The Politics of Identity is an ongoing series edited by Richard Bellamy - PDF document

ÔThe Politics of IdentityÕ is an on-going series edited by Richard Bellamy.This article draws on analyses and concepts developed in Taiaiake Alfred, Was‡se: Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom, Peterborough, ON, Broadview Press, Taiaiake Alfred Jeff CorntasselContemporary Colonialismin the politicized context of contemporary colonialism. The com-tention with the colonial societies and states that have spread outfrom Europe and other centres of empire. It is this oppositional,place-based existence, along with the consciousness of being in strug-gle against the dispossessing and demeaning fact of colonization by foreign peoples, that fundamentally distinguishes Indigenouspeoples from other peoples of the world.There are, of course, vast differences among the worldÕs Indige-nous peoples in their cultures, political-economic situations, and intheir relationships with colonizing Settler societies. But the struggleto survive as distinct peoples on foundations constituted in theirof life is what is shared by all Indigenous peoples, as well as the factthat their existence is in large part lived as determined acts of sur-vival against colonizing statesÕ efforts to eradicate them culturally,politically and physically. The challenge of Ôbeing IndigenousÕ, in anous peoples today in the era of contemporary colonialism Ð a formof post-modern imperialism in which domination is still the Settlermore subtle means (in contrast to the earlier forms of missionary The acceptance of being ÔaboriginalÕ (or its equivalent term inother countries, such as Ôethnic groupsÕ) is a powerful assault onIndigenous identities. It must be understood that the aboriginalistassault takes place in a politico-economic context of historic and on-going dispossession and of contemporary deprivation and poverty;this is a context in which Indigenous peoples are forced by the com-pelling needs of physical survival to cooperate individually and col-lectively with the state authorities to ensure their physical survival.Consequently, there are many ÔaboriginalsÕ (in Canada) or ÔNativeAmericansÕ (in the United States) who identify themselves solely by their political-legal relationship to the state rather than by any cultural or social ties to their Indigenous community or culture orhomeland. This continuing colonial process pulls Indigenouspeoples away from cultural practices and community aspects ofÔbeing IndigenousÕ towards a political-legal construction as Ôaborigi-nalÕ or ÔNative AmericanÕ, both of which are representative of whatwe refer to as being Ôincidentally IndigenousÕ.in some 70 countries around the world. All of these people confrontthe daily realities of having their lands, cultures and governmentalcolonial societies and states. This has been the case for generations:but there are new faces of empire that are attempting to strip Indige-nous peoples of their very spirit as nations and of all that is heldsacred, threatening their sources of connection to their distinct exis-tences and the sources of their spiritual power: relationships to eachother, communities, homelands, ceremonial life, languages, histories...These connections are crucial to living a meaningful life for anyIn this article, we discuss strategies for resisting further encroach-as multinational corporations and other elite organizations con-trolled by state powers and elements of the imperial institutionalnetwork Ð and we focus on how Indigenous communities can regen-erate themselves to resist the effects of the contemporary colonialassault and renew politically and culturally. We ask the fundamentalquestion: how can we resist further dispossession and disconnectionwhen the effects of colonial assaults on our own existence are so pronounced and still so present in the lives of all Indigenous seem to offer promise. Yet it is ultimately our lived collective and indi-resist colonialism and regenerate our communities.that continue to distort and dehumanize Indigenous peoples Ð oftenpitting us against each other in battles over authentic histories. Col-onization is the word most often used to describe the experience ofIndigenous encounters with Settler societies, and it is the frameworkwe are employing here. However, there is a danger in allowing to be the only story of Indigenous lives. It must be recog-nized that colonialism is a narrative in which the SettlerÕs power isIndigenous freedom and imposing a view of the world that is but anoutcome or perspective on that power. As stated earlier, we live in anera of postmodern imperialism and manipulations by shape-shiftingcolonial powers; the instruments of domination are evolving andinventing new methods to erase Indigenous histories and senses ofplace. Therefore, ÔglobalizationÕ in Indigenous eyes reßects a deep-ening, hastening and stretching of an already-existing empire. Livingwithin such political and cultural contexts, it is remembering cere-mony, returning to homelands and liberation from the myths of colo-nialism that are the decolonizing imperatives. In their seminalThe Fourth World, Manuel and Posluns explained the effectsof contemporary colonial processes:The colonial system is always a way of gaining control over another peoplefor the sake of what the colonial power has determined to be Ôthe commongood.Õ People can only become convinced of the common good when theirFrom such a Fourth World viewpoint, the Ôcommon goodÕ becomeswhatever it is deÞned as by shape-shifting colonial elites. Nietschmanndocuments a number of shape-shifting strategies imposed by SettlerThe Fourth World: An Indian RealityYork, Collier Macmillan Canada, 1974, p. 60. eras of the struggle for Indigenous freedom. When lies becomeenliven the truth and to get people to invest belief and energy intothat truth. The battle is a spiritual and physical one fought againstthe political manipulation of the peopleÕs own innate fears and theembedding of complacency, that metastasizing weakness, into theirpsyches. Fanon pointed out that the most important strength ofIndigenous resistance, unity, is also constantly under attack as colo-them with doctrines of individualism and predatory capitalism: ÔInthe colonial context...the ntend to use each other as a screen, and each hides from his neigh-bor the national enemyÕ.As Fanon illustrates, these battles occurring amongst ourselves dis-tract us from the bigger picture of decolonization and sap the crucialof imperial power in whatever form it presents itself. Large-scaleIndigenous efforts to confront state power by mimicking state insti-these divisions. For a long time now, Indigenous peoples have beenon a quest for governmental power and money. Contemporary formsof postmodern imperialism attempt to conÞne the expression ofIndigenous peoplesÕ right of self-determination to a set of domesticauthorities operating within the constitutional framework of the stateing) and actively seek to sever Indigenous links to their ancestralIn Canada, for example, the so-called British Columbia Treatythe legalization of the Settler societyÕs occupation of unceded andnon-treaty lands that make up 90 per cent of the territory in thatprovince, to have the Indigenous peoples Ôsurrender their Aborigi-nal title to the Crown, whereupon it becomes vested in theThe secondary goal of the process is to achieve a set ofgovernment legal supremacy over First NationsÕ governments. InTaiaiake Alfred, ÔDeconstructing the British Columbia Treaty ProcessÕ, Culture, Law and Colonialism Hern‡ndez-çvilaÕs interview with Feliciano Sanchez Chan, aMaya/Yucateco, highlights the need for Ôzones of refugeÕ that areimmune to the reaches of imperialism and globalization. Theseadvocates of the imaginary Mexico persist in their obstinate project ofThis is a powerful conceptualization of a strategic and culturalobjective that remains consistent with traditional goals yet standsagainst the integrative goals of the contemporary colonial agenda. Inaddition to creating zones of refuge and other breaks from colonialof our people as individuals so that these spaces can be occupied bydecolonized people living authentic lives. This is a recognition thatour true power as Indigenous people ultimately lies in our relation-ships with our land, relatives, language, and ceremonial life. As theeminent Lakota scholar Vine Deloria, Jr. asserts, ÔWhat we need is aCOMPLACENCY, CORRUPTION AND COMPARTMENTALIZED COMMUNITIESThe scholarly literature on being Indigenous predominantly focuseson identity constructions that reßect the colonized political and legalpan-indigenism or focus on theories of individual self-identiÞcation;very few are themselves grounded in real Indigenous community lifeor perspectives. For example, Joane NagelÕs work describes ÔRedPower activismÕ as the Ô...progenitor of an American Indian during the 1970s, and Þnds that so-called ÔIndianÕVine Deloria, Jr., American Indian Ethnic Renewal: Red Power and the Resurgence of Iden-tity and Culture political and cultural limits on the freedom of Indigenous people tolive lives of their own choosing. For example, Ted Gurr, a prominentscholar in the Þeld of international relations, established the com-prehensive Minorities at Risk (MAR) project in 1988, and tracked thecloser examination, the utility of GurrÕs conceptual scheme, whichdivides Indigenous and ethnonationalist phenomena into mutuallyexclusive categories, is highly questionable. For Gurr, Indigenousconformity with traditional social, economic, and cultural customs that are...Indigenous peoples whohad durable states of their own prior to conquest, such as Tibetans, or whotheir own state, such as the Kurds, are classiÞed as ethnonationalists, notAccording to GurrÕs deÞnition, being conquered and being dom-inated by another group are preconditions for being consideredIndigenous. However, not all Indigenous peoples were ÔconqueredÕmilitarily by the colonial powers that now dominate them. Treaty-making, rather than outright military conquest, took place in Northand the original peoples of what is now called Canada and the UnitedStates. Nor are all Indigenous peoples non-dominant, whether onelooks at the large populations of Indigenous peoples within certainstates, such as Bolivia (66 per cent), or in terms of Indigenouspeoples mobilizing to pose a credible political threat to the survivalof the state. As Niezen concludes, ÔA rigorous deÞnition [of Indigenous peoples]...would be premature and, ultimately, futile.Debates over the problem of deÞnition are actually more interestingWhat, then, does it mean to be Indigenous, given the colonial lega-cies of blood quantum measurements,Ted Robert Gurr, Peoples versus States: Minorities at Risk in the New CenturyWashington, DC, United States Institute of Peace Press, 2000, p. 17.; William T. Hagan, ÔFull Blood, Mixed Blood, Generic andArizona and the West Current work by the Cherokee/Creek scholar Tom Holm, alongconcept and develops it as the foundational concept framing theirview of the ideal direction for Indigenous research and teaching.Holm and his colleagues view peoplehood as four interlocking concepts: sacred history, ceremonial cycles, language and ancestralhomelands. Unlike the multi-part, ahistorical deÞnitions of Indige-model is predicated on a view of identity that is both dynamic andinterconnected: ÔNo single element of the model is more or lessimportant than the others...Õ.Santa Maria illustrates this concept of peoplehood with her grand-motherÕs words: ÔIf you do not sing the songs Ð if you do not tell thestories and if you do not speak the language Ð you will cease to existof Indigenous identity constituted in history, ceremony, languageand land, we consider relationships (or kinship networks) to be atthe core of an authentic Indigenous identity. Clearly, it is the needto maintain respectful relationships that guides all interactions andexperiences with community, clans, families, individuals, homelands,plants, animals etc. in the Indigenous cultural ideal. If any one ofthese elements of identity, such as sacred history, is in danger of beinglost, uniÞed action can be taken to revitalize and restore that part ofthe community by utilizing relationships, which are the spiritual andcultural foundations of Indigenous peoples. Tewa scholar GregoryCajete contrasts this Indigenous sense of kinship and Ôensoulment ofÔ[Indigenous] people understood that all entities of nature Ð plants, animals, stones, trees, mountains, rivers, lakes and a host ofother living entities Ð embodied relationships that must beTom, J. Holm, Diane Pearson and Ben Chavis, ÔPeoplehood: A Model for Amer-Wicazo Sa ReviewQuoted from Hern‡ndez-çvila, ÔThe Power of Native LanguagesÕ, p. 62.Gregory Cajete, Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence The Canadian historian Anthony Halldescribes this as a battle against the Ôempire of possessive individu-alismÕ and the Ômilitarization of spaceÕ: Ôthe idea of the Fourth Worldprovides a kind of broad ideological umbrella to cover the changingcoalitions of pluralistic resistance aimed at preventing the monocul-tural transformation of the entire planet...ÕWhile the concepts of peoplehood and the Fourth Worldresurgence, the question remains: how can these be put into prac-Real Indians: Identity and the Survival of Native AmericaÔRadical IndigenismÕ as a process of pursuing scholarship that isgrounded in Indigenous community goals and which Ôfollows thepath laid down in the models of inquiry traditional to their tribalThis intellectual strategy entails utilizing all of thetalents of the people inside and within a community to begin aprocess of decolonization, also begins with the self. It is a self-conscious kind of traditionalism that is the central process in theÔreconstruction of traditional communitiesÕ based on the originalteachings and orienting values of Indigenous peoples.corrupted the relationship between original peoples and the Settlers,and it eventually led to the corruption of Indigenous cultures andcommunities too. But our discussion thus far has, we hope, illustratedthe fact that decolonization and regeneration are not at root collec-tive and institutional processes. They are shifts in thinking and actionthat emanate from recommitments and reorientations at the level ofthe self that, over time and through proper organization, manifestand authorities. To a large extent, institutional approaches to makingNietschmann, ÔThe Fourth WorldÕ, pp. 235Ð6.The American Empire and the Fourth WorldQueenÕs University Press, 2003, pp. 523, 530.Real Indians: Identity and the Survival of Native AmericaBerkeley, University of California Press, 2003, p. 144.Peace, Power, Righteousness conceptualizing an eventual global Indigenous struggle founded onthe regeneration of ourselves and our communities.Ð our people must reconnect with the terrain and geog-raphy of their Indigenous heritage if they are to comprehend thestrength and sustenance that is independent of colonial power, andwhich is regenerative of an authentic, autonomous, IndigenousÐ our people must recover ways of knowing andrelating from outside the mental and ideational framework of colonialism by regenerating themselves in a conceptual universeFreedom is the Other Side of Fear trolling power of the many and varied fears that colonial powersuse to dominate and manipulate us into complacency and coop-fears head-on through spiritually grounded action; contention anddirect movement at the source of our fears is the only way to breakthe chains that bind us to our colonial existences.Ð our people must regain the self-sufÞcientUltimately important to the struggle for freedom is the reconsti-tution of our own sick and weakened physical bodies and com-munity relationships accomplished through a return to the naturalsources of food and the active, hard-working, physical lives lived byChange Happens one Warrior at a Time Ð our people must reconsti-tute the mentoring and learningÐteaching relationships that fosterreal and meaningful human development and community soli-darity. The movement toward decolonization and regeneration willemanate from transformations achieved by direct-guided experi-ence in small, personal, groups and one-on-one mentoring towardstice by every person in their own way, in response to the particularcontext and set of challenges that form each person and commu-nityÕs colonial reality.