by Rich Wandschneider | Sep 13, 2025 | Gaza, Indian removal, Israel, Netanyahu, Nez Perce, Nez Perce National Park, Nez Perce War
In 1877, General O.O. Howard gave the Nez Perce 30 days to leave the Wallowa and get themselves to the much-reduced reservation at Lapwai in Idaho. Other “non-treaty” bands on the other side of the Snake River were given the same orders. There were killings of...
by Rich Wandschneider | Aug 21, 2025 | Gaza, Indian history, Israel, Netanyahu, Vietnam
In Monday’s news from Palestine, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Hamas is “willing to discuss a hostage deal only due to the fear that we intend to invade Gaza,” adding that “conquering Gaza City will lead to Hamas’...
by Rich Wandschneider | Aug 11, 2025 | Eisenhower, frybread, Gaza, Holocaust, Long Walk, Navajo
How can there be an argument about starvation in Gaza? If a tenth of the news account are not doctored, if a tenth of the videos of people running and stumbling—and in some cases dying—as food aid is dropped in parachuted bundles from planes are true, Gaza is a...
by Rich Wandschneider | Aug 9, 2025 | Columbia River, Indian removal, Indian survival, Indian Territory, Indian treaties, John Marshall, Klamath, Nez Perce, Nez Perce Fisheries, Pacific Northwest, salmon, Snake River, Snake River dams, Supreme Court
I just watched the Washington Post’s account of the 15 young tribal members who kayaked the 310-mile length of the Klamath River this summer. They had trained hard, become excellent paddlers, readying themselves as the river was readying itself for them; the river...
by Rich Wandschneider | Jul 24, 2025 | 1968, Civil Rights, fire, martin luther king, President Johnson, Robert F. Kennedy, Vietnam
1968 was a hard year in America. The assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy rocked us, and the riots and fires that followed on the streets of cities, including Washington D.C., made it seem like an all-out revolution or civil war might come. Civil...
by Rich Wandschneider | Jul 11, 2025 | Gaza, Hamas, Indian removal, Indian Territory, Indian treaties, John Marshall, Termination, Termination act
In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the “Indian Removal Act,” which authorized the government to negotiate treaties with the remnants of all Eastern Tribes to purchase their lands and move them west of the Mississippi River. In a lawsuit brought by the educated...
by Rich Wandschneider | Jul 4, 2025 | 4th of July, Albert Andrews, Code of Indian Offenses, Colville Reservation, Indian assimilation, Indian boarding schools, Indian Offenses, Nespelem, Nex Perce history, Nez Perce, Nez Perce Homeland, Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland, Nez Perce War, Nezpercians
Years ago, Albert Red Star Andrews of the Joseph Band of Nez Perce on the Colville Reseravtion in north central Washington, told me about a unique Fourth of July event on his reservation. It was called Pasapalloynin, meaning “to make them rejoice, to make them happy!”...
by Rich Wandschneider | Jun 16, 2025 | Klamath, Nez Perce, Shannon Wheeler, Snake River, Snake River dams, Yurok
In an age of rapid and vast migrations, political polarization, and uncertain and severe weather events, American Indians seem to be a calm in the middle of many storms. Maybe indigenous peoples in other countries sit at their own centers, with the same continental...
by Rich Wandschneider | May 28, 2025 | Andrew Jackson, Indian removal, Indian Territory, Indian treaties, Indian wars
I highly recommend a free subscription to “Native News Online”—and a donation as well. Today’s juicy reminder, the anniversary of the Indian Removal Act. In 1830, the burgeoning United States sought to put all Native Americans east of the Mississippi River out of...
by Rich Wandschneider | May 14, 2025 | immigration, Sand Creek Massacre, Turkey, Turks, Uncategorized, Wounded Knee
It’s a cliché, usually used to describe investigations or interrogations. One cop is hard and tough, the other softer—more understanding. They work over the witness or the alleged perpetrator of a crime, and in the back and forth between good and bad cop a truth—or a...
by Rich Wandschneider | Apr 30, 2025 | Joseph Oregon, Josephy Center, Nez Perce art, Nez Perce Homeland, Nez Perce Tourism, Nez Perce Tribe
We opened “Bloodlines: Nez Perce Art” on Saturday at the Josephy Center. Bloodlines, we thought, would describe the multigenerational and family nature of the art. And traditional weaving and ledger art could stand beside bright modern acrylic paintings. The show...
by Rich Wandschneider | Apr 26, 2025 | Chief Joseph, Colville Reservation, Colville tribes, First Foods, Indian religion, Nex Perce history, Nez Perce, Nez Perce Homeland, Nez Perce treaty, Nez Perce Tribe, Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland, Nez Perce War
Last weekend four of us from Wallowa County made the long highway drive to Nespelem, Washington for the annual Nez Perce root feast. After a service of drumming, singing and testimony, we sat for a huge feast of “first foods.” Wild foods from water and salmon through...
by Rich Wandschneider | Apr 18, 2025 | indigenous art
ta ‘c halalaxp (Good Afternoon) A special note to my blog friends that we have a very good and important Nez Perce Art Show opening next week. “Bloodlines: Nez Perce Art”–refers to the continuity of Native culture. The artwork ranges from...
by Rich Wandschneider | Apr 13, 2025 | Chief Joseph, Eisenhower, Gaza, genocide, Israel, Nez Perce, Omar El Akkad
When tourists look at our wall display at the Josephy Center that tells a very brief story of the walwa ma, or Joseph, Band of the Nez. Perce Indians, they often shake their heads and say something like “It’s terrible what we did to Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce.”...
by Rich Wandschneider | Apr 10, 2025 | Donation Land Act, homestead act, Indian removal, Morill Act
Before passage of the sixteenth amendment and the establishment of the income tax in 1913, federal government funding came from tariffs. That is the narrative of the day. But, once again, we seem to have forgotten the place of Native America in our Euro-American...
by Rich Wandschneider | Mar 29, 2025 | greenland
Yesterday, Friday, March 28, President Trump reiterated his plan to “get” Greenland, “one way or another.” Vice President Vance, visiting a US base in Greenland—plans for a bigger, cultural visit with his wife were aborted after negative remarks by...
by Rich Wandschneider | Mar 24, 2025 | Code Talker
I will not add, or take away, a word from this piece in “Native News Online” this morning by Neely Bardwell On March 18, the flags of Arizona’s 22 tribal nations were removed from the Carl. T. Hayden VA Medical Center in central Phoenix and returned back...
by Rich Wandschneider | Mar 18, 2025 | ICE, Israel, Native Americans, Palestine
The move to strip Native Americans of their birthright citizenship has become quiet as the administration carries on campaigns to punish black and brown people of other places in other ways. The Indian issue seems to have gone away or never been—as Trump and...
by Rich Wandschneider | Mar 15, 2025 | Canadian border, Gaza, greenland, Hawaii, Idaho, joint occupancy, Oregon territory, Treaty of Ghent
The current border moving initiative in Oregon is only the latest in the historic record of border clashes, changes, and controversies. It has no real chance of success, but the issue has people talking—about land use planning, abortion, health care in general, sales...
by Rich Wandschneider | Mar 11, 2025 | Alvin Josephy, American Indian history, Chief Joseph, Indian country, Indian history, Indians, John F. Kennedy, Pacific Northwest, Peace Corps, portland art museum
I got news of the new exhibit at the Portland Art Museum from two friends. The show is “Psychedelic Rock Posters and Fashion of the 1960s,” and, knowing my work with Indians and relationship to the late Alvin Josephy, they sent images of an exhibit text around a book...
