Over the past year, we’ve become increasingly aware of an impressive community of Indigenous scholars and cultural critics producing blogs and podcasts that provide intelligent insight and critique of contemporary issues and popular culture. Here are five that we think you should follow:

American Indians in Children’s Literature
Debbie Reese takes a critical approach to evaluating representations of American Indians in children’s literature, literary works, and popular culture. In addition to shedding light on stereotypes and misrepresentations, Reese also recommends books by and about Native Americans for young readers. Reese says this about the motivation to maintain the site and educate her readers: “The content of the website is designed to help people develop a critical stance when evaluating American Indians in children’s books. This means recognizing negative and positive stereotypes, both of which stand in the way of seeing and accepting American Indians as people of the present day.”

Indigenous Politics: From Native New England and Beyond
J. Kehualani Kauanui’s weekly podcast addresses some of the most pertinent issues facing Indigenous peoples today. Her guests include many well-respected academics, community representatives, activists, and officials from around the world. Kauanui’s incisive questions and keen ability to tease out the nuances of global Indigenous issues, make complex issues accessible to listeners from diverse backgrounds.

Media Indigena
The seven contributors to the Media Indigena blog clearly have their fingers on the pulse of Indigenous news, politics, and popular culture. The contributors come from backgrounds in journalism, academia, policy, and beyond. They report on and analyze news, politics, arts and culture, business and economics through writing and other media, including frequent guest spots on The Word (another daily Native talk show we recommend checking out). They strive to create online community and dialogue, as they explain on their website: “We are more than mere aggregators: along with adding value and vigour to mainstream debates and discussions about Indigenous issues, we spark and spur conversations of our own. In other words, we are both curators and creators.”

Native America Calling
This show has been on air for over a decade and we think it’s worth a mention here because of the host’s impressive ability to inspire conversation and critical thinking on a wide variety of issues. From a book of the month feature to shows ranging in theme from the future of American Identity to policing authenticity of Native Arts crafts, the shows are both edgy and relevant. They’re presented in an open format that welcomes callers from around the country to join in the conversation. The show airs every weekday online and on various FM and AM stations. Archives of previous shows can be found here.

Native Appropriations
We can’t get enough of this blog and the author, Adrienne K.’s, witty critiques of representations of American Indians in popular culture. Though some of the images she shares may seem absurd (everything from the hipster headdress craze to caricatures of Indians on home products), this blogger articulately sheds light on the deeper messages being conveyed by these images and the deleterious effects they can have on Native peoples and how they are perceived.

Know of other blogs or podcasts we should tune into? Please share them with us!

Chad Hamill, associate director of the Plateau Center for American Indian Studies at Washington State University

It’s only been two weeks since Chad Hamill moved with his family from northern Arizona to eastern Washington, but in so many ways he’s been here for much longer. That’s because Hamill conducted fieldwork for his doctoral dissertation in the Columbia Plateau region, investigating traditional song as a catalyst for spiritual power among tribes of the interior Northwest, including the Nez Perce, Umatilla, and Spokane. In addition, it brings him back to the land of his Spokane Indian ancestors.

Now, as associate director of the Plateau Center for American Indian Studies at Washington State University, Hamill will be able to continue his work with people from Columbia Plateau tribes. One of Hamill’s primary duties will be to work with community members on a daily basis both on scholarly and applied projects. “One of the most important roles we have at the Plateau Center is listening to those in the Native communities we hope to serve. As associate director my job will be to help facilitate the mutual construction of bridges from Native communities to the university.”

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This week much of the mainstream and Native media has covered the Iroquois National Lacrosse team’s efforts to travel to England to participate in the Lacrosse World Championships. Ranked fourth in the world, the Haudenosaunee team passed an agonizing week waiting for the United States government to allow them to travel using their Iroquois National Passports, which they have used to travel internationally since 1977 and used as recently as two years ago.

As usual with sports, none of this is just about a game. Sovereignty, spirituality, and sport collide, and the Nationals’ plight underscores the important fact that lacrosse, now played internationally, is Indigenous born. Much of the media coverage this week has touched on the long history and cultural connections the Haudenosaunee people have with the current sport of lacrosse.

Lacrosse has roots in several single- and double-racket ball games played by First Nations and Native American people, including anetso which is played by the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation. In a new book, author Michael J. Zogry looks at the intertwined nature of game and ritual and offers an important examination of stick ball history and continuity among the Cherokee people. The book Anetso, the Cherokee Ball Game: At the Center of Ceremony and Identity (University of North Carolina Press, 2010) is our most recent First Peoples’ title, and it provides a framework for rethinking the understanding of ritual and performance, as well as their relationship to cultural identity. Look for a guest post from Dr. Zogry in the coming weeks.

For just a glimpse at the recent media coverage on lacrosse, here are links to some of the articles about the Iroquois National Lacrosse team:

Allow Iroquois travel [The Buffalo News]

Bid for Trophy becomes a Test of Iroquois Identity [New York Times]

The Iroquois Lacrosse Team Denied [Native America Calling]

Iroquois National travel window closing [Indian Country Today]

Iroquois Nationals Update: Britain Denies Visas [Lacrosse News]

Native American lacrosse team forfeits first game in England as passport dispute drags on [Buffalo Post Blog]

Pride of a Nation [Sports Illustrated]

Statement from Chief Oren R. Lyons, Honorary Chairman, Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse Team [NATV]

US Rule Could keep Iroquois From Lacrosse Tourney [Associate Press via CBS News]

Why the tribe who invented lacrosse can’t play it here [The UK Independent]

From conference brochure Ongwehoweka: "Our Indian Way of Life" Peter Jemison, artist 1992 38/50'' Mixed media on paper

Last week the  “Repatriation at Twenty” conference at the Arizona State University Law School brought together Native leaders in American Indian rights law, scholars, and activists. Many of the panelists had worked for decades to lobby for the passage of the National Museum of the American Indian Act (1989) and Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act [NAGPRA] (1990).

Organizers hoped the gathering would establish counter-narratives on repatriation. Said Suzan Shown Harjo, scholar, president of the Morning Star Institute, and an activist in repatriation since 1967, “This conference is an establishment of the oral history of what happened because what is written is only the stipulated truth.”

Here is a snapshot of panelist statements from the day-long gathering:

“The facts we have been taught about Native people are wrong.”—Kevin Gover, Director Smithsonian National Museum of American Indian, during his lecture “Will the White Man’s Indian Ever Die?”

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The recent settlement of the Cobell v. Salazar case has garnered significant media attention and mixed responses from Native communities. Many see the settlement as a victory and recognition of more than a century of questionable land grabs and allotment on behalf of the U.S. Government and the Department of the Interior. Others question whether or not this settlement goes far enough to acknowledge the centuries of hardship that resulted from allotment and seizure of Indian land.

We asked Kristin Ruppel, author of Unearthing Indian Land: Living with the Legacies of Allotment (University of Arizona Press, 2008) and assistant professor of Native American Studies at Montana State University to share her opinion on the settlement.

Cobell Settlement: Better than Nothing?
By Kristin Ruppel

A first take on the Cobell Settlement, with due and sincere deference to Ms. Cobell especially, but also to the legal team who worked so diligently and for so long on this case: The government got a heck of a deal; Indian landowners (and the Cobell team) will find some closure, but it’s obviously not a fair settlement for the Class. If the court endorses and congress authorizes implementation of this settlement, the US will say it is closing the chapter (“turning the page”) on a 122 years of financial mismanagement (an understatement) by paying pennies on the dollar for an accounting that only goes back to October 25, 1994 (when the Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act was passed), and by limiting the Class only to those who had an IIM account open and had at least one cash transaction posted to it (as long as it wasn’t later reversed) between October 25, 1994 and September 30, 2009, and who are still alive as of the latter date. The descendants of those whose claims are being settled all the way back to 1887 (when the General Allotment Act was passed, thus creating the trust) will get nothing if they don’t fit into this very narrow window of time and “cash transaction”. We don’t yet know how many of the 300,000+ account holders represented in the lawsuit will actually benefit from the Historical Accounting claim settlement—that is, receive their $1,000 checks—after the attorneys and expert witness fees are paid out of the same fund. As in the Indian Claims era, and the treaty-making era before that, Indians, more than anyone in this country, pay as they go, even when they win.

Like I said, this is just a first take, and none of this is meant to detract from the historic work that Ms. Cobell undertook against a power that has unlimited means, and an abiding interest in doing whatever is cheapest when it comes to Indians. There’s much more to be said about the case that may well be the defining one of the so-called Era of “Self-Determination”.

Many thanks to Dr. Ruppel for voicing her thoughts on this matter. We look forward to seeing more scholarly treatment of this case in future books and journal articles.