Indigenous Rights Resources & Land Acknowledgement Source List

In the last section of my ‘About’ page I give a land acknowledgement (you can go there to read it in full) and at the end I said I would post the sources I referenced as well as local tribal web pages, ways you can help further Indigenous rights and Land Back efforts, and suggestions for further reading. This is that list:

Sources Referenced

• A Guide of Indigenous Land Acknowledgement produced by the Native Governance Center in October 2019

• Native Land Digital - An online interactive world map of Indigenous peoples, languages and treaties funded in part by the Kalliopeia Foundation

• The ‘Treaties, Agreements, and Documents’ search feature on Tribal Treaties Database from Oklahoma State University

• The ‘Treaties’ page in the ‘History’ section of The Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde web page

• ‘Willamette Valley Treaties’ by David Lewis (Takelma, Chinook, Mollala, Santiam, Kalapuya)

Local Tribe & Museum Web Pages

• Burns Paiute Tribe

• Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw

• Coquille Indian Tribe

• Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians

• Confederated Tribes of the Grande Ronde

• Klamath Tribes

• Confederated Tribes of the Siletz

• Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation

• Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs

• Tamaskslikt Cultural Institute in Pendleton, Oregon

• Agness-Illahee Museum in Agness, Oregon

• Museum of the Oregon Territories in Oregon City, Oregon

• Pioneer Indian Museum in Canyonville, Oregon

• The Museum of Natural & Cultural History in Eugene, Oregon

Ways You Can Help

• To start with, there are many Indigenous-written lists, articles, books, and more that detail the rights of Indigenous Turtle Islanders and how you can support those rights. Please know that education yourself should only be a first step, from there you should find actions you can directly take to put into practice what you’ve learned. Here are two somewhat general lists:

  • ‘What Does It Mean to be a Good Indigenous Ally’ from The Urban Native Collective

  • ‘How To Preserve and Sustain Native American Culture and Traditions’ from Running Strong for American Indian Youth

  • By exploring local tribal web pages you can find similar lists that might be more relevant to your local community. Or if no such list exists you can learn by exploring About, History, Culture, and other similar sections. This will require you to put in some additional thought as to the values, needs, etc. being expressed and how you can support that. Your support will likely be most impactful if you focus on local efforts.

• Similarly, support local Indigenous Organizations and NGOs, The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law: Indigenous People’s Law & Policy Department has very helpfully compiled a list of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and Indigenous Organizations around the globe that you can explore and support

• This is in no way an exhaustive list but here are the local Indigenous groups and efforts that I follow:

  • The Chifin Native Youth Center - Title VII Project serving Native youth and families in the Springfield school district (my local district)

  • The NATIVES Project - Title VI Project serving Native youth and families in the Eugene 4J school district (my neighboring district)

  • Native Youth Wellness Program - Serving the 16 Lane County school district’s Native Students centering care, community and connection to culture

  • Native American Rights Fund - a Native-led nonprofit legal organization protecting Native rights and resources through legal advocacy

  • Live Oak Consulting - provides training to “bridge the gap” between Native communities & the organizations that represent their art, cultures and histories

• Advocate for the reintroduction/protection of local keystone species and donate to organizations doing the work:

  • Oregon Wild advocates for wolf reintroduction in Oregon. To learn more about why wolf reintroduction in particular has been so highly debated I highly recommend the book Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell about Fear by Erica Berry

  • The Siletz Tribe & Elakha Alliance are working to bring back sea otters to Oregon’s coastal water, and while they just secured a large 3-year grant they and the otters will need continual support to thrive

  • Klamath River Renewal just completed removing the final dam from the Klamath River to begin ecosystem restoration in that area which will include the return of breeding salmon to the Klamath headwaters and many, many other plants & animals as well

• For more complete lists of the threatened & endangered Oregon species to be aware of can be found at the following:

  • ODFW Threatened, Endangered, and Candidate Fish and Wildlife Species

  • Oregon Department of Agriculture’s Native Plant Conservation Program

  • The Oregon Biodiversity Information Center tracks at risk populations as well as locations and invasive species

Suggested Further Reading

• Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future by Patty Krawec

• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

• The First Oregonians compiled and edited by Laura Berg

• Unsettling Native Art Histories of the Northwest Coast edited by Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse & Aldona Jonaitis

• Fighter in Velvet Gloves: Alaska Civil Rights Hero Elizabeth Peratrovich by Annie Boochever

• Fatty Legs by Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Pokiak-Fenton

• Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Everyday by Kaitlin B. Curtice

• The Dakota Way of Life by Ella Cara Deloria

• No Spiritual Surrender: Indigenous Anarchy in Defense of the Sacred by Klee Benally

• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of the Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

• Indigenous Ingenuity: A Celebration of Traditional North American Knowledge by Diedre Havrelock & Edward Kay