Indigenous Americans have served in every war that the United States has engaged in since the Revolutionary War.
People are now familiar with the U.S. Marine Corps' utilization of Navajo Code Talkers during WWII, but the military relied on Indigenous language speakers from over 30 tribes to transmit secret messages during WWI and WWII, including the Lakȟóta, Choctaw, Tsalagi, Ho-Chunk, Comanche, Assiniboine, Oneida, Ojibwe, Hopi, Kiowa, Meskwaki, Kanienʼkehá꞉ka, Muskogee, Pawnee, Sac and Fox, Seminole, and Tlingit.
Indigenous peoples have the highest rate of military service of any race or ethnicity—five times the national average.
Most Americans probably assume that Indigenous Americans, having already been in the United States when the country was founded, were automatically citizens. But they were actually deliberately excluded more than once.
The Declaration of Independence signed in 1776 stated the inalienable rights listed would not apply to the "merciless Indian Savages." The 14th amendment, approved 110 years later in 1886, which established birthright citizenship again excluded any Indigenous peoples who had not fully assimilated.
It wasn't until the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 that Indigenous Americans were first offered the option to maintain their tribal identity and be citizens with the right to vote. Despite the law, many states enacted discriminatory laws to prevent Native Americans from voting with some not being repealed until the 1960s.
Many Indigenous war veterans returned home from WWI, WWII, and the Korean War to a country where they still weren't allowed to vote.
So there was a good reason Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch asked the representative of MAGA Republican President Donald Trump, U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer, in the case challenging Trump’s 2025 executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship about the citizenship of Indigenous Americans.
Trump's new version of birthright citizenship would apply only to those with “lawful domicile,” further defined as a lawful permanent residence within the U.S. "with intent to remain" according to Sauer. The Trump administration argued his executive order would return birthright citizenship to the original intent of the 14th amendment—which specifically excluded Indigenous Americans if they maintained their tribal affiliations.
Gorsuch asked:
"Do you think Native Americans today are birthright citizens under your test?"
Sauer responded:
“Uhh, I think so? I mean, obviously they’re granted citizenship by statute..."
You can see the exchange here:
Gorsuch interrupted, saying:
"Put aside the statute. Do you think they’re birthright citizens?”
After some back and forth, Gorsuch asked:
"Your test is the domicile of the parents. And that would be the test you’d have us apply today, right? Are tribal [children], born today, birthright citizens?"
Sauer responded:
"Uhhh, I think so? On our test, yeah. I’m not sure. I’d have to think that through. But, but—that’s my reaction."
People were appalled at Sauer's failure to properly research his own argument.
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Trump has had an acrimonious view of Indigenous Americans going back to the 1990s.
Tribal Nations and their citizens are certain if given any opportunity to strip them of their rights, Trump would do so based on his well-documented history of petty revenge.
But their week-long family vacation to Disney didn't look the way anyone would expect a family vacation at Disney to look. Though the whole family was there for the entire week and shared an impressive suite on campus, they had an additional "cast member" who clearly thought it was the main character: a work laptop.
At the end of the trip while going through photos and videos, TikToker @themouselets put together a video of snippets of her dad working around the park, from sitting on random benches scrolling through his phone, to finding random places to prop his laptop to review something, to answering questions while on a roller coaster.
She set the video to music commonly used in scary movies, calling the constant barrage of work emergencies like something out of a horror movie.
The TikToker captioned the video:
"Why does every single dad at Disney have a work emergency, WHY?"
You can watch the video here:
Fellow TikTokers felt terrible for the dad.
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With or without the music, some ascertained that this was absolutely a horror movie.
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Others agreed, pointing out that work should never be this important.
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The worst part was that this iss a problem that runs in the family.
TikToker @themouselets shared another horror movie video, this time featuring her brother, who was also notably glued to his laptop and phone for the entire trip.
The TikToker captioned the second video:
"[I'm editing] it like a horror movie, because IT WAS [a horror movie]. Between my dad and my brother, there was a laptop out at all times."
You can watch that video here:
It's important to commit yourself to your work and to work hard, but it's just as important to live your life and to make important memories with your loved ones.
While working this hard may have been the very thing that makes regular visits to Disney a possibility for this family, it seems the family needs to work out some boundaries so they can maximize their magical fun while in the park.
These dropped e-cigarettes are plastic, however, and will take much more time to break down. They also still contain trace amounts of the vaping product when left behind, not to mention the smell.
Fruity-smelling vapes have drawn the attention of squirrels, and videos have been popping up across social media of squirrels attempting to access the source of what they believe to be fruit. Some squirrels have gone so far as to put the mouthpiece in their mouth.
You can watch one video here:
Animals have been negatively impacted in a variety of ways in highly populated places like London, limiting their food supply and places to safely call home. It's becoming increasingly common for squirrels to share outdoor spaces with humans and for them to peruse trash while seeking out food sources they otherwise no longer have access to.
You can watch another video here:
Some viewers were shocked by the videos.
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Trash and littering, specifically from vapes, have become an increasing problem.
In a study conducted in 2023, more than five million disposable e-cigarettes were sold each week, with an unfortunate number of these empty canisters likely ending up on the ground. It's a common issue to find them left on the ground and inappropriately disposed of or recycled when consumers actually attempt to throw the products away after use.
The worst part of this is that this is not the first time we've seen squirrels interacting with e-cigarettes, and it surely won't be the last. We've also seen an increasing number of examples of birds utilizing cigarette butts, plastic, and other disposed of items in their nests when they otherwise struggle to find what they need.
Humans interacting with nature can sometimes be a good thing, but this trend seems more like a cry for help.
