Jen Deerinwater

Jen Deerinwater is a classically trained vocalist vagabond with a love for books, antique maps, contemporary art, and indigenous-led revolution. Jen has several degrees from over-priced universities and the student loan debt to prove it. She is Bisexual, Two Spirit, multiply-Disabled, and is mixed-race Tsalagi-a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. After a decade spent in the trenches of U.S. politics you can now find her stirring the pot of radical discourse à la journalism and organizing in her chosen home of Washington D.C. and across Turtle Island.

[People walk through the streets holding housing justice signs]

What Does Housing Justice Really Mean?

Jen Deerinwater

It means we deserve to live on stolen lands for free.

[Photo: A watercolor painting of a native person. In the background is a cityscape.]

Paper Genocide: The Barriers to an Accurate Count of Native People in 2020

Jen Deerinwater

The undercounting of American Indians and Alaska Natives in the census wreaks havoc on tribal communities today, and it will for generations to come.

[Photo: A watercolor painting of a native person. In the background is a night sky.]

Paper Genocide: The Erasure of Native People in Census Counts

Jen Deerinwater

Native people were excluded from the first 70 years under the Constitution, which regarded “Indians not taxed” as not countable.

[Photo: Senator Warren gives an apologetic expression as she speaks at an event.]

Elizabeth Warren and Indigenous People’s Erasure in Colonial Narratives

Jen Deerinwater

"Native Americans are consistently talked over. We are talked over by conservatives who make racist jokes and war whoops. And we are talked over by Democrats, like Warren, who profess solidarity, and then, when it's politically convenient, plow right over us.”

Reflections on Standing Rock and Our Queer Mother Earth

Jen Deerinwater

Nearly two years have passed since my trip to Standing Rock soon after the October 27 raids. I had been publishing about the Dakota Access pipeline for a couple months, but physically being in North Dakota was a different beast.

On the Front Lines of Mariner East Pipeline Fight: Violence Against Native Activists

Jen Deerinwater

Native people, who arguably have the most to lose with the construction of the pipelines, haven't been a priority at any stage of the permitting and construction process and, as such, their concerns are rarely heard in the media.

Dispatch From L’eau Est La Vie Camp: Water Protectors Not Backing Down After Arrests in Louisiana

Jen Deerinwater

"I’ve been asked to protect this piece of land and I intend to do it," said one water protector at a construction shutdown on Labor Day.

Save Your Dimes and Aspirin: We Need Disability Justice Now

Jen Deerinwater

There is no justice without disability justice, and we need able-bodied accomplices to stand beside us as we fight to eliminate the ills of ableism. Will you stand with us?

[photo: a Native American marcher stands on the National Mall during the equality march in Washington, DC, in June 2017]

Our Pride: Honoring and Recognizing Our Two Spirit Past and Present

Jen Deerinwater

As we enter into Pride month under a particularly tyrannical administration, only by acknowledging not only our existence, but the centuries of our resistance to the white, heterosexist, gender binary, will we move closer to the decolonization of Turtle Island and completion of the circle our ancestors began for us.

‘We Will Not Stand Down’: #StopETP Coalition Rallies Against ‘Climate Criminals’

Jen Deerinwater

The demonstration was held on the one-year anniversary of the brutal assault on the primarily indigenous water protectors at Standing Rock.

Jen Deerinwater

Search: