Sold Like Cargo

'Sold like cargo': Korean adoptee in Norway fights to erase past she never chose

By Lee Hyo-jin

• Published Jun 30, 2025 5:15 pm KST
• Updated Jul 1, 2025 

The Korea Times

More than 50 years after adoption, Jung Kyung-sook plans to sue the Norwegian government for human rights violations

For most of her life, Jung Kyung-sook, 57, lived with an unrelenting ache — a longing for people who looked like her and for the mother tongue she never had the chance to learn.

Sent from Korea to Norway in 1970 at the age of two, she was among the tens of thousands of Korean children sent to Western countries through a flawed adoption system operating from the 1970s to '90s.

Jung was adopted by a Norwegian couple who, she says, subjected her to years of abuse and neglect.

Now living in the rural town of Ramnes, Norway, Jung is among the 56 Korean adoptees who have received the results of a sweeping investigation by Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The findings, announced in March and sent to applicants in June, revealed significant irregularities in past overseas adoption processes.

"I waited almost three years for this result. I was so happy and relieved. It felt like a dream," Jung said in a recent video interview with The Korea Times.

Jung Kyung-sook / Courtesy of Jung Kyung-sook

According to the TRC report, Jung was born on March 27, 1968, and was registered for adoption through Holt International that December. Although the identities of her biological parents had been properly documented, she was falsely registered as an orphan and sent abroad.

"Despite existing records identifying the biological parents, the English-language orphan registry submitted to the receiving country stated that no such information was available, thereby infringing upon the applicant's right to know their identity," the report read.

The TRC's findings mark the first official acknowledgment by the Korean government of its wrongdoings in international adoptions.

However, Jung says it is only the beginning.

Based on the TRC's findings, she plans to file a lawsuit against the Norwegian government, arguing that her adoption violated basic protections that should have safeguarded her as a child. She is also considering taking similar legal action in Korea, depending on how the case unfolds in Norway.

"I was bought and sold like cargo," Jung said. "Receiving countries always knew children came with falsified papers; so did Norway. Western countries demanded children from Korea, and many Korean families paid the ultimate price. My family was one of them."

“Alligator Alcatraz is Florida’s Auschwitz”

READ:  Protest: https://www.dailynews.com/2025/06/26/florida-alcatraz-protest/

OP-ED (excerpt)

The Florida Everglades have been home to the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida for centuries.  Both federally recognized tribes oppose the facility’s location, but their governments were never consulted. 

Betty Osceola, an elder of the Miccosukee Tribe and co-owner of Buffalo Tiger Airboats that operates in the Everglades, is opposed to the detention center. With a bullhorn in her hand, she led  a group of protesters from her tribe and environmental organizations who protested in late June along U.S. Highway 41.  One protester carried a sign that read: “Alligator Alcatraz is Florida’s Auschwitz.”

“I have serious concerns about the environmental damage,” Osceola told local reporters. “It’s disrupting the circle of life that these animals need.”

She fears the government’s claim that the facility is temporary; she believes it will operate for years.

On July 2, 2025, the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma joined the Florida tribes in protesting the new detention center.  The tribe says the center insults their ancestral homeland and threatens the ecosystem.

Chief Lewis Johnson of the Oklahoma Seminole Nation said that Indigenous lands are not vacant but vital to their people.

"When we see these people that come in and want to oppress people of brown skin essentially and tell them they’re illegals, that doesn’t line up with us, because we don’t have this ideology of citizenship.  No one should be illegal, because all this land has been stolen from us,” Johnson said.

Tribal governments were not consulted. Environmental warnings were ignored.  This detention center isn't just bad policy — it's an affront to Native American treaty rights and trust obligations.  South Florida's tribes deserve partnership, not more broken promises. 

And migrants deserve compassion, not cages. - Levi Rickert

READ:  https://nativenewsonline.net/opinion/trump-s-immigration-theater-ignores-whose-land-alligator-alcatraz-really-is 

 

Univ. of Michigan Museum starts return process for remains of 10 Native Americans

 

The University of Michigan museum holds the 25th largest collection of unrepatriated Native American remains in the nation.

 

 

READ:  https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2025/07/09/um-museum-will-return-the-remains-of-10-native-americans-to-tribes/84422824007/

I remember reading about diggers in Wisconsin in the early 1900s who desecrated, destroyed and robbed mounds - they called themselves anthropologists. And sold what they stole... Trace

People adopted from outside Ireland face challenges about identity and race, report finds

A report by the Adoption Authority of Ireland found that adoptees experience the most challenges around identity during adolescence.

 

By  Ellen O'Donoghue

Adults who were adopted from outside of Ireland as children can often feel isolated and may face discrimination, a study has found.

A report by the Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI) found that adoptees experience the most challenges about their identity during adolescence.

The report, titled The Lived Experience of Intercountry Adopted Adults in Ireland, found there was a need for more prolonged post-adoption support for adoptive parents, and targeted supports for teenagers to help them navigate the challenge of adoptive identity development.

While some of these supports are already provided by Barnardos, many participants in the study were not aware of their existence, highlighting an opportunity for increased communication and promotion of such services to the people who need them.

Since 1991, 5,000 children have been adopted into the country, but this number started to decline in 2010 when the Adoption Act was introduced.

Minister for Children Norma Foley told Newstalk that home adoption has not replaced intercountry adoption, and foster systems remain the norm.

"More than 87 per cent of children in State care in this country are actually in foster care, which is a very high percentage, but I think it’s important that we look at all opportunities for children," Ms Foley said.

"For some the best place for them and what meets their needs is adoption, for others it’s foster care so we would have a suite of measures and supports."

Orlaith Traynor, the Chair of the AAI, highlighted the study's significance.

"Adoption is an intervention in a child’s life which has lifelong consequences. Today’s launch highlights the experiences of a small sample of intercountry-adopted people. Ireland has a responsibility to support its 5000-strong intercountry adopted population as they move through the lifespan, and I look forward to working with the Department of Children, Equality and Disability to progress the development of policies and services in this area."

Dr Judy Lovett, research officer with the AAI and author of the report, said: "Thanks to the time and effort of these participants, their generosity and enthusiasm in engaging with the research process, we now know more about the lived experience of intercountry adoption in Ireland. This will help us to contribute to the global knowledge base about this under-researched area".

SOURCE:

https://www.westernpeople.ie/people-adopted-from-outside-ireland-face-challenges-about-identity-and-race-report-finds_arid-63215.html 

Natural Disasters, Diasporas and International Adoptions

 

by Jenifer de la Rosa | Jul 1, 2025

• Read English Version
• Leer Versión en Español

As a little girl, I was always afraid to cross bridges over turbulent waters.  This irrational fear complicated things for my parents since I grew up in Valladolid, a small city in northeastern Spain with a river passing through it.  Every time we crossed the Pisuerga River with its abundant current, I asked them to grip my hand and not let go.  I had recurring nightmares in which the river overflowed and I was swept away; my parents were unable to rescue me.

The years went by and I learned to manage this terror until last October 30, 2024, when I saw the images of the unexpected flash flood that swept through several municipalities of Valencia. My memory could not stop the images of my childhood terror and the reason for which I grew up in Europe and not in my country of origin, Colombia.

I saw photos of Valencia’s destroyed streets, immersed in water and mud, cars carried away by the current, 227 dead, families looking on helplessly as they gathered up the little that remained of their possessions. “Why didn’t they warn us sooner?” was a constant refrain.  I thought my wounds were a thing of the past, but with the relentless floods in Spain, my emotional memory brought me back to the disaster—the mud and water— that marked my life before I could truly remember it: the tragedy of Armero, Colombia.  

It has been 40 years since my town was completely destroyed by the eruption of a volcano, taking the lives of more than 23,000 people. I am one of the survivors, but I also belong to the silenced past of thousands of forced migrations and the open wounds of a diaspora of people adopted throughout the world.

 I was given in adoption and taken to Spain, where I grew up with a family that always told me the little they knew about my history of adoption, but always with many unanswered questions about my roots.

For many years, these questions lay dormant inside of me, like the lava accumulating under a volcano that appears to be sleeping. But the fire inside sooner or later seeks a way to get out. 

My reply has been the creation of Hija del Volcán (the Volcano’s Daughter), a documentatry that tells the story of my search for my origins as an adopted child in the context of one of the worst natural disasters in Latin America. The film began not only as an exercise of personal memory, but as a way of putting into context that which had never been named.

KEEP READING👇 

Open Call for Genocide?

Have you heard about the latest open calls for genocide from right-wing influencers? This weekend, quickly following Trump confidant Laura Loomer’s unconscionable tweet suggesting feeding 65 million Latino people to alligators, conservative pundit Ann Coulter weighed in to target Natives. In response to an anticolonial statement made by an Indigenous professor, she tweeted, “We didn’t kill enough Indians.”

Watch our video: Watch my video about Coulter’s genocidal remark.

There’s just no excuse for this kind of rhetoric.  Especially at a time when political tensions are already so high, stoking the fires of violence will only harm us further. When the worst elements of our society are on full display and those who display no regard for human lives, rights, and dignity control the levers of power, it’s important that we come together in common cause to raise our collective consciousness and make our homelands a better place.

Coulter — and the world — should really listen to what Indigenous People and our allies have to say, which is why I recorded this latest installment of our Original Homegrowns video series: This is Our Country. Yes, we are often critical of federal policies, but there’s nothing more American than dissent. It’s part of our shared American identity to work toward the creation of a “more perfect union.” As an important piece of that puzzle, we have to tear down systems of racist oppression and replace them with ones that work for everyone. At Lakota Law, we aim not to harm this land and those who live here, but to protect them.

If you don’t yet follow us on Instagram, now is a great time to start! In addition to the content we produce, you’ll see that the comments sections yield some good discussion. For instance, we’re grateful to actor and activist Mark Ruffalo, who responded to one of our posts about Coulter to say, “Well. It shows you where they are and who they are. Truly sociopathic, hateful and wildly cruel. Let’s keep building a better world together.” Thank you, Mark! We couldn’t have said it any better ourselves.

Wopila tanka — thank you for your attention and solidarity!
Chase Iron Eyes
Executive Director
Lakota People’s Law Project
Sacred Defense Fund

Bidaské: One of the World’s Most Influential Foundations Is Handing Over The Reins...

 

WOW! 

Only five cents of every $100 in U.S. philanthropy reaches Native communities. One of the wealthiest foundations in the world wants to change that and not by writing bigger checks, but by fundamentally shifting who’s in charge.  The MacArthur Foundation, best known for its “genius” grants, has quietly launched a bold new initiative: a Native self-determination program aimed at increasing funding for Indigenous communities. 

But this isn’t just another grant program. The foundation, with more than $8 billion in assets, says it’s rethinking how decisions are made, who makes them, and what philanthropy looks like when it’s led by the people it’s meant to serve. That kind of language might sound familiar.  But this time, something feels different.  This initiative wasn’t rolled out in a press release and forgotten a week later. It came after more than two years of private conversations, over 100 of them, with Native artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, and knowledge keepers.  It followed a commissioned study that laid bare a painful truth: Native communities aren’t just underfunded.  They’ve been systematically excluded from philanthropic power. 

So MacArthur is doing something that few legacy institutions have dared to try: It’s handing over the reins. Native leaders are helping to shape the strategy, design the operations, and determine where the money goes.  Even the foundation’s physical space is changing.  At its headquarters, a historic building in downtown Chicago, MacArthur has partnered with Native artists and the Center for Native Futures to install a rotating gallery of Indigenous art. It’s not just decoration. It’s a public correction to the settler-colonial story etched into the building’s walls for over a century. 

For Indian Country, this program could mean real power and a new kind of relationship with philanthropy. Not one built on scarcity and gatekeeping, but on trust. Not one shaped by metrics alone, but by shared values and community-defined goals. And not one centered on what foundations want to give, but on what Native nations choose to build. 

SOURCE:  https://nativenewsonline.net/sovereignty/macarthur-foundation-launches-native-self-determination-program-pledges-expanded-support 

The foundation plans to expand the advisory council and hire a program director in the coming months.

In a news release, MacArthur outlet several key commitments, including: 

• Engaging Native leaders in program design and operations.
• Incorporating Indigenous perspectives across all grantmaking programs.
• Strengthening staff and board understanding of Indigenous leadership and historical injustices.
• Increasing financial support through grants and impact investments that demonstrate trust in Native-led organizations.
• Collaborating with peer funders to share lessons and grow broader philanthropic commitment to Native communities.

MacArthur, which awarded more than $385 million in charitable grants and impact investments in fiscal 2023 alone, says it will announce further details, including hiring updates and strategic plans, later this year.

 

What Tourists in Martha’s Vineyard Showed Me About Being Indigenous

 LIVING and WORKING in NEW ENGLAND, you will see this ignorance is everywhere... Trace

Joseph Lee NEW YORK TIMES | 7/4/2025

---

Every summer from when I was old enough to make change until after I graduated from college, I worked in my family’s gift store on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.

I grew up in the rhythm of the store. The season began in the spring and steadily ramped up throughout the summer, reaching a crescendo with the August crowds. I learned how to fold a T-shirt and talk to strangers.

But one thing I never fully got used to was customers’ surprise when they found out that my family was Aquinnah Wampanoag and the few shops in our town were all owned by tribal members. Or, to be more precise, I never got used to the things they said when they found out.

But even as I resisted their ignorance, I was forced to reckon with how little I knew about my own identity and community.

People would tell me they wished they were Native or that they must have been in a past life because of their spiritual connection to nature. Sometimes they asked me my tribal name or wanted to take a picture with me. I still wonder what they do with those pictures.

I’ve been asked if Wampanoags use iPhones and live in houses. Although few of them said it, I knew what they were looking for: a kind of combination of Crazy Horse legends and the infamous crying Indian from the 1971 “Keep America Beautiful” ad. When I — who spent fall, winter and spring in Newton, Mass., and would later move to New York City — didn’t meet those expectations, they often seemed disappointed.

My grandparents opened the store about 50 years ago, and my parents took it over when I was in elementary school.  We sell a range of souvenir items like hats and keychains, along with handmade jewelry and other local goods.

Most people don’t expect to meet Indigenous people in a place like Martha’s Vineyard, which is primarily known for being a fancy vacation destination. They’re also usually surprised because I don’t look like what most people assume Natives look like. (My dad is Chinese American, and my mom is half Japanese.) Sometimes people would push back, saying that I might be technically Wampanoag but because I didn’t live the way my ancestors did, I wasn’t really.

That’s what American education and popular media has taught: Indigenous people have largely disappeared, their way of life incompatible with the modern world. That seems especially true on the East Coast, where America’s colonial story began.

Like everyone, I learned about the Mayflower and the first Thanksgiving in school. The Wampanoag people were key features of those early American tales but never seemed to pop up again once our lessons moved beyond early American history.

Even though I grew up going to tribal summer camp and events like our annual cranberry harvest, I had many of the same blind spots most Americans do.  Beyond cursory entries in history textbooks, I knew that my tribe had survived, but I never really knew what happened in between those moments and my childhood.  It would take me looking well beyond Martha’s Vineyard to truly understand my tribe and our history.

Though I knew Indigenous identity was more than stereotypes, I struggled to see what else it could be. And I struggled to see if that identity fit me.  Maybe, I thought, I really was less Wampanoag because I didn’t speak our language or know how to hunt.  Even though I resisted customers’ oversimplified and commodified version of Native identity, the store was the part of my life where I thought and talked about what it means to be Native the most.  And because I was constantly pushing back against what other people thought Native identity was, I had no time or space to figure out for myself what it actually was.

Greenland urges Denmark to reverse its refusal to pay compensation to adoptees

Greenlandic minister calls for moral, as well as financial, redress in open letter

Melike Pala  | 07.4.2025

BRUSSELS 

Greenland's Minister for Children, Youth and Families Mads Pedersen has called on the Danish government to reverse its rejection of compensation claims filed by four Greenlanders who were adopted by Danish families between the 1950s and 1970s.

In an open letter addressed to Denmark’s Minister of Social Affairs Sophie Hæstorp Andersen, Pedersen criticized the recent decision by the Ministry of Social Affairs to deny the adoptees' demand for one million kroner in compensation, the Greenlandic media KNR reported on Thursday.   The claim alleged violations of their human rights during the adoption process.

Citing the outdated nature of the cases and a lack of sufficient documentation proving that adoption rules at the time were violated, the Ministry of Social Affairs rejected the claims.  However, Pedersen contested this reasoning, stating that it is "well documented that the adoptions took place without valid consent from the biological parents," many of whom believed their children were being placed in temporary care.

"This is a violation of the rights of both the parents and the children," Pedersen wrote. He emphasized that the adoption practices of the time were marked by "opacity and inadequate consent."

"You cannot hide behind the legislation of the past when the consequences are so serious and long-lasting," he said.

Calling for the case to be reopened, Pedersen said, "It is necessary for the Danish state to provide them with redress, not only financially, but also morally, by collectively acknowledging the failure that both they and their families have been subjected to."

SOURCE: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/greenland-urges-denmark-to-reverse-its-refusal-to-pay-compensation-to-adoptees/3621678 

#60sScoop Survivor created Indigenous Survivors Day for reflection ahead of Canada Day

ONTARIO | CBC | JUNE 30, 2025 

Troy MacBeth Abromaitis is campaigning to get the federal government to declare Indigenous Survivors Day on June 30 as a national day of recognition. (Submitted by Troy MacBeth Abromaitis - image credit)

The City of Thunder Bay proclaimed JUNE 30 as Indigenous Survivors Day and hosted several community events ahead of Canada Day.

Sixties Scoop survivor Troy Abromaitis said he created Indigenous Survivors Day to honour children who were taken from their families and lands.  He said Thunder Bay is the first city to make it a full-day event and he hopes other communities will follow.

Abromaitis said Canada Day represents celebrating a country that, for many Indigenous peoples, facilitated loss and separation from their families.

"By placing Indigenous Survivors Day on June 30, we invite Canadians to reflect before they celebrate Canada Day, and to remember the children who are taken and why this matters," said Abromaitis, a member of the Nlaka'pamux Nation from Lytton First Nation in British Columbia.

Thunder Bay is a city with painful truths to confront, he said. Choosing to lead the way in recognizing Indigenous Survivors Day is a sign of courage and growth, said Abromaitis. Other places have followed: British Columbia, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and municipalities including Victoria, Edmonton, Ottawa and Niagara Falls.

"They give me hope that one day this will be a national day and a national movement," he said.

While the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30 honours the victims and survivors of residential schools, Abromaitis said there was a need to recognize survivors of other campaigns that separated Indigenous children from their families. Indigenous Survivors Day is meant to fill that gap, he said.

"This is not just about history. It's about healing what is still happening with regards to Sixties Scoop survivors, Millennium Scoop survivors, birth alerts and the over representation of children in the child welfare system who carry invisible pain."

The Sixties Scoop refers to the period between the 1950s and early 1990s during which thousands of Indigenous children in Canada were apprehended by child welfare agencies and placed with non-Indigenous foster or adoptive parents. Many children were subject to physical, emotional or sexual abuse while most lost connection to their cultures and languages.

The systematic removal of First Nations children from their families from 1991 on is referred to as the Millennium Scoop. The practice resulted in more Indigenous children ending up in foster care than were sent to residential schools at their peak.

Birth alerts — when child welfare organizations notify hospitals if they believe a pregnant patient may be "high risk" — led to newborns being taken from their parents for days, months or even years. The province ordered an end to birth alerts in 2022 after finding it disproportionately affected Indigenous and racialized families.

Indigenous children made up 53.8 per cent of all children in foster care across the country, according to Statistics Canada data from the 2021 census.

David Wilkinson-Simard is leading a sacred fire at the city of Thunder Bay's first-ever proclamation of Indigenous Survivors' Day. (Submitted by David Wilkinson-Simard) 

Thunder Bay Indigenous Survivors Day open to all

David Wilkinson-Simard, a traditional knowledge keeper and member of the City of Thunder Bay's Indigenous Advisory Council, will be leading a sacred fire and closing reflections at a community gathering at Hillcrest Park.

"This is a very new event, you know, even to Native people. And we're understanding where our place is too," he said.

Wilkinson-Simard said the organizers have put out calls to drum groups and hand drummers to come celebrate.  They plan to share traditional music and the stories behind some ceremonies at the gathering.

Wilkinson-Simard, who is also a survivor of the Sixties Scoop, said Indigenous Survivors Day is a time to share stories about the ongoing challenges Indigenous people have gone through and to celebrate their survival.

"It's an opportunity to help Canadians to understand why a lot of the things are the way they are and how First Nations are pulling themselves out of all of this."

While events like the Sixties Scoop and residential schools are often thought of as long-passed historical events, he said the impacts are still felt by survivors and subsequent intergenerational trauma.

The event is open to all. Wilkinson-Simard said non-Indigenous participants are encouraged to attend.

"I think that's very important that as a non-Indigenous person you take the opportunity and you also take the risk of going into and learning about something that might be uncomfortable for you at first. It also is an opportunity for you to understand the challenges that many First Nations have overcome and how you can champion them." 

Cuts to Tribal Radio Stations could spell disaster

Editor's NOTE:  As you know, many tribe's living conditions in the US are not great, not prosperous, unless some casino monies trickle down and reach the rez, and they've made structural improvements.  Poverty is all too common and rampant for too many tribal nations.

TRIBAL RADIO AM and FM has been a lifeline, like KILI radio in Porcupine, South Dakota - my relative Ellowyn Locke (Oglala Lakota) listened to them every single day.  https://www.kiliradio.live/

In South Dakota, KILI of Porcupine, KDKO of Lake Andes and KLND of McLaughlin all stand to lose around $200,000 in Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) grants.  This would spell disaster.

MORE:

Tribal public broadcasting under threat by CPB rescission

SDPB | By Lee Strubinger  June 12, 2025 

KOYA logo

The United States Congress is considering a rescission request from the Trump administration to pull funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The maneuver would negatively affect SDPB—as well as the four public tribal radio stations in South Dakota.

The station KOYA stands to lose about $200,000 if Congress ultimately approves the rescission.

John Miller is manager for the station in Rosebud.  He said the funding reduction would be very detrimental to the people of his community.

“Because, we serve a purpose of keeping them up to date and passing along emergency information—passing along pertinent information that helps them in every way and every day," Miller said.  The Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding that we do receive is very beneficial in keeping the station on the air.  It wouldn’t be a good outcome for us.”

KILI of Porcupine, KDKO of Lake Andes and KLND of McLaughlin all stand to lose around $200,000 in CPB grants.

South Dakota’s lone representative in the U.S. House, Republican Dusty Johnson, voted in favor of rescinding the money. 

The question now heads to the U.S. Senate.

U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds said he does not want to see funding cut for radio stations in rural areas that rely on public broadcasting—particularly on reservations.

“Let’s not cut the stuff where we really do need to be able to help some folks that are in some rural areas, and on the reservations, where they simply don’t have other resources available to keep those radios in operation,” Rounds said.

Rounds said his rescission decision will be based on whether the package can be amended to allow for funding to continue to reach rural radio stations.

The CPB rescission would also affect SDPB to the tune of $2.2 million. Earlier this year, SDPB received full funding from the supermajority Republican controlled state legislature, after former Gov. Kristi Noem suggested slashing the statewide network’s state funding by 65 percent.

 

MORE: 

Minnesota’s Tribal Radio Stations at Risk of Losing CPB Funding

Northeastern Minnesota’s White Earth Reservation is home to “Niijii Radio” KKWE (88.9), one of the state’s four tribal radio stations which serve their local communities with news and information, along with traditional music.

These stations are now in danger of losing much-needed federal funding, as President Trump’s executive order to “ensure that Federal funding does not support biased and partisan news coverage” threatens to take away Corporation for Public Broadcasting grants that keep stations like KKWE on the air.

“[CPB] probably covers about 45% of our costs,” KKWE Station Manager Maggie Rousu, part of the station’s small staff, tells MPR. “CPB funding pays one full-time staff. It also covers our emergency broadcast system [and] some of our programming.”

Although the executive order focuses on pulling money from NPR and PBS, Rousu points out that it trickles down to smaller stations such as KKWE.

While most larger public radio stations can survive on corporate and listener donations, that’s not the case for “Niijii Radio,” where listeners aren’t able to provide enough funds to keep the station running. “We do have some contributors that are contributing $1 a month,” Rousu says, meaning if CPB funds are cut, “we could lose some local production.” 

 

KILI is Under Attack!

KILI Needs Your Help

Trump is attempting to remove the board of directors and cancel funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides significant funding to our station. Please donate now to help us recover the necessary funding to keep our station on-air and operating!

Click to Donate Now!

 I have been to this station. It is awesome! ... Trace

LIT BY LIGHTNING

 REMINDER: TONIGHT!

"Jim Thorpe: Lit by Lightning" Director Chris Eyre: 'Thorpe was one of the greatest Americans to Ever Live.'

• Yahoo News

By Kaili Berg   | July 06, 2025

A new documentary celebrating one of the greatest athletes of all time, Jim Thorpe, premieres on The History Channel on Monday, July 7. Jim Thorpe: Lit by Lightning tells the story of the Sac and Fox/Potawatomi sports icon, often called the greatest all-around athlete in history, whose accomplishments and struggles still resonate today. The documentary premieres on The History Channel. 

The film is directed by award-winning filmmaker Chris Eyre (Cheyenne and Arapaho) (ADOPTEE), known for his groundbreaking Native-centered storytelling in works like Smoke Signals and, more recently, the hit AMC series Dark Winds. 

READ:  https://nativenewsonline.net/arts-entertainment/jim-thorpe-lit-by-lightning-director-chris-eyre-thorpe-was-one-of-the-greatest-americans-to-ever-live 

 

EDITOR NOTE:   I was a friend to Jim Thorpe's daughter Grace when I was working at News From Indian Country and after that I wrote a chapter "Honor Restored" in the anthology OLYMPICS AT THE MILLENNIUM: Power Politics and The Games, 2000. ... Trace

LINK:  https://archive.org/details/olympicsatmillen0000unse_e0i9 

Learning an Anishinaabemowin Prayer

 

MEGWETCH!  Thanks to https://rightojibwe.blogspot.com/2025/07/an-anishinaabe-prayer-you-can-learn.html

This Land Was Never F*cking Yours | The Fallacy of Freedom and the true White Supremacy Agenda from 1776 to Project 2025

CLICK THIS:  https://open.substack.com/pub/siouxchef/p/this-land-was-never-fcking-yours?r=cbskx&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

# July 4th, 2025, here we go again…

 

“First Voices Radio’s” Final Broadcast will be Sunday, July 6, 2025

 “First Voices Radio’s” Final Broadcast will be Sunday, July 6, 2025

 

Internationally-syndicated weekly all-Native hosted and all-Native produced radio program has been on the air for 33 years

(Stone Ridge, N.Y, July 3, 2025) — “First Voices Radio” will have its final broadcast on Sunday, July 6, 2025.  The program, which was founded in 1992 by Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Cheyenne River Lakota) has explored global topics and issues of critical importance to the preservation and protection of Mother Earth presented in the voices and from the perspective of the original peoples of the world. 

 

“First Voices Radio” has been airing weekly for the past 33 years and has most recently been heard on Sundays from 7 to 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Radio Kingston WKNY 1490 AM and 107.9 FM in Kingston, New York. The final episode will air on Radio Kingston and will stream live at https://radiokingston.org/.

 

“First Voices Radio” — “formerly First Voices Indigenous Radio” — was the first Indigenous radio program in the northeastern U.S. With more than 1 million annual online hits to its website, the program has become known for bringing to the airwaves the experiences, perspectives and struggles of Indigenous peoples worldwide whose exclusion from mainstream, progressive and alternative media is deleterious to the whole of humanity.

 

The program’s Host, Executive Producer and Founder Tiokasin Ghosthorse is from the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation in South Dakota and the bands of Itazipco-Mnicoujou and Oglala. He is an author, activist and accomplished musician of the Lakota flute. Tiokasin has been described as “a spiritual agitator, natural rights organizer, Indigenous thinking process educator and a community activator.” Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe) has been the show’s producer since 2012.

 

“First Voices Radio” has gone through several program name changes over the years, including: “Primal Minds,” “Exposing the Apologetic Predator,” “Skywaves” and “First Voices Indigenous Radio.” The show’s format has included news pertinent to Native peoples and their struggles, rare monologues and meaningful conversations with some of the most important Native and non-Native minds of our time.

 

“Politics for the Lakota is spiritual and is not separate from the rest of life; and it is this worldview that puts Mother Earth at the center of everything,” says Tiokasin. “This is what I have tried to do with this radio program and to never become bigger than the message, as I like to say — I am merely the messenger,” says Tiokasin. “Above all, “First Voices Radio” has been about the importance of living in relativity and, most importantly, with Mother Earth. The guests who appear on the show have all been individuals who understand this central way of thinking and being.”

 

“Over the years, we’ve asked our guests with great respect to do the honor of coming on the program to offer their knowledge, wisdom and experience — a knowledge that has been handed down over hundreds of thousands of years,” says Tiokasin. “It is a responsibility we’ve always taken very seriously on “First Voices Radio. “We know it is with great urgency that we asked these voices to be shared during these times of change. We’ve offered listeners a perspective they have been missing for far too long — the first voices of the Indigenous peoples — the "voices" that America has tried to silence for more than 500 years.”

“It’s been a wonderful three-plus decades of the show with participation from many important voices from Turtle Island and beyond,” says Tiokasin. “But with anything that tells the truth about what’s happened to the world’s Indigenous peoples over the centuries, we’ve also occasionally witnessed the occasional gnashing of teeth, complaints and even death threats from time to time.” 

 

“However, throughout the years we’ve kept going despite any human roadblocks that have tried to place themselves in our way,” says Tiokasin. “I've always made sure that our guests were not censored. And I want to express special thanks to all of our beautiful listeners, who have stuck with us all of these years. Indigenous knowledge empowers through inclusion, by teaching responsibility of choices and contributing to the protection of Mother Earth.”

Over the years, “First Voices Radio” has been based at KAOS 89.3, Olympia, Washington (where it was founded); WBAI 99.5 FM, New York City; WPKN 89.5 FM. Bridgeport, Connecticut; WIOX 91.3, Roxbury, New York and, most recently, at Radio Kingston WKNY 1490 AM and 107.9 FM in Kingston, New York. “I’ve been honored and grateful that “First Voices Radio” has found welcoming homes at all of these great radio stations that have been so receptive to our format and messages,” says Tiokasin.

 

“First Voices Radio” has been internationally syndicated on 110+ community, public and commercial radio stations in 24 states in the U.S. and four Canadian provinces, including: Arkansas, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Manitoba, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. The program is heard on three stations in Germany. Shows have also been available as podcasts on several listening platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

 

“First Voices Radio” is retiring but I am not,” says Tiokasin. “Rather, I’m transitioning, moving into these dimensions that are still offered in life.” Tiokasin’s upcoming book, “Earth Mind,” is co-authored with Robert Toth and Dr. John Briggs. “In writing this book we have made every effort to respect our readers by not telling them what actions to take if they agree with us on the importance of holocentric consciousness to life on Earth. Here, we propose no new ideology, philosophy or religion — no “to do” list of steps in order to establish a new Earth Mind-centered culture and fix the problems created by modern humans’ aggressively anthropocentric approach to pretty much everything. We think that proposing “solutions” will only lead people back into more anthropocentric thinking, falling into the trap of trying to fix the harm created by that thinking by applying more of it. Proposing solutions is comforting but it hasn’t worked very well. We need to go deeper.”

For listeners who want to keep up with Tiokasin, he can be found on Facebook (search Tiokasin Ghosthorse; he has two pages), Instagram, Patreon and on the “First Voices Radio” website (where past shows on many topics can be found). Visit Akantu Intelligence, an institute that Tiokasin founded with a mission of contextualizing original wisdom for troubled times. He can also be contacted by email at tiokasin@gmail.com.

SHOW ARCHIVE: https://firstvoicesindigenousradio.org./programs 

 *** See firstvoicesindigenousradio.org.

👇PLEASE READ TIOKASIN: 

“Mother Earth Won’t Lie to Us”

Doing what’s required now …

It’s not enough anymore to “do our best.” We have to do what’s required – a new way of thinking. Some people are ready for this. For others, I don’t think showing them the data will matter. You have to change the heart. If you can do that, you can change the body and the way people think about nature. It’s not sentimentalism. The earth moves for them.

https://reflections.yale.edu/article/crucified-creation-green-faith-rising/mother-earth-wont-lie-us 

Adopted Californians cannot access their original birth certificates

These maps categorize US states into three primary groups: Unrestricted, Compromised, and Restricted, with definitions and numbers below.  A list of states and restrictions is also available, as well as a changelog to the map over time. 

Opinion 

By Jennifer Wallig Special to The Sacramento Bee 

June 27, 2025 

 California denies adult adoptees access to original birth certificates. 

Explore the fight for equality and identity restoration in adoption laws. 

California has long been a leader in civil rights, but there is one glaring exception: adult adoptees in our state are still denied the right to obtain their own original birth certificates. This injustice affects thousands of Californians who, unlike their non-adopted peers, are blocked from accessing a document that speaks to their identity, their origins and their truth. 

Currently, adult adoptees in California receive only an amended birth certificate — one that lists their adoptive parents as if they were their birth parents. The original document, created at birth, is sealed by the state and kept from the very person it’s about.  This practice not only erases history; it reinforces shame and secrecy in adoption.  It says to adoptees: “You don’t have the same rights as everyone else.” 

This isn’t the case everywhere. As of 2025, 15 states have passed laws granting adult adoptees the right to request their unredacted original birth certificates.  States like Oregon, New York, Colorado, Alabama, Kansas and Alaska already recognize that adoptees deserve equality when it comes to their records. These states have shown that restoring access doesn’t cause chaos, it brings healing. California nearly joined them: In 2023, Assembly Bill 1302 offered hope.  In 2024, Senate Bill 1274 tried again. Both died before reaching the governor’s desk.  Why?  Misinformation, fear and an outdated belief that adoptees shouldn’t “stir up the past.” 

But this is not about digging up drama. It’s about restoring dignity.  Access to an original birth certificate isn’t about reunions, it’s about rights.  Whether or not an adoptee ever contacts a birth parent is irrelevant.  What matters is that they are allowed to know the truth about their own beginnings.  As the daughter of an adoptee, I watched firsthand how frustrating and painful it was for my father to be treated like his identity must be kept secret from him.  

I’m not asking for special treatment, I’m asking for equal treatment.  It’s time for California to stop lagging behind. We should not be a state that preaches equality but denies it to adopted adults.  Lawmakers must reintroduce and pass legislation that grants adult adoptees unrestricted access to their original, unaltered birth certificates.  No vetoes, no redactions and no hoops.  To California’s elected officials and others who have the power to lead on this issue: We are counting on you to act.  In the end, this is not just an adoptee issue.  It’s a human rights issue.  Let’s make California the next state to get it right.

Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article309324380.html#storylink=cpy

Adult adopted people in fifteen states currently have an unrestricted right to obtain copies of their own pre-adoption original birth records without discriminatory restrictions.  MORE: https://adopteerightslaw.com/maps/