Justin Trudeau fights back tears as he apologizes to the indigenous people of Canada for their horrendous treatment they suffered at the hands of the government.

Justin Trudeau fought back tears as he apologized for Canada's role in mistreatment of Indigenous children in residential schools. pic.twitter.com/zEjGH2AOQP

— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) November 24, 2017

I was really touched by this video as it brings up our shame as Alaskans for how we treated our own indigenous people.

The white man's government, often using religion as a bludgeon, tore families apart and demanded that native children only call each other by the Biblical names given to them by Christian missionaries/educators and were punished for speaking their own language, or for being slow to adapt to western culture.

The destruction of the native people's sense of identity and connection to their culture was horrific, and is often cited as one of the main causes for suicide and alcoholism even among today's population. 

This shame that Prime Minister Trudeau speaks of is shame that should be shared among the people of Alaska, as well as the people living in the Lower 48.

Our ancestors all participated in the destruction of the history and culture of the people that were here when we arrived, and we have yet to really make amends for what we did.

After over 500 years of existence Alaska village surrenders to global warming.

Courtesy of CNN:

The Alaskan village of Shishmaref voted this week to surrender to global warming and move its ancestral home. 

The Tuesday vote was close. Eighty-nine people voted to move Shishmaref to the Alaska mainland while 78 voted to stay and fight the rising tide, said Donna Barr, secretary of the Shishmaref Council. 

Nearly all the 169 registered voters showed up to the village meeting to vote, she said. The vote was important, perhaps more in symbolism than substance, because while the move isn't imminent, when it happens, both the financial and emotional cost will be great.

The people of Shishmaref, where artifacts are found dating back 500 years, believe the move will cost in excess of 180 million dollars and not happen during the lifetime of those who voted.

The story is similar all up and down the Alaska coast and island communities.

Villages that have existed for many hundreds of years are now suddenly uninhabitable, and the people whose families go back multiple generations have to imagine life in a completely different environment.

This is why I often say that for Alaskans, there is really no argument against the existence of climate change.

The only question is how long can we run from it?

Another reminder as to why Alaskans can never honestly deny the existence of man made climate change.

Courtesy of Truth Out:

In late June, due to glaciers melting at unprecedented rates, the side of a mountain nearly a mile high in Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park, which had formerly been supported by glacial ice, collapsed completely. The landslide released over 100 million tons of rock, sending debris miles across a glacier beneath what was left of the mountain. 

This is something that has been happening more often in recent years in the northernmost US state. While Alaska's local conservative media often tend to feign ignorance of the cause of such phenomena, what's causing it is all too clear. The state has been hitting and surpassing record temperatures over the last year, and the same can be said for the globe. It's plainly obvious why ice is melting at record rates. To see more stories like this, visit "Planet or Profit?" 

Mountains that have been largely covered by glaciers for eons are losing their ice cover and the soggy, unstable land underneath is giving way. The landslides are usually large enough to cause seismic tremors and sometimes, when close enough to the ocean, tsunamis. 

Also in June, Arctic sea ice had melted down to a record low, with 29,000 miles of it disappearing each day. By month's end, the sea ice was 100,000 square miles below the previous record for June -- set just six years ago -- and more than half-a-million square miles below the 1981-2010 long-term average, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Excepting March, every single month of this year thus far has set a new record low for ice cover in the Arctic. 

To Alaskans, at least those who are not making a living off the oil industry that dominates the state's financial and political economies, the evidence before them is impossible to ignore.

That last sentence is key.

The first Alaskans to start making a stink about climate change up here, after the scientists of course, were the rural natives whose subsistence lifestyles were the first to feel the impact of melting ice, changing migration routes, and unpredictable weather patterns.

But these days the changes are so obvious that you would have to be an idiot on the level of a Palin not to recognize that stepping outside your house is akin to being transported thousands of miles away into an environment that is only minimally reminiscent of the place where those of us living here in the 1970's and 80's knew to be our home.

It is likely much too late do anything to significantly impact the changes that are only right now starting to come our way, but doing nothing means we have failed to recognize the fact that we have an obligation as residents of this planet to contribute to its survival.  

Sorry scratch that, the planet will be fine. It is OUR survival that we need to be concerned about.

Perhaps that is enough to kick start our desire for self preservation so we can start voting some of these Koch sucking Republicans out of office and replacing them with politicians who see the big picture and will vote for policies to dramatically reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and start spending some serious money on renewable energy sources.

At least one would hope.

Alaska changes "Columbus Day " to "Indigenous Peoples Day."

Courtesy of Time Magazine:  

Alaska has officially renamed Columbus Day “Indigenous Peoples Day,” joining a growing body of local governments moving in that direction. 

In an executive proclamation, Gov. Bill Walker wrote that “Alaska is built upon the homelands and communities of the Indigenous Peoples of this region, without whom the building of the state would not be possible.” He pointed out that 16% of Alaskans have indigenous heritage, and that “the State opposes systematic racism toward Indigenous Peoples of Alaska or any Alaskans of any origin and promotes policies and practices that reflect the experiences of Indigenous Peoples, ensure greater access and opportunity, and honor our nation’s indigenous roots, history.”

You know just yesterday  I was bitching about Bill Walker trying to open ANWR for oil drilling, and then he does something awesome like this. 

Hard to get a bead on that guy.

Gee not celebrating a guy who was responsible for the deaths of thousands of indigenous people, real tough call there.

Revisiting Canada's (And Alaska's) cultural genocide.

If you are disturbed by that video, you should probably know that the exact same destruction of the native culture happened right here in Alaska:

Several generations of Native people — many of whom are still alive today — would become targets of a tragic, frequently successful campaign of cultural elimination. Demanding that Natives abandon the cultures and languages of their grandfathers and grandmothers, Natives were given a clear message that one way of looking at the world was superior to the other. That the survivors did as they were told — abandoning their feasts and ceremonials, their dances and even their languages — is testament not to the correctness of the Western message but to the survivors' states of mind. Having lost multitudes of spiritual and political leaders, artisans, historians, and elders, those who were left were orphans — spiritually as well as physically — destined to live in a world of emotional and material poverty. 

In the schoolhouses and boarding schools, in the churches and in the orphanages, Native children would learn how to become good Christians and good Americans. 

What they really learned was to be ashamed of their language, they were often beaten for using it, and to become reliant on the whites that invaded their lands and stole from them their way of life, self reliance, and sense of pride. 

The federal government also restricted when they could fish and hunt, making their traditional subsistence lifestyle all but impossible.

When you see a homeless native on the streets of Anchorage, you have to realize that that is not a choice they made for themselves. That was what they were reduced to after their culture was all but destroyed, and alcohol and drugs were the only things that seemed to ease their pain.

There has been a great effort in the last few decades by Alaska, and its native people, to put things right.

But the reality is that the damage done by the interference of outsiders, first the Russians and then Americans, has caused deep and potentially irreparable damage to the Alaska native culture.

In that way Canada and Alaska have much in common.

Village school children in Alaska make cute video about the lack of snow this year. Ends up becoming powerful statement on global warming.

The film was made by fourth graders at the Kuinerrarmiut Elitnaurviat school in Quinhagak and shot by their teacher James Barthelman.

It was actually not created to address climate change per se, but it immediately caught the attention of  climate scientists such as Mike MacCracken, chief scientist for the Climate Institute.

Who had this to say: 

While winter (or other seasonal) conditions typically vary from year to year, the first effect of climate change is to raise the baseline around which the variations occur. For regions that have winter conditions below normal, the increase in the baseline will more and more often lead to variations taking the temperature to above freezing. This is happening along the coast of Alaska, especially as the sea ice forms later and later each year, creating a situation where the waves from winter storms are no longer being held down by the sea ice, but not actively eroding the shoreline. 

The second aspect of climate change that is likely affecting Alaska more and more is the apparent tendency of warming in the Arctic and warmer sea surface temperatures in the Pacific to contribute to larger waves in the jet stream. The resulting larger waves, which also seem to persist for longer because they move more slowly west to east, tend to push warm air into the Arctic (e.g., over Alaska) later and later into the year, leading to very warm conditions and the later and later freezing of the land surface and later accumulation of snow. While this may initially seem beneficial, transportation and movement of wildlife across the tundra is made much easier when the land surface (and rivers) are frozen over. 

Such large variations of the climate likely won’t occur every year over the next few decades given the limited global warming to date, but it would seem likely such conditions will occur more and more frequently as global warming continues, disrupting both social systems and ecosystems.

Look I live in Alaska and the fact that global warming exists is simply no longer up for discussion. We fucking know it does! (We have so little snow right now that many of us simply refuse to call it winter.)

And in my opinion the debate over whether mankind is contributing to it or not is also over. We are.

So the only question remaining is what more has to happen before the politicians decide that the cost of doing nothing about it is too much for the donations to their campaign from big oil companies to cover?

Congressman Young "apologizes" to the Alaska Federation of Natives, and then promptly ruins it by assaulting a native woman who confronted him afterward.

So after making some incredibly insensitive remarks during an appearance at Wasilla High, where he essentially told an audience of students still mourning the loss of their friend to suicide that "suicide shows a lack of support from friends and family," Don Young tried to make nice with the the Alaska natives, whose communities have been ripped apart by the epidemic of suicide, by kind of sort of apologizing.

However one native Alaskan in attendance did not hear that apology, so she decided to talk to her Congressman in person.

Here is how that went.

Courtesy of TPM: 

Gloria Poullard approached Young to ask him about a profane speech he gave last week at Wasilla High School, in which the congressman offended students by arguing that suicide was caused by a lack of support from friends and family. 

"You know, it really put a hamper on my faith in you because my elders voted for you, and this is my state, I'm an Alaska native," Poullard said to Young, according to video of the exchange from local TV station KTUU. "How do you feel within yourself, what possessed you to even make a comment like that? My nephew just committed suicide." 

Young shushed her and shook her hand, to which Poullard responded "You don't tell me to shush." 

"Hey, I lost a nephew," he said. "I know what it feels like and I gotta ask myself, did I support him enough? Did I? I don't know." 

"Don't you get angry with me, don't even squeeze my hand," Poullard said. Young then released her hand and walked away.

Earlier I reminded you that Lisa Murkowski's successful write in campaign would probably have failed if not for the support of the AFN.

And a whole lot of Young's support comes from his ties to the Alaska native community.

I am not native but I am guessing that getting in their face and squeezing their hand until it hurts is not going to help him to gain back their confidence.  

In other 2014 voter news, Senator Mark Begich and Kentucky's Alison Lundergan Grimes receive important endorsements.

First up it's Mark Begich who recently received the very influential Alaska Federation of Natives endorsement:

The resolutions included an endorsement of Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, who is seeking to be re-elected Nov. 4, and an endorsement of the so-called “unity” ticket of independent gubernatorial candidate Bill Walker and his running mate, Democrat Byron Mallott. 

As you see the Walker/Mallott ticket also got an endorsement which might help to balance out the endorsement from the Wasilla Wendigo. 

To understand the importance of the AFN support, there are many who believe that it was they who were instrumental in helping Lisa Murkowski win against Joe Miller in 2010.

However they are not 100% behind the liberal agenda:  

The AFN delegates also approved a resolution in opposition to a ballot measure that would legalize and regulate recreational marijuana in Alaska.

That may seem counter intuitive until you realize how overwhelming of a problem substance abuse is in rural villages.  It is not at all surprising that they are officially against the measure.

Now let's take a look at Kentucky where Alison Lundergan Grimes received some very good news yesterday: 

Two major Kentucky newspapers have endorsed Alison Lundergan Grimes for Senate over incumbent Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R). 

The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader both ran editorials Sunday in support of the Democrat, who currently serves as Kentucky's Secretary of State. 

In its endorsement, the Courier-Journal's editorial board praised Grimes' stance on issues like the minimum wage and early childhood education, while accusing McConnell of "lacking a vision for Kentucky." 

The Lexington Herald-Leader's endorsement strongly rebukes McConnell, who the editorial board says has "repeatedly hurt the country to advance his political strategy." 

"The Senate may never recover from the bitter paralysis McConnell has inflicted through record filibusters that allow his minority to rule by obstruction," reads the editorial. "He poses as a champion of the right to criticize the government, but it's really his rich buddies' right to buy the government that he champions." 

"If McConnell had a better record, he would not have to argue for six more years by obsessively linking Grimes to Obama, who will be gone in two years no matter what," the editorial continues.

Damn, that's going to leave a mark.

The most recent polls show McConnell still with a six points lead. But who knows, with this kind of support Grimes might just pull this off.

I have my fingers crossed for both of these races. If we can not only hold onto the Senate but also kick McConnell to the curb this may usher in a whole new era of bipartisanship moving forward.

I know, I'm a dreamer.

New Republican backed program of putting pregnancy tests in bar bathrooms to fight fetal alcohol syndrome demonstrates a lack of understanding concerning women, drinking, and FAS.

Courtesy of the New York Daily News:

A state-funded research project will offer free pregnancy tests at 20 bars in Alaska to stop expectant mothers from boozing. 

The University of Alaska has $400,000 to study if women are more likely to forego alcohol if a poster is pasted on a dispenser rather than a wall, reported the Anchorage Daily News. 

The project was proposed in March by Sen. Pete Kelly (R-Alaska) to flood bars and restaurants with tests to tackle birth defects and substance abuse problems in Alaska. 

Researchers claim Alaska has the highest rate of fetal alcohol syndrome because of frequent alcohol use among its female residents. 

The new study will target women with unexpected pregnancies with the help of a Minnesota nonprofit, Healthy Brains for Children, who installed the first pregnancy test dispenser in a bar in 2012 to curb fetal alcohol syndrome. 

Unlike the Minnesota dispensers, the tests in Alaska will be offered for free starting in December.

Okay while I appreciate that Pete Kelly wants to do SOMETHING about this terrible problem, it might help if he understood what the fuck he was trying to stop.

First off I think it is pretty clear that these machines will be treated as jokes by women in bars who will undoubtedly empty the machines every night just for shits and giggles, or to stock up for the future.

Second I work with the community most impacted by FAS, and the vast majority of the children are natives from rural communities, where there are few bars, and more drinking in the homes. Therefore even if this COULD have an impact, it won't impact the demographic that needs it the most.

Third there has already been a more thoughtful program launched in 2000, that actually DID have some favorable results:

The state has documented a 32 percent drop in the rate of Alaska children born with fetal alcohol syndrome. A state health official is attributing the decline largely to programs started under a multi-year, $29 million grant former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens obtained in a 2000 congressional earmark. 

The state used the money for both prevention and treatment of fetal alcohol syndrome, which occurs if a mother drinks during pregnancy. The state launched a multi-media campaign to educate people, and set up teams around the state to work with fetal alcohol kids. 

The findings of this program might well have helped this Pete Kelly guy if he had bothered to study what they discovered.  

The decline in the rate of fetal alcohol births was all due to a reduction in cases among Alaska Natives, Schoellhorn's report says. The rate of non-Native FAS births did not drop. 

It's not clear why that's the case, she said. 

Casto said she believes Alaska Native health organizations have strongly emphasized screening and intervention for pregnant women and women of child-bearing age. 

"They have recognized it as a huge problem. They are making an active and forceful effort to intervene." 

Yes well the number of cases in non-native births did not drop because they are already quite low already, and the number of native FAS births dropped because the program focused on education and prevention. Not simply installing dispensers in restaurant bathrooms and hoping for the best.

But hey, do you know what would have a HUGE effect on bringing down the number of FAS births?

Greater access to birth control, and sex education.

However Senator Kelly will have none of that.

I mean sure encouraging women to piss on a stick in a public restroom is reasonable, but offering them the opportunity to forgo unwanted pregnancies, take control of their lives, and plan when and with whom to start a family, well that's just social engineering. 

Why no Alaskan should EVER be a climate change denier.

Courtesy of Chron: Alaska has been referred to as ground zero for climate change because of its proximity to a vulnerable polar region where effects are accelerated. A report by the National Climate Assessment lists concerns because of disappearing sea ice, glacier melt, permafrost thawing, changes in ocean temperature and chemistry, and strong effects on Alaska Native communities:

 — Alaska has warmed more than twice as fast as the rest of the United States, with a statewide average annual air temperature increasing by 3 degrees and average winter temperature by 6 degrees. Average annual temperatures are projected to rise 2 to 4 degrees more by 2050. If global emissions continue to increase, temperatures this century are projected to increase by 10 to 12 degrees in the north, 8 to 10 degrees in interior Alaska and 6 to 8 degrees elsewhere. 

— Arctic sea ice has declined, with only about half as much present in late summer as was recorded when satellite records began in 1979. Less ice means dark water absorbs more heat, leading to more warming. An open Arctic Ocean makes the region more accessible for marine traffic and oil drilling but increases risks of spills and eliminates habitat for polar bears, walrus and ice-dependent seals. Without protective ice edge along shorelines, coastal communities are vulnerable to erosion from fierce ocean storms. 

— Rapid ice loss from Alaska and British Columbia glaciers, perhaps 20 to 30 percent of what is melting from the Greenland Ice Sheet, contributes to increased ocean levels. Glacier water pouring into the ocean is an important source of organic carbon and other minerals that contribute to high coastal productivity and changes could alter Alaska's rich fisheries. 

— Eighty percent of Alaska is underlain by permafrost, or frozen ground, which can sink if thawed. Sinking ground is projected to add $3.6 billion to $6.1 billion to costs of maintaining public buildings, pipelines, roads, and airports over the next 20 years. Permafrost thaw in rural Alaska will disrupt water supplies and sewage systems. Lakes in the southern two-thirds of Alaska have shrunk in the last 50 years because of permafrost thaw and evaporation from higher temperatures. Wetlands drying and warmer summers have led to more large fires in the last 10 years than in any decade since record-keeping began in the 1940s. Alaska provides breeding habitat for millions or migratory birds and continued drying of Alaska wetlands could affect waterfowl management nationally. Thawing of permafrost increases the release of carbon dioxide and methane through increased decomposition, adding to the warming problem.

I have said this before, but it bears repeating, the Native Alaskans up here have been trying to bring attention to the problem of climate change for over fifty years. 

Sadly it took decades before anybody listened to them. Imagine how much better of we would all be if we had been willing to listen, and actually DO something about it, back then.

The Alaska Native method for dealing with drug dealers. Denied!

Courtesy of KTUU:  

A man described by residents and police in an Aleutian Islands town as a known drug dealer was turned around at the local airport and run out of town by parents when he arrived from Anchorage Tuesday. 

Locals in the East Aleutians Borough community of Sand Point say the incident occurred at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, when a nightly PenAir flight arrived in town from Anchorage with the man on board. 

In a caption for a Facebook photo of the confrontation posted by resident Carmen Dushkin, she said the incident personifies opposition by locals to a continuing flow of drugs into their communities. 

"Sand Point takes a stand to remove known drug dealers," Dushkin wrote. "Team Sand Point will not let you come into our town and corrupt the youth of tomorrow." 

The Sand Point incident follows a tradition dating back to Alaska Native tribes of banishing offenders who disturb the peace as a form of punishment, one adopted by Gold Rush-era residents as a "blue ticket" out of town by the first available means of transportation. In a more recent example of an Alaska community expelling a person suspected of but not charged with a crime, tribal officials banned a suspected bootlegger from the village of Akiak in April. 

According to Sand Point Police Department officer Michael Livingston, who witnessed the exchange, police couldn't confirm locals' identification of the man as he was not charged with a crime. The man does have a history in the 1,000-person community, which has seen problems with illegal drugs like cocaine, heroin and meth, as well as abuse of prescription drugs. 

"Typically, what happens is a drug dealer flies into Sand Point with, say, 1,000 Percocet (oxycodone pain pills) and he has a runner sell them for 150 bucks apiece," Livingston said. "And within a couple weeks, he's leaving town with about $150,000 cash."

I have actually seen this happen before. The native community will rise up as one and eject a trouble maker or dangerous individual and they will be denied access to their community.

It will sometimes confound law enforcement because rather than turn the person over to the authorities the locals will simply ban him or her. Essentially because they don't trust white man's justice.

Of course in the olden days sometimes trouble makers would be taken out on one way hunting trips. After all, accidents do happen you know.

Don't worry too much about this fellow however, he will always be welcome in Wasilla.

Alaska's Senate Majority Leader attempting to pass legislation that will essentially make abortion unattainable for the women of our state.

Courtesy of KTUU:  

Medically necessary abortions would be defined as those needed to avoid serious risk to the life of the woman under a bill introduced in the Alaska Senate. 

The measure, from Senate Majority Leader John Coghill, says the state health department may not pay for abortion services unless they are medically necessary or the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest and the rape or incest was "promptly reported" to law enforcement or public health authorities. 

The Alaska Supreme Court has held that the state must fund medically necessary abortions if it funds other procedures deemed medically necessary for people in need. A legislative legal opinion last year, however, said it's not clear what makes an abortion medically necessary, and that it's likely only further litigation will provide greater clarity.

Only allow access to abortions for those that are raped? And only for those where the rape was "promptly reported?" What state does this neanderthal misogynist think he represents?

This is Alaska, where victims of rape and incest are more often than not in tiny villages with only one or two safety officers on hand, and where getting a State Trooper out there can take many hours if not days. And while they wait they are quite likely living with their attacker, if they are victims of incest, or surrounded by the perpetrator's family members who will pressure them into shutting up.

Coghill's proposed bill is an attack on women in this state, especially poor or native women, and should signal the end of his political career for all time.

If you are a woman in Alaska it is time for your voice to be heard loud and clear.

Here is Coghill's contact information. Don't bother trying to be respectful, he certainly has no respect for you.

“We’re Awake and We’re Standing Up” Meet Ta’Kaiya Blaney the eleven year old Canadian who is scaring the crap out of certain energy company executives.

Courtesy of Yes! Magazine: If we keep waiting for change, it's never going to come," Ta'Kaiya tells the people gathered for and Idle No More event in Courtenay, British Columbia. 

At 11 years old, Ta'Kaiya has become something of an icon for the Canadian movement for environmental justice on First Nations lands. 

In July 2011,she attempted to deliver a letter outlining the community's concerns to Enbridge, the company that is planning to build the proposed Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline. She was escorted off the company’s property by security guards. 

"I don’t know what they find so scary about me,” she said. “I just want them to hear what I have to say.” 

Now Ta'Kaiya stands among the hundreds protesting Canda's C-45 bill, which many say jeopardizes the land rights of First Nations people.

This young environmentalist is rapidly become the face of the anti-tar sands movement, not to mention an articulate representative of the First nations people, and the the energy companies have every right to find her "scary" because she is just brimming with talent.

Here check out her song "Shallow Waters."

I know right? This young lady is going to be a huge public relations nightmare for these Canadian energy companies.

And I love it!

Tennessee Teabaggers try to, quite literally, whitewash American history. Update!

Courtesy of the Commercial Appeal:

Members of Tennessee tea parties presented state legislators with five priorities for action Wednesday, including “rejecting” the federal health reform act, establishing an elected “chief litigator” for the state and “educating students the truth about America.” 

About two dozen tea party activists held a news conference, then met with lawmakers individually to present their list of priorities and “demands” for the 2011 legislative session that opened Tuesday. 

Regarding education, the material they distributed said, “Neglect and outright ill will have distorted the teaching of the history and character of the United States. We seek to compel the teaching of students in Tennessee the truth regarding the history of our nation and the nature of its government.” 

That would include, the documents say, that “the Constitution created a Republic, not a Democracy.” 

The material calls for lawmakers to amend state laws governing school curriculums, and for textbook selection criteria to say that “No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership.” 

Fayette County attorney Hal Rounds, the group’s lead spokesman during the news conference, said the group wants to address “an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another.

This is why I am always working to energize the Democrats, by pointing out the important things the President has accomplished and reminding everybody that we need to elect more Democrats, not just to help Obama continue his agenda, but to protect America from the destructive anti-science and anti-educational agenda of the conservatives.

The Teabaggers see their overwhelming 2010 victory, a victory they were only able to realize because Democrats let themselves be discouraged into staying home, as a mandate. And they fully intend to change the way history, science, and government are taught to reflect their insane point of view.

Teaching history in such a way that “No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers," is going to make it almost impossible to teach about the contributions of many important black leaders. Or is that the point?

Taking the accomplishments of minorities in this country out of our textbooks is to remove any opportunity for today's non-whites to find inspiration within their pages. No mention of Booker T. Washington or Harriet Tubman? After all they were once slaves and according to the revisionist history of the Teabaggers, slavery was virtually abolished by the Founding Fathers

What of more modern minority leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. or Rosa Parks? They fought against discrimination. In a perfect country there can be NO discrimination.

And need I even ask about President Obama's accomplishments?

Apparently not:  

The group also wants the state legislature to reject key provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 as “an insult to Constitutional principles.”

Our Founding Fathers were great men, of that there is no doubt, but in the end they were just that, men.

They were not gods to be worshiped, they were men to be admired.  They did a great thing, but not a perfect thing. Our children deserve to know that. They deserve to know the truth.

And they certainly don't deserve to have KKK members Tea Party members writing their history books for them.

Update: As everybody pointed out the article I linked to is from last year. I follow the link from the original source over at the Huffington Post and did not check the date. But yes it is still happening this year as well:

A little more than a year after the conservative-led state board of education in Texas approved massive changes to its school textbooks to put slavery in a more positive light, a group of Tea Party activists in Tennessee has renewed its push to whitewash school textbooks. The group is seeking to remove references to slavery and mentions of the country's founders being slave owners. 

According to reports, Hal Rounds, the Fayette County attorney and spokesman for the group, said during a recent news conference that there has been "an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another."

Different year, same Teabagger shit.

Tiny Alaskan village sues energy companies for conspiring to cover up their responsibility for climate change.

Courtesy of the Alaska Dispatch:

The battle between some of the world's most powerful energy companies and an Alaska village that's losing ground to climate change heads to federal appeals court on Monday. 

Nine Kivalina residents, having survived the recent mega-storm that walloped western Alaska, will be at the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to watch their lawyers argue that ExxonMobil Corp., BP, ConocoPhillips and other corporate Goliaths owe the village at least $95 million in damages. 

A key Kivalina argument charges that the energy companies are engaged in a conspiracy to cover up the link between their emissions and the earth's warming temperatures. A similar argument proved pivotal decades ago in helping smokers prevail in court against tobacco giants. 

The Northwest Alaska village lost the first round of its lawsuit in 2009, when a U.S. District Court dismissed it, saying climate-change pollution needs to be regulated by Congress and the administration, not courts. The village lacked standing, the court said, because it could not show the companies' emissions caused the erosion threatening the village. 

But Kivalina is optimistic this time around. 

"What we have going for us is the science is changing by the day," and the causal connection between greenhouse-gas emissions and the climate is clarifying, said Heather Kendall-Miller, an attorney for Kivalina and head of the Alaska office of the Native American Rights Fund. 

Alaska spokespeople for ConocoPhillips and BP, and a ConocoPhillips attorney named in the case, would not comment about the companies' arguments.

There are few places on earth that have felt the impact of climate change as acutely as those living in these remote Alaskan villages.

It seems very appropriate for them to be the ones mounting the legal battle that will finally force these energy companies to admit that they have been working for decades to hide the truth about their responsibility, and spending millions of dollars refuting the science that dares to say otherwise.

Now THESE are Alaskans that we can all feel proud to have living in our great state.

Goliath, meet David.

Mother of all storms pounding Alaska's western coast as some residents flee destruction.

Courtesy of Fairbanks NewsMiner:

High winds and surging waves pummeled Alaska's western coast Wednesday, churning the Bering Sea and forcing residents of Nome and isolated Native villages to seek higher ground inland. 

"We do have some reports of buildings losing roofs in the Nome area," said meteorologist Scott Berg at the National Weather Service in Fairbanks. "Also water at the base of buildings in Nome." 

Nome resident Gigi Carpenter Immingan told relatives this morning that emergency managers closed East Front Street. 

"The storm has tossed debris onto the roadway creating hazardous driving conditions. In addition, waves are launching fist-sized rocks and logs up to 2 feet in diameter onto the road way," Immingan's Facebook post said. "These objects would cause injury to any person that was struck. These signs of beach erosion indicate that the Nome-Council highway is impassible." 

Winds were blowing roofing material off building, creating further hazards, she said. 

Communications officer Zane Brown said the height of snow and hurricane-force winds hit at about 2 a.m. He said a voluntary evacuation has moved residents from beachfront businesses and homes to shelters at a community center and a church. 

Apparently this monster is just getting started, and already some communities are in serious trouble.

As you can see in the above map their are numerous villages, some of them with only a small community of a hundred or so people, in the path of the storm.  Getting rescue workers and medical aid to these communities in case of a bad outcome will be problematic at best.

Like I said before there are no heartier people on earth, but there has not been a storm like this in almost fifty years.

Here is some footage from Nome, Alaska just to give you some idea of what these people are dealing with right now.

Alaskans prepare for arctic version of the "perfect storm."

Courtesy of ADN:

Evacuations have begun in some Alaska coastal communities, including Nome (see below), ahead of a powerful storm that's moving across the Bering Sea toward the western Alaska coast. The storm, packing hurricane-force winds, has the potential for coastal flooding, extensive beach erosion and serious damage, according to the National Weather Service. 

"This will be extremely dangerous and life threatening storm of an epic magnitude rarely experienced," the Weather Service said in a bulletin earlier today. 

Even though Alaskans are quite experienced at dealing with severe weather, THIS storm has everybody on edge and even native communities who have lived along the coast for centuries are taking every precaution to ensure the safety of their people.

Here in Anchorage we are protected from a direct hit, and may likely remain relatively untouched by the storm, but in other areas along the western coast adequate preparation may be the difference between life and death.

Stay safe Alaska!

Stripped of their culture, their way of life, and even their very identity, for many Alaskan natives suicide represents a sweet release from constant emotional pain.

The following is an excerpt from testimony provided by Evon Peter a former Neetsaii Gwich’in chief, and submitted to the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, which I found over at the Alaska Dispatch.

This is only an excerpt and I strongly urge you to read the rest by clicking the link.

I should also warn you that this may be difficult for some to read this early in the day, and I apologize ahead of time for your emotional discomfort. However I believe that if you truly want to understand the complicated situation facing the Native people of Alaska that you must hear what Chief Peter bravely shared with the Senate.

Within my culture, we speak from personal experience because that is the story we know best. Our stories shape who we are and reflect the learnings we have garnered about life. They also enable us to identify our relationships to one another. Additionally, in order to fully address the complexity of suicide in Alaska Native communities, time must be taken to briefly detail a history of colonization. This history may not initially seem relevant, yet is inextricably connected to the breakdown of the cultural, political, spiritual, and social fabric that sustained Alaska Native peoples for thousands of years prior to western colonization. 

Research has shown that colonization is one of the single largest factors driving the abnormally high suicide rates within an Indigenous population.1 Therefore, in order to fully engage in the battle against suicide in Alaska Native communities it is crucial to ask a couple questions: Just what is colonization? And how has the colonization of Alaska impacted Alaska Native populations historically and in the current time? I will attempt to answer parts of these questions through sharing with you part of my story, how I am here before you today. 

I was born to a Gwich’in and Koyukon mother and a Jewish father. I lost my father to divorce when I was five and I did not see him again before he died, for these reasons I was raised as a Gwich’in person from my earliest memories. But my story begins further back; my grandmother was adopted at a young age after losing her parents to disease -- one of several diseases that had caused a great number of deaths among Alaska Native people between 1870 and 1950. As a child, following the adoption, my grandmother was sexually abused by men in her new community, and she did not realize until adulthood that this was not a normal part of what childhood was supposed to be. This later weighed heavily on her relationship with my grandfather and their ability to raise my aunts, uncles, and mother in a secure and openly loving way. 

Like many Alaska Native people of my grandmother and mother’s generation, my mother endured the emotional, psychological, spiritual, cultural, and physical duress of a rapid transition from a traditional way of life on the land to the 21st-century “city life.” Federal policy and practices, implemented through schools and some churches, enforced the assimilation of Native peoples through the direct and indirect eradication of rights, language, culture, and philosophy. My mother’s generation was born into a world that immediately told her, both in popular culture and in government policies, that she must change. 

The policies and practices of colonization brought with them the social illnesses of sexual abuse, alcoholism, and neglect, which can be passed from one generation to the next. This is often referred to as intergenerational trauma, which equates to an experience of post-traumatic stress disorder among many Alaska Native people. In many ways, my mother’s generation was born with the scars of assaults carried out in previous generations of our ancestry as the colonizing culture attempted the eradication of who we are and the undermining of our control over our destiny as a people. 

These multiple layers of stress and pain associated with generations of assault, abuse, and loss are all too easily numbed with alcohol and drugs. Yet drugs and alcohol do not heal the pains, they amplify it. Alaska Native communities have seen an epidemic of drug and alcohol abuse, which has resulted in continuations of the cycles of social illness and suicides. My family has not been immune to this; my story, until recently, was not an exception to this cycle.

As I stated before there is much, much more and if you have been moved by what you read so far, I urge you to continue reading over at Alaska Dispatch.

Now as many of you may, or may not, know I have written about the shameful history of how the Alaskan natives were treated before, as well as the racism that many of them face on the streets of Anchorage today.

As a Caucasian living in Alaska, this topic brings me great shame, and through my job I have found myself dealing with the fallout that has resulted from this complete lack of respect for our indigenous people more times than I can count.

Chief Peter is absolutely correct in identifying the forced assimilation of the native people as the key factor in understanding why they are taking their lives in such overwhelming numbers today.

This started with the missionaries who came to Alaska to teach the "savages" the loving message of Jesus Christ, and in so doing gave the children in their care Biblical names because their native names felt pagan and wrong to the ears of the nuns and missionaries who ran the schools.

Later these schools would be replaced with more secular schools, but the abuse continued.

When American style schools were started in Alaskan communities, the idea was to wipe out Native culture - to undermine connections with spiritual worlds, lands and waters, and to break the feelings of individuals and groups that are the essence of a culture. The agenda was to "civilize the Natives" and to make them more like the white settlers. Any beliefs that Natives had that involved understanding the world differently, or defining their place in the world as separate and apart from the white settlers was not allowed in school. English only language policies were strictly enforced, and punished anyone speaking in a Native language. Those policies erased Native languages from schools and from some communities as well. Schools disparaged Native language, food, dress and customs. At the same time the curriculum of the schools and the teachers taught students to view the world from a Western point of view. Policies were aimed at the hearts of students. Feelings of inferiority and shame were associated with things Native. Good grades and rewards were associated with things Western. This was a tough message delivered by a powerful system. 

I don't know how anybody can read that last paragraph and not feel incredible pain for the way these amazing human beings  were treated. We owe the indigenous people of my state more than we can ever repay, and I believe the suggestion that Evon Peter made at the end of his written testimony was more than fair.

I would like to suggest that an equal, if not greater, scale of investment that was put into eradicating our cultures and assimilating Alaska Native peoples into western ways be invested into healing, wellness, and leadership development to help us recover.

Considering how wealthy the state of Alaska has become off of the oil retrieved from the land these proud people once called home, and how inhumane they were treated in the not too distant past, don't you think we owe them at least this much?

Alaska's richest man blasts Sarah Palin for double crosssing her fellow Alaskans. Update!

Courtesy of the National Enquirer:

Alaska’s richest man is blasting Sarah Palin for failing to avert a po­tentially devastating environmental disaster in the state she once governed – and now he wants ENQUIRER readers’ help to get the job done! 

In an exclusive interview, Bob Gillam, founder of McKinley Capital Management and a staunch envi­ronmentalist, alleged that a foreign mining venture called Pebble Mine in Alaska’s pristine Bristol Bay is believed to be threatening the habitat of the salmon-filled natural wonder. 

“Sarah double-crossed us,” he says. 

“When she was governor, Sarah told me on more than one occasion her daughter Bristol was named after Bristol Bay and she would never do anything to hurt the area, especially since she had a salmon fishing permit herself,” said Gillam. 

The benevolent billionaire fears the toxic waste from the site could leak into the water after one of Alaska’s regular earthquakes, killing half of the world’s wild salmon. The pink-fleshed fish is the dietary staple of the more than 15,000 aboriginal Alaskans who live around the bay.

The residents of our state are STILL feeling the aftershocks of Palin's time as our Governor.

That bullshit movie put out by Steve Bannon notwithstanding, REAL Alaskans know she was devastating to our state's reputation, its people, and possibly even our future.

You might believe that my last point is mere hyperbole, but if the plans for the Pebble Mine are allowed to move forward, for many Alaskans living off the waters of Bristol Bay that is EXACTLY what her legacy will mean to their way of life.

And don't think for a moment that the blame for this ecosystem killing disaster does not rest completely on the Grizzled Mama's shoulders, because it does.

This from a report written by environmentalist Bill Sherwonit explains how hard our half term Governor pushed for this project:

Pebble Mine opponents hoped to cripple the project with Measure 4, which would have strictly limited the pollutants that metal mines could discharge into streams and drinking water. But the mining interests’ massive advertising campaign successfully painted Measure 4 as an extreme initiative that threatened the state’s mining industry and its 5,500 jobs. In addition to speaking out against the measure and allowing her image to be used in mining industry advertisements, Gov. Palin also allowed her Department of Natural Resources to promote a “no” vote on its Web site. The Alaska Public Offices Commission later ordered the department to take down its statement of support. Palin’s critics said her involvement in the ballot measure was a misuse of her power and violated the spirit of the constitutional ban prohibiting state officials from getting involved in citizen initiatives.

This is just part of the deadly legacy that Sarah Palin left the people of Alaska. Just as she left the city of Wasilla 20 million dollars in debt after serving as the worst mayor they ever had.

You may still be able to find a few people in the lower forty eight who still believe Palin's lies, but in Alaska we learned who she was the hard way. And it is a lesson that we are helping to teach others before it is too late.

Thankfully, it appears they have been listening.

Update: Somebody asked how we can help.  Here you go:

HOW YOU CAN HELP: ENQUIRER readers wishing to speak out can write the Renewable Resources Coalition at 605 West 2nd Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501, or e-mail info@renewable resourcescoalition.org. Alaskan Governor Sean Parnell can be reached at: Governor Sean Parnell, P.O. Box 110001, Juneau, AK 99811-0001. E-mail: sean.parnell@alaska.gov.

Senator Lisa Murkowski addresses sex trafficking in Alaska.

Courtesy of Alaska News:

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said today that something must be done about the epidemic of domestic violence, sexual assault and sex trafficking among Alaska Natives and American Indians nationwide.

"The statistics on violence and assault are staggering, and whether it's one in three or one in four, any act of violence is unacceptable," Murkowski said in opening remarks at a Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing.

"I meet with far too many Alaskans who tell me things may be worse - there is so much whispered and silenced into the shadows, which damages not just the victims, but also their families," she said.

Murkowski's first question was to the Department of Justice, asking an associate attorney general, "Young women are being hunted. You've got predators waiting outside homeless teen shelters, going to events like the Alaska Federation of Natives conference. What is the Department of Justice doing to target these sex traffickers?"

I am very glad that Senator Murkowski is finally addressing this issue.


This has been one of Alaska's most terrible, and shameful secrets going back decades, and it is well past time that somebody well connected politically brought it out of the shadows and did something substantial to institute laws and educational programs to finally address the issue head on.

However I fear that Murkowki may not truly understand the depth of this problem. Here is how it was explained in a news report from December 2010, by the Fairbanks Newsminer:

Sex traffickers use a combination of mind games and beatings, promises and drugs to control girls, authorities said.

Alaska Native girls are commonly lured from their hometowns by friends or relatives who are already working as prostitutes. They invite the girl to come hang out and go shopping rent-free.

About one-third of the women arrested this year for prostitution in Anchorage are Alaska Native, according to Lacey's figures.

It was an Alaska Native girl who moved to Anchorage to stay with family at the age of 12 who helped point investigators toward another prostitution kingpin: Don Webster, also known as Jerry Starr, Goeden said.

Webster, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2008, had tried to recruit the girl, Goeden said.

The FBI agent got to know the teen during visits to a youth jail. The pair talked about how the girl ended up selling her body at age 14 in Anchorage.

"Her response to me was, 'I could be back home in the village where I could be having sex with my grandpa for free, or I could be here getting paid for me,'" Goeden said.

"I didn't know what to say. I had no idea how to respond to this little girl."

 That is not a problem which a few stricter laws, or a few more rural community sex education classes, will solve.  This is a problem with deep roots in how some in the native community view women, how these women often view themselves, and how outsiders take advantage of these vulnerabilities.

If Senator Murkowski is serious about tackling this problem she needs recognize that this is going to require serious money going toward education in rural communities, providing much easier access to specially trained and licensed counselors, and an increase in a law enforcement presence that can go to a village to remove a child who is being molested immediately and put them someplace where they feel safe and will talk about their rapist without fear of being placed back into their homes.

(For those who are interested, I also addressed this terrible problem in an earlier post entitled Alaska's Secret Shame.)