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For those of you who reached out about Friday’s (missed) newsletter, first, an apology for the delay, but secondly — just thank you for your enthusiasm for this work. I decided to pump the brakes late last week leading up to President Trump’s anticipated Mount Rushmore rally. As usual, the reporting around this event delivered a lackluster account of the Indigenous narrative and at a time of vital reflection on the colonization of this country. I just posted a ten-minute read here which makes the case for fully honoring the treaties, what the U.S. Constitution states as “the supreme Law of the Land.” While most news outlets acknowledged that Mount Rushmore is situated on stolen Lakota lands, in TIME’s online piece, such mention was a woeful afterthought. And the injustice was seemingly insignificant to the Washington Post in their obsession over the monument’s Ku Klux Klan connections. Meanwhile, NPR continued its pattern of doubting Indigenous reality by deducing the landgrab as nothing more than a Native American accusation. More than anything, the words I wanted to get on the page have everything to do with combating the chronic problem of Indigenous invisibility. As I wrote: “In this moment, a singular narrative simply will not address the complete disadvantages faced by all marginalized Americans, including those who were first to walk these lands.”
I agree with sentiments that this moment in America feels different this time; that the words we choose and the acts we make may have a profound impact at a time of widespread reconciliation. It’s what inspired this newsletter project to begin with—a source of thoughtful, meaningful journalism that you’re just not seeing in your newsfeeds. Enjoy the read and I’ll see you next Friday.
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