Decolonizing the 99%
Indigenous leadership in occupy movements provides strong foundations
While Occupations are exploding in communities all over the country, indigenous people are both playing a critical role in the organizing efforts and also challenging underlying assumptions of what it means to “occupy.” In Denver, Colorado, indigenous people have played a critical role in organizing efforts. In the lead-up to Columbus Day, a holiday which many around the country have renamed “Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” indigenous leaders from the Colorado American Indian Movement brought a moving proposal to Occupy Denver, which was adopted through the group’s decision-making process, the General Assembly.
“As indigenous peoples, we welcome the awakening of those who are relatively new to our homeland,” the statement began. “We are thankful, and rejoice, for the emergence of a movement that is mindful of its place in the environment, that seeks economic and social justice, that strives for an end to oppression in all its forms, that
demands an adequate standard of food, employment, shelter and health care for all, and that calls for envisioning a new, respectful and honorable society.
“We have been waiting for 519 years for such a movement, ever since that fateful day in October, 1492 when a different worldview arrived—one of greed, hierarchy, destruction and genocide.” We recommend reading the full text at www.resistinc.org/occupyindigenous.
Under occupation for centuries
RESIST grantee Indian People’s Action in Montana brings a broad analysis to their organizing work, which focuses on building the voice of Native American people in Montana’s urban areas, with a special concentration in the border towns of the seven federally recognized tribes of Montana.
Michaelynn Hawk, Program Director of Indian People’s Action and a longtime community organizer, reminds us that the issues that Indian people have been dealing with for decades—unemployment, poverty, foreclosure, homelessness and food insecurity—are the ones that the Occupy campaigns are addressing now.
“As Colorado American Indian Movement (AIM) leaders said,” stated Michaelynn, “while indigenous people are supportive of the Occupy movement that is looking for social, racial and economic justice, we want to remind our allies that indigenous nations have been ‘under occupation’ for decades, if not centuries.”
In Montana, approximately 6% of the population is Native American. And 16% of Natives formerly in reservation boundaries have moved to urban areas. In Butte, there is a 15.8% poverty rate and 20% of school-age children live in poverty, which is higher than other counties and higher than national averages.
Michaelynn tells us that as the congressional Super Committee is looking to cut $917 billion dollars of federal spending over the next ten years, indigenous people in Montana know this means that they can expect even more job loss, less access to health care and even more people losing their homes.
Indian People’s Action is a part of the Occupy Butte movement.
“We know that if Indians don’t speak up, we will continue to suffer at the hands of the wealthy and the United States government,” says Michaelynn, “a government which acts like it helps us with their programs that in reality shove us deeper into poverty.”
The “un-%”
In late October, Ian Ki’laas Caplette put his own twist on the “I am the 99%” meme circulating around the internet since the beginning of Occupy Wall Street, challenging popular ideas about what occupation means and the homogeneity of the 99%.
On Facebook, Ian, who lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, posted a photo of himself, holding his typed story. The text he holds reads, “I am Indigenous. My peoples’ and my lands have been occupied illegally for decades by a government and society which tries to rob me of my identity and lands. They have attempted genocide on my people and culture in order to control, dominate, and exploit my lands for profit in order to fund their attempt to control, dominate, and exploit the human species.
“My people have a suicide rate 10 times the national average. My people make up 40% of the prisoners incarcerated and only 3% of the population in what is now called canada. Over 100 communities of my fellow Indigenous people in canada can’t drink the water that comes their taps
because it is toxic.
“I am subjected to racism and stereotyped as being lazy, stupid, inferior, ungrateful, hostile, drunk, don’t pay taxes, and I get everything given to me.
“My lands are being occupied by a public which largely remains ignorant or silent about the injustice I live with every moment of every day. I am silenced or minimized in
the “occupy” movement frequently as my issues of injustice transcend mere financial concerns.
“I am Indigenous and I am the ‘un-%.’”
Spreading fire
In October, organizers of the local Occupy movement in Albuquerque, New Mexico decided to alter the “Occupy” name out of respect for the area’s indigenous communities, which have been forcibly occupied by the United States for centuries. There, organizers are calling their gatherings “(Un)occupy Albuquerque” to connect economic justice and corporate accountability demands with the ongoing fight for indigenous land rights.
As in Albuquerque, there have been beautiful actions of solidarity around the country, but now is a critical time for us to move from questions of representation to ask, as president of the Applied Research Center Rinku Sen writes, “How can a racial analysis, and its consequent agenda, be woven into the fabric of the movement?”
We look forward to continuing to hear more stories of how RESIST grantees and supporters around the country are grappling with these issues in their own organizing work and in their local (Un)occupy movements.
