Dear Friends,
I recently held another conversation/interview with Micheal Lane, Indigenous scholar, and activist as he continues to walk and sometimes run across our nation within an active processional prayer to honor and remember the value within several aspects of Indigenous sovereignty. This conversation will be aired in a couple of weeks on
Our Ancient Lands podcast series. Michael is participating along with many Indigenous peoples from Indigenous nations in our United States as well as non-Indigenous people who are joining to support this procession.
Why do I not use the typical Native American/American/Alaska Native, terminology?
1. Indigenous people originate from the lands that define us. We do not consider ourselves Indians. Our peoples resided upon our homelands and many of us still do so. Our regions hold original names for our peoples for thousands of years long before foreign encounters. Though they have been renamed without any consciousness of the history or value of their significance within the region.
The "Indian" term was addressed for the
Taino peoples in the Caribean who made up the Cuban ancestral population at the 1492 event. Columbus's desire was to sail into East India and bring back merchandise to Queen Isabella of Spain. Thus he purposely named the inhabitants "Indians" and the ignorant terminology has remained. I personally believe this was an arrogant and lazy approach of the colonizers. As such behavior leads me to devise there was no interest to educate themselves of the ancient peoples of this land.
2. Such terminology perpetuates distancing from 'us to them'. If the people were referred to as their own nation it would be acknowledging them as a sovereign nation with respect. Columbus was representing Spain (as he was commissioned by the Spanish Queen and a sovereign nation). His first observation of the Indigenous
Taino people where they were different and not European thus not eloquent or sophisticated to be his equals. Relationships take time to develop and first glance impressions do not give us the complete picture of what we are seeing. Columbus was also a slave merchant trader and this outlook on Indigenous peoples who he enslaved and sold was biased and established when he encountered the
Taino peoples. In fact, he took 500 of the
Taino back to Queen Isabella in Spain as a gift and to boost his slave mercantile efforts.* However, for Isabella, it was not in her interests.
As a scholar, I work very hard not to utilize the term Native American nor American Indian. North America that is now termed was a continent of many sovereign peoples who independently governed themselves with the ancient (and I use the term "ancient" to define the many thousands of years of learning to live with respect and governance) understanding of sovereignty. Not one Indigenous nation on the North American continent had the desire to take over all the lands from East to West and instill a dictatorial premise for all to have to live by. I am not stating there were conflicts in the earlier times but many were resolved before the colonial intent arrived.
I also do not refer to indigenous communities as "Tribes", that is another term that separates the peoples. They did not refer to themselves as a tribe. "Tribe" is another term of exclusivity now frequented in popular culture. It has also been a term referring to people who were savage and undeveloped from a "civilized" gaze.
As we are all given a chance to learn and discover (with the access to social media and technology), we now know civilizations were built on knowledge and wisdom, technologies and philosophies taken (stolen) from Indigenous peoples and never given reference or acknowledgment of the advanced consciousness that they held or still do hold. Instead, the indigenous were enslaved and stripped of their rights and ownership of all they possessed. Their knowledge was gleaned or literally wiped from the face of the region to ensure there is no trace. Thus establishing the dominance of the oppressive barbaric aggression of the newcomers. We see this repeated throughout history within all the regions of the Earth by those that do not respect sovereignty but honor and respect dictatorship and colonization. We also see this in research and new age circles that take from indigenous peoples with no referencing to establish their validity nor for the use of respectful authorships. All that is taken is made their own.
Why is indigenous sovereignty so confusing?
1. The present consciousness has little concept of Indigenous. Most of our commodities are foreign, there is very little utilized in the modern culture from the residing regions. Most of us are not from the regions we live but say we are from where we live because we were born there or lived there as a child or moved there, yet have little understanding of the land itself or the history of its origins. There is little interest or time taken in finding out or trying to learn about the region. Much of indigenous environmental life has been killed or destroyed so the comforts and privileged needs are satisfied for the newcomers.
2. The actions of dominance and its demands have no consciousness of sovereignty.
In dictionary.com the definition of indigenous is: originating in and characteristic of a particular region or country; native (often followed by to): the plants indigenous to Canada; the indigenous peoples of southern Africa.
If people have been living in a region for thousands of years, there is no need to rebuild the region to make it a landscape that looks like one in Europe or India or Japan, etc when such areas were left behind. That is what has been done in the civilized world and that is why we are now facing many concerns on many different levels. If we go to another's lands we are there to visit and to learn from them. We may even take up the language and try to have some kind of interaction and relationship. If we go to the land and use all the resources and make them only available for what we have in our lives and disregard the importance of what has been offered through the local resources then there is no interaction nor relationship but rather terrorism enacted upon the environment.
Sovereignty is knowing that all peoples have a right to live and govern how they live through their own cultural heritage and beliefs. Especially the people who still live upon their own homelands.
Indigenous people throughout the world, are praying to the Creators and all who can hear that the lands, the children, the spiritual beliefs and practices of their heritage can be respected in today's world by acknowledging how important it is for us all.
Those that can hear and wish to pray for all our ancestors as we are all indigenous from some region of our earth, please join us in reclaiming sovereignty for all peoples. (Peoples includes mineral, plant, animal, and human peoples)
Ka Molis!
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https://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/983
