I have waited all week.

Actually, two weeks because I was away last week for this segment.

Simon Moyes Smith is an Oglala Lakota and Chicano journalist.

He's a contributing writer at NBC News and The Nation.com.

He is the author of the forthcoming book.

Your Spirit Animal is a jackass, and he is adjunct professor of indigenous studies at the University of Colorado, Denver.

Simon, it is so good to see you. Welcome back. I mean, it was weird not being on last Thursday.

Well, I promise I'll make you really sick of me within the next hour that you'll forget you ever had a break.

Julie Franchella is a mental health professional with over 30 years of experience, handling complex trauma with indigenous youth and families. Julie's an enrolled member of the Ojibway of Batchewana First Nation Reserve. She teaches indigenous studies at Durham College, focusing on the impacts of colonization on First Nations people. Julie, it's good to see you. Welcome back. Thank you so much. And we're happy to be back. I felt the same way as Simon kind of went through a little withdrawal last week. But happy to be here. Well, thank you. I'm so glad to see you both. We have a lot of people who want to talk. And if you guys have any questions or comments for Simon and Julie, we're at 866-997-47-48. There's so much to get to. Today is May 28th. Today is the anniversary of the

7th President Andrew Jackson signing the Indian Removal Act in 1830. And of course, two centuries

later, our listeners, me, we've all learned so much from you guys about how native communities are still fighting this displacement, the extraction, the erasure, the survival.

Simon, you know, when people learn about the Indian Removal Act in school they always frame it I know

or sometimes it's framed as tragic history but I feel like indigenous communities have to live

with the consequences in the present tense not just history what what should non-Native

Americans understand about this anniversary and about how these systems continue today.

Yeah, so just so if you have any new listeners to the program, there's Indian removal and

Indian relocation. Indian removal signed by Andrew Jackson was to force indigenous people

West. And again, that's what they call manifest destiny, right? The removal of indigenous people

believing that Jesus sent white people here to claim the land and to be fruitful, right? And we've

seen that image of the manifest destiny that floating white lady and natives running into the darkness.

So that was extremely brutal. But fast forward into the 1950s because a lot of

people do get those confused. Removal, Trail of Tears, Relocation is when they found oil, gas, and

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