Race. Povertv & the A newsletter for social and environmental justice Volume 111. Number 3 $2.00 Fall 1992 *- . Native Nations in 1992: 500 Years of Cultural Survival Lost in America Discovering by Paul Smith The title comes from the name of a funny movie A Columbus: Albert Brooks made a few years ago. It was A about a yuppie couple in Southern Califor- nia who, sick of their spiritually bank- k .e-rea.ding rupt lifestyle, cash in their expensive 1 home, life savings, cars, and the rest A the Past of their possessi&s to create a "nest egg." This will give them A L by Bill Bigelow the freedom to explore their full 1 human potential to be free, Most of my students have travel and "touch Indians." uouble with the idea that a They never make it to Indian book - especially a textbook Country, losing the nest egg in -can lie. That's why I start a Las Vegas casino. Mrs. my U.S. history class by Yuppie is reduced to working in stealing a student's purse. a fast food restaurant in Arizona. As the year opens, my (In the end Brooks goes back to rstudents may not know when the his old profession with a renewed 7 Civil War was fought or what appreciation of material success; the James Madison or Frederick movie wimps out and becomes sort of a ~<ouglass did; but they know that a cautionary tale about middle-class risk brave fellow named Christopher Colum- taking.) \ f bus discovered America. Indeed, this bit of The lost couvle might have cl vhistorical lore may be the only knowledge class Cornpton, but they never consider touching Chicanos or ,& A members share in COr~~mon. African Americans. What we have here is a paradox: What students don't know is that their textbooks have, Indians are the poorest of the poor, yet Americans often by omission or otherwise, lied to them. They don't know, plan vacations to their communities. for example, that on the island Hispaniola, an entire race of It's easy to laugh at such an absurd example of objectifying people was wiped out in only 40 Years of Spanish administra- Indians. Yet in my experience, as a Commanche activist in tion. the American Indian Movement in the 1970s, and one still Finders, Keepers I committed to the Indian struggle, I find dialogue between So I begin class by stealing a student's purse. I announce Indian and non-Indian progressives consistently frustrated by that the purse is mine, obviously, because look who has it. % the distinctive type of racism that confronts Indians. Often the Most students are fair-minded. They saw me take the Purse 7 off the desk so they Protest: "That's not Yours*it's Nikki's. 5.. left, feminists, and other movements who should be our allies -, have sought to "touch Indians" in ways both racist and You took it. We saw you." I brush these objections aside and S destructive. reiterate that it is , too, mine and to prove it, I'll show all the >> see LOSTIN AMERICA, page 22 >* see REREADlNG THE PAST, page 24 147 Recycled Paper Paae Two Fa// 1992 Race. Poverty 1 the Environment Native peoples emerge to shed much- Race, Poverty & the needed light on the dark past of Environment America's history. Editor'sNotes The journeys of Native people Guest Editor I through the last 500 years have been Valerie Tahan He who holds the pen controls painful and much has been lost since the 1 I history. invasions. Whole nations of our Editors How else can we explain the white- relations were wiped out in the holo- I I Carl Anthony Luke Cole washed versions of what passes as truth caust with no survivors to carry on their Contributors in this country? distinct Bffl Bigelow Suzan Shown Ha jo From the historical I In this issue of RPE, we have cultures. The Indigenous Environmental Network lies taught to collected the insightful words list of nations Winona LaDuke Jack Malotte school children to lost that Morning Star Foundation the false images of some of Native America's appears in this Phil Tajitsu Nash Marina Ortega Leonard Peltier projected by most clear and articulate think- issue mainstream media researched by Joe Sanchez Paul Smith Bffl Redwing Tayac Grace Thorpe to the tomahawk- erS - writers whose words the Morning chopping stereo- educate, anger and inspire us. Star Founda- Race, Powrty & the Environment is types absorbed tion with the published four times a year. Articles are 01992 by their authors; please and perpetuated by the masses, the truth acknowledgement that it is only a reproduce RPE by every means, and give about Native peoples and our history partial list of those no longer with us, authors credit for their work. has been colorblind and culture-blind except in spirit. Subscriptions are $2O/four issues, $50 for far too long. We remember and mourn for them in for institutions, or free for low-income persons and community groups. After years of repressive struggles, 1992, and we learn from them as'well. Articles, stories, reportbacks, re- we are finally seeing the voices of >> see EDiTORS' NOTES, page 21 sources and general information are all accepted with appreciation. Send submissions and subscription checks to In This Issue... RPE,c/o Earth Island, 300 Broadway, Suite 28, San Francisco, CA 94133. Lost in America, by Paul Smith ............................................................... 1 RPE is a joint project of the California Rural Legal Assistance Discovering Columbus: Re-reading the Past, by Bill Bigelow.................. 1 Foundation and the Earth Island Institute Urban Habitat Program. We Are Still Here: The 500 Years Celebration, by Winona LaDuke .......3 Editorial Policy Our Visions -- The Next 500 Years .........................................................4 Race, Poverty & the Environment is a quarterly newsletter dedicated to publishing Native Lands 1492-1992. ..................................................................:.. .. .5 material exploring the intersection of race. poverty and the environment The views Stuck Holding the Nation's Nuclear Waste, by Valerie Taliman.............. 6 reflected in Race, Poverty & the Environment are not necessarily those of the editors. Status of MRS Grants............................................................................. 7 California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation. or Earth Island Institute. Oklahoma Tribal Response to MRS, by Grace Thorpe ...........................8 Mission Statement No Nuclear Waste on Indian Lands, an /EN Resolution......................... 9 The mission of Race, Poverty & the Environment is to provide an authentic voice The Western Shoshone: Following Earth Mother's for environmental justice. RPE aims to senrice Instructions, by Joe Sanchez........................................................... 10 its readers with news, articles, book reviews, theory, resources and notices that examine and Declaration of Quito .............................................................................. 12 provide evidence of the relationship among race, poverty. and the environment. Further, we The Off-Again, On-Again Garbage Dump, by Marina Orfega............... 13 must continue to build the bridges that have been tentatively constructed in the past few Partial listing of those Native Nations that did not survive years between mainstream envirmmentalists the invasion, 1492-1 992 .................................................................. 14 and grassroots environmentalists, in a way which preserves the autonomy of community Struggles Unite Native Peoples: An Interview with Chief Tayac, groups. RPE presents the voices and experi- ences of a sector of society in a manner that is by Phil Tajitsu Nash........................................................................ 1 6 accessible to grassroots organizers and activists. environmental professionals, concerned Healing Global Wounds, by Valerie Taliman........................................ 18 citizens, and policy makers alike. Race, Poverty & the Environment Fa11 1992 Page Three We are still here The 500 Years Celebration by Winona LaDuke They are still being used in Guatemala and El Salvador, and in TO" discover" implies that Indian territory from Amazonia to Pine Ridge. The invasion set into motion a process, thus far, unabated. This has been a something is lost. Something struggle for values, religions, resources, but most importantly land. was lost .... it was Columbus. The age of "discovery" was to mark the age of colonialism, But unfortunately, he did not discover himself in the process a time when our land suddenly came to be viewed as "your of his losmess. He went on to destroy peoples, land and land." While military repression is not in the North American ecosystems in his search for material wealth and riches. vogue (at least with the exception of the Oka-Mohawk Columbus was a perpetrator of genocideresponsible for uprising in the summer of 1990), today legal doctrines uphold setting in motion the most horrendous holocaust to have that "our land" is "your land," based ostensibly on the so- occurred in the history of the world. Columbus was a slave called "doctrine of discovery." This justifies, in a so- called trader, a thief, a pirate, and most certainly not a hero. To legal system, the same dispossession of people from their land celebrate Columbus is to congratulate the process and history that is caused by outright military conquest, but today, in a of the invasion. "kinder, gentler world," it all appears more legal. The Taino, Arawak and other indigenous peoples of the The reality is that the battering has been relentless. Each Caribbean, the first "hosts of Columbus" were systematically generation more land has been taken from the indigenous destroyed. Thirteen at a time were hanged, in honor of the people~itherby force or by paper, but in no case with our Twelve Apostles and the Redeemer. Every man over 14 years consent. Today, Indian people in North America retain about of age was obliged to bring a quota of gold to the conquista- four percent of the original land baseland called reserva- dors every three months. Those who could not pay the tribute tions in the US or reserves in Canada.