Futurity.org » Native American

Native American nations face legal limbo

Kristen Parker-Michigan State — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:43:26 +0000

MICHIGAN STATE (US) — Threats from non-Native Americans may require a change in tribal membership codes to allow tribes to protect themselves, says one legal expert in a new study.

Domestic violence against Native American women and pollution of American Indian land—mostly at the hands of non-Native Americans—are just two of many issues that could destroy the American Indian way of life, says Michigan State University law professor Matthew Fletcher.

Native tools: Shape copper with fire, stone

Erin White-Northwestern — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:40:07 +0000

NORTHWESTERN (US) — Material scientists have recreated techniques used by Native American coppersmiths more than 600 years ago to work copper nuggets into sacred regalia.

The effort was part of a metallurgical analysis of copper artifacts left behind by the Mississippians of the Cahokia Mounds, who lived in southeastern Illinois from 700 until 1400 A.D. The study was published recently in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Thanksgiving’s grain of truth

Dirk Martin-U. Colorado — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:27:19 +0000

“Our Thanksgiving holiday is a kind of cultural ritual that embodies both real people and real history but with cultural symbolism and mythology,” says Chris Lewis. “We are not really celebrating the real actors and the real characters, we’re celebrating or re-enacting a union between Indians and English peoples that we would like to think somehow symbolizes the hope of American society and the hope of freedom and unity in that society.”

U. COLORADO (US)—The oft-told story of the Pilgrims and the Indians celebrating and befriending each other is more myth than truth, says scholar Chris Lewis. The two groups tolerated each other out of necessity.

What is considered to be the first Thanksgiving feast at Plymouth Plantation in about 1621, between the Wampanoag Indians and the Pilgrims, was not the celebration of thanks as we think of it today, says Lewis, an American studies instructor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Instead, it was a celebration of the annual harvest and it most likely took place in late September.

Video games: lots of dudes, little diversity

Futurity-Jenny Leonard — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:25:16 +0000

A screenshot from Nintendo’s Wii Sports Resort, released this summer. (Courtesy: IGN Entertainment)

USC (US)—In the world of virtual reality, Hispanics are virtually invisible, according to the first comprehensive survey of video game characters. The new findings show males, whites, and adults are overrepresented in many top games.