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href="http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/37924-dismantling-columbus-and-the-power-of-the-present">http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/37924-dismantling-columbus-and-the-power-of-the-present</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Dismantling Columbus and the Power of the
Present</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">Jaskiran Dhillon and
Siku Allooloo - October 10, 2016<br>
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<p><span class="wf_caption"><span>Chad Browneagle,
Shoshone/Spokane, joins the struggle against the
Dakota Access Pipeline. (Photo: Jaida L Grey Eagle) </span></span>Though
Christopher Columbus never set foot in what is now the
United States, Columbus Day is hailed as a symbol of the
founding of the country. And without question, his
arrival unleashed the Christian <a
href="http://ili.nativeweb.org/sdrm_art.html"
target="_blank">Doctrine of Discovery</a> -- a
colonial invention of European international law that
legitimated genocide, enslavement and the expropriation
of Indigenous homelands. This paved the way for violent
settler colonies like the United States to dominate "the
Americas." Rejecting Columbus Day is about dismantling
this legacy, as well as challenging historical
representations that erase Indigenous peoples' lived
experience and make colonial narratives about the
creation of the US seem both natural and inevitable. But
it is also about more than that.</p>
<p>Instead of celebrating Columbus's symbolic role in the
founding of the United States, we can reposition him as
a founding source of colonial exploitation, which
continues to this day. Recasting our view in this way
reveals the contemporary forms of <a
href="http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/resources/pdfs/89.pdf"
target="_blank">settler colonialism</a> threaded
through social and political life in the US. The growing
movement to critically interrogate Columbus Day is not
simply to acknowledge the atrocities committed by
Columbus and his contemporaries. It is twofold: to
affirm the continual presence of Indigenous peoples, and
to advocate in support of present-day efforts to
eradicate state violence against Indigenous lands and
bodies, including the <a
href="http://www.electriccitymagazine.ca/2016/01/land-reconciliation/"
target="_blank">return of ancestral territories</a>.
Such an interrogation challenges an innocuous and
expressly historical commemoration of Columbus Day,
which relegates both colonial atrocities and Indigenous
peoples to things of the past.</p>
<p>
</p>
<h3>Indigenous peoples are challenging a fundamental tenet
of settler colonialism: human domination over nature.</h3>
<p>Centering Indigenous experience and urgent concerns is
not a plea for inclusion in US society. It is about
making visible the reality of systemic violence and
injustice that is part of everyday life for Indigenous
communities. It's also about exposing the inescapable,
ongoing fact of settler complicity in reproducing these
dynamics. It is a demonstration of our active presence,
as well as a call for people to face the political
moment in which we find ourselves. Moreover, it's a call
to meaningfully engage the ways that Indigenous nations
are raising fundamental, critical questions about
justice, freedom and the future of the planet.</p>
<p><strong>Fossil Fuels and Indigenous Protection of Life</strong></p>
<p>The power and strength of Indigenous presence in the
here and now is most evident in critical opposition to
the fossil fuel industry. Indigenous peoples are <a
href="http://www.ienearth.org/" target="_blank">leading
the struggle</a> for environmental justice worldwide,
even in the face of escalating state repression. The
militarization of policing units, armored vehicles, tear
gas, K-9s, guns, snipers, media blackouts, felony
arrests and a range of intimidation tactics are being
deployed in resistance camps, during protests, on active
construction sites and in ancestral territories that
happen to be of economic interest.</p>
<p>Taking a bold stand against the expansion of capitalist
"development" projects that cumulatively threaten the
sustainability of life on Earth, Indigenous peoples are
challenging a fundamental tenet of settler colonialism:
human domination over nature. Resisting an oil pipeline
in <a href="http://sacredstonecamp.org" target="_blank">Standing
Rock</a>, a natural gas pipeline in <a
href="http://skeenawatershed.com/news/meet_the_lady_who_crashed_catherine_mckennas_petronas_lng_press_conference"
target="_blank">Lelu Island</a>, uranium mining in the
<a
href="http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/04/10/473547227/for-the-navajo-nation-uranium-minings-deadly-legacy-lingers"
target="_blank">Navajo Nation</a>, tar sands mining in
<a href="http://www.ienearth.org/what-we-do/tar-sands/"
target="_blank">Fort Chipewyan</a> andoffshore seismic
testing in <a
href="http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674clyde_river_vs._big_oil_classic_david_versus_goliath/"
target="_blank">Clyde River</a> -- back and forth
across Turtle Island -- hundreds of Indigenous nations
are actively organizing to undermine the centrality of
the fossil fuel industry in capitalist accumulation. In
essence, they are hitting settler states where it hurts
most. They are unifying in the fight to protect the
sacred building blocks of life itself.</p>
<p>
</p>
<h3>Native resistance makes it clear that everyone is
implicated in the struggle to protect the planet. No one
has the luxury of retreat.</h3>
<p>True to their ancestral traditions, Indigenous leaders
are asserting a deep relationality to the land, water,
air and future generations that is based in a profound
respect for all of creation and that also informs very
practical measures for the continuance of life. This is
a value system that gives equal weight to human and
non-human relations, including plants, animals,
elemental forces and the cosmos, as constituents of a
collective whole. An ethics of living guided by such
principles fosters an anti-colonial critique of Western
society, revealing how capitalism, rampant individualism
and a perception of the land as "natural resources" to
be used for the betterment of (white) settlement have
produced numerous atrocities, including the current
global <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/28/the-world-passes-400ppm-carbon-dioxide-threshold-permanently?CMP=share_btn_fb"
target="_blank">climate crisis</a>.</p>
<p><span class="wf_caption"><span>Native resistance is
leading the fight against the fossil fuel industry.
(Photo: Jaida L Grey Eagle)</span></span>Indeed,
such an anti-colonial indictment of extractivism compels
us to pay close attention to the <a
href="https://www.thenation.com/article/people-color-are-already-getting-hit-hardest-climate-change/"
target="_blank">disproportionate impact incurred by
communities of color</a> living on the front lines of
planetary devastation. Native resistance makes it clear
that everyone is implicated in the struggle to protect
the planet. No one has the luxury of retreat.</p>
<p><strong>Settler Colonialism in the Present</strong></p>
<p>Indigenous lived experience ruptures the myth of
respectful Indigenous-state relations and makes visible
the tactics of domination and power imbalances that
maintain settler sovereignty. While the US government
claims to uphold the rights of Indigenous peoples,
signaled by President <a
href="http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/184099.pdf"
target="_blank">Obama's endorsement</a> of the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
in 2010, Native communities continue to face grave
injustices at the hands of state authorities.</p>
<p>For instance, the US government has continued to breach
treaty agreements, encroach upon Indigenous territories,
<a
href="http://thefunambulist.net/2016/07/09/off-the-reservation-lakota-life-and-death-in-rapid-city-south-dakota-by-nick-estes/"
target="_blank">uphold discriminatory laws and
policies</a> and <a
href="http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2016/2/native-lives-matter-goes-beyond-police-brutality.html"
target="_blank">condone racist police brutality</a> --
often in defense of capitalist expansion. Taken
together, these actions have intensified already
desperate living conditions reflected in severe rates of
poverty, political disempowerment, <a
href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/20141129nativeyouthreport_final.pdf"
target="_blank">deficits in education</a>,
disproportionate involvement in child welfare, massive
incarceration, limited health care and a rise in <a
href="http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/09/18/uranium-mining-book-explores-wastelanding-navajo-nation-161788"
target="_blank">health disasters</a> resulting from
the <a
href="http://landbodydefense.org/uploads/files/Violence%20on%20the%20Land%20and%20Body%20Report%20and%20Toolkit%202016.pdf"
target="_blank">growing intrusion of toxic waste
dumping in their homelands</a>.</p>
<p>With respect to Indigenous women and youth, these
injustices are particularly striking. There is an
ongoing <a
href="http://indianlaw.org/sites/default/files/IACHR-Handbook.pdf"
target="_blank">epidemic of violence against
Indigenous women</a> and an <a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamaal-bell/mass-incarceration-a-dest_b_578854.html"
target="_blank">overrepresentation</a> of both Native
adults and youth in US prisons. A <a
href="http://lakotalaw.org/special-reports/native-lives-matter"
target="_blank">recent report</a> from the Lakota
People's Law Project illustrates that the "unsettling
testimonies of unfair treatment towards Native peoples
by law enforcement are not isolated incidents but
endemic of a deeply discriminatory justice system."
Native youth, who become trapped in racist carceral
institutions suffer two of the most severe outcomes of
the juvenile justice system -- out of home placement and
transfer to the adult penal system. Native Americans,
according to the report, are the racial group
most likely to be killed by law enforcement.</p>
<p><span class="wf_caption"><span>#NODAPL Oceti Sakowin
Resistance Camp, Standing Rock, ND. (Photo: Jaida L
Grey Eagle) </span></span>These injustices are the
real-life manifestations of settler colonialism, and
they link directly to the material benefits accrued by
settlers, which are only possible through Indigenous
dispossession on multiple fronts. If, as a society, we
are genuinely interested in righting historical
injustices against Indigenous peoples, it is simply not
sufficient to stop at a refusal to celebrate Columbus
Day. We must be willing to identify the very tangible
ways that private property, legal jurisdiction and
precedents, economic wealth -- the very existence of the
US -- actively work, every single day, to perpetuate
harm in Indigenous communities while offering concrete
benefits to the descendants of settler colonizers. And
then we must engage in <a
href="http://rabble.ca/columnists/2015/01/land-relationship-conversation-glen-coulthard-on-indigenous-nationhood"
target="_blank">politicized allyship</a> to advance a
movement for decolonization that brings this system to
its knees.</p>
<p><strong>The Power of Intergenerational Leadership</strong></p>
<p>Indigenous peoples have a relationship with history
that is not a linear, compartmentalized timeline, but
rather an embodied, holistic understanding that
simultaneously references past and future to inform
actions in the contemporary moment. This is why
reflecting on historical traditions and political
resistance is necessary in present-day organizing
efforts -- to learn from previous experiences and ensure
wise, constructive decisions that chart a clear path
forward.</p>
<p>Essential to Indigenous governance and political
resistance both past and present is intergenerational
leadership. Enabling Indigenous nations to draw on the
knowledge and wisdom of different community members has
created an opportunity for powerful alliances to emerge.
In particular, Indigenous elders, who have a wealth of
experience in fighting back against colonial intrusion,
are joining forces with <a
href="http://www.nativeyouthsexualhealth.com"
target="_blank">Indigenous youth</a> and <a
href="http://latincorrespondent.com/2015/12/indigenous-women-take-the-lead-on-environmental-issues/"
target="_blank">women</a> to create leadership models
that honor inherited legacies of land protection and
cultural integrity while being attentive to the social
and political issues of our time felt most acutely by
women and young people.</p>
<p>Youth, who make up the majority of the Indigenous
demographic, and women, who are primarily the givers of
life and closest in relationship to the land, are thus
rightfully at the forefront of educating and supporting
their communities -- as well as the public sphere --
while transcending key sites of colonial oppression such
as environmental degradation, climate change, gender
violence and sexuality. By drawing on this diversity of
strengths and intergenerational teachings, Indigenous
communities cultivate effective strategies for social
transformation that restore balance both among humans
and with the Earth.</p>
<p>As people grapple with daunting social issues across
multiple spheres, we would be wise to take notice of the
way Indigenous nations are setting an example around
women's and <a
href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/36482-indigenous-youth-are-building-a-climate-justice-movement-by-targeting-colonialism"
target="_blank">youth leadership</a>. These are not
tokenistic inclusion efforts, but rather new
configurations of radical leadership that tangibly
acknowledge the enormous responsibility that youth and
women are carrying to rectify widespread social
injustice (while navigating all that's stacked against
them) -- injustice that has occurred as a result of
economic and political decisions that were made without
their authorization and in spite of the repeated
contestations led by their elders. If we think it is
going to be possible to achieve the forms of social
change that are desperately needed without the
ingenuity, courage, passion and strength of the rising
generation, we are greatly mistaken.</p>
<p>Finally, it's important to remember that Indigenous
peoples are not alone in carrying a living history.
Interrogating Columbus Day is a key opportunity to think
critically about current injustices that are anchored to
the past in direct and substantial ways. It's an
opportunity for all who live on this land to reflect on
embodied histories, including settler histories, and the
repercussions of our actions -- the legacy we are
leaving for future generations. And perhaps most
crucially, problematizing Columbus foregrounds how
Indigenous peoples must not be relegated to the
sidelines when <a
href="https://roarmag.org/essays/african-indigenous-struggle-decolonization/"
target="_blank">devising decolonial strategies for
social change</a> in the US, but rather placed at the
center. A collective struggle for liberation and freedom
is inextricably bound to them. There will be no justice
on Indigenous lands until this is the place from where
we begin.</p>
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