Congresswomen Deb Haaland, Sharice Davids condemn treatment of Nathan Phillips
By Vincent Schilling

'The students’ display of blatant hate, disrespect, and intolerance is a signal of how common decency has decayed ...'
Updated as Sharice Davids has also commented publicly on Nathan Phillips
After a viral video of Native American Vietnam-era veteran, Nathan Phillips hit social media and an article was posted to Indian Country Today revealing his identity, Congresswoman Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids have condemned the treatment by the large group of non-Native students from Covington Catholic High School, who taunted, and mocked Phillips on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the end of the day’s Indigenous People’s March.
Congresswoman Deb Haaland made a strong statement on Twitter, writing: “This Veteran put his life on the line for our country. The students’ display of blatant hate, disrespect, and intolerance is a signal of how common decency has decayed under this administration. Heartbreaking.”
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No More Deaths volunteers begin trial among tensions with border authorities
By Nicole Ludden
Cronkite News/cronkitenews.azpbs.org

TUCSON, Arizona – In a vibrant display of freshly painted signs across the street from the courthouse, Dan Millis holds a tattered plastic sign that reads in bold letters, “Humanitarian aid is never a crime.”
When Millis was convicted of littering for leaving jugs of water along migrant paths in 2008, the same slogan was used to support his legal defense. That conviction later was overturned.
On Tuesday, he stood in support of four other volunteers facing charges for their own humanitarian work.
“I feel like it’s the same experience that I lived where you’re going about your business, trying to help people as a good Samaritan, yet suddenly the government, out of nowhere, decides to prosecute you,” Millis said.
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Federal lawsuit alleges U.S. Census Bureau ill-prepared for 2020 count
Dave Olson Forum News Service

FARGO — A federal lawsuit that contends inadequate funding and staffing at the U.S. Census Bureau will result in an undercount of racial and ethnic minorities in 2020 mentions a canceled census field test in North Dakota in 2017 that was intended to help the bureau accurately count Native American populations.
The federal lawsuit filed last March by the NAACP and joined by Prince George's County, Maryland — a predominately black county in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. — claims poor planning of the first digital census will worsen undercounts and leave the census vulnerable to cyber attacks.
To bolster its claims, the suit cites canceled field tests that had been planned for North Dakota, South Dakota, Puerto Rico and Washington state.
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How Native Culture Helped Shape Rock ’n’ Roll
Native musicians played an oversize role in the history of American music. A documentary to air on PBS sets the record straight.
By Rob Wilson -YES! Magazine/yesmagazine.org

It’s a guitar riff that’s only 30 seconds long and simple enough that Link Wray came up with it while playing at a sock hop. He repeated the riff several times when he recorded the 1958 single “Rumble.” That two minutes and 25 seconds of guitar nastiness inspired countless guitarists who followed and helped shift rock away from sock-hop chastity toward an edginess of danger.
One of the many parts of the history of “Rumble” forgotten is that the song was banned from the airwaves for a time because it was feared this instrumental—with no words!—might incite youth violence. Steven Van Zandt, of the E Street Band, called “Rumble” “the theme song of juvenile delinquency.”
“Rumble” contains one of the killer riffs in all of rock ’n’ roll and essentially marks the invention of the power chord, but one of the secrets of the song’s history is that Link Wray was Native American. His ethnicity, like that of many Natives who made contributions to music, was left out of almost all his press.
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