Gyasi Ross | |
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Born | |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Columbia Law School |
Occupation(s) | Speaker, storyteller, author, commentator, attorney, rapper |
Website | www |
External videos | |
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"Stop Making Native People “Political Fodder”" on DemocracyNow!, October 18, 2018 |
Gyasi Ross is a Blackfeet author, attorney, rapper, speaker and storyteller. [1] He is the author of two books Don't Know Much About Indians (but I wrote a book about us anyways) (2011) [2] and How to Say I Love You in Indian (2014) and he is a regular writer for The Huffington Post , [3] Gawker and Indian Country Today .
Ross' family is Blackfeet and Suquamish. He attended six institutions of higher education (two universities, two community colleges, and two tribal colleges) before receiving his undergraduate degree. [4] Ross then graduated from Columbia Law School. [4] [5]
He lives on the Port Madison Indian Reservation near Seattle. He is married to Miranda Belarde-Lewis, a professor at the University of Washington, and has two children. [6]
He has spoken out on Native American issues such as the Washington Redskins name controversy. In answer to the argument that Native Americans ought to focus on social issues larger than a team name, Ross stated that "Native people shouldn't be forced to choose between living or racial discrimination. Those are false binaries." [7] [8]
In 2015, Ross released his first spoken word album titled Isskootsik, or Before Here Was Here, on iTunes. [9] Ross has prominently criticized another Seattle singer, Macklemore for his song "White Privilege II", which he considers itself to be an example of White privilege, as Macklemore a White singer takes the stage to speak on behalf of minorities, instead of giving them a chance to voice their own concerns. In response Ross published a song titled "White Privilege 3". [10] [11] He declared his support for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary elections. [12]
Glacier County is located in the U.S. state of Montana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 13,778. The county is located in northwestern Montana between the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, known to the Blackfeet as the "Backbone of the World". The county is geographically and culturally diverse and includes the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Glacier National Park, and Lewis and Clark National Forest. The county is bordered by 75 miles of international boundary with two ports of entry open year-round and one seasonal international border crossing into Alberta, Canada.
Chief Seattle was a Suquamish and Duwamish chief. A leading figure among his people, he pursued a path of accommodation to white settlers, forming a personal relationship with "Doc" Maynard. The city of Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington, was named after him. A widely publicized speech arguing in favor of ecological responsibility and respect of Native Americans' land rights had been attributed to him.
The Suquamish are a Lushootseed-speaking Native American people, located in present-day Washington in the United States. They are a southern Coast Salish people.
The Duwamish are a Lushootseed-speaking Coast Salish people in western Washington, and the Indigenous people of metropolitan Seattle.
Sherman Joseph Alexie Jr. is a Native American novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and filmmaker. His writings draw on his experiences as an Indigenous American with ancestry from several tribes. He grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and now lives in Seattle, Washington.
Redskin is a slang term for Native Americans in the United States and First Nations in Canada. The term redskin underwent pejoration through the 19th to early 20th centuries and in contemporary dictionaries of American English it is labeled as offensive, disparaging, or insulting. Although the term has almost disappeared from contemporary use, it remains as the name of many sports teams. The most prominent was the Washington NFL team. After decades of resistance to change by the owners, management, and fans, major sponsors responded to calls to end systemic racism in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by advocating a name change. The new name Washington Commanders was announced on February 2, 2022. While the usage by other teams has been declining steadily, 37 high schools in the United States continue to be Redskins. School administrators and alumni assert that their use of the name is honoring their local tradition and not insulting to Native Americans.
Ali Douglas Newman, better known by his stage name Brother Ali, is an American rapper, community activist, and member of the Rhymesayers Entertainment hip hop collective. He has released seven albums, four EPs, and a number of singles and collaborations.
James Phillip Welch Jr., who grew up within the Blackfeet and A'aninin cultures of his parents, was a Native American novelist and poet, considered a founding author of the Native American Renaissance. His novel Fools Crow (1986) received several national literary awards, and his debut novel Winter in the Blood (1974) was adapted as a film by the same name, released in 2013.
The Treaty of Point Elliott of 1855, or the Point Elliott Treaty,—also known as the Treaty of Point Elliot / Point Elliot Treaty—is the lands settlement treaty between the United States government and the Native American tribes of the greater Puget Sound region in the recently formed Washington Territory, one of about thirteen treaties between the U.S. and Native Nations in what is now Washington. The treaty was signed on January 22, 1855, at Muckl-te-oh or Point Elliott, now Mukilteo, Washington, and ratified 8 March and 11 April 1859. Between the signing of the treaty and the ratification, fighting continued throughout the region. Lands were being occupied by European-Americans since settlement in what became Washington Territory began in earnest from about 1845.
The Washington Redskins name controversy involved the name and logo previously used by the Washington Commanders, a National Football League (NFL) franchise located in the Washington metropolitan area. In the 1960s, the team's longtime name—the Redskins—and the associated logo began to draw criticism from Native American groups and individuals. The topic, part of the larger Native American mascot controversy, began receiving widespread public attention in the 1990s. In 2020, the team responded to economic pressure in the wake of the George Floyd protests by retiring the name and logo. The team called itself the "Washington Football Team" before rebranding as the Commanders in 2022.
Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, better known by his stage name Macklemore, is an American rapper. A native of Seattle, Washington, he started his career in 2000 as an independent artist and released three works: Open Your Eyes (2000), The Language of My World (2005) and The Unplanned Mixtape (2009). He rose to international success when he collaborated with producer Ryan Lewis as the duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (2009–2016).
Dan Lacey was an American painter born in Brooklyn, New York, who was the self-described "Painter of Pancakes". His work commonly features popular culture icons, politicians, and Internet memes, most notably, related to pancakes and cats.
In the 2016 presidential campaign, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders sought the Democratic Party's nomination in a field of six major candidates and was the runner up with 46% of the pledged delegates behind former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who won the contest with 54%. Sanders, the junior United States senator and former Representative from Vermont, began with an informal announcement on April 30, 2015, and a formal announcement that he planned to seek the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States on May 26, 2015, in Burlington, Vermont. Sanders had been considered a potential candidate for president since at least September 2014. Though he had previously run as an independent, he routinely caucused with the Democratic Party, as many of his views align with Democrats. Running as a Democrat made it easier to participate in debates and get his name on state ballots.
"White Privilege II" is a song by American hip hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis from their second album This Unruly Mess I've Made (2016). The song, a sequel to Macklemore's solo song "White Privilege" from his first album The Language of My World (2005), discusses white privilege and the social movement associated with Black Lives Matter. According to the duo, "this song is the outcome of an ongoing dialogue with musicians, activists, and teachers within our community in Seattle and beyond. Their work and engagement was essential to the creative process." The song's lyrics span around nine minutes and 1,300 words. One of the project's collaborators is Chicago singer Jamila Woods, whose voice is featured on the track. "White Privilege II" was released as promotional single on January 22, 2016.
The 2016 South Dakota Democratic presidential primary was held on June 7 in the U.S. state of South Dakota as one of the Democratic Party's primaries ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Lily Gladstone is an American actress. Raised on the Blackfeet Reservation in Browning, Montana and Seattle, Gladstone is of Piegan Blackfeet, Nez Perce, and European heritage. She earned critical acclaim for portraying Mollie Kyle, an Osage woman who survived the Osage Indian murders, in Martin Scorsese's crime drama film Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), receiving several accolades. She became the first Native American to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Deborah Parker, also known by her native name cicayalc̓aʔ, is an activist and Indigenous leader in the United States. A member of the Tulalip Tribes of Washington, she served as its vice-chairwoman from 2012 to 2015 and is, as of July 2018, a board member for Our Revolution and the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center. She is also a co-founder of Indigenous Women Rise.
John Two Guns White Calf (1872–1934) was a chief of the Piegan Blackfeet in Montana. He was born near Fort Benton, Montana, and was the adopted son of Chief White Calf. After the elder White Calf died in 1903, while a guest of President T. Roosevelt in Washington, D.C., White Calf became the last chief of the Blackfoot Tribe. He died at Blackfeet Indian hospital, of attack of flu according to the Choteau Acantha, however the Indian agency said pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of 63 and is buried in a Catholic cemetery in Browning, Montana.