Quentin's Weeknotes 6/1/19-6/7/19

This Week:

• I listened to a new podcast, entitled This Land. Hosted by Indigenous (Cherokee) Activist and author Rebecca Nagle, it chronicles the background of an upcoming supreme court case that will determine whether half of Oklahoma is Tribal land. The basis is a murder and the question of federal jurisdiction, but the heart of the issue is treaty law, and the extent to which Indigenous groups are sovereign nations whose rights under treaty must be acknowledged. Check it out!
• I helped my folks get the website of their antique shop looking shipshape. Czech Village Antiques is a great, multi-dealer store in the heart of Czech Village in Cedar Rapids Iowa. Stop by if you’re in town.
• I finished reading the third volume of Nnedi Okorofor’s Binti trilogy. The easiest (but sort of misleading) tagline would be “African Harry Potter in Space”, but it’s really a thoughtful meditation on tradition and change, intercultural agreement and strife, and building community. Also, there are Jellyfish Aliens and flying interplanetary fish.
• I attended the New York Archives Conference and gave a co-authored paper (with Shelley Wallace) on archives and archaeology. I wish I coud’ve stayed longer as it was quite an interesting group of folks.