Native American Exile: Illegal Immigration Laws toward Mexico harm American Indians

[Gxg (G²)]

It sounds like what you want to do is undo the damage done. The fact that you don't have any specific plan for the future is not a bad thing at all. Making a plan without addressing the underlying issues isn't a good plan.

I think it's wrong for anyone not to have any specific plan for how to go forward - you never just jump into things.

That said, people in NDN communities addressing issues are not against undoing damage done - the realization is that there is simply no way to ever go 100% back to how all things were and thus there's no real way of undoing all aspects of damage. Part of recognizing underlying issues is realizing practically what can or cannot be done if wanting to really help out people.

It was wrong, in example, for the Indian Wars to happen where tribes were pushed further and further out West and eradicated extensively. Is being against the U.S going to bring them back? No - and addressing the fact that such evils happened will never bring the tribes back or ensure that their current status (i.e. Tribal Sovereignty respected, land rights enforced, aid to Native American communities, etc.) is kept in a healthy place.

The same thing goes for registration with NDN tribes - I don't agree with all aspects of tribal registration since I am VERY much against the ways that many Tribes fight for the communities and yet have internal battles where others are wrongly pushed out due to blood dynamics....even though I can see their logic in doing so because others claimed they were Native American and yet had no connection whatsoever to the culture or customs. It's one thing saying "The U.S. cannot tag me!!!" if resisting registration - but it's another if one sets themselves entirely against the Tribes as a group and the way that they have chosen to go about things...there is a level of compromise one has to be willing to do in order to be effective. This also goes for others not wanting to register with tribes due to the concept of not valuing blood association (despite how many of the Tribes pushed for it) even though they themselves want to identify with the tribes and know they will never agree on all things and have valid point in saying that focusing on "full blood" vs "half blood" is not the same as discussing who is fully committed to/advocating for the Tribe they say that they value. And on the issue, as an example of others trying to address the issue:

As it concerns practicality in knowing how to go forward, the same thing occurs for the issue of immigration - there's no way the borders are ever going to go back to how they were when it was predominately Indigenous peoples in the Southwest, before the Mexican-U.S. war. However, that doesn't mean people cannot be helped by having their perspective changed on what it means to be Indigenous and bringing awareness to their experiences - or getting involved in the political process so that you actually have more power/ability to enforce things at the table. The same dynamic of getting involved practically with spreading awareness goes for others who may not like the U.S. but realize that some basics are required to critique it - you have to be LEGALLY apart of the U.S. if you're going to speak on any kind of "rights" lost....and we all benefit from the U.S. in government, markets/goods and things we use everyday - so we have to be realistic. Nonetheless, we can make a difference by changing perspective.....

 

[Red Fox]

I am a Native American by blood, not by government papers. A'ho!

I do not want or need the united states government to verify to me that I am an NDN.

Native Americans of the Americas by Blood Not Government Papers

Paper Genocide of Native American Indians by the united states government

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiCk1Pc-41s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU0_1q25nxM#t=45

 

[Gxg (G²)]

Making a plan without addressing the underlying issues isn't a good plan.

Part of practically addressing underlying issues is changing the imagery and what follows is one of the best examples of showing others practically what Native American culture is like so that they can recognize stereotypes and also know the problems facing communities and how they can get involved in the government to address those issues.

The first is a presentation by the organization known as TED - a "Think Tank" with innovators/speakers who are actively involved in all levels of community when it comes to ideas changing the world...and one presentation that stood out to me came from Nancy Marie Mithlo when she was speaking on how stereotypes of Native Americans have caused more damage in terms of policy or lack of policy implementation than anything else.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdhWdgJI_ck

The other organization that really made a difference in regards to images is from Project 562 - A Photo Project by Matika Wilbur documenting Native America.:

• Changing the Landscape Through the Lens: Photographer Matika Wilbur Spotlights Contemporary Native American Culture with ?Project 562? ? The Visibility Project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JrRBQEQr3o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4zoYW5TCkU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxTEt3Y2gx0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M3L5Gnxths

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF7IWFi7deM

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[Gxg (G²)]

I am a Native American by blood, not by government papers. A'ho!

I do not want or need the united states government to verify to me that I am an NDN.

Native Americans of the Americas by Blood Not Government Papers

Paper Genocide of Native American Indians by the united states government

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiCk1Pc-41s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU0_1q25nxM#t=45

I am aware of the organization known as Paper Genocide - very timely organization, especially when it comes to showing the dark side of documentation by others not connected to Tribal nations since many accounts show that Native Americans were not the ones writing their own histories. Learned of that when I visited the Museum of the American Indian and it was noted that many Native Americans have pointed out how they prefer to do their own documentation. And on the subject of Paper Genocide, the video where one of the clips you gave came from was very excellent - entitled WRITTEN OUT OF HISTORY: THE UNTOLD LEGACY OF NATIVE AMERICAN SLAVERY

• Paper Genocide of American Indians: Walter Plecker

My uncle (who was married to my mom's sister and is Native American as well) has often pointed out the way that Native Americans were often labeled as African-Americans when it came to slavery, despite where the slave boats could never have brought over the amount of people which were documented to be African slaves in America - unless, of course, Native Americans were added into the mix and all documented as slaves.

And as it concerns documentation, the issue can be seen today practically when it comes to how many have been of Native American background and yet they are often counted out due to the mixture issue (as well as some of the history ignored when it comes to African-Native American dynamics - or seeing the ways cultures impacted each other, more shared elsewhere before on other cultures like the Olmecs - despite how often it seems many ignore Native Americans pointing out that Blacks DIDN'T just arrive in the U.S on slave ships first, which is what European colonialists have said and sadly many Native American groups buy into that myth just as they buy into the myth that they can say they don't need government papers for identity - and yet ignore those who are Native American/African and then say "Well you can't be both")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9xxFCf3j00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzrh5_ou-7c

Outside of that, you have tribes seeking to have themselves documented, as was the case with the Taino Indians..AND them being vocal in being included in the census for the U.S so that people don't ignore them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bcv7-ipKErg&list=PL212271B74D06A7FEV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bcv7-ipKErg&list=PL212271B74D06A7FE

At the end of the day, you cannot get all things down on paper to show who a person or a people are - and sometimes, the documentation from earlier eras has been incomplete. On the same token, there's a need for documentation on some level but it has to always be done in a way that truly reflects what Native Americans have always shared on the issue. Doesn't really matter if focusing on government papers when one doesn't live out the culture - or the documentation that other tribes already placed out on showing who they are (even with being an Oral culture predominately).

But as we live in a world of documentation - including the documentation of being U.S. citizens (which allows us to be here/even having conversation if in the U.S. already) - there are limits. There are many excellent places that do work on that very issue, such as the Native American Documentation Project and Tracing Your Indian Roots - Native American Rights Fund and "Indians of the MidWest" as it concerns how Native communities have integrated new technologies and other aspects of majority culture (including U.S culture) into their way of life for survival - no one has ever survived 100% separate from the U.S. system if they are still here, whether we we'd prefer it or not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwp1D11dL2Y

 

[Gxg (G²)]

Excellent quote...

 

[Red Fox]

This is a very well written article that accurately discusses several social and economic issues that Native Americans are facing today.

Excerpted from the article:

The rate at which American Indians are victims of violent crime greatly exceeds that of every other racial group. In fact, from 1992 to 2012, American Indians were victims of violence at a rate of 102 victimizations per 1,000. This is more than twice the rate experienced by whites, blacks or Latinos during the same period (2.4 times that of whites, 2.2 times that of blacks, and 2.7 times that of Latinos).

Make no mistake: this violence is not just taking place on reservations, where less than one-quarter of American Indians currently live. These crimes are taking place in the suburbs, where American Indians are victims of violent crime at nearly three times the rate of whites or blacks. They are taking place in urban locations, where American Indians are victimized at more than twice the rate of whites or blacks. They are taking place across the nation.

And I really like this quote. It hits the nail on the head, in my humble opinion.

I believe that the dehumanizing portrayal of American Indians as atavistic mascots makes it easier to dismiss their very real hardships. Perhaps doing so makes it easier for some to ignore past and current wrongs, and to deny the tragic narrative of this nation's treatment of its original inhabitants.

Guest Commentary: Throwing a yellow flag on the treatment of American Indians

 

[Gxg (G²)]

Came across an excellent work on the issue which I was thankful for, in regards to Native Americans and the extensive ways they have shaped immigration policy - and for a review on the matter, as seen here in Immigrants and Native Americans | OUPblog :[/url]

​

What is the place of Indians in American society? Sometimes they have been excluded altogether from American-ness, most notably through the terrible massacres and forced removals of the colonial era and the nineteenth century. Other times they have been incorporated into American society through “civilization” programs, land allotment policies, the wholesale adoption of their children, and confinement in punitive boarding schools – all designed to rob them of their culture and force them to assimilate. Although the Native American story is unique, an ongoing tension between exclusion and assimilation also lies at the heart of immigration history.

All along, American Indians have tried to preserve their political and cultural identities. Today about 4.5 million people identify themselves as Native American. The federal government recognizes more than 500 Indian tribes and nations, whose political existence lies somewhere between or beyond the dual sovereignty of state and national power. The status of Indians status as Americans nonetheless remains highly ambiguous, as it always has. But this ambiguity once again takes us back some of the central concerns of immigration history.

American national identity built on the destruction of native cultures. To study these cultures and how they changed and survived over time is to confront in an unusually stark and tragic form the question of what is means to be American. And that is the question that all historians of immigrant ask about the past.​

There have been debates on the work by Kevin Kenny (if studying works such as Brothers among Nations: The Pursuit of Intercultural Alliances in Early America, 1580-1660 by Cynthia Van Zandt) - but it is definitely something which makes a world of difference.

 

[Gxg (G²)]

It actually IS illegal (even if done "legally" - in the same way Jim Crow was "legal" even when the spirit of it went against the intentions of Lincoln during the Reconstruction era and the differing reforms made in the U.S. to empower blacks) whenever it comes to violating legal treaties/terms repeatedly that the U.S. promised to uphold that recognized the Sovereignty of First Nations groups. This is part of why many historians have noted that land acquisition by the U.S. was far from a legal transaction for the majority of interactions with Native Americans.

• broken treaties

• Broken Promises On Display At Native American Treaties Exhibit : Code Switch : NPR

• Illuminating the Treaties That Have Governed U.S.-Indian Relationships | At the Smithsonian | Smithsonian

The U.S. has also done the same dynamic in the Philippines, Hawaii and the Pacific:

• U.S. Immigration: Why Calling Undocumented People 'Illegal' Is Wrong | TIME.com

• US Imperialism in Samoa and the Pacific

• Hawaii: 120 Years of US Occupation: Militarism and ?America?s Pacific Century? | Global Research - Centre for Research on Globalization

• American Imperialism in Hawaii, China & the Philippines - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

And with U.S. territories, we unfortunately have kept them in a position where they are a part of American and yet not deemed Americans after all that has happened to them (more noted in documentaries such as The Insular Empire: America in the Mariana Islands)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CesHr99ezWE

Part of this was discussed more in-depth elsewhere, as seen here in the following:

​

There is no avoiding how we gained territory in the Spanish American War (Cuba, Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam) while we also took territory via Manifest Destiny from the Native Americans and Hawaii from the Hawaiians...illegally and yet legally.

​

On the issue of Native American resistance and the way that Indigenous People's are fighting to change systems, this is a very interesting article I saw which I was very glad and thankful for:

• The Hawaii Independent: Building an indigenous coalition for radical resistance to colonialism

As said there:

Yesterday, indigenous rights and decolonization coalition The Red Nation issued a statement of solidarity with the Native Hawaiians currently protesting the development of the massive Thirty-Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea. This statement of solidarity is in line with The Red Nation’s goal of building unity between indigenous peoples around the world and teaching these people effective methods of radical resistance to colonial-capitalist systems of oppression.

The Red Nation was envisioned by two Ph.D. students at the University of New Mexico, Nick Estes and Melanie Yazzie, and is comprised of both indigenous and non-indigenous activists, scholars, educators and community organizers—all working toward the liberation of indigenous peoples from colonialism. The coalition seeks to center native peoples’ agendas and struggles through advocacy, mobilization and education about ways of working outside the these subversive systems (hence, radical)......The Red Nation, alongside the Hawaiian sovereignty movement and other movements for life and land, have similarities as well as differences. One of the most constructive and formidable things about what we’re doing here in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is developing alliances and radical coalitions, which are highly political, to think about how these systems of power—colonialism, empire—and to map them, not just here in the continental United States, but also in Australia and Canada, for example. All of that is very relevant to what is happening in Hawaii.

Our movement is trying to provide the necessary space for indigenous peoples from different geographic contexts to be political, to organize and to have access to the agents necessary to produce different kinds of direct action; whether that be in law, or in education, or in state government—all these kinds of direct action are really important to sovereignty movements.

What I’m noticing here in New Mexico is that sovereignty movements are not necessarily an isolated kind of movement. From the Oka Crisis in 1990 in Canada back to Wounded Knee here in the United States, these are very instructive historical examples of how we can take the problematic histories that have been produced in Hawaii and to challenge them. Because we’re really all struggling together, just in different kinds of ways. These are not fractured movements; I think sovereignty movements all over the world have the potential to ally together to forge really thick and dense communities and collectives to work at these very complicated problems—displacement from land, institutional racism, violence—that we experience daily......As someone who is not from New Mexico, who identifies as a Kanaka Maoli, an indigenous of Hawaii, but who is also attending school and is a settler of this place, my involvement speaks to the trans-national nature of the movement.

On February 5, we had a screening of the documentary Nuclear Savage, which talks about the different kinds of colonization that take place in the Pacific, in particular the Marshall Islands. Some of the fragments of the bombs that were tested there ended up in a lab here in New Mexico so, just in that film screening, we were trying to convey that kind of trans-national connectivity that relates disparate indigenous peoples together in our struggle against social injustices.​

Just found it interesting when considering the battle of Indigenous People around the world - more at Who Are Indigenous Peoples | First Peoples Worldwide :

​

 

[nightflight]

Walls of texts, page stretching, abundance of videos and pictures.......

 

[Gxg (G²)]

Walls of texts, page stretching, abundance of videos and pictures.......

Needless comments, as people not wanting to address an issue can keep quiet about an issue and move on - whereas those dealing with it will deal with it. Not many care for drive-by comments, or quick nit-picks (as you've done a couple of times already without dealing with things).

If one doesn't want to address Native Americans (or stay on topic in addressing the videos - as Red Fox has brought up at several points thankfully like with the Paper Genocide one), one can do so without trying to avoid dealing with the topic. Simple

 

[Red Fox]

Invaluable information, in my humble opinion.

I think this is the kind of information (curriculum) that should be taught about the indigenous peoples of North America in public schools.

 

[Gxg (G²)]

I know NDNs who honor america and NDNs, who like me, despise america and its ideals. As I said, it depends on the NDN you speak to.

I don't think anyone studying the history of the U.S. fully will ever walk away without having something they didn't despise on it or wish was different.

 

[Sistrin]

Walls of texts, page stretching, abundance of videos and pictures.......

Much of it reposted again and again with no desire to actually discuss anything.

If the US Border Patrol is not allowed to enforce the border in areas where it may cross through traditional Tohono O'Odham lands then the human traffickers and drug runners are going to know that. If native born Mexicans are allowed to violate the border simply because they do so in an area where the border crosses through traditional Tohono O'Odham lands then so can anyone. Are the tribe members going to patrol the border? Intercept the drug and human traffickers? Or will members of the proud and noble tribe take the drug runners and human traffickers money and look the other way?

Given human nature I lean toward the latter. But I am sure it is racist somehow to point that out.

 

[Gxg (G²)]

Much of it reposted again and again with no desire to actually discuss anything.

Seeing that others already discussed it (from myself to Red Fox, Christsoldier and others) and they also discussed different issues at several points, much of the rhetoric of things "reposted" is baseless (as usual) since it doesn't give any real evidence of what was "reposted." Moreover, as you already chose to avoid addressing the issues when they were brought up while others actually discussed, the only one refusing to discuss is yourself - and that cannot be projected onto anyone. With reposting, the only times things were reposted was directly in response to moments off-topic comments occurred (as noted in #201 and here) and it was clear the OP was not being addressed for side issues. Not wanting to deal with an issue doesn't mean one has to say something that's false (i.e. claiming no one desires discussion on issues when others have already discussed and disagreement isn't the same as "no discussion" - as Red Fox has noted before).

If the US Border Patrol is not allowed to enforce the border in areas where it may cross through traditional Tohono O'Odham lands then the human traffickers and drug runners are going to know that.

Border Patrol doesn't require militarization and violating Tribal Sovereignty and arresting Native Americans - seeing that drug traffickers already come in through different means separate from Tribal lands and even Native Americans have noted that to be something ignored when it comes to racial discrimination - no different than the 1930s when legal Mexican-American citizens were deported simply because they looked "Mexican"/it was assumed "They're illegal." You don't do one wrong to address another ...

If native born Mexicans are allowed to violate the border simply because they do so in an area where the border crosses through traditional Tohono O'Odham lands then so can anyone. Are the tribe members going to patrol the border? Intercept the drug and human traffickers? Or will members of the proud and noble tribe take the drug runners and human traffickers money and look the other way?
Given human nature I lean toward the latter. But I am sure it is racist somehow to point that out.

As said before, when ignoring U.S. law (as it concerns Tribal Sovereignty) or assuming the stereotype to be true that Native Americans do not have investment in border control simply because they are against extensive militarization of the borders (which has often led to MORE problems, not less) or mistreatment of anyone undocumented and looking a certain way, one shows they really have no understanding on what Native Americans have already said.

Native Americans know how to police/supervise their own territory - and for those who are Native Americans born in their own territory (if on the Mexican side), they know how to differentiate between non-Native Americans and those who are. Regardless, of course, what matters is the fact that they are able to steward their own territory and have their rights respected as U.S. policy promised them when the territory was already established BEFORE the border was created. Given human nature to always find a reason to violate a law, restraint on the part of the U.S through avoiding militarization is wise. Tohono O'Odham have already spoken repeatedly on the issue of how to patrol their own lands and have been active on the issue - so one doesn't have to dismiss them or belittle them if not getting what they are about.

As some have already said (for excerpt):

Basically Obama's 2014 Immigration plan = border militarization = 21st century colonization.

So in light of Obama's latest immigration plan, I'm writing this to say "DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE". The plan is anti-Indigenous and anti-Migrant. Please look at the bigger picture (NAFTA). Please see the trade off. Please see the state's 2014 divide and conquer tactics.
Then ask yourself, what does an anti-colonial migrant/Indigenous response to this all look like? What does a world without NAFTA borders look like? What does collective liberation look like in O'odham lands? Lipan Apache Lands? Yoeme Lands? Kickapoo Lands? Indigenous homelands which are now in the so-called border region?

Where's the solidarity with Indigenous people facing militarization?

I recognize this is a complex issue. I do not want fellow Indigenous migrants coming from the southern hemisphere to be criminalized by racist laws. I do not want families to be separated, loved ones to be deported, or for them to ever have to walk the hot desert in the first place, just to have a "chance" in this neo-liberal, NAFTA world we are forced to slave in. But at the same time, I do not want my homeland to be a police state. I do not want our ceremonies to be disrupted. I do not want our jewed (land) destroyed by border security apparatus. I do not want our sky to be polluted by more Border Patrol helicopters, cameras placed atop rotating cranes as tall as skyscrapers, or drones. I do not want freedom of movement for O'odham to be granted only to the holders of bio-metric colonial passports. I do not want CANAMEX/NAFTA corridors scarring our lands with freeways (Loop 202/Interstate 11). Ultimately I do not want, in the words of my late grandfather, who saw the Berlin Wall with his own eyes while being stationed in Germany, "an O'odham Berlin Wall" built at the border.

For additional resources please check:
Comprehensive Immigration Reform is Anti-Immigrant & Anti-Indigenous | Indigenous Action Media

O'odham Solidarity Across Borders Collective: Movement Demands Autonomy: An O'odham Perspective on Border Controls and Immigration

O'odham Solidarity Across Borders Collective: Border Patrol Headquarters Occupation Protesters Found Not Guilty-Reaffirms Call to End Border Militarization

http://inaborderworld.org/2014/03/1...rdpress.com/2011/02/a-call-to-action-pdf1.pdf and https://survivalsolidarity.wordpress.com/

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Stop the CANAMEX Sun Corridor
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[Red Fox]

I don't think anyone studying the history of the U.S. fully will ever walk away without having something they didn't despise on it or wish was different.

Yes, especially since this country was founded and built upon racism (white supremacy, white privilege), slavery, and genocide. America has been racist since its inception. It certainly was not founded on liberty and justice for all. And as far as I am concerned, it is not worthy of me honoring or pledging my allegiance to.

 

[Gxg (G²)]

Invaluable information, in my humble opinion.

I think this is the kind of information (curriculum) that should be taught about the indigenous peoples of North America in public schools.

Thanks for the notice - as it is always interesting to see what happens when people avoiding an issue fail to actually own up to not wanting to deal with the issue or show inability to address it directly ( #132) - and people often don't seem to have the guts to simply say they don't care about Native Americans when it comes to avoiding information pertaining to them.

 

[ThinkForYourself]

Yes, especially since this country was founded and built upon racism (white supremacy, white privilege), slavery, and genocide. America has been racist since its inception. It certainly was not founded on liberty and justice for all.

It's like when I hear people yearning for the "good ol' days".

What days were those? The 50s when segregation ensured blacks and First Nations never had a chance to compete, or to share in any of the generated wealth? Or the 1800s back when slavery was legal?

The "good ol' days" were terrible for a significant percentage of Americans, and I for one would never want to revisit them.

 

[Red Fox]

It's like when I hear people yearning for the "good ol' days".

What days were those? The 50s when segregation ensured blacks and First Nations never had a chance to compete, or to share in any of the generated wealth? Or the 1800s back when slavery was legal?

The "good ol' days" were terrible for a significant percentage of Americans, and I for one would never want to revisit them.

I would have to say, "Yeah, and what "good ol' days" would that be for minorities in this country, particularly for NDNs and African Americans?"

 

[Patchworks]

It's called the Mexican American war. And Mexico lost.

This is the new tactic. Years ago Corona beer, which was pulled from American shelves for awhile once it was found out that Mexican workers were taking a pee in the brew sent to America, created a short lived ad campaign claiming the states Mexico lost in that war under the Mexican /Corona beer flag.

Illegal immigrants are illegally immigrating.
That's it. Period.

Try to illegally immigrate into Mexico, demand a vote to decide the official language of the place, attempt to raise the American flag at one of their schools so that it rests above the Mexican flag, and see how far you get.

Hint: Not very.
You'll either go to prison for the former, or you'll be beaten to death for the latter.

And look forward to May 5th California!
When a judge ruled last year that it is perfectly legal for government schools to discipline American's who wear American flag shirts on May 5th.
Why?
Because it would offend the Mexicans that are here celebrating Cinco de Mayo.

Think about that when you read this latest bit of ....stuff. Designed to make you feel bad you're an American and concede illegals have every right to invade us. Yeahhhhh.

 

[Red Fox]

ThinkForYourself, when I hear a non-Native person complaining of Mexico possibly coming to this country to invade it, I think of karma and what is said about bad karma, which I can't repeat here. If they are looking for sympathy, they won't get it from me.