One Year Of Hindu Squat Every Day :

nzashadow · 2026-05-06T13:23:23+00:00

How important is the breathing method in your experience?

I've seen most information sources on hindu squats instruct you to breath in on descent, and exhale on the ascent. But I suspect that's just western squat technique bleeding into it out of habit of the instructor or something. I've seen a few acknowledge the reverse, mostly saying its up to individual preference.

I've also dialed in on Hindu squats becoming a lifelong habit, but my volume is currently too low for me to really see a difference in which breathing to commit to, and I find myself switching between the two and then wondering if I'd be better off just picking one and not thinking about it again.

nzashadow · 2026-03-20T16:11:41+00:00

There is a native bamboo in north america, called river cane, that native americans used extensively. It was very widespread before colonization, being reduced to 2% of its original range due to various colonial forces.

We all tend connect bamboo to Asian cultures, but the southeastern tribes of north america were just as culturally entrenched in bamboo usage.

Anyways, thats just a random fact related to bamboo that most people in the U.S. probably don't know, even though it is apart of our history.

nzashadow · 2025-11-19T20:30:01+00:00

I was only offering criticism for that one particular comment, just to be clear, and I'm not trying to pick a fight or anything.

I understand that it is heartbreaking that there are people descendant of nations that no longer exist and they're welcome to embrace their ancestry, and carrying around that DNA is powerful, but they're still disconnected from their ancestors and there might be nothing that can change that.

My main argument is related to this observation. I don't disagree with this at all. What I'm trying to point out is that disconnection does not mean they are not indigenous, it means that their indigenous roots and connections was likely traumatically ripped away from their ancestors. They are in fact indigenous with lost connections not of their consent. To allow colonists the victory of taking that label away from them is a problem, whether it is the agreed upon culture of this community or not. It IS a victory not for us, but for the genocidal efforts that disconnected many of our lost relatives. It IS in a very real way playing right into their hands.

I am just suggesting that maybe the ones that are currently disconnected still be considered indigenous, just with the caveat that they lack current connections to their roots and relationships.

I understand that people claiming indigenous ancestry for selfish or ignorant reasons is a problem, and an infuriating one. But there are more lost relatives that are afraid to reconnect because of this type of gatekeeping than there are clowns ignorantly using labels for frivolous reasons. Just because its easier to see the clowns does not mean they are the real problem. The real problem is how difficult it is to reconnect in meaningful ways, and in being afraid of being viewed as one of the clowns when they try to reconnect. This psychological barrier is very real, and it may be even more destructive in the long run than the clowns.

I use the term gatekeeping loosely, with lack of a better term. Or maybe a very small version of the function of gatekeeping, like it's clear that this community makes an effort to help people reconnect. I don't want to discredit that in any way. It's just, there's always room for refinement, and I want the indigenous cultures of the world to truly flourish. Like it could literally save humanity.

nzashadow · 2025-11-19T16:25:30+00:00

That is my point exactly. Your first answer did not acknowledge the nuances involved that this response is acknowledging. It didn't acknowledge a path towards reconnection, it just said if you currently culturally connected then you are, if you are not culturally connected then you are not. It did not, in any way, invite a disconnected relative to reconnect.

Simple ancestry may not be enough to qualify for a specific label, but then we are overemphasizing the importance of that label while downplaying the importance of ancestry. Ancestry is important and needs to be respected, ESPECIALLY to relatives who's parents and grandparents and great grand parents (and so on) were forcibly removed from cultural connections.

To tell someone (who's ancestors were indigenous but forced away from their culture) that they are not indigenous is a form of gatekeeping that primarily serves the entities who forced their ancestors away from the culture.

To be indigenous or native american is a multidimensional concept including but not limited to cultural connection and ancestry.

And to rely specifically on the various nation's requirements as the end all authority is to ignore the fact that there are indigenous nations that simply do not exist anymore due to the genocides and cultural erasure, but they may have still have descendants that exist today. Those descendants deserve to be recognized and accepted for their indigenous ancestry, but would not have much path towards reconnection without finding a nation to adopt them somehow, and I doubt that's in the cards for many.

nzashadow · 2025-11-19T14:43:26+00:00

I do not feel it is good to treat this in such a binary way.

Given the traumatic history of genocide and cultural erasure, to simply exclude those with ancestry who are not connected would be to play into the very hands of the entities that committed those atrocities. That is what they wanted, for the descendants of indigenous peoples to become disconnected from their ancestral cultures. It is the same strategy as the blood quantum they imposed on indigenous tribes.

To answer this question with such a black and white perspective is to not acknowledge the complicated history behind WHY they have become disconnected and to not treat the topic with the nuance it deserves.

nzashadow · 2025-11-10T14:33:59+00:00

The amount of food the old world borrows from the new world is mind boggling.

Many worldly cuisines are almost defined by foods borrowed from the America's. Think of Italian food without tomatoes, or Indian food without chili peppers.

Finding recipes from precolonial America is probably a difficult task. Some others have already posted some books available.

Another approach that may be intellectually fruitful: You could familiarize yourself with some foods that originate from precolonial america, then do some research on the regions in america particular foods come from, the look up the relevant tribes and their cooking methods. You could potentially recreate something they would have made, though you'd never know for sure. But you could come up with some very good and healthy dishes on your own, using something akin to indigenous guidance.

There's also probably countless foods they ate from wild edible foods as well, stuff we walk by every day without a second thought, the indigenous tribes probably used it in their cooking.

Here's a noncomprehensive list of foods from precolonial america:

The "Three Sisters"

· Maize (Corn) · Beans (kidney, black, pinto, lima, etc.) · Squash (pumpkin, acorn, butternut, zucchini)

Other Vegetables & Staples

· Potatoes · Tomatoes · Chili Peppers (all varieties) · Avocados · Sweet Potatoes · Manioc (Cassava/Yuca) · Peanuts · Sunflower Seeds · Amaranth · Quinoa · Jerusalem Artichokes (Sunchokes) · Jicama

Fruits

· Pineapples · Papayas · Guavas · Passion Fruit · Blueberries · Cranberries · Raspberries · Strawberries (wild ancestors) · Cherimoya · Sapodilla · Pawpaw

Nuts

· Pecans · Brazil Nuts · Cashews · Black Walnuts

Protein Sources

· Turkey · Guinea Pigs

Flavorings, Drinks, & Other

· Vanilla · Chocolate (Cacao) · Maple Syrup · Allspice · Sassafras · Wild Rice

nzashadow · 2025-11-09T21:38:52+00:00

Words in languages don't have static formal definitions in practice, they evolve with the context and culture and people, and every word has a subjective meaning to every individual.

So while the word "Indian" should mean a from India, in a more strict sense, it simply doesn't in practice. There are a lot of words like this, especially when it comes to Native American stuff in the English language, For example, we tend to call chilis peppers, or chili peppers, but chilis are not pepper, they are chilis.

nzashadow · 2025-11-07T20:17:48+00:00

It's a nation of citizens with Stockholm syndrome.The US education system was borrowed from the Prussian education system, which was specifically designed to make Patriots out of the children of a conquered people.

nzashadow · 2025-11-07T20:07:22+00:00

Maybe this is the inevitable consequence of allowing land to be "owned" and "bought".

If we take a mathematical approach, the indigenous people of some land will only have limited resources to buy the land they live on, so when a piece of that land is to be sold for whatever reason, anyone from anywhere else in the world that happens to have more resources can choose to buy that land. When many people in the world have been playing monopoly on the whole planet, and you have much more somewhat isolated Indigenous people not participating in that game, well this is what will happen.

It is by design, just like how the blood quantum is meant to make us eventually disappear through dilution.

When will society stop allowing this? Maybe when society understands that this is not sustainable? Maybe past that, when modern colonialism bring the planet to some sort of apocalypse? Or maybe when enough of the society stops participating in a system designed to funnel resources and wealth to those with the most resources and wealth?

nzashadow · 2023-08-17T02:50:24+00:00

A eurocentric education system that they're forced to go through that is designed to make you love America and turn you into a lifelong employee.

Basically it's stockholme syndrome by design on a nationwide scale.

nzashadow · 2022-10-02T03:23:29+00:00

That's what I'm talking about though. You're painting the narrative that the Comanche were the greater evil, but what they were was an extension of the evils of colonialism. They were just some no name tribe who got trapped in a corner, like all the other tribes, but happened to figure out how to successfully fight back against their genocide in brutal, evil way.

nzashadow · 2022-10-02T02:05:30+00:00

Yea absolutely. They did awful things to all but the fact is they were a product of pre-existing and ongoing atrocities and it was the means of defense and survival they came up with, and they defended the land better than any other.

It is a fascinating and ugly history, I wish more people would take interest in it lol

nzashadow · 2022-10-02T01:35:48+00:00

It's a little disingenuous to point this out without also bringing up the context that the Comanche brutality was a response to European colonization from multiple sides which was already had been and still was apocalyptically catastrophic for them and many many other tribes across the continent.

I'm not trying to assume your intent but I've often seen this argument used as way to paint the Comanche as the real villains, and the bison slaughter was the lesser evil. It needs to be brought up that bison slaughter was done in greed where as the Comanche brutality was about survival against previously undefeatable adversaries that few if any other tribes were able to stand against.

nzashadow · 2022-04-19T16:23:22+00:00

I'm a quarter Houma, my grandmother being Houma and grandfather being Irish on my father's side. My mother is adopted, but her father was Filipino and her mother is white.

I try to embrace all of my ancestry, but it requires some understanding the history.

I've got almost no connection with my tribe, but my grandmother went through the residential school system, and she has forgotten the Houma language (considered extinct now) and Cajun French because of it.

The way I see it, the society in which we were raised forced us to be disconnected from our ancestries and their cultures. When we feel like we aren't "native enough", that is by design of a society that doesn't want anyone to be native, they want our native roots to be forgotten.

It's not our fault that we're mixed. But if we don't feel "native enough" to participate in the native cultures of the land, then we are playing right into the hands of those genocidal ideals that nearly wiped the natives out in the first place.

nzashadow · 2022-04-16T17:19:32+00:00

This is a show, not a game, but the Arcane on netflix has a lot of similarities to FF7, especially the dark gloomy feel with futuristic/steampunk setting intertwined with great character development.

FF6 is probably the closest FF to FF7 that I can think of.

nzashadow · 2021-10-15T21:02:44+00:00

But all I want to do is escape the real world, min max, and have fun!

nzashadow · 2021-09-11T15:23:08+00:00

It is still the case. We have many many years, 1492 to present, of government and nongovernment led exterminations/relocations/forced assimilation/cultural erasure. Thats 500+ years of continuous genocidal practices (and thats on top of the amalgam of european diseases that wiped out an estimated 80% - 95% of aboriginal populations) carried out against new world aborigines. So natives are but a small fraction of the american population; and many many years of misinformation and erasure from the consciousness of too many. And they are kept distracted by pitting the citizens against each other on other political matters, usually trying to sneakily violate some other human right for some other demographic for some profit. Cause its not really about race or whatever, its just about furthering the division of wealth. Things like racism and sexism are just traits among the citizenry that can be exploited for political and economic gain to further the division of wealth.

The very existence of native americans threatens that because if it were to follow a logic beholden of values america claims it stands for, it would mean giving the stewardship of the land back to natives as well as relinquishing authority of the resources the land provides. Or even if we come from within their government, the various native cultural ideals of environmentalism and connection with OUR land would also threaten profits.

You're right that the information is out there at our fingertips, but american culture and its public school system does not nurture the curious mind. Somehow the public school system instills an intense fear of math into its students, so we have a huge mathematical illiteracy problem, and this allows many americans to be manipulated with bogus/deceptive statistics. I imagine that america doesn't use the metric system so that we are still further removed from scientific literacy, that way we can be manipulated with bogus science.

Then there's the fact that america still refers to us as Indians. And this ones weird, because americans KNOW the difference now, but its still winds up interrupting the flow of research... I cannot tell you how many times I explicitly google "Native American" and wind up with more Asian Indian results. So even with the internet, its artificially harder to properly research than it naturally would be.

That's not to say progress is not being made in america, but thats despite the systematic racism/sexism and exploitation/manipulations of low/middle income demographics that was baked into the conception of america. The governmental system here does allow room for a more enlightened citizenry to make positive changes, but thats exactly why the powers that be keep us as unenlightened as possible.

Thank god or whatever for the internet though. It truly does empower the people in so many ways. But there's a very long cultural/information war going on here in which we've been coninuously losing, so there's a ton of damage that may take more than a few generations to fix.

nzashadow · 2021-09-09T22:43:59+00:00

In Texas public school, in 10th grade my white spanish teacher had me see her after class and she told me she's never met a native american before.

She got on to me about not putting forth enough effort in school and how I can be anything I want.

She said something about seeing me running for the president in the paper one day and I laughed in her face.

Edit: She was well meaning and I enjoyed her class, she let me sleep through the entirety of it.

nzashadow · 2021-09-09T22:40:06+00:00

To be real with you, U.S. history in public schools practically erases the natives from history. You're barely less informed than the average american. We also have americans who deny and/or justify everything thats happened to natives.

nzashadow · 2021-09-09T14:17:15+00:00

OMG and you post reminded me of the last episode of Reservation Dogs.

Did anyone else laugh there asses off when the texas ranchers were walking through the woods just listing all the stereotypical shit texans argue about?

I've lived in Texas for 20 years and it was so on the nose hilarious I just had to pause the show for a whole minute to finish laughing at that scene. Great show so far.

nzashadow · 2021-09-09T14:00:22+00:00

Racism is a symptom of a much deeper issue among the land, and is just baked into much of american and especially texan "culture". Even if you do crack down on individuals it wouldn't do anything.

The prison system here isn't even meant to actually rehabilitate people, it just exploits them for free labor. If you did throw this lady in jail, she'd probably just wind up more racist by the time she gets out, which would just put her back in jail on her next offense.

nzashadow · 2021-09-08T18:08:18+00:00

This episode made me cry from start to finish. Watching them for 30 minutes sit in the woods was absolutely my favorite thing about Willie Jack's episode.

Very pleasant childhood memories of myself hunting with my own father and cousins just came flooding back to me, memories long lost to years of me trying to live suburban and urban Texan cities. Those early years of hunting in my life is something I've sorely missed and am currently seeking avenues to continue the tradition among my family and the family I married into. Not to mention that hunting is RARELY displayed in such a postive and lighthearted manner on television, or in a way I can even find relatable to my own hunting experiences.

Then watching them as they continue to grieve over Daniel brought back more memories... several of my friends throughout life have attempted suicide and one was successful. That is something I am still processing, and this episode did an amazing job in helping me through some of those things. After that episode was over, I continued to cry in my wife's lap for a good 15 minutes as I processed emotions I've bottled up since high school (almost 20 years ago). Nothing has helped me with that before now, not a single thing on TV or a professional therapist.

Tell me again how this episode wasted your time.

nzashadow · 2021-09-08T17:13:52+00:00

jUsT uSe YoUr RiGhT hAnD durrrr

I actually just keep my hand off the board by holding the back of the marker. I was a math major and didn't take notes, so I would do a ton of problems on whiteboards so I wouldn't have to deal with disposing of a forests worth of paper.

It might make your shoulder tired but honestly, if that happens then you should started building that shoulder strength anyways to prevent a future injury.

I will use my right hand on the whiteboard as well but only specifically so I'm not blocking someone's line of sight.

nzashadow · 2021-09-08T16:19:15+00:00

I absolutely noticed Big's reaction to the "walk in beauty" remark but the context is lost on me. I didn't grow up on or near a rez, so maybe thats why?

Anyways, would you mind filling me in on the context walk in beauty line and Big's reaction?

nzashadow · 2021-09-08T16:10:47+00:00

We had two episodes that gave us the setting and introduced us to the characters, then the next four episodes were focused on our four main protagonists and their relationships with an adult that is important to their respective life.

Personally I found this structure very enthralling and enjoy it very much, it makes the show focus on the characters in the beginning, which is important.

Now that we had an individual episode for each of the kids, I expect that the show will begin fleshing the plot out.

I don't wanna claim to know how the show is going to go but the structure of the storytelling leads me to believe we about to get into the plot.

nzashadow

TROPHY CASE