Punished for Indigenous culture

All these capitalists see us Indians as they saw the Gold Rush in 1849 when California made it illegal to be Indian to make way for the 49ers. I feel like that today, here in the Ironhouse. I'm told to cut my hair short or face discipline; we are not allowed to have our spiritual packages, only set to us from a vendor approved by the institution. They want us to buy imitation eagle feathers to pray with, (our religion is not fake), also they won't let our people, tribes, elders, and circles, send it to us blessed, prayed over, real eagle feathers.

- A Navajo California prisoner, November 2004