Albert Bender

Albert Bender is a Cherokee activist, historian, political columnist, and freelance reporter. He is currently writing a legal treatise on Native American sovereignty and working on a book on the war crimes committed by the U.S. against the Maya people in the Guatemalan civil war He is a consulting attorney on Indigenous sovereignty, land restoration, and Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) issues.

LATEST ARTICLES BY Albert Bender

Opinion

Rogue Supreme Court’s latest Indian law decision a huge step back in time
July 6, 2022 By Albert Bender
This decision, like so many recent rulings, shows the Supreme Court is out of sync with public opinion and is an outlier in U.S. society.
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Politics

Indian boarding schools report details horror of Indigenous dispossession and genocide in U.S.
July 1, 2022 By Albert Bender
U.S. government admits responsibility for 150-plus years of atrocities committed against Indigenous children.
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Opinion

Politicians who do nothing to stop mass shootings are themselves monsters
June 2, 2022 By Albert Bender
The U.S. government is in a state of “moral paralysis” on the recurrence of mass shootings.
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Culture

‘Recovering Ancient Spiro’: Remembering one of Native America’s most forgotten but important sites
April 12, 2022 By Albert Bender
Spiro is considered by many scholars to have been at one time the single most powerful political and cultural entity in North America.
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U.S.

Indigenous community confronts development to prevent erasure of Nashville’s ancient history
March 9, 2022 By Albert Bender
With every shovel full of dirt excavated, pieces of Native history are undoubtedly being erased.
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Opinion

The LandBack movement is decolonizing Indigenous land across the Americas
January 21, 2022 By Albert Bender
The basic LandBack issue is simple: “Give us the land back.” For many Indigenous peoples, getting the land back is first one of economics, as the stronger an Indigenous nation is economically, the stronger it is...
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U.S.

Clyde Bellecourt, Indigenous rights warrior, journeys to Spirit World at 85
January 19, 2022 By Albert Bender
At an early age, he was imbued with a sense of rage at the historic mistreatment of Native Americans. In 1968, he was one of the co-founders of the American Indian Movement.
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Opinion

Decolonizing the holiday: A way forward on Thanksgiving?
December 14, 2021 By Albert Bender
The “decolonize Thanksgiving” movement can raise the consciousness of those in mainstream society who are starting to view the “holiday” differently and recognize the need to correct history.
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