@peggybe-oonujut
teacher. author. artist. war canoe puller. weaver. union fangirl. teacher-librarian fan girl. she/her. #ProfessionalGoozih Looking to balance deconstruction, #IndigenousJoy, & LandBack buildingtheravenempire on insta
How do treaties provide a framework for new futures and why and these frameworks especially critical today as we face uncertain times? Join us on March 24 1PM for a Yellowhead Fire with Crystal Fraser, Sara Komarnisky, Gina Starblanket, and Hayden King. Register: treaties-fire.eventbrite.ca
Judith Sayers: In six short years, and especially in the past six months, B.C. has gone from leading the world in addressing historic and ongoing harms to Indigenous Peoples to giving in to misinformation that is feeding an anti-Indigenous frenzy. #bcpoli
TUMBLER RIDGE, BRITISH COLUMBIA – Police say they’re at the scene of what they describe as a “confirmed active shooter incident” at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in east-central British Columbia.
It’s devastating news. As a support person in a district that had a lockdown, these moments are awful. Sending all the prayers to families and community.
Sending all the prayers 🙏🏽 shocking news indeed
COLUMN: BEST OF THE LITERATURE Beyond cultural competency: Indigenous knowledge sovereignty in academic libraries Caelin Ross ASU Library, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ Indigenous knowledge sovereignty marks a transformative shift in academic librarianship, moving beyond cultural competency toward practices that center Indigenous self-determination, community authority, and epistemic sovereignty. Recent scholarship exposes how well-meaning diversity initiatives often continue colonial patterns of extraction and control. This review features scholarship from Indigenous and ally voices that bridges the gap between rhetoric and action, offering models grounded in relational practice, ethical stewardship, and structural change. These articles do not offer checklists, but require ongoing commitment to repair and reconciliation. public services Quarterly 2026
In our latest #BestOfTheLiterature column, @caelinross.bsky.social compiles recent scholarship on #Indigenous knowledge sovereignty in #AcademicLibrarianship, calling for a move toward centering Indigenous self-determination, community authority, and sovereignty. Read more at doi.org/10.1080/1522...
10 Reasons Why ICE is Harassing Native Americans - CounterPunch.org www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/30/1...
Check out the @thetyee.ca Q&A with BC School Counsellors’ Association President Norberta Heinrichs on mental health, substance use, and student and community needs: https://bit.ly/49BtFIB
System failure: After Indigenous teen’s stabbing, his family wonders how the bullying got that far
Another video "showed a young man, who identified himself as Native American, dragged from his car by ICE agents. The man was detained by ICE shortly after he and his aunt were stopped and questioned in the parking lot of a Hy-Vee in Robbinsdale..." www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...
"If recognizing Indigenous land title destabilizes the economy, then the economy was never legitimate to begin with"
👏 👏 👏
✋Interested in #indigenouspeoples and #humanrights? @IWGIA published the 39th edition of the Indigenous World, 🙌 Download it at http://bit.ly/2nTAsKO - Curious about developments in Unesco World Heritage Convention? 👉: https://bit.ly/3Sshiqn
Hi folks. In our new episode, we welcome two writers who capture unique aspects of the Indigenous American experience in their work: Kyle Edwards, author of “Small Ceremonies,” and Angeline Boulley, author of “Sisters in the Wind.” Find it at the link in our bio or wherever you listen to podcasts.
How U.S. cold case investigators solved the murder of an Indigenous carver from B.C. vancouversun.com/news/how-us-...
![Fig. 1. Domestic dogs in the culture and society of Indigenous Coast Salish peoples.
(A) Coast Salish ancestral lands include the inner coastal waterways of the Salish Sea in southwest British Columbia and Washington State. Archaeological woolly dog data are from (2). Distribution of the Coast Salish languages in the 19th century are as indicated by colored areas. [The map is modified from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coast_Salish_language_map.svg and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.] (B) Woven Skokomish/Twana basket with woolly dog iconography, depicted with upturned tails. Woolly dog puppies are inside pens represented by diamond shapes (10) [courtesy of Burke Museum, catalog no. 1-507]. (C) Forensic reconstruction of a woolly dog based on Mutton’s pelt measurements and archaeological remains (9). Sketches of Arctic and spitz dog breeds are shown for scale and comparison of appearance and do not imply a genetic relationship.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:lfgbxkojtpvx5mrlwfajfd2h/bafkreidllt33nkotrjhm4ds26utymbajnidqh6cyypcimt7jne4v2mdpbi)
Fig. 1. Domestic dogs in the culture and society of Indigenous Coast Salish peoples. (A) Coast Salish ancestral lands include the inner coastal waterways of the Salish Sea in southwest British Columbia and Washington State. Archaeological woolly dog data are from (2). Distribution of the Coast Salish languages in the 19th century are as indicated by colored areas. [The map is modified from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coast_Salish_language_map.svg and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.] (B) Woven Skokomish/Twana basket with woolly dog iconography, depicted with upturned tails. Woolly dog puppies are inside pens represented by diamond shapes (10) [courtesy of Burke Museum, catalog no. 1-507]. (C) Forensic reconstruction of a woolly dog based on Mutton’s pelt measurements and archaeological remains (9). Sketches of Arctic and spitz dog breeds are shown for scale and comparison of appearance and do not imply a genetic relationship.
19th c. painting of Coastal Salish women weaving in a longhouse with a wooly dog standing nearby.
![The influence of people on the woolly dog genome
Woolly dogs were treated as beloved extended family members. According to Debra qwasen Sparrow, a Musqueam Master Weaver, her grandfather [Ed Sparrow (1898–1998)] told her that “every village had [woolly dogs], that they were like gold because they were mixed with the mountain goat and then rove and spun” (9). Dogs also comprised a form of wealth and status for Coast Salish women, who carefully managed the dogs to maintain their woolly coats, isolating them on islands or in pens to strictly manage their breeding (9, 17, 23). Island names often reflect their connection with dogs, such as “sqwiqwmi’” (“Little Dog”) village on Cameron Island in Nanaimo, Snuneymuxw territory, BC. The prevention of interbreeding wool dogs with hunting or village dogs was critical for maintaining their distinct hair characteristics: soft guard hairs with an unusually long, crimpy undercoat (fig. S2), which was highly spinnable and could be made into warm blanket yarn. These management practices likely contributed to Mutton’s PCD ancestry long after the onset of settler colonialism.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:lfgbxkojtpvx5mrlwfajfd2h/bafkreign6z5ta4jholahhv5y6zo7n36vwxwvyliyvq2b5xyjc46iufwlxi)
The influence of people on the woolly dog genome Woolly dogs were treated as beloved extended family members. According to Debra qwasen Sparrow, a Musqueam Master Weaver, her grandfather [Ed Sparrow (1898–1998)] told her that “every village had [woolly dogs], that they were like gold because they were mixed with the mountain goat and then rove and spun” (9). Dogs also comprised a form of wealth and status for Coast Salish women, who carefully managed the dogs to maintain their woolly coats, isolating them on islands or in pens to strictly manage their breeding (9, 17, 23). Island names often reflect their connection with dogs, such as “sqwiqwmi’” (“Little Dog”) village on Cameron Island in Nanaimo, Snuneymuxw territory, BC. The prevention of interbreeding wool dogs with hunting or village dogs was critical for maintaining their distinct hair characteristics: soft guard hairs with an unusually long, crimpy undercoat (fig. S2), which was highly spinnable and could be made into warm blanket yarn. These management practices likely contributed to Mutton’s PCD ancestry long after the onset of settler colonialism.
![Through these compounding waves of colonialism, the transmission of important knowledge relating to woolly dog husbandry and hair processing, spinning, and weaving was interrupted. Stó꞉lō Elder Rena Point Bolton, 95 years old in 2022, recalls how Th’etsimiya, her great-grandmother, had kept woolly dogs, but was forced to give them up: “They were told they couldn’t do their cultural things. There was the police, the Indian Agent and the priests. The dogs were not allowed. She had to get rid of the dogs” (9). The dogs represented high status and traditional practices that threatened British and later Canadian dominion and as such were removed through policies of assimilation (40–42). The weaving traditions were not completely lost, because many cultural teachings and types of expertise were carried on in secret. Bolton said: “Our people were not allowed to spin on shxwqáqelets [traditional spindle whorls]. They could spin on a European one but not on the shxwqáqelets. They couldn’t use their looms, and they would take them out and burn them or they would give them to museums or collectors … The generation that was there when the Europeans came and colonized us, that’s where it ended, and there [were] just a few people who went underground. And my grandmother and my mother were two of them” (9).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:lfgbxkojtpvx5mrlwfajfd2h/bafkreiefeekvfs774bnrai6hyrdufzszptk4kytag2sipvtcq74xzbwo2u)
Through these compounding waves of colonialism, the transmission of important knowledge relating to woolly dog husbandry and hair processing, spinning, and weaving was interrupted. Stó꞉lō Elder Rena Point Bolton, 95 years old in 2022, recalls how Th’etsimiya, her great-grandmother, had kept woolly dogs, but was forced to give them up: “They were told they couldn’t do their cultural things. There was the police, the Indian Agent and the priests. The dogs were not allowed. She had to get rid of the dogs” (9). The dogs represented high status and traditional practices that threatened British and later Canadian dominion and as such were removed through policies of assimilation (40–42). The weaving traditions were not completely lost, because many cultural teachings and types of expertise were carried on in secret. Bolton said: “Our people were not allowed to spin on shxwqáqelets [traditional spindle whorls]. They could spin on a European one but not on the shxwqáqelets. They couldn’t use their looms, and they would take them out and burn them or they would give them to museums or collectors … The generation that was there when the Europeans came and colonized us, that’s where it ended, and there [were] just a few people who went underground. And my grandmother and my mother were two of them” (9).
Due to colonialism and genocide, Indigenous dog genetic diversity and knowledge has been lost. The Coastal Salish women once kept Salish wooly dogs for fibre, transmitting breeding, husbandry, and manufacturing knowledge to the next generation. This breed is now extinct due to colonialism. #vetmed 🧪
[December 14th, 1985] Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to lead a major Native American tribe, serving as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. Sworn in to complete the remaining two years of Ross Swimmer’s term, she oversees a $30 million budget and aims to break the cycle of
Bill to place 40 acres at the #WoundedKnee massacre site under protection of the Oglala & Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes passes in both the Senate & House and awaits Trump's signature.
The US Cavalry massacred 350-375 Lakota people there on Dec. 29 1890. nativenewsonline.net/currents/wou...
🎊 AWARD NEWS 🎊
SMALL CEREMONIES by Kyle Edwards has won the Governor General's Literary Award in Fiction!
A poignant story that follows the friendships, hopes, and struggles of a group of Native students from Winnipeg, Manitoba’s North End: bit.ly/4ox8iOo
A Native American woman you should know
Ok blue sky. I’m not on here as much as I wished.
I am taking Halq’eméylem classes so naturally I have to draw my learning
Yes, I want coffee
#Halq’eméylem #TeacherArtistCanoePullerWeaver #ProfessionalGoozih
It’s fall time and time to go into our beautiful summer work
Warnindhilyagwa singer also wins film clip of the year, while Malyangapa Barkindji rapper Barkaa wins album of the year. Emily Wurramara expressed solidarity with the people of Palestine and “all Indigenous peoples around the world” experiencing oppression as she accepted the artist of the year aw…
Pacific Northwest tribal leaders and allies will come together for a conversation in honor of Indigenous Peoples' Day on Tuesday at Town Hall Seattle about how partnerships including Indigenous knowledge can help protect salmon and build climate resilience.
townhallseattle.org/event/indige...
Gwich'in Lessons for Truth and Reconciliation via @thetyee.ca thetyee.ca/Analysis/202...
Residential schools were not well-intentioned mistakes. They were designed to destroy Indigenous families, governance structures and societies by targeting children. The very definition of genocide.
October 4 is Sisters In Spirit Day.
A day to honour the lives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People.
Dr. Bev Jacobs shares the origins, the vigils, and the fight for justice.
Watch & share: youtu.be/g-vb4H8J2v4
#MMIWG2S #SistersInSpirit #IndigenousJustice
Seriously TV is on to something: mistreatment of native Americans
fb.watch/Cewb52uBmV/?...
