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Why it's time to give Native Americans their land back: Otter Voice Meeting Notes

Why it's time to give Native Americans their land back

Christina Lane8min

Sana Saeed

00:06

There's what's been called a moment of reckoning happening, a reckoning not simply with white supremacy and the institutions that uphold it, but also with some of the foundational myths that underpin how we are made to understand this country. And while there is still a lot of uncertainty about what this moment will bring, if anything, it's a lot of movements for justice to take center stage. One of these is a land back movement, a movement for restorative justice and land reclamation for indigenous peoples. Now, you may be thinking, land reclamation, like taking back this land, the one I'm paying excessive rent to live on, kinda, except it's a little bit more complicated than that. And so I thought it would be good to bring in three indigenous activists to discuss what land reclamation is what it looks like. And why the movement for justice for indigenous peoples isn't just necessary, but it encompassing us all.

Winona LaDuke

01:04

What are we talking about? We are talking about the return of land territories that are ours that are guaranteed under treaties that have been illegally taken by federal, state and county governments and individual landowners.

Nick Tilsen

01:18

It's everything that was also damaged and taken in the process.

Morning Star Gali

01:23

It's not a new concept, but it's it's newly been introduced through the process of land acknowledgement, through an understanding that these lands were not empty that they are lands that have always been stewarded and cared for by indigenous peoples.

Winona LaDuke

01:42

Land justice and land restoration looks like if you stole it, you should return it.

Morning Star Gali

01:46

We are not saying that everyone needs to leave.

Nick Tilsen

01:50

We're talking about shifting the decision making power that was taken from our communities back into the hands of our people and in our communities.

Morning Star Gali

01:58

There is a way that we live in balance and harmony with land not plowing through our sacred areas and sacred sites.

Nick Tilsen

02:09

You know, if you look at the history of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, indigenous people today in this part of the world are living in most extreme poverty, where they have the lowest social determinants of health and health outcomes. We have some of the lowest education outcomes for our systems. And these things are systemic. This is generational poverty.

Morning Star Gali

02:36

I think that there's a lot of finger pointing that happens about why tribal communities are so poverty stricken or why there are high rates of diabetes and other health issues. But you know, it really needs to come into play of the holistic viewpoint of why it is that our communities are continuing to suffer and why it is that they are at such a disadvantage.

Winona LaDuke

02:58

Nationally Native people have about 4% of our original land base. That's, you know, the land we have left isreservations and inside that a lot of land we don't even hold inside our own reservations. And in a broader picture. Native people in the United States have about 50 million acres of land but the federal government just the Park Service alone, controls 80 million acres of land.

Nick Tilsen

03:21

There has been a system in place designed for not only the stealing of our lands, and maintaining of the stealing of our lands, and that lands and indigenous peoples actual sovereignty has been used as a national resource. When you look at where nuclear waste is stored throughout America, it's stored on indigenous peoples lands. When you look at where pipelines are being built throughout the nation. They're being built through indigenous peoples land. There's an entire relationship with how corporate America and the policies that support it have actively been going after indigenous people and indigenous peoples lands.

Winona LaDuke

04:00

The United States and Canada both have egregious practices to Native people. I mean, you cannot say that the United States is worse than Canada.

Nick Tilsen

04:08

People who are focused on trying to tell a positive story of the way that Canada has dealt with indigenous people are disconnected with the reality that indigenous people in Canada are facing.

Morning Star Gali

04:20

If you were to ask our relatives up there, you know, that are constantly battling right out on the front lines constantly being harassed by RCMP, they will tell you that they are not receiving any sort of better treatment.

Winona LaDuke

04:35

Canada discusses reconciliation has a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but still over 100 nations have water advisories and you cannot even drink the water.

Nick Tilsen

04:44

Canada is a colonial government that continues to oppress indigenous people today, the movement for healing and reconciliation. It stopped short of actually providing justice and liberation for indigenous people in Canada.

Winona LaDuke

04:58

and they make lip service in Canada but the practice of Canada's genocidal people as it is in the United States.

Nick Tilsen

05:04

We are every day warriors that are just standing up for our people, our community, we don't deserve to be attacked by the military. We don't deserve to be attacked by the police. We don't deserve to be over criminalized by a system in the name of justice. And I should not be facing 16 and a half to 17 years in prison for standing up on something that even the Supreme Court said was stolen lands that is egregious.

Winona LaDuke

05:30

Indigenous people represent about 4% of the population of the of the world but we are the people who protect about 80% of the world's biodiversity land restoration is also about protecting and acknowledging the biodiversity of Mother Earth and the need to have those lands protected. Indigenous people are obviously the best stewards.

Nick Tilsen

05:49

This is a long line of indigenous people who've had enough a long line of indigenous people who are tired of our people being beaten our land stalled, tired of the suffering of indigenous people.

Winona LaDuke

06:04

protection in recognition of our rights to land control, you know of our economy, religious freedom, language restoration.

Nick Tilsen

06:13

Defund the military industrial complex that was used for the stealing of indigenous peoples lands a lot over policing of our people today dismantle the system of white supremacy that was created in the first place for the stealing of our lands, whether that be the dismantling of certain parts of the court system, certain parts of Bureau of Land Management that not only played the role of stealing our lands, but maintain the theft of them. And then the actual physical returning of public lands.

Winona LaDuke

06:42

The only compensation for land is land and there's not a not a payment as evidenced in the Black Hills case where the Lakota were offered 106 million for their land and they rejected the settlement which is now worth billions. Money is not the answer. The answer is land.

Nick Tilsen

06:57

There is a role for everybody in the land that that we're building. For the white folks out there that were a bunch of Indians weather the storm the mountains and cabins. That's not what we're trying to do. The land back movement is about building collective power and collective liberation and building a world that works for everybody who works there with us work side by side with us to dismantle imperialism, colonialism, and a system of white supremacy and racial injustice. So collaborate with us we are relatives the our CO conspirators be our accomplices for dismantling these systems. Don't be scared of us for dismantling them.

Sana Saeed

07:39

Thanks so much for watching this conversation. It's worth noting that we've seen some good steps in recent years in October 2019, the city of Eureka in California voted to give back ownership of more than 200 acres of land to the Wiyot Tribe. Then there was July 2020 Supreme Court decision to rule much of eastern Oklahoma native territory. land reclamation can be complicated in practice, but it's not impossible. And it's as critical to environmental conservation as it is to enacting justice for indigenous communities. Don't forget to like this video, hit subscribe and let us know in the comments. What are some other conversations and maybe slightly controversial topics that you want us to cover? We'll see you soon.

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