Indigenous/Indigent

Someone posted to a list I was in on the issue of the Western Shoshone people and their land rights issue. I posted this question to a cultural studies list I was on and a few exchanges had taken place which I would like to paste here.

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From: Clarissa Lee
Hi everyone,
I've been receiving mails on the goings-on at Nevada regarding the Western Shoshone community. Below was the blog attached. Is anyone here researching this issue or know what is really going on? To hear of such systematic genocide by the US govt of its own citizens is very disturbing, to say the least, if it reaches the extend where the UN has to step in.

http://www.theecologist.org/blog.asp?admin_id=16

But then, I suppose this is nothing new.
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From: Stevienna de Saille
Normally, I just lurk here, but I felt compelled to answer Clarissa.

I have worked with Shundahai, one of the organisations mentioned by this
article, and attended the annual gathering at the Test Site a couple of
years running, back in the late 90s. Shundahai is a mixed group of Native
and non-Native activists, led by Corbin Harney, a Shoshone elder, as the
spiritual center. They keep close ties to the Western Shoshone Defence
Project, which is Carrie Dann's group -- I have met Corbin a number of
times, even hosted him on a speaking tour, but I met the Dann sisters only
once, about ten years ago. Shundahai, btw, are a splendid group of people -
as a radical direct-action activist, I was quite used to working with groups
with a lot of internal friction, personality conflicts and paranoia. Working
with Shundahai was the most harmonious political experience of my life, and
I would credit a lot of that to Corbin, and to the organisation's immense
respect for the Shoshone people and their ways.

The entire Nevada Test Site is on Shoshone land, so bombing them is nothing
new. The last time I was out there, the US was planning to start
sub-critical testing again. Their excuse is that the land is empty, which to
white eyes I suppose it is -- desert people tend to live quite far apart as
the land can only support so much life in concentrated areas. (I will
refrain here from raging at Phoenix and Las Vegas.) Oh yes, and they are
"only Injuns". Every year for I don't know how many now -- more than 20, I
should think -- Shundahai stages a three day protest at the Test Site around
Mother's Day weekend. Everyone is issued with a permit from the Shoshone
Nation to camp on their land (mimicking the BLM who claim to own it), and
there are a number of actions from simple mass trespass to full blockade.
You can have a look at their website for the action they're planning against
"Divine Strake" - http://www.shundahai.org/divine_strake.htm.

I wish I could say this situation was unique in Indian Country, but it is
very far from it. Bomb tests, livestock impoundments, water diversions and
destruction of the aquifer, forced relocations, the planned largest nuclear
waste site at Yucca Mountain, which is also Native land, and sacred (in a
state which has no nuclear power plants of its own) -- the list of issues is
staggering. And that is before you even get to the basics of health, housing
and education. The more time I spent in the Southwest, the more appalled I
became. And this was under the Clinton Administration, which was not exactly
Indian-friendly either, so I can't imagine how bad things have become under
The Shrub and His Minions.

I also couldn't tell you how many cases were put to the UN during the Decade
for Indigenous People, which resulted in a few toothless declarations of
support and not a lot more. I later worked with an international group who
went to the UN asking for the release of Leonard Peltier, a Lakota political
prisoner, and a stop to the relocation of the Big Mountain Navajo. The UN
eventually created the Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous People which
seemed like a very useful thing at the time. Ten or so years on, Peltier is
still in prison and some very few Navajo are still barely hanging on to
their land. So, while I'm glad the UN is speaking out for the Shoshone, I
suspect the word "bomb" has a lot more to do with it than justice. However,
in the present political climate, maybe that's exactly the word that's
needed to finally get something done.

If anyone wants to learn something about Native American issues, I'd highly
recommend Ward Churchill's "Struggle for the Land: (about land rights issues
and the environment) or Annette Jaimes' "The State of Native America"
(simlar to the Churchill, but more based around social issues). Both books
are more than ten years old, but sadly, despite the last thirty years of
increasingly sophisticated activism, very little has changed. There is also
a good page at the Shundahai site to get you started on what's available on
the net: http://www.shundahai.org/indigenous_issues.htm

Thanks for listening. I will now return to my customary lurker's place in
the corner.

Stevie

Stevienna de Saille
Center for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies
University of Leeds
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From: Clarissa Lee
Hi Stevie,
Thanks for that very enlightening post. Malaysia, where I am from, is also facing some critical issues with regards to its indigenous people, ranging from the pressure to conform themselves to the politically-defined, hegemonic "indigenous" groups who subscribe to a particular cultural and religious beliefs, and forced abandonment of their customs. Though their rights are recognised by the law and Constitution, in reality, they are treated as footholds by those in power. In fact, some of the so-called "leaders" of these indigenous people have been subtly bribed to forced the silent obedience of these people. Not to mention that many of these people had to suffer the dire consequences of logging in their lands, caused by logging companies that are linked in some ways to the government. Highways, dams and many infrastructures have found their way into the lands of these people, who were then compensated with bungalows and transient material goodies even as they'd lost their lands forever.
But then, this brings up the evergoing argument that we should not prevent progress of these people. But then, what is progress if it is your definition that you have forced down their throats, depriving of their basic rights while telling them that you are doing things for their own good. Giving them no voice in the parliament or make any effort to understand the roots of their culture that is extremely deep, to know what makes them tick and how should change work best for them, instead of using the same yardstick of change applied to cultures that are so very different from theirs. Anyhow, they have been assimilated into the dominant discourse but are actuallly the neglected subaltern other, rendered invisible. There are some works done on these issues here, though not too many as yet.
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From: Stevienna de Saille
t does seem to be the same story for indigenous people almost everywhere,
doesn't it? I have some aboriginal friends in Australia and when we talk
about their lives, it's so much the same story as well. The only place I
have been to that seems a slight exception was New Zealand, though the Maori
have very similar issues with land rights and cultural preservation. But I
was surprised at the level of knowledge about Maori people that most pakeha
(a non-pejorative word for white people) had, right down to a number of
Maori words, including pakeha, being so integrated into the language that I
had some trouble reading the newspapers.

That may simply be a matter of smaller population in NZ overall, so Maori
cultural paradigms are more clearly felt. It may be mere political
correctness, with no real gain for the Maori behind it, but it really didn't
feel like that. There was something else in NZ, a feeling I can't quite put
my finger on.

In Modest_Witness, Donna Haraway talked about the failure of land
negotiations between the Wik aboriginal people and the white settlers being
based in an inability of both to understand what "The Land" implied in the
imaginary of the other. I think NZ might be the opposite, that despite their
other differences and the still vastly unequal position of the Maori within
'New Zealand', 'Aoteoroa' *does* occupy a similar place in the imaginary of
both Maori and pakeha, and provides a conceptual meeting ground. That, and
the fact that neither can claim to be original, may be why the Maori have
been able to come quite far politically in a relatively short time
(particularly with comparison to the US), and why the two cultures felt to
me as if they are slowly evolving towards a national identity both can
share.

I see there are New Zealanders on this list, perhaps they'll correct any
misapprehensions I may have?

Stevie
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From: Alan Meek
Hi Stevie

There are very important differences in the ways that Maori and pakeha
understand place and history in New Zealand, although the official
state policies of Biculturalism have certainly advanced the political
recognition of Maori over the past two decades. There are also ongoing
land claims by Maori that, while remaining controversial, do represent
significant progress in redressing the injustices of the past.

However, we should certainly avoid idealising the cultural and
political situation here. There have been strong indications that
public opinion is widely against the recognition of Maori grievance.
There are also dominant economic interests that would simply assimilate
Maori culture into commodified forms of "uniqueness" in the global
marketplace. So I don't believe there is really a common recognition
of the meaning of land and identity on the part of Maori and pakeha in
Aotearoa--I'm not even sure that would be desirable, as it may even
confuse moving toward social justice in this country.

Allen Meek
Massey University
New Zealand
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So, what do you make of the above exchanges?