Pacific Standard May-June 2013 Cover

From Appearance to Identity: How Census Data Collection Changed Race in America

May 8, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
race-in-america

Publicizing the release of the 1940 U.S. census data, LIFE magazine released photographs of census enumerators collecting data from household members. Yep, census enumerators. For almost 200 years the U.S. counted people and recorded information about them in person by sending out a representative of the U.S. government to evaluate them directly. By 1970 the government was collecting census data by mail-in survey. The shift to a survey had dramatic effects on at least one census category: race. Before the shift, census enumerators categorized people into racial groups based on their ... Read More

More like this: Culture
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Navajo Nation Builds Momentum for Renewable Energy

November 22, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

There’s a Navajo saying: “When you walk into the future, you must walk in beauty.” When it comes to energy, this is difficult to follow for the current generation of Navajo. Many of the dirtiest coal plants and uranium mines in the country are on Navajo Nation, polluting its land and water and causing health problems. Despite this, of the 300,000 enrolled Navajo tribal members, it is estimated that 18,000 of them don’t have electricity. This past summer, Dreaming New Mexico and New Energy Economy, two energy-focused organizations at work in the Southwest, installed solar panels ... Read More

More like this: Environment
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Making Sense of the Crazy Horse Memorial

January 7, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

More than 60 years in the making and still incomplete, the South Dakota mountain that is being continually transformed into the Crazy Horse Memorial sculpture lies only a few miles from the shadow of Mount Rushmore. When complete, this provocative granite tribute to the larger-than-life, late 19th century Sioux warrior will be the largest sculpture in the world — a three-dimensional, mountain-sized homage 563 feet high and 641 feet long. The sculpture’s face, head and hair alone could hold the granite faces of all four presidents from the nearby Mount Rushmore National ... Read More

More like this: Culture, Culture & Society
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Native Environmentalism and the Alberta Oil Boom

October 27, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
Syncrude Oil Sands Extraction Plant

In May, with a runaway well belching thousands of barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico, congressional leaders received a delegation from the opposite side of the country eager to exploit the contrast between the BP disaster and fossil fuels sourced from Canada. Crude extracted from Canada's oil sands, Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice assured U.S. consumers, is "a safe, stable, secure supply of energy." And, he noted, it was being developed "to the highest possible environmental standards." That's not how it looks to many Cree, Chipewyan and Metis people living downstream ... Read More

More like this: Environment, News and Options, November-December 2010, Politics
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Chief Wahoo’s Revenge: One Stereotype Begets Another

April 22, 2010 • By • 9 Comments

When activists petition to remove Native American mascots from the logos of sports teams, the answer of traditionalists often boils down to: What’s the harm? Newly published research provides an unexpected answer. It suggests exposure to one stereotype — however whimsical or benign in its intent — apparently activates others. A research team led by psychologist Chu Kim-Prieto of The College of New Jersey examined the way our brains react to seeing or reading about a Native American sports team mascot. It conducted two experiments using Chief Illiniwek, a mythical figure who served ... Read More

More like this: Culture, Culture & Society, Findings, NEWS
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Big Check to Help Preserve Indigenous History

January 26, 2010 • By • 2 Comments

Miller-McCune's May 2009 "Wonking Class Hero" Julie Cajune has reason to celebrate. Cajune was profiled in a Miller-McCune story for the work she is doing to incorporate Indian history and culture in mainstream K-12 classes in Montana through the state's Indian Education for All program. She joined with Hal Schmid, another Indian educator, to write a proposal for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to pay for a project to develop Indian tribal history materials aimed at a national audience. Last week, she received a phone call from Kellogg program officer Huilan Kren, who told her the ... Read More

More like this: Culture, Education, Findings
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Academic Research Does Not Take Holidays Off

November 24, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment

We gather together some of the more provocative papers of recent years, which are guaranteed to enliven the dinner table by providing fresh fodder for family squabbles. Genocide, With Stuffing and Gravy Anthropologist Janet Siskind of Rutgers University views the Thanksgiving holiday in sociopolitical terms in her 1992 paper “The Invention of Thanksgiving.” The traditional gathering, she writes, “subtly expresses and reaffirms values and assumptions about cultural and social unity, about identity and history, about inclusion and exclusion.” She views the holiday, which ritually ... Read More

More like this: November-December 2008, Research in Summary, Science
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A History in the Making

April 22, 2009 • By • 2 Comments

The renowned American-Indian writer, historian, theologian, professor and activist Vine Deloria Jr. once posed a question: "Did they ever think of asking the Indians?" Deloria was referring to the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, administered from the top down, like so many programs that have charted the course of Indian life in the United States. But he could have been talking about just about any encounter Indians have had with the federal government. It's surprising just how little is known — or understood — about American Indians beyond the Hollywood stereotype of noble savage and ... Read More

More like this: Culture, Culture & Society, Education, May-June 2009, Profile
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