Tag: Native peoples

“Fourth of He Lies”

NOTE: This is an edited re-posting from the year 2021. The events below occurred then, not today. There were similar events in other years. See: Monuments to White Supremacy July 4, 2020.

Also from the Great Plains Action Society: Decapitating Colonialism: White Supremacist Statues, Monuments, & Symbolism by Alexandrea Flanders.

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 Terrible Origins of July 4th

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

NOTE: This event was in the year 2021, not today.

The Great Plains Action Society has organized gatherings at the Iowa State Capitol for several years on July 4th, referred to as the Fourth of He Lies. I attended these events and took the photos below. My Des Moines Mutual Aid community has been involved.

In 2021 the event was called 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.

Great Plains Action Society

(C)2021 Jeff Kisling

Partnering with Native Nations in a Good Way

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/

Decolonial Repair Network launch

Yesterday, I wrote an introduction to the Decolonial Repair Network. And how this relates to the Honor Native Land Fund to support the Great Plains Action Society’s work to raise money to buy land. Last night, I attended the first meeting (Zoom) of the Decolonial Repair Network.

Honor Native Land Fund

We are calling on non-native white settlers across the Midwest from Chicago to Omaha, Minneapolis to St. Louis to consider the ways they have benefitted from colonization and to voluntarily offer a kind of rent or tax to Indigenous peoples.
We feel like, in the face of the climate crisis, one of the most important things we can do is support Indigenous people reclaiming Indigenous lifeways-that is a key part of what is going to heal the land and the climate.
Eric Anglada, Honor Native Land Fund

We’re grateful for your interest in and support of the work of Honor Native Land Fund. Hopefully you were able to join us for our opening launch webinar. We urge you to become a regular contributor to this fund, 100% of which goes to support amazing Indigenous women in the crucial work of land rematriation. 

Are you interested in getting your organization on board with this work of financial support but are unsure of how to do that? Email us and we can explore a presentation for your group. 

If you missed Beth Hoffman’s recent essay, “A New Way to Honor Native Land,” you can check it out here. 

And lastly, one of our HNLF members is helping launch a broader Decolonial Repair Network that includes ongoing support for HNLF while also looking to continue the journey of learning and supporting decolonization, community, healing, and repair. Sign up here for that introductory zoom call this Wednesday, April 3rd, 7pm CT!

In Solidarity,

the Honor Native Land Fund team 

www.HonorNativeLandFund.org 

From <https://outlook.office.com/mail/inbox/id/AQMkADAwATExAGJkNy00YzUwLTA5OQBhLTAwAi0wMAoARgAAA9SeQdykk49HpjHzLhjPa8IHAD0zcIZJz1BEn39mW0zReT0AAAIBDAAAAD0zcIZJz1BEn39mW0zReT0ABw5%2FC%2FEAAAA%3D?nativeVersion=1.2024.327.300>

https://designrr.s3.amazonaws.com/jakislin_at_outlook.com_52440/great-plains-action-society-and-midwest-quakers_660c2caf.pdf

Moral Injury

I’ve been praying and writing about this unsettled time for me. I know there are other members of my Quaker faith community who also feel this way. As I try to explain here, Spiritual discernment to leave Quakers, I was led to temporarily distance myself from Quakers. I didn’t have a clear understanding of why that was necessary, what distancing myself meant, and what would need to happen for me to return to Quakers. What I had no doubt about was the spiritual message that was what I must do.

Over the past six years I’ve been led in multiple ways to connect with, become friends with, Native people. I recently wrote I have a spiritual bond with this new community. Multiple Spiritual Communities. This has opened a whole new way to see my Quaker community.

There is a tragic history between these two communities. Beginning in the mid 1800’s, Quakers and other denominations took on the role of forcefully assimilating Native children into White culture. The stated reason was to help those children learn how to live in the white world that was enveloping them. The more sinister reason was to quell the resistance of Native nations to being forced off their lands. (see: Much worse than I realized )

The recent verification of the remains of 215 Native children on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia was devastating news to Native peoples in Canada and the US. Many have been triggered by this atrocity. One of my Native friends wrote that she was NOT OK. Another told me, “I’m trying not to be enraged in my mourning.”

The concept of moral injury is helpful for me in the context of the tragedies of the Indian boarding schools and my relationship with my Quaker community.

Moral injury is the social, psychological, and spiritual harm that arises from a betrayal of one’s core values, such as justice, fairness, and loyalty. Harming others, whether in military or civilian life; failing to protect others, through error or inaction; and failure to be protected by leaders, especially in combat—can all wound a person’s conscience, leading to lasting anger, guilt, and shame, and can fundamentally alter one’s world view and impair the ability to trust others.

Moral Injury, Psychology Today

Moral injury refers to an injury to an individual’s moral conscience and values resulting from an act of perceived moral transgression, which produces profound emotional guilt and shame, and in some cases also a sense of betrayal, anger and profound “moral disorientation”.

Definition

The concept of moral injury emphasizes the psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual aspects of trauma. Distinct from psychopathology, moral injury is a normal human response to an abnormal traumatic event. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the concept is used in literature with regard to the mental health of military veterans who have witnessed or perpetrated an act in combat that transgressed their deeply held moral beliefs and expectations. Among healthcare professionals, moral injury refers to unaddressed moral distress leading to the accumulation of serious inner conflict that may overwhelm one’s sense of goodness and humanity. It is important to note that, despite the identification of moral traumas among both veterans and healthcare professionals, research has remained oddly independent between these two groups, and as such, the terminology is not uniform.

Moral injury – Wikipedia

Enslavement, colonization and forced assimilation

Quakers were among those involved in enslavement. There were also Quakers among the white settlers who colonized native lands. In addition, Friends were involved in the forced assimilation, the cultural genocide, of native children. There are many Quakers who don’t want to deal with this today. Suggesting this was in the past, or we don’t have a responsibility for what our ancestors did.

Unfortunately those traumas are passed from generation to generation. Influence both those who experienced the trauma, and those who caused it, today.

Economic injustice and Mutual Aid

The moral injury I’ve been experiencing for the past several years.is related to economic injustice. I believe it is immoral for an economic system to deny access to basic necessities for those who don’t have money to pay for food, shelter, clothing, medical care and/or education. Those who don’t have money through no fault of their own. The COVID pandemic and it’s economic impact have resulted millions more falling into economic insecurity.

I’ve been blessed to learn about and participate in Mutual Aid. The concept that everyone in a community can work together to find solutions to problems that affect the whole community. With Mutual Aid there is no vertical hierarchy. Rather a flat hierarchy where every contributes to the work. Where survival needs are addressed immediately. Work that helps satisfy people’s desire to be involved in meaningful work.

I feel disappointment that Quakers as a whole do not see the urgency to create Mutual Aid projects. Do not see the moral imperative to leave an unjust system, and create one that is just.