News

Salon: Update in TUSD Book Banning Debacle

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here.

These excerpts suggest that there isn’t any real backtracking, just excuses.

In a district of more than 60,000 students, 61 percent of whom come from Mexican-American families, library copies of the targeted seven books appear to be sparse. There are two district-wide copies available of “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” by Brazilian educator Paolo Freire, which had been singled out by state superintendent Huppenthal. The district’s online catalog showed only one copy of the Critical Race Theory textbook. Tucson High School does not have one of the 16 copies available in the district of the textbook “Rethinking Columbus: The Next Five Years,” according to the catalog.

The TUSD administration also denied “The Tempest” had been banned. According to the statement, “Teachers may continue to use materials in their classrooms as appropriate for the course curriculum. ‘The Tempest” and other books approved for curriculum are still viable options for instructors.”

However, in a recorded meeting with his administrators last Wednesday, Tucson High School teacher Curtis Acosta was admonished not to teach the classic play in his literature class using the “nexus of race, class and oppression” or “issues of critical race theory.”

“What is very clear is that ’The Tempest’ is problematic for our administrators due to the content of the play and the pedagogical choices I have made,” Acosta said in an interview. “In other words, Shakespeare wrote a play that is clearly about colonization of the new world and there are strong themes of race, colonization, oppression, class and power that permeate the play, along with themes of love and redemption.

“At the end of the meeting it became clear to all of us that I need to avoid such literature and it was directly stated. Due to the madness of this situation and our fragile positions as instructors who will be frequently observed for compliance, and be asked to produce examples of student work as proof of our compliance, I cannot disagree with their advice. Now we are in the position of having to rule out ’The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,’ ‘The Great Gatsby,’ etc. for the exact same reasons.”

Lorenzo Lopez said that when his daughter, Korina, a plaintiff in the federal court case, heard the texts had been taken to a storage facility, she asked him, “Isn’t that the book graveyard where they send all the old books, never to be seen again?” Lopez said he replied, “Yes, it is.”

Sex Trafficking of Native Women in Portand

Ann Tweedy

Here’s a great article from Indian Country Today, mentioning Sarah Deer’s work.

Andrew Cohen: Beer Summit between Arvo Mikkanen and Sen. Coburn?

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

An excerpt:

Sen. Robert Menendez, the Democrat from New Jersey, got grief, and rightfully so, when he put a hold earlier this month on the judicial nomination of U.S. Magistrate Patty Shwartz for a spot on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The senator said at the time that he was unimpressed with Shwartz’s knowledge of the law. Media reports, however, suggested that Menendez’s opposition to Shwartz had more to do with magistrate’s personal relationship with a federal prosecutor who had led a 2006 corruption investigation into Menendez. Awkward!

I have consistently railed against Republican senators who hold up President Barack Obama’s judicial nominees for no good reason. For example, I haven’t shut up about the lingering candidacy of a worthy man named Arvo Mikkanen, whose nomination in Tulsa has been held up, without explanation, by Tom Coburn, one of Oklahoma’s Republican senators.

But two wrongs just make a larger wrong — the major difference between what Menendez did to Shwartz and what Coburn has done to Mikkanen could be the extent of their candor — and a funny thing happened on the way to Shwartz’s failed judicial nomination. Under political pressure, Menendez agreed to meet with her again and, following their meeting, agreed to drop his reservations against the candidate.

WKAR: Survivors of Indian Boarding Schools Tell Their Stories

Matthew L.M. Fletcher5 Comments

Here.

An excerpt:

Starting in the late 19th century, tens of thousands of Native American children were taken from their reservations to Indian Boarding Schools. The goal was to assimilate Native Americans by replacing their traditional ways with those of the majority of Americans.

In a new documentary, called “The Indian Schools, the Survivors’ Story”, Native Americans in Michigan tell their memories of the boarding schools. For most of them, the experience was painful and humiliating. WKAR’s Gretchen Millich has our story.

Edith Young is a native of Alaska who now lives in Michigan. As a child, she was forced to leave her parents to live at an Indian Boarding School in Seattle. In the film, she says although she’s 80 years old, the memories still hurt.

“We were yelled at and slapped. In the 3rd grade, I asked the teacher why she was teaching that Columbus discovered America when Indians were here first. She came over and slapped me across my face. To be humiliated in front of the class, I’ll never forget that.” Continue reading →

Tucson Schools Ban Shakespeare and “Rethinking Columbus”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher7 Comments

Here are the details from Salon.

Our prior post on Arizona’s war on TUSD’s ethnic studies programs is here.

Wyoming Public Radio Program on Wind River Tribes v. US: Audio and Transcript

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

NYTs: Uneasy Neighbors in a Gothic Southern Tale

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here. There’s a Cherokee angle of sorts in all this.

DOJ No. 3 Tom Perrelli Stepping Down

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here:

Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli will leave the third highest-ranking post at the Justice Department in March after nearly three years managing a bustling portfolio that has run the gamut from mortgage abuses and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to stamping out domestic violence in Indian country.

Perrelli, 45, says that he’ll take several months off to spend with his growing family. He and his wife have a five-year-old, a two-year-old, and a pair of twins due in May. “This is the best job I’ll ever have,” Perrelli tells us, “you really couldn’t ask for better.” But, long hours spent overseeing Justice Department units that handle tax, civil rights, environment, antitrust, civil cases and billions of dollars in federal grant programs has taken “an enormous amount of energy and commitment and sacrifice.”

Perrelli says he started working at the Justice Department as a 19-year-old, when he helped write computer programs during his summer breaks. He returned to headquarters during the tenure of President Clinton, and developed a strong interest in public safety and law enforcement in Indian Country. That came full circle in 2009, when Perrelli helped negotiate an end to a decade-long case filed by Native Americans who argued the government had mismanaged their federal trusts. Lately, Perrelli has appeared on Capitol Hill to testify in support of legislation that would improve the response to domestic violence on reservations.

Susan Allen (Lakota) Wins Special Election and Is First Indian to be Seated in Minnesota Legislature

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Her website is here.

News coverage here and here.

Racial Tensions Rise in New Mexico School District as law suit filed.

Matthew Campbell

An excerpt from an article on the issue:

Mormons and Indians

A deadlock between the two cultures is at least partly to blame for the political climate in the district since May, when the board and administrators began making drastic changes in personnel, policies and facilities.

At the root of much of that clash is a belief that Anglo Mormons long have dominated the district and held onto the purse strings.

“The allegation is that the Mormons have run the district for years,” said Byron Manning, the former director of finance and operations who resigned in 2011 after working in the district for 10 years.

The article in full can be found here.