As an African from Togo I’ve always been curious why do indigenous groups in the Americas “not so organised” as other groups? For example Palestinians, Kurds, Amazigh have their own flag, are armed etc, but most people don’t even know the the names of indigenous groups in America, is there no desire for reclaiming the land or is more difficult for you than for Palestinians or Kurds, thanks
we do have our own flags, we have at least 172. many are armed, and we have recent histories of armed occupations and resistances. massive protest movements been in the news within my lifetime, dapl was a huge deal
firstly its a lot that most people are racist and do not care. we shout, they dont listen. many nations names are known (everyone knows cherokee, lakota, navajo, etc) , its just that no one cares to name them when asked. they dont see us as people no matter what we do
the reason for not being as "organised" is a few reasons, imo
first: we are hundreds of different nations. its hard to get one nation to agree on something, much less hundreds of nations. many of which have personal histories of war with other native nations. our own personal frictions with other native nations still stand to a degree even when we are all oppressed. many nations will try to step on others to get a leg up, especially if their nation has a history of tension with the group theyre stepping on. like is happening with the poarch band rn in hickory ground (though the legitimacy of their band is in debate)
second: weve lived through centuries of colonial cruelty, large swathes of which concentrated on breaking up all alliance and family ties we have to each other and making united resistance more difficult. assimilation has had mixed success, but it has had success, and thats also another new source of tension between nations and between the nations and their own people
third: we have organized very explicitly, especially with AIM. it didnt get us a lot. its hard to unite and fight back again after we tried so thoroughly and got fuck all for it with the ending of the civil rights movement in the usa
i think the reason it comes off as us not organizing is that people dont pay attention, dont care, dont report about it, and that we are seen by reporting outlets and the rest of the world as being subsumed by the american government
we are american citizens, our sovereignty is complicated and on a very tight leash and is constantly in a push and pull. many are assimilated, including some nations themselves with their governments and policies and philosophies, so we're not really separated out in a direct way. there is not segregation for native americans, because they wanted us to "interbreed and die out" aka assimilate. they moved on from the reservation "box them in" style of colonialism ages ago and theyve pushed much more into assimilation and it has had its effects good and bad
the desire to reclaim the land itself is mixed, bc of the assimilation. but many of us want it very deeply, and are doing what we can to make it happen
i dont think its more difficult than other peoples struggles against colonialism, i think its just different. each of us has our own histories in colonial struggles that makes our relationship, our resistance, and our current status unique. and in that way, native americans have a barrier to being understood bc our relationship has put us in a state of quantum contradictory sovereignty, and a lot of nations and people disagree on what we want and what to do
romaincrisis
amandla
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