Mary Annette Pember

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A Fearless Fight Against Historical Trauma, the Yup’ik Way

A Fearless Fight Against Historical Trauma, the Yup'ik Way

They were building the young man’s coffin in the front yard when we arrived. Portable construction lights harshly illuminated the scene as men worked in the shadowy dawn that lasts almost until noon out here on the tundra. The men worked steadily and quietly in a manner that suggested front-yard…

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Successful Tribes Are Reshaping Governance

Successful Tribes Are Reshaping Governance

American Indian communities are often offered up as the gold standard of dysfunction in America. With our high rates of entrenched poverty, we top the lists of addiction, suicide and other social ills. It’s platitude that, frankly, gets tiring to hear. We in the media like to describe the best and…