CNN cuts ties with Rick Santorum over disparaging comments

NEW YORK — CNN is cutting ties with former Republican senator and current TV analyst Rick Santorum over disparaging comments he made about Native American culture.

On CNN, Santorum was a senior political commentator who was often tasked with giving the Republican point of view during campaign coverage. His parting ways with the network was confirmed Saturday by Alison Rudnick, vice president of HLN Communications and CNN Diversity and Inclusion.

He sparked controversy in an April 23 speech before the Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth organization. Santorum said immigrants created a nation based on the Judeo-Christian ethic from a blank slate.

“We birthed a nation from nothing,” he said. “Yes, there were Native Americans, but there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.”

The comment prompted Fawn Sharp, president of the National Congress of American Indians, to call him “an unhinged and embarrassing racist who disgraces CNN and any other media company that provides him a platform.”

“To correct the record, what European colonizers found in the Americas were thousands of complex, sophisticated, and sovereign tribal nations, each with millennia of distinct cultural, spiritual and technological development,” she wrote in a statement.

Sharp called on CNN to fire Santorum or potentially face a boycott from more than 500 tribal nations and its allies worldwide.

Santorum later said on Chris Cuomo’s CNN show that he “misspoke” in the sense that it wasn’t clear that he was speaking in the context of the founding of the United States government.

“People say I’m trying to dismiss what happened to the Native Americans,” he said. “Far from it. The way we treated Native Americans was horrific. It goes against every bone and everything I’ve ever fought for as a leader in the Congress.”

Santorum’s comments have garnered blowback before, especially his views on gay marriage and homosexuality. In 2003, he infuriated gay rights advocates by appearing to compare homosexuality to pedophilia and bestiality.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/22/cnn-rick-santorum-native-american-490280
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Associated Press

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Native American tribe gives surplus vaccines to First Nations relatives in Canada

Effort by Blackfeet tribe illustrates the disparity with which the US and its northern neighbors are distributing doses

The Blackfeet tribe in northern Montana has provided about 1,000 surplus vaccines to its First Nations relatives and others in Canada, in an illustration of the disparity in speed at which the US and its norther neighbor are distributing doses. While more than 30% of adults in the US are fully vaccinated, in Canada that figure is about 3%.

Among those who received the vaccine at the Piegan-Carway border crossing were Sherry Cross Child and Shane Little Bear, of Stand Off, about 30 miles (50km ) north of the border.

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Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/05/native-american-tribe-surplus-vaccines-first-nations-canada
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Associated Press in Babb, Montana

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How Black Lives Matter helped Native Americans and Latinos

Protests over the killing of George Floyd generated a racial reckoning across the U.S. that also helped Native Americans and Latinos bring attention to their fight against systemic racism.

Why it matters: Native Americans say the resurgent Black Lives Matter movement in response to Floyd’s death helped push sports teams to change their names and logos. Latino activists say it also drew attention to their own long-ignored experiences with police abuse.

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Details: The Washington Football Team announced in July it was dropping its name the team had used since the 1930s, following massive racial justice protests touched off by Floyd’s death.

• The move came after Black Lives Matter activists began demanding a name change and pushed FedEx to pull sponsorship deals.
• Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee activist Suzan Shown Harjo and other Indigenous advocates had been trying for years to get the Washington Football Team, as well as college and high school teams, to drop mascots that used Native Americans.
• Until that moment, the team’s owner, Dan Snyder, had said repeatedly he would never change the name some Native Americans found offensive.
• The Cleveland Indians then announced in December that the team would also change its name, after decades of pressure.

What they’re saying: “It’s devastating that it took the murder of George Floyd for this to happen. It was a perfect storm. We will forever owe that debt to Mr. Floyd and his family,” Crystal Echo Hawk, founder and executive director of networking and advocacy group IllumiNative, told Axios.

During the summer of protests, Navajo members were seen holding Black Lives Matter signs along Route 66 in Albuquerque, N.M.

• Northern Cheyenne and Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux activist James Nason Roundstone worked to keep Black Lives Matter protests peaceful in Washington state.

The intrigue: Antonio Valenzuela, 40, died from a choking maneuver during a struggle with a Las Cruces, N.M. police officer three months before Floyd was killed.

• The death of the Mexican American man was caught on video, but drew little scrutiny outside of the southern New Mexico city — until Black Lives Matter protests engulfed the nation. The former officer in the case is now facing a second-degree murder charge.
• A Washington Post analysis found that Latinos are killed by police at the second-highest rate, behind African Americans.
• Fernando García, executive director of the El Paso, Texas-based Border Network for Human Rights, said anger over Floyd’s death brought Black and Latino activists together to fight excessive force in cities across the country.
• Latino advocates join protests to point to patterns of police violence against Latinos from Phoenix to Springfield, Massachusetts.

Yes, but: Some Black leaders felt Latino activists were co-opting the Black Lives Matter movement.

• A Black Lives Matter protest in June outside of Mariachi Plaza in Los Angeles drew criticism because many of the speakers were Mexican Americans.

But, but, but: The speakers at the protests were family members of those shot by Los Angeles police.

• Later that same month, Mexican American lowriders and classic car enthusiasts rode through Los Angeles for a socially distanced Black Lives Matter demonstration.
• “The main impact we’re trying to send is the message ‘unity’,” organizer Johnny Torres told KABC-TV.

Source: https://www.axios.com/george-floyd-native-americans-latinos-black-lives-matter-f9943dc3-0b4e-4fea-985e-349fdb9a5473.html
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Minnesota returns land to Lower Sioux Indian Community after decades-long battle

The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) officially returned 114 acres of land to the Lower Sioux Indian Community, four years after the transfer was approved by the state legislature….

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/539788-minnesota-returns-land-to-lower-sioux-indian-community-after-decades
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Joseph Choi

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Philadelphia to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day in place of Columbus Day

Philadelphia has announced it will recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day this year in place of Columbus Day, joining a number of cities and states across the nation that have opted to do the same in recent years.The ci…

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/538094-philadelphia-will-recognize-indigenous-peoples-day-in-place-of-of
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Aris Folley

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Navajo Nation outpaces much of US in delivering COVID vaccines

Indigenous Navajo Nation has used 94 percent of allocated vaccines and is to receive another 29,000.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/9/navajo-nation-to-receive-29k-more-vaccines-has-used-94-percent
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How a Coal Mine in Montana Could Screw the Navajo Nation

The overwhelming economic consensus is that coal is out, renewables are in. Yet one company, associated with the Navajo Nation, doesn’t seem to have gotten the message—and may be weighing the tribe down with more coal baggage as the rest of the country moves on.

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Source: https://earther.gizmodo.com/how-a-coal-mine-in-montana-could-screw-the-navajo-natio-1846221837
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Sioux Tribe prioritizing vaccine for speakers of native language

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe is prioritizing speakers of its native languages for its COVID-19 vaccine distribution, The Associated Press …

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/news/532392-sioux-tribe-giving-vaccine-priority-to-speakers-of-native-language
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Tribes make new move to shut down Dakota Access Pipeline

Native American tribes opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline once again have asked a federal judge to stop the flow of oil while the legal battle over the line’s future plays out

Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/tribes-make-new-move-to-shut-down-dakota-access-pipeline-judge-tribes-tribes-tribes-oil-b1182394.html
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Supreme Court rules that large swath of Oklahoma belongs to Indian reservation

The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that a large swath of Oklahoma belongs to Native American tribes in a huge win for a reservation that challenged the state’s authority to prosecute crimes on its land.Justice Nei…

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/506548-supreme-court-rules-that-large-swath-of-oklahoma-belongs-to-indian
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Judge Shuts Down Dakota Access Pipeline

In a stunning win for the environmental justice movement, a court just ordered that the Dakota Access Pipeline must be shut down.

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Source: https://earther.gizmodo.com/judge-shuts-down-dakota-access-pipeline-1844278957
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Oglala Sioux vote to ban Trump from Mount Rushmore – hours before controversial fireworks event

‘The people are angry. All I can do as a leader is stand back and support them’

Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/oglala-sioux-donald-trump-mount-rushmore-fourth-of-july-event-a9601041.html
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