Bree!

I went down to Occupy Boston. My intention was to see what was going on, and hold my sign.

So, my sign “Occupied since 1492″ was a mixed reaction, one reporter asked me about it and 2 other First Nations people (both Vetrans), and a Unitarian Minister. Everyone else looked and took pictures of the signs on either side of me, but quickly read and then averted thier eyes when they saw/read my sign. Over 200 people in the second group, 4 in the first group. I think I pissed off the occupiers.

Then again they pissed me off too, with drum circles and sage burning.

Approprating from Native cultures is one thing, but it is another to use it in a movement that is so wrongly named.

Yes, I hear “that was a long time ago, why don’t you just get over it.” A lot. I mean A LOT. Well I can tell you that it wasn’t that long ago. The systemic genocide, yes, genocide of Native people is continuing even to today. After the Indian wars where declared over by America, the US government went on to Residential Boarding schools, to the relocation act, to the reoganization act, to the involuntary sterilaxtion program that existed into the 1980s, to the 550 treaties that where signed that are not acknolwdged, to The landmark case of Johnson v. McIntosh (1823) that is still used to justify the taking of land from Native peoples. It wasn’t until 5 years ago that Boston took the law off the books to shoot an unescorted Indian on sight. Its not over. We are still here. We have been occupied for over 500 years.

Racialicous: Decolonization and Occupy Wall Street
Racialicous: Occupy Wall Street: The Game of Colonialism (Jessica Yee’s article)
John Paul Montano: An Open Letter to the Occupy Wall Street Protesters
Unsettling America: Decolonize Wall Street
Indian Country Today: Indians Counter Occupy Wall Street Movement with Decolonize Wall Street
Indian Country Today: Why I’m Occupying Wall Street
Press TV: Indigenizing Occupy Wall Street (about Occupy Denver)
Occupy Denver: An Indigenous Platform for Occupy Denver (AIM’s 10 Points)

Canada is a Huron word. It means Village. Cultrual appropriation from Native reight from the start. Yes I have problems with the Olympics trotting out Native peoples trying to show the world how “great canada is to its first nations” No marketing imagery ever could erase these ongoing legacies of a history of colonial …genocide in Canada (and elsewhere). As this article points out, there are significant political issuse in Indigenous Canada that the games are glassing over and the games are marketing Native culture as homogenous and interchangeable. Why else would they be using an artic cultures symbol for a logo, totem poles ( Pac NW) and grass dancers (Plains). Fuck you Canada, and Fuck you olympic committee for being the same old colonizers in a glossy new package.

http://contexts.org/socimages/2010/02/15/guest-post-an-indigenous-olympics/