Native Americans: "THE RIGHT TO BE ANYWHERE ON THIS CONTINENT

Please post, forward & disseminate widely. If you would like to receive our twice monthly column directly, write to us at: XColumn@gmail.com • COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS BY ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ & PATRISIA GONZALES JUNE 19, 2006

"THE RIGHT TO BE ANYWHERE ON THIS CONTINENT" * SPECIAL DOUBLE EDITION

Along the U.S.-Mexico border, the body count continues to pile up daily. Meanwhile, the Minutemen patrol the U.S.-Mexico border and shameless politicians find it easy to denounce illegal immigration as the cause of all the nation's problems – including linking it with "the war on terror."

Amidst all the clatter, the only views not being heard are the ones that matter most. Thus here, we bring you a truly historic column, featuring the views of the nation's only non-immigrants: American Indians:

"The immigration issues are many and are so very complex; however, we cannot have a productive dialogue about anything when we begin the conversation, thinking it is "us against them" or when the "truth" is only half true or we only use rhetoric to back our claims. We can't resolve any of these complex issues if we label our neighbor as an "immigrant" and not as a relative, friend or human being." -- Nadine Tafoya, friend and colleague/Mescalero Apache -Salt River Pima -Maricopa

"I feel that as Native Peoples of the Americas, we have the right to be anywhere on this continent as we have for generations. To hear people telling my relatives that they are "illegal aliens" and criminals and to get out of our own land is very disturbing!" --- Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, PhD, President/Director, The Takini Network

"Indigenous peoples haven't known any borders. Colonial borders are new. It's ironic that essentially white men of privilege who created the category of white - that it is they who determine who gets permitted into our lands." --- Winona LaDuke, founding director, White Earth Land Recovery Project

"From the point of view of the laws of the indigenous nations of North America, the Europeans are the original illegal immigrants in the area of North America. The United States… has, for more than 200 years, methodically and militarily violated indigenous law, and even solemn treaties, in order to take over and occupy the vast majority of the lands of Indigenous nations and peoples.… it is hypocritical in the extreme for the people of the United States to now pretend that it is paragon of virtue, and a country that has always conducted itself on the basis of the rule of law." ---Indian Law Scholar, Steven Newcomb

"The movement to try to force the Mexican people to learn the English language and the culture and traditions of America to stay in this country may not be totally successful. I can tell you from firsthand experience that when the federal government tried to strip me of my language and traditions, it did only a partial job, because of my resistance to being subdued. Today I am glad I have retained my culture, traditions and the Keres language, for that is where my heart and soul belong…. Katheirne Augustine - Laguna Pueblo, retired nurse, excerpts from Albq Tribune

"Too bad WE didn't think of insisting that European arrivals speak OUR language. We'd all be speaking Ojibwemowin right now." --- Patty Loew, Assoc. Prof., UW-Madison

"In an important and emphatic way, the indigenous peoples of the Americas are reclaiming their continent, whether with the ballot, by boat, by air, or on foot. Let us call it repatriation on the march." Shirley Hill Witt, Coauthor, El Indio Jesus

"The white supremacists masquerading as patriots are building a fence at the southern border to keep out the brown people. Notice that they aren't building a fence at the northern border… Recall too that the 9-11 terrorists were here legally, complete with freakin' flyer numbers. I'm for all the Native people to have cross-border privileges up and down our hemisphere, and would close the borders against all the peoples from other places who look down on us." --- Suzan Shown Harjo - Cheyenne & Hodulgee Muscogee Dir., Morning Star Institute

"The argument used by the Minute Men, that their mission is to keep terrorists out of the U.S., cannot be ignored: With terrorist training camps recently found just north of the U.S.-Canadian border, their mission makes little sense and gives weight to my belief that the Minuteman movement is clearly racist. So is the new U.S. policy to keep our southern relatives out by militarizing the border to the south. Not that troops are wanted on the northern border either, but why send 6,000 troops to the southern border when no terrorists ever have been detained there?" --- JoKay Dowell, Quapaw-Peoria-Cherokee, OK Eagle and Condor Indigenous Peoples' Alliance

"Indigenous peoples are brothers and sisters, regardless of which side of the line drawn in the desert sand they are from. Our historic relations pre-date any European conquest. Our 'free trade' was much less conflictual, and was on more of an equal basis. Corporate 'free trade' is the driving force behind American politics and international actions…. It continues to be, contradictory to the interests of humanity." woliwon chi miigwech, Karen S., Ypsilanti

"Are 'immigrants' the appropriate designation for the indigenous peoples of North America, for enslaved Africans and for the original European settlers? No. Are 'immigrants' the appropriate designation for Mexicans who migrate for work to the United States? No. They are migrant workers crossing a border created by US military force. Many crossing that border now are also from Central America, from the small countries that were ravaged by US military intervention in the 1980s and who also have the right to make demands on the United States. So, let's stop saying 'this is a nation of immigrants. " Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz – mixed-Cherokee activist, professor, writer

"… False and violent borders have been imposed upon our many peoples and upon the landscape, dissecting our Mother Earth, our home continent, in two and attempting to sever our deep connection with the land, and with each other… We maintain our recognition and respect for all our Indigenous brothers and sisters of the Western Hemisphere, with whom we traded, learned from, loved and laughed with for a millennia. We are Indigenous, of this place on Mother Earth, called Turtle Island, the Middle Place, Abya Yala and the Fourth World. And we remain bonded together forever, knowing ourselves as the K'iche and Karuk, Saraguro and Cheyenne, the Cherokee, Xicano and Chumash, we are all relations." ---Tia Peters, Zuni, Seventh Generation Fund

"If America is a shining beacon of hope for legal immigrants perhaps the laws should be adjusted to make it a reality for the illegal immigrants. They also see America as a place where dreams can be lived. Ironically, most of the illegal immigrants are Indians, or Indios as they are known in Mexico, and in Central and South America. Most of their ancestors did not come over on the Mayflower or on the Spanish galleons. They were indigenous to the Western Hemisphere." --- Tim Giago, president, Native American Journalists Foundation

"Americans can say, surely not with pride, that our country knows from centuries of personal experience how unchecked immigration devastates life and why it's an issue that deserves the best of our thinking and empathy. These are thoughts that cross some of our minds when we hear rhetoric about the so-called invasion of illegal immigrants (many of whom are -- gasp -- Indians) and calls to protect "our" land. If we smile in response, it's not so much out of agreement. We see a payback coming home to roost." ---David House - mixed Cherokee/Scots-Irish, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"It's never been clear to me why animosity exists toward today's immigrants, considering the founding fathers arrived as immigrants. Are today's anti-immigration voices afraid of a new Manifest Destiny? … Many Native prophecies foretell the demise of U.S. indigenous people from European invaders. But the stories also speak of a time when the land will be reclaimed by indigenous people." Perhaps the time has come." ----Jodi Rave reports on Native issues for Lee Enterprises.

On Haudenosaunee citizenship & naturalization: "Naturalization was not race-based as the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) granted citizenship to other ethnic groups. Once a person became a Haudenosaunee citizen they were expected to discard any previous connection to their birth nation. They had to speak an Iroquoian language, dress as Iroquois, contribute to the security of their host nation and provide for the well being of their new families and communities though a host of activities ranging from hunting, fishing, food preparation and home building. They took part in the elaborate ceremonies which defined Haudenosaunee spirituality and were given extensive instruction into the history, customs and beliefs of their new nation. In the end, the Haudenosaunee people expected the new citizen to undergo an almost complete transformation; physically, mentally and spiritually. This process worked extremely well… secured our survival and provided for our prosperity...." --- Doug George-Kanentiio, Mohawk writer

The Popul Vuh– one of the most important books ever written on this continent -- offers us a valuable lesson and roadmap about migration disputes. The volatile conflicts among the Maya finally ended when those who were new to the land accepted those who were here before them as their guides. In this spirit, we do the same. So too should the general public, Congress and the president. 2006 (C) Column of the Americas

* Feel free to contact us or send us your views at XColumn@gmail.com
or 608-238-3161. Our bilingual columns are posted at: http://hometown.aol.com/xcolumn/myhomepage/ Info regarding our Amoxtli San Ce Tojuan documentary and origins/migrations research can be found at: http://hometown.aol.com/aztlanahuac/myhomepage/index.html

Was that from an email, or is there a link?

;)

www.wsdp.com

I'd be interested in how the differ frome Canadian
treaties.

BTW www.wsdp.com should be www.wsdp.org

I also note on the wsdp site there is a big battle
in progress again with the Iroquois see

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/national/060618/n061830.html

Treaties in the US are not as respected as they are in Canada. The WSDP brought some folks to Elko last year from a tribe in Canada called the white mussels or something like that who told us how they worked very well with a Canadian gold mine on receiving royalties from the mine for mining on their "treaty area land". That doesn't usually happen in the US and the Western Shoshone's treaty is one of the last ones written in this country and was only a treaty of "friendship" and safe passage and did not identify reservation land.

Plus in America, if the government doesn't provide for things, mines don't have to unless they want to ...there are not rules in place.

The federal government has been screwing its "first nations" people over for centuries. Look at the Cobell case. A pathetic embarassment.

I will find you more info later today. I am actually in the middle of painting ....!!!!

ttt

to have their lands returned to them with the power to expell the white immigrants?

and in the UN and the US government is still slapping them down ...

My own tribe, the Miamis (scattered throughout the midwest), have been trying to have official recognition restored for 20 years now with nothing but a refusal from the feds every time. Sad.

...I think ...plus the Bush folk have always planned to eliminate tribal governments/reservations over the longterm.

One of the Bush asshats in the House ---NV Congressman Jim Gibbons ---is running for NV governor and he and his pals actually have a plan to do so out here in the west. Sick jerks. It's driven by a need to give Canadian gold mines more public lands.

or its jurisdiction.

And the decisions by the International Court of Justice are non-binding.

Assuming such an order was granted, it would still be an unenforceable order delivered by a body whose membership is voluntary, not compulsory. In the extreme, the US could simply abandon the World Court and its words would be dust. In the less extreme, the US would simply ignore the order as an infringement of national sovereignty.

prior to the arrival of Europeans? No concept of boundaries or struggle over the control of resources? Everybody just moved whereever they wanted to with no argument from anybody else?

were'nt as consumed with the concept of land ownership.

Individuals did not own the land, the tribe did.

The land did not belong to all other tribes.

This was one reason some New England tribes accepted the Europeans; they were useful in power struggles, as allies. It's one thing that helped Cortes against Moctezuma, there was a tribe that rejected being conquered by the Aztecs and the Spanish served the tribe's interests. This helped the Spanish and Mexicans in Texas, when the new invaders were a problem ("indigenous" to N. America, but not to the territory they were moving into, which they were ethnically cleansing or committing genocide), and pre-existing tribes tried to get the Spanish (and later the Mexicans) involved in their territorial disputes. Sometimes the tribes used subterfuge that would make Machiavelli proud.

The freedom of a Native American to move anywhere is a new one, and is based entirely on the individual local governments ("tribes" and confederacies) being overruled, at least in part. I'm not sure that if lots of members of the Yakima tribe claimed land in the Navajo reservation that the Navajo elders would be amused.

"If America is a shining beacon of hope for legal immigrants perhaps the laws should be adjusted to make it a reality for the illegal immigrants. They also see America as a place where dreams can be lived. Ironically, most of the illegal immigrants are Indians, or Indios as they are known in Mexico, and in Central and South America. Most of their ancestors did not come over on the Mayflower or on the Spanish galleons. They were indigenous to the Western Hemisphere." --- Tim Giago, president, Native American Journalists Foundation


Not to mention that they are crossing over onto land stolen from Mexico.

attacks against immigrants and other unsuspecting victims of the Karl Rove Lying Game of distraction.

I look at it this way. Either Karl Rove is a genius or Democrats run some god awful campaigns. I think it's more of a matter of Dems running god awful campaigns.

It's easy to turn that tables on the anti immigrant crowd. Simply ask them if their acestors stole jobs from someone else. Since they like to use "supply and demand" ask them if they have had any kids.

Having kids adds to the labor force and increases supply.

Their whole argument reeks of social darwinism and it makes me sick. Those that parade themselves as liberals whilst touting these talking points are nothing more than fakes. Real liberals would try to fix the elements of capitalism that keep people down.

We don't run along begging for extra scraps from "master's table" because we know they have other means to suppress wages.

Odyssey of the 8th Fire is the epic tale
of a pilgrimage across America
by people of all colors and faiths
under the sky sign of the Whirling Rainbow
and the Algonquin teachings of the Seven Fires.

The story will be blogged http://www.8thfire.net /
day by day
from June 23, 2006 until February 2, 2007.

nt

Thanks for the post.

She is a Dine' (Navajo).

She does not speak English.

I wish I could live long enough for all of us to be at peace with each other.

I'd love to hear the wisdom she has to share.

Thank you so much for this.

:grouphug:

It belongs to us now.

jesus, that's disgusting.

I suppose there's something to be said for an honest imperialist.

Who is "us" anyway? Best I can tell "it" belongs to a mere handful of people.

Ask the Etruscans.

I wonder if regular folks ever benefited from Imperialism. Most of the history that I've read states otherwise. The machinery for imperialism tands to rely on masses of poor people to do their dirty work.

Generally it's the regular folks that reside in the nation of the opressors that feel the sting as well.

And we're a long way from actually conquering the place anyway.

but if we accept that as inevitable we are no better than that which we oppose. And if that is the case then why bother?

Is only opposition to the Iraq war is that the opposition isn't rolling over.

If we were to steamroll them I'm damn sure our friend would be right behind it. Personally the whole concept disgusts me. Nobody here is any better off because of our immigration laws or the fact that we conquered the continent. Regular folks have always paid the utlimate price so the comfortable could live comfortably.

Yet the ones that say "fuck them" never point out how we are better off.

"Patriotism is last refuge of scoundrel" or so it goes........

but that's OK, we're cool.:hi:

that it is someone on my ignored list! Good thing I can't figure out which one. I don't want to know!

Hang in there!

So if I were to come to your house and foce you and your family out, then by legal right, it's now MY house, right?

They used to live where the Navajo now live.

Human history is replete with sad stories of elimination and displacement, including the history of native american tribes. How about Kennewick man? He was descended from the Ainu in Japan, but his people were displaced 16,000 years ago by later arrivals - most likely the descendants of modern native americans.

Also, the op tries to promote the viewpoint that (after 200 years) the arbitrary border between the US and Mexico is analagous to a berlin wall. The major flaw with this idea is that the Yakama have as little in common with the Sioux or the Cherokee as Ethnic Finns have with Greeks.

In the northwest, the ethnic demographic that is most harmed by the depressive wage effects of uncontrolled immigration is the native americans.

The Anasazi (Navajo for "ancient enemies") are generally considered to be the ancestors of the several communities now called "Pueblo Indians."

The Navajo & their relatives, the Apaches, came late to the Southwest. They fought the locals & then settled down. As did the Spanish, arriving about the same time, & the Yankees. Lots of dying--but people kept being born. Cultures combined & changed. The process will continue.

I'll repeat it. If I come to your home and force your family away, is it now my home?

In the context you suggest, laws backed by force prevent this injustice.

Absent any laws, or mechanism to enforce them, anything you can take belongs to you. At the empire level, there's no opposing force to prevent injustice.

But that's moot. There's a border at the Rio Grande *today*. The elected officials on our side of the river are hired to look out for the interests of those who belong (or at least have permission to be) on our side.

with very, very few exceptions, the ones who did the forcing and the forced are all now dead. I thought group guilt was a concept long dead as well.

should be able to move across the borders freely. Bu how many 230 year-olds are there?

(Just think what would happen if all the original, hell even some of the last, revised treaties, were actually honored.)

It's very good to hear strong Indian voices on this issue.

:thumbsup: