There is an entire population of people in this Country who have been COMPLETELY left out of the Black, White and Hispanic conversation in America. Guess who they are? They are the First peoples of this Country. While Black Lives certainly matter, so do Native American lives. Their lives are being systematically destroyed and ignored. Native American people are not being covered in the news. They are not represented in our statistics, nor in our economy. They are not the ‘base’ we are speaking to or caring about; yet they were the original people and suffered the deepest crimes against humanity by the Church and by White People. And they were here before us!
Native Americans have been relegated to occupied territories, as Palestinians have been in Israel. We do not hear this in the news. The United Nations is not naming the US as an occupier of Native Indigenous Lands in the U.S.
National statistics of Native American communities are horrendous: 70% unemployment, 50% do not graduate high school, and, suicide and violence are 2-3 times higher than the National average. Listen closely (even to the most progressive individuals), who have forgotten the true racial continuum which is exists and predates all of us. In other words, the conversation and concern about racism and racial equality is ignoring its first war against people of color and the atrocities of that war, who were extinguished and now continue to be occupied by the Federal government. Reservation lands, while, on the surface seem to be tribal, are actually controlled by the Federal Government. The poverty levels are many times higher than for any other community of color. Alaska Natives are still fighting to preserve basic subsistence rights and protection of land rights.
The film below, by Georgina Lightening, “Older Than America” is a film about religious and Cultural trauma and abuse. This is the story of America and what we have called our American Democracy. Many of us who leave out the origins of our own trauma may not even remember our earliest experiences, and unintentionally (in many cases) perpetuate the same toxic patterns as a result. America itself has denied it’s roots. This denial has repetitive impacts on our human experience over generations, as we face the same patterns of trauma and abuse, by the Church and by Corporate interests. This same traumatic and toxic pattern of abuse continues to be spread through war and imprisonment of the “same” indigenous people of color here and abroad. But the color spectrum is diverse. This should NOT be limited to a Black and White conversation.
When we discuss civil rights, and fighting for fair and just economic policies, Native Americans are not benefiting from the same Constitutional Rights they were part of creating. We must remember that Native American and Alaska Native People ARE “OLDER THAN AMERICA” and, in order to truly rebirth a true democracy in our Country, our story must embrace the First Peoples.
