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Toastie

@[email protected]

Indigenous affairs reporter for High Country News
🪶 Chahta | they/them or whatev ⚧️

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@Toastie@journa.host avatar Toastie , to random

Today Oregon Public Broadcasting
invited me on to talk about the phrase "time immemorial," the anti-Indigeneity of the Clovis-first story, and why academia has suppressed a century of archaeological findings to maintain a false narrative about Native people. 🎙️

https://www.opb.org/article/2026/01/28/time-immemorial-meaning/

@Toastie@journa.host avatar Toastie , to random

Schools have long taught that humans populated North America around 12K yrs ago by crossing the Bering land bridge. This story supports settler colonialism, and contradicts stories, which offer memories of human habitation here during the last glacial maximum.

Also, the Bering land bridge story falls apart when you find out about the century of archaeological evidence academia has vigorously suppressed.

Read more in my new essay. 👇

https://www.hcn.org/issues/58-1/what-does-time-immemorial-really-mean/

@Toastie@journa.host avatar Toastie , to random

I've never published anything so close to my heart. Hope ya love it.

https://www.hcn.org/issues/57-11/heavy-metal-is-healing-teens-on-the-blackfeet-nation/

@Toastie@journa.host avatar Toastie , to random

Thank you Covering Climate Now for recognizing our
HCN and @ProPublica investigation into how solar developers can use for-profit archeologists to threaten or damage Indigenous cultures!

Full story: https://www.hcn.org/issues/56-2/energy-industry-washingtons-solar-permitting-leaves-tribal-resources-vulnerable-to-corporations/

Award winners: https://coveringclimatenow.org/projects/the-2025-ccnow-journalism-awards/

@Toastie@journa.host avatar Toastie , to random

An education, Chuck Sams told me, is different than a Western one. Western education starts with a general understanding of the world, encompassing math, science, literature, then hyper-specializes in higher education. “The Native way of understanding is, I’m going to give you something very specific, and then I’m going to teach you the broader world so that you understand where your place is in that broader world, and the connections you must have."

https://www.hcn.org/articles/the-indian-education-of-charles-sams/

@Toastie@journa.host avatar Toastie , to random

For decades, non-Natives in reservation border towns like Farmington have harassed, attacked and murdered people --- often those who are living on the streets or intoxicated --- in a cruel coming of age game called "Indian rolling."

I went to Farmington for a protest against this violence. Some of the white community marched with their Diné neighbors; others, including the mayor, declined to attend.

https://www.hcn.org/issues/56-12/can-farmington-hide-from-its-legacy-of-anti-indigenous-violence/

@Toastie@journa.host avatar Toastie , to random

Oakland's Panther School was an elementary school started and run by the Black Panther party from 1972-1982.

"The school was community based, child centered, tuition free, parent friendly and we paid special attention to children whose families had trouble with clothing and food."

https://www.kqed.org/news/12014210/how-the-black-panthers-shaped-u-s-schools

@Toastie@journa.host avatar Toastie , to random

Earlier this year HCN and ProPublica investigated a solar development threatening tribal cultural resources on Badger Mountain in Eastern .

Today's news: the solar developer, Avangrid Renewables, has paused permitting operations on Badger Mountain in part to reevaluate tribal input.

https://www.hcn.org/articles/washington-solar-project-paused-amid-concern-about-indigenous-sites/

@Toastie@journa.host avatar Toastie , to random

Hear me out.

SimRez.

Toastie OP ,
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Oh you want to build water infrastructure? The state will fight you at every turn.

You wanna grow crops? Fuck you.

Toastie OP ,
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Uh oh, looks like the feds have limited your jurisdictional power---but they also won't help you keep the people safe! Your Sims keep going missing and there's nothing you can do.

Toastie OP ,
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Build a casino to fund a hospital and schools! It attracts pale foreigners who mock your Sims.

Toastie OP ,
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Congratulations! You have protected biodiversity 400% better than surrounding communities (and with few to no resources)!

But look out---a foreign corporation armed with private mercenaries is coming to build a pipeline through all that habitat.

Do you:
-Forcefully resist and get annhilated by the military state?
-Peacefully resist and get brutalized by the military state?
-Let them destroy your biodiverse habitat?

@Toastie@journa.host avatar Toastie , to random

After a 3 year investigation, the federal government has acknowledged that it invested $23.3B (adjusted) in a boarding school system to break up families and communities, and destroy language and culture.

The report suggests that the US should invest that same amount of money in family reunification, language revitalization, and Indian education to help repair the havoc wreaked by 400 schools from 1871 to 1969, which killed at least 973 children.

https://www.npr.org/2024/07/30/nx-s1-5051912/interior-dept-report-indian-boarding-schools

@Toastie@journa.host avatar Toastie , to random

In June I went out to the Hanford Site in ---often called the most contaminated place in the Western Hemisphere. It’s also Umatilla, Yakama, Nez Perce and Wanapum ancestral lands.

This site was part of the secretive Manhattan Project during WWII and the Cold War. The world’s first industrial-scale nuclear reactor, called the B Reactor, still stands here. The B Reactor produced the plutonium that went in the bomb code named “Fat Man,” which the US dropped unnecessarily on Nagasaki.

A wide landscape of the grassy sagebrush steppe, with a distant view of a nuclear reactor on the horizon.

A wide landscape of the grassy sagebrush steppe, with a distant view of a nuclear reactor on the horizon.
ALT
Toastie OP ,
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I signed up for a tour offered by the Department of Energy, wondering how close to the infamous B Reactor we’d be able to get.

Turns out they just let you wander around inside! 😳 😬 ☢️ PS the tour is free and open to the public! So hey, if you wanna poke around in a decommissioned nuclear reactor… ya can!

The reactor core, with tourists milling about.
A valve pit
A midcentury control room with big dials, lots of knobs and switches, and a delightfully retro sage green aesthetic.

Toastie OP ,
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Toastie OP ,
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But that’s not why I went to the Hanford Site. I went because every year the Yakama Nation visits the site for a cultural event they call Hanford Journey.

See, for thousands of years, this wasn’t the Hanford Site. It was a winter camp, a hunting site, and a place of ceremony. Yakama folks remember it that way, and come out here to keep that memory alive.

Some Indigenous dancers on the grass, dressed in the plateau style.
A blue banner hanging on a squatty tree or a tall bush. It says "Hanford cleanup matters to salmon."

Toastie OP ,
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The event is also a chance to help educate the youth about generations-long cleanup efforts.

Above ground, the sagebrush steppe here is remarkably pristine—because Americans can’t build here anymore. But underground, the soil and groundwater are poisoned with massive plumes of toxic chemicals and radioactive isotopes.

You can explore these crazy fucked up plumes here: https://trac.pnnl.gov/

Closeup of the map.
Another closeup of the map.

Toastie OP ,
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Tribal nations are pushing government agencies (namely the Department of Energy) to let them inform and participate in cleanup efforts. Right now they’re only allowed to issue public comments on federal cleanup plans (and even that is more influence than they used to get).

Yakama’s efforts began with an elder named Russell Jim, who’s no longer with us. But he’s a wonderful speaker and you can listen to interviews with him here:

https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/voices/oral-histories/russell-jims-interview/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru0chuKQe6I

Toastie OP ,
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Jim’s cleanup efforts now extend into future generations. The Yakama Nation is sending youth to Los Alamos, , (another site in the Manhattan Project) to learn about their toxic inheritance, and hiring interns to work on tribal cleanup efforts. I spoke to one such intern, Josephine Buck, who’s trying to ensure that federal cleanup activities respect and preserve important cultural sites.

You can read the story here:

https://www.hcn.org/issues/56-8/indigenous-celebration-of-hanford-remembers-the-site-before-nuclear-contamination/

Toastie OP ,
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Some extra crazy facts about the Hanford Site: the place was huge. It took 48,000 workers to build it, and they all needed places to sleep, eat, and gallavant in the off hours.

For a time, it was the largest US voting precinct, with the world's biggest general delivery post office.

And it took ungodly amounts of crappy American food to keep people fueled:

Toastie OP ,
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Worker barracks were racially segregated, of course. And the B Reactor was built with NO WOMEN'S BATHROOMS---presumably because scientists are men!

But guess what, when they fired up the reactor for the first time and it failed, it was the youngest scientist on staff---a woman---who figured out why (and she did it on a slide rule, according to our DOE tour guide). Her name was Leona Marshall Libby.

@Toastie@journa.host avatar Toastie , to random

Western science has a “savior complex.”

According to a new study, the green transition will deepen entrenched socioeconomic barriers for peoples — unless researchers address Western science and its role in ongoing settler colonialism.

✍️: @siisiikostagner for @grist

https://grist.org/indigenous/the-green-transition-will-make-things-worse-for-the-indigenous-world/

@Toastie@journa.host avatar Toastie , to random

The latest in my ongoing investigation: a federal agency has moved forward with a renewable energy development on Yakama sacred lands, despite not having consulted with the Yakama Nation.

They cornered the Yakama Nation with an impossible choice: give up confidential cultural information, or waive the right to consult. Some experts say this is a disingenuous tactic, showing the lack of teeth tribal consultation really has.

https://www.hcn.org/issues/56-7/how-federal-rules-and-a-lack-of-protection-for-sacred-indigenous-sites-left-the-yakama-nation-with-an-impossible-choice/

@Snoro@mastodon.social avatar Snoro , to random

Climate Change is Fueling the Loss of Indigenous Languages That Could Be Crucial to Combating It

Climate-related migration and seasonal changes are forcing Indigenous peoples to leave their native regions—and leave behind the languages tied to them

These languages often hold secrets to the inner workings of the planet, from the best times to plant certain crops to the healing properties of critical medicinal plants

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02062024/todays-climate-indigenous-language-loss/

Toastie ,
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@Snoro I hope more people internalize the connection between protecting Indigenous cultures and surviving the climate crisis.

@Toastie@journa.host avatar Toastie , to random

1924: an man hunts a deer on treaty-reserved land. Gets criminally convicted.

The ruling said tribal nations are not sovereign or independent, "the Indians being mere occupants of the land.”

The hunter died decades ago. The family member who continued his case died in 2007. But a tribal attorney kept pushing to get the unjust, demeaning conviction reversed.

On Thursday, nearly a century later, the state Supreme Court admitted it was wrong.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/wa-supreme-court-reverses-century-old-yakama-decision-an-injustice/

@Toastie@journa.host avatar Toastie , to random

"If continues his current course, extraction of the lithium, copper, cobalt, nickel, graphite, and manganese vital for a green-energy transition will come at the cost of Indigenous lands and trust... it could also cost Biden the election."

Love the solidarity from ! ✊

https://www.newsweek.com/bidens-letdown-native-americans-threatens-indigenous-people-everywhere-opinion-1897073

@Toastie@journa.host avatar Toastie , to random

IRISH: [is starving]

CHOCTAW: Aye. Bro, heard u have a colonizer problem.

IRISH: So hungry. No potatoes.

CHOCTAW: Yeh, those are Incan foods actually, but hey. Here's a couple hundred bucks we scraped together. Hope it helps bro.

IRISH: Didn't you just walk the trail of tears?

CHOCTAW: Aye, bro, so that's all we could afford. Sorry it's not much. Fuckin colonizers, right?

IRISH: Fuckin colonizers, man. Besties?

CHOCTAW: Besties.

https://www.choctawnation.com/about/history/irish-connection/

Toastie OP ,
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@blogdiva Yeah, makes my heart swell. It's definitely a point of pride for Chahta people.