The most powerful force in Washington is the quiet, bipartisan agreement to underfund the same critical obligations, year after year.

It's a choice, not an accident.
#Politics #Policy #FederalBudget #Bipartisan #Washington #GovernmentSpending

mrw1zard.substack.com/p/different-...

I'm this much indian. #indianer

The mascots and names are sacrificial. They're built to be controversial, to be debated and eventually consumed, so you never question the permanent, powerful institutions that remain untouched behind the curtain of ash.

Read: mrw1zard.substack.com/p/matchstick...

The food you eat shapes your future. For generations, a federal program defined dinner: survival on the government's terms. But A quiet and determined few continue rewriting a decades-old relationship between Indigenous people and the food they eat.
mrw1zard.substack.com/p/pass-the-c...

A thirty-year-old law promised to return Native people. The process was stalled by loopholes and institutional delay. A fundamental shift is forcing a long-overdue conversation about possession, return and bureaucratic barriers to justice.

mrw1zard.substack.com/p/relative-s...
#NAGPRA #Repatriation

Federal offices are closed. Flights delayed. Programs stalled. Indigenous communities keep moving. Leaders make decisions, businesses operate, schools teach. Life doesn't wait. Resilience is action. #NativeNations #IndianCountry #CommunityPower

mrw1zard.substack.com/p/wheels-kee...

No thank you.

Toxic chemicals are turning water and land into a battleground across Indian Country. Native inuNations taking action in court, challenging corporations, and asserting their right to protect health, culture, and sovereignty.

mrw1zard.substack.com/p/infinite-c...

Every November, Native people pull themselves out of America's invisible story. Just like every day of the year, this impact sits just below the surface ready for everyone to be taken in.

mrw1zard.substack.com/p/beyond-a-n...

Washington just extended a key funding deadline, protecting over $500M for Native small businesses. The full story of this win for Native economic power is on Substack. Link also in bio.
mrw1zard.substack.com/p/pause-for-patience

#NativeBusiness #SSBCI

The Indian Affairs committee is debating the Lumbee Fairness Act. It's a clash over process and precedent.

Should one group have different rules than others? How does this matter for the federal recognition system?

mrw1zard.substack.com/p/rules-are-...

#Lumbee #FederalRecognition #IndianCountry

Indigenous leaders sign compacts for economic survival. The price is a piece of their sovereignty.

These are new age treaties. It happens with water rights, mineral leases, and now cannabis. Natives Nations are forced to accept terms that are always set by states.

open.substack.com/pub/mrw1zard...

Dig if you will a future. Where a Native Nation's success is measured only by its own people's well-being and its businesses money stays within, building and sustaining for generations. The only gaming compact a tribe needs is with its own vision for the future.

open.substack.com/pub/mrw1zard...

The Office of Indian Education just had 7 of its 9 people cut. This shows what the U.S. shutdown means for Native Nations.

It's not closed offices. It is a halted legal obligation.

The stakes beyond the politics.
open.substack.com/pub/mrw1zard...

#TreatyRights #TrustResponsibility #IndianCountry

In April, the Mashantucket Pequot Nation's $81,490 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities was terminated. The Department of Government Efficiency eliminated hundreds of humanities grants. The funds were redirected to support the Trump administration's "patriotic education" agenda.