In this excerpt from the new introduction to her acclaimed book Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer draws upon the creation story Skywoman Falling and the wisdom of plants to guide us through our present moment of deep uncertainty. Her words of hope, transformation, and courage feel especially poignant at this moment as we look to find ways to heal and address the monumental challenges that lie before us.

The Amazon is a sacred place. Human Beings do not make sacred places, they acknowledge them, recognize them, and sustain them without developing them. We honor them with languages taught to us by the Earth herself. The Original Nations of the Western Hemisphere understand sacred places where Earth has directed their sensitivities to pure energy being in place. These multi-dimensional quantum physics of Earth languages of the Original Peoples are also a part of the sacred places. They are part of the Cura Da Terra, “Cure of the Earth”, to borrow a phrase from the First Peoples of the Amazon.

Local descendant communities and Indigenous nations continue to be at the center of heritage preservation efforts. While their methods are not always recognized by academic or governmental organizations, they employ innovative, culturally appropriate ways of caring for and keeping alive their heritage in all its manifestations. This panel is comprised of leading Indigenous and Black activists, scholars, and community organizers, providing a renewed focus on contemporary conservation practices, history telling, and ways of being in the world.

Samoset is an Abenaki sôgmô (leader) whose name is often invoked at this time of harvest feasting, although his actual visit to the recently-arrived English colonists at Patuxet (later, Plymouth) was in March of 1621. He was the first Native person to meet them in person, walking directly into the village and making a deep impression upon the surprised, and probably alarmed, survivors of that first winter. The tenor of this video is rather even-handed and it seems worth sharing further.

I remember. How their songs drew us up through the warming earth just for the joy of hearing them. How we stretched in the sun and turned air into sugar, my sisters and I, leaves and roots entwined. It’s lonely without them. Grandfather Teosinte has been gone for so long; where is that gentle guidance when we need it most? And our good people—with toes and hoes in the soil, fulfilling the agreement made so long ago? What happened to the songs we knew? I remember how they celebrated my beautiful children with feasting and honor and passed them hand to hand in thanksgiving. I remember when they knew my name. The people have forgotten, but the seed remembers.

When a CNN graphic seemingly dismissed Native American voters as “Something Else,” Sage Gould, a local 10-year-old from the Abenaki community, decided she needed to say something.

With some encouragement from a teacher, Sage wrote in a short email to the news network that the graphic had made her “feel really sad, because we were the first people of this country and we never get recognized for that.”

“Maybe next time,” Sage wrote, “you could do better and recognize all races of this country.”

From Emergence magazine: watch the US premiere of "Upstream," a new film by writer Robert Macfarlane and director Rob Petit which follows the River Dee in Scotland.

Roll up your sleeves and gather in the kitchen for this virtual instructional cooking class taught by Missisquoi Abenaki chef Jessee Lawyer. Jessee will demonstrate how to create a seasonal dish showcasing Native techniques and pre-colonial, Vermont-grown and gathered ingredients. Recipes will be included so you can create the dish for your own family and friends.

Join Margaret Bruchac, PhD, and Rhonda Anderson for a “fireside chat” on the topic of land acknowledgments. The event will be co-moderated by Calvin R. Hill, PhD, vice president for inclusion and community engagement, and Springfield College student Jahlina Carter, Class of 2023.

A question was posed recently, publicly, from a concerned individual. To paraphrase: Would there be support for a decolonizing initiative — by this person — to change the name of Brattleboro (and its accompanying official seal) to Wantastegok?

This type of situation comes up not infrequently. It seems appropriate to make a public reply in kind, by way of making clear the principles of our responses.

“The Wabanaki were not domesticating wild animals,” said ethnobotanist, culinary historian and author E. Barrie Kavasch, who has documented both nut milk and nut butter as indigenous traditional foods in the northeastern United States.

“Doubtless Rosier was referring to other substances used in another way that he was totally unaware of,” Kavasch said. “In Maine especially, the Maine Indians used the resources from the nuts, which are enhanced by roasting, cooking and drying.”

As part of protests for social and racial justice arise, people have called for the removal of monuments they feel represent America's racist past. University of Vermont Art history professor Kelley Helmstutler Di Dio spoke to VPR about statues and monuments in Vermont with troubling iconography and discussed what, if anything, should be done with them.

According to a bill passed earlier this month signed into law by Gov. Phil Scott, all of Vermont’s state parks will soon be bearing alternate place names in the language of Vermont’s original inhabitants— the Abenaki. The recently signed Act 174 requires the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation (FPR) to list the Abenaki place name on any relevant signs for sites within Vermont’s state parks.

A recording of a Blue Hill Public Library program from 11/4/2020, featuring Alivia Moore, co-founder of Eastern Woodlands Rematriation Collective, to explore a Penobscot perspective on land justice. Current rematriation efforts of EWR are discussed, including Wabanaki food & healing systems reclamation, the development of a Rematriation School, and land returns.

Recently, the Elliotsville Foundation supported the #LandBack movement by returning stewardship of 735 acres of land to the Penobscot Nation. The land is in Williamsburg Township, Piscataquis County, Maine and rests between two parcels of land that are recognized as Penobscot territory.

George Monbiot delivered the 40th Annual E. F. Schumacher Lecture on October 25th. Titled Private Sufficiency, Public Luxury: Land is the Key to the Transformation of Society, the talk was followed by a question period hosted by Jodie Evans and joined by Greg Watson.

The Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians is moving its historic preservation extension office to Williamstown, MA. What has been the relationship between the Stockbridge-Munsee community and the town of Williamstown? How are members of the Stockbridge-Munsee community maintaining their connection to their Eastern homelands, including Williamstown? How can Williamstown residents support their work? This program is sponsored by Boston Univ. School of Theology, Faith & Ecological Justice Program.

More than 700 acres of Wabanaki Territory in Piscataquis County have been returned to the Penobscot Nation through a land stewardship agreement, the tribe said in a joint statement with the Elliotsville Foundation Friday afternoon.

We live in a country founded on genocide and slavery, built on stolen land, and stolen lives. Black and Indigenous peoples share a deep wound from these foundational violations. Corrina Gould spoke about the land that Diablo Valley College is on, Karkin Ohlone land, and the past, present and future activism of Ohlone peoples, and Indigenous and non-Indigenous visitors to restore right relationship to the land and to one another.

Fuentes noted that when people ask if Dartmouth is “fulfilling its mission,” it is always a loaded question. Does this question place specific emphasis on Native American students from tribes in Dartmouth’s vicinity? Is graduation an accurate measure of success for an education? Often, she said, these questions arise from a Eurocentric worldview.