The Role of Settlers in Indigenous Struggles
Questions arising from the Six Nations land reclamation
Canadian Dimension Magazine, May/June 2007 issue
By mid-March, 2006, when activist communities discovered the land reclamation at Six Nations of the Grand River, carloads of non-Aboriginal supporters from Toronto, Montreal and beyond made almost daily trips to the site loaded with supplies and youthful activists eager to staff the cookhouse, help out in the first-aid tent, or do a security shift. At night gaggles of underdressed youth would huddle at the fire, soaking up community gossip directly from “the real grassroots” (as one white activist described members of the Grand River community).
In the three months following the April 28, 2006 OPP raid on the Six Nations land reclamation, it wasn’t unusual to find times when there were more white settlers camped out on the reclaimed territory than members of the Grand River community. Some activists were there for the early morning raid and have described the experience of nearly being arrested in everything from public events to on-line downloadable videos. It’s worth noting that all the people charged by the OPP that day or since were Native; no non-Natives are facing charges, even though many were on the site before, during and after the raid.
Hoping for Trouble?
At the risk of generalizing, these were the same activists who monitored the goings on at Akwesasne, Kahnawake and Kanehsatake in January and February, 2006, when there were rumors of an impending RCMP raid on the Mohawk tobacco industry. Toronto activists formed contingency plans on the best ways to bypass possible police blockades to get (mostly white) bodies and supplies into Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory in the event of a raid. They were the same activists on the edge of their seats, sending out e-mail notices and forwarding updates on the Tyendinaga land dispute. As one Native activist noted, “It’s as if they’re hoping for trouble so they’ll have something to do with themselves.”
It’s not as if white settler support to various struggles isn’t needed and appreciated. Indeed, one cannot help feel respectful at seeing them put their very bodies on the line beside our own people on some occasions. But questions continually arise as to the role of non-Aboriginal supporters in Indigenous struggles.
When the Toronto-based Co-alition in Support of Indigenous Sovereignty formed in the spring of 2003, its Native founders envisioned a network of non-Natives who could lend their support to Indigenous struggles around Turtle Island, while we all decolonized our mindsets and educated ourselves about Indigenous culture, history and current affairs. The group was to be led by an “Indigenous Caucus,” whose role was to define the issues, how they would be addressed and by whom. At the outset there was resentment from a few non-Native activists, who voiced a concern that all they were being asked to do was “legwork.” The logic of how their ignorance of our history and culture might impact their praxis and jeopardize Indigenous actions (not to mention lives) was seemingly lost on them.
Counteracting Genocide Is Political
Others were disappointed to learn that we considered the cultural programs, language classes and ceremonies political activities because of their counter-genocidal nature. If we weren’t blockading, occupying, or protesting something, we didn’t qualify as political.
Still others were starved for information to help them understand the issues from an Indigenous perspective. Requests from non-Aboriginal “supporters” to speak, co-organize activities and write for non-Native publications soon tested the capacity of the Indigenous Caucus, whose original ten members could not keep up with the invitations. Some requests were motivated by a sincere desire to learn and develop relationships, while others were clearly token invitations, issued at the last minute by organizers who had no intention of following up on the issues we put before them, or, better yet, assumed that their issues were our issues. (If only we had a hundred bucks for every time we were asked to share a panel with Quebec sovereigntists. And just whose land would Quebec be sovereign over, we wondered?)
Nevertheless, we were the darlings of Toronto’s Left for a couple of years but alas, it couldn’t last.
After the April 28 raid on Six Nations, we lost our place in the hearts of Toronto activists. We had been dormant for a year, and our now four-person Indigenous Caucus spent more time trying to respond to the needs of white activists in Toronto, desperate to support Six Nations, than we did working in our own community (a possibly fatal mistake for the organization). The Six Nations reclamation was a sexier, action-packed, historic confrontation on which young, white activists could cut their teeth. Naturally the Confederacy and its supporters out on the land appreciated the supplies and cash donations. A few basked in the hero worship, and, of course, jokes abound about impending births of mixed-race “reclamation babies.”
Framing Indigenous Struggles
It’s always been alternately amusing and lamentable to the Indigenous Caucus that a publication produced by sympathetic white activists who wanted to educate other settlers on the Six Nations land reclamation featured the infamous photo of the burning railway bridge on its cover, supposedly out of admiration for the warriors. Ironically, the same photo graces the opening page of hate websites opposed to the reclamation. The incident happened on one day of a siege that is almost a year old. The unused bridge was burned to prevent OPP access to the territory after the community had already been attacked. Yet, both supporters and opponents seized on the “burning bridge” photo to illustrate their respective points. Even supporters frame our struggles in ways that suit their own needs and perceptions. Had they consulted the Clan Mothers, who have consistently urged faithfulness to The Great Law of Peace, what photo might have been chosen to put on the cover of the publication?
So, what is the summary impact of settler support to the Six Nations land reclamation and other Indigenous struggles on Turtle Island? Nobody wants to return their cheques, but we have to wonder what price we may pay for non-Native support. Are staffing the barricades, spooning out canned spaghetti lunches to the warriors, or chopping firewood the best ways that white settlers can support our struggles? Or is that more our job than theirs?
The speaking requests that the Indigenous Caucus gets nearly four years after our founding indicate that our goal of “decolonizing mindsets” is still a valid one. Indigenous people comprise less than ten per cent of the population of Canada. We need allies in our struggles. Mother Earth needs allies. But after settlers learn the horrific and brutal truth of how Canada established itself literally over the dead bodies of our ancestors what, then, are their responsibilities? What do we expect of them? How do we hold them accountable? And how much responsibility do we have to take for their education, when our people are struggling for their very survival?
As Tyendinaga threatens to explode with another land repossession by our people, these questions loom large over Turtle Island.
Comment by James Blake, writing from Canada on May 3rd, 2007 at 8:43 pm:
Native peoples want to live. The residents of Canada want to live. That is what people want - they want to live - and they will sacrifice most anything else in lieu of that want. The industry of the Canadian people, has produced a gleaming example to the world, that can be shared with Native Peoples; but it requires attention to need and respect for human rights; not just lip service and the passing off of responsibility to a government department. The citizens of Canada need only stand aside - not confront - and let First Nations speak, act, and show that they respect the bewilderd citizens of Canada. If we help one another, we can get through this, but the cultures cannot find the way on their own.
Comment by chu-uck d, writing from on December 13th, 2007 at 1:19 am:
The watch-word, for me, is reducing all aid from ‘whites’ in such monolithic ways. True, many settler-refugees (’whites’) are products of their own colonization, and they do often spout yet another form of colonization mentality–re: usually strategically challenged and reformist in nature, not seeking the complete overthrow of a system like colonialism, but perpetuating it at base; and yet, even when they/we do seek complete overthrow, we’re still very much stuck in dualisms of “Us vs. Them”…(said by the Onkwehonwe to not be a traditional value).
Having said that, I still think you are making a big mistake by reducing all non-native input in this way. I for one am not a “newbie” to daring actions; I do find much inspiration in struggles and articulations of such by groups which have much more organization and experience. Yet I see that i still have crucial input as well (input which i see as many indigenous folks missing). Perhaps I am of a minority, perhaps not.
>At the outset there was resentment from a few non-Native activists, who voiced a concern that all they were being asked to do was “legwork.” The logic of how their ignorance of our history and culture might impact their praxis and jeopardize Indigenous actions (not to mention lives) was seemingly lost on them.
Again, I think you are generalizing. How about making specific examples? How do you know people were ignorant of your history? What if you yourselves were ignorant? (Is that even viewed as a possibility–why or why not?)
If anything, we settler-refugees (seeking sanity in the context of living lives chock full of insane society’s mindset) may simply be more desperate; yet, we’re strategically challenged in that we don’t –and maybe i’m helping you make your point?–often think of life beyond “traditional” 19th century political forms…
Also, we settler-refugees don’t have any real mutual connection to community meaning as you (that is, we generally don’t validate anything unless it has been officially “recognized” such as your traditions have, to various extents); we don’t recognize it within ourselves, and would rather gravitate towards communities already intact, since we feel so powerless to create our own (tho the Rainbow Gathering is an example that perhaps you folks ought to turn more of us–especially those you find too far gone– on to).
Like it or not, your model represents something already intact, already surviving hundreds of years of concerted attack, and of course we want to experience such!!
Finally, by having such a “poo-poo” attitude as this towards us, collectively, you are making the age-old foolish mistake that colonizers have worked hard to instill into you –which says that we “crazy masses” have to be restricted from tainting the private property-like domain of “your” peoples. (i don’t know if i’m articulating this as best as i might, but i think i’ve got a finger on it…)
>and our now four-person Indigenous Caucus spent more time trying to respond to the needs of white activists in Toronto, desperate to support Six Nations, than we did working in our own community (a possibly fatal mistake for the organization).
This is getting patronizing (and you’re sounding a bit snide, so similar to patronizing patriarchs which we’re so used to!)…re: “the needs”; I think you are getting fooled into looking at a reduced “us” as tho our desperation is not useful. As though we are forever only satellites.
But we are fellow descendants of tribes, and we would like to find sanity in a society which is building up momentum towards the same old stupidity (i.e. internecine civil war or things like it). We’re ALL human beings, okay?! Some of us aren’t as far along as others, and it’s all due to how deeply we’ve been colonized; “my people” have been under the gun for at least 3000 years. We are desperate for very good reasons.
The bottom line is, can you ju-jitsu our “trampling” and “stampede”? If you cannot, and fall back merely on typical snide colonizer mentality, you will isolate us further until we are yet again manipulated to be used against you and your once excellent dream.
> The Six Nations reclamation was a sexier, action-packed, historic confrontation on which young, white activists could cut their teeth.
Some could “cut their teeth”; and what’s so wrong with that?? Your people would do well to figure us out (i.e. via strategies of protection by enrichment) and, again, ju-jitsu our cacophonious pain/desperation into a channel that INSPIRES all who hate or are sick of the same old human stupidity (i.e. war war war war).
i myself have been working on this, and will continue to do so whether i’m alone and isolated or making inroads with folks like you all (see my website for an example of this, with my art(e)).
So, to conclude, i say, build upon we settler-refugees, teaching us, your younger sisters and brothers about the excellence we intuit; and we will teach you things you assumed we did not have.
We are all gifts to each other, and that is likely why we all have been born at this time in this place!
So get off all this patronizing value assumption crap that colonizer planted in your heads (i guess), and see us as fellow human beings—whom are likely very much like many of your fellow indigenous (i.e. those whom are putting behind them their indigenous ways of life due to such smugness as you exhibit here—very likely!).
To further radically respectful dialogue and mutually beneficial outcomes!
Comment by ganonsase, writing from Canada on December 17th, 2007 at 6:47 pm:
The fact that the last commenter left such a response shows an example of the dilemma which we are facing as aboriginal people in reconcilling or at the very least finding comradery and solidarity from settler society.
I am from Six Nations, I am Onondaga nation, I have a clan and am rightfully a member of the haudenosaune confederacy. I have spent much of my life learning the great law of peace and am working towards fulfilling my role someday which will be as matriarch of my clan.
I think this is an issue of privilege as I find so many non-native activists get very fiery when we mention the facts. What they don’t realize is much of the knowledge they have attained is executed in a “I know better” type attitude.
We are not romantic beings of a nature that are to be idolized and mimicked. Take inspiration from our teachings, sure thats great, dig up your own roots of indigenous identity and apply it and perhaps share with us, but to attach yourself to our customs, traditions, elements of our culture our struggle, all which we are battling with ourselves, as if they are YOURS, (i.e. supporters getting married in our traditional clothing and having it in the church parking lot next to the reclamation site) there is a lack of respect and more of a glamorization of indigenous life then holding it in esteem.
Cookbooks being sold with little pictures of people raising spoons and spatulas in solidarity over a yellow sun specifically referencing the warrior flag containing recipes for “10 can soup” which was unfit to serve and many warriors let themselves starve before eating such low standard food, non-native supporters demanding that they have a voice in our meetings and in regards to our politics, non-natives interfering in community politics and creating life threatening situations, non-native supporters blatantly fetishizing our warriors and acting promiscuously while fulfilling duties on the reclamation…I know this because I watched many of them instigate sexual activity and though some of our men went through with it, it showed a lack of respect on their parts towards their support with the cause.
Why I bring up all these points is to make the point that there have been very clear dysfunctions between non-native supporters and native people. I haven’t even mentioned all that I know and it was very heartbreaking and sad to watch people from my community face defamation, slandering and conflict due to some of the incidents instigated by certain supporters, both my husband and my mother were victims of this.
And it is not the non-native supporters that are to blame necessarily, it is also OUR state of dysfunction, our inability to collectively make decisions, our community power drained by division, lack of education, power struggles and OUR own corruption…(i.e. rightful leaders not in place, white people pretending to be native being in powerful roles in our community, reclamation leaders stealing money etc)
Why is this…BECAUSE WE ARE COLONIZED AND NOT IMMUNE TO THE DEVASTATION THAT IT HAS TAKEN ON OUR MINDS!! I hope this isn’t a new fact.
I’ve been in a number of discussions, answered the questions as best I could when I have done panels and frankly cried because of the frustration that these things have brought to my life and those I love.
We are in a state of dismay, but hope is not lost. There is a place for everyone in this struggle because the STRUGGLE BELONGS TO EVERYONE!! Meaning that we are coming from the indigenous perspective, you may come from the ecological perspective which is interrelated to the indigenous perspective or perhaps you take on poverty issues, healthcare, food safety, anti-war, racism, anti-imperialism, prison justice…its alot of push and pull with all the different facets to the larger struggle for freedom…but you need to choose your battles and give respect to your role in them.
You may put up posters and hand out pamphlets and do panels and forums on the situation in Haiti, but it doesn’t mean that you know what they are experiencing, that you are one of them, most who do support have never even been there…they are your brothers and sisters and you can love them, support them, nourish them and be inspired by them…but it is not YOUR place to decide your role in another community’s struggle and you need to empower as opposed to demand the power for yourself.
There was a massive learning curve with the reclamation that is still going on, we are experiencing conflict on so many levels and so many people are now living in hiding from the outside world, facing life threatening situations, jail time, threats to our families and our traditional leaders being coerced by the all mighty dollar, weakened by almost 2 years of talking to the minions of the government and having little to no knowledge of the true traditional great peace philosophies.
This does need to be considered, that there is a truth here that is more then just the skeletons in the closet or the things we don’t want to talk about. I’m not here to slander or spread rumours which is why I have generally mentioned events and not named names. But I would like to comment that it is alot more complicated then the noble savage imagery or the whole ignorance towards diversity and self righteous lessons of “we are all human” that gets played up so much by the non-native activist community. The fact that someone would rather leave their own roots, ignore their own indigenous identity and not make changes to a destructive society like THEIR colonialist settler canadian society is baffling to me…I see many changes that need to take place in my society so I work from the best places I can and where I know that I have power…in my clan. I know that it is considered almost privilege to have those means, but it is a strenuous responsibility, one where there is little to no guidance because our traditional systems of governance have been fragmented and currently are not functioning to the highest potential. So therefore it is not a privilege, it is an immense responsibility to be indigenous.
I love to share knowledge, to discuss and have relationships with many diverse peoples. but this is in light of respecting their diversity to myself and acting as a guest of their home as opposed to seeing myself as human so therefore it is my home too and I can do whatever I like and not even regard whether it is negatively impacting those people.
It is the negative impacts that create the conflict, not the support, the support is always appreciated, but often times the ingrained privilege based settler lense, no matter how progressive you have become, seems to dominate resulting in most settlers not even being aware of what they are imposing. Idealistic and well versed, it sounds wonderful, but at this time, AT THIS TIME…it is a delicate balance that deserves respect.
I couldn’t disagree with much of what the author wrote, unfortunately my experience has reflected many of the things written and so I consider it unfortunate…but I also want to comment that the author left the issue open with questions, which shows that there is a need for dialogue, not immediate condemning.
Fact is, that there is no easy solution to any of this. I wish I had more of an idea to mention, but unfortunately I am mostly dealing with the post traumatic stress disorder that came from my time on the site, looking after my husband who is inflicted with many more health issues then myself, looking after my mother who almost lost her life over illness caused by stress from the reclamation, dealing with drug addiction and alcoholism in my family, past issues of sexual abuse and recovering from much self abuse. This is common amongst many of my people in my community and we have inadequate health services, lack of accessibility to traditional medicines and healing modalities (mostly due to the rarity of those things in our community). It isn’t easy, but this is the extent to which the conflict has affected and added to the struggles we battle with on the land and in the home.
I could carry much resentment, but instead I see an opportunity to create change. If you want to fight beside us, then be beside us, not infront of us…if we move too slow, are inefficient to your standards, not active enough on the whole with communication or organizing, then perhaps you are seeing the difference between our community and yours…I hear all the time from non-native activists about how native people need all the help they can get from settler activists who seem to have so many more resources, organizational skills and disposable energy. This makes me sad because we have a wealth of means to contribute to our own struggle, but we are the round peg trying to fit into a square hole. We have the visions, the dreams, the children, the blood, the fire, the RIGHT! Don’t push us out of the way because you see what you think is right.
We are all entitled to our opinions based on our experiences…I commend the last commentator for their comments and their efforts and where this topic could potentially go in discussion. However I feel as though there is alot to be learned by living, breathing and experiencing the issue and it is difficult for someone who was not there to see what truly happened and even that is going to sound different from whomever you hear it from. There are truths however and they can’t be avoided for the sake of looking unified, they must be resolved before there is reconcilliation. Fact is we are not reconcilled with settler society because on a collective front, settler society has not acknowledged or apologized or moved to make right what has happened, only a few groups and individuals have and they are the fastest and most progressive, however we can only move as fast as our slowest so perhaps that is where we turn back to our houses, clans, governments, communities and make the changes there.
The conflicts will continue until these changes come to fruition, they are merely budding currently. It is difficult to lay on us as indigenous people the responsibility of creating that reconcilliation for the settlers by allowing them a seat on our benches at our meetings and giving them a place equal or more valued then our own when it is in our own home. It is not that you should be undervalued or put below us, but rather that you are in a different place, that you come bearing the crest of your people and that we respect you by recognizing your diversity to us…this is not top-down or hierarchal, but rather seeing a vast plain that has different locations, places with fruit trees and some without, how can someone from a place without fruit trees tell the people with the fruit trees how to pick the fruit? We don’t have to trust what you have to teach us until you have proven yourself to have knowledge that we can use and words alone cannot do that.
We have a dignity in our identity and it is diverse from yours, if you can’t accept that, then you may not have the capacity to stand with us. Sounds almost contradictory, but this is what I have come to know from my experience working with non-native people, it is the strongest who know their roots, educate their own families, learn about the territory which they build a home and recognize that their best contributions come from where they have roots, not trying to overgrow where we have our roots.
And as for “cutting your teeth”, well it becomes negative when the role you play on the frontlines is demeaned to a mere comic book super hero mentality and the only thing you took away with you is the ability to boast about how you were “at the six nations reclamation”. I was there too…alot longer then you! Probably gave up alot for it as well, but I don’t feel like I have anything to boast about.
NO ONE SHOULD HAVE TO FIGHT THESE WARS, THEY ARE WAR BECAUSE PEOPLE DIE AND GET HURT AND THAT PAIN IS INFLICTED AND WE HAVE TO DEFEND OURSELVES. WE FIGHT THIS SO NO ONE HAS TOO, NO ONE SHOULD HAVE TO CUT THEIR TEETH!!
I am a strong, young ongwehonwe woman, I am very vocal in my community and in the community in vancouver bc. I know that I am carrying the legacy of survival and when I look at how I fight this war, I don’t look at myself or what I can benefit from…frankly I was born into what I have become and I carry the responsibility of bringing this forward for the coming generations of ALL people. I know there is hope because my life is a testament to it and so are all the children of my people.
I am thankful to be alive, to breath, to feel the earth and I hope that this dialogue continues and perhaps in the future I will contribute to a possible solution.
Nya:weh