On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on an island in the Bahamas that the Indigenous Lucayan people called Guanahani. He continued on to Cuba and Hispaniola and, on later voyages, to other parts of the Caribbean, but he never set foot in what is now the continental United States. It makes little sense for a country to honor a man who never reached it, and even less to credit him with

As governments tighten restrictions on gender-affirming care, one First Nation in Alberta is taking a very different approach. Saddle Lake Cree Nation has announced plans to establish a safe haven for transgender and Two-Spirit people seeking gender-affirming medical care, challenging Alberta’s restrictions by invoking health-care rights it says are protected under Treaty 6.

The announcement came September 9, on the 150th anniversary of Treaty 6, which was signed in 1876 between the Crown and several First Nations. Saddle Lake leaders are invoking the treaty’s “medicine chest clause,” which Indigenous communities have long understood as a commitment to comprehensive health care. The Nation says that provision places health care within its jurisdiction on reserve lands, Global News reports.

“I have been really thinking about this in terms of the context of this campaign for tribes and its meaning for tribal communities, in the long history of our commitment and work to the Two-Spirit community,” said Edmo, who is Shoshone-Bannock, Nez Perce and Yakama. “And even though this is not the ballot fight we wanted to have, it’s the one we need to show up for, as tribal people, as tribal nations.”

A Gumbaynggirr elder was never allowed to speak her native tongue, but now she learns alongside her great-granddaughter at an Indigenous preschool.

We are many Tribes! We speak 574 different languages in the U.S alone. Each Tribe has their own songs and dances. We, are many Tribes and have lived on these lands for millennia!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/51921563