theedisneyyprincess: I spent the majority of my Thanksgiving...

theedisneyyprincess:

I spent the majority of my Thanksgiving watching what was going on at the front lines at Standing Rock and catching up on the things I could personally do to help this cause without being able to be there myself (believe me, I would if I could.) I’ve been following this conflict closely for some time now. I didn’t share this yesterday on here because I wasn’t really focused on Tumblr, but this is the small post I did on my personal Instagram yesterday for “Thanksgiving”.

“On this Thanksgiving day, I’m standing with Standing Rock.

When I was studying at UMKC I took a Native American history course taught by and from the perspective of an Indigenous Law student. It’s still one of the only classes where I distinctly remember lectures and argument points. Where I remember being mind blown at some of the things I learned. It was in that class that I learned from a LAW perspective just how much we’ve screwed over and destroyed the lives of GENERATIONS of indigenous people. The number one lesson that stuck with me was this: as Americans we’re taught through school and culture that indigenous people no longer exist. They exist in our middle school textbooks and Hollywood movies with feathers in their hair, moccasins on their feet, living under a tipi roof, fighting with Cowboys in the Old West. We acknowledge the injustice done to them in our history but we fail tremendously to acknowledge those STILL LIVING with the repercussions of those injustices. They are still here! Living in poverty, on shitty land, with a system that has historically always held them and their children back. I was lucky enough to continue on at ASU to write my capstone over indigenous issues from a historical point of view and I’ve never enjoyed and hated my research so much. While I personally think it’s okay to idolize them from a pop culture stand point (although some of those freakin sports teams need a damn name change). It’s not okay to forget and leave them as current cultures and peoples behind. This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for my family. But mostly, I’m thankful for my rights. America is far from perfect. I will always love this country more than any other in the world, and because of that I’m choosing to not only love, but RESPECT those cultures and peoples that were here on this land before us. #NoDAPL”

via Tumblr http://ift.tt/2fOmrVM