Beyond Borders

Written by: Tiffini Davis      In this blog I will be going over a few Native American tribes and their native languages. This will be the second part or continuation to my first blog. My blog is about Native American Languages. Many native Languages are going extinct and disappearing. A lot of people don’t realize that this is even an issue. This is a big issue not just for native tribes. This is a piece of a culture that is going to be lost to all of us. The loss of native languages is also a loss for future generations as well. The purpose of this blog is to bring this issue to light and to more people's attention. I will be taking a closer look at a few tribes native languages.      First let’s take a look at the Hopi Tribe. The Hopi Tribe is one native tribe that lives in the Southwest region of America. The Hopi Tribe’s native language is Uto-Aztecan. There is some research that suggests that the Uto-Aztecan language originated in the Southern part of Central Am

Written by: Billie Marcheva Photo credit:  https://apnews.com/0227910d4339a262b5c0227ee0a5c157             Few across the globe were prepared for the unprecedented outbreak of the dangerous and deadly coronavirus. The response time and approach are critical in how many lives are lost and how quickly the virus spreads. Some populations throughout the states are demanding that their states’ businesses be reopened, while others are dying alone in hospital beds because they’re too contagious to sit by their loved ones. The COVID-19 pandemic affects each group differently, and each community has a different challenge to face in overcoming it. Some countries were prepared, such as South Korea, whose experience with the MERS outbrake taught health officials the importance of tailing the contaminated patients and limiting the spread early on. Their laws reflected this necessity and South Koream health officials were able to limit the spread of COVID-19 in their population extr

Written by: Abby Ellenburg Museums are wonderful places. They offer us a portal into history through an immersive experience you won’t find elsewhere. Past, present, and even future collide in these unique spaces for us to enjoy. So where is the issue here? The problem is that many times, the lives of Native Peoples are diminished into a caricature of their rich and vibrant culture, no more than a mere a snapshot of a time long removed from our own. Therein lies the conundrum, the fact is that Native Americans are not some relic of a bygone era, but a living, breathing society that deserve the proper respect and treatment due to them.             Now, don’t misunderstand me. I love museums. I believe they are an invaluable resource for the education of our society. I also believe in the importance of teaching the greater public about the remarkable history and culture of Native Americans. But we need to do better. Far too often, we are subjected to this idea that Native Am

Written by: Christian Jarrett The modern story of the Maori people that mainly inhabit New Zealand and parts of Australia is a very unique one that is not seen very often across the globe. To begin, the Maori people of New Zealand somewhat blur the line on what it means to be indigenous in some people’s eyes due to the fact that they themselves had only come to what is today New Zealand in approximately the eleventh century. It is undisputed, however, that the Maori people were established on the island centuries before the arrival of European settlers. Since the arrival of Europeans to New Zealand, the Maori people and culture have seen many of the same troubles as other native groups throughout the world after they encountered Europeans, but at the same time they possess certain cultural victories that are not seen in many other cases throughout the globe. The real issue facing the Maori people today is the exploitation of the culture for financial gain that does not retur

Written by:  McKenzie Witherell Since 1835, The Cherokee Nation has had the right to send a non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives. The Treaty of New Echota of 1835 states that “it is stipulated that they shall be entitled to a delegate in the House of Representatives of the United States whenever Congress shall make provisions for the same.” This means that the Cherokee Nation, since selling their land to the United States for the sum of 5 million dollars, has had this right to send a delegate, but why did it take so long? The first announcement of the plan to send a delegate to Congress in 2019, after this long-forgotten section of the treaty had been re-discovered. How will this action of sending a delegate to Congress affect the Cherokee nation? As we look at this, we see the effects that this delegate will have on the Cherokee nation. Although, this delegate will be non-voting they will still represent the Cherokee people, thus placing a representative in c

Written by: Jacy Welling https://images.app.goo.gl/otL59umTRP595NXh6 The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is a Native American Tribe that is inhabited in Mashpee and Taunton, Massachusetts. Although the tribe was not federally recognized until 2007, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe had been settled in Massachusetts for over 12,000 years, being one of the three surviving tribes in the Wampanoag Nation (Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe). On March 27 of this year, Cedric Cromwell, the Chairman of the tribe, was notified that the U.S. Department of Interior had ordered the reservation to be revoked from federal trust. The process of placing tribal land into federal trust means that the title to the land is held by the U.S. government to further benefit the tribe. When placing the land into its trust, the U.S. government then establishes responsibility to protect the land and its resources as well as to honor the self-government of the tribe (Robinson). Therefore, under federal trust, the tribal la

Written by: Ava Springstun https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images3/1/0118/20/world-class-vintage-navajo-sand_1_6a8fcfcfb51d01f7592780db6b58827b.jpg            With origins deep in sacred tribal healing, Navajo sandpaintings are a rich source of cultural importance. Every aspect of these paintings, from the time of day they are created to the colors and images used, involve immense symbolism. The amount of sacred symbols that are involved in the making of Navajo sand paintings makes the entire work a delicate balance of the rhythms the Navajo believe in. To keep a sand painting with sacred markings longer than its twelve hour period is seen as a defilement of the sacred images. Likewise, to have these images and their meanings revealed to an outsider desecrates the passage for the gods to travel through.             In today’s modern times, visitors to reservations ooh and ahh at the day to day life among the Native Americans while also wanting to take home something

Written by: Michael Solazzo Photo Source:  (Graef) There are many issues going on within the Department of Health and Human Services that affect many in the United States. Though a larger number affected by poor policy and oversight are the native people of North America, particularly within the United States. A common saying that health professionals hear is that native Americans get free health care from the federal government. While natives gave up there lands and resources in order to gain support from the United States, the government in question has done the bare minimum and has fallen short to help the very people they swore by treaty to protect. Indian Health Services provides comprehensive health care for 573 recognized tribes in the United States, in total that is close to three million people out of the estimated total of five million indigenous within the United States and its territories.   (Services) It is estimated that the native populations within the U