Floating bridge thrills in Zhejiang, China
• The lost island of Atlantis may have been found 2 kms under the ocean
• MSN.com, 10/14/24; CC Liu, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

John Oliver reviews RNC and 'migrant crime'

RNC & ”Migrant Crime”: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

(LastWeekTonight) July 25, 2024: John Oliver discusses the wave of people claiming there’s a wave of “migrant crime,” where the term came from, and what we can do next. Connect with Last Week Tonight online... Subscribe to the LWT YouTube channel for more almost news as it almost happens: lastweektonight. Find on Facebook like your mom would: facebook.com/lastweektonight. Follow on Twitter for news about jokes and jokes about news: twitter.com/lastweektonight. Visit official site for all that other stuff at once: hbo.com/lastweektonight

Why do Jews speak "Yiddish" gibberish?

Feli from Germany, Oct. 24, 2022; Sheldon S., Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

German-American gal reacts to Yiddish language

(Feli from Germany) MUNICH Did you know that German is one of the main influences on the Yiddish language? But wait...does this mean that Yiddish speakers and German speakers can understand each other? 🤔 Let's find out! Feli reacts to YouTube videos of people speaking Yiddish. How much will she be able to understand? How many exclamation marks can she use? What sponsored product will she pitch in the middle of it? More

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:35 What is Yiddish?
• 5:26 Common Yiddish words
• 6:06 Suri - Wikitongues
• 17:19 German and Yiddish speaker conversation
• 30:39 Matt - Wikitongues
• 32:30 Declaration of Human Rights in Yiddish
• 37:07 How much did I understand?
• 39:08 Yiddish words in German

It's a feline life without catty language.

ABOUT: Hallo, Servus, and welcome to this channel! My name is Felicia (Feli), I'm 28, and I'm a German living in the USA! I was born and raised in Munich (Munchen), Germany but have been living the Midwest in Cincinnati, Ohio, off-and-on since 2016. I first came here for an exchange semester during my undergrad at LMU Munich, then I returned for an internship, and then I got my master's degree in Cincinnati. I was lucky enough to win the Green Card lottery and have been a permanent resident since 2019! In my videos, I talk about cultural differences between America and Germany, things I like and dislike about living here, and other topics I come across in my everyday life in the States. Let me know what YOU would like to hear about in the comments below. DANKE :)

▸Videos she reacts to: WIKITONGUES: Suri speaking Yiddish ▸ • WIKITONGUES: Suri... Can German and Yiddish Speakers Understand Each Other? ▸ • Can German and Yi... WIKITONGUES: Matt speaking Yiddish ▸ • WIKITONGUES: Matt... GERMAN & YIDDISH ▸ • GERMAN & YIDDISH ▸DW article: https://www.dw.com/en/yiddish-words-s...

Get a Bavarian mug or Servus t-shirt ▸https://felifromgermany.com/ Check out mher PODCAST (with Josh)▸ understandingtrai... or https://linktr.ee/Understandingtrains... FOLLOW ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook▸https://www.facebook.com/felifromgermany (Feli from Germany) Support me on Patreon▸ https://www.patreon.com/felifromgermany, Instagram▸@felifromgermany▸https://www.instagram.com/felifromger...

Buy her a coffee ▸https://www.ko-fi.com/felifromgermany ▸Mailing address: PO Box 19521 Cincinnati, OH 45219 USA

Gen Z is moving to big cities, Boomers out

Emily Bloch, photographer Heather Khalifa (Philadelphia Inquirer, inquirer.com, 2/29/23); Crystal Q., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Gen Z is moving to big cities — while older generations flee

Formal religion means very little to us.

Reports and Census data show that as older generations [Boomers, Greatest Gen, venerated elders] are trying to escape larger cities, Gen Z [Zoomers] is flocking to them.

Moving to a big city? "Slay." Or at least, that’s how Gen Z sees it. As older generations are trying to escape larger cities, Gen Z is flocking to them. Philadelphia is no exception.

It's better than DeSantis' Florida. Don't say gay.

A recent report shows that the country’s five largest cities — New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia — all experienced net increases in the number of Gen Z residents (ages 18 to 24) and net decreases for all other generations between Jan. 1, 2021, and Dec. 31, 2021.

An analysis of the Census Bureau 2021 American Community Survey by Today’s Homeowner revealed that Gen Z-ers (or Zoomers) are consistently breaking tradition with older generations’ migration patterns, targeting the areas their predecessors now deem too expensive or too crowded.

In Philadelphia, for example, census data estimates that 12,947 Gen Z movers settled. How Philadelphians feel about housing security and affordability:

Repairing all the homes in the Philly area would cost at least $3.7 billion. Black and Latino residents in the Philly region can get help buying their first home from new mortgage program.

• More: Gen Z moving to cities including Philadelphia, census data shows (inquirer.com)
• Gen Z bucks moving trends by heading to major cities as other generations leave (todayshomeowner.com)

Burned alive in border detention, MX/Texas

Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez (democracynow.org), 3/29/23; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

38 die in fire inside Mexican immigration jail amid broader crackdown near U.S. border

(Democracy Now!) March 29, 2023. Let's go to the border dividing El Paso from Ciudad Juárez for an update on the fire that killed at least 38 men [who were picked up and detained whether or not they had legal papers to be in the country] held at a Mexican immigration detention center just across the U.S. border from El Paso, Texas.

• Latest shows

Surveillance video from the jail shows guards walking away as flames spread inside the jail cells, making no effort to open the jail cells or help the migrants who were trapped.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador blamed the fire on the men who were being held at the detention jail, alleging that they set their mattresses on fire to protest conditions, while U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar claimed the tragedy was a consequence of "irregular migration."

The deaths in Mexico came just hours after the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees urged the Biden administration not to adopt a proposed anti-asylum rule that would turn more refugees away at the border.

[This means our U.S. policy contributed to their wrongful detention, their abusive conditions without enough food and care, overcrowding, protesting, and being burned alive as guards walk away.]

Democracy Now! speaks with the U.S.-Mexico border-based journalist Luis Chaparro.

ABOUT: Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch livestream at democracynow.org M-F 8:00-9:00 am ET. Support independent media: democracynow.org/donate. Subscribe to daily email digest: democracynow.org/subscribe #DemocracyNow

The forgotten Irish Buddhist monk (video)

L. Cox, B. Bocking, TNTS, 8/13/20; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Researchers and authors Laurence Cox, Brian Bocking, and Alicia Turner

Laurence Cox and Brian Bocking on the "Forgotten and remembered: U Dhammaloka the Irish Buddhist monk"

(Transnational Network of Theravada Studies) Rainy Season Research Series, July-Oct. 2020 Rainy Season Research Series Seminar, July 24, 2020. 

The Irish Buddhist: Faced Down the British Empire

Speakers: Prof. Laurence Cox (National University of Ireland Maynooth) and Prof. Brian Bocking (University College Cork).

Abstract: This talk introduces one of the first Western Buddhist monks, his remarkable life (including his dramatic adventures in Burma and his travels with the Saopha of Kengtung). How and why he was forgotten – and what this tells us about memory, lineage, and the history in Buddhism.

Why does remembering U Dhammaloka ["U," pronounced \oo\, is just an honorific applied to any monk, the Burmese way of saying "venerable sir" or "mister"] make a difference?

• Who was he? Ven. U Dhammaloka was born in Booterstown, County Dublin, in 1856 and given the name Laurence Carroll. He reportedly used at least five names, including Laurence Carroll, Laurence O'Rourke, and William Colvin. On occasion he used the nom de plume "Captain Daylight." He was Irish, a Dubliner, lived in the 1850s, and emigrated to the United States, possibly via Liverpool. He then worked his way across the USA as a migrant worker before finding work on a trans-Pacific ocean-liner. Leaving the ship in Japan, he made his way to Rangoon, Burma, arriving in the late 1870s or early 1880s, before the Third Anglo-Burmese War, which marked the final conquest of Burma by the British [2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. More

The Rainy Season Research Series is courtesy of the Transnational Network of Theravada Studies (TNTS) and hosted by Shan State Buddhist University (SSBU) and King’s College London. Webpage: theravadastudies.org.

• Cure for seasonal allergies (rhinitis) infrared light (wish.com)

Moving out of Los Angeles (Tongvaland)

Stacker.com via MSN.com; Xochitl, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Where people in Los Angeles County, California, are moving to most

(MSN) To learn more about migration patterns in the US, Stacker compiled a list of where Los Angelenos (people living in LA County, California) are moving to the most using data from the US Census Bureau. Counties and county equivalents are ranked by the estimated number of people who moved to the county from Los Angeles County between 2015 and 2019. Ties were broken by gross migration. More

When one tires of Tongvaland and has gathered a big fortune, there's Acjachemen territory.

.

US occupation and genocide of Indians followed by land stealing ("territorial conquest")

What does the flag of the "United States" represent to Native people post-genocide?

.

Following the American occupation of California in 1846 and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, "Indian peoples throughout California were drawn into the 'cycles of conquest' that had been initiated by the Spanish."

During the 1850s alone, the California Indian population declined by 80 percent. Any land rights Native people had under Mexican rule were completely erased under American occupation, as stated in Article 11 of the treaty:

"A great part of the territories which, by the present treaty, are to be comprehended for the future within the limits of the United States, is now occupied by savage tribes."

As the United States government declared its right to police and control Native people, the "claims of Indians who had acquired land in the 1841 formation" of the San Juan pueblo, "were similarly ignored, despite evidence that the [American] land commission had data substantiating these Juaneños' [Acjachemen] titles" [13].

By 1860, Juaneños were recorded in the census "with Spanish first names and no surnames; the occupations of 38 percent of their household heads went unrecorded; and they owned only 1 percent of the land and 0.6 percent of the assets (including cattle, household items, and silver or gold)."

It was recorded that 30 percent of all households were headed by women "who still lived in San Juan on the plots of land that had been distributed in 1841" under Mexican rule.

It was reported that "shortly after the census was taken, the entire population began to leave the area for villages to the southeast of San Juan."

A smallpox epidemic in 1862 took the lives of 129 Juaneño people in one month alone of a population now "of only some 227 Indians." The remaining Juaneños established themselves among the Luiseño [farther south], who they "shared linguistic and cultural similarities, family ties, and colonial histories."

Even after their relocation to various Luiseño villages, "San Juan remained an important town for Juaneños and other Indians connected to it" so that by the "latter part of the nineteenth century individuals and families often moved back and forth between these villages and San Juan for work, residence, family events, and festivals" [14].

American occupation resulted in increasing power and wealth for European immigrants invaders and Anglo-Americans to own land and property by the 1860s, "in sharp contrast to the pattern among Californios, Mexicans, and Indians."

In the Santa Ana and San Juan Capistrano townships, most Californios lost their ranchos in the 1860s. By 1870, European immigrants and Anglo-Americans now owned 87 percent of the land value and 86 percent of the assets.

Native people went from owning 1 percent of the land value and assets, as recorded in the 1860 census, to 0 percent in 1870. Anglo-Americans became the majority of the population by the mid-1870s and the towns in which they resided "were characterized by a marked lack of ethnic diversity" [15].

In the 1890s, a permanent elementary school was constructed in San Juan. However, until 1920, for education beyond sixth grade, "students had to relocate to Santa Ana – an impossibility for the vast majority of Californio and Juaneño families" [16].

Modern day

On December 10, 2021, the Juaneño people celebrated the opening of Putuidem Village, a [token] 1.5-acre park (0.61 ha) in San Juan Capistrano, [a miniscule] part of their original lands, which commemorates their history [17].

Religion

Spokesperson Clarence H. Lobo, 1946-1985

Fray Gerónimo Boscana, a Franciscan scholar who was stationed at San Juan Capistrano for more than a decade beginning in 1812, compiled what is widely considered to be the most comprehensive study of precolonial religious practices in the San Juan Capistrano valley.

Religious knowledge was secret, and the prevalent religion, called Chinigchinich, placed village chiefs in the position of religious leaders, an arrangement that gave the chiefs broad power over their people [18].

Boscana divided the Acjachemen into two classes -- the "Playanos" (who lived along the coast) and the "Serranos" (who inhabited the mountains, some three to four leagues from the Mission) [19].

The religious beliefs of the two groups regarding creation differed quite profoundly: On the one hand, the Playanos held that an all-powerful and unseen being called "Nocuma" brought about the earth and the sea, together with all of the trees, plants, and animals of sky, land, and water contained therein [20].

The Serranos, on the other hand, believed in two separate but related existences -- the "existence above" and the "existence below."

These states of being were "altogether explicable and indefinite" (like brother and sister), and it was the fruits of the union of these two entities that created "...the rocks and sands of the earth; then trees, shrubbery, herbs and grass; then animals..." [21]. More

Call for submissions: TRANSIT (UC Berkeley)

University of California, Berkeley, German Dept.; CC Liu, Dhr. Seven (eds.) Wisdom Quarterly

UC Berkeley's TRANSIT (A Journal of Travel, Migration, and Multiculturalism in the German-speaking World) is currently accepting submissions for Volume 14, Issue 1 on Automated Precarity. Please view the CfP HERE. The deadline for submissions is December 2, 2022. TRANSIT accepts translation and book review submissions year-round. Please submit to transitjournal@berkeley.edu.

Some potential topics might include:

1. Automated surveillance, border policing and criminal justice in refugee/migration experiences
2. Ecocritical migration studies projects that reconsider the relationship between the human, natural and technological
3. The connection between technology and (im)mobility, e.g. the 9 Euro Ticket, multimillion dollar infrastructure investments
4. Automated storytelling techniques, e.g., recursive storytelling in video games, AI-generated texts, social media
5. Feminist practices in (studies of) digital literature
6. Glitch, malfunction, Störungen and other forms of (culture) shock in literary texts
7. Topics that engage with any of these issues in the context of TRANSIT’s ongoing focus on travel, migration, and multilingualism. More

How to decolonize our minds and actions

Waziyatawin, Michael Yellow Bird For Indigenous Minds Only: A Decolonization Handbook (intro) via Unsettling America; Xochitl, Seth Auberon, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Native American Paiutes under colonization of the Americas, wearing western hats and garb mixed with traditional items, becoming like the killers who came to kill (posthard.com).

Introduction and Background

Eight Indigenous intellectuals created the volume For Indigenous Minds Only: A Decolonization Handbook to offer hands-on suggestions and activities for Indigenous communities to engage in as they worked to develop decolonizing activities.

Beginning with the belief that Indigenous Peoples have the strength, intelligence, and wisdom to develop culturally-specific decolonization strategies to pursue our own strategies of liberation, we attempt to begin to demystify the language of colonization [invasion followed by settler colonialism] and decolonization [the process of undoing the internal harm].

COOKBOOK: Decolonize Your Diet

Through a step-by-step process, we hope to help Indigenous readers identify useful concepts, terms, and intellectual frameworks to assist us all in our struggle toward meaningful change and self-determination.

The handbook covers a wide range of topics including Indigenous governance, education, languages, oral tradition, repatriation, images and stereotypes, nutritional strategies, and truthtelling.

“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” —Steve Biko

US, UK, and Israel versus the World (jvp.org)

In this volume new Indigenous scholars, writers, and activists collaborate for the creation of a sequel to The Decolonization Handbook.

The title For Indigenous Minds Only reflects an understanding that decolonizing actions must begin in the mind. Creative and consistent decolonized thinking shapes and empowers the mind, which in turn primes us for positive change.

Undoing the effects of colonialism and working toward decolonization requires each of us to consciously consider to what degree we have been affected by not only the physical aspects of colonization but also the psychological and spiritual aspects.

Kenyan intellectual Ngugi wa Thiong’o, in his book Decolonising the Mind, describes the “cultural bomb” as the greatest weapon unleashed by imperialism:

The effect of the cultural bomb is to annihilate a people’s belief in their names, in their languages, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities and ultimately in themselves. It makes them see their past as one wasteland of non-achievement and it makes them want to distance themselves from that wasteland. It makes them want to identify with that which is furthest removed from themselves; for instance, with other peoples’ languages rather than their own. It makes them identify with that which is decadent and reactionary, all those forces that would stop their own springs of life. It even plants serious doubts about the moral righteousness of struggle. Possibilities of triumph or victory are seen as remote, ridiculous dreams. The intended results are despair, despondency and a collective death-wish.

Planting and igniting this “cultural bomb” by the colonizing forces has been essential to the colonization process, for if our minds are contaminated with self-hatred and the belief that we are inferior to our colonizers, we will believe in both the necessity and virtue of the colonization forced on us.

We will begin to diminish the wisdom and beauty of Indigenous ways of existing and embrace the degrading ways of the colonizers who call themselves inherently superior. When we believe in their self-proclaimed superiority, and our motivation to fight for our own liberation is splintered and eventually seriously damaged.

 

However, we do not believe that our spirit can be killed. Destiny lies within each of us. Still, if we accept the cultural bomb, why would we fight for something we perceive to be undesirable? Working toward decolonization, then, requires us to consciously... More (Comments)

UC Berkeley (Cal): Thanks for the protection of NAZI sympathizers. Good work! (AP)