Indigenous Solidarity

This Native American Heritage Month, it's time to destroy the harmful Thanksgiving myth. The common story that our white supremacist education system (at least in the US) teaches us is that the Pilgrims who came to Plymouth hosted a celebratory dinner alongside the Indigenous Mashpee Wampanoag peoples on Thanksgiving in 1621. However, the truth is that Thanksgiving marked a massacre of Indigenous people (specifically the Pequot community) and part of the beginning of the violent settler colonialism that is the foundation of today's United States (source: @dineaesthetics on Instagram).

​To properly honor this National Day of Mourning, there are some important things that non-Native people (everywhere, but especially in the US) should do. Below is a non-exhaustive list of resources and action items.

We Are Matching Donations!

One of the most substantial and concrete things that you should do if you have the means is to financially repay the Indigenous peoples whose land you stand on. This falls under the broader concept of land acknowledgement, a process in which you identify and acknowledge the tribes whose land you reside on and build authentically supportive relationships with those communities.

To that end, LingHacks has held physical events on Chochenyo, Ohlone, Ramaytush, and Tamyen land, and we are committing to match up to $1500 in donations to these communities as well as other Indigenous mutual aid funds. This amount is approximately equal to the venue fees we have paid to hold our events on these lands. To get your donation matched, make a donation to one of the organizations/funds below, and send your receipt to team@linghacks.tech. Make sure the receipt clearly indicates the name of the organization that you donated to. Below are the organizations that we will match donations for (thanks in part to Harvard's Institute of Politics and the American Library Association for some of these links):

• Indigenous Mutual Aid
• Any organization or fund in the Indigenous Mutual Aid directory
• First Nations Development Institute COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund
• NDN Collective COVID-19 Response Project
• Flicker Fund
• Seeding Sovereignty
• Sogorea Te' Land Trust
• Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund
• Native American Rights Fund
• National Indian Child Welfare Association
• California Indian Legal Services
• National Indigenous Women's Resource Center
• Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance
• Meskwaki Food Sovereignty Initiative
• Navajo Water Project
• Sovereign Bodies Institute
• Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness
• Piscataway Conoy Tribe
• A mutual aid fund serving the tribes in your local community, subject to our discretion. Send us the name of the city/state/country you live in, the website of the tribe(s) whose land you live on, and the link to the mutual aid fund supporting the tribe(s) along with your receipt. Make sure the organization/fund is Native-led (i.e. no white-led "philanthropic" nonprofits) and explicitly supports Indigenous communities (we do encourage you to practice mutual aid in your general community, but we will be focusing on matching donations to Indigenous peoples at this time).

Though we will keep this match open until we reach the cap, we encourage you to make your donations within the next ~20 days, as many of these funds are emergency COVID-19 relief funds that Indigenous communities need quite urgently. With that being said, we do still encourage you to make these donations a recurring habit if able, as decolonization is a long-term effort, and these communities need long-term support.

If you run an organization (e.g. a hackathon, nonprofit, conference, club, etc), especially one that has held physical events, we encourage you to (1) run a similar donation match, (2) factor compensation for Indigenous lands into your venue fees going forward, and (3) use your social media platforms to amplify Indigenous creators, organizers, and mutual aid funds.

Other Ways to Help

We recognize that not everyone has the means to donate at this time. If you are not able to financially contribute right now (or even if you are), here are some other ways you can help Indigenous communities:

• Amplify. Share this blog post and use your social media accounts to boost Native creators, organizers, and advocates. For example, follow @dineaesthetics, @ndncollective, @seedingsovereignty, and @indigenousaction on Instagram. To truly engage and support these creators, make sure to like, comment on, and reshare their posts as well.
• Stay put for Thanksgiving. There is still a deadly pandemic raging through the US right now, and staying home saves lives.
• Educate (yourself and others). Advocate for anti-racist education and Indigenous studies at your school, read from Native-owned news sources like the Navajo Times, research Native history (an example: the DC Native History Project), and read books/watch movies that center Native people. Check out our "Indigenous" story highlight for some starter educational resources.

That's all for this post. As always, please email us at team@linghacks.tech with questions, concerns, comments, suggestions, and/or corrections.