Author | Lightnews

Layla ᎴᎳ

@laylajohnston.bsky.social

710 followers 330 following 240 posts

ᏥᏣᎳᎩ. Cherokee Nation citizen. Cherokee language learner. Reader and writer. Western Massachusetts. Native plant enthusiast. Climate crisis is now. 🪶💧🌽🍓

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Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 22d

ᎣᏏᏲ ᏂᎦᏛ. ᎴᎳ ᏓᏆᏙᎠ ᏥᏣᎳᎩ ᎢᎵᏃᏱ ᏗᎨᎬ. ᎧᎾᎧᎩ ᎢᎵᏃᏱ ᎠᏩᏕᎾ ᎠᎴ ᎧᎾᎧᎩ ᎠᏩᏛᏒ. ᎺᏌᏧᏎᏗ ᏥᏁᎳ.

Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 16h

This Land podcast by Rebecca Nagle. First season is about the the Supreme Court McGirt decision and the reservations in Oklahoma. Second season is about threats to ICWA.

Neneh Cherry’s memoir A Thousand Threads on audiobook, read by her.

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Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 23h

Tribal members, Cherokee Nation citizens, reach out to your at-large group leadership if you’re impacted by the SNAP emergency. They can help.

jreedmo.bsky.social @jreedmo.bsky.social · 1d

From the Tulsa Flyer, Native Nations, including my own, making sure local people receive food. Meanwhile the governor withholds funds for Oklahomans.

Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 1d

Frost covered seed heads are beautiful and provide food for our birds! #nativeplants

Scott Wohlers @scottwohlers.bsky.social · 1d

Monarda on a frosty morning.

The remnants of a monarda flower bud covered with a thin layer of frost in the morning.

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Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 2d

Cherokee Nation Chief Hoskin declares state of emergency over SNAP shutdown, sends additional funds to food banks. Tribal members of at-large organizations, please check with your leadership. They can help. anadisgoi.com/index.php/go...

Cherokee Nation deploys $1.25M to regional food banks

anadisgoi.com

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Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you for the instructions!

Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 2d

Admiring the perfection of this tiny goldfinch nest found in our yard. If you plant native you will also find such delights in your yard, satisfaction guaranteed. Add native plants wherever you can to help our bugs and birds survive these trying times.

A perfectly formed round bird’s nest, very small, probably for goldfinch eggs, on a red folder.

Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 3d

Has anyone successfully started American bugbane, actaea podocarpa, from seed? I received some seeds yesterday as a gift from a native plant nursery and was told they require double dormancy. Any tips would be appreciated. #nativeplants

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Reposted by Layla ᎴᎳ

Heather Randell @heatherrandell.bsky.social · 5d

Language is what roots us to our ancestors and land. Language is political.

LISTEN
How many languages can you identify by sound?

French? German? Russian? Spanish? Mandarin? Japanese? Korean? Hindi? Italian? Swedish? Hmong? Somali? Dutch? Portuguese? Turkish? Vietnamese? Arabic? Swahili? ...

The average American adult can likely identify, simply by sound, upwards of 10 to 15 languages.

The majority of those languages, including English, are not from this continent.
Conversely, the majority of Americans are likely not able to identify by sound more than one or two, if any, of the languages indigenous to this land base. Due to the forces of colonization, this reality has likely never even crossed the minds of most.

Can you identify by sound Dakota? Ojibwe? Hocak? Menominee? Diné? Tiwa? Quechan? Seneca? Comanche? Kiowa? Choctaw? Cherokee? Yupik? Keres? Cree? Lenape? Apache? Umonhon? ...

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Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 5d

No barking from the dog, no smog. Today was a good day. (That’d be your yesterday, of course.)

Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 5d

If you haven’t already read his other books, start here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/562370...

Where the Dead Sit Talking by Brandon Hobson: 9781641290173 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

2018 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FICTION FINALIST Set in rural Oklahoma during the late 1980s, Where the Dead Sit Talking is a stunning and lyrical Native American coming-of-age story. With his single m...

www.penguinrandomhouse.com

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Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 5d

New fiction from my favorite Cherokee author, Brandon Hobson, titled Devil is a Southpaw. I’ll be reading this all weekend. #booksky

Book cover showing crows flying over the title Devil is a Southpaw by Brandon Hobson.

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Reposted by Layla ᎴᎳ

Abbie James @abbiewjames.bsky.social · 10d

rising from the ground
spirits of soybeans past haunt
monocrop harvests

#HaikuSaturday #spookyseason

sunrise landscape; light blue sky at top of photo; a few purple clouds with light underneath; a tree line in the distance with a field of soybeans between trees and where photo is taken; white haze above soybeans

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Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 11d

Thank you for the explanation! I’m excited to hear about the potential for microplastics breakdown. I’m deeply troubled that plastics pollution is on track to be the legacy of our era.

Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 11d

So many visitors today. White-breasted nuthatch, red-winged blackbird, downy woodpecker, white-throated sparrow, song sparrow, tufted titmouse, a pair of cardinals, blue jays, common grackle, house finches, and a new lifer moving through, a ruby-crowned kinglet. Native plants bring the birds. 🐦‍⬛🖤

Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 12d

Just spotted a ruby-crowned kinglet in the ᏐᏣᎾ sochana cut leaf coneflower stems! Plant natives and they will come!

Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 12d

This is so cool, and necessary: “Under local law, meliponines now have legal rights to exist, regenerate and maintain healthy populations within their natural environment, free of harm from invasive species or human activity.” #bees

Inside Climate News @insideclimatenews.org · 12d

As deforestation and climate change threaten some of Peru’s least-known pollinators, scientists join forces with Indigenous Asháninka communities to protect stingless bees and their new legal rights.

Defending Stingless Bees in the Peruvian Amazon - Inside Climate News

As deforestation and climate change threaten some of Peru’s least-known pollinators, scientists join forces with Indigenous Asháninka communities to protect the insects and their new legal rights.

insideclimatenews.org

Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 14d

Same here. I have some beautiful photos of my Cherokee family in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) that will not be posted online. Our families deserve better than to become AI slop and clickbait.

Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 14d

Great photo and description of their distinct characteristics! Thank you for sharing. Such delightful little woodpeckers.

Reposted by Layla ᎴᎳ

Keyah "Don't Rank Frey" Hanwi @sapphic-film-nerd.bsky.social · 14d

Indigenous literature, a thread 🧵

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Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 14d

Love these birds! It’s always a lesson in their size difference when I get lucky enough to see them close together. The Hairy is so much bigger!

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Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 16d

Patagonia replaced a worn out zipper on a 12 year old coat of mine, no questions asked, no receipt needed. All I had to do was pay for shipping.

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Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 16d

The deadly amanita mushroom cap is fully open. #mushroom #fungifriends

A beige and white mushroom cap with white spots sprouting out of a bed of grass toooed with fallen leaves of brown and orange

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Reposted by Layla ᎴᎳ

Elsa 🌻 @naturalbeautyandwonder @beautyandwonder.bsky.social · 18d

I'm a native plant purist and pollinator protector in the US. I believe everyone needs to know that
1) Honeybees are livestock.
2) Honeybees actually decrease biological diversity within flowers due to their foraging methods.
3) Plant native gardens to attract native bees & native pollinators.

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Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 16d

I think some of this unintentional forgetting is class-based. Office workers went remote while my family were considered essential workers and continued to put themselves at risk. I am the only person in my circle who had family members hospitalized. I have not memory holed the trauma but they have

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Reposted by Layla ᎴᎳ

Autumnal Ryan Boyd @ryanboyd.bsky.social · 16d

Sorry to be corny but the aerial shots of these crowds are almost indescribably moving and hopeful

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