Pawnee/Ponca lawyer Brett Chapman breaks down Trumps move to scrub Indigenous peoples from U.S. history

In recent years, people across the U.S., and more than a dozen states, have been commemorating Indigenous Peoples’ Day on the second Monday of October. This year was different. On Oct. 9, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation reinstating Oct. 13 as Columbus Day. The proclamation lionized Columbus as “a true American hero”, suggesting that “every citizen is eternally indebted to his relentless determination”. This isn’t the first time the Trump administration has attempted to erase Indigenous Peoples from U.S. monuments, holidays and place names. Back in January, APTN’s Sara Connors reported on Trump’s move to rename Mt. Denali–a Koyukon term meaning ‘the high one’–to Mt. McKinley. To dig deeper into Trump’s tactics, we reached out to Brett Chapman, a Ponca and Pawnee lawyer practicing in Tulsa, Oklahoma. One of his ancestors, Standing Bear, was a Ponca chief and civil rights activist. Today, Chapman is continuing his legacy by defending Native American sovereignty within the U.S. legal system. He talks about the Trump administration’s policies and how they’re impacting tribal communities. Continue Reading