Dr. Nicky Kay Michael

Threats to Meaningful Consultation in Indian Country Signal a New Termination Era By Nicky Kay Michael, PhD A political storm is threatening Indian Country similar to what US tribal nations faced in the 1950s termination era.   According to Scott Sypolt, Akerman Law, terminating the federal relationship of tribal nations did not begin with one major shift in political action.   Instead, termination was a series of reduced acts and exclusions which enabled a full onslaught called termination.   The US terminated their Trust relationship to 109 tribal nations from 1945-1960.   The federal responsibility and jurisdiction was turned over to state governments. Consequently, approximately 1,500,000 acres of trust land was removed from protected status and close to 12,000 Native Americans lost tribal affiliation. Much land was sold to non-Indians as a result.   While those are the official statistics, in no uncertain terms, termination devastated all of Indian Country.   The simple

Through the Eyes of the First Treaty People By Nicky Kay Michael, PhD March 1782, led by Captain David Williamson, Pennsylvania militiamen brutally massacred approximately ninety-six peaceful Mahican, or Munsee Lenape at Gnadenhutten effectively ending a dream of thousands of Indigenous refugee survivors to live peacefully within the fledgling United States. A mere four years earlier in 1778, the United States signed the country’s first Treaty with the Delaware Indians, a sovereign Nation, ensuring peaceful relations, protection against infringements and violence, and an all-Indian state with a representative in Congress. As a result of this massacre, the main body of Lenape (Delaware) refused missionaries for over fifty years and were reduced to starvation and relocations, although Moravian missionaries continued their efforts among the Munsee. They lived a life on the move, continued their long-term alliance with their Shawnee relatives, and warred against the Americans. Dela

#Herstorymatters By Nicky Kay Michael, PhD Indigenous Nations Studies Professor The United States could take a chapter from our northern relatives in Canada who are raising awareness of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG).   The Red Dress Project is one of many awareness programs.   The Red Dress Project is a particularly haunting campaign which evokes the silence of the missing women.   Images of dresses on hangers hang loosely on fences, trees, or any appendage, just as any place a woman could disappear.   The red material, where once beautiful female body filled, moves in the breeze, silent—just like the silence of the answers to their disappearances and murders.   There is a powerful message in the silence of the empty red dresses; the emptiness of the mother, sister, or daughter who once wore that dress.   While her physical presence is gone, she lives on in our memories, hearts, and minds.   We will not forget her.   We will not let her mem