#indigenous-history

#indigenous-history

Natives have been told our whole lives - in classrooms, through academic research and in popular myth - that humans first migrated into North America around 12,000 years ago. Native histories consistently disagree, however, asserting that humans were here much earlier than that. Using the phrase time immemorial is a way to push back; it succinctly communicates longevity without quibbling over exact numbers and dates.

The exhibition Yakne Seminoli ("Seminole World") at the HistoryMiami Museum gathers works by over 25 Seminole artists across traditional and contemporary mediums - not just beadwork, patchwork, and basketry, but also painting, photography, and even AI. Organized in collaboration with the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum on the Big Cypress Reservation in the Everglades, the show aims to convey to visitors that "Seminole history is Florida history."

It's a good thing conservatives know nothing about the actual history of this country they claim to love so much-otherwise, they'd probably launch a War on Thanksgiving. That's because, if you study the path that Thanksgiving took on the way to its current culturally dominant presence in the calendar, it becomes clear that it's low-key one of America's wokest holidays.

We found this new lineage, a new group of people we didn't know about before, that has persisted as the main ancestry component for at least the last 8,000 years up to the present day.

"The installation did not meet current Transportation Art Program requirements and had been a frequent target of graffiti and vandalism," Jeneane Crawford, a spokesperson for Caltrans District 4, told SFGATE in an email. The statue's removal in August alongside the freeway that's also named for Serra attracted little attention initially. But in recent weeks, social media users have wondered where it went. Caltrans said that the statue had been "evaluated for eligibility in the California Register of Historical Resource" but was deemed ineligible. There are currently no plans to replace the statue with any other artwork.

Founded in the early 1830s, the town initially served as a key river port. Long before that, the land was home to the Potawatomi and Winnebago tribes, whose connection to the area can still be felt. Public art installations and interpretive signage across the town honor its Indigenous history and serve as a quiet tribute to the region's first peoples.

The exhibition features a large map of San Francisco that identifies 35 city street names and 10 statues and monuments that commemorate historical figures involved in the genocide of American Indians.