By Mordecai Specktor It’s murder in Minneapolis I stopped by the Pow Wow Grounds coffee shop on Sunday afternoon, January 25. It was the day after Border Patrol agents gunned down Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at the VA hospital in Minneapolis. Pretti was pumped full of US government bullets on Nicollet Avenue just […]
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By Mordecia Specktor Trump, Epstein and the R-word In July, the current occupant of the White House was bombarded by questions about the late child rapist Jeffrey Epstein. Trump and Epstein had a long, close friendship — a Google search will reveal numerous photos and videos of the pair partying together. There are also photos […]
By Mordecai Specktor Defunding Indian health care In my April column, I wrote about the chaos created by Trump 2.0 administration and MAGA congressional policies: a proposal to delist the gray wolf from the Endangered Species Act and reorienting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to further the president’s call to “drill, baby, drill.” I also […]
By Mordecai Specktor Ma’iingan, Brother Wolf, in danger The Musk (Trump) administration continues apace to dismantle the federal government. And a number of the changes wrought by the DOGE wrecking crew and the president’s sycophants are impacting tribes across the country. For example, Trump’s minions are seeking to remove gray wolves from the Endangered Species […]
By Mordecai Specktor Trump threatens Kalaallit Nunaat I checked The Circle website for references to “Greenland” and two article showed up. There was a Sept. 2011 article about Thundercloud Radio, an Internet radio station that plays varied Native genres and “Native tracks from Hawaii to Greenland.” The second article was the “Political Matters” column from […]
By Mordecai Specktor Biden commutes Peltier’s sentence In one of his last official acts, on Jan. 20, Pres. Joe Biden commuted the prison sentence of Leonard Peltier, who has been serving two consecutive life terms for the murder of two FBI agents on June 26, 1975, during a shootout at Oglala, on the Pine Ridge […]
By Mordecai Specktor Yintah means ‘land’ In my Dec. 2024 column, I wrote about threats to the environment and to tribal sovereignty posed by the incoming Trump 2.0 administration. The Orange Führer is assembling a Cabinet of grifters and right-wing extremists to execute his benighted policies. For example, Kristi Noem, the So. Dakota governor and […]
By Mordecai Specktor A coming assault on Mother Earth I’ve read numerous 2024 election post-mortems. The New Yorker magazine’s Nov. 7 issue featured an array of election reflections by scholars and authors. For example, author Lorrie Moore pondered the “continued appeal” of Trump, whose “animal intelligence has slightly diminished and become a little more deranged. […]
By Mordecai Specktor Elections 2024 and the aftermath From time to time, I’ve noted Donald Trump’s hostility to American Indians. Going back 30 years, Trump derided tribes opening casinos that could compete with his Atlantic City gambling emporiums (which he later bankrupted). “Donald Trump claimed that Indian reservations had fallen under mob control. He secretly […]
By Mordecai Specktor A Native woman governor Minnesota is one of 28 states that has never had a woman governor. That could change in 2025, if Gov. Tim Walz becomes vice president of the United States. Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, would ascend to the governorship — […]
By Mordecai Specktor In the West My wife, Maj-Britt, and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary in January. And in July, we gathered the family for a belated celebration. This was our first all-family trip that included our two adorable little grandkids. Our son Max, who’s been living in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the past five […]
