Yet Another Way to Make a Difference

I promise, I will get back to "books, bowties, and balls of yarn" one of these days. But this is important.

Did you know that Lakota children in South Dakota are ten times more likely than Caucasian kids to be taken from their families and put into foster care or institutions for the *mentally ill?

The reason seems to be the usual one where Native Americans are concerned: there is money to be gained, and the government can get away with it. But let's not let them get away with it. Please watch this video, sign the petition, and spread the word. Let's get these kids back with the families who love them and start focusing on removing children who are actually in danger from their homes!



Sign the petition here
There is also a link for donations through Paypal.


*(Sorry, I can't remember what the new word is we are supposed to say now instead of "mentally ill" is, and as I have no problem calling myself mentally ill I hope you will forgive me. I mean nothing bad to anyone).

A Way to Make a Difference

I said I would share information about ways we can change the lives of Native Americans and the way they are perceived, and I am happy to say that I have found something! There is a very intersting project on Kickstarter that needs backers.

Here's what its founder says (and yes, I copied and pasted--these are not my words!)

For the past year I have been fulfilling the project’s goal of photographing citizens of each federally recognized tribe in the United States (there are now 566). Most of the time, I’ve been invited to geographically remote reservations to take portraits and hear stories from a myriad of tribes, while at other times I've photographed members of the 70 percent of Native Americans living in urban settings. My hope, is that when the project is complete, it will serve to educate the nation and shift the collective consciousness toward recognizing our own indigenous communities.

Imagine walking through an exhibit and realizing the complex variety of contemporary Native America. Imagine experiencing a website or book, that offered insight into every Tribal Nation in the United States. What if you could download previously untold histories and stories from Apaches, Swinomish, Hualapai, Northern Cheyenne, Tlingit, Pomo, Lumbee, and other first peoples? What if you had heard those stories in grade school?

If this isn't a step in the right direction, I can't imagine what is. Please check out Project 562, give if you can, and spread the word!

Project 562 Changing the Way We See Native America.