Native American Resistance: Past and Present

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Rise Episodes 1, 2, and 6

During this semester, we watched a couple of episodes of the show Rise on Amazon Prime. The show chronicles Native Americans resisting encroachment on their land by settlers. We watched episodes 1, 2, and 6. Episodes 1 and 2 are actually two parts of the same episode, and document Native American resistance efforts at Standing Rock. Episode 6 discusses plans to build a telescope on land that is sacred to native Hawiians. I don’t really have much to say about episodes one and two because we have already read and watched many forms of media related to the situation at Standing Rock. The majority of the book Our History is the Future by Nick Estes was dedicated to discussing it. Additionally, we watched Awake: A Dream from Standing Rock on the second day of class, and read numerous articles relating to the situation. The episodes are produced by Vice, so they come with amazing cinematography and shots of the situation. Additionally, the episodes incorporated tons of interviews with those physically present at Standing Rock. As I mentioned before, I don’t have anything new to add to this conversation that I haven’t mentioned in my book reviews for Our History is the Future, mostly because I was incredibly sick when I watched this. 

However, I was at optimal health when watching episode 6. Episode 6 details a homeless community in Hawaii, that is constantly living in fear that the police will come and disrupt their way of life. If that ever happened, the hundreds of people living in this community would only have 24 hours to gather up all their belongings and find somewhere else to live. Many of the people living in this community suffer from substance abuse disorders, and don’t have health insurance, meaning they can’t seek proper treatment. The community members support each other, and function in a manner similar to that of a family. There are donation bins throughout the campsite where people can get clean clothes and dishware. One woman stresses how her day is longer than most people’s; while most people can just walk across the living room to wash their dishes, she has to walk half a mile to the shore in order to get clean water to wash clothes and dishes. Even though all the people are poor and struggling to get back on their feet, she emphasizes that everyone will help those in need. If a family shows up on her doorstep in the middle of the night, she’ll take them in and make sure they have clothes and food. The community also prepares massive meals, with the intention that if nobody takes too much, there will be enough for all. The second part of the episode chronicles the resistance to plans to build a telescope on sacred Hawaiian land. What I thought was most interesting was that the episode include interviews with Hawaiians who supported the building of a telescope. They viewed as a contribution to science, and that the land would be honored to have such an important structure built on it. Overall, I found episode 6 to be much more interesting, as I knew very little about this situation, while I’ve heard plenty about Standing Rock.

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First Daughter and the Black Snake

One of the films we watched in this class was “First Daughter and the Black Snake”. I have a lot to say about this film, since it was the film I ended up using for my Unlearning it Forward final project. When we first started watching this movie, I assumed it was about Standing Rock, or some other famous pipeline resistance movement. But I had never heard of the Sandpiper pipeline, despite having catalogued pipeline resistance movements over the summer as a part of my job. This effort was very different from the one at Standing Rock, however. Standing Rock was, unfortunately, much more violent; while the Sioux people at Standing Rock protested peacefully, they were met with rubber bullets, hoses, dogs, tasers, etc. Winona LaDuke, the head of the effort to stop the Sandpiper pipeline, protested in a sense by riding her horse along the pipeline’s proposed path. Her group was interested in stopping the pipeline in a bureaucratic fashion. They didn’t do sit-ins or meet with police officers or try and stop construction physically; they were mainly after an environmental impact statement. And it was obvious why the Sandpiper team didn’t want to produce that statement; because the results of it would show that the pipeline would have negative impacts on the environment. While this wouldn’t necessarily stop the pipeline, it would delay construction from months to years, as the team would have to work to change the plans so that the project wouldn’t have such a dramatic impact on the environment. This is very difficult, as an oil pipeline will always have negative externalities on the environment and the people living on it. The idea that a pipeline company could skirt around a requirement for any sort of land development project is insane. As my mother pointed out in the interview, environmental impact statements are required for any sort of real estate construction project. And an oil pipeline would obviously have more of an impact on the environment than a housing development might. Unlike Standing Rock, this story has a positive end. In 2016, Enbridge Gas withdrew their application for the Sandpiper pipeline permits. With their withdrawal they cited “extensive and unprecedented delays”. With the termination of the project also came the end of the fight for the environmental impact statement. Fun fact, the Wikipedia page for this proposed project does not make any mention of the Native American resistance to said project. Also, I’d like to end this reflection by pointing out that horseback riding is dangerous! Winona essentially shattered her pelvis when her horse fell on her. I know how hard it is to come back from that injury because my mom had a very similar one when her horse fell on her. She was in recovery and could barely walk for over two months. Kudos to Winona for getting back on the saddle (my mom also went back to riding as soon as she was cleared).

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America Transformed: Mapping the 19th Century

For one of the events we were encouraged to attend, I went to America Transformed: Mapping the 19th Century with the rest of the class. I count this as an event mostly because I had to pay for transportation, and I usually only try and use the CharlieCard for when I have to go to work near North Station. This exhibit was held at the Boston Public Library, and this was actually my first time going there, despite having lived in Boston for over a year. The exhibit featured maps documenting US and settler expansion during the 19th century, and the impact that it had on Native American territories that existed at the time. Spoiler alert, it was not a positive impact. As you walk through the exhibit, you can see the inverse effect that settlers had on Native American territories. As settler territory expanded, native territory diminished. This is obviously because it was the same land. In the settlers mind, there was not enough land to share; they had to have all of America, with no exceptions. And they would even take more land as a result of the Mexican-American war, where America, as the victor, seized modern day Texas, California, and the area in between. The maps in the exhibit document this change in US territory, and emphasize that the land was not “just there”; settlers murdered hundreds of Mexicans to gain that land, when they already had miles upon miles of territory. This goes back to Manifest Destiny, and the idea that white men were all entitled to their own plot of land. When the government encouraged western expansion by giving away a plot of land to any willing white man, they were giving away Indian territory. Years later, writers would lament the fact that the US frontier had disappeared, and there was no more land left to explore or claim. Yet this mindset ignores the fact that it was never their land to begin with. Through murder, kidnapping, forced slavery, forced marriage, genocide via illness and disease, rape, allotment, etc. settlers stole that land, and then lamented that there was no more land left to steal. This exhibit was painful, as it presented such a gross injustice using only maps and descriptions of said maps. It also shows the very narrow mindset in which settlers view land. At this time, Native Americans believe in sharing the land, that there is never one owner because the land belongs to the Earth, to nature. Yet settlers only view land as something to be purchased, owned, and sold. Their biased point of view makes it impossible to ever have a fair purchase of Native land. Often times these ‘purchases’ involved paying one Native American a small sum of money, without consulting all the people that actually lived on and shared that land. Overall, I’m happy I attended class this day and paid to attend this event, as it was a very in depth visual representation of all the harm that settlers have done to Native Americans by way of land acquisition. 

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This Land Episode 8

Episode 8 of This Land is dedicated to discussing the most recent attempt to declare the ICWA (Indian Child Welfare Act) unconstitutional. The movie that we watched in class, Dawnland, does a good job of explaining and showing why the ICWA is necessary when it comes to protecting indigenous peoples’ rights. Dawnland shows how native people placed in white foster homes experience cultural whitewashing at best, and physical and sexual abuse from their foster parents at worst. It was an incredibly painful and eye opening movie to watch. Rebecca uses a lot of the same points when discussing the ICWA; it was written to preserve native culture in foster children, as placing native children in non native homes erases their identity and is a modern form of assimilation. Rebecca interviews a native woman who was adopted by a white foster family just days after the passage of ICWA. Though she was placed with a loving and supportive family, she feels robbed of her nativehood, and though she has reconnected with her relatives, she feels like she neither belongs in the native nor the white world. Placing native children in white foster homes is damaging because it robs them of their native identity and support system, while forcing them into a white world where they will feel the effects of their race if they are not white passing. Adoptive couple v baby girl was a case where a native man impregnated a non native woman; when she gave the baby up for adoption, the man’s tribe was notified, and asked if they would like to claim the baby. However, the adoption agency botched the spelling of the man’s name and his birthday, leading the tribe to think he wasn’t a member, and allowing the baby girl to be adopted by a white family. The father had signed the adoption papers thinking the baby would go to a rez family; when he learned the truth, he intervened and stopped the adoption. The adoptive couple sued for the baby and the case made it all the way to the Supreme Court; while the case was going on, the baby had lived with the father and his family. The adoptive couple won, and the father had to go through the trauma of giving up his child, after living with her for two years. Currently, a similar case is being discussed in the court, and if the adoptive couple wins, ICWA could be terminated, which would spell disastrous results for native rights in this country.

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This Land Episode 5, 6, 7

Episode 5 of This Land discusses the practice of allotment, and how it impacted and continues to impact Native Americans. Prior to settler involvement, Cherokees shared the land; there was no one owner of each plot of land. They lived a communal lifestyle, and though people could build houses and own them and fence off part of a field and lay claim to that, the land which they all lived on was owned by not one person, but the nation as a whole. When the US government took the land out from under them, they ‘allotted’ each member of the tribe a plot of land. However, they divided this plot of land into multiple plots that were miles and miles away from each other. They did this knowing that the Cherokees would be unable to attend to these acres of land that were miles away, and that they would eventually be usurped by (white) squatters. Additionally, the owners had to pay federal taxes on the land, unless they could prove that they were over ½ native by blood quantum. Even if they passed the blood quantum requirement, the government would sometimes assign ‘caretakers’ to make sure that the natives were using the land properly. Something I learned in this episode is that the Cherokee nation was complicit in the enslavement and bondage of black people in the United States before the Civil War. I was impressed by how Rebecca owned up to her unsavory heritage, and offered no excuses on behalf of the Cherokee nation. Instead, she insisted that no matter the circumstances, it is always wrong to own another human being. Overall, the allotment system was designed to impoverish and divide the Cherokee nation, and benefit settlers who wanted to steal their land. The system is currently playing a crucial role in the Supreme Court case which this podcast is about. We also learn in this episode that the decision has been delayed until next year! This means that both sides will have to represent their arguments, which can both benefit and hurt the native side.

Episode 6 dives deeper into why the Supreme Court may have postponed the decision until next year. Through a phone interview, we learn that this means that the eight justices were unable to come to a decision in the time allotted to them. This could be because they were split 5-3, because if they were split 4-4, they likely would have declared a tie and reverted the decision to what the lower court had already decided. 5 justices need to vote for a case to be ruled to be decided in the next term. When the case is represented, the justices will have time to ask new questions, and these questions can incorporate information that they learned last time the case was presented. This case was the only Supreme Court case this year to have its decision postponed until the next term. Other cases that were reheard and had postponed decisions include Brown v Board of Education and Roe v Wade. However, this case may not seem as prominent in comparison. One interviewee theorizes that the decision was postponed in relation to a question asked by one of the justices; a question which created a second round of hearings while the case was still being heard. The question asked about the impact that a ruling in favor of Murphy would have on people living in Oklahoma; living on what would essentially become tribal land. A decision could be heard as early as this December, or as late as this June. Overall, it’s frustrating that Rebecca and so many others devoted countless hours of their lives to this case, only to have the results pushed back months, and forcing everyone involved to go through the entire case from the top. 

In the first half of Episode 7, Rebecca explains how the Cherokee language is dying. There are less than 2,000 fluent Cherokee speakers, and the youngest fluent speaker is 38 years old. Most of the speakers are elders in their 60s and onwards, and once they die, there will be very few people left to pass on the language. Unless something changes, this will be the last generation with any fluency in Cherokee. To try and combat this issue, Rebecca is taking Cherokee lessons to become one of the few fluent speakers. She also discusses how settlers seizing Cherokee land and dividing and impoverishing the Cherokee people is the main reason why the language is dying while there are still plenty of Cherokees by blood in existence. A quote that stuck out to me is that white people took so much more from native people than just their land. The land was something that the settlers gained; the natives lost nearly everything, their culture and language included. The second half of the podcast delves into environmental racism, or the rampant pollution of lands which are predominantly occupied by minorities. The minority in this particular example is of course, Native Americans. Chicken houses have been popping up all over Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, specifically all along Highway 412. There appearing next to churches, homes, and even schools, and even though the companies involved have assured residents that there is no smell in modern day chicken houses, the atrocious stench has interfered with almost every aspect of residents’ lives. For example, recess is cancelled on days when the smell is particularly bad. Those who live in communities with chicken houses have double the national rate of asthma, and have a higher chance of getting lung disease. This could be due to the extra dust that cleaning the houses puts into the air. The runoff from the chicken waste also contaminates the water in the creek, interfering with native religious ceremonies. While some residents have given up and moved, many Cherokee people refuse to give up their ancestral land, and aren’t leaving without a fight.

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We Shall Remain: After the Mayflower

This week in class we watched Episode 1 of We Shall Remain. Previously, we watched Episode 5, which provided an informative reenactment of the Battle (Massacre) at Wounded Knee. This episode, entitled ‘After the Mayflower’ centers around the first settler interactions with Native Americans. Much like the last one, this one also featured reenactments that were a little bit cringe inducing to watch. I much prefer documentary style retellings of these stories; the reenactments seem a bit tacky and the acting is always forced. The episode tells of Massasoit and his son Philip, two Native Americans, and of Edward and Josiah Winslow, two settlers. The Wamponoag and the pilgrims were both badly in need of allies; the Wamponoag were being badly beaten by rival tribes, and the pilgrims were isolated in the New World. The two groups form a shaky alliance through the fathers - Massasoit and Edward - but their sons remain weary. Over time, the pilgrims grow and grow in numbers as more come over from Europe to live in the New World. As the settlements grow, they begin to outnumber the Wamponoag, meaning that the alliance is no longer balanced as the Pilgrims do not need to rely on the Wamponoag anymore. Philip, fed up with the Pilgrims overbearing presence, marries the daughter of a chief who had previously opposed any sort of alliance with the pilgrims. Viewing this as an act of war, Josiah and Philip meet and confront one another, with Philip saying that the treaty in no way benefitted the Wamponoag, and that he will not honor it anymore. Though Philip is eager to fight, he does not want to undo all the progress that his father had made, and dishonor his legacy. Josiah, meanwhile, has always been wary of the Wamponoag, and views them as an obstacle to pilgrim harmony, not caring if he dishonors the treaty which his father made years before. With the Wamponoag already weak from attacks from the Mohawk Nation, it would be all too easy for the pilgrims to finish them off. When war breaks out, the Pilgrims overwhelm the weakened Wamponoag nation, and finish King Philip off. To flaunt their disrespect for the Wamponoag people, and to further dishonor and humiliate Philip, the pilgrims keep his decapitated head on a stick for decades after his death. The war ended with hundreds of dead colonists and countless English settlements destroyed. However, the cost was far greater for the Native Americans; thousands of Natives were killed or sold into slavery, and the war marked the end of the existence of the Wamponoag and Narragansett tribes. With the Wamponoag out of the way, the pilgrims got their wish, and carved out more and more settlements on stolen land. King Philip’s war, and the betrayal of the pilgrims, would mark one of many violent conflicts between native Americans and pilgrims, as the native people fought to keep the land they were born on, and settlers fought for land that they wanted.

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This Land Episode 4

In this episode of This Land, host Rebecca Nagle talks about her own ancestral history, and how it relates to the Oklahoma case. Her Cherokee ancestor John Lodge was murdered in cold blood by his relatives in the 1800s. When John’s father Major was alive, the US government manipulated individual Cherokee chiefs into giving them up their land to white settlers. One such chief, Chief Doublehead, was hunted down and murdered by Major Lodge, who then pushed for a Cherokee law that would make giving Cherokee lands to the US a crime punishable by death. As settlers continued to encroach upon their territory, many Cherokee members assimilated into white culture in favor of losing their land and potentially their lives. Major refused to assimilate, but sent his son John to an Indian boarding school to learn English, to try and have a chance to live a life in both worlds. While there, John fell in love and married a white woman named Sarah, much to the chagrin of both families. After their marriage, the couple was driven out of Connecticut by an angry mob, and found the same resistance to their union everywhere they went. Undeterred, John went on to become a lawyer, and practice on behalf of the Cherokee nation. John and his father argued against Georgia’s continued encroachment onto Cherokee land. In response, Georgia passed countless harassment laws targeted at the Cherokee nation, even sending armed enforcement onto Cherokee land to enforce said laws. The idea was to intimidate the Cherokee into leaving the land without using military means. This prompted Major Lodge and company to evict settlers from a town they illegally inhabited on Cherokee land, and burn the town to the ground. The settlers responded with brutal force, and to prevent further bloodshed, John Ridge allied with a missionary named Wooster to argue that Cherokee land was a sovereign nation, thus making it immune from Georgian laws. Though they won the Supreme Court case, President Jackson refused to uphold the decision, and instead upped the harassment of the Cherokee nation and began dividing up the land for settlers. Faced with no options, Major and John start developing plans to sign the treaty, losing the respect of their tribe in the process. Major and John signed a treaty with 20 other Cherokee men, trading their land in Georgia for a sovereign patch of land in the west; the majority of the Cherokee nation writes a petition to Congress rejecting this treaty, but it is never read. The walk from Georgia to this western land, present day Oklahoma, is better known as the Trail of Tears. ¼ Cherokee citizens died during the march, and many Cherokee members blamed Major and John. Years later, John would be brutally executed by 25 Cherokee men in front of his wife and children, and Major would be shot while on horseback. Though Rebecca defends her ancestors’ actions, arguing that what they did they did to save as many Cherokee as possible, she says that everyone can interpret the story in their own way, and decide whether or not the Lodges were traitors.

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This Land Episode 3

This episode of This Land starts off by introducing the Puyallup Tribe, which exists in the middle of Tacoma, Washington. It breaks the mold of what we think of when we usually think of reservations; it is affluent and littered with Starbucks, and over 98% of Tacoma’s residents are white. The host points out that people wouldn’t be so afraid of half of Oklahoma becoming Indian country if they realized that a lot of settlements are like Tacoma. This episode focuses on the opposition, and Rebecca starts off by talking about oil companies. Oil companies make up a good chunk of the opposition because if half of Oklahoma becomes Indian country, then that means that they will face strict regulations from natives. So far Oklahoma has been pretty lax when it comes to regulating oil, because it generates so much revenue. Additionally, oil has a powerful ally in Trump, who has intervened in the SC case with the Justice Department. Rebecca dives deep into the opposition’s arguments, and finds that most of them rely on stereotypes about American Indians. One such argument is that all Indians convicted of crimes by Oklahoma will have retrials and potentially go free, retraumatizing the victims of said crimes in the process. However, the truth is that Murphy's case was incredibly unique, and the other prisoners who may have been falsely sentenced under Oklahoma when it was really federal Indian Country’s jurisdiction do not have the right to retrial, as they have since given up any opportunity to appeal. Another argument is that Oklahoma residents would all of a sudden be under new laws, and could be arrested by tribal governments. However, this is false, as tribes have very little power to arrest and prosecute non tribal members; it’s part of the reason why native women face sexual abuse at a rate almost double the rest of the population. One of the opposition’s arguments is also that tribal governments would be inefficient at running half a state. Rebecca points out that the Oklahoma government is already inefficient; with prisons overflowing, ⅕ school districts operating on a four day schedule, and nursing homes and hospitals shutting down rapidly due to a poorly balanced state budget. Overall, Rebecca shows that the tribal government would be just as, if not more effective at handling issues than the current Oklahoma government. Her main argument is that if a million Oklahomans woke up on a reservation they didn’t realize that they were a part of (if the case wins the Supreme Court), their lives would not change at all. Beliefs like these come from a lack of understanding about reservations, as most settlers picture them as being impoverished and poorly run. Thus, judges are susceptible to these sorts of arguments, because they truly don’t know any better. This is why education about native issues is so important, and why the conversation needs to continue. 

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We Shall Remain: Wounded Knee

This episode of We Shall Remain, presented by PBS, discusses the battle of Wounded Knee. Though it is commonly thought to be the last great battle between the cowboys and the Indians, the truth is that Wounded Knee wasn’t a battle at all; it was a massacre. Tension between the Sioux and the cowboys had been building for decades at this point. In the years prior to the massacre, some of the Sioux had begun embracing a new religion with a new prophet, as some believed their old God had abandoned them. The prophet called for a return to the old ways, and prophesied that good things would come in time to the Sioux people. He was instrumental in the creation of the Ghost Dance. The Sioux people believed that if they participated in the dance, then things would go back to the way before the white men came. Eventually the dance evolved to include clothes and shirts that the Sioux would wear, which they thought would add a layer of protection to their dance, since they believed that the shirts were impervious to bullets. These outfits made the surrounding settlers nervous, causing them to hire agents to observe the natives. Confused by the dance, he reported to the US government that they needed soldiers to combat the Indians, as it was clear to him that they were up to something. Troops flocked to the Sioux reservation and essentially did nothing, and the media came as well. Sitting Bull, an influential Sioux leader, called on his followers to participate in the dance, bringing the religion to Standing Rock, and further frightening the settlers. A violent conflict breaks out between the two which leads 8 dead, including Chief Sitting Bull. In response, Big Foot and his followers flee, but are captured by the US military. There are 350 Sioux, with only 120 being men and the rest being women and children, surrounded by over 500 US militia members. The warriors are forced to surrender their guns, and their teepees are searched for weapons as well. A warrior named Black Coyote refuses to give his weapon up without payment, and a shot is fired, prompting the massacre to begin. The women and children flee but are picked off one by one by members of the cavalry. Overall, 25 cavalrymen were killed, while over 200 Indian men, women and children were killed, while many more lay wounded. The press jumped on the story, taking pictures of dead Indian men and women, and selling the photographs to become postcards. The bodies were dumped and forgotten in a mass grave, sending the message that unless the Ghost Dance stopped, the settlers would kill every last Indian warrior, woman, elder, and child. As a result, the Ghost Dance disappeared. Overall, the massacre at Wounded Knee was a result of a cowardly military feeling threatened by a simple expression of resistance from the Sioux people. Wounded Knee represents a violent end for the Sioux resistance against the settlers, but those who died live on in Sioux history, as native people continue to fight for equality to this day. Overall the movie was incredibly informative, with some cringey reenactments and sound effects, but excellent narration that paints a haunting and tragic picture.

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Cannupa Hanska Luger Interview

This podcast is an interview with artist Cannupa Hanska Luger, discussing the Standing Rock protests. Luger was born in Standing Rock, and his father and brother currently live there. He discusses growing up on the reservation, being poor and making his own fun by buying cheap firecrackers, and how Standing Rock has always existed for him, but the globe is just now hearing of it. The name itself, Standing Rock, comes from a legend of a woman who refused to leave the land when she was told to, as was so determined to stay that she turned herself into stone. Luger also voices his disagreement that the Standing Rock movement is a protest (I even referred to it as a protest in the first sentence of this reflection, oops), rather, the people of Standing Rock are water protectors, and are simply exercising their right to protect their water source. He also points out that this movement had been going on for many months before it became ‘trendy’, that the people of Standing Rock have been begging for aid quite awhile, and only now have the media and people began to take notice of their struggle. The media itself is a powerful ally to have, as it was instrumental in halting the progress of the Keystone XL pipeline. The media taking so long to arrive taught the people of Standing Rock to fight for themselves, and made many of them, including Luger, wary of the media in general, and less likely to rely on them in times of future stress. He brings forth imagery of the people of Standing Rock fighting not a government or a rival tribe, but rather a monster. That monster is the pipeline itself and everything it represents as a threat to the Standing Rock nation, and it can be defeated. Luger goes on an interesting tangent about how white people, or settlers, also had their culture assimilated by Eurochristians at one point. Pagan cultures were dissolved in favor of Christian, festivals given up in favor of Easter and Christmas. Native Americans are not alone in having their culture whitewashed and written over; it is almost a universal experience, since everyone did not start out being Christian. He brings up this point in reference to settlers coming from all over the globe to support the Standing Rock movement, but upon arrival to the settlement, being disrespectful to the culture, or trying to insert themselves into a culture which they were not invited, since they still actively contribute to the oppression of said culture. It would be more useful for outsiders to understand their own privilege, and try and dismantle the ways in which they actively contribute to native oppression. A quote that stuck out to me is when Luger is talking about the individualism of America and he says; “You’re either standing on the shoulders of giants, or on a pile of dead bodies”. What he means by this is that you don’t have to go through life alone, it should be considered the norm to reach for others in times of need. Overall, it was interesting to hear a new perspective on the Standing Rock situation, and Luger’s unique insight on the role the media plays in these kinds of events was an important addition to the conversation.

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This Land Episodes 1+2

This Land is a podcast which revolves around a murder that happened twenty years ago; a murder case which is still being disputed to this day. Unlike other murder trials, attorneys are not arguing over who the murderer was, since this is already known. In 1999, Patrick Murphy told his then girlfriend that he had been consumed by jealousy over her ex-husband, George Jacobs, and was planning on killing him. Later that night, he followed through with his threat; slitting Jacobs’ throat and mutilating his genitals on a side road in McIntosh County, Oklahoma. Murphy confessed to the murder immediatley and was convicted and subsequently sentenced to death by the Oklahoma state court in 2000. However, Murphy appealed the conviction, on the grounds that since he and Jacobs were members of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, the case was not in Oklahoma’s jurisdiction, rendering the verdict invalid. The case was further complicated when Murphy’s public defense attorney argued that the police had gotten the crime scene wrong. The crime actually took place about half a mile down the road than earlier established, taking place on disputed Indian country. So, the Supreme Court case is not about finding the culprit of the crime, but on deciding who has the jurisdiction to prosecute. The decision would decide who rightfully owns the land that the crime took place on, and could have consequences for five Indian tribes in Oklahoma. If the Supreme Court rules that the land is not Indian land, and belongs to the state of Oklahoma, then these five tribes could lose their tribal rights, as they would no longer own any tribal land. If the Supreme Court rules that the land is tribal land, then it would be a landmark victory for Native American rights, as it would cement them as the rightful owners of their own land, rather than the state of Oklahoma. The first episode sets the scene and describes the murder, as well as the subsequent legal battle. A Court of Appeals in Oklahoma ruled in Indian country’s favor; however, Oklahoma immediately appealed the decision, and the subsequent case was picked up by the Supreme Court. The host points out that the Supreme Court picking up the case is not a good thing, as they will likely be arguing against the Oklahoma Court of Appeals’ verdict rather than agreeing with it. The US Supreme Court only takes on about seventy cases a year, and has very limited time, so they wouldn’t waste it on a decision they already agreed with. I honestly don’t understand all the legal jargon and the discussions of bureaucratic red tape, but my main takeaway is that the SC case is incredibly important to the discussion on Native American rights. However, no one seems to be talking about it. 

Episode 2 dives deeper into the discussion of the Supreme Court case. The host breaks down the situation with the justices; there are currently nine justices on the US Supreme Court. Two of them, both conservative, have been appointed by Trump, but one of these judges has recused himself because he was previously involved with the Oklahoma Court of appeals case. That leaves four remaining conservative justices, and four liberal justices. In the case of a tie, the previous decision stands, which would be the Court of Appeals decision. This would be a win for Indian Country. However, the host believes that Justice Ginsberg may actually vote with the conservative opinion. During the hearings, Ginsberg only asked one question, and the question related to how Oklahoma would lose tax income if the land was decided to be Indian land. Additionally, her record shows a history of siding with settlers over natives. Again, this episode featured a lot of courtroom jargon which didn’t make a lot of sense to me, but it further reiterates the importance of the outcome of this case. Additionally, this episode does a good job of explaining the potential outcomes of the case, and how Justice Ginsberg may end up being the deciding vote.

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Our History is the Future Revisited

Minus the prologue and first chapter, I read the entire book in one sitting, so sorry if this reflection is a bit all over the place and mentions events from Chapters 2-3. From the prologue and first chapter, I assumed that the rest of this book would be mostly personal stories from the author, more storytelling style and less academic. However, the rest of the book maintained the intriguing writing style, while also providing thorough academic analysis of native history and injustices leading up to Standing Rock. One of the highlights of the book in my opinion was Estes going out of his way to mention the narrative of native women throughout native rights movements over the years. Women warriors fought at the Battle of Little Bighorn, helping to take down General George Custer, and later headlined the #NoDAPL movement centuries later. The narrative of native women is crucial to understanding native issues; as they are oppressed not only on the axis of race/”nationality”, but also on the axis of gender, facing negative treatment both on and off the reservation. Prior to the introduction of settler colonialism, women held nearly equal power with men in native society. Some tribes had female council members, and traced heritage through matrilinear means. Women also owned property, and in some tribes, women owned all the items in the home. Settler colonialism forced intermarriage upon native women; many of whom were unwilling, and subsequently kidnapped, raped, and forced to bear white children. Eurocentric ideals gave these married women no power whatsoever; instead, them and their children were property to their white husbands. In particularly brutal cases, native women were shared with their white husbands’ friends. The white men additionally used their native wives’ relatives for economic profit, using their artificial kinship to sell them furs and further force Eurocentric ideals upon them. Despite all this, native women played a prominent, yet overlooked role in the 1970s Red Power movement, fighting alongside their brothers but often having their achievements overlooked and ignored in favor of male achievements. 

Interwoven throughout the narrative is the idea of settler colonialism; where an invading force not only invades a country, but also seeks to replace the native population. To do so, the invaders/settlers use means such as genocide, forced assimilation, and rewrite the narrative by stealing native artifacts and history. An interesting idea that Estes put forth is that the settlers decimating the buffalo population was an act of genocide in relation to settler colonialism. The buffalo were a staple of native diets, and often the only food source which plains Indians could rely on. Settlers hunted them not necessarily for food, but also for sport, and to use their hides for trading. Oftentimes, settlers would skin the body for the hide, and not use the meat. The plains Indians hunted buffalo with respect, always using every part of their body. I specifically remember learning in middle school that American Indians used buffalo bladders as buckets for carrying water, though I’m not sure how accurate this is. When settlers invaded native camps, they would destroy the stocks of preserved buffalo meat in order to starve out that natives that were not present when the camp was raided. Additionally, forcing the natives to rely on a system of fur trading amplified Eurocentric ideals about society, and effectively destroyed the native nomadic lifestyle.

The second to last chapter of the book draws comparisons between native American genocide, and the ongoing Palestinian conflict. If this book is missing anything, it would’ve been nice to see works by Jewish scholars referenced. The Holocaust is mentioned once in a bizzarely casual annecdote, with Estes saying that the Holocaust was a “one time” event, and it is implied that the Jews suffered far less than native people have suffered. The argument Estes is trying to make is that native people are still feeling the impacts of settler colonialism, and it impacts every single part of their daily lives, as they are forced to live in a society that literally tried to destroy them. However, it is naive to think that the impacts of the Holocaust are not felt to this day, and that Jewish people don’t suffer from it still. Antisemitic have crimes have gone up 30% since Trump’s election, and there have been multiple mass shootings at synagogues in the past year alone. The book could have benefitted from hearing actual Jewish voices, instead of speaking for, and over them. That being said, I do agree that it is a fair comparison; the Palestinians also had their homeland taken from them, by a hostile force intent on wiping out any trace of their presence. Estes also compares the Red Power and Free Palestine movement to Black Lives Matter. He makes the interesting point that the movement started under Obama’s presidency, even though police violence against African Americans didn’t increase significantly during this time period. It was more the realization that even such a significant accomplishment as electing the first black president, wouldn’t and couldn’t protect black citizens. In my opinion, while police brutality against African Americans has been occurring since this country was founded, the perceived increase in occurrences is due to the rise of social media that occurred in the early 2010s. With portable cameras and computers (aka smartphones), police brutality is quickly documented and shared online, which made (white) people realize how bad things have always been; they were just seeing it firsthand for the first time. Social media has played a role in many recent activist movements; most notably being the Arab Spring, and now being seen in the Hong Kong protests. 

Estes concludes the book by discussing international native rights’ movements; such as the movement to get native Americans a seat in the League of Nations/future United Nations. He specifically mentions that one privilege that Palestinians are afforded over Native Americans is having a seat at the international table. Native power movements have taken place all over the globe, specifically in Canada and Australia in addition to the US. Estes’ final message is one of hope, that our (Native) history is the future; they have fought and endured through centuries of abuse, and will not back down. To end things on a negative note, last week news broke that the Keystone XL has indeed leaked; spilling over three hundred thousand gallons of crude oil in North Dakota. The fight is not over; Mni Wiconi.

[native-american-resistance]

2019 Climate Strike

First off, I’d like to say that I know this event was last month, and I wrote this reflection a couple of days after attending the rally. However, I did not notice that Tumblr had failed to upload this post due to “flagged NSFW” (there is none?), so I am reuploading it, and hoping that it actually posts this time! So ridiculous! 

Going to Boston’s chapter of the International Climate Strike was honestly an amazing experience. The rest of the class and I appreciate you cancelling class for us to attend this once in a lifetime event (honestly I probably would’ve attended even if you hadn’t cancelled class - I am an environmental studies and political science major). There were way more people than I expected; I expected a crowd of a couple hundred to maybe a thousand. However, the media reported that there nearly 10,000 attendees throughout the day. That’s a lot of people skipping out on school/work (for a good cause)! I also expected it to be mostly white college students, perhaps more women than men. However, I saw people of all races and ages; I was particularly impressed with the number of elderly and non-able bodied people that I saw represented at this rally, as it takes much more strength for them to be outside. It was also seriously hot, I was relieved to see that there water dispensers throughout government center; ironically enough, the water had plastic cups for use. There were also a ton of dogs; I’m not much of a dog person, and I’m not sure how well they did in the heat, but they raised spirits and were a good ice breaker. 

I got there at around 11:30, and it didn’t get super crowded until around 12:30. I had to leave around one, and at that time people were still piling in. I would’ve loved to stay longer, but don’t do well in big crowds with loud noises or in the heat, but I’m really glad that I made an effort to come check it out. My friends who go to other schools in other cities attended their respective rallies, and it was very inspiring to see snapchats from all of them, and feel a sense of togetherness even though we’re physically apart from one another. That’s what the whole strike is about; banding together through mutual aid. It was also pretty inspiring (and made me feel a little bit embarrassed) that the people who organized this rally were all my age or younger than me. Additionally, there were a ton of people walking around recruiting for environmental activist clubs, socialist unions, registering people to vote, adding people to mailing lists for events like this one, etc. I stopped and talked to a few and signed up for a few things (but have yet to receive any emails, and am already registered to vote in New York). 

There were some funny signs at the strike (that I unfortunately forgot to take pictures of), but one that I remember was a sign that a woman surrounded by ten or so children was holding. The sign said “We’re missing first grade to clean up this mess”. Thought it was pretty cute, and a little bit sad that their generation will likely suffer the most from this crisis, despite having had no part in causing it. To summarize, it was absolutely awe-inspiring to see this many people gathered together for such a good cause. When there’s so much negativity in the world, events like these remind me that most people do want to do the right thing.

[native-american-resistance]

All My Relations: Sacred is Sacred

In this episode of All My Relations, Matika and Adrienne share their differing opinions on the Notre Dame fire which happened earlier this year. Construction of the cathedral began in the 12th century and took over a century to complete, with numerous renovation projects having been done from then to the present day. Approximately 12 million people visit it annually, and it is known as a sacred house of worship to millions of Parisians. As a Jewish person, I was not very impacted by the burning, if anything I may have felt a bit of regret that I never got the opportunity to see it in person. My roommate, who is also Jewish, heard me listening to this podcast and said “Didn’t that (the burning) happen like four years ago?”. Adrienne’s stance is more similar to mine than Matika’s; Adrienne acknowledges that it is a huge loss for many Catholics, and many indigenous people identify as Catholic and are hurting. However, she also stresses how important it is to recognize that native/people of color go through this sort of experience almost daily, with sacred places being burned/bulldozed with little care/sympathy from the settlers who caused such tragedies. She specifically references the Southern historically black churches that had been set ablaze in the weeks prior to the Notre Dame burning, acts which prompted little public outcry or sympathy. Matika then points out that, in response to the large amounts of donations that Notre Dame was receiving, people had actually begun donating to said churches, in amounts that totalled one million at the time of the podcast recording. Matika stresses that Catholics should be given time to mourn the loss before people politicize the issue, which Adrienne counters by saying that this is the same logic that Republicans use to bypass discussing gun control in the wake of a mass shooting. Matika specifically references indigenous history, saying that when another (even rival) tribe was suffering, that tribes would lend support. In this podcast I learned that Matika was present at the September 3rd Standing Rock standoff, where Native American burial sites were discovered, and subsequently bulldozed within 24 hours of discovery by the DAPL team. She talks about how she had to take two young boys, who had been beaten and attacked by dogs, to the hospital. Adrienne says that this should have prompted massive public outcry, and Matika, who was there, says that their numbers increased tenfold in wake of the incident being broadcasted on Democracy Now. Overall, towards the end of the podcast, after the two women have heard each other out, their views slightly change. Adrienne acknowledges that while it is important for indigenous voices to be heard and not tone-policed, it’s also important to have sympathy for one’s friends and relatives in the wake of tragedy. Matika denounces laughing at those in pain (specifically referencing the memes in the days that followed the burning), but also acknowledges that indigenous tragedies carry just as much weight as settler tragedies, and that indigenous scholars should be heard in regards to this issue. I have to admit that I laughed at a few memes that surfaced in the wake of the burning, but it was an impressive piece of architecture that will take decades to be restored.

[native-american-resistance]

Dawnland

Last week in class we watched Dawnland; a documentary which explores a government sanctioned truth and reconciliation commission's investigation into the impact that Maine’s child welfare practices have had on native children. In all honesty, this was not an easy watch, as it featured many graphic accounts of child abuse and heavy emotions. A couple of the women teared up/cried while being interviewed for the documentary, which was incredibly hard to watch and made me want to cry. Prior to this, I had known a little bit about the rumors of the US government “stealing Indian children in the night and making them white”, but I had no idea the reality of the situation, and just how much validity there was to these claims. At (I think) the first meeting of the truth and reconciliation commission, where the members of the commission met with natives from the Maine area who had been displaced/impacted by the child welfare programs, an elderly indigenous woman spoke out about the abuses she had suffered. She described herself and other foster children being forced to strip naked by her foster father and being repeatedly sexually assaulted by him, all while the foster mother ignored them. Another woman later in the film describes being forced by her foster mother to wash her mouth out with soap when the mother heard her speaking in her native language. Other children discuss how their foster parents beat them for speaking their language, forced them to change their native names to Christian names, and forced them to abandon their native religious practices in favor of Christianity. This all sounds like something that took place in the 1800s, but the truth is that most of this occurred in the 1960-70s, before the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act. One tearful mother, speaking before what looks like a US Congressional hearing, describes taking her son to the babysitter, and being told she would not be allowed to pick him up. Child welfare had determined her to be an “unfit mother” and adopted him out to a white family, despite never having proven in court the qualities that made her an unfit mother. Eventually, the welfare officers admitted that the child was removed due to her poverty status, and claimed that he would be much happier in a white family with a better socioeconomic status. Many other families describe similar stories; their children essentially being abducted from them by social services and adopted out to white, non-native families, rather than being adopted by tribal community members or relatives. This practice can be traced back to the 19th century, when tribal children were placed into settler boarding schools; having their hair cut, clothes taken from them, and being forced to speak English and convert to Christianity. The ultimate irony here is that the Indian children who were removed from “unfit” native homes faced significantly more abuse in white foster care than they ever experienced in native communities. The documentary examines the findings of the commission, which found that tribal children placed in white foster care fared significantly worse than other children, and that the number of Indian children in US foster care was 20x higher than the national average.

Though the ICWA was created to remedy these abuses, it is currently being challenged after a Texas federal circuit judge declared the act unconstitutional under the grounds that it was based on race. The court case involved a white family trying to adopt a native baby that they had fostered for six months; though they successfully adopted him, they now wanted to adopt his little sister, who was being fostered by native community members. The judge ruled that the tribe and the white family would each get 50/50 custody of the baby girl; a decision which is being challenged in court and led to the ICWA being declared unconstitutional. The case is ongoing, but reversal of the ICWA would be a huge step backwards in terms of native American rights.

[native-american-resistance]

All My Relations Episode 7

Episode 7 of All My Relations discusses what has become a hot button issue in the last couple of years; defining cultural appropriation. Matika and Adrienne start off by reading off multiple definitions of cultural appropriation, with some being from google and some being from native scholars. All the definitions center around the idea that cultural appropriation can be defined as one taking from a cultural which he or she is not apart of. One definition goes a step further, by defining it as one taking from a different culture, and directly benefiting while offering no benefits to the culture being taken from, and even actively harming it. Matika talks about how, in her tribe, those who practice cultural appropriation or are just generally ignorant of other cultures are treated like crying infants. What this means is that people who disrespect other cultures, or are too ignorant to learn, are no better than babies who need to be educated. Matika also talks about how when settlers ask native people to define cultural appropriation, or to instruct them on how to be better allies, it is typically so they can absolve some of their settler guilt, not because they are actually interested in being the best allies they can be. She also takes about the frustrating trend of people comparing her work to that of Edward Curtis, a white man who achieved photography fame by photographing native people. Curtis’s prints sell for a fortune nowadays, taking up space in exhibits that could be better filled by authentic native artists and photographers. She also points out that some of Curtis’s photography doesn’t feature actual native Americans, but settlers dressed up as natives to make for some nice photos. She does conclude that some indigenous people look up to Curtis’s work, as it was the first major art piece to depict Native Americans not as savages, but as their authentic selves. This discussion ties into the mascot discussion they had on a previous episode, where they discussed how negative representation in the media can lead to decreased self esteem in native children.

Next they talk about a very relevant topic (since it’s literally next week); Halloween. The debate over Native American costumes goes back as long as I can remember, so at least a decade. I remember seeing little Pocahontas costumes in Party City when I was younger, and now that I’m older, seeing very sexualized “Native American Princess” costumes. Matika rebuffs the claim that the costumes are meant to honor indigenous people by listing the many other ways in which settlers can honor indigenous people; including not wearing costumes and essentially doing redface. I’ve always found the whole thing odd; why do people want to dress up as an ethnicity for Halloween? If it’s common knowledge that blackface is wrong, why is dressing up as an Indian considered more acceptable? There are literally so many things that someone can be for Halloween (I’m going as a witch cheerleader - I know it’s dumb), why pick that? Adrienne also mentions the controversy last year with a store selling sexualized versions of the handmaid’s tale outfits; and that the resulting controversy led to the website taking down the costume almost immediately. However, the same site sells over a hundred versions of Native American Halloween costumes that have been met with similar outcry, yet nothing has been done. Adrienne and Matika agree that this amounts to white women having more of a voice than indigenous women, and how the conversation needs to be equal.

[native-american-resistance]

Our History is the Future

In order to continue our discussion on Native American resistance, past and present, we have begun reading Our History Is the Future by Nick Estes. This recently published book discusses the indigenous resistance movement to the Dakota Access Pipeline, and comparing it to indigenous struggles in the past couple of centuries. The author, Nick Estes, is a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, and integrates his personal experiences into the overall narrative of the book. The first chapter provides an introduction to the book, and focuses on the recent #NoDAPL movement (the majority of which took place from 2015 to 2017); some of which Estes was present for. The chapter does a good job of illustrating just how vast the movement was; thousands of people, native and non-native, joined forces against the encroaching pipelines, and more tribes united than any other time in recent history. Additionally, despite having been learning about the DAPL for almost two months now in this class, I still learned new things when reading this chapter. For example, I was unfamiliar with the fact that the pipeline was originally projected to cross the Missouri River at a location that was near a wealthy, >90% white town. However, citing “negative impacts” of constructing a pipeline of this scale in this area, the Army Corps of Engineers decided to construct further down the river, at the location that we all know is significantly close to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, who rely on the river as their primary and sole water source. The chapter also mentions how this is not the first time that the US government has encroached on Sioux land with infrastructure projects that benefit settlers. In the 1950s, native land in North Dakota was used to build dams; this construction project was also moved from a white area to the more “convenient” native land. As a result, hundreds of native homes were destroyed, as the area subsequently flooded during the construction of the dams. These events offer just a glimpse of the history of abuse that Native Americans have suffered from the US government, as these infrastructure projects not only harm and disrupt native land, but also significantly benefit settlers rather than natives. 

Estes also discusses specific events of the pipeline resistance movement that I was not familiar with. For example, Estes and a few others publicly protested in a mall on Black Friday, only to have their protest disrupted after a few moments due to mall goers “smelling the Indian smoke” on them. As a result, him and his fellow protestors were tackled and detained by police, and, according to Estes, were only spared pepper spray and tasings due to the fact that white mall goers were watching the whole scene unfold. Additionally, a Sioux representative met with DAPL constructors and pointed out 27 significant Native American burial grounds that were in the proposed pipeline’s path; the very next day, construction began on that same path, prompting protests from activists. The clash between the construction crew and the activists resulted in an elderly Sioux woman getting shot in the eye with a rubber bullet, permanently disabling her. Many other injuries resulted from activists being beaten with batons, pepper sprayed, tear gassed, and attacked by dogs. 

The chapter can be connected with other works that we’ve discussed in class. The obvious connection I saw was to the podcast All My Relations; Estes references the native concept of “all my relations”, describing it as the idea that, beyond specific tribes, we are all related to one another in some sort of way. The chapter also talks about the mythical black snake (an idea present in Native American lore), which is prophesied to bring death and destruction. The book compares this to the oil pipeline, a comparison which is also made in Awake: A Dream from Standing Rock, where the narrator describes a dream of a black snake destroying her home before the pipeline construction begins.