Above photo: White settlers moving West. Bullock Museum.
There was an elder friend of mine who often called to tell me what he had been thinking about. Elders do that so you can expand your mind and increase your own wisdom. Although I am also up there in age, 78 at my last birthday, I still have friends who are older than me and I really appreciate when we get to talk. But I also know many elderly who only think about the color of their hair, or what is the latest wasicu fashion, or if they can get a young woman to marry them. There is a big difference.
So this elder, who went home last year, would call and give me ideas for what others should also think about. In our conversation, he said that all the Native nations on Turtle Island (North America) should have a National Immigration Day, or a National Illegal Immigration Day. The first illegal immigrant would be Christopher Columbus. Today he would be arrested for all the Native peoples he and his soldiers killed. Or would he? After all, he was white and they were brown. So it is questionable.
The elder recommended that all the Native Nations should join together and decide on a day to have this National Illegal Immigration Day because then all the white people would have to learn where they came from, or remember where they came from. In remembering then maybe they would not be so hard on the people of color who are coming here as immigrants.
Some of those brown immigrants are also our relatives from the South. Their Indigenousness, or Nativeness can be proven by DNA. All of us have a DNA structure that is different than the white people. This means their nations were here in the western hemisphere long before Christopher Columbus learned the world was not flat.
(An aside as I am an elder who thinks of other things. So here goes: if the world was flat, would Mother Earth be twirling in the heavens like a pancake? Or would she float like a leaf? Just wondering.)
We also have relatives to the North in what is now called Canada. We were relatives and nations long before there was such immigrant places as Canada and the United States. Will our relatives from Canada also be picked up by ICE especially now that the largest last Pow Wow is happening in the United States? I ask this because I just had supper with relatives from the North last night.
There was an understanding between the immigrant governments of Canada and the United States that we, Natives or Indigenous, could freely travel back and forth across the Border. But that has changed. We have to have passports, probably United States or Canadian passports, before we can go back and forth again. This is just like the southern nations where the O’odam, or Yacqui, or others have their nation on both sides of the Mexican and United States border.
I recently attended the United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. There was only one speech that talked about the harms that are being done to people of color in the United States under the disguise of illegal immigration. It said:
The United States often speaks of its commitment to Indigenous Peoples and human rights. However, we have multiple testimonies of systemic human rights violations and abuses against Indigenous Peoples that starkly contradict this commitment.
We have documented multiple cases of arbitrary detention of Individuals based solely on skin color, accent or attire. These are clear violations of Articles 3, 7 and 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Articles 17 and 36 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and also is a direct violation of the 1967 Refugee Protocol, to which the US is a signatory.
Indigenous Mothers and children have been separated and held in cages with little to no access to water, medical attention, or legal council. This is a violation of Articles 3, 9 and 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Articles 8, 21 and 22 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
We call upon this council to urgently demand that the United States end these practices of Immigration enforcement on people of color, uphold the right to due process for everyone, and comply with international human rights laws.
This is presented on behalf of Tonatierra -An Embassy of Indigenous Peoples that operates within Turtle Island, also known as the United States.
The United States seems to have forgotten that it is an immigrant government and all the white people here are immigrants or the offspring of immigrants. Remember, the black people were forcibly brought here as slaves so their status is different. Although today, with the conflicts and wars occurring in Africa, which white media seldom covers, then there are more people of African ancestry coming here as immigrants. Many of them are Indigenous to Africa and would rather stay there but for the violence and starvation.
So I think what that elder was telling me was a good thing. All of the Native nations of North American need to declare a National Illegal Immigration Day in honor of all the white people who came here in the beginning of the invasion of Turtle Island. Perhaps that’s why the immigrant governments of the United States and Canada don’t want any more immigrants coming here because look what they did to the environment of the whole world with their so-called freedom to do what they wanted. They don’t want a colorful invasion.
I would hope the National Congress of American Indians and all the tribal governments would declare such a Day. Or are they so colonized and afraid of these immigrant governments of the United States and Canada that they would rather not declare the truth? If you know anybody in those organizations, give them a copy of this. This elder is only bringing food for thought.
Ktso.
Charmaine White Face, or Zumila Wobaga, is an Oglala Tituwan Oceti Sakowin elder, writer, and Spokesperson for the 1894 Sioux Nation Treaty Council. She can be reached at cwhiteface@gmail.com
