Julian Brave Noisecat on Indigenous Narratives, Coyote Stories, and Native American Politics

The Coyote Story Tradition

• 🐺 Coyote stories are traditional trickster narratives from Indigenous cultures, featuring a forefather figure named Coyote who was sent to set things in order.
• 💡 Coyote, while performing good deeds like populating rivers with salmon, also exhibited complex traits such as womanizing and abandoning descendants, serving as an ancestor and an example of how not to be.
• 🧠 These stories are used to understand the complexity of the world, transformation, and the reasons behind the current state of affairs.

Personal Background and Identity

• 🏫 Julian Brave Noisecat's father was born in an Indian residential school, a place designed to unlearn Indigenous ways.
• 💔 His father was found in a trash incinerator shortly after birth, a story that later gave new meaning to the family name "Noise Cat."
• 🤝 His father, after moving away from his reserve, met Julian's mother, an Irish Jewish New Yorker, and reclaimed the ancestral name "Noiskit" (which became Noise Cat) upon marriage.

Political Activism and Native Affairs

• 🗳️ Before becoming a full-time writer and filmmaker, Julian was involved in politics, working as a political strategist and policy analyst.
• ✊ He was instrumental in originating the idea of making Deb Holland the first Native American cabinet secretary, employing outsider activist tactics.
• 🏛️ Deb Holland's appointment as Secretary of the Interior led to the first federal inquiry into Native American boarding schools, shedding light on cultural and language loss.

Indigenous Peoples' Day and Narrative Control

• 🗣️ The debate around Indigenous Peoples' Day versus Columbus Day is framed as an argument over narrative and culture, and whose stories are made visible.
• 🗺️ Indigenous perspectives often view the arrival of white people as tricksters, highlighting the theft of a continent through elaborate deceptions.
• ⚖️ The legal interpretation of treaties, particularly through an originalist lens, can be favorable to tribal rights, as seen in the McGirt v. Oklahoma Supreme Court case, which reaffirmed reservation status for a large part of Oklahoma.

Bipartisanship in Native Affairs

• 🤝 Despite broader political polarization, Indian affairs have often remained a less contentious area due to the invisibility of Native Americans in mainstream society.
• 🤝 Tribes navigate relationships with both Republican and Democratic parties to secure funding for services and gain freedom from federal oversight.
• ⚖️ The Supreme Court's favorable ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma, authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, exemplifies how a conservative legal interpretation can support tribal treaty rights.