Brett Chapman(@brettachapman) 's Twitter Profileg
Brett Chapman

@brettachapman

Native American attorney continuing the legacy of my relative Standing Bear who was the first Native American to win civil rights in the United States

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linkhttps://www.brettachapman.com/ calendar_today09-02-2017 23:25:45

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I despise the phrase “Indigenous caretakers of land.” It’s babble. Nobody says any other sovereign nation in the world is a “caretaker” of land as that term implies someone else has sovereignty over it. That’s erasure of the defining aspect of what it means to be Native American

I despise the phrase “Indigenous caretakers of land.” It’s babble. Nobody says any other sovereign nation in the world is a “caretaker” of land as that term implies someone else has sovereignty over it. That’s erasure of the defining aspect of what it means to be Native American
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This is my great great great great grandpa Chief Iron Whip in 1858. He was my age before he or any of my other Ponca ancestors first heard about the specifics of the Christian religion. And he rejected those foreign beliefs once he did. I often think of this—that’s not long ago!

This is my great great great great grandpa Chief Iron Whip in 1858. He was my age before he or any of my other Ponca ancestors first heard about the specifics of the Christian religion. And he rejected those foreign beliefs once he did. I often think of this—that’s not long ago!
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Good for NHL goalie Marc-Andre Fleury who defied the league to wear this special mask designed by a Dakota artist named Cole Taylor to honor Native Americans on Native American Heritage Day! The NHL better not fine him for this show of support for Indigenous people! ✊🏽

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The dumbest American exceptionalism myth is that the US is special because of some claim to tolerating religious freedoms dating to the “Puritans.” These are my Ponca ancestors practicing their religion—an ancient freedom that ended the moment the US government entered their life

The dumbest American exceptionalism myth is that the US is special because of some claim to tolerating religious freedoms dating to the “Puritans.” These are my Ponca ancestors practicing their religion—an ancient freedom that ended the moment the US government entered their life
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I don’t like the phrase “contributions to the country” by Native Americans. It’s a banal politician’s phrase because Native Americans contributed the ONLY thing that makes this country powerful—land and the natural resources of that land. In exchange, the US gave Natives poverty!

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There were people here and Jesus Christ never bothered to make an apparition over here to tell the Native Americans that this was a Christian land, so you’re wrong on both accounts.

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I agree. In my experience as Ponca, Pawnee and Kiowa, Natives are normal people who like to get together. Growing up I never knew anyone to boycott Thanksgiving. That some do is great, but there’s a lot to be said about the unique experiences of the vast Native majority who don’t

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I’m sure like other people many generations of Native Americans have made happy family memories on Thanksgiving. I understand others may view this holiday as wholly negative, but I prefer not to dwell on ancient history when there’s a positive survival story to associate with it

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Most Native Americans I know observe Thanksgiving. Gathering and having feasts has always been a part of most Indigenous cultures long before any Pilgrim association. Even if this day didn’t exist Native peoples would still gather and do this in their way—the tradition continues!

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Thanksgiving is the only day of the year people think about Native Americans for a few seconds, and even those seconds are historically based. We are here the rest of the year—actual people who are part of the larger society, too, who shouldn’t be defined by one ancient holiday!

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My sister adopted our younger cousin and she told me when she was about 6 and entered the State of Oklahoma foster system, she had long hair as most Ponca girls do, but state workers cut her hair into a bob cut. They always find a way to do this with Native American kids and hair

My sister adopted our younger cousin and she told me when she was about 6 and entered the State of Oklahoma foster system, she had long hair as most Ponca girls do, but state workers cut her hair into a bob cut. They always find a way to do this with Native American kids and hair
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I recall reading a story in 2018 or so on a redneck “tradition” in backwoods Arkansas where the people in the hills gather to get live turkeys thrown from a plane at 700 feet. Totally barbaric. I looked it up, and now they still drop them, but from the courthouse roof—still cruel

I recall reading a story in 2018 or so on a redneck “tradition” in backwoods Arkansas where the people in the hills gather to get live turkeys thrown from a plane at 700 feet. Totally barbaric. I looked it up, and now they still drop them, but from the courthouse roof—still cruel
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People really will say anything for a little attention on socials nowadays, like this guy who claims the Comanche people were worse than the Nazis despite the fact many Comanche soldiers—whose parents he is maligning—fought against the Nazis using their Indigenous language. Dork.

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Indigenous cultures may share similarities but no two are the same and in North America alone, there are hundreds of Native American nations today.

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US society values all the wrong things like rewarding greed and those who hoard the most stuff as somehow better than everyone else, when in truth, they can do it only because their great grandparents were good at swindling people like Native Americans to start them on third base

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This is a nice 1905 photo I have of a Ponca man named Edward LeClair on account of his great grandpa being an itinerant French trader in the Ponca Nation before the US came. The “blood” distinction was of little consequence to the people who later elected him to the Ponca Council

This is a nice 1905 photo I have of a Ponca man named Edward LeClair on account of his great grandpa being an itinerant French trader in the Ponca Nation before the US came. The “blood” distinction was of little consequence to the people who later elected him to the Ponca Council
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This shows all the communities belonging to Indigenous nations in what became the State of Iowa after the US stole the land from them for the sole purpose of replacing Native Americans with Whites. Hardly a noble experiment yet all celebrate “statehood” and the US flag as good 🇺🇸

This shows all the communities belonging to Indigenous nations in what became the State of Iowa after the US stole the land from them for the sole purpose of replacing Native Americans with Whites. Hardly a noble experiment yet all celebrate “statehood” and the US flag as good 🇺🇸
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