Native Land 4+

I love having a map of various indigenous groups all in one place, and it’s allowed me to much more easily learn about different groups, especially ones that live in my area. I love having the links to the tribe websites on a lot of them! However, I definitely noticed not all of it is very accurate, either in the regions or the names of some of the tribes, which I guess is to be expected, but I definitely hope that in the future it will continue to become more accurate and informational! For now, I appreciate having a Native-focused resource for a wide variety of native groups across Turtle Island. Thank you!!!

Knowledge requires action. Is it right that so many universities in the US know that they are sitting on indigenous lands that were stolen, yet these institutions do nothing but offer a paltry acknowledgment… lip service! What good does that do for the indigenous peoples who were robbed, exploited and forced from their lands. GIVE IT BACK! What good could be done if Yale gave their campus property back to the Native American Quinnipiac tribe that once flourished on that land? Yale has a $40B+ endowment. They have the ability to do what is right by giving the land back to the indigenous people it was stolen from and relocate. Or Yale can buy the land from the Quinnipiac indigenous people at current market value. This is one example of thousands in the US… hypocrisy! All those who are for making things right should demand that these universities give the land back to the rightful owners or pay these exploited indigenous people current market value for the property. Acknowledgment does nothing but pour salt on multigenerational wounds. Atonement by these ultra-wealthy institutions is the only action that can begin to heal the wounds. Berkeley, Harvard, Princeton, Reed, USC, etc, etc… are each built on stolen lands. These are hypocritical institutions that love to give lip service, but NOTHING more. Let’s confront their hypocrisy and make them choose to do what is within their ability to right the wrongs of the past.

I love learning about different people and different cultures and I also love studying the history of people and who they were and their relationships with their neighbors. This helps understand how cultures grow and develop.

I will give this app the benefit of the doubt because it’s still growing but I would love for it to be a true tool for information about the people who lived in the Americas and around the world. As of right now it’s just a map which is interesting but very limiting in what there is to learn and understand. For instance, I would love to see a map where it shows which languages are related or the different language families each language is a part of and specifically which cultures speak these languages. This would give so much information on just how the cultural and political systems of various people are connected.

Another idea I would like to see is a time line of the various ancient cultures. For instance, the Mogollon culture of the southwest vanished about 600 years ago. After that their rivals the Dine and Hopi can be found in many of the ancient Mogollon regions. However, the Mogollon people didn’t disappear, just their culture did. The ancestors of the Mogollon culture still live there, just in a new tribes and new cultures. I would love to have that type of information available.