"Ally" Derailment Thread

[AnnOminous]

I have sent this email to the author of the article I shared, in the hope that she will both learn something and act to correct her words.  I also hope that my response to her is acceptable to folks in our First Nations community.  I ALWAYS welcome feedback: 

I am writing to you to humbly request you consider feedback to an article you wrote on the UMass, CT River Homepage.  In your article on the massacre at Great Falls, you use the term Amerindian.  I reluctantly (because of the language used) shared this article in a community run by and for our First Nations people, to address the ongoing genocide as it is perpetrated through cultural appropriation, in a variety of ways.  Having found it difficult to find information on the Great Falls site, I shared it to inform folks of the tragic event that took place there.  I was immediately and justifiably, called out on the share, for the language used in your article.   The term "Amerindian" is, at worst, extremely racist and at best, culturally insensitive.  I am writing to ask you to please change the language to reflect the respect and reverence owed to our First Nations people. 
I thank you for your consideration, and hope that you will edit your article~

While I appreciate your efforts, your use of the phrase "our First Nations people" is to me equally troubling. Think about it. When you say our, what are you really saying about sovereign nations? You are perpetuating colonization.

First Nations peoples belong to no one.

[pemibear]

Thank you, AnnOminous,
I greatly appreciate your feedback.  I will refrain from using that term.  In my case in comes from my spiritual beliefs that we are all related, so when I say "our" First Nations people, I truly mean our brothers and sisters who are Native.  But I completely agree with your assertion...my spiritual beliefs aside, the power of language can't be underestimated.  I will write her back and confess my own thoughtlessness, to be sure I don't perpetuate the use of the term "our".  Thank you for your thoughtful feedback. 
Blessings~

[pemibear]

I hate to talk about myself, but I guess I should at least explain why I am here.  I have been a lifelong ally of Indigenous rights.  I am in my 57th year of life and have raised two great kids, mostly on my own.  I live in the woods in rural VT, mostly off the land, in a tiny, humble, energy efficient home.  I live essentially disengaged from the monetary system, as much as possible, so as not to support the destruction to our blessed mother.  My grandparents (3-Sicilian and 1-Italian) were immigrants to Turtle Island.  My grandparents and my parents raised me with the understanding that we live on stolen land, that this land belongs to First Nations.  That it was stolen and is illegitimately occupied by the government of the US.  My father's best friend and horse ranch partner was Cherokee.  Our two families were very close and so I was taught a lot about the history of this beautiful and, from pre-settler days to genocide-past and present, on a very personal level.  Don shared with me his family stories not just through the oral tradition, but also with numerous family photo journals, dating back to the first days of film.  He also was the reason I survived domestic violence in my home, growing up, but that is a personal story which I keep silently sacred in my heart.   I do not pay taxes to the US government.  I pay my taxes to First Nations in a variety of ways...not to settler-run non-profits, but to individuals and organizations that my Native friends recommend to me.  I am a humble and committed ally.  I will and have put my life on the line to defend our blessed mother earth and the people of First Nations.  I believe that the New Dawn is upon us and soon, Great Spirit will return Turtle Island to her rightful heirs.  I hope that when the time comes, I will be alive to see it and a welcome ally.  That would be a blessings more precious than words can express.  With humility and gratitude, I hope that I can contribute to the work being done on this site.  If anyone feels that I should not be welcome, I will leave quietly and with food for thought and respect for that decision.  Blessings~

[pemibear]

Hi Pemibear and welcome, I know you didn't write the article. This is not the first time academics have used that term. I suspect they use it as to try to dehumanize Native Americans, especially when white people are commiting such cowardly and heinous acts such as the Turner Falls massacre.

When you refer to the victims in a clinical way it takes the revulsion and sickening sting out of it. In other words they are trying to white wash the heinous event. Much like the Turner Falls Pocumtuck festival. Who would have a festival at the site of a murder/massacre? White people playing Indian that's who. Disgusting!


Lim lemtsh,

Diana

Thank you, Diana!    It is absolutely disgusting.  This group is exploiting the atrocities that took place there, for their own ego-fortification.  They are clueless...and worse, they not even willing to engage in any discussion about their actions and how they are disrespecting those who perished and perpetuating and promoting cultural genocide.  It makes my heart ache.

[Ingeborg]

Pemibear, I'd like to address some issues, from Euro to Euro-American, which are essential to keep an eye on in an enviroment functioning on values upheld by ndn peoples, but which unfortunately are not part of the dominant culture and therefore often neglected by white persons joining this forum – and often, white people aren't even aware of the existence of such differences. Our upbringing certainly does not make us too sensitive to detect such differences which is quite a disadvantage we carry along until we decide to learn and adapt.

First of all, we view this as a working board. This means it is not for socialising, chit-chat etc. New Euro/Euro-American members will also be expected to do a lot of listening first, and of learning, then do some more listening and learning etc, before they speak out. When contributing to a discussion, we prefer posts phrased as concisely as possible – we don't talk just because nobody else seems to be dying to get a word in as they are so quiet. If and when there's nothing much to say, or some thinking to do, it will be pretty silent here. This silence is something white persons get uncomfortable with rather quickly, but it is a learning process to be able to accept silence and to realise it is no indication of bad feelings, uneasiness, let alone something directed against us as Euros, or whatever negative interpretation it may be given in our cultures.

Also, in an environment working on ndn values rather than white ones, it is considered impolite to continue talking on and on. It is also considered impolite to write longish posts with most sentences beginning with the word „I“.

All this does not mean white people are not welcome here – they are. I have been a member of this forum since 2006, and have contributed to the mailing list existing previously since 2004. It is just that here, for a change, white people aren't the ones to run the show and set the parameters – instead, we are expected to learn and adapt, and to look and ask for guidance what is appropriate and what isn't. This forum is an environment dealing with ndn issues, and therefore it is the ndn members who have got the power of definition and they are the ones to tell us how things should be done properly.

That being said, welcome to the board and I hope you'll find it an agreeable place.

[pemibear]

I've been trying to figure that out.  I don't think so, because someone else told me that Peter Coyote left that area.  I haven't been able to find photos (or much of anything else) in my searches, and even if I could, I'm not sure I'd recognize him at this point.  It's been years since I've seen him. 

This was the response I got to a letter sent to Nolumbeka, regarding Lauril. 

"I appreciate your concern but we are not claiming to be any more than a Native American advocacy group and some of us, Joe, Howard, and David, in particular,  are working directly with the tribes and are considered trusted allies.  Preservation and education are huge undertakings and this is a critical time in the history of humanity. We should be working together, not trying to tear each other apart. I don't understand the resentment those articles proclaim. Thanks for the heads up.

Loril has brought so much to our events over the years. I cannot confirm or deny her heritage or your claims. All I can say is that we respect her and the work she does very much".

These are the articles that were shared:
https://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com/2013/07/26/klee-benally-on-decolonization/

http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/aragorn-interview-with-klee-benally

and this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNEhNTtljOo

No understanding of the implications of the word "advocate" vs ally (indicating no understanding of what it means to be an ally-as a member of the dominant culture) and no clue about how false claims by people in the organization and supporting frauds in their public events, makes them accomplices to genocide. 

What do you do when people really just don't get it...no matter how much information is shared with them?

[pemibear]

Thank you for your thoughtful response Ingeborg, and for your welcome.  Your words are understood.  I've been educated as an ally and doing this work for 50 years, literally since I was a kid, so your words ring familiar, important and true.  We can never learn enough about how to be a true ally...having said that, I am always open to and appreciative of feedback.  There is no room for defensiveness when one is a member of the dominant culture.  Hopefully, you will never see that in my posts, but if you do, please call me out on it, and on anything else you see as less than thoughtful.  As a Sicilian/Italian Turtle Islander, I am an enthusiastic talker-it's just a cultural thing.  My Native friends prove to be much more tolerant of it than my Anglo-Saxon friends.   I do, however, work very hard to keep that in check and will continue to do so.  I'm not here to socialize.  This is serious work.  It's hard to avoid the "I" word in an introduction, since I am introducing myself, and  that does make me uncomfortable, but felt that folks should have an idea of who I am and why I'm here, is all.  Introductions are always a challenge in that regard.  This ally will keep your words in the forefront of her mind as she moves forward.    With gratitude~

many blessings,

[Autumn]

Pemibear, your Unsettling America link above has been mentioned several times on this site.

Archer, a non-native, is continuing to misreprent hirself as an Indigenous Woman. Archer is specifically fooling non-Natives in environmental movements that s/he can speak for the Lakota, or is somehow an authority on decolonization and solidarity. S/he has a few new websites:

http://awakeningthehorse.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/awakeningthehorse
http://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com/

On the last site in particular s/he has united with other appropriators and colonizers of Indigenous space, largely young white people from the environmental movements that romanticize Indigenous peoples and prefer to hear about Indigenous issues from other white people. Especially if they can pretend that white person is actually Indigenous. Archer has actually fooled some of these nons that s/he is NDN. One of the ways s/he does this is by attacking other people for appropriation, while hir whole career is based on stealing from NDNs. It has reached comical proportions.

http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=2278.msg40115#msg40115

[Defend the Sacred]

Also, Waziyatawin is no longer associated with Deep Green Resistance or Derrick Jensen.

[Smart Mule]

Waz separated from DGR because of their colonial attitude. Derrik Jensen is a self- admitted racist.  In his book The Culture of Make Believe he states on page 63 -

" I am in this same river. I can't much help it. I admit it: I'm racist. The other night I saw a group (or maybe a pack?) or white teenagers standing in a vacant lot, clustered around a 4x4, and I crossed the street to avoid them; had they been black, I probably would have taken another street entirely. And I'm misogynistic. I admit that, too. I'm a shitty cook, and a worse house cleaner, probably in great measure because I've internalized the notion that these are woman's work. Of course, I never admit that's why I don't do them: I always say I just don't much enjoy those activities (which is true enough; and it's true enough also that many women don't enjoy them either), and in any case, I've got better things to do, like write books and teach classes where I feel morally superior to pimps. And naturally I value money over life. Why else would I own a computer with a hard drive put together in Thailand by women dying of job-induced cancer? Why else would I own shirts made in a sweatshop in Bangladesh, and shoes put together in Mexico? The truth is that, although many of my best friends are people of color (as the cliche goes), and other of my best friends are women, I am part of this river: I benefit from the exploitation of others, and I do not much want to sacrifice this privilege. I am, after all, civilized, and have gained a taste for "comforts and elegancies" which can be gained only through the coercion of slavery. The truth is that like most others who benefit from this deep and broad river, I would probably rather die (and maybe even kill, or better, have someone kill for me) than trade places with the men, women, and children who made my computer, my shirt, my shoes."

[RedRightHand]

Being an ally is not something you proclaim.

It's not something you proclaim about yourself. If members of the oppressed culture in question want to claim someone as an ally, it's their call. Self-proclaimed allies cause some of the most harm in NDN Country.

Anyone who makes it all about themselves, about their performance for Indigenous eyes, does more harm than good.

[AClockworkWhite]

I second what RRH just said.

[Epiphany]

 

What do you do when people really just don't get it...no matter how much information is shared with them?

We persist, knowing what is posted here can help others who are still able to question, who understand that critical thinking and consumer education are valuable pursuits.

[pemibear]

I am terribly sorry.  I have been told that I am an ally by Native activists, comrades and friends with whom I stood beside in social justice and environmental struggles.  I take my education as an ally, by those Native comrades, very seriously.  That education has come in the formal (trainings for activists) as well as informal forms (being justifiably knocked up-side the head by friends).  If you knew me and knew my history, and my circle of non-cyber friends, associates and comrades in the Native community, you would know that.  But I'm not going there.  Suffice to say that I agree with you and I will not proclaim myself an ally in a community of people to whom I have not proven myself.  I am truly sorry and humbled.
With gratitude~

[pemibear]

Thank you everyone.  I am so grateful for all your contributions.  It's good to know that Waz has separated from DGR and DJ, as well.  I was unaware of that.  I will explore that further with her, as I am working on a project on which she has offered  to serve as editor,  A Handbook for Settlers, Assimilation vs Appropriation, the Razors Edge.   All proceeds of course, will go to First Nations.  It's a slow, daunting, depressing, discouraging task, but with patience and time and the support of good friends and teachers, I hope it is completed before I pass over. 
With gratitude~