The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3567 - Trump Targets Kilmar Abrego Garcia; Indigenous Identity in America w/ Joseph Lee

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

It's Fun Day Monday on the Majority Report: On today's show: After 160 days in detention, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was briefly released and reunited with his family only to be detained again on Monday. Despite no due process and lack of evidence, boarder czar Tom Homan declares on Fox News that Kilmar will "absolutely be deported". Author, Joseph Lee joins us to discuss his book "No More of This Land: Community, Power and the Search for Indigenous Identity".  In the Fun Half: Former pipeline lobbyist and current EPA director Lee Zeldin guests on Fox News to announce the abandonment of an 80% finished wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island because the president "isn't a fan of wind". NEC Chair Kevin Hassett defends the taxpayer injection into failing Intel and he expects the US government to do this with more companies. Israel double taps the largest hospital in Gaza killing at least 19 including 5 journalists bringing the total number of journalists killed in Israel's genocide to 192. Trump's personal lawyer, now Dep AG Todd Blanche coaches Ghislaine Maxwell through obvious beg for a pardon. All that and more. The Congress switchboard number is [phone]. You can use this number to connect with either the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives. Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join Follow us on TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here: https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Check out our alt YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! https://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: https://majority.fm/app Go to https://JustCoffee.coop and use coupon code majority to get 10% off your purchase Check out today's sponsors: COZY EARTH: Upgrade your summer. Go to cozyearth.com/MAJORITYREPORT for up to 40% off best-selling temperature-regulating sheets, apparel, and more. ZOCDOC: Go to Zocdoc.com/MAJORITY and download the Zocdoc app to sign-up for FREE and book a top-rated doctor. SUNSET LAKE:  Head to SunsetLakeCBD.com and buy any three 4-packs, and you’ll get a fourth one for free. Just add four 4-packs to your cart and use the code LABORDAY25 at checkout Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech Check out Matt’s show, Left Reckoning, on YouTube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza’s music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/ The Majority Report with Sam Seder – https://majorityreportradio.com

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Again, that's code Labor Day, and this is the sale for the release of the lifted tea microdose versions of these flavors. Labor Day 25 at checkout, sunsetlakesebade.com for terms and conditions. Now, time for the show. It is Monday. August 25th, 2025. My name is Emma Vigeland in for Sam Cedar, and this is the five-time award-winning majority report.

We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, USA. On the program today, Joseph Lee, author of Nothing More of This Land, community, power, and the search. for indigenous identity. Also on the program, political prisoner Kilmar Abrago Garcia was freed on Friday, but arrested

again on Monday as the White House threatens to send him to Uganda. Some National Guardsmen in DC start carrying firearms, and Trump confirms he's sending them to Chicago next. agents targeted a bilingual daycare in Washington, D.C. over the weekend. Trump threatens to cancel funds for the reconstruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge because Maryland's governor criticized his authoritarian performance. It's also not the coincidence that he's targeting basically any Democrat who's a black person. Israel bombed southern Gaza's most.

important hospital. If you recall, we just spoke to Dr. Lubani, who was stationed there. A station there. They killed at least four journalists, nearly 20 people in total, including an associated press freelancer.

Israel also bombed Yemen's capital over the weekend. European postal agencies start cutting off shipments of smaller goods to the U.S. because Trump keeps going back and forth on the de minimis tariff exemption. Unions raised the alarm over a proposed freight rail mega merger that would automate many things and increase the likelihood of toxic spills. Norfolk Southern is one of the

companies trying to mega merge. Didn't something just happen with those guys a few years back? deal? Trump announces the government will purchase a 10% stake in Intel with nearly $9 billion in taxpayer money moved around from the Chips Act.

The DOJ releases audio of Trump's personal attorney interviewing Galane Maxwell and it is not fooling anybody. Well, except maybe his diehards. And lastly, Bernie Sanders is headed to Maine to

campaign with Graham Platner over Labor Day weekend. Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go. All this and more on today's majority report. Welcome to the show, everybody. It's Monday, fun day. Monday, hello Matt, hello, Brian.

Sam is out this week. He will be back after Labor Day on Monday, enjoying a well-deserved vacation. Let's get into it here. So, Kimmar-Abrego-Garcia was freed, released from a Tennessee jail on Friday, after being incarcerated first in the torture prison in Seacott and El Salvador, where his lawyer said to the courts that he was severely beaten. then the administration was forced to send him back to the United States in June a reminder that there was a 2019 order from a judge on Kilmar-Abrego-Garcia's status in the United States that barred him from being sent to El Salvador because of the fears

that he credibly told to the court and they believed him about basically violence and political persecution and seemingly on purpose in spite of that the administration sent him there

because of the sadism that is involved here and the example making here because God forbid there was some grassroots activism to try to return this man to his family to his family, God forbid

Chris Van Hollen and other Democrats went down there and highlighted his case. Nazi Stephen Miller, president, shadow president is clearly a driving force behind this. They're now accusing him

of criminal human smuggling with zero evidence and... And trying to get other people they have on the hook for deportation to testify against them, giving them promises like, okay, we won't send you to wherever Uganda, Sikot, you know, spin the wheel

if you make up stuff to allow us to detain him. That's what they're doing here now. So they are trying to coerce him by saying we're going to send you to Uganda, a country he has never been to coerce him into pleading

guilty to charges of smuggling that he is clearly not guilty of. this is a mafia shakedown administration of the highest order and also such a typical right-wing fascist administration in the way that they are picking on someone like Kilmar, Brago-Garcia, who was a metal worker in Maryland, they go after you if you, they think you have less, no power. This is across the board with their targeting of immigrants. They're not going after some people working at META, I'll tell you that, who may have overstayed their visas.

But just to give people a sense of the torment that is being inflicted on this man and his family, this was Friday after he was released from Putnam County Jail and reunited with his family, he was away from them for over 160 days in horrific conditions despite doing absolutely nothing wrong. See you, Sanpur. That's him could Yes, he could Yes, That's him

That's him with his That's him with his song I believe I believe So I think there we go. So I think there we go. People get a sense of just how incredibly emotional, obviously that was. But no peace for this family because the Trump administration

has made them a target we now have moved to this morning where he showed up to this hearing that is about trying to coerce him to plead guilty to be sent off to Uganda and on this morning his lawyer asked a federal judge basically to block this so that he can have a full immigration trial. And he's, uh, Abrego Garcia spoke with a translator from Casa outside of the courthouse this morning. I always recorde moments of hermoso with my family, moments of going to park, to go to the trampoline with my children. When I was detained, I remembered memories with my family, going to the park with them,

going to the trampoline with my children. Those moments will give them and forza and hope to continue to continue to give me hope to continue in this fight.

To all the family also that have suffered separations and that live constantly for the menace to be separated.

I want to say to Because the injustice is not going to do not perthamom the faith. To all the families who have been separated or to all the families who have been threatened with family separation,

this administration has hit us hard. But I want to tell you guys something. God is with us. God never will never let us. God is with us and God is with us and God will never leave us. God will bring justice to all of the injustice that we are suffering.

So powerful to hear from him there. I can't imagine the trauma that he's gone through. And the, this saga, if you just say, take a step back and think about how the White House is so terrified of putting faces to these people that they are torturing, destroying their lives, abusing

illegally via our clearly broken immigration system that they are exploiting for fascistic ends. Their argument was basically that after these dozens of folks were kidnapped from American soil and sent to Seacot, that they did not have the power to do anything on that front, that now it was in their hands. And quietly they usher him back in, but now they have to work in their mind to send him out and make an example of him again. Because he's even more threatening to them now

because his presence even back in the United States, the human face, him hugging his wife. There was other footage, you know, I was like on the verge of tears this morning watching. We didn't include it, but you, and it almost felt a little voyeuristic because the New York Post had it.

But they're like holding each other for minutes on end because they don't know what's going to happen. And he could be sent to a foreign country he has no connection to. he's even more of a threat to them now because he shows that they are not all powerful and scary, that we can stand up against this administration despite seemingly insurmountable power imbalances.

I saw somebody asked a question in the chat, why can't they just admit you made a mistake and free the guy? And the answer is because none of this is rational. This is entirely an exercise, a billions and billions and billions of dollars exercise in fascist hysteria. in a demographic panic by white supremacists the idea and also like lying about the state of crime

and the situation in this country as opposed to like the threat made by immigrants it needs to be you need to be frothed at the mouth hysterical for this to make any kind of sense it needs to be a panic so they need to act as if it's one and when you start

when you start acknowledging like oh maybe we shouldn't have sent that hairdresser to El Salvador for four months to be sexually I mean raped or at least harassed I can't remember He was forced to give head

He was raped He was raped by a prison guard there And you know He's just That's just like part of the cost of doing business Because we have to act as if this is like You know Saving America or some shit

No it is one of the darkest Sort of mass Hysterical events that we've gone through Since like the Salem witch trials or, you know, lynching black people after the restoration of white supremacy after the Civil War. And deportation is a legal process that would be at the, no matter our disagreements, our severe disagreements with many of our immigration processes, there is one that is delineated. They're not deporting him. They're kidnapping him without basically any due process.

Deportation would have come in theory, however flawed. it is because our immigration courts exploit this legal gray area for people who aren't citizens. But there is some semblance of a process. They are kidnapping them and taking them to countries they've never been. This is happening and has happened to other people. And they're attempting it now with perhaps the most high profile political prisoner of this fascist ICE administration. And the truth is that we've long been prioritizing violent offenders is for deportation when it comes to the undocumented population. And so that's still part of it.

If you go to ISIS's Twitter pages, they're not talking about how we just went to Home Depot and deported like seven guys. It's look at this criminal. But they need to also get their numbers up because they are embarrassed that Obama and Biden had such high deportation numbers. So now they want to get their numbers up.

This is a quota game. And you can't hit your numbers if you're, you know, being precious about people's civil liberties. Let's hear, uh, uh, the bulldog himself, Tom Holman lay out exactly what they intend to do here. This was over the weekend speaking about what they intend to do with this man and his family. Response to accusations that you're weaponizing the immigration system and will, in fact, Abrago Garcia soon be heading to Uganda. He is absolutely going to be deported in this country.

He's not going to walk the streets of this nation. So he can enjoy the little time he has with his family. And for the person that says we're not going to separate family, with his family can go with him because he's leaving. He's going to be deported. Look, he's a criminal alien. He's a member of MS-13, which is now a designated terrorist. He's a wife-beater.

He's a human trafficker. He's been indicted for human trafficking. Can you pause this? The wife-beater stuff gets me so mad. His wife, who he's still with, look, you know, I don't like making claims about people's personal lives. Things can get heated. I don't, of course, domestic abuse is horrific.

But she basically retracted her claim and they worked it out and they're still together. Now, if there could have, if she filed charges, this would be appropriate. But there's a thing like, I don't know, the Secretary of Defense, there was a police report filed against him by a woman at a conservative convention that said that she thought she was drugged by him, that he took her phone. away, blocked the door to the hotel room he brought her back to and pinned her on the bed. She went to a hospital. She got a report done. But is he going to be deported to Uganda based on that accusation, which is a little bit more severe rape and drug and drugging somebody?

Is that going to happen? Or how about Donald Trump, who's found liable civilly of rape and sexual assault? Those are two accusations that have a lot more legal weight than this. complaint by his wife that she ended up retracting and they're still in this relationship and either way it would not matter even if he had done all of these things even if he was this horrible

man that he would still have to have his rights protected under the Constitution before being kidnapped to a foreign country. Yeah, it's a microcosm of why places have things like sanctuary laws because a woman

should be able to report a domestic incident without worrying that the guy gets thrown into like a gulag someplace irretrievably right like that's not actually justice it's a it's a parody of justice that yeah right this is a native terrorist also the ms 13 thing and then the compounding terrorist thing there's no evidence for that it's though it's just like one cop suspected it based off how they're interpreting knuckles white peter he's a human trafficker. He's been indicted for human trafficking and alien smugman. This is, he's a bad person. He's not going to be here. He's been ordered removed twice,

order removed by two different federal judges. He's going to leave this country in the very near future. And his family can go with him for the, I can't see what he was talking before the sound. Oh, I'm so concerned about his wife. I'm going to deport her to Uganda with him. He's a bad guy. You know, his, his, his what, no Republicans ever been accused of domestic violence, right? or being unkind to their wife in the home. Are we going to reopen conversations about marital rape again on the right or what's up? That this still has to be litigated is a sign of like just a joke, a circus. Like if this was all open and shut, then this whole thing about like, yeah, he's been ordered removed twice.

Yeah, why was he ordered to be returned from the first place? Because y'all don't know what the fuck you're doing. Right. And the charges he's talking about are as frivolous as anything. exactly like purposefully exactly squeezing different types of migrants say hey make stuff up against

Kilmar or we're going to send you out like okay I can say yeah I was totally human trafficking with him all the time crazy yeah and his knuckle tattoos do say Emma's 13 but whoever said we're taking advantage of broken immigration system what do they do what do those people

do the last four years about this broken immigration system they let 10.5 million people cross that border sex trafficking women and children all time high overdose that's a fat on the all time high number terrorists all time high they didn't do anything to fix it president trump is keeping the promise of american people to enforce it like and opioid deaths are going down like this is hysterical like this is you know there's a piece in our packet today about the proud boys and basically they're like we're not protesting because we got everything i want this is just proud boy type of uh hysterical chicken little racism uh the sky is falling against all of our white people to millions and millions.

They always inflate the numbers, and it's always terrorists. It's not like, oh, maybe Venezuelans because we decided to destroy their economy because Trump wanted to do a coup when he was in present the first time. And that's what we're doing. We'll make this country safer every day by removing people like Abrago-Garcia.

Just to follow up, Tom. So just to be clear, is Abrgo-Garcia headed to Uganda? The lawyers apparently telling the AP that DHS-Node? on Friday at 4 p.m. that they may remove him to Uganda in 72 hours. Can you confirm that? Well, we'll see. I mean, you know, we, we got the DOJs, you know, our immigration attorneys and the judges and they're all in negotiations, and we'll see what happens. But Uganda's on the

table. We have an agreement with him. It's on the table. Absolutely. Okay. Joke. So what are the charges about smuggles? are they supposed to be are they going to play that out in court or what oh there when he says absolutely he's going to be deported to Uganda he basically means we're going to pursue this kangaroo court unless you volunteer volunteer to go to a country you've never been on a continent perhaps you've never been I mean I just can't believe and I don't want to believe that there's

like a huge mass if I had to guess probably about 25 to 30 percent of Americans who hear that and don't think that's the most ludicrous thing I've ever seen. This guy's been in Maryland as a union worker and you're going to send him to Uganda and say this is for the safety of our country. It's, again, it's chicken little

Nazism. I would love to see in the Democratic Party the complete collapse of his polling on immigration reflected in their rhetoric. It's basically been a collapse on his

issue that has happened mostly in a vacuum without their partisan input, with the exception of our more progressive members and people like Maxwell Frost and Chris Van Hollen going down to El Salvador and others, I should say. There were some other representatives whose names I'm blanking on right now, but making hay out of it. Certainly not from leadership. This was supposedly Donald Trump's best issue, and he is underwater and basically, nationally, ever since the Los Angeles National Guard stunt. He temporarily recovered after the Abrago-Garcia case, but he's back in negatives significantly. Perhaps we can start to have rhetoric on our side that reflects that, but I guess I'm not holding my breath right now. We will win.

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Search for Indigenous Identity. Joseph, thanks so much for coming on the show. Hey, thanks for having me. Of course. So, your book talks about your experience growing up as a member of the Aquina Wampanoag. Am I saying it? Okay. Nation. Aquina Wampanag. Wampanog. Gotcha. which is indigenous to Martha's Vineyard. Aquina was called Gayhead when I was a kid, and now it's Aquina again.

I mean, we can just start there. Like, what was it, the late 90s or the early 2000s, when Martha's Vineyard finally changed that area of the island back to the indigenous name? Yeah, it was the late 90s, and yeah, so I grew up also with, you know, knowing it as gayhead, and then when I was a kid, the name changed. And so obviously Aquina is the our original name, the Wampanog name for the place. And then Gayhead is the, I guess, colonial name, you would call it. And then in the 90s, the town voted to change it back to Aquina. People may know Martha's Vineyard as a vacation spot for, you know, wealthier people on the East Coast, off the coast of Massachusetts, the Obama's. I think they sold their house there, but they had a little, a big kind of mansion there for a while.

But you open your book talking a bit about the famous Aquinocliffs and an indigenous story about them. Can you speak a little bit about that because so much of what you write about is just like this lost history or this very de-emphasized history versus, say, in Massachusetts, oh, the Mayflower, all, you know, what about that contrast was important for you to highlight? Yeah. So, I mean, I should say that also, you know, I grew up in Massachusetts and grew up with those same stories of learning about the Mayflower and the pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving. And at the same time, I was also growing up in the tribe and learning these stories like the one you mentioned where the clay cliffs were stained the colorful colors they have today by one of our ancient leaders who was a giant and he would go out into the water and grab whales and like smash them against the clay cliffs. And cliffs and their blood would stain the cliffs red and then the whale would feed the entire community. And so those were the stories I grew up on in the tribal side. And then on the other side, I grew up sort of with the American standardized colonial version. And yeah, it was really important to me to tell and share those stories just because, you know, I think that's the truth. And that's a story that has been ignored and overlooked for so often, even to the point where myself growing up

in the tribe. I kind of knew that the sort of American first Thanksgiving version of the story wasn't the whole story. But I didn't really know what else there was. And so that was one of the big goals of the book was try to fill in some of those gaps for myself for my tribe and also for everybody. And how does your experience on Martha's Vineyard with your connection to your community and growing up in Massachusetts on and off the island. Why did you think it was important to kind of make clear the uniqueness to your experience where you compare it to say maybe tribes out on reservations and that life in the West versus a more, a less, I think, discussed story of indigenous communities that were basically like pushed out because of land deals on

on the East Coast, we don't typically speak about indigenous rights in this country with that area of the country in mind. Yeah, I think that was definitely one of the big motivators that I had is, you know, I always sort of felt that sort of stereotypical, standardized version of Native history, the more Western story, the plains, the reservations, the deserts out west. but I didn't really see that much conversation about tribes in the east coast, especially the northeast, like my tribe. I think that's a really important part of indigenous history, American history that we tend to overlook. And I think another really important aspect of that is that, you know, this is all indigenous history,

and indigenous history is really diverse, nuanced and complex, whereas we have sort of this flattened, really narrow version of what it is in this country. Like, you have to look a certain way. You have to be a certain way. Indigenous history means this very one specific thing. But actually, if you look at all tribes across the country, you see all these sort of different histories of, you know,

native people living outside of their communities, living in cities, coming and going. And so, you know, in one way, yeah, I wanted to tell what I felt was a sort of unique unheard indigenous story, but I also wanted to look for a lot of those connections and similarities across different tribal nations. And so how does Martha's Vineyard play into this history? One, from an indigenous perspective, your tribe, but as well as its role in just like American colonial conquest more broadly, including, you know, it's a fairly unique place in American civil rights history as it relates to slavery.

kind of all blends together to paint this picture of this very specific part of the country. Yeah, I think Martha's Vineyard is a good example of how history and modern life is just more complicated than we tend to think of it. Yeah, the common vision of Martha's Vineyard is that it's just fancy celebrities, presidents, vacation spots. It's like multi-million dollar homes. but it's also the home of my tribe it's it's a home of a really long time historical black community there's a really active deaf community on the island there's a really enormous Brazilian Portuguese immigrant population on the island and so yeah the island is just this really unique place but we like native identity we think of it in like just this one very

specific way and for my tribe in particular the way that the island has impacted us primarily in recent years is through sort of the tourism and hype and celebrity culture where you know we have this massive influx of summer visitors every year the homes are really expensive their pools and private beaches all of these things and so property values are really high and that means taxes are really high and so for tribal members on the island it's really, really hard to afford to live there. If you own land, the taxes are really expensive. If you don't own land, it's virtually impossible to buy it.

The cost of living is really high. And so in some ways, I think that's like a microcosm of sort of this bigger picture of American colonialism and land grabbing that's happened across the country. But on Martha's Vineyard, it's just happened in this really specific and unique place that people have these specific associations with. And so I think talking about the tribe is kind of a way of experience. exposing that but also complicating it and also reflected in kind of your childhood experience of splitting being off island and then on island and that difference being really just a a reflection of the what you're talking about indigenous folks being priced out because of land purchases and i mean gentrification it's a term that's used in the modern context but that's basically it it's

actually it's colonialism but in the modern it's like this very soft it's it's a softer edge to describe it but that's it's an it's an extension of that history yeah i mean i think we tend to think of colonialism as something that kind of ended i think in recent years there's been maybe like a growing acknowledgement that it happened at all which i you know i think is progress um but i think even with that there's kind of like this well something really bad happened a couple hundred years ago some people did some bad things and you know it was unfortunate um but what you see through all these different uh places and sort of machines at work whether it's gentrification or colonialism more broadly or or other forms of land grabbing or um oppression you know i think it becomes really clear

that colonialism never ended i think the form or the means just changed and evolved and so i think that yeah that that's what we're seeing on martha's vineyard whether it's through tourism home prices, in some cases, conservation, and other means. I mean, your tribe had been on this land for, what, was it something like 10,000 years? And now, in the modern day, the thing that kind of sustains this, like, extremely unaffordable island or what is a kind of remains of the community there is, as you say, tourism can you speak a little bit about tourism and also capitalism and the extractive ways that those work together especially when this is a community that that can't even really afford to live

in many ways it was being pushed out of the land that was that was theirs yeah i mean i guess to talk a little bit generally about the way that um capitalism has impacted indigenous people and specifically my tribe, the primary way that that's happened is through land. And there was a U.S. government policy known as land allotment, where basically collective indigenous owned and managed land was taken out of collective ownership and put into individual ownership. So individual tribal members were told, okay, now you have two acres here, 10 acres, or whatever it was, different land block sizes.

And then a lot of people, essentially after that, in my tribe and many others across the country, were forced to sell their land because suddenly, you know, you're not sharing land with the community and managing it together. You have this one piece of land that's yours and you have to pay taxes on it and you have to pay for all these other things in your life that have now come up. So that's one of the ways that colonialism and U.S. colonialism in particular took land from my tribe and many others. It's, you know, something like millions of acres across the country were taken this way.

And then today on Martha's Vineyard, when we're talking about, tourism. Yeah, tourism is the biggest industry on the island. My family, which I write about in the book, owns a seasonal gift shop that my grandparents started in the 70s, kind of around the time that Martha's Vineyard was becoming the island that we know it as today. And yeah, tourism is a really kind of, it's an interesting thing because the tribe or many people in the tribe in some ways are forced to rely on it to make a living. But it's not really a great choice, you know, or if it is a choice at all. It's this industry that's essentially bringing these people to our shores every summer who make it more and more difficult to live there, more and more difficult to afford life

on our homelands. But on the other hand, it is the sort of best way we have of making a living right now. And in the book, I talk a little bit about other tribes and other indigenous people across the country and around the world who are sort of in similar predicaments. So a lot of us have been put in this rock in a hard place situation. Well, it, obviously, Palestine cannot escape our minds at this moment, but when we're talking about colonialism never ending, we see an extremely brutal example of it there. And even in the West Bank, it reminds me of what, you know, you write about treaties signed by indigenous communities and the colonizers, or hint at it, I guess. the the myth

of like Thanksgiving that you talk about um flattens the power dynamics to such a degree that it's like so imperceptible but it's important to note that these collaborations between indigenous communities and colonizers were exploitative, extractive,

deceptive and you know obviously your tribe didn't escape this but this was in a tactic used throughout um almost like the veneer of legality of some sort of contract that um gives white people everything and in the indigenous communities very little yeah i think that's one of the evolutions of colonialism that we've seen you know maybe a few hundred years ago they didn't need to have a piece of paper to do it or they didn't care they would just you know kill some people and hey this is our land now and then times change and they say okay we need you know maybe a couple lines on a

piece of paper and then times change a little bit more and they say okay we need to pass some laws and so like federal allotment laws that I mentioned you know that's an example of that their federal termination laws where tribes were essentially told you're not a tribe anymore and yeah and you know you bring up Palestine and I think it's it's no coincidence that a lot of the um sort of people involved there are really really excited about possible tourism properties, right? Or these, like, fancy hotels that people want to build, you know, on the sea and that sort of thing.

So I think, yeah, it's the same story around the world. And I think it's really important to be able to track that lineage rather than see these things as separate, both in terms of time and place, right? The machine, as we're talking about, has kind of evolved that it's popping up in different places. But in many ways, it's the exact same thing. can you speak a bit about some of the ways in say modern day or recent history that indigenous communities and tribes have tried to create alternative economies that can benefit them like i mean gambling is the trope and i know there was a there was a vote on this within your tribe as well um but the origins of that and why it's so necessary to form some of these networks of, you know, economic opportunity given the circumstances you lay out.

Yeah, I mean, I think we talked a little bit about sort of capitalistic systems. And I think the reality for most tribes right now is, you know, we live in this country and we live within these systems and money is the thing that has power right now. And so for tribes that are trying to get casinos or have casinos or running successful casinos, I think that that's sort of a means of doing that, right? That's one of the means available to tribes is using casinos as a way of making money. And you'll see tribes do different things. Sometimes tribes are sending out money individually to tribal members, economic stimulus, essentially. tribes will also use casino money to fund government programs to fund scholarships to build

new buildings build housing all these things right so yeah i think you know it's it's not a perfect response but in the same way that tribes like mine who are having to deal with tourism economies are trying to figure out like well how can we make this work for us i think casinos are one example of that but i think there's the you kind of mentioned this that like it's sort of like that's the thing that gets all the attention. Right. But it's also, I mean, both of those instances, tourism or gambling, it's not really about owning, say, like the means of production. This is all still dependent on the patronage of folks coming, either to the casino or to the island or to the area. And it's not a method of like wealth reproduction. It's basically been completely stripped from

many minority groups in this country, but indigenous and native tribes feels quite acute. Yeah, I think in recent years you've seen a really growing food sovereignty movement, which I would say is kind of in response to a lot of these things you're talking about. Like our land has been taken, our ways of life have been taken, our culture has been taken, our opportunities to succeed and thrive as a people have been taken. And so food sovereignty of like, we're going to grow our own food, we're going to use it to support our community, whether that's just sharing the food, selling the food, whatever it is, that's an example that you see across the country. And I think that's also why a lot of the

fights happening now over, for example, dams and rivers or lakes are really important, because that's tribes trying to not sort of just like participate in the economy. That's tribes trying to retake everything, retake the land, retake culture, retake their way of life. And I think that's why you're seeing such massive legal fights over like energy extraction and these things because that's a real challenge to the system rather than like, you know, a small business or something like that. Well, you're the this is going to be a fight over the next three and a half years with the administration trying to drill more and more on federally protected lands, which sometimes, you know, coincide with indigenous lands and even down in, um,

Florida, the most, like, substantial legal obstacle that has been placed in front of the Trump administration at this moment has been the successful challenging of the construction of the so-called alligator alcatraz on lands that are, should be protected for indigenous communities. And the judge down in Miami last week sided with indigenous rights activists on this front. And you just like, in that example there. You can see how the struggles are so interconnected, even in just that one example. Yeah, and I think it's maybe a belated lesson, but I think a lot of people with, you know, this and the previous Trump administration are learning, like tribes can play a really powerful role here because of their position, because of their land, because of their legal rights and privileges that are sort of in many

ways an accidental quirk of a colonial system. But it's something that tribes have right now. And so I think people are starting to pay a lot more attention to tribes than they did in the past. And yeah, the example with the Miccosukee tribe in Florida that you just gave is a really, really great example of that where I think a lot of people who may have ignored tribes before us and we're like, oh, like, we got to work with these people. And federal lands is a great example where, you know, tribes have been trying to protect their land and resources and water forever. And I think, think it's only more so in recent years that environmental groups, you know, liberal groups, whoever it is, have sort of caught on to the fact that like tribes can and should be leading

the way on some of these issues. Well, now we're kind of, you know, in the modern context of today and just thinking about things like how we can find solidarity in our community, how we can make connections, and create networks to combat the fascist administration. It occurs to me, of course, that, like, there might be some sort of renewed purpose, not that there needs any renewal, but there are a new perspective on perhaps tribal communities in this time, especially as we're so, like, you know, alienated and atomized from one another. how does your tribal community fit into today's world for you?

Yeah, I mean, just on the first part of your question there, I think one of the things I think about and talk about in the book is like, none of this is new for tribes. I think the way that, you know, some Americans are feeling like, oh, this is new. And, you know, in many ways the specifics are new, but the thing is the same. The challenges are the same. And so I think for a lot of tribes, it's like it hasn't mattered so much. who's in power or what's going on, but the fight is the exact same fight. And so, you know,

what it looks like for my tribe right now is, is it's a challenge. And I think it's also important to talk about internal conflicts and disagreements within tribes. We're all trying to figure out, like, what do we do now, where do we go from here, what's the right move? And you mentioned a few, you know, disagreements that my tribe has had. We have fierce tribal elections. We have fierce debates and tribal meetings and those are all things that we're trying to figure out as we are also dispersed people you know most of us no longer live on our homelands on martha's vineyard so the challenge i think is trying to find ways to connect and build community even when maybe some of those more traditional ways we used to have have been changed and i think that's that's something that

everybody can probably relate to and try to work on right now um you know it's some of the same systems that we maybe used to rely on. We can't rely on any more. And so we have to find new ways of building systems and community to go forward. The disbursement in and of itself is a way to undercut that, right? We do have some means to connect now technologically that we didn't have previously. But just in thinking about these colonial structures, disbursement is quite beneficial for colonizers because you don't have a network that's going to be more united in opposition and that's clearly what has been inflicted upon

the tribes in this country yeah I think yeah it's totally not an accident at all that tribes have been dispersed and that my tribe has you know been in many ways forced off of our land and forced to live in other places I think what I'm what I read a little bit about in the book and what I'm trying to think of now is like ways that we can use that as a strength and ways that we can try to take advantage of the

situation we're in. And like you mentioned, obviously, technological tools. I write in the book about taking Wampanog language class on Zoom for the first time. We have virtual meetings. We have mail and voting. These are all things that we didn't have before. And I think those are positive things that allow us to bring our community together in a way that we couldn't before. And, you know, for me as a writer and journalist, I think I've learned a lot from traveling around the country and talking to other indigenous tribes. And when I talk to people, as much as I want to learn from them, they're always kind of like, can you tell me, like stuff from your reporting, like you've learned from other tribes? And then when I go home, people ask me, like, what are you

hearing from other tribes? And so I think hopefully that's something that we can do. And, you know, you're kind of getting at this, like, building solidarity and building community and finding those ways through. And I think that's where we have to go. Lastly, you mentioned your reporting. I know you've done some work at Grist for climate change reporting. How does the struggle for her kind of, you know, more indigenous representation rights, just reparations? How does that fit into the climate fight right now? I mean, Donald Trump is obviously maniacal.

We're going to cover this later in the show, but he's trying to. kill a Rhode Island wind farm that is 80% complete that could give energy for over 300,000 homes just because, you know, it's time to consolidate around oil or he finds wind farms ugly or something like that. But obviously the fight for our climate is a fight for us all, but I would imagine that your history and your work on indigenous rights gives you an even broader perspective on it. Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned this. I mean, I think climate and conservation work is one area where historically even among, you know, more left-leaning people and groups, indigenous people have been left out.

And I think, you know, today you see it's like, well, we know what to do with the land, right? We know how to make decisions. And so you'll see my tribe, for example, many people in the tribe are not in favor of these wind farms. And I read a little bit about, you know, Sami communities in Europe who are also against wind farms. And I think that's nothing to do with, you know, being against green energy or these other things. But it has to do with being told what to do with land and acting like indigenous people don't have any ownership or knowledge. And so I think that's where we need to go. And climate change and conservation is actually work with and listen to indigenous people.

And I think these moments are making it even more and more clear. Like it can't be, you know, everybody in a different silo in a different side. It needs to be all of us fighting to protect the environment against, you know, the administration and anyone else who's trying to harm it. And so I think that's like the lesson that I take out of that. Yeah, it sort of reminds me of like, you know, the early suffragette movement being extremely white or wealthy. and the conservation movement to even historical societies and things like that where these are a lot of wealthy people doing this to do good in their very narrow vision of what that is and that excludes often the community's most affected by it so even like our framework for social justice on certain topics were pushed forward by wealthier white people and so these systems replicate themselves to this day. Yeah, and the model is kind of like donate a bunch of money to a nonprofit owned, as you say,

by rich white people, and then like the environment will be okay. But obviously that has not worked. So it's clear, like we need to try something different. And in many cases, it's the thing that indigenous people have been trying to do. And in some cases, legally prevented from doing for generations, that is the thing that will actually work. Joseph Lee, the book is called Nothing More of This Land, Community, Power, and the Search for Indigenous Identity. We will put a link to your book wherever people are listening to or watching this.

Thanks so much for your time today, Joseph, really appreciate it. Thank you. All right, folks, with that, we will wrap up the first hour of this program and head into the fun half. We will take your calls, read your IMs. We have some, like, actually, you know, juicy stories in the fun today that we didn't really get to here, including, you know, Trump purchasing a stake in Intel. Do you have some centrists calling it socialism? Why it's not? That wind farm story is insane I want

to get to. Obviously, Israel striking Nasser Hospital. Not as fun, but something we're going to be covering to. Check us out in the fun half, folks. But, Matt, what's happening on Left Reckoning? Yeah, Left Reckoning we got into a clip that might play in the FunHap. here of the real reason why Omar Fate's endorsement at the convention was rescinded and it turns out the process was a figly for the real reason donors. Donors didn't want checks to cash anymore. Yeah. Explicitly. That's barely a

paraphrase. Patreon.com says left for I can you get access to the Sunday show. All right guys, we will see you in the fun half but first. Just a reminder this show relies on your support join the majority report.com please if you can it help support our work and iam into the show we'll read your iems in the fun half the select few that are members and are able to iam the show sunset like sabidae said are you guys going to discuss jillian michael's whitewashing of slavery uh that was an old story but that woman is insane i watched that so she so she's suing over this Netflix documentary about the biggest loser or threatening to

and I saw this headline. I was like, huh, there must be some bad stuff in here. So I started watching it. It's so boring, but she's just a horrible person, but we already knew that. Is she like a doctor drew of fitness? I mean, she's just like abusive to the contestants and I guess there's a point

where she gives them like caffeine pills. Yeah, the caffeine stuff has always been the hairy thing I've seen with her as like, uh, and I've heard she's very litigious about that so oh okay well this is what the documentary claims not myself i just want to put that out there um right i mean i yeah i guess like i wasn't but it is like a kook and i mean why she a political commentary or person now so i i tweeted out uh when that happened like who books

the show which brian informed me is like a comedian thing to say about when like clips go like viral or something like that um but then sam ended up on the show so i don't know if like maybe see because a lot of people retweeted me wondering, like, why are we asking this fitness quack about slavery or having her even in the room? Like, what is her credential besides she's a valutainment property? Well, I saw that she, that Abby Phillip did like a correction show after that kind of slamming her, which is just like that, we, we had that on the sound sheet. We didn't end up covering it because it's just we have so much other crap. Yeah, it's, it's, it's trash. She got what she wanted. She got in the headlines and, and she said something inflammatory and

deeply racist and then like their only black prime time host had to correct it who they stick the scott jennings guy on that's what i'm saying like that show has a problem with booking i don't like how i yeah yeah it seems a little messed up that they kind of seem to put all of that crap on appie phillips plate but what do i know samma well she's good good for her she holds her own but they like i don't it feels racist to me in ways that like maybe i'm overthinking it but i don't know i like they don't stick it on Caitlin Collins or who's their other hosts Cooper they give it they they give all of that garbage gutter trash to their black female hosts and it feels wrong but that's just me yeah I mean I just think whoever is booking Sam should be listened to more than the

people who keeps one in what Scott was the Scott Peters or whatever's name is that the Zionist guy yeah what are you doing Scott Jennings Scott Jennings yeah and then and Gillian Michaels are you joking yeah like you have millions of dollars you have millions of people watching this to try to get informed right and you have Gillian fucking Michaels on to talk about slavery or talk about anything like what is she qualified to talk about besides suing people over some drama about caffeine pills yeah just you know verbally abusing overweight people like it's like it's like we're struggling and trying to their hardest I know it's hack in a way that even like I think Sam

doesn't know its hack yet but to compare things to idiocacy but when you you have Jillian Michaels on. Yeah. To talk about anything of importance, what are we doing with our lives, folks? You're wasting people's lives on a industrial scale CNN.

Anyway, so you guys in the fun have. Okay, Emma, please. Well, I just, I feel that my voice is sorely lacking in the majority report. Wait, look, Sam was unpopular. I do deserve vacation at Disney World. So, ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to welcome

Emma to the show. It is Thursday. I think you need to take over sale I'm gonna pause you right there wait what you can't encourage Emma to live like this and I'll tell you why so it was offered a tour

sushi and poker with the boys tour sushi and poker with the boys who was offered a tour yeah sushi and poker with the boys what tour sushi and poker uh... Tim's upset

tour yeah sushi and poker with the boys was offered a tour sushi and uh that's what we call it biz twerk sushi and poker with the boys right twerk we're gonna get demonetized i just think that what you did to timpool uh was mean free speech that's not what we're about here look at how sad he's become now you shouldn't even talk about it because i think you're responsible i probably am in a certain way but let's get to the meltdown here

Twerp. Unh. Sushi and poker with the boys. Oh my God. Wow. Sushi. I'm sorry. I'm losing my fucking mind.

So it's offered a twir? Yeah. Sushi and poker with the voice. Logic. Twerk. Sushi and poker with the boys. Boy, boy. Twer?

I think I'm like a little kid. A little kid. I think I'm like a little kid. Add this debate seven thousand times. A little kid. I think I'm like a little kid. A little kid. I'm losing my fucking mind.

Some people just don't understand. So I'm not trying to be a dick right now, but like a dick right now. I absolutely think the U.S. should be providing me with a life and kids. That's not what we're talking about here. It's not a fun job. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. That's a real thing.

Willie Walker. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. Offered a twirl thing. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Wilgen has done it again.

Offered a twerk. That's a real thing. Sam, that's that poker with the boy. I think he might be blown it out proportion. Real fit. That's that poker with the boys. That offered a twerk. That's a real thing.

That's that poker. Let's go, Joe. Tour. Sushi and poker with the boy. Take it easy to. Twerk and poker. Things have really gotten out of hand. Sushi and poker with the boys.

It's a loser. Dwar. You don't have a clue as to what's going on. Live YouTube. Sam has to wait the way to the world on the shoulders. Sam doesn't want to do this show anymore. We can't do it anymore. It was so much easier.

When the majority report was just you. You were happy. Let's change the subject. Right. Rangers and Nick are going right. Now, shut up. Don't want people saying reckless things on your program. That's one of the most difficult parts about this show.

This is a pro-killing podcast. I'm thinking maybe it's time we bury the hatchet. Left is best. Trump. Violet twir? Don't be foolish. And don't fucking tweet at me and don't get changed. The way that has cucked all these people.

Love it. That's where my heart is. So I wrote my honor's thesis. about it. Oh, she wrote an honest thesis. I guess I should hand the main mic to you now. You are to the right of the foreign policy.

We already fund Israel, dude. Are you against us? That's a tougher question. I'm an answer. Incredible theme song. I'm bumblers. Emma Viglin, absolutely one of my favorite people. Actually, not just in the game.

Like, period.