november 20: opinion piece (my opinion, that is)
Quite rightly, attention has been turned towards racism and African-Americans. Systemic racism; police shootings; reparations for slavery; lack of representation; dispropionate affects of covid; status as essential workers are all issues which need to be addressed.
In the 2010 census, about 14% of Americans identified as African-American (this does not include those who identified as African-American plus); about 1.3 (or 1/10 as many) identified as American Indian or Alaska Native alone.
When discussions of oppression, racism, genocide (a term used to describe African-American historical experience, too), reparations for wrongs done in the past, representation, (equal) access to resources, more attention should be paid to the remaining indigenous peoples of North America.
Scholars debate the exact total of indigenous peoples living in North, Central and South America at the point of contact with Europeans. What should not be open to debate is devastating impact of disease, war, rape, torture, enslavement, relocation, the reservation and boarding school systems enacted by Europeans/Americans upon the indigenous population from first contact until the present:
Wikipedia, “genocide of indigenous peoples” posits:
By 1900, the indigenous population in the Americas declined by more than 80%, and by as much as 98% in some areas. The effects of diseases such as smallpox, measles and cholera during the first century of colonialism contributed greatly to the death toll, while violence, displacement and warfare by colonizers against the Indians contributed to the death toll in subsequent centuries. As detailed in American Philosophy: From Wounded Knee to the Present (2015):
It is also apparent that the shared history of the hemisphere is one framed by the dual tragedies of genocide and slavery, both of which are part of the legacy of the European invasions of the past 500 years. Indigenous people north and south were displaced, died of disease, and were killed by Europeans through slavery, rape, and war. In 1491, about 145 million people lived in the western hemisphere. By 1691, the population of indigenous Americans had declined by 90–95 percent, or by around 130 million people. McKenna, Erin, and Scott L. Pratt. 2015. American Philosophy: From Wounded Knee to the Present. Bloomsbury. p. 375.
Native communities are also disproportionally affected by COVID. For example, the Navajo Nation, (in context of the lower 48 states, are one of the largest numerically, and possess a large amount of tribal lands) are back in lockdown due to the effects of the corona virus. This community is struggling with the effects of the virus due to lack of health care and other resources.
The “new world” was only new to the Europeans, it had been inhabited for centuries/millennia prior to their arrival. When efforts to enslave the indigenous population often failed due to disease, Europeans turned to another source: Africa.
I am by no means a scholar of Native American history; nor do I set up myself up as someone able to speak on African-American history and experience. But I always tried to incorporate those narratives into my teaching and my students’ learning experiences. Hopefully presenting these “othered” voices in a fair, truthful, and equitable way.
When speaking of “first contact,” I asked my students to imagine that suddenly half of the class “disappeared” without warning. That is one of the facts of the early genocide period: indigenous populations who had never encountered a European succumbed, nonetheless, as disease followed the native trade routes.
Broken treaties, broken promises, the “winning” of the west, the decimation of the buffalo, Trail of Tears, the residential school system and countless injustices have not broken the spirit of the indigenous peoples. From fighting pipelines and other environmental issues, to efforts to get justice for the disappeared and on to the reclamation of land, language, culture and cultural artifacts, Native Americans are “still here.” They deserve our attention, be included in calls for social justice, the dismantling of systematic racism, return of the stolen traditional lands, acknowledgements of pass injustices and wrongs by the dominant culture/society, and acts of contrition and compensation on our part.
They tried to exterminate us. We still rise. They tried to silence us. We still sing. They tried to honor our killers. We took a stand. They tried to erase our ancestral memory. We remember. Maulian Dana, Penobscot Nation, quoted in Abby Zimet, “we are still here,” Common Dreams, Oct 12, 2020
For more on native american activism, see for example:
Jillian Abel, “10 native american activists you should know,” The Medium, online Nov 15, 2019
Carla Herreria Russo, “5 indigenous and native activists who made an impact in 2019,” the huff post, November 28, 2019
Jennifer Lui, “meet Allie Young [native american activist getting out the vote] . . .,” CNBC, October 28, 2020
“Native American Activism: 1960s to the present,” the Zinn Education Project
November 21, 2020 at 11:11 am
it’s weird, isn’t it – but I DO wonder how many indigenous peoples were here in N.A. when the first explorers and then settlers were landing …..
it seems to me, and I don’t offer any facts to back this up, but the role, importance and significance of these first peoples has been historically downplayed and twisted sideways. I distinctly remember the feeling of sitting in classes and thinking about how “Indians” were presented as “less than” – often portrayed as troublesome, warring, violent etc. and how they were considered no better than animals for the slaughter. In my mind I couldn’t sync up with the words and “facts” and the pseudo dismissive and derogatory tones used to describe their roles in society or our country etc. It was so often presented in such a smug and superior fashion, and clearly, what we were being “taught” only reinforced a very limited and narrow view point – the one in which “the white man” triumphs. And yet, over time, we now know just how screwed up and exclusionist these scholastic lessons were/are – and yet, sadly, it’s not surprising ….. how horribly biased “our truths” …. it’s no wonder the world is so messed up – if we constantly are “writing our own version of history to best suit our means, ways and purposes” – to forward our own agendas …. then what hope is there? It just seems to me we’ve come so far away from any decency – ultimately, regardless of skin colour, we’re all human, made of flesh and blood – and honestly, it just seems we don’t know what a basic tenet of respect means. But then, were the Romans or Vikings et al any different?!
It’s a sad state of affairs really. Every nation, every population, most especially indigenous peoples, regardless of continent or country are the backbone and support, the foundations of our societies. They lived and survived and thrived long before “the white man” came a calling ….. and yet we offer them now, STILL, our bastardized version of “history and truth” –
LikeLike
November 22, 2020 at 3:32 am
I’m not sure but that history and truth are oxymorons of each other. As you say, who’s history, who’s truth? (Pointed/poignant questions right now given the political culture and climate here). Each generation tends to rewrite history to suit it’s sensibilities. Which means, even when done with the “best of intentions” (again, who’s intentions? and I might be using who’s when it should be whose), the skewing and skewering can never truly “tell it like it was.” Too many voices have been silenced, muffled, lost to know the whole story. All we can do is take the fragments hoping to add to the whole. When a friend does a jigsaw puzzle (she tackles the 1000+ type) and a piece is missing (problem with 1st and especially 2nd hand ones), she carefully traces the missing spot, and creates a piece to put in. Perhaps that’s what we (I mean the collective we — government, society, cultures, groups, lobbyists, etc.) are trying to do, but no one can seem to agree on the shape of those missing pieces.
Hell, it’s late, I’m sleep depraved as usual, and probably none of this makes sense. Your comment does; I’m not sure my reply does.
Thanks for stopping by! Seems to me I have an email stewing and brewing somewhere to send to you.
LikeLike