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I watched with delight this week as the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Mvskoke Nation of Oklahoma, recognizing about half of the state as "promised reservation." In a 5-4 decision, the Court elected to hold the federal government to its word, having promised the land to several native nations more than a century ago. This is an important victory for indigenous people, and one that is rarer than a hen's tooth.  Since the first colonial contact was made, indigenous people have faced tribulation after tribulation. Forced removals, genocide, armed conflict, disease, and famine were all part...

As Independence Day approaches, we find ourselves at the crossroads of a new kind of revolution where we are reinventing what it means to be "American." Equality, oppression, the pursuit of happiness and liberty, all remain central themes as they were at the onset of the American Experiment. But it is not so well known that tea played a key role in kicking off the American Revolution; moreover taxes on tea. Remember hearing "taxation without representation?" Part of that is rooted in the Tea Act, which was passed by the British Parliament on May 10th, 1773. 

Yaupon tea was once worshipped as a sacred gift from the god of purity, used as a daily drink, leveraged as the go-to medicinal plant, and carried for hundreds of miles in a vast trade network by Native Americans throughout the United States. Yaupon tea has since been trashed and forgotten in the modern world, but it was not an accident (dun dun DUNN! The plot thickens)... the demise of American tea was planned and orchestrated in England in 1789. I’m not a historian by training, but I would argue that killing Yaupon (commercially) changed the course of the British...