New Tribes, New Turf

[H2O Man]

{1}“Our principles do not change. Justice is always justice; freedom is always freedom. Great principles are constant. And so what they call the 'old way' is nothing more than principles. And they say that you can't go back to the old ways – which means that you can't go back to justice, you can't go back to equality, you can't go back to making the distinction between what is right and what is wrong.

“Principles are how you exist above and beyond the emotions that you feel; to control and have discipline of one's self. Self-discipline – not people making you behave, but the discipline where you do not need police. That is how our people lived. There were no police. There were no jails. There were basic laws: you don't lie, and you don't steal. Tell the truth. Be strong. Look out for your brothers and sisters. Look out for the ones just underneath you. Look out for your Elders.

“Use your strength on behalf of the Nation, on behalf of the People. Conduct yourself in a proper manner.”
Chief Oren Lyons; Faith Keeper, Onondaga Nation

Yesterday on a thread in which there was some hostility expressed regarding the manner in which people participate on the Democratic Underground, I suggested that there may be some benefit accrued from having members describe what issues are the most important to them. Perhaps if we can identify areas of “common ground,” we could engage in more civil discussions on issues that are of value, and what steps forum members – either as individuals or hopefully as groups – could take to advance their causes.

Over the years, I have frequently written about Native American issues. In specific, I have focused on Haudenosaunee – or Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy – issues. I have also participated in numerous related threads regarding Indian issues, which have been posted by other forum members. By no coincidence, the majority of current Indian issues involve not only treaty and human rights, but also important environmental crises. For but one example, in the Onondaga Nation's land claims suit, a significant focus of the Onondaga was that the NYS and federal government enforce already standing laws in making industries clean up numerous toxic landfill sites. The opposition, of course, spreads false information that suggests the Onondaga suit would take back private and community property; in fact, the Onondaga suit does absolutely nothing of the kind.

Such disinformation and misinformation campaigns are not unexpected. I remember back in 1991, when I first spoke with environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy. He told me that his father had taught him at a young age that Native American causes are, by definition, environmental causes. Over the years, I have witnessed how invested industries have been in discrediting Robert. I am not suggesting that Kennedy has been correct on every non-environmental issue that he has taken positions in. No one is always right. But, in the context of enforcing environmental law, Robert is outstanding. I remember that Onondaga Chief Paul Waterman thought very highly of Kennedy. And I know that those industries that seek to gain financial rewards despite doing severe damage to the land, air, and water despise him.

There are interests groups that are similarly invested in discrediting Native Americans as a group. Just as in the situation with the Onondaga land claims suit, they spread half-truths (disinformation) and outright lies (misinformation), which are intended to appeal to the public's ignorance and fears. More, as any forum member who was politically active in the 1960s knows, these enemies send people to join those groups and organizations which advocate for Indian rights or other liberal/progressive causes.

In the past, I've detailed how in the 1990s, the forces behind organized gambling attempted to infiltrate a Haudenosaunee support group, with the intentions of disrupting our opposition to NYS “resolving” the two cases the traditional Oneida Nation won in the US Supreme Court in the 1980s, by giving a non-traditional faction a gambling casino. The state had identified a petty Manuel Noriega-type “leader,” who was eager to sell the Nation for his thirty gold coins. His faction was given an unused air force facility, and was able to hire retired state and federal police agents. We were aware of the intentions of the four infiltrators, however (Chief Waterman even provided me with their “file” on me!), and dealt with them accordingly.

What still sometimes surprises me is when I read some forum members here parroting the dis- and misinformation that the corporate interests opposed to traditional Native American interests. I am not suggesting that anyone here is purposely doing this (or that no one is); it is most likely that these things are the results of those appeals to ignorance and fear.


{2} “Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. Even before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shores, the scar of racial hatred had already disfigured colonial society. From the sixteenth century forward, blood flowed in battles over racial supremacy. We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated this tragic experience into a noble cause. Indeed, even today we have not permitted ourselves to reject or feel remorse for this shameful episode. Our literature, our films, our drama, our folklore all exalt it. Our children are still taught to respect the violence which reduced our red-skinned people of an earlier culture into a few fragmented groups herded together into impoverished reservations.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I've used this quote before on this forum, only to have a few “old reliable” members attack it. It is, of course, as true as anything that Dr. King ever said. In fact, its truth is so stark that Malcolm X uses the King quote on page 375 of his autobiography.

Another all too common falsehood repeated on this forum is that the theft of Indian land is no biggie, because the Indians all stole land from one another, anyhow. In fact, even educated people used to make this claim. For example, the archaeological community used to believe that the Iroquois were relative late-comers to this area. But new information is found, and younger scientists are able to interpret it outside of the limitations of cultural superiority that blinded past generations.

Up into the 1960s, the NYS Archaeologist wrote that people had first entered the territory we know as New York State around 5,000 bc. Today, that has been expanded by thousands of years. Likewise, the earliest human remains uncovered show that the same people have lived here since at least 3,000 bc. These facts may sound interesting, but insignificant to anyone but an archaeologist. However, in determining land ownership, they shed an interesting light on the Onondaga claims.

Another popular myth, started by Carl Sauer in the 1950s, is the “Pleistoscene Hit Man”: the Indian hunters that caused the extinction of numerous large mammals, such as the mastodon. It is a theory that didn't hold up under scientific scrutiny, as it fails to account for the numerous other plant and small animal extinctions that happened in that same period. Yet it is still pushed by those who are opposed to the idea of Indians symbolizing environmentalists. Most of those pushing this false theory have financial interests in exploiting the resources on Indian territory.

A final example is those who continue to argue that the Iroquois Confederacy was not a major influence on our Founding Fathers. An easy answer to that nonsense is Ben Franklin's 1754 Albany Plan of Union. It's not only a well-documented fact that men like Franklin, Jefferson, and Madison met with the Iroquois Grand Council of Chiefs – which is comprised of the Council of Chiefs from each of the Iroquois Nations. But in the document that led to the Articles of Confederation, then to the US Constitution, Franklin wanted to call Congress the “Grand Council.”


{3} “Think not forever of yourselves, O Chiefs, nor of your own generation. Think of continuing generations of our families; think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, whose faces are coming from beneath the ground.”
The Peacemaker; founder of Iroquois Confederacy; circa 450 ad

Older forum members will recall that President Reagan's Secretary of the Interior, James Watt, infamously said, “I do not know how many future generations we can count on until the Lord returns.” He remains the classic example of the thinking that is opposed to Native American and environmental protection issues. Another of his quotes – “After the last tree is felled, then Christ will return” – suggests a very different approach to the natural world than I suspect most forum members are comfortable with.

I am not writing this essay to suggest that one “race” (re: tribe) of human beings is superior. It is not that Indians are “good,” and white folk are “bad.” Not even close. What I am saying is that among the tribes of humanity, we can find certain resources – including ways of thinking – that have the potential for benefiting everyone – even if those greedy to make a buck cutting down that last tree think otherwise.

We were all “tribal” at some point in the past. Tribalism offers both positive and negative potentials. I believe that we benefit from being aware of both these potentials, and to make use of that which is best. Again, I recall a time, decades ago, when Chief Lyons was addressing a group of mainly white people. This group of people were interested in supporting Onondaga. Oren told them that it was important to understand that it wasn't simply a case of “helping Indians.” That what had been done, and was still being done, to Indian communities would soon be happening to non-Indian communities. When we consider the mountain top coal mining, and the issues of hydro-fracking for natural gas, I think we can agree that Chief Lyons was correct.

In the past, when I've posted things on Indian issues, although there have been a few gad flies, many people here have been ready and willing to lend assistance. This is the type of organized grass roots activity that I believe should be more common on the Democratic Underground. As I noted yesterday, there are other issues of importance, where I know that many of us can reach common ground. I wrote that I would like to see more people focusing attention here on these types of issues. And, not surprisingly

Peace,
H2O Man

[OneGrassRoot]

1. I also believe we can do this, H20 Man. Thanks. K&R n/t

[H2O Man]

3. Thanks, OGR.

There are a lot of good people on DU. I think that we can get a core group focused.

[Chulanowa]

2. I have no issue with the "Pliestocene Hit Man" thing

The same pattern emerges on every continent except Africa; Humans arrive and the large mammals and birds go extinct. Australia, New Zealand, Madagascar, Northern Europe and Asia, North America, South America, everywhere. Humans were very likely involved in the death of everything from the European cave bear to the Siberian mammoth to the north and south American ground sloths and glyptodonts, to the Australian driptodons, and were the definite causes of extinction for the moa of new Zealand and the elephant birds of Madagascar.

However, trying to turn this probable fact into some sort of racial commentary is just stupid. All humans, everywhere did this. It's more a commentary on the ecological impact of introducing an effective predator to prey that have not developed beside that predator.

of course, presenting Indians as a symbol of environmentalism just because they're Indians is just as racist as saying they're a poor symbol because their ancestors had a taste for sloth meat.

[H2O Man]

4. +*+*+*+*+*+*+*

In recent months, a number of DUers have assisted in the case involving the Tea Party officials in Sidney, NY, who targeted a small Sufi settlement's cemetery. This week, I believe that AP's national writer Helen O'Neill's in-depth article on the issues in Sidney will run in newspapers across the country.