Caught in a trap

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving. The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.
Albert Einstein

I don’t know how many times I’ve read this quote. I would think, that sounds good, and then move on. That’s the very thing I am asking you to not do. We hear so many people talking about so many things, so many crises, we end up tuning them out. Basically give up. Continue living as best we can. Don’t change ourselves or the world.

Please don’t just move on.

We cannot afford not to change. We will not survive if we do not change now.

We are witnessing the collapse of so many systems. Our environment, political and economic systems, social safety nets, healthcare and education. Many are dealing with broken families, mental and physical health problems, addiction, not finding a faith community or spiritual support.

Here’s the thing: These reflections — these emergencies — are all connected. The colonial mindset that claimed a God-given right to steal children, land and resources was the same logic that built an economy based on limitless extraction and consumption, creating the climate catastrophe.
It’s urgent that we see these connections clearly. Because we need transformative change in this country, and we need to get to work on it immediately.
Here’s how it might start: For more than 150 years, settlers have taken the riches of this stolen land and turned them into money. In the 21st century, we simply can no longer afford that 19th-century thinking. We need to build a new economy in a hurry.
That means we need a fundamental change in the values that govern our society.
Fires, graves and reflections on a new story for Canada By Avi Lewis, Canada’s National Observer, July 9th 2021

https://twitter.com/quakers_seekers/status/1413492040780984321?s=20

I know so many well intentioned people. And my heart breaks every time I fail to get them to understand they are caught in a trap. As long as they think and work in the context of current systems, nothing new can happen. Remaining in the systems perpetuates those systems.

This is a diagram I’ve been working on to conceptualize current systems and alternatives. We have to reject capitalism, and move to Mutual Aid, LANDBACK, abolition of police and prisons, and renewable energy now. These things are discussed in detail on the new website, LANDBack Friends. https://landbackfriends.com/

Change is difficult, scary. But I imagine you find the situation we are in now frightening. So many people have lost their idealism. Do you remember how that felt? To be searching for who you are? Believe you could change the world?

This is the time to begin again to search for who you are. Then you will change the world.

Iowa Prairie Conference

My friend Sikowis (Christine Nobiss) will be speaking at this virtual 2021Iowa Prairie Conference July 31st. She will be speaking at 12:10 pm
End-Stage Iowa: Big-Ag’s Sacrifice Zone and Indigenous Resistance.

Here is the link to the registration page: Tickets for Iowa Prairie Conference in Des Moines from MIDWESTIX

The Iowa Prairie Conference is a bi-annual conference held on odd years throughout the state of Iowa. The conference has been ongoing for over twenty years and past hosts include the University of Northern Iowa, Luther College, Central College, Iowa Lakes Community College and more. Due to continued cautions with the Coronavirus the Iowa Prairie Conference will be very different this year. Although we are not requiring a fee to register, we are allowing free will donations. Our suggested amount is $10.00, but feel free to donate whatever amount is best for you. The donations collected will go towards ensuring the Iowa Prairie Conference continues in 2023 and beyond! Thank you!

On July 31st we will have an afternoon of presentations via Zoom. The agenda for the day is below.

12:00 – 12:05 Welcome, Sarah Nizzi

12:10 – 1:05 End-Stage Iowa: Big-Ag’s Sacrifice Zone and Indigenous Resistance, Sikowis (Christine Nobiss)

1:05 – 2:00 Conservation Ain’t Gonna Work If No One Cares But Us, Chris Helzer

2:00 – 2:10 Break

2:10 – 2:35 The Status of Remnant Prairie Dependent Butterflies in Iowa’s Most Intact Prairie Landscape, the Loess Hills Ecoregion, Stephanie Shepherd

2:35 – 3:00 Connecting to Our Natural Heritage Through the Lens of Public Art, Reinaldo D. Correa 

3:00 – 3:05 Break

3:05 – 4:00 Virtual Social Time on Zoom

4:00 – 5:00 Keynote Address: Recollections and Reflections of a Half Century of Prairie Activities in Iowa, Dr. Daryl Smith

5:00 Closing Remarks, Michelle Biodrowski

For detailed information on presentations and our guest speakers click the link here https://www.iowaprairienetwork.org/prairie-conference-speaker-summaries

If you have any questions or concerns, please check out the Frequently Asked Questions page at https://www.iowaprairienetwork.org/prairie-conference-faqs

Here is the link to the registration page: Tickets for Iowa Prairie Conference in Des Moines from MIDWESTIX

Tensions between Native peoples and Christian religions

There is growing sorrow and anger in Indigenous communities now. Related to the awful and expanding discoveries of the remains of children, thousands of them, found on the grounds of former Native residential schools.

A good friend told me he is trying to not let rage get in the way of his mourning. I know his son, and can’t imagine the conversations they might have had about this news.

It is so traumatic to imagine the terror of the children, who had to know about at least some of these deaths at their school. To have been abused in so many ways. Punished if they spoke their language. Not even be allowed their practices that might give comfort. Alone, isolated from their families. Knowing they could die themselves.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced Tuesday that she is launching the Federal Indian Boarding School Truth Initiative, a first-of-its-kind comprehensive review of the “devastating history” of the U.S. government’s policy of forcing Native American children into boarding schools for assimilation into white culture.
Deb Haaland Launches Review of ‘Devastating’ Native American Boarding Schools. The Interior Department probe will identify Indigenous children who died at schools the U.S. government forced them into for assimilation into white culture By Jennifer Bendery, HuffPost, June 22, 2021

Quakers were involved in some of these schools. Not to say they mistreated the children. But the concept of trying to assimilate Native children into white culture is by definition cultural genocide.

What is our accountability today?

From our twenty-first-century vantage point, we know (or can learn) how Native people suffered and continue to suffer the consequences of actions that Friends committed 150 ago with the best of intentions. Can we hold those good intentions tenderly in one hand, and in the other hold the anguish, fear, loss, alienation, and despair borne by generations of Native Americans?
Native organizations are not asking us to judge our Quaker ancestors. They are asking, “Who are Friends today? Knowing what we know now, will Quakers join us in honest dialogue? Will they acknowledge the harm that was done? Will they seek ways to contribute toward healing processes that are desperately needed in Native communities?” These are my questions, too.
Quaker Indian Boarding Schools. Facing Our History and Ourselves By Paula Palmer, Friends Journal, October 1, 2016

I belong to the spiritual communities of Quakers and of my Native friends. There is great tension between these communities. The article below, “why we’re burning Bibles” describes a Native view of Christian religions. This was written by the Great Plains Action Society, where I have many friends. I am sure some Friends will object to these ideas. But we don’t have the right to pass judgement.

This is a confusing time for me. I’ve been learning and telling others about the Native boarding schools for years. I have spoken about this and apologized to each of my Native friends for the Quaker involvement in the residential schools.

Below is an Epistle to Friends Regarding Community, Mutual Aid and LANDBACK in which I write more about these things. My Native friends tell me the best way I can help them is by teaching others about the concepts of LANDBACK. So I’ve recently created the website LANDBACK Friends. There is a lot of information about the Native boarding schools there.

When I began to learn of the verification of the remains of Native children at those schools, I wondered how that might affect how Native peoples view Quakers, view me now. I am touched by them telling me I am still welcome to work with them.

Native organizations are not asking us to judge our Quaker ancestors. They are asking, “Who are Friends today? Knowing what we know now, will Quakers join us in honest dialogue? Will they acknowledge the harm that was done? Will they seek ways to contribute toward healing processes that are desperately needed in Native communities?”
Paula Palmer

Why We’re Burning Bibles

Stand with First Nations Peoples on Cancel KKKanada Day and burn your bibles for the rape, torture, and murder of Indigenous children. Use #bibleburner and post your video or pic online or on the event page.

In the wake of over 1300 unmarked/mass graves that have recently been uncovered on reservations such as the Cowessess and Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nations in Canada, we demand truth, justice, and healing from genocidal policy set forth by the US and Canada that allowed Christian clergy to neglect, rape, torture, and murder Indigenous children. We also demand redress and reparations to the fullest extent as we know that there are thousands of Indigenous children also buried here in the US—and the search hasn’t even begun.

For now, we will start by expelling the codified christian text that is the blueprint behind our genocide. The Christian bible has proven to be the deadliest of all human-made weapons. It has been the permission slip for all of the atrocities following colonization. The cost of building the global Christian Empire is an ongoing and immeasurable loss that we can never truly have a full accounting for, as the newest discovered mass graves of our relatives painfully remind us today.

As we mourn the loss of our loved ones and relatives, murdered and discarded after being violently stolen from us, we don’t forget the who or the why. For over 100 years the churches have used these schools to destroy us, to “kill the indian to save the man”.

This has never been a secret.

This is why we reject the entire premise of the Christian faith and its supportive texts. The Bible remains a supportive tool to persecute Indigenous people. Rejecting this tool is vital to the continuation of supporting Indigenous people and our livelihood. We ask our supporters to join us in burning the Bible as an act of solidarity and to send a message to Christian faiths that we will no longer allow this tool to exist in our spaces.

Why We’re Burning Bibles

#everychildmatters
#bibleburner

An Epistle to Friends Regarding Community, Mutual Aid and LANDBACK

Dear Friends,

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

Mutual Aid

How do we resist? We rebuild our communities in ways not based upon 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.

LANDBACK

The other component necessary to move away from colonial capitalism and white supremacy is LANDBACK.

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

What will Friends do?

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 and LANDBACK, 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.

We remain, in love of the Spirit, your Friends and sisters and brothers.

The quiet became unbearable

The more I learn about the assimilation institutions in this country and the land called Canada, the deeper I fall into despair. It is so difficult to think of how these things affect my Native friends and their families. To have witnessed some of their anger and sorrow.

I was going to say but this is not about me in order to put the focus where I thought it should be, on the unimaginable suffering of my friends. But then the Spirit told me this is definitely about me and other white people. We must recon with the past before we can be part of any healing. If healing is even possible.

So much is being written now about the horrors of the Native residential schools it’s overwhelming. I have trouble figuring out what I should write about all of this. One thing I am compelled to do is call as much attention to these things as I can.

I believe in the power of stories. When I saw the following story in the article, With the help of the Mounties, the priests piled the children into boats and floated away, I felt it’s power.

Warning: The information and material here may trigger unpleasant feelings or thoughts of past abuse. Please contact the 24-hour Residential School Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419 if you require emotional support.

An elder told me a story. It goes like this.

It was long ago and late summer in a remote northern village. A Cree village. Everyone still lived in tents. One day priests visited. They announced that the next time they came, they would take the children. It would be for the best, they explained. The children would go to school. The priests left, and some short time later — maybe a week, maybe two — they returned. This time, the Mounties came with them. The Mounties wore red coats, black boots and each Mountie wore a belt with a gun. The priests did as they’d promised. With the help of the Mounties, they piled the children into boats and floated away.
That evening, the villagers made their fires, cooked supper and ate in silence.
Their world was silent.
No children played or laughed.
No children quarrelled or cried.
The quiet became unbearable.
The sun had not yet set, but they crept into their tents anyway.
Soon a sob broke the silence. It was a woman crying.
Then another sob.
Then another woman.
The sun sank orange, the yellow moon rose, and all night long the only sound heard in the village was mothers crying.
With the help of the Mounties, the priests piled the children into boats and floated away By Karyn Pugliese aka Pabàmàdiz, Canada’s National Observer, June 30th 2021

“The schools were never meant to do us any good,” the elder told me. “They knew. They knew that when you break the hearts of our women, you break the strength of our nations.”

Perhaps we should stop calling these institutions schools. It’s misleading. Schools are built to teach. There may have been individual teachers with good intentions. There may have been individuals attending these institutions who benefitted. But any benefit was a side-effect. The system was designed to erase us.

Understanding the legacy of residential institutions is important, not just for the harm that policy caused. But because every policy, every program, every law aimed at Indigenous people over the same hundred-year period was shaped by the same attitudes of racial superiority. Poor water, shoddy housing, underfunded schools, child welfare. Unresolved land claims that led to standoffs with police. Residential schools were not an exception in government policy. They were the rule.

Reconciliation is not about guilt. Few people living today had the knowledge or power to stop what was happening. You didn’t do anything wrong. All of us are trapped and living with the same history. The question is, what will we do about it?

If you didn’t like what you saw when you stepped through the looking glass, you can change it.

This opportunity is precious, fragile, and it almost didn’t happen.

I worry about what will happen if it fails.

With the help of the Mounties, the priests piled the children into boats and floated away By Karyn Pugliese aka Pabàmàdiz, Canada’s National Observer, June 30th 2021

Four Indigenous Climbers Arrested “LANDBACK”

From NDN’s Landback campaign. NDN Collective is an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building Indigenous power. Through organizing, activism, philanthropy, grantmaking, capacity-building, and narrative change, we are creating sustainable solutions on Indigenous terms.

Four Indigenous Climbers Arrested After Mounting “LANDBACK” Flag From 100 Ft Dakota Mills Grain Silo

Action Calls Out Hypocrisy of July 4th, Uplifts Demand for Reparations and Justice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JULY 4, 2021

Rapid City, SD — Today, Indigenous climbers representing 10 different Nations from Turtle Island and Palestine were arrested for confronting the legacy of white supremacy that is commemorated every 4th of July. Climbers ascended the 100-ft Dakota Mills Grain silo situated on Lakota lands in downtown Rapid City and mounted an upside down American flag with “LANDBACK” written prominently across it.

This flag represents the murders of those children they secretly buried them without markers and thought they could get away with it. The number on the banner that is orange (1505), it represents the number of relatives that we have found so far.

NDN Collective’s LANDBACK Campaign team released the following statement:

“An upside-down flag represents being in distress and is a prominent symbol across Indian Country; we have just celebrated the Battle of Little Bighorn, and at that battle the three sister nations of the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho defeated General Custer and the 7th Calvary. In that battle, they claimed the American flag from the defeated US army. That flag belongs to us. Today, we refute the dominant narrative that the American flag represents a legacy of freedom, democracy, and equality.

“This day is nothing to celebrate for the Indigenous Peoples here, or anywhere else the United States has consumed through imperialism. LANDBACK is not a metaphor; it is our present reality and our future struggle. There is no repair or justice until Indigenous Peoples reclaim our land. This place, the Black Hills, represents the entire cycle of life and deserves nothing less than Return.

“Today, we stand with our people, who are in distress, to speak the truth of what the 4th of July means in Mniluzahan, or so-called ‘Rapid City.’ The self-declared “City of Presidents” honors the legacy of past United States leadership on one hand, while brutalizing the original peoples and caretakers of the land on the other.

“Last year, on July 3rd, we saw Indigenous peoples brutalized and arrested by police atop our own sacred site and treaty lands, the Black Hills. 21 people were arrested, including NDN Collective’s President and CEO, Nick Tilsen, who is Oglala Lakota. Tilsen is still fighting the extreme charges filed against him over a year ago, having recently filed a motion to dismiss the charges based on prosecutorial misconduct and constitutional rights violations.

NDBACK Campaign mounted an upside down flag in downtown Rapid City with LANDBACK painted across– a sign of distress and a symbol of resistance to the so-called Fourth of July and the American settler colonial project. One of those climbers is Martin Aranaydo (Tohono O’odham)

“Return Indigenous Lands to Indigenous hands. That’s it. Until we get it we ain’t gonna stop. Being up here today, looking down at this inverted flag, I’m reminded of what this flag means to me. This flag represents the military. They murdered our ancestors and tried to commit genocide against us. They did not succeed.

“This flag represents the people that took children away from their parents– babies away from their parents. Forced them into boarding schools. This flag represents a country that abused those children, beat them, assaulted them sexually, mentally, physically. This flag represents the many horrors that our grandparents, and great grandparents had to endure. This flag represents the murders of those children they secretly buried them without markers and thought they could get away with it. The number on the banner that is orange (1505), it represents the number of relatives that we have found so far. We hope we will find more relatives who can finally lay to rest peacefully.” – Martin Aranaydo, Climber.

#LANDBACK #4thofYouLie

Today, a team of climbers with NDN’s LANDBACK Campaign did a banner drop in downtown Rapid City of an upside-side American flag with LANDBACK painted across– a sign of distress and a symbol of resistance to the so-called Fourth of July and the American settler colonial project. One of those climbers is Krystal Two Bulls, LANDBACK Campaign Director. “We are calling out all of the false narratives that exist on this day, July 4th. Calling attention to the white supremacy that exists in the Rapid City Police Department, through the systems that exist here in this city, but also worldwide. We want to make sure that we are calling out that all of this land is Indigenous Land and that we are up here today to stand and to continue to demand LANDBACK. We have tried many other ways to negotiate, have conversation, and to do all of these things to reclaim our land. It’s a fight for justice, a fight for liberation, a fight for all things good. We’ve only ever been met with violence, attacks, brutality, and criminalization. So we’re here to demand and say that we’re not stopping until we get our land back. And we will not stop. And we’re going to continue to fight to protect our lands, to protect everything that we hold sacred.” – Krystal Two Bulls, Director of LANDBACK Campaign

Follow NDN’s livestream for continued coverage: https://www.facebook.com/ndncol/videos/397600628339257/#LANDBACK #4thofYouLie

May be an image of 2 people, people standing and outdoors

National holidays, Indigenous leadership and buried children

I’ve been writing about the event that was going to be held at the Iowa State Capitol “stop whitewashing genocide and slavery”. I urged people I know to attend. Support the BIPOC struggle in Iowa – LANDBACK Friends Organizers asked for a show of support. I was disappointed to see only a few people I know.

The same calls to remove monuments to white supremacy was held last year. Monuments to White Supremacy July 4, 2020 – LANDBACK Friends

Canada Day, July 1, and July 4 in the land called the United States, celebrate one view of the history of these two countries. Celebrations of white colonialism and the reign of capitalism. My Native friends refer to these as KKKCanada Day or Cancel Canada Day, and “The 4th of he lies”.

The remains of hundreds of children on the grounds of residential schools in Canada was a focus of the event here in Des Moines, and in Canada described below. The number will be in the thousands.

In Canada, monuments have been vandalized or destroyed and churches defaced. Four burned to the ground.

The search for remains in the United States has not yet begun. What does this mean for religious organizations involved with these schools here?

While There Had Been Anti-Canada Day Marches In The Past, This Year’s Especially Large Turnout Was Spurred In Part By The Discovery Of Over 1,100 Bodies At Former Residential Schools Over The Past Few Months.
On July 1, several thousand Indigenous people and settler and immigrant allies answered the call of organizations like Idle No More to protest the celebration of Canada Day and the ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples. Cancel Canada Day actions took place across the land occupied by the Canadian state, from St. John’s, Newfoundland, in the east, to Victoria, B.C., including a march of thousands to parliament in Ottawa.
Uniting under the slogan “No Pride in Genocide,” these rallies put forward a panoply of demands. At the forefront was that Canada Day be replaced with a day to honor those whose lives have been lost to the Canadian state, whether Indigenous, Black, POC, women, or LGBTQ+. This was accompanied by demands for the end of settler encroachment and return of Indigenous land, Indigenous sovereignty, a real response to the disappearance and murder of Indigenous women, the end of police brutalization of Indigenous people, that the church take responsibility and offer compensation for the residential schools, and the end of celebration of the settler-colonial state.
At the same time, settler-colonial symbols have been vandalized and destroyed, including a statue of Captain James Cook in Victoria and statues of Queen Victoria and Elizabeth II in Manitoba. In addition, many churches have been defaced, and four in BC have been burned to the ground. All this reflects Indigenous consciousness—the awareness that we live under the boot of a settler-colonial state that demands our elimination, and that this fundamental reality needs to change.
However, changing this reality is impossible under capitalism. Indigenous oppression, expropriation, and elimination are carried out in order to remove us as an obstacle to capitalist expansion and exploitation of the land. While victories can be won in the short term, this oppression cannot end while capitalism remains in place. As a result, we must do all we can to unite the class struggle of the non-Indigenous working class with the decolonial struggles of Indigenous peoples, if we are to eliminate the capitalist system that oppresses and exploits both.
THOUSANDS MARCH IN CANCEL CANADA DAY ACTIONS By Taytyn Badger, Left Voice, July 4, 2021

Following is a graphic I’ve been working on, indicating the central role of capitalism.

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

A caravan of Trump supporters tried to disrupt the ceremonies. Some of the flags were pulled off as they passed by. I was astonished at the quick reaction of some in our crowd. They have seen this thing before. There was an immediate increase in tension. After the caravan left, Iowa State Patrol cars closed off the street.

July 4 Nexus

nexus a connection or series of connections linking two or more things

There are so many concepts and much history related to July 4th.

I’ve come a long way from what I, a white person, was taught in school. About the heroes and battles that brought independence from the British. And just a sentence or so about taking over Indigenous lands, and the slave trade. All whitewashed and presented as acceptable. Even referred to as “Manifest Destiny”.

“He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”
— Declaration of Independence

The crown and the colonists were both determined to seize lands from native peoples and to continue enslavement.
THE TERRIBLE ORIGINS OF JULY 4TH By Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report.
July 3, 2021

The crown and the colonists were both determined to seize lands from native peoples and to continue enslavement. But their interests were also hostile to one another and war was the inevitable result. White settlers wanted full independence for themselves and no control over their actions at all.
The indigenous populations were nearly eradicated in the decades long quest for conquest. Expanding slavery was an integral part of those efforts against native peoples. Genocide could not be carried out completely nor could any accommodation be made with European nations in the quest to control land from sea to shining sea. That is why the settlers declared their independence.
The process of decolonizing ourselves is a difficult one. We have been cut off from our history and we don’t know where or how our people played a part. As we try to educate ourselves we may find it difficult to give up traditions that we have claimed as our own. Regardless of personal choices made on July 4th, the causes of the Declaration of Independence must be known and acknowledged. That is the beginning of true independence for Black people.
THE TERRIBLE ORIGINS OF JULY 4TH By Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report.
July 3, 2021

The news reminds us of the political rally of the previous guy at Mount Rushmore, July 4, 2020. A perfect example of LANDBACK. Native people blocked the highway to Mount Rushmore because the monument is on Native land. Several of my friends were there. In 1980 the Supreme Court confirmed the land belongs to the Sioux. Compensation of $2 million dollars was offered. But never taken.

“What Mount Rushmore has always represented is a system of power and oppression and white supremacy, because they take a sacred place and carved the faces of white men who are responsible for our colonization and our demise,” (Lakota activist) Nick Tilsen said.
Lakota activist: Mount Rushmore key in move to regain land. When then-President Donald Trump visited Mount Rushmore last year for a fireworks display, Lakota activist Nick Tilsen saw an opportunity to advance the Land Back Movement By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press, March 24, 2021

The above are connected to a gathering at the Iowa State Capitol this afternoon from 1 – 3 pm, Stop Whitewashing Genocide and Slavery. Bring Back Critical Race Theory & Remove Monuments to White Supremacy!

Indigenous Led | Great Plains Action Society I United States

On July 4th, stand with Great Plains Action Society, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Ní Btháska Stand Collective, Des Moines Black Liberation Movement, Humanize My Hoodie, Revolutionary Action Party, Quad Cities Interfaith, Iowa Coalition for Collective Change, and Des Moines Mutual Aid!

Join us on “Fourth of He Lies” to demand that the Iowa legislators remove whitewashed monuments to white supremacy in Iowa. Organizers will present a petition demanding that all racist, misogynistic, homo/transphobic, whitewashed historical depictions be removed from all state grounds and facilities. These monuments fall into the realm of hate propaganda and make folks feel unwelcome in public spaces. So, we need legislation that removes all monuments, murals, and depictions of white supremacist persons, acts, and ideologies from all Iowa state grounds and state-funded institutions.

Support the BIPOC struggle in Iowa

People ask me how they can support local oppressed communities. Showing up tomorrow is a great way to do so. Organizers “would love to see a mass turnout to support the BIPOC struggle in Iowa”.

Tomorrow, July 4, 1-3 pm, an event I previously wrote about will take place at the Iowa State Capitol. Stop Whitewashing Genocide & Slavery!!!

Additional organizations are supporting the event, including my Des Moines Mutual Aid group. Again this morning I helped with the food giveaway. A friend and I talked a little about this event as we put together boxes of food.

Bring Back Critical Race Theory & Remove Monuments to White Supremacy!

Some additional topics have come up related to new legislation.

Demand that the new law, House File 802, which goes into effect July 1 be repealed. The legislation targets teaching critical race theory and other concepts in government diversity training and classroom curriculum.

Demand that Iowa legislators do their job and follow their own laws by abolishing monuments to white supremacy, which depict hate speech and promote discrimination. Kim Reynolds herself has stated that “Critical Race Theory is about labels and stereotypes, not education. It teaches kids that we should judge others based on race, gender, or sexual identity, rather than the content of someone’s character.” If this is the case, then statues depicting friendly “westward expansion”, busts of Columbus, and murals depicting manifest destiny are stereotyping European setter invaders and not depicting the true nature of their character. Columbus was a genocidal, rapist, slave trader, and Indians were forced to give up their land–it was not friendly.

Can’t stop, won’t stop.
Don’t be a bystander to white supremacy.
#SmashWhiteSupremacy

Organizers would love to see a mass turnout to support the BIPOC struggle in Iowa

Join us on “Fourth of He Lies” to demand that the Iowa legislators remove whitewashed monuments to white supremacy in Iowa. Organizers will present a petition demanding that all racist, misogynistic, homo/transphobic, whitewashed historical depictions be removed from all state grounds and facilities. These monuments fall into the realm of hate propaganda and make folks feel unwelcome in public spaces. So, we need legislation that removes all monuments, murals, and depictions of white supremacist persons, acts, and ideologies from all Iowa state grounds and state-funded institutions.

In response to police brutality and racial injustice, monuments to white supremacy are being removed all over the country but People of the World Majority are being forced to put their safety on the line to carry out this long-overdue purge. Folks have been shot, arrested, and targeted. We are an Indigenous-led coalition who do not want any more People of the World Majority to put their bodies on the line so this is a permitted event with the intent of making the state–the colonizers–do their job.

To start, we insist that the following statues and mural be removed from the Iowa State Capitol Building and grounds.

On the West Lawn, there is a 15-foot bronze statue on a large pedestal that stands in front of the Iowa State Capitol Building. According to the Iowa State Government website, the statue depicts “The Pioneer of the former territory, a group consisting of father and son guided by a friendly Indian in search of a home. The pioneer depicted was to be hardy, capable of overcoming the hardships of territorial days to make Iowa his home.” The father and son settler invaders are standing tall and proud, looking west, as the “friendly Indian” sits behind them in a less powerful, dejected position.

Inside the capitol is a piece that overwhelmingly encompasses this sentiment called the Westward Mural, which covers a massive wall. The artist writes that “The main idea of the picture is symbolical presentation of the Pioneers led by the spirits of Civilization and Enlightenment to the conquest by cultivation of the Great West.” He also speaks about overcoming the wilderness with plowed fields–as if the current Indigenous inhabitants, such as the Ioway and the Meskwaki, had not already created capable and efficient land management systems.

On the South Lawn, there is a Christopher Columbus Monument that was celebrated in 1938 by five thousand people who showed up for the dedication of the statue on Columbus Day. The statue was put up just a couple years after the Columbus Club of Iowa successfully lobbied to have Walker Park renamed to Columbus Park and have a Columbus monument placed there.

*This is a peaceful event led by Indigenous Folx. Please do not take actions that will put Brown and Black folx in jeopardy

Prefab Communities

The recent days of triple digit temperatures and their effects are showing what the future will look like. That future is now, actually. People are beginning to panic. Systems of all types are failing.

Climate refugees will be forced to flee areas of drought, rising sea levels, devastation from severe storms. Migrants will be desperate for food and water. A desperation that will lead to violence. I don’t know how we can prepare for that.

What follows are parts of posts I’ve written over the past five years. I am less hopeful we can find ways to deal with climate refugees, as we have seen increasing polarization and violence across many divisions.

And yet, in some ways I’m more hopeful as I’ve been learning about, participating in Mutual Aid communities.

Building small communities in rural areas, or around urban farming, will give people fulfilling work to do, food to eat, shelter, and a caring community to belong to, restoring their dignity. These communities can work without requiring money in exchange for these things. Friends in Iowa City have experience with intentional community. And the Maharishi community in Fairfield, Iowa.

The most important consideration is water supply. Without water nothing else works. We will continue to see spreading and worsening droughts.

Following is a draft for creating new communities, not only for ourselves, but with the intention of creating a model that can be rapidly replicated. So the flood of climate refugees have a template to build their own self sufficient communities when they are forced to migrate. The UN Refugee Agency estimates that by 2050, up to 250 million people will be displaced by climate change.

Urgency

Environmental disasters
- Weather extremes
  - Widespread and persistent drought, rising seas and more intense storms and fires
    - Destroyed homes, cities, land
    - Deadly air temperatures
    - Destroyed infrastructure
    - Water, food and energy scarcity
    - Resource wars
    - Collapsing social/political order
    - Climate refugees
- Militarism and police states
- Decreasing availability of complex health care and medications
- Spiritual poverty

The Midwest

Here in the Midwest we are faced with two broad problems. How to adapt our own lives to deal with these changes, and what to do about the flood of people who will be migrating to the Midwest.

“Along America’s most fragile shorelines, [thousands] will embark on a great migration inland as their homes disappear beneath the water’s surface.” LA Times, Victoria Herrmann Jan 25, 2016

Since we will soon not be able to depend on municipal water and power, transport of food from distances, schools and hospitals, many will be forced to move to rural areas or create urban gardens and farms, where they can live and grow their own food.

The Choice

One choice is to narrowly focus on the best we can do to prepare ourselves and immediate community to adapt to the coming changes.
The other is to also work on ways we can help the many climate refugees who will likely be migrating to the Midwest. Help them learn to adapt and thrive. Although these days violence rather than cooperation seems more likely.

Building Communities-The Vision

We need to model how to build sustainable communities. There have been numerous such experiments in intentional community. But the model needed now must be created with the intention of being replicated many times over with minimal complexity, using locally available materials—a prefab community.

Prefab Community

Community hub with housing and other structures
- Simple housing
  - Straw bale houses
  - Passive solar and solar panels
  - No kitchens or bathrooms (community ones instead)
- Store, school, meetinghouse
- Central kitchen and bathrooms
Surrounding fields for food and straw
Water supply
- Wells, cisterns and/or rain barrels
Power
- Solar, wind, hydro, horse
Manufacturing
- 3 D printing
- Pottery
- Sawmill
Communication
- Radio, local networks
Transportation
- Bicycles
- Electric vehicles
- Horses
- Pedal powered vehicles
Medical
- Stockpile common medications
- Essential diagnostic and treatment equipment
- Medical personnel adapt to work in community
Spiritual
- Meeting for worship
- Meeting for business
- Religious education

Mobil homes, buses and cars can be repurposed for shelter.

If/when local water supplies dry up in these new communities, people will be forced to move again.

Replanning Human Life

A common theme of my thinking, praying and writing, is the fundamental injustice, evil, of capitalism. What is the alternative?

My experiences with the Kheprw Institute (KI) in Indianapolis showed me how a community can not only exist, but thrive, with practically no money. I saw this as an example of Beloved community. With my current work in Mutual Aid, I can now see KI is also a Mutual Aid community.

I now see the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March I was blessed to be part of could be seen as creating a Mutual Aid community. We walked, camped and shared stories for the eight days it took for our sacred journey. Other than buying food prior to the start of the March, we didn’t need money for anything. Being together, often in trying circumstances like rain and heat, began the process of getting to know and trust each other. Which is the foundation of Mutual Aid. Although we separated geographically after that journey, we have worked together in many ways since.

I’m excited to be part of the Des Moines Mutual Aid community for many reasons. It is a Beloved community. I’ve made many good friends, and they are teaching me about Mutual Aid.

Now I understand Mutual Aid is what should replace capitalism. But that has led to some frustration. I tell anyone who will listen Mutual Aid is the path forward. I’m having trouble convincing those living in the capitalist system why they should work for alternatives. To build Mutual Aid communities where they are.

Mutual Aid is premised on people in the community being together, physically. It is not a difficult process. The hurdle is getting people to decide they want to do this, then begin. I was fortunate to find a Mutual Aid community already in existence.

Another part of the process is learning how to live in a community with a flat, or horizontal structure. Not the vertical hierarch we are used to living in.

Finding and building alternatives to capitalism will soon no longer be a choice. The system is already breaking down.

I’m glad to have found the article cited below, based on the work of Jeremy Rifkin, an American economist, social theorist, and activist.

Rifkin’s latest book is “The Green New Deal: Why the Fossil Fuel Civilization Will Collapse by 2028, and the Bold Economic Plan to Save Life on Earth.” After predicting the collapse of the current fossil-fuel regime, he formulates a new economic model and guides readers in the construction of a post-carbon world.

But, where to begin? Great economic paradigm shifts in history can point us in the right direction when replanning human life on Earth.
Three defining technologies have emerged and converged simultaneously, changing the way society manages, powers, and moves its socioeconomic life.
The first is communication, which helps us bring our species together and organize ourselves.
The second is energy, which powers our social life, allowing us to continue living together on this planet.
And the last is mobility, which offers us a way of logistically organizing ourselves.
Together, these three pillars form our infrastructure, functioning much like cells in a living organism.
What Comes After Capitalism? Forget communism, socialism, and capitalism — the days ahead are green by Vitoria Nunes, medium.com, June 8, 2021

Rifkin says there have been two industrial revolutions that demonstrate these ideas. The first was led by the British. Two new methods of communication were steam powered printing and the telegraph system. Coal was the energy source, and steam driven locomotives for mobility.

The second industrial revolution took place in the United States. The telephone, radio and television became forms of communication. Texas oil the energy source. And Henry Ford revolutionized transportation with the internal combustion engine.

Incidentally, these paradigm shifts alter our economic model, and that’s how capitalism took center stage. Previous industrial revolutions centered around fossil fuels, the most expensive to extract, ship, and refine (along with uranium). Pre-existing monarchic systems wouldn’t have been able to finance these processes. Enter the capitalist stockholder corporation, characterized by wealthy players’ investments in coal, gas, and oil.
From the start, industrialization was engineered to be a centralized, top-down system. And other industries followed, bolstering the absurd levels of wealth concentration we can all witness these days.
Vitoria Nunes

A third revolution is emerging now.

Engineered differently from the first two, a third industrial revolution is on the rise. A new era of enlightenment is upon us, as more people begin to realize that together we are much more agile than the vertical organizations that have been seeking world domination.
Digital communication, energy, and mobility are converging to form yet another paradigm shift, a true internet of things. Millions of people — in the form of SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises), communities, farm associations, and cooperatives — are already consuming energy from the wind and sun and sharing it on a renewable energy internet. Solar- and wind-powered vehicles are emerging on a digitized mobility internet and are predicted to be autonomous in the next decade.
The same digital technology we use for communicating with each other will become the cornerstone of how we power and move our social life in just a few years. And it will change our economic system, allowing for the emergence of one that is compatible with a new infrastructure.
As marginal costs drop, thanks to more efficient, costless energy consumption, the sharing economy will gain new strength, taking us into a world that is in equilibrium with the finite natural resources the Earth has to offer.
None of this is sci-fi; the cost of solar and wind power just dipped below the cost of every other energy we use (nuclear, coal, and oil), giving power to the people.
Vitoria Nunes

The first two industrial revolutions were built with centralized, top down systems.

This third revolution will be built with Mutual Aid concepts. Local communities fight climate change locally.

Central governments don’t have the capacity to handle a task of this magnitude. Power originates from local regions; with every community taking responsibility for its biosphere.
By recruiting everyone — from large institutions and universities to high schools and local businesses— to join in, we can come up with the roadmap to scale up our local infrastructure. We must step to the floor and get this done. We must be fearless, turn to our communities, run for political assemblies, and create the infrastructure to make it happen. There’s no other way of getting it done.
Vitoria Nunes

This article was based on a conference Jeremy Rifkin held at Sciences Po in October 2019. To view the full lecture, click here.

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An Epistle to Friends Regarding Community, Mutual Aid and LANDBACK

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Bring Back Critical Race Theory & Remove Monuments to White Supremacy!

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Urgency

The Midwest

The Choice

Building Communities-The Vision

Prefab Community

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