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Jeff Ostler

@jostler.bsky.social
1.8K followers 695 following 220 posts

Semi-retired history professor, University of Oregon. Thinking about genocide.

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Reposted by Jeff Ostler
Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Very few Americans, even among those who follow Middle East politics, have any inkling of Qatargate—Netanyahu's lengthy and exceedingly corrupt dealings with the Qataris, in which he persuaded them to fund and finance Hamas in order to build a counterweight to the Palestinian Authority and frustrate
newyorker.com
Israel’s Qatargate Scandal
Did Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides peddle influence to a foreign power?
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
www.bostonreview.net/articles/exi...
bostonreview.net
Exit and Exception
The Board of Peace’s model for governing Palestine reflects designs for a new world order.
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I think this may be the first time a US president as threatened genocide at the UN
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
newyorker.com
The Warning Benjamin Netanyahu Ignored
New reporting from Haaretz shows that, before October 7th, the Israeli Prime Minister was told to expect an “earthquake” from Gaza—and didn’t tell his security chiefs.
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Reposted by Jeff Ostler
jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 04/09/2026
i hate this thing they do where they pretend like they are fulfilling some long and pent up demand. just own that you’re engaged in naked idolatry
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Since Vance works for the Antichrist, he's in a good position to know.
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
1794 Treaty of Canandaigua between the U.S. and Six Nations recognizes Seneca territory as bounded by Lake Ontario.
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
One of the greatest GOP scams of all time, tax cuts will pay for themselves, and they gave the guy a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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Reposted by Jeff Ostler
Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 06/08/2026
The University of Minnesota withdrew an offer from Raz Segal to lead its Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies after an organized campaign against his hiring
theguardian.com
An Israeli professor lost a prestigious US job offer after speaking out on Gaza. Now the university is paying him $250,000
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
ictnews.org/news/northwe...
ictnews.org
Relief efforts for Northwest fires: ‘The whole rez is on fire’ - ICT
As wildfires burn through Native nations in Oregon and Washington, communities across both states have banded together to set up sites to donate and support families impacted by the fires.
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
The Trump regime's 160-page attack on the National Museum of American History has a brief section on U.S. and Native Nations with a laughable assertion that Native Nations gave up their land voluntarily.
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
theatlantic.com
The Shameful Final Grievance of the Declaration of Independence
The revolution wasn’t only an effort to establish independence from the British—it was also a push to preserve slavery and suppress Native American resistance.
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Reposted by Jeff Ostler
Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan on X) @markanthonyneal.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
‘It’s just so wrong’: Haitians in Ohio reel from supreme court TPS ruling After outrageous insults from Donald Trump, Haitians have helped to revive Springfield – now their future is uncertain www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
‘It’s just so wrong’: Haitians in Ohio reel from supreme court TPS ruling
After outrageous insults from Donald Trump, Haitians have helped to revive Springfield – now their future is uncertain
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Failing to recognize blatant racism is itself racism. Conclusion: 6 Supreme Court justices are racists.
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
OTD 1876 Lakotas, Cheyennes, and Arapahoes destroyed Custer's 7th Cavalry at the Little Big Horn. News arrived on the East Coast on July 5-6 just in time to dampen U.S. celebration of the 100th anniversary of independence.
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Israel continues to commit genocide by targeting children in Gaza, UN inquiry finds www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
theguardian.com
Israel continues to commit genocide by targeting children in Gaza, UN inquiry finds
Independent report says by aiming at children Israel is undermining capacity of Palestinian people to exist
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Reposted by Jeff Ostler
Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Again, need to say it - if Biden, Obama or any other Democratic President publicly endorsed Iran having ballistic missiles after launching an ill advised war to essentially eliminate Iran's missile launching capabilities - Congress (even a Dem led one) would launch impeachment proceedings next day.
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
The Department of Defense just removed "Native American Religion" as a distinct category. Native spiritual practices are grouped as "other. ictnews.org/news/departm...
ictnews.org
Department of Defense removes Native American Religion distinction, groups as ‘other’ - ICT
A list of recognized religion codes used by military chaplains to aid service members has been reduced from over 200 to just 31
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
All nine tribes in South Dakota have put out a unified call to Congress to return public, federal lands in the Black Hills to tribal entities. nativenewsonline.net/sovereignty/...
nativenewsonline.net
LAND BACK: All Nine South Dakota Tribes Support Black Hills Land Return
Historic show of unity advances proposal to return federal lands in the Black Hills to the Great Sioux Nation In a historic demonstration of unity, all nine federally recognized Tribal nations in Sout...
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Reposted by Jeff Ostler
David Waldstreicher @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
And here it is, my belabored retrospective on Gordon Wood. Of course they changed the title, as magazines do. I preferred "How Gordon S. Wood Became the Rhetoric and Reality of the American Revolution" but knew it probably wouldn't fly. newrepublic.com/article/2115...
newrepublic.com
How Gordon S. Wood Shaped the Idea of America
The acclaimed historian, who died at the age of 92 this week, spent decades at the center of a debate about the founding of the United States.
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Just finished Keith Richotte's brilliant and hilarious book THE WORST TRICKSTER STORY EVER TOLD. If you want an entertaining and enlightening read about Native America, the Supreme Court, and U.S. Constitution, this is the one.
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Reposted by Jeff Ostler
Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Bob Packwood is dead. He was a scumbag personally, but he was also basically the last liberal Republican in American politics and a fascinating guy to consider what a complete shitshow the Republican Party has become. Here's my obituary. www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2026/06/pack...
lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com
Packwood - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Bob Packwood is dead. While his name became a joke of 1990s politics due to his serial sexual harassment and his resignation from the Senate due to that behavior, he is actually a far more interesting...
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
In the mail today: Tiffany Hale's brilliant new book FUGITIVE RELIGION. The cover references a monarch butterfly poised on the brim of Sitting Bull's hat. Phil Deloria says the book "reimagines the 19th c. as reservoir of spiritual possibilities easily misread or ignored."
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Hopkins Press @hopkinspress.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Called "meticulously researched and readable" by the "Library Journal," Kevin Kokomoor's "The Cherokee War of 1776" uncovers the forgotten history of the US war against the Cherokee during the early days of American independence. tr.ee/AcOUaH
The book "The Cherokee War of 1776: Native Destruction at the Dawn of American Independence" by Kevin Kokomoor on an orange sandstone background.
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Reposted by Jeff Ostler
Street Roots @streetroots.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
A massive data center is the planned recipient of green energy generated by a $3.3 billion project long opposed by Yakama Nation.
streetroots.org
'It's not built yet': Yakama Nation fights $3.3B energy project and data center development on sacred site
Yakama Nation and its allies have been fighting to stop the project for nearly a decade. New information shows the project is intended to feed the “world's greenest” data center
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Suddenly lots of book groups from San Francisco to the Bronx are incredibly interested in reading an obscure monograph I wrote seven years ago that currently ranks about 1 million on Amazon.
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
If all you saw was this headline you'd think the Strait was reopened, but no such thing. WTF @nytimes.com?
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Shelved next to the book Donald Trump Constitutionalist
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
Fifty years from now, historians will have to write sentences beginning with "As the president's dementia worsened"
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Reposted by Jeff Ostler
Rick Hasen @rickhasen.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
My New One at Slate: “The Supreme Court’s Conservatives Just Issued the Worst Ruling in a Century; This evisceration of the Voting Rights Act requires us to take SCOTUS reform more seriously.” @slate.com slate.com/news-and-pol...
Wednesday’s 6-3 party line decision in Louisiana v. Callais will go down in history as one of the most pernicious and damaging Supreme Court decisions of the last century. All six Republican-appointed justices on the court signed onto Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion gutting what remained of the Voting Rights Act protections for minority voters, while pretending they were merely making technical tweaks to the Act.

This decision will bleach the halls of Congress, state legislatures, and local bodies like city councils, by ending the protections of Section 2 of the Act, which had provided a pathway to assure that voters of color would have some rudimentary fair representation. It’s the culmination of the life’s work of Chief Justice John Roberts and Samuel Alito, who have shown persistent resistance to the idea of the United States as a multiracial democracy, and a brazen willingness to reject Congress’s judgment that fair representation for minority voters sometimes requires race-conscious legislation. It gives the green light to further partisan gerrymandering. It protects Alito’s core constituency: aggrieved white Republican voters. It’s a disaster for American democracy.
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
A despicable decision by the University of Utah. University administrators caving to fascism.
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Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
I say it again and again: Because we don’t learn the real history of this country, we do not understand what this country is capable of. After 1870, 22 Black men served in Congress. By 1901, because of racist SCOTUS rulings, electoral coups and election cheating and violence, there were none.
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Review of Omer Bartov's new book, Israel: What Went Wrong? www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...
theguardian.com
What went wrong in Israel? A genocide scholar examines ‘what Zionism became’
In his new book, Omer Bartov tracks how a liberatory strand of Zionism transformed into an extremist ideology that he sees as responsible for genocide in Gaza
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
More ridiculous framing from @nytimes. How does Trump threatening to do a completely stupid thing put pressure on Iran? Now they're going to cave?
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Trump is uniquely deranged, but he is not the first U.S. president to threaten genocide. Jefferson threatened leaders of an Indigenous resistance movement: "If we are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe, we will never lay it down til that tribe is exterminated ...
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
U.S. military and political leaders often threatened massive violence---indeed, genocide---against Indigenous peoples to force them to comply. Five examples from volume 2 of SURVIVING GENOCIDE (to be published in late 2026/early 2027):
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Cherish the Strait, grab it and cherish it.
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Reposted by Jeff Ostler
AsAmNews @asamnews.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
Sandra Wong, the great granddaughter of Wong Kim Ark, is preparing to march at the #NoKings Rally in San Francisco. Today is the 128th Anniversary of the SCOTUS decision affirming birthright citizenship.
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Some good news for a change www.klcc.org/environment/...
klcc.org
Chinook salmon are hatching in Upper Klamath for first time in a century
The Klamath Tribes are celebrating evidence of Chinook salmon spawning in Klamath River tributary.
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Poor academics, hardships of getting reimbursed for giving talks.
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
All this bullshit about 47 years of being at war with Iran, does anyone remember that the Reagan administration illegally sold weapons to Iran to fund the Contras in Nicaragua?
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Rebecca Nagle @rebeccanagle.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
All charges against Nick Tilsen have been dropped! Tilsen, who is Oglala Lakota and the founder of NDN collective, was facing criminal charges that he allegedly accelerated his vehicle toward a South Dakota cop in 2022.
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
U.S. denied its own genocide of Indigenous peoples, so I suppose it makes sense it will deny Israel's genocide of Palestinians. apnews.com/article/worl...
apnews.com
US defends Israel against South Africa's allegation of genocide filed to top UN court
The United States will intervene in the genocide case against Israel at the U.N.’s highest court, according to a filing obtained by The Associated Press.
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carpenter22.bsky.social @carpenter22.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026... ICE agents reveal daily arrest quotas and surveillance app in rare court testimony
theguardian.com
ICE agents reveal daily arrest quotas and surveillance app in rare court testimony
Under oath, officers said they were told to make eight arrests a day and given special tech to help choose ‘targets’
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New York Times Opinion @nytopinion.nytimes.com · 09/03/2026
“The selection of Mr. Khamenei makes one thing clear: Rather than compelling Iran to change course, the president’s war plan is pushing it to dig in,” Vali R. Nasr writes.
nyti.ms
Opinion | Iran’s New Supreme Leader Represents a Choice: Defiance
Iran’s new supreme leader has been selected not to break with the regime but to preserve it.
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Reposted by Jeff Ostler
Michael Oberg @michaelleroyoberg.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
On the disappointment that comes from reading a retired Commissioner of Indian Affairs’ memoir. michaelleroyoberg.com/native-ameri...
michaelleroyoberg.com
Being Commissioner of Indian Affairs Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry
It was news to me that George W. Manypenny, who served as Commissioner of Indian Affairs under President Franklin Pierce, had published a memoir twenty-five years after he left the Bureau.  During …
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Reposted by Jeff Ostler
Yale University Press @yalepress.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
This interview is a must-listen for history lovers. Marc James Carpenter, author of THE WAR ON ILLAHEE, gives an in-depth look into the settler-Native wars that shaped the Pacific Northwest. 
newbooksnetwork.com
Marc James Carpenter, "The War on Illahee: Genocide, Complicity, and Cover-Ups in the Pioneer Northwest" (Yale UP, 2025) - New Books Network
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Adam Steinbaugh @adamsteinbaugh.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Federal court orders Trump administration to restore historical panel exhibits at President’s House in Philadelphia. Happy Presidents Day.
MEMORANDUM OPINION

February 16, 2026
“All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place.”
George Orwell, 1984'

As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's 1984 now existed, with its motto
"Ignorance is Strength," this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government
has the power it claims—to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain
over historical facts. It does not.
The President's House is a component of Independence National Historical Park that
commemorates the site of the first official presidential residence and the people who lived there,
including people enslaved by President George Washington. On January 22, 2026, the National
Park Service ("NPS") removed panels, displays, and video exhibits that referenced slavery and
information about the individuals enslaved at the President's House.
Plaintiff City of Philadelphia ("the City" filed this lawsuit under the Administrative
Procedures Act ("APA") against the Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum…CONCLUsION
For the reasons stated above, the Motion for Preliminary Injunction will be granted. The preliminary injunction will remain in place pending further litigation in this matter. There can b
no prejudice to Defendants' restoration of the status quo as of January 21, 2026, which requires that Defendants reinstall all panels, displays, and video exhibits that were previously in place.
Defendants shall further prevent any additions, removals, destruction, or further changes of any
kind to the President's House site, except in the event that a mutual written agreement is reachec between Defendants and the City of Philadelphia. An order will be entered.
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John Garrison Marks @johngmarks.com · 16/02/2026
For Presidents’ Day, I thought I’d put together a thread of *other* Presidents talking about George Washington and slavery. Away we go! 🧵/1
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Jeff Ostler @jostler.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
A few thoughts about another ill-informed refutation of the undeniable fact that the U.S. is built on lands stolen from Indigenous peoples.
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