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Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows) is a professor at Fielding Graduate University. Former Director of Education at Oglala Lakota College, he is a made-relative of the Oglala and a Sun Dancer. Selected by AERO for their text Turning Points as one of 27 "Visionaries in Education" and recipient of a Martin Springer Institute for Holocaust Studies "Moral Courage Award" for his activism, he is the author of more than 20 books, praised by such notables as Noam Chomsky, Vandana Shiva, Henry Giroux, Darcia Narvaez, Greg Cajete, Sam Keen, Thom Hartmann, and many others. His books, chapters, articles and videos on Indigenous Worldview and its applications for sustainability can be accessed at fourarrowsbooks.com. He lives with his artist/photographer wife in a remote section of Mexico on the Costalegre. There is also a book on his work entitled Fearless Engagement of Four Arrows by R. Michael Fisher (Peter Lang, 2019).
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 17, 2023 How Universities Can Use the Palestine-Israeli Tragedies to Decolonize Themselves
I open this short paper by noting the possibility that it will be quickly hidden or rejected by those who do not wish to consider all sides in authentic dialogue on behalf of transformative peace-making. Indigenous activist, Winona LaDuke explains why in in her 2012 Facebook posting.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, August 14, 2022 "Words Are Not Violent: Violence is Violent""?
When we grasp fully that the best expressions of our humanity were not invented by civilization but by cultures that preceded it, that the natural world is not only a set of constraints, but of contexts within which we can help us realize our dreams, we will be on the way to a long overdue reconciliation between opposites which are of our own making."
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, May 8, 2022 The Ukraine Horror and The Worldview Problematic
Like many people worldwide, I participated in a dialogue last night that focused on the Ukraine tragedy with a respected group of colleagues from around the world. All of them are progressive thinkers who are passionate about peace in the world. Most are concerned about nuclear war. The group put responsibility on both Putin and Biden for this risk.
(5 comments) SHARE Friday, October 30, 2020 Was it Fair for Kendi to Bring Up the White-Savior Storyline During Barrett's Confirmation Hearings?
ANGRY polarized debates between Republicans and Democrats continue. Yesterday I learned about one between students in my own university over Ibram X. Kendi's late September tweet asserting that a White family adopting a Black child does not automatically prove the family is not a racist nor an anti-racist. The context for the tweet was Judge Barrett's reference to her Black children as obvious evidence for her immunity
(6 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 6, 2020 Attenborough's Film is a Must Watch... But...
I have always been a big fan of Attenborough. I loved his frank depiction of reality, his evident sincerity, and his clear solutions. However, his presentation convinced me all the more that our extinction is probable within a few generations. I think he agrees, but his words conveyed what I consider to be a false hope. He clearly said if we do not change immediately, we are doomed.
SHARE Wednesday, August 5, 2020 Higher Education Leaders: How Much Longer Will You Tolerate the Trump Phenomenon
propose that those in higher education ought no longer remain silent or "neutral." What is higher education doing to influence politicians and corporate boards to put the brakes on before it is too late, if this is not already the case.
SHARE Sunday, June 28, 2020 How to Decolonize Higher Education: Three Easy Steps and One Hard One
Often in life, we find more difficulty in getting motivated to implement a healthy practice than exists in the practice itself. Similarly, it is relatively easy for a professor to start decolonizing coursework in any academic discipline and more challenging to make and sustain the commitment to do so. I begin here describing the more straightforward task, offering three ways to start immediately.
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 21, 2020 Corona Virus and The Air We Breath
I propose in this article that Particulate Matter Pollution that kills 4.2 million people worldwide and 200,000 Americans every year, with half of these deaths come from air pollution from another state, is why the Navajo nation leads the United States in Coronavirus infections.
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, May 10, 2020 Governor of South Dakota Threatens Legal Action Against Lakota for Self-Protection Against COVID-19
On Friday, May 9th, both the Cheyenne River and the Oglala Lakota received mandates from Kristi Noem to take down any checkpoints on state roads going into the reservations. Chairman Harold Frazier of Cheyenne River unapologetically responded to the governor that they would continue protecting everyone on the reservation.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, May 8, 2020 Getting the Truth "Out"
These red flags of persuasion are signals to look deeper into what is being said. Is it possible that at least one of the "conspiracy theories" might have substance? Why not just give a medical statement about the origin of the virus and let others sift through alternative theories.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, May 4, 2020 Worldview Reflection and Coming to Terms with a Terminal Prognosis for Civilization
"The end of civilization as we know it" might be "just what the doctor ordered." I'm smiling at the truthful but sardonic irony of having joined these two idioms in one sentence. As much as it makes my point, it also conveys the kind of contradiction I hope to expose here. I find "doctor's orders" and modern civilization both tend to represent our Dominant Worldview (DW). I propose DW is the source of our existential crises
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, April 27, 2020 A More Efficient Cavalry: Anti-Indianism in America, Revisited
At a recent conference call with fellow writers and educators, I discussed how Jeff Gibbs mentions in his new documentary, "The Planet of the Apes," that our not wanting to think of ourselves as animals and our fear of death are major reasons for our destruction of life systems, implying that other cultures have a different story.
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, April 24, 2020 What Everyone is Missing".Again (Going "viral" is not sufficient)
Michael Moore tells Steven Colbert that his new documentary, "Planet of the Humans," is about the need to take "a different road," but he missed the most important clip in the film that says what that road is- as has everyone else!
SHARE Monday, April 20, 2020 Self-Triage in a Catastrophic World (A Decolonizing Perspective)
Our colonized mindsets make authentic self-care an act of irreverence for the hegemonic systems leading us to the bring of extinction. Covid-19 might have reminded us of this, but it hasn't. If triage is about examining problems in order to decide which ones are the most serious and must be dealt with first so as to save the most people, we are not doing it well enough. In fact, the colonized mind cannot save itself.
(4 comments) SHARE Sunday, April 5, 2020 Suspending Environmental Regulations Proves the Insanity of our Dominant Worldview and the Logic that Supports it
With the recent suspension of any environmental protection regulations for corporations the insanity denying human-caused climate change expands to not only denying human-caused pandemics but authorizes potential behaviors that will continue the destruction of animal habitats that are responsible for such pandemics, such as deforestation. Deforestation in Europe and Asia throughout the 1300s contributed to the pandemic known
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, January 23, 2020 Corruption Masquerading as Due Process?
I woke up this morning pondering how the Republicans are getting away with what they are doing to control the impeachment hearings and how the Democrats are not only going along with it but have just supported reauthorization of the Patriot Act behind the scenes.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, June 24, 2019 Invisible No More: Please Let's Do This Together (Remembering the Other Original Sin)
African Americans and Native Americans (aka American Indians) should be together in any discussion seeking to bring about reckoning America's history of racism, oppression, discrimination and inequality. Unfortunately "Indians" remain all but invisible in politics and media covering the new reparations efforts for descendants of Black slaves .
(14 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 16, 2018 "President" No More (How Media Language Helps Keep Trump Going)
when "President" is not attached to Trump in media reports, people associate this with a lack of respect. This is exactly why we should start implementing the strategy!
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, April 3, 2018 Speaking of Wellstone
David Wellstone said his Dad "would have gotten under this president's skin by now. He wouldn't have backed down from this kind of stuff. It would have energized him." In trying to get Wellstone Action to take such action, to their great surprise and dismay, the two men were voted off the board. I have no evidence to conclude that the "crises of courage" has some role to play in this decision, but I think it must.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, January 22, 2018 And Then Mother Earth Said, "Me Too!"
The "Me Too" movement's unprecedented number of courageous women speaking out against their famous male abusers could signal hope for our planetary crises. We just have to realize that the source of such rampant anti-feminine oppression is an uninvestigated worldview that places humans above Nature and ignores the importance of diversity and complementarity.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, January 27, 2017 Trump's DAPL Memorandum: The End of Rule of Law?
Rule of law" assumes that law should govern a nation rather than the personal desire of a government official. Rachel Klienfeld Belton, a legal scholar and Director of the Truman National Security Project writes that rule of law in a democracy is identified by "the efficient and predictable application of justice and the protection of human rights." On January 24th, 2017, Trump signed an executive order that seems to violate
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, December 28, 2016 Shootings on Backwater Bridge
Late afternoon yesterday "Lunatic Outpost" released a video showing a group of about "20 to 50" water protectors who while returning from a prayer walk along the Cannonball River were chased down by armed security from DAPL and Morton County Sheriff's Department.
SHARE Friday, December 16, 2016 No Sitting for Standing Rock, Please
My ultimate goal is to encourage water protectors worldwide to be more determined than ever in the face of the incoming administration of Donald Trump. This may seem an impossible task but perhaps without the deceptive language of those who came before that only veiled Trump's anti-environment intentions, it may be easier than we can imagine if we keep up the effort.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, November 11, 2016 Veteran's Day at Standing Rock: Perhaps Not What You Think
Today's Veteran's Day, filling me with mixed emotions. On the one hand there is a sense of pride and a continuing sense of loyalty to the Corps. Like the the marine-turned-avatar in James Cameron's Avatar said, "You never lose the attitude." On the other hand, there's the knowledge the Marine Corps mostly works for the corporations just like the National Guard is now working for Energy Transfer Partners at Standing Rock
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 9, 2016 From Standing Rock: Today is a Good Day to Die
In Donald Trump's unusually gracious speech this morning he spoke of supporting the downtrodden and bringing everyone together. As we know, his words like those of too many politicians and corporate leaders, are often insincere, manipulative, deceptive or outright untruthful. But perhaps today Trump was sincere. Maybe the magnitude of this event has set up the possibility of his walking this talk.
SHARE Sunday, October 23, 2016 Standing Rock and "Sitting" Universities
Standing up for positions on controversial public issues seldom comes from administrators on high. Worse, this unwillingness to do so has made its way into the hearts and minds of many faculty and students. The rationalization is that neutrality is an academic requirement.