This is a continuation of yesterday’s post about partnering with nations. Parts of that article don’t pertain to my experiences, which have been with the Great Plains Action Society rather than with a Tribal nation. So, I’ll continue with the parts of the article relevant to both of those types of organizations.
My friend Paula Palmer shared this resource, Partnering with Native Nations in a Good Way Guide. It is often difficult to ascertain authentic, trusted sources, so I appreciate what she shares. https://nativegov.org/resources/partnering-with-native-nations-guide/
Today we officially launch our “Homeland Return” campaign, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to reestablish a landbase for the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe. The Tribe has a time-limited opportunity to purchase 232 acres located on a historic Nisenan Village site called Yulića near Nevada City.
We urgently need you – our allies, our community – to help us take the next BIG step and purchase Yulića, our original and next “new” homeland.
It is an extraordinary dream to reclaim one of our historic villages, revive our Tribal kinship and ceremony, provide much needed Elder housing, and renew our relationship with the land. This is the FIRST TIME the Nisenan will have a home in our own homelands since the illegal sale of the Rancheria in 1964.
Our wellbeing is inextricably tied to the land. Like fish and water, our people cannot successfully live — and cannot recover from the impacts of historical and generational trauma, poverty, and near erasure of identity and culture — without land for us to call home.
Our fundraising goal is $2.4 million and includes the purchase price, government mandated improvements, and an operating endowment. Phase 1 fundraising: $1.5 million must be raised by April 4, 2024.
This is the Tribe’s best opportunity to reestablish a homeland in *more than half a century*, and we need your help to make it happen
★ HOW TO HELP ★
Returning to this land is a dream we barely dare dream. It is a big ask and there is little time but we have hope because of the ever-growing understanding and allyship about Native Land Back and because of the healing promise of this vision for All of us.
To learn more about CHIRP and the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan, please visit us:
If you use Facebook or Instagram, please like, comment, and share there.
With hope and gratitude for your consideration, Alyssa Nelson & the Decolonizing Quakers Steering Committee
| Previous articles about the LANDBACK to the Nisenan Tribe |
|---|
| Conscious act of land return to Indigenous peoples |
| LANDBACK by Friends |
[What follows is more information related to my latest post, Conscious act of land return to Indigenous peoples.]
Yulića –the land also currently known as Woolman at Sierra Friends Center— is in the north-central Sierra Nevada of California, epicenter of the California Gold Rush and California Genocide.
It has most recently been home of the former John Woolman School, Woolman Semester, and Camp Woolman through the work of the College Park Friends Educational Association which purchased the land in 1962. The land is being sold to the Nisenan tribe through the Tribe’s non-profit organization, California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project (CHIRP).
From the Tribe’s nonprofit, CHIRP, on January 29, 2024:
“Today we officially launch our “Homeland Return” campaign, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to reestablish a landbase for the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe. The Tribe has a time-limited opportunity to purchase 232 acres located on a historic Nisenan Village site called Yulića near Nevada City [in California]…. Returning to this land is a dream we barely dare dream. It is a big ask and there is little time but we have hope because of the ever growing understanding and allyship about Native Land Back and because of the healing promise of this vision for All of us.”
The Decolonizing Quakers Steering Committee enthusiastically encourages all Friends, our meetings and Churches, our Friends organizations, and friends of Friends to participate in this historic opportunity to return Yulića: 232 acres of Nisenan homeland in what is now called California that has been stewarded by Friends as “Woolman” since 1962.
More info at the GoFundMe page that was set up and run by CHIRP
https://www.gofundme.com/f/homeland-fund-initiative
The immediate goal is to raise $1.5 million by April 4th, and a total of $2.4 million.
This total includes purchase price, government-mandated improvements, and an operating endowment.
Background: Members of the Decolonizing Quakers Steering Committee have been lending support to the process for the last 3 1/2 years and waiting for the moment to make good on our assertion that Quakers across the continent and beyond would be willing to step up and help raise the needed funds when the time came, this being one concrete act of reparations and rematriation. And that time is now!
Over the years, we heard again and again that people had profound experiences on the land, the land seemed to be sacred. Woolman programs were experienced as healing and transformational and part of creating that healing was the land itself. So, when it became apparent that we couldn’t keep going, the question became, “What is this moment asking of us? Is it possible to create healing from this moment of loss?”
We remembered that CHIRP had approached us in 2020 before the Jones fire about buying the land. (You may remember that in the summer of 2020 we had started having conversations about selling the land with Quakers and other potential “friendly buyers.”). As we sat with this idea and learned more about CHIRP and the Nisenan story we became convinced that CHIRP stewardship of the land we call Woolman would continue educational programming but more importantly it was a step toward the deep transformational healing that needs to be done for all of humanity. While Quakers may not have specifically harmed the Nisenan people, we are beneficiaries of a brutal history that nearly eliminated the First Peoples of this state. Seeking to ethically transition this land back to CHIRP is a small step on a long path needed for being in right relationship with each other. We believe that the land we call Woolman will continue to be sacred, healing and transformational under the stewardship of the descendants of the first people who lived and worked here.
The organizations involved received help from The Center for Ethical Land Transitions through the process to arrive at a purchase agreement.
This land transfer is supported by the Indigenous Concerns Subcommittee of Pacific Yearly Meeting and many f/Friends, alums, staff, volunteers, and board members.
While many would have liked to have seen the land freely returned instead of sold back, the Quaker organization holding title to the land is not in an immediate financial state to be able to do so and also make good on its responsibilities. The next best thing is that Friends Everywhere now have a chance to support this land transfer directly through contributions both to the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe’s nonprofit (CHIRP) and to Woolman at Sierra Friends Center.
LandBack by Friends: an opportunity to participate in the historic transferring of Yulića/”Woolman” land back to the Nisenan Tribe
Quaker Paula Palmer has been working on her ministry related to Friends and Indigenous Peoples for many years. You can find out about her work on the Friends Peace Teams site, Toward Right Relationship with Indigenous Peoples. https://friendspeaceteams.org/trr/
You can read her foundational article published by Friends Journal in 2016 here: Quaker Indian Boarding Schools, Facing our History and Ourselves. This discusses another area of concern related to Quaker relationships with Indigenous peoples.
I’m grateful I had the opportunity to get to know Paula when she came to the Midwest to talk about and lead workshops related to the forced assimilation of native children.
Yesterday I received this email from her.
Friends, I spoke about this at today’s QIBS meeting but want to pass the information on to all of you. The Sierra Friends Center property in the northern California mountains (home of the former Woolman School) is being sold to the Nisenan tribe, through their non-profit organization California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project (CHIRP). The sale is supported by the Indigenous Concerns subcommittee of Pacific Yearly Meeting and by many California Friends. However a letter by a Berkeley Friend criticizing this sale was published in Western Friend online. Please read the letter and the information on the Sierra Friends Center site and the announcement below. Please consider whether you would like to write a letter to Western Friend supporting the sale as a conscious act of land return to Indigenous peoples.
Paula Palmer
Dear Friends,
I am a graduate of the first class of John Woolman School in Nevada City, CA, and have held the campus and its environment close to my heart and soul for sixty-odd years.
I have just sent the following letter of dismay to all of the nonprofits that I mention in it, plus to many parts of many yearly meetings, plus to Western Friend.
This letter was written in response to the sale of the property that was once John Woolman School – currently 188 acres with 9 buildings – which is being sold to a nonprofit representing the Nisenan people, who are indigenous to the land in question. The Quaker board that represents Woolman in this sale has not been up front with the larger Quaker community about the extent of the property’s debts, nor about the fair market value of the property, which I speculate could be $4 million or more. The board has suggested that the property might be sold to the Nisenan for $1.3 million.
Here is my letter of dismay, which I have distributed widely:
This is the link to that letter: https://westernfriend.org/news/letter-of-dismay/
I find this detailed letter to be helpful in itemizing the objections some Quakers have about returning land to Indigenous peoples. I say “some” Quakers because I don’t know how many Friends object to this idea of land return.
I realize using the phrase “land return” implies the land was taken from Indigenous people. This is complicated by the concept of “property” and land ownership as viewed by most non-native people. It doesn’t mean taking back private property. It is about returning public lands to the stewardship of native peoples.
It is also about broken treaties, treaties that acknowledged native people’s rights to land.
Broken Treaties With Native American Tribes: Timeline. From 1778 to 1871, the United States signed some 368 treaties with various Indigenous people across the North American continent by Sarah Pruitt, History.com, July 12, 2023
Please consider whether you would like to write a letter to Western Friend supporting the sale as a conscious act of land return to Indigenous peoples.
Paula Palmer
As I was writing yesterday’s post, Palestine and LANDBACK, I realized it has been some time since I wrote about LANDBACK. And I’m reminded many Quakers are not well versed in this concept.
The LANDBACK focus on the plight of Palestinians shows how this concept is increasingly being used globally by Indigenous peoples to regain their land.
Going far beyond economics, LandBack sees land as tied to culture – regaining land is central to efforts by the colonized to assert their existence. It advocates decolonization, dismantling white supremacy, and reclaiming stewardship to save their land. Palestinian efforts to regain their land can become a spark to mobilize LandBack across the globe.
What does the Green Party of St. Louis think about the war against Palestine? And why do we call for LandBack?
Following are three examples of connections of Quakers to LANDBACK. At the end of this is an electronic book that goes into much more detail.
To this day we have not come to grips with fundamental injustices our country was built on, the cultural genocide and theft of land from Native Americans, the enslavement of African Americans and the legal justifications of bestowing rights and privileges on white land-owning men. The consequences of these injustices continue to plague our society today. And will continue to impact us until we do what is necessary to bring these injustices to light and find ways to heal these wounds.
Several Friends recently assisted Boulder Meeting Friend, Paula Palmer, to lead workshops and discussions as part of her ministry “toward right relationships with Native people.” Part of the tragedy of the theft of Native land is that some Native people don’t have the concept of land as property, belonging to a landowner. Rather they have a spiritual connection to Mother Earth, that the land is sacred and not something that can be claimed as property by anyone. Being forced to leave their land broke their spiritual bonds with the land.
Native people have asked us to begin work toward reconciliation and healing. The first step needed is truth telling, recognizing that injury or harm has taken place. One of the important parts of holding “right relationship” workshops is to determine which Native nations were on the land before white settlers arrived.
–Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) 2019
(Iowa Quaker) Marshall Massey on LANDBACK
As far as archæology can tell, no one actually lived on any of the land within fifty miles of where I, personally, live, until the 1870s, when whites came to use it for transshipment. It was too dry and barren and empty to support people who just lived *here*. There’s a part of the Bighorn River Canyon about 90 miles southeast of me, where very small numbers of people like the Anasazi lived in Anasazi-style cliff dwellings, at about the time of the Anasazi, perhaps 800 or 1200 years ago. They fished the streams, hunted the nearby hills, and probably cultivated small patches of ground. But that was long before horses arrived, and they had no real reason to come the long distance (it would have been a week or more on foot) from where they dwelt to where I live, except perhaps in curiosity about what the land looked like.
By the time the natives of my area had horses, my area, along with most of the broad stretch of land from the Bighorn to the Rocky Mountain Front — 400 miles and more miles across — was an area that the nearest tribes (Crow and Blackfeet) hunted buffalo and other prey on horseback in, but did not settle in, and did not regard as a possession. They rode across it, from their own edge to the other tribe’s edge, to raid the other tribe’s dwellings on the far side, to steal horses and count coup and work revenge. They spoke of this to the European-Americans: “This all belongs to the Great Spirit,” they said, “and the Great Spirit meant us to have the use of it, but not to own it.” If you want an exact quotation, here is Crowfoot, a chief among the Blackfeet, speaking some time around 1885: “We cannot sell the lives of men and animals; therefore we cannot sell this land. It was put here for us by the Great Spirit and we cannot sell it because it does not belong to us.”
We have a similar testimony in the Bible — would you believe it? Funny coincidence. “The earth is YHWH’s,” it says, “and the fullness thereof.” (YHWH is a Hebrew word which some modern scholars believe began as a representation of the great wind that fills all the sky, or the great breath that animates all beings: the great spirit.) You may know this passage: it appears in Deuteronomy 10:14 and Psalm 24:1, and is repeated in I Corinthians 10:26. Not that the Bible matters much to liberal activists any more, though; most of them would much, much rather get the same teaching from some other source, anywhere else but their own tradition. Nonetheless, this teaching in the biblical tradition is why the believers in the early Church held all things in common and committed all their resources to look after one another. How can anyone really own what God has put in place for all, especially in cases where someone else has an unmet need? Deuteronomy and Psalms represent wisdom teachings that date back three thousand years, and were I a betting man, I would bet the wisdom of non-possession goes back to the dawn of thought about such things — millions of years back, to when our ancestors and the ancestors of chimpanzees were one people.
I have begun to think that many modern Americans — including, unfortunately, many modern, Westernized native Americans, and at least equally unfortunately, also many modern Quakers — will never, never let themselves comprehend the idea of non-ownership. Their souls are too far shriveled. Surely the land must have been someone’s property, whenever there was anyone even remotely able to make a claim. But this was the testimony of the natives of that time, and of Friends as well. And I believe it is the truth. You might as well claim that somebody owns the sun.
–Marshall Massey
Bear Creek Friends Meeting
Bear Creek Friends (Quaker) meetinghouse is in the Iowa countryside. Many members have been involved in agriculture and care about protecting Mother Earth. A number of Friends have various relationships with Indigenous peoples. Some Friends have worked to protect water and to stop the construction of fossil fuel pipelines in the United States, such as the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.
This is a letter Bear Creek Meeting sent to the British Columbia Premier.
We are concerned about the tensions involving the Wet’suwet’en Peoples, who are working to protect their water and lands in British Columbia. Most recently they are working to prevent the construction of several pipelines through their territory. Such construction would do severe damage to the land, water, and living beings. Bear Creek Friends Meeting, of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) approved sending the following letter to British Columbia Premier, John Horgan.
John Horgan.
PO BOX 9041 STN PROV GOVT VICTORIA, BC V8W 9E1.
Email premier@gov.bc.ca
John Horgan,
We’re concerned that you are not honoring the tribal rights and unceded Wet’suwet’en territories and are threatening a raid instead.
We ask you to de-escalate the militarized police presence, meet with the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs, and hear their demands:
That the province cease construction of the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline project and suspend permits..
That the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and tribal rights to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) are respected by the state and RCMP.
That the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and associated security and policing services be withdrawn from Wet’suwet’en lands, in agreement with the most recent letter provided by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimiation’s (CERD) request.
That the provincial and federal government, RCMP and private industry employed by Coastal GasLink (CGL) respect Wet’suwet’en laws and governance system, and refrain from using any force to access tribal lands or remove people.
Bear Creek Monthly Meeting of Friends (Quakers)
19186 Bear Creek Road, Earlham, Iowa, 50072
Following is a case study to illustrate some of the work that Quakers have done related to LANDBACK. When you click on the image, an electronic book appears that you can page through.
WARNING: This video (on page 16) contains graphic images of an armed threat on the lives of land defenders Denzel Sutherland-Wilson (Gitxsan) and Anne Spice (Tlingit). It may be traumatic for many to see. But we feel strongly that it should be available to witness. Denzel, Anne, and all the land defenders are now safe. These events took place during the RCMP raid on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory on February 7, 2020. The video was filmed by Gitxsan land defender Denzel Sutherland-Wilson from atop this tower.
To protect all living-beings and sacred sites is a feminine act and in complete defiance to Christopher Columbus’ worldview, which is the narrative that we counter every time we celebrate Indigenous People’s Day instead of Columbus Day. –Sikowis Nobiss
It has become clear to some of us who are called Friends that the colonial capitalist economic system and white supremacy are contrary to the Spirit and we must find a better way. We conscientiously object to and resist capitalism and white supremacy.
Jeff Kisling
I am sometimes discouraged that so much work by Indigenous Peoples, so much that I have tried to do, rarely results in any progress toward justice. For White people, we must begin by de-colonizing ourselves.
The measure of a community is how the needs of its people are met. No one should go hungry, or without shelter or healthcare. Yet in this country known as the United States millions struggle to survive. The capitalist economic system creates hunger, houselessness, illness that is preventable, and despair. A system that requires money for goods and services denies basic needs to anyone who does not have money. Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) are disproportionately affected. Systemic racism. The capitalist system that supports the white materialistic lifestyle is built on stolen land and genocide of Indigenous peoples, and the labor of those who were enslaved in the past or are forced to live on poverty wages today.
Capitalism is revealed as an unjust, untenable system, when there is plenty of food in the grocery stores, but men, women and children are going hungry, living on the streets outside. White supremacy violently enforces the will of wealthy white people on the rest of us.
It has become clear to some of us who are called Friends that the colonial capitalist economic system and white supremacy are contrary to the Spirit and we must find a better way. We conscientiously object to and resist capitalism and white supremacy.
capitalism has violated the communities of marginalized folks. capitalism is about the value of people, property and the people who own property. those who have wealth and property control the decisions that are made. the government comes second to capitalism when it comes to power.
in the name of liberation, capitalism must be reversed and dismantled. meaning that capitalistic practices must be reprogrammed with mutual aid practices.
Des Moines Black Liberation Movement
How do we resist? We rebuild our communities in ways not based on money. Such communities thrive all over the world. Indigenous peoples have always lived this way. Generations of white people once did so in this country. Mutual Aid is a framework that can help us do this today.
The concept of Mutual Aid is simple to explain but can result in transformative change. Mutual Aid involves everyone coming together to find a solution for problems we all face. This is a radical departure from “us” helping “them”. Instead, we all work together to find and implement solutions. To work together means we must be physically present with each other. Mutual Aid cannot be done by committee or donations. We build Beloved communities as we get to know each other. Build solidarity. An important part of Mutual Aid is creating these networks of people who know and trust each other. When new challenges arise, these networks are in place, ready to meet them.
Another important part of Mutual Aid is the transformation of those involved. This means both those who are providing help and those receiving it.
With Mutual Aid, people learn to live in a community where there is no vertical hierarchy. A community where everyone has a voice. A model that results in enthusiastic participation. A model that makes the vertical hierarchy required for white supremacy impossible.
Commonly there are several Mutual Aid projects in a community. The initial projects usually relate to survival needs. One might be a food giveaway. Another helping those who need shelter. Many Mutual Aid groups often have a bail fund, to support those arrested for agitating for change. And accompany those arrested when they go to court.
The other component necessary to move away from colonial capitalism and white supremacy is LANDBACK or ReMatriate.
But the idea of “landback” — returning land to the stewardship of Indigenous peoples — has existed in different forms since colonial governments seized it in the first place. “Any time an Indigenous person or nation has pushed back against the oppressive state, they are exercising some form of landback,” says Nickita Longman, a community organizer from George Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada.
The movement goes beyond the transfer of deeds to include respecting Indigenous rights, preserving languages and traditions, and ensuring food sovereignty, housing, and clean air and water. Above all, it is a rallying cry for dismantling white supremacy and the harms of capitalism.
Returning the Land. Four Indigenous leaders share insights about the growing landback movement and what it means for the planet, by Claire Elise Thompson, Grist, February 25, 2020
“For Indigenous Peoples Day, I would like for folks to better understand and appreciate this movement which has been working its way into the dominant public narrative over the past few years. As a hashtag or sign at a protest, the term Land Back is straightforward. It is a demand that stolen land, sacred sites and sovereign stewardship be returned to whom it was stolen from: Indigenous peoples. It has become popular movement slang used in our ongoing efforts to fend off relentless theft and racial injustice, and a call for reparations.
Land Back is a helpful term but I prefer to use ReMatriate, as it is more inclusive of the many issues that have arisen from land theft, and better describes the Indigenous fight to defend Mother Earth. It is a call to reestablish Indigenous landscapes, bring back Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge and to give stolen power back to the feminine. In a world where unfettered patriarchal violence and greed has brought us to the precipice of a climate extinction, ReMatriation is the return of the matriarchy. This counterbalances the forces of toxic masculinity that, through Christian colonial-capitalist violence, are intent on holding all power and controlling all the life, land and resources on our Mother Earth.”
PERSPECTIVES: Why “ReMatriate” is a more inclusive term for returning land to Indigenous peoples by Sikowis Nobiss, reckon, Oct 3, 2023
It matters little what people say they believe when their actions are inconsistent with their words. Thus, we Friends may say there should not be hunger and poverty, but as long as Friends continue to collaborate in a system that leaves many without basic necessities and violently enforces white supremacy, our example will fail to speak to mankind.
Let our lives speak for our convictions. Let our lives show that we oppose the capitalist system and white supremacy, and the damages that result. We can engage in efforts, such as Mutual Aid, LANDBACK, and ReMatriate to build Beloved community. To reach out to our neighbors to join us.
We must begin by changing our own lives if we hope to make a real testimony for peace and justice.
I remember the moment when I woke up in my tent for the first time in the Oceti Sakowin camp north of the Standing Rock Reservation during the fight to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016. Everywhere I looked Indigenous people were reclaiming space and power. We all felt a deep need to steward the land, because we were tired of the harm that colonizers had inflicted upon us. It was the first time in my life that I truly felt the power of the Land Back movement.
PERSPECTIVES: Why “ReMatriate” is a more inclusive term for returning land to Indigenous peoples by Sikowis Nobiss, reckon, Oct 3, 2023
Thus begins another excellent article by my friend, Sikowis Nobiss.
The subheading of that article continues: “In a world where unfettered patriarchal violence and greed has brought us to the precipice of a climate extinction, ReMatriation is a call to reestablish Indigenous landscapes and give stolen power back to the feminine.”
“For Indigenous Peoples Day, I would like for folks to better understand and appreciate this movement which has been working its way into the dominant public narrative over the past few years. As a hashtag or sign at a protest, the term Land Back is straightforward. It is a demand that stolen land, sacred sites and sovereign stewardship be returned to whom it was stolen from: Indigenous peoples. It has become popular movement slang used in our ongoing efforts to fend off relentless theft and racial injustice, and a call for reparations.
Land Back is a helpful term but I prefer to use ReMatriate, as it is more inclusive of the many issues that have arisen from land theft, and better describes the Indigenous fight to defend Mother Earth. It is a call to reestablish Indigenous landscapes, bring back Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge and to give stolen power back to the feminine. In a world where unfettered patriarchal violence and greed has brought us to the precipice of a climate extinction, ReMatriation is the return of the matriarchy. This counterbalances the forces of toxic masculinity that, through Christian colonial-capitalist violence, are intent on holding all power and controlling all the life, land and resources on our Mother Earth.”
First, a definition: “Rematriation is a powerful word that Indigenous women of Turtle Island use to describe how they are restoring balance to the world…it means ‘Returning the Sacred to the Mother.”
The Indigenous concept of rematriation champions a return to our origins, to life and co-creation, and a focus on Mother Earth with the reclaiming of all kinds of things, such as ancestral remains, yes, but also spirituality, cultural practices, knowledge, resources, and seeds.
Rematriate by Dr. Jessica R. Metcalfe, Beyond Buckskin, Nov 12, 2021
Truthfully, there is just a blatant disregard for the health of the land, the water and the air we breathe. Where there used to be tallgrass prairie, oak savannah, and woodland there are now massive monocropped fields of corn and soy with ethanol plants, meatpacking plants, and Concentrated Animal Feed Operations dotting the landscape.
Yet I have found that returning the land to Indigenous peoples is exceedingly hard. I can raise funds to fight a pipeline or end the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives crisis, but it is almost impossible to raise funds as a non-profit to buy just one acre of land in Sioux City to start a Native urban garden, or for even a few acres near Des Moines so we can reclaim first foods and ReMatriate the prairie.
My friend Foxy Onefeather carried this sign about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (sometimes referred to at MMIW-Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) during our eight-day walk, the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March, from Des Moines to Fort Dodge in 2018. Sikowis helped organize the march.
I first heard Sikowis and Donnielle Wanatee speak at our Quaker Yearly Meeting in 2017, in a panel discussion about building bridges with Native peoples.
I have spoken to hundreds of folks about Land Back and ReMatriation. I have also spoken to congregations such as the Mennonites, the Quakers, Nuns and Nones, The Beloved Community, The United Church and Catholic Workers. In every one of these conversations I hear a cocktail of white guilt combined with a desire to be in proximity to Indigenous folks and our movements that ultimately just leads to more inaction.
These conversations always leave me feeling tokenized and angry. Despite the fact that giving the land back to Native stewards is the single most powerful act that white folks with generations of inherited wealth—which can be traced back to stolen land—can do to counter colonialism, none of these conversations have ever led to any change.
ReMatriation describes an entire movement that is not just intent on returning land, but making sure that Indigenous lifeways return so we can build a regenerative and compassionate world economy. While we will not ReMatriate the world in my lifetime, the term allows a new understanding. I consider this planet to be my mother and therefore she is a matriarch. I believe that by doing this work, I am following the path my ancestors put me on to keep my mother safe.
To protect all living-beings and sacred sites is a feminine act and in complete defiance to Christopher Columbus’ worldview, which is the narrative that we counter every time we celebrate Indigenous People’s Day instead of Columbus Day.
Sikowis Nobiss, MA is Nêhiyaw/Saulteaux of the George Gordon First Nation and the founder and Executive Director of Great Plains Action Society. When she imagines a strong political infrastructure, societies built on compassion, and a regenerative economy, she sees a focus on relationships and community. She believes we can get there through Indigenous ideologies and practices, which are the antitheses to Christian fundamentalism and colonial capitalism. Sikowis is mom, a writer, a speaker, an organizer and an earth defender fighting to decolonize the world. Learn more about Great Plains Action Society at greatplainsaction.org.
Sikowis references this article, which is an excellent discussion of what Land Back means: LAND BACK! What do we mean? by Ronald Gamblin, 4Rs NLC Coordinator, 4Rs Youth Movement. This quote is from that article:
“When you hear the words decolonization, white supremacy, patriarchy or even racism, do you feel something? Do you get a chill down your back, randomly start crossing your arms, get tense all over your body, or even just feel an urge to resist? Well good! When your body is cold it shivers, when it’s hungry it growls, when it’s in fear it shakes and when it’s sad it cries. Your body is meant to respond, whether that be physical or emotional, and it’s the same when deconstructing what you’ve been taught. It tells you that something is there and that you must go through it and find ways to process it.” – Kris Archie, Executive Director of the Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples
A few comments:
I don’t usually quote so much from other sources, as I did here. But this is Sikowis’ story, meant to better inform people about Land Back and ReMatriation.
Regarding my use of the word friend, that is not to call attention to myself. Rather that is to let the reader know that I know these people and firmly believe in what they stand for. I am blessed to know them as friends of mine.
We have some parallel paths. In Indianapolis I worked against the Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines. That included organizing and training people to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience.
Yesterday, I wrote an update related to my website, LANDBACK Friends, that includes a detailed document about the relationships between the Great Plains Action Society and Midwest Quakers. As the name implies, LANDBACK Friends is my writing, hoping to inform Quakers (Friends) about LANDBACK and now, ReMatriate.
These are some of the photos I’ve taken over the past few years related to Indigenous People’s Day and related events in Iowa and Indianapolis.
There is a native concept of considering what the effects of decisions made today will be on seven generations into the future.
The following quotation makes a two-way connection between us and future generations. Looking at each other over the generations.
The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time. They are kneeling with hands clasped that we might act with restraint, that we might leave room for the life that is destined to come. To protect what is wild is to protect what is gentle. Perhaps the wilderness we fear is the pause between our own heartbeats, the silent space that says we live only by grace. Wilderness lives by this same grace. Wild mercy is in our hands.
― Terry Tempest Williams, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place
Similarly, can we not look back at our ancestors? We are our ancestors’ future generation looking back.
I think about this a lot these days. As stories of the remains of native children on the grounds of the institutions of forced assimilation continue. Thousands of children never returned home.
I’ve been praying about what we are doing now and how much harm this is doing to future generations. My Spirit recoils from the likelihood there probably will not be a seventh, or sixth, or fifth generation because of the accelerating rate of environmental collapse.
What have we done?
What will we do?
As we work for change, we are admonished that we need to tell new stories. This morning I found this story Nico Santos tells, from the movie Dragon Rider.
“Wings”
Oh, I’ve been lost in the darkness
I heard your voice from afar
You weren’t my callin’
You weren’t my callin’
Whenever the night was starless
And I couldn’t see anymore
You showed me the mornin’
You showed me the mornin’
So I-I-I wanna let you know
When life has got you low
I’ll be your wings to fly
When there’s trouble on your mind
Whenever you’re ’bout to fall
There’s nothin’ I won’t try
‘Cause I’ll be your wings to fly
When you’re sufferin’ inside
Come hell or high water
Got you covered all my life
Let these wings take you
High, high
There’s nothin’ I won’t try
We built our own kinda fortress
Nothing can break us apart
Walls won’t be fallin’
These walls won’t be fallin’
I wouldn’t be if it wasn’t for you
I wouldn’t speak if it wasn’t the truth
You are my callin’
You are my callin’
So I-I-I wanna let you know
When life has got you low
I’ll be your wings to fly
When there’s trouble on your mind
Whenever you’re ’bout to fall
There’s nothin’ I won’t try
‘Cause I’ll be your wings to fly
When you’re sufferin’ inside
Come hell or high water
Got you covered all my life
Let these wings take you
High, high
There’s nothin’ I won’t try
You were my eyes, oh, when I couldn’t see
Were my voice, oh, when I couldn’t speak
Can I give it back to you?
Let me give it back to you
You were my legs, oh, when I couldn’t run
Were my heart when my own went numb
I’ll do what I have to do
Everything to get you through
I’ll be your wings to fly
When there’s trouble on your mind
Whenever you’re ’bout to fall
There’s nothin’ I won’t try
‘Cause I’ll be your wings to fly
When you’re sufferin’ inside
Come hell or high water
Got you covered all my life
Let these wings take you
High, high
There’s nothin’ I won’t try
Let these wings take you
High, high
There’s nothin’ I won’t try
Let these wings take you high
Nico Santos, WINGS from the movie Dragon Rider
I’ve been preparing for a discussion my Quaker meeting will have this weekend about Mutual Aid. At the end of this is a table of posts I’ve been writing to help me organize my thoughts. I am not satisfied with how this post has turned out, but these are notes, not a finished document.
Stepping back from the details, I’m reflecting on what I hope will happen as a result of this discussion. My hope is that we begin to use Mutual Aid to guide our work, both in our Quaker meeting and how we do our work in the community for peace and justice.
Mutual Aid requires a paradigm shift from a community of primarily White Quakers immersed in the capitalist economic system, white supremacy, settler colonialism and land theft, forced assimilation, foreign and domestic militarism, state sanctioned violence, punishment oriented criminal justice system, fossil fuel power, and whatever you call our political systems.
Wow!
The greatest obstacle will be to persuade Friends that we should stop participating in those systems. Although that is looking more attractive as these systems are rapidly collapsing now.
Capitalism is economic slavery. Capitalism has forced millions into poverty. Capitalism denies shelter, food, water, healthcare quality education, and the ability to build any wealth at all to millions of people.
There were White Quakers who were involved in the institution of slavery. Even those who did not claim ownership of enslaved men, women and children benefited economically. Continue to benefit.
I don’t think we have many years of civilization left. But I think a few years hence people will look back at this time in a similar way to how we look back on slavery.
Quakers also have their history of participation in the institutions of forced assimilation to atone for. This is a significant barrier between Friends and Indigenous peoples.
In December 2020, Ronnie James and I had the following email exchange:
| Ronnie | I don’t know what you can do. The church is the church’s past, which is its future. It continues to see my people as obstacles in its endless conquest. |
| Jeff | I was not feeling worthy of participating in Mutual Aid but thanks to you, I’ve signup up again for this weekend. |
| Ronnie | You’re a good relative Jeff. To be blunt, there is too much damage that the church profits from and needs to protect to have any future there. |
| Jeff | I am afraid you are right. |
| Ronnie | I wish you the best. I imagine its a hard struggle. |
Mutual aid work is not easy. It means forming lasting commitments to doing hard work collaborating with people even when we have conflict. And facing the heart-wrenching realities of the systems we live under. It is also deeply satisfying work that transforms us from being exasperated passive observers of the shitstorm we’re living in to inspired builders of the new world we desperately crave.
Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall
| Date | Blog posts related to Mutual Aid discussion |
|---|---|
| Mutual Aid in the Midwest | |
| 12/31/2021 | A Call for Quakers to Embrace Mutual Aid |
| 1/2/2022 | What I Don’t Know About Mutual Aid |
| 1/3/2022 | Notes to Myself |
| 1/4/2022 | Notes to Myself Continued |
| 1/5/2022 | Spirituality and Mutual Aid |
LANDBACK Friends 