by Rich Wandschneider | Jan 17, 2026 | African Americans, Alvin Josephy, American Indian history, assimilation, bureau of Indian Affairs, Civil Rights Movement, Civil War, Depression, Donald Trump, Eisenhower, expulsions, German immigrants, ICE, immigration, Indian assimilation, Indian boarding schools, Indian Relocation, Indian reservations, Indians and fire, Nixon on Indians, Termination, Termination act, termination policy
I thought about this as the president rampaged against the “garbage” people and country of Somalia. When he asked why we couldn’t get more people from Norway, Sweden, or Denmark. And a year ago, when he and the Veep went on about Haitian immigrants eating pets in...
by Rich Wandschneider | Jul 18, 2023 | assimilation, Assimilationists, boarding schools, Don Gray, Judd Koehn, Tom Dimond
A couple of weeks ago I went with friends to an art opening for Judd Koehn at the Pendleton Arts Center. Judd is a retired art professor who taught for many years at Eastern Oregon University. Once, a long time ago, when we bought the building that became the Bookloft...
by Rich Wandschneider | Jan 14, 2022 | assimilation, boarding schools, Indian Child Welfare Act, Indian Freedom of Religion Act
Over 400 men and women in their 30s, 40s, and 50s who were adopted by American parents from Chile during the reign of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) are finding each other. They are learning that their biological mothers were told that they had died in childbirth, and...
by Rich Wandschneider | Nov 12, 2021 | Alvin Josephy, American Indians, Appomattox. Robert E. Lee, assimilation, Bing Crosby, buffalo, Cour d'Alene Tribe, demise of buffalo, Indian agriculture, Indian history, Indian Relocation, Indian removal, Indian reservations, Indian slavery, Indian survival, Indians and salmon, Indians in unexpected places
“Rumble” is a 2017 Canadian documentary film that I’d missed until it hit public television. I watched it twice, taking notes the second time, wanting to get in my mind the names of Rock n’ Roll, jazz, and blues musicians I’d listened to—and many I had not heard or...
by Rich Wandschneider | Sep 24, 2021 | Afghanistan, assimilation, Haudenosaunee, Iroquis Legue
I sat down to a long cup of coffee with Leif Christoffersen, a Norwegian-American with long experience in African and Latin American countries and international aid organizations. It was at the time of the American pullout from Afghanistan, and I asked Leif what he...
by Rich Wandschneider | Dec 21, 2020 | assimilation, Deb Haaland, Department of Interior, Erdrich, Joy Harjo, Momaday, Philip Deloria, Poet laureate, Silko, termination policy
Deb Haaland, President-elect Biden’s nominee for Secretary of the Department of the Interior, is a 35th generation New Mexican who is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna. She will be the first enrolled member of an American Indian Nation to serve as a Cabinet...
