Proposed legislation to waive building codes for traditional Dakota earthlodges, and other news

In this blog:

• Legislation would waive building codes, allow traditional Dakota structures
• Buddhists and friends invited to Water Protectors Welcome Center Feb. 28
• Civil Rights arm of the bar association links environmental racism to higher pandemic rates and other harms

A July 4 Reflection

It should go without saying that Independence Day is anything but for this country’s Native American peoples.

I am white, not Native. But the following are the things I hear from Native friends and read in Native publications around July 4. The critiques make sense to me.

This country’s founding document, the Declaration of Independence, casts Native peoples as brutal savages. One of the justifications given for breaking away from England and King George is that: ” He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”