Happy Indigenous Genocide Day!

Just in time for "Thanksgiving" or as I've heard it referred to over the past few years,

Thanks"taking" Day!
Indigenous Genocide Day!
Why are White People so Scared Day!

Democracy Now dedicated an entire show this week to how Indigenous peoples around the world are successfully resisting economic globalization. As I see kids walking around, coming out of school with feathers on their heads or poorly constructed construction paper Pilgrim hats, I know for those who identify as Native American here (and possibly those who resist it as well), this must be a depressing time of year. It is times like this that the theme of "playing Indian" becomes so appropriate and so crystal clear that sumen tahdong i piniti para siha ni' manindigenous.

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Indigenous Peoples' Resistance to Economic Globalization:
A Celebration of Victories, Rights and Cultures

Hundreds of people from around the world recently gathered in New York for the "Indigenous Peoples' Resistance to Economic Globalization a Celebration of Victories, Rights and Cultures" teach-in put on by the International Forum on Globalization and the Tebtebba Foundation. Today, we'll play some of the speeches from the event:

* Elouise Cobell, a Blackfeet Indian and the plaintiff in the landmark lawsuit Cobell v. Kempthorne. The suit was filed on behalf of 300,000 Native Americans and is the largest class action lawsuit ever filed against the U.S. government.

* Felix Villca, an Aymara Indian and a senior advisor to the Bolivian Foreign Ministry in the government of Evo Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president.

* Sheila Watt-Cloutier, former chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council that represents the more than 150,000 Inuit of Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and Russia.

* Mililani Trask, a native Hawaiian attorney.