Sorsha Khitikian is an opinion writer/columnist at the Tufts Daily. Sorsha is a junior studying history, civic studies, psychology, and child studies and human development. She can be reached at sorsha.khitikian@tufts.edu.
Graduating senior Linda Huang always knew she wanted to be part of the Daily. From her ‘Why Tufts?’ essay to her first time writing for the Opinion section, she knew she had something to say and an important reason to say it.
This semester, I have tackled relevant, breaking news stories as they have occurred. From the Bad Bunny Superbowl Halftime Show to the horrific acts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the immediate issues of the day have been my major focus. While I believe this coverage is vital, I also recognize that the vast majority of Indigenous issues lie beneath the surface because they have remained issues for years, decades, even centuries. Progress on these issues happens in spurts and often is covered through a non-Indigenous lens. As this is my last column for this semester, I want to bring attention to one of those issues: NAGPRA, or the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act.
On March 22, 2026, President Donald Trump wrote a letter to Basil Russo, national president of the Italian Sons and Daughters of America. In this letter, Trump announced that a statue of Christopher Columbus, gifted by the organization, would be displayed at the White House. He referred to Columbus as “the original American hero” as well as “one of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the Earth.”
Baseball is America’s sport. At least, it used to be. It’s no secret that Major League Baseball is fueled by international talent and fans. Some of the best players were born internationally: Albert Pujols, Sammy Sosa, David Ortiz and Ichiro Suzuki. International fans are also heavily invested in the sport. For example, after Japan-born superstar Shohei Ohtani signed his historic $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2023, the team exceeded four million fans in attendance for the first time in its history. LA Tourism estimated that in 2024, 80%–90% of Japanese tourists to the city went to Dodger Stadium at least once.
I, like at least 128 million others, spent Feb. 8 watching Bad Bunny perform in the Super Bowl halftime show. And like most of those 128 million, I loved the performance; it was rich with cultural references, amazing visuals and a message of love. What Bad Bunny did was celebrate Puerto Rico, with all of its beauty and struggles. He also showcased an important cultural legacy: the Indigenous Taíno peoples and their survival, which is part of the broader story of Puerto Rican culture.
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Last year, I published an article about the colonial history of Greenland, exploring why it and its Indigenous people would want to be independent from Denmark. Since then, the people of Greenland voted Demokraatit, a center-right, moderately independent party, into power. At the same time, President Donald Trump has intensified his effort to buy Greenland from Denmark, Greenland’s former colonial owner. Greenland has achieved autonomy from Denmark, but is not fully independent. Trump had made it clear that he would consider violence as a tactic to annex Greenland, but walked back such statements earlier this month.
Within the past few weeks, President Donald Trump and his administration have threatened to invade Greenland, referred to a U.S. citizen killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a domestic terrorist and released a racist video of Barack and Michelle Obama. In the past few months, the administration has threatened universities with federal funding cuts, grabbed thousands of people off the streets and engaged in trade wars with dozens of countries. Within the past year, it has pulled out of over60 international agreements, pardoned those with Jan. 6 related convictions and purged federal websites of information Trump deemed ‘DEI.’ This paragraph barely covers the overwhelming actions of Trump’s second term, and doesn’t even cover anything he did in his first.
On Jan. 8, an Indigenous man named Jose Roberto ‘Beto’ Ramirez was dragged from his vehicle in Minneapolis by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Despite insisting on both his U.S. and tribal citizenship, he was beaten, detained and then sent to an ICE detention center for questioning. After being told he would facecharges for assaulting a federal officer, he was released over six hours after his initial encounter with ICE.
As my mom and I left Arkansas, we traveled north through Missouri and Illinois to Chicago, then east to Detroit and up through Canada to Niagara Falls. At all of these stops, we never really ran into anything that had obvious Indigenous ties. Once we crossed back into the United States, we still didn’t run into anything explicitly Indigenous. While this may be surprising to you, it was anything but surprising to me.
