INDIGENOUS OPPRESSION
Attacking Indigenous History
"…WHEREAS the University of Colorado is attempting to fire Ward Churchill based upon pretextual charges of research misconduct which have been “investigated” by a committee of non-Indigenous academics, none of whom are experts in American Indian Studies; and
WHEREAS the University of Colorado’s investigative committee has chosen to reinforce mainstream “truths” concerning the 1837 smallpox epidemic and other matters while accusing Ward Churchill of “disrespecting American Indian oral traditions” despite extensive testimony by Indigenous scholars supporting Professor Churchill’s historical interpretations; and. . ."
RESOLUTION FROM THE EMERGENCY SUMMIT OF SCHOLARS AND ACTIVISTS DEFENDING CRITICAL THINKING AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES, LAWRENCE, KS, SEPTEMBER 29-30, 2006:
The attacks on Ward Churchill’s scholarship are part a much broader movement to erase indigenous history. And the attacks on his identity are a part of a long-running campaign to discredit both the man and the historical truths he documents. It’s an old trick: attack the messenger, and maybe the message will get lost.
Indigenous resistance continues across the continent and throughout the world as peoples struggle to protect the earth and the future of coming generations. A few examples:
The Western Shoshone Defense Project continues to defend Newe Segobia lands against environmental devastation by mining companies and treaty violations, including nuclear weapons research, by the federal Bureau of Land Management.
Following in the tradition of Deskaheh, who went to the League of Nations on behalf of the Haudenosaunee, the peoples of the Six Nations continue to resist illegal encroachment by the Canadian Government, as reported on by Mohawk Nation News.
For more on the Canadian holocaust of Indigenous people visit Hidden from History.
Struggles continue on all fronts, including the legal, where individual Indian plaintiffs
in Cobell v. Kempthorne are attempting to recover more than
$100 billion of trust monies stolen by the federal government.
Noting more than 150 years of consistent treaty violations, the Republic of Lakotah
has announced its withdrawal from agreements with the U.S. and is planning
independent health, education, and energy generation projects.
Photos and documents essential to indigenous history can be found at the
American Indian Genocide Museum. And, always, the on-going struggle against the genocidal legacy of Columbus.
For more resource links, click here.
When the peoples indigenous to this continent we call Great Turtle Island were first place here by the Creator, we were given the laws necessary to govern our relationships with one another, with our nonhuman relatives, and with the land itself. . . . It is the fulfillment of these responsibilities that Euroamerican colonization has served to prevent and the right to such fulfillment that indigenous people have fought hardest to protect.
– Cree attorney Sharon H. Venne
