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When I was 24 years old, I worked the graveyard shift at a youth hostel in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. It was fine, sometimes even fun. I rarely felt unsafe in that neighborhood, but I often felt unsafe while doing my job. There was the long-term resident, a student, who would call me at the front […]

Strong urban Indian communities today are the legacy of survivors who refused to let the colonizers win.  Tribal people from across our lands were sent to boarding schools and forced to relocate to cities, all in the hopes of disconnecting them from family, home and culture. Generations of U.S. politicians worked to slowly “kill the Indian, […]

I’ve never been much of a history student, but lately I’ve been reading up on fascism, prepping for a course I’ll be delivering through Cal Poly Humboldt’s OLLI program for people 50 and older. Here are the basics of what I’ve learned. Much of this is from Robert O. Paxton’s The Anatomy of Fascism. Lest […]

Seniors, beware: Traditional Medicare is under attack. It was established 56 years ago for the health benefit of all seniors and those with chronic disabilities. It is already almost half gone — and without public outcry it will never return.  Medicare disintegration started with a program with the misleading name of Medicare Advantage, run by […]

The Earth flag flies on the Arcata Plaza. That is good. But wait! The plaza flagpole order is not logical. The American flag flies at the top, the California flag beneath it and the Earth flag at the bottom. Doesn’t the Earth encompass all nations and all states? Isn’t the well-being of the Earth essential […]

What do the Zero Waste philosophy and New Year’s resolutions have in common? They both come from hope for a better future. Researchers say about 60 percent of us make New Year’s resolutions, but only about 8 percent are successful in achieving them. In terms of reducing waste that contributes to global warming, this is […]

We need a dramatic shift in our efforts to curb wildfires in California. Instead of reacting to wildfires, we need to utilize the knowledge of Indigenous people on managing the land.  When it comes to fire prevention, the wisdom of Indigenous tribes like the Yurok, Karuk, Hoopa and Wintun is unparalleled. Indigenous knowledge and connection […]

When President Joe Biden nominated me to be the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, I felt the profound importance of what that moment meant for Indigenous peoples in our country. I knew then, as I still feel now, that we’re at the beginning of a new era where Indigenous knowledge in our work to combat […]