At the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City, visitors learn about Native dance, art, history, and modern culture. It’s a two-floor archive and represents thousands of years of Native contributions to the Americas. A recurring theme across the exhibits is colonial religions suppressing Native ceremony. Everywhere their boats took them, European […]
Unfaithful allies
Sage, cedar, and sweetgrass from the annual HoCo Pow-Wow (MD). Photo: K. McKenzie I finally made it to Howard County’s annual Native American Pow-Wow today. It’s hosted each year by Pow-Wow, Inc., a corporation owned by the Haliwa-Saponi nation based in Hollister, NC, and it’s one of several regional gatherings run by local Native tribes. Billed participants included […]
More: Race and politics of place
Monday’s work on The Game That Shall Not Be Named, colonialism, augmented reality tech, and lineages of state violence went further afield than I expected. As sites like the Holocaust Museum and Arlington National Cemetery begin to push back against the game’s boundaries, there are plenty of thoughtful, worth-reading articles about the broader connections and the […]
When colonialism is a game
This time last week, Nintendo and data-game developer Niantic co-released a new location and treasure hunt game, Pokémon GO, as part of Nintendo’s Pokémon franchise. Niantic began as an in-house Google startup, and has made its name with products in the augmented reality category. The companies have been separate for nine months. Today, Pokémon GO […]
Confronting the First Colony and Our Acceptable Trades
I’m driving down North Carolina Highway 158 late at night, the peninsula woods flanking the road. It’s so dark here. The moon is about half full. Clusters of trees stand bare and stiff in the black. I can see the stars through the windshield. Orion’s south of me, lying on his side like the prophet […]
Two Brothers, One Colonial Church
This post began as a series of tweets. What do you mean you don’t follow me on Twitter? All I did was google the symbol of the burning cross. I wanted to know where it started: how the primary Christian symbol ended up aflame and overshadowed by American racists. I read that the Scottish once used the fiery […]