Frank Hopper
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Articles by Frank Hopper
Puyallup elder Ramona Bennett Bill recounts the fight for Native rights
TEAR GAS, WHIZZING BULLETS, burning fires and hundreds of cops swinging billy clubs — that’s what Indigenous warriors faced when the Puyallup Fishing Protection Camp was razed by Tacoma police on Sept. 9, 1970. On that day, the tide turned in the fight to protect Native fishing rights in Washington. The confrontation had been building for more than a century. Puyallup elder and activist Ramona Bennett Bill was there.
The Makah Tribe Is Calling Back the Whales
Celebrating the Tribe’s victory in their decades-long struggle to legally resume hunting gray whales. A single road provides access to the town of Neah Bay, Washington, on the Makah Reservation—a narrow ribbon of asphalt that skirts the lush cloak of evergreen skyscrapers called the Olympic Rainforest. As we get closer, I see the waters of the Strait of Juan De Fuca to the north flowing into Puget Sound.
The Fight to Repatriate Indigenous Students Who Died at Boarding Schools
Why you can trust us On March 31, the Department of Government Efficiency announced cuts of $1.6 million to projects designed to preserve the stories of federal Indian boarding school victims and provide healing to their descendants. These grants—canceled by the National Endowment for the Humanities—included $282,000 that would have gone to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Commission and enabled the digitization of more than 100,000 pages of boarding school records.
What Makah Whaling Teaches About the Importance of Food Sovereignty
Why you can trust us A single road provides access to the town of Neah Bay, Washington, on the Makah Reservation—a narrow ribbon of asphalt that skirts the lush cloak of evergreen skyscrapers called the Olympic Rainforest. As we get closer, I see the waters of the Strait of Juan De Fuca to the north flowing into Puget Sound.
In Defense of the Herring People
Once, you could plunge a branch into the waters off Sitka, Alaska, where the herring spawned, and it would stand straight up amid all the herring eggs. Now, the branches used by the Tlingit people there to collect the herring eggs for subsistence use are more often than not only sparsely coated. Commercial fishing boats are the cause. We Tlingit have been harvesting herring eggs for thousands of years.
In Defense of the Herring People
Once, you could plunge a branch into the waters off Sitka, Alaska, where the herring spawned, and it would stand straight up amid all the herring eggs. Now, the branches used by the Tlingit people there to collect the herring eggs for subsistence use are more often than not only sparsely coated. Commercial fishing boats are the cause. We Tlingit have been harvesting herring eggs for thousands of years.
How the Puyallup Tribe Increased Police Accountability in Washington
Why you can trust us This month marks four years since Manuel Ellis, a 33-year-old African American man, was killed by Tacoma police. Despite the all-too-familiar injustice of the killing, something happened in the aftermath that had never before occurred in Washington state: The police who killed him were put on trial for murder.
‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Sidesteps the Issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
By Frank Hopper Note to readers who have not yet seen the film or read the book: This story includes spoilers. The $200 million epic film Killers of the Flower Moon, directed by master filmmaker Martin Scorsese begins, after a brief but beautiful prologue, with Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Ernest Burkhart arriving by train in the Oklahoma town of Grey Horse.
The Matriarchs Who Helped Seattle’s Urban Native Population
By Frank Hopper The streets of downtown Seattle in the 1950s and ’60s were the edge of a cliff for many Native American, Alaska Native, and First Nations people. The land that once nurtured them was now covered with cold concrete buildings into which they were not allowed entry. The sidewalks and parks became their homes when they couldn’t get a day-labor job, or maybe they spent a few nights in a decaying hotel when they could.
‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Sidesteps the Issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Sidesteps the Issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Published November 14, 2023 Note to readers who have not yet seen the film or read the book: This story includes spoilers. The $200 million epic film Killers of the Flower Moon, directed by master filmmaker Martin Scorsese begins, after a brief but beautiful prologue, with Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Ernest Burkhart arriving by train in the Oklahoma town of Grey Horse.
Scorcese Misses the Mark on the Issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
Note to readers who have not yet seen the film or read the book: This story includes spoilers. The $200 million epic film Killers of the Flower Moon, directed by master filmmaker Martin Scorsese begins, after a brief but beautiful prologue, with Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Ernest Burkhart arriving by train in the Oklahoma town of Grey Horse.
‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Sidesteps the Issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
Why you can trust us Note to readers who have not yet seen the film or read the book: This story includes spoilers. The $200 million epic film Killers of the Flower Moon, directed by master filmmaker Martin Scorsese begins, after a brief but beautiful prologue, with Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Ernest Burkhart arriving by train in the Oklahoma town of Grey Horse.
Calling Tokitae Home
Salmon are thought to remember the smell of their home streams. When ready to spawn, they often travel thousands of miles through the ocean, then upriver against the current, flinging themselves up rapids and falls, all in a relentless drive to return to the stream where they were born. Both life and death come together at the spawning ground, as one generation is born and another dies.
The Day the Indians Took Over Seattle’s Fort Lawton-and Won Land Back
Why you can trust us The takeover began at dawn. Indigenous occupation parties stormed the fort from three sides, from the south up the steep, 100-foot bluffs overlooking Puget Sound, from the north over razor wire-topped fences, and through the front gate. On March 8, 1970, between 85 and 100 Native American, Alaska Native, and First Nations warriors, including women and children, breached the decommissioned Army base’s perimeter and announced they were reclaiming Seattle’s Fort Lawton.
A league of their own: How 7 women aided Seattle’s Native community
The kind Native women who volunteered there were not outsiders or government workers. They were Native mothers and grandmothers who saw in the faces of the Native street people the eyes of their ancestors pleading for help. Seven Native mothers, led by Pearl Warren from the Makah tribe, formed the first “urban Indian” support organization in the country, the American Indian Women’s Service League.
The Matriarchs Who Helped Seattle’s Urban Native Population
Explainer A data-driven story that provides background, definition and detail on a specific topic. Native rightsIndigenous landsHealth care “Helping fellow Native people became the most powerful medicine the service league dispensed for healing a generation of wounded spirits.” Why you can trust us The streets of downtown Seattle in the 1950s and ’60s were the edge of a cliff for many Native American, Alaska Native, and First Nations people.
Kim Stanley Robinson: “Climate, Fiction, and The Future”
Nate Hagens Nate is a well-known speaker on the big picture issues facing human society and currently teaches a systems synthesis Honors seminar at the University of Minnesota ‘Reality 101 – A Survey of the Human Predicament’ Nate is on the Boards of Post Carbon Institute, Bottleneck Foundation, IIER and Institute for the Study of Energy and the Future.
Climate Action Epistemology Part 4: Technological Potential in the IPCC Mitigation Report
Ed. note: You can find Parts 1, 2, and 3 of this series on Resilience.org here, here, and here. Despite the IPCC report broadening its focus by including a chapter on demand management, the rest of its chapters primarily explore technological means of addressing the climate crisis. When climate mitigation literature maintains such an emphasis, it’s not surprising that many see decarbonization as purely an engineering issue.
Universal public services: the power of decommodifying survival
One of the central insights emerging from research on degrowth and climate mitigation is that universal public services are crucial to a just and effective transition. Capitalism relies on maintaining an artificial scarcity of essential goods and services (like housing, healthcare, transport, etc), through processes of enclosure and commodification.
On planning and disaster: Notes from an earthquake
How disasters are baked into Turkey’s developmental model—and what kind of opposition could emerge out of the ruins of the earthquake It has been nearly two months since February 6th, when two consecutive earthquakes of 7.8 and 7.7 magnitudes originating in the towns of Maraş and Antep took place. The earthquake has had a devastating effect across a large geographical area near the Turkish-Syrian border, that spans the historic lands of Kurdistan and Turkey as well as Northern Syria and Rojava.
‘Farewell to Growth’ Serge Latouche (2007)
Politicians and the media obsess about ‘economic growth’; but what if that ‘glorious thirty years’ of economic expansion from the 1960s has ended? This landmark text of the degrowth movement explores why growth’s ‘end is nigh’, and why this should be welcomed. To suggest that further economic growth has become near impossible is a ‘secular heresy’; one so great it automatically excludes that person from a leading role in politics or the media.
Reclaiming Salish Canoe Culture in the Shadow of Tech Giants
Jan. 6 was a typical overcast day in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood. Few of the tech workers from the nearby offices of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft were outside at lunchtime. Only a few could be seen walking their dogs in Lake Union Park. The whining of car tires zooming along Aurora Avenue to the west and Interstate 5 to the east drowned out all natural sounds.
Reclaiming Salish Canoe Culture in the Shadow of Tech Giants
News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Seattle’s South Lake Union may be home to Facebook, Google, and Amazon, but now, thanks to Native rights activists, it will once again be home to hand-carved canoes, too. Why you can trust us Jan. 6 was a typical overcast day in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood.
Texas Tribe Sues Elon Musk to Protect Sacred Sites From SpaceX
Skip to content Skip to footer Musk has bought the favor of local governments in return for jobs and an infusion of his wealth into the community. From an observation deck near the top of his South Texas rocket launch tower, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and self-proclaimed proponent of free speech, looks northward to South Padre Island, home to many ancient village sites of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas.
Defending Native Sacred Sites From Elon Musk and SpaceX
From an observation deck near the top of his South Texas rocket launch tower, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and self-proclaimed proponent of free speech, looks northward to South Padre Island, home to many ancient village sites of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. In a video published last May to the YouTube channel Everyday Astronaut, Musk is seen looking over the tower’s railing and down at a “farm” of huge rocket fuel storage tanks filled with liquid oxygen and methane gas.
Alaska Natives Use Virtual Imagery to Preserve and Pass on Culture
News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Thanks to digitization, a fragile Tlingit ceremonial garment is once again teaching traditional weaving techniques. Why you can trust us It was not a pretty robe when it arrived at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage last spring. The tassels were frayed and twisted, the colors faded.
Smoked Salmon for Amelia: A Native Perspective on Homelessness
The city of Tacoma, Washington, now sits on what was once Puyallup tribal land. Many little villages of wooden longhouses once sat by streams and rivers. Food and shelter for the Puyallup came from the land, as did their identity and sense of being. They were bound to their environment through song, story, art, and ritual. The Puyallup knew nothing of homelessness. Strong kinship ties made sure everyone had a place to stay and food to eat. Today, that spiritual tapestry is virtually gone.
Opinion | How I Survived Prison With Native Spirituality and Mystery Science Theater 3000
“In the not-too-distant future, Next Sunday, A.D., There was a guy named Joel, Not too different from you or me.” If you know the tune that goes with these lyrics, I consider you my friend. Mystery Science Theater 3000, the TV show with movie-riffing puppets from the early 1990s, whose theme song began this way, became an important part of my life in 1992.
The PBS Show Celebrating Alaska Native Communities
News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. The Indigenous writers and developers of “Molly of Denali” also share their own stories—and find healing in the process. Why you can trust us The first episode of the PBS animated children’s program Molly of Denali features the 10-year-old Athabascan girl Molly Mabray going on a quest to find her grandpa’s drum. Her Grandpa Nat once loved his people’s songs.
National Native American Veterans Memorial artist explains his design
Washington is filled with statues and monuments. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting one. Bronze or marble statues of famous people stand on stone platforms in parks all over the city. But Native people know a monument, such as the planned National Native American Veterans Memorial, is merely a reminder of the true monument, which is created within the human heart. And this true monument isn’t built with a chisel and a hammer. It is built with ceremony.
‘Justice for Jackie’ gets police use of deadly force bill onto Washington ballot
Puyallup supports the law limiting the use of deadly force by law enforcement in Washington state When Puyallup Tribal member Jacqueline Salyers was killed by a Tacoma Police officer in January 2016, her cousin Chester Earl made a promise to Salyer’s mother, Lisa Earl. "I told her, 'I promise you I will be here until we find justice for Jackie.'" Earl told Indian Country Today that he kept that promise.
Richard Oakes legacy: 'Alcatraz is not an island. It's an idea'
Richard Oakes, Akwesasne Mohawk, was a street fighter, a gang member and an ex-con. From age 16 he worked on riveting crews building skyscrapers high above Manhattan, just like his father and uncles. At night he ran with a Native American gang in Brooklyn in the Mohawk neighborhood known as “Little Caughnawaga” and fought in turf wars against other ethnic gangs.
Native protectors at Wash. State Capitol square off with riot police, and stay put
“Where’s Jay?” That's what Indigenous protectors occupying the steps of the Washington State Legislative Building have been saying for over two weeks. Members of the group, Protectors of the Salish Sea, founded and led by Paul Chiyokten Wagner of the Saanich Nation, have kept a 24-hour vigil on the steps of the capitol building since September 24. They say they’ll stay until Gov.
Carrizo-Comecrudo block construction on border wall with cease and desist order
There’s more than one way to skin a buffalo… or stop a border wall’s construction. Instead of taking the feds to court or holding a rally or a march, the Carrizo-Comecrudo Tribe of South Texas have come up with a novel way to halt the construction of President Trump’s border wall: Tell the workers to stop working. On Monday, Tribal Chair Juan B. Mancias issued a cease and desist order to employees working for a border wall subcontractor, a geological survey company called Southwest Drilling.
Yabuk’ʷali, the Tacoma ‘Fishing Wars’ bridge, is still the place for a fight
The old bridge where police officers gathered in preparation to raid the Puyallup Fish Camp on the banks of the Puyallup River 49 years ago on September 9, 1970, is getting a new name: “Yabuk’ʷali” meaning “place of a fight” in Twulshootseed. The newly remodeled bridge officially reopened on September 14 and will be more commonly referred to by its new English name, The Fishing Wars Memorial Bridge. Puyallup drum circle.
Case dismissed, records unsealed: Iron Eyes wins release of NoDAPL documents
On August 28, a victory in the “war of the NoDAPL narrative” occurred when a judge agreed to release 12 previously sealed depositions of law enforcement officers in the criminal case against Standing Rock water protector, attorney and Lakota People’s Law Project member Chase Iron Eyes.
Case dismissed, records unsealed: Iron Eyes wins release of NoDAPL documents
On August 28, a victory in the “war of the NoDAPL narrative” occurred when a judge agreed to release 12 previously sealed depositions of law enforcement officers in the criminal case against Standing Rock water protector, attorney and Lakota People’s Law Project member Chase Iron Eyes.
Tlingit carvers create ‘Shaming Totem’ of Trump and Alaska Governor Dunleavy
Did the Tlingit “shaming” totem pole featuring images of President Trump and Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy cause the governor to restore most of the nearly half a billion dollars he cut from the state budget? Well, it didn’t hurt. The 11-and-a-half foot red cedar pole arrived in the state capital of Juneau from where it was carved in Sitka just in time for the kickoff of the Recall Dunleavy signature drive on August 1.
National Native American Veterans Memorial artist explains his design
Washington is filled with statues and monuments. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting one. Bronze or marble statues of famous people stand on stone platforms in parks all over the city. But Native people know a monument such as the planned National Native American Veterans Memorial is merely a reminder of the true monument, which is created within the human heart. And this true monument isn’t built with a chisel and a hammer. It is built with ceremony.
Alaska's first Katie John Day: A celebration of her fight for subsistence rights - IndianCountryToday.com
She took on the state of Alaska and sued them for taking away her people’s right to fish for subsistence food. It went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, all Alaska Native people benefit from her victory. Her name was Katie John, but everyone called her “Tsucde” (pronounced shook-da) which means Grandma. She had 14 children and adopted several others.
Carrizo/Comecrudo save cemetery from border wall, but the war against it goes on
He got off his warrior horse and walked to the middle of the camp and opened the deerskin with his knife. As the contents fell to the ground, there came upon our people a silence as we saw that the hair of the Long Robes (Catholic priests) and Long Spears (soldiers) lay before us. My father raised his spear and said, “Los alcoholes del viento aquí yo chief de Naz`tazea del Carrizo, le traemos el ofrecimiento de nuestros enemigos. Demando esta pista como la pista nosotros fue tomada una vez de.
Former Rapid City mayoral candidate recounts possible racial profiling incidents
On May 28, just one week before the election in which she was running for mayor of Rapid City, South Dakota, Cheyenne River Sioux member Natalie Stites-Means received a knock on the door. When she opened it she was greeted by police in full tactical gear, one of whom was carrying a riot shield. “They were looking for my stepson,” Stites-Means told Indian Country Today. “He had a felony warrant out for his arrest on a non-violent offense.
147-year-old ‘finders keepers’ mining law threatens ancient Tlingit village, protects mining companies
Will a 147-year-old mining law cause the destruction of one of the last centers of Tlingit culture in Alaska? The Tlingit President of the Chilkat Indian Village of Klukwan, Kimberly Strong, says not on her watch. “I don’t want to go down in history as the last tribal leader of the Chilkat Indian Village of Klukwan.
What’s Memorial Day for? The warriors, not the countries. A Nooksack Vietnam war vet’s story
Last November I attended a fundraising event for the planned National Native American Veterans Memorial at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. It was the Thursday before Veteran’s Day. Inside, the museum was dark, like a nightclub, and members of the waitstaff zoomed in and out among the gathering handing out fluted glasses of wine. The men in attendance wore suits and the women wore striking evening attire.
State Attorney General announces free, prior and informed consent policy with Washington tribes
Once, there was no easy recourse for tribes when governments or corporations engaged in one-sided, or unilateral, actions that negatively affected them. But on May 10, a major milestone in the fight for Native sovereignty was reached when Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced a new state policy regarding Washington’s federally-recognized tribes.
Washington governor withdraws support of LNG plant, sides with Puyallup Tribe
The Puyallup Tribe received some good news on Wednesday when Washington Governor Jay Inslee announced he no longer supports the construction of a liquified natural gas plant (LNG plant) on the Puyallup River Tideflats in Tacoma. The plant, which the tribe has opposed since 2015, would produce up to a half million gallons of highly volatile liquefied natural gas per day and would store up to 8 million gallons of it in a huge tank located at the facility. Gov.
Washington governor withdraws support of LNG plant, sides with Puyallup Tribe
The Puyallup Tribe received some good news on Wednesday when Washington Governor Jay Inslee announced he no longer supports the construction of a liquified natural gas plant (LNG plant) on the Puyallup River Tideflats in Tacoma. The plant, which the tribe has opposed since 2015, would produce up to a half million gallons of highly volatile liquefied natural gas per day and would store up to 8 million gallons of it in a huge tank located at the facility. Gov.
‘Kill the bill! Save the land!’ Native protectors disrupt Texas legislature
Indigenous land and water protectors in Austin, Texas, briefly disrupted the state legislature on Tuesday when they unfurled two banners in the Texas State House of Representatives and shouted, “Kill the bill! Save the land!” The action was intended to stop the passage of House Bill 3557, which would increase the seriousness of violations that interfere with “critical infrastructure,” such as pipelines, by elevating them from misdemeanors to felonies.
Makah one step closer to hunting whales: Animal rights extremists continue to oppose it
After 25 years of legal maneuvering, the Makah are now one year away from resuming a tradition central to their culture and identity, the hunting of gray whales. On April 5, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration submitted a proposal to the federal government that would allow the Makah to harvest an average of two gray whales per year for the next 10 years.
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