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Posts Tagged “

native americans

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De-Squawed The U.S. Board on Geographical Names has renamed 16 valleys, creeks and other sites this year. The reason? These places were formerly named "squaw," a derogatory term for Native American women. A spokeswoman for the Coeur d'Alene Tribe of Idaho, Montana and Washington says that "squaw" is also a profane term for female genitalia. (Interestingly, there is Twatt in Scotland, Cooter in Missouri, and Pussy Creak in Ireland.) However, as someone who is part Native American, changing the racist, sexist names of American locales is probably for the best. [UPI]

96 comments

SuperMoms The AP is reporting on a new study proving that nearly all of today's Native Americans — in North, Central and South America — can trace their ancestry back to 6 women. The women left a particular DNA legacy, passed only from mother to daughter, and immigrated to North America between 18,000 and 21,000 years ago. But the six "founding mothers" didn't live in Asia, because the DNA signatures they left behind aren't found there. Most likely, they were from Beringia, the now-submerged land bridge that's between what are now Siberia and Alaska. Any Native Americans reading? My mom's half Chickasaw, yo! [Brietbart]

113 comments

jezenomics

Nike To Native Americans: Your Moccasins Are Making You Fat

Nike is producing a special line of not-for-profit shoes just for Native Americans. Not only does the design feature several of what the company terms "heritage callouts" — sunrise patterns, feather designs, war paint and the like — but it was specially engineered for Native American feet, which are apparently (cough) wider than average white man feet, a trait that doesn't exactly end at the ankle if ya see what we're saying.
"Nike is aware of the growing health issues facing Native Americans," said Sam McCracken, manager of Nike's Native American Business program.
Ha ha, "growing" problems... Okay, so: Native Americans are on the larger side, like many impoverished minorities in this country, because of a combination of economic and historical and policy-related factors you don't need me to rehash here. More »

2:30 PM on Wed Sep 26 2007
By Moe
6,745 views, 47 comments

Latest by Catra: @JustZoot: Hmm. I agree with ya. Lord knows I hate Nike for the poster child for sweatshop labor that it is ... but at least they're attempting to do some good. So bully for them. I more »