#landtheft — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #landtheft, aggregated by home.social.
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Animated map shows spread of illegal Israeli settlements across Palestine
"Some 750,000 settlers live across more than 500 illegal settlements and outposts, as Israeli pogroms hit record highs."
#BoycottIsrael #CrimesAgainstHumanity #LandTheft #HumanRights #News #Activism #Gaza #Palestine
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Arbitrage for deals that favour Hydra’s Evil Corps. and its finance of fascist cults to expropriate other’s resources, at the threat of annihilation, has no future! Why would the #UK and #Europe be safe from Nationalist RICO and International racketeering? The war on indigenous people has been raging for over 2000 years. The limits of it might have finally been reached given too few think they can continue to turn Nations into economic black holes and toxic blood and bone soaked rubble. Deregulation favours the corruption of a criminal mob that profit from a programme of mass destruction just to accumulate obscene amounts of wealth and power. #lakotalaw #blackhillsmining #landtheft #ecocide #resourcetheft #climatechaos #crimeisanouroboros https://action.lakotalaw.org/action/black-hills-mining?ms=ea&utm_source=ea&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=syda&utm_content=piclink&sourceid=1042767&contactdata=8mqnvYiJgItMipz2Ha4FVbbJSq+7n632n%2flZ17TliQ1IhAV9W0qULhh9EmJw0qK3YDcNqcNJ071FImS4G9%2fkiDSEuBjBOZqsTPcGm9MR33Q0DYKqTyHfEfhj2Jb3Ll9fyaVc2dhud6nMoYldqrhhW3zjSq6YR+Tei1M9mumW9Wo%3d&emci=02d8e80a-4747-f111-8ef2-000d3a14b640&emdi=7f71e6c9-4b47-f111-8ef2-000d3a14b640&ceid=2927377
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When it comes to standing up to #Trump, I laud #Maine Governor #JanetMills. But when it comes to #Wabanaki #Sovereignty, building wind terminals on undeveloped islands (#SearsIsland / #Wahsumkik ), destroying untouched forests to supply #WesternMass with electricity, or building highways through farmland (#MDOT), we definitely DO NOT always see eye-to-eye!
Governor opposed to latest change to #SettlementAct backed by #WabanakiNations
by Emma Davis
Wed, April 9, 2025"Discussion of legislation to afford the Wabanaki Nations more authority over their land revealed that Gov. Janet Mills does not support the change, presenting a steep path for a plan that otherwise has bipartisan support.
"After not testifying during the public hearing last week, the governor’s counsel, Jerry Reid, told the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that Mills’ concerns stem from the inability to predict the future needs of state government, an issue also raised in written testimony from the #MaineDepartmentOfTransportation, which was made available after the hearing.
"When pressed by committee members, Reid said he doesn’t have a specific example of an infrastructure project that would warrant seizing tribal land but that, 'We need to write the law mindful of the potential for problems.'
"While Reid and Wabanaki leaders noted that progress has and continues to be made to improve the relationship between the state and Wabanaki Nations, Reid added, 'the fact that we have such a good relationship right now might not always be true.'
"The U.S. government can seize private property for public use, a principle known as eminent domain, however that authority is restricted by the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which requires just compensation for land taken, as well as some federal laws.
"The 1834 federal Indian Nonintercourse Act prohibited land transactions with tribes unless authorized by Congress. However, the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act specified that that federal law was not applicable to the #HoultonBand of #Maliseet Indians, the #PassamaquoddyTribe and the #PenobscotNation.
"This is the act that has overall resulted in the Tribes being treated more akin to #municipalities than #SovereignNations. So far, sweeping changes to the act have failed due to opposition from Mills, but the governor, lawmakers and Wabanaki leaders have successfully made some targeted adjustments, including expanding tribal authority to prosecute crimes last year.
"The legislation being considered this session, #LD958, would amend the Settlement Act to prohibit the state from exercising eminent domain on trust and reservation land, which is protected under federal law, though fee land — or private property for which the owner owns the title — would still be subject to the state taking.
"The bill would also amend the 2023 #MikmaqNationRestorationAct to make this change for the Mi’kmaq Nation, which wasn’t included in the Settlement Act.
"On Tuesday, the Taxation Committee unanimously voted in favor of a bill to ensure equal tax treatment among all of the Wabanaki Nations, which Mills supports. #LD982 would provide the #MikmaqNation the same rights to sales tax revenue on its land that the other three tribes of the Wabanaki Nations were granted in 2022 through an amendment to the Settlement Act.
State hasn’t exercised this authority in decades, but argues it’s necessary"The state hasn’t exercised eminent domain over #TribalLands since the #SettlementAct. However, testimony from Wabanaki leaders and state government officials underscore that it is a possibility."
Source:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/governor-opposed-latest-change-settlement-185134791.html#MaineSettlementAct #EminentDomain #LandTheft #FirstNations #WabanakiConfederancy
#MaineFirstNations #Maine #MainePol
#NativeAmericanNews #TribalSovereignty #SaveSmilingHillFarm #SaveTheForests #MainePol #IndigenousPeoplesDay -
Bipartisan lawmakers, Wabanaki leaders propose next change to Settlement Act
by Emma Davis
Fri, April 4, 2025"A bipartisan group of lawmakers presented legislation on Friday to prevent the state from being able to seize #Wabanaki land for public use without consultation.
"For the past several Legislative sessions, leaders of the Wabanaki Nations have worked with lawmakers to try to overhaul the 1980 #MaineIndianClaimsSettlementAct that has resulted in the tribes being treated more akin to municipalities than #SovereignNations.
"So far, sweeping change has failed due to opposition from Gov. #JanetMills, but the executive, lawmakers and Wabanaki leaders have successfully made some targeted adjustments, including expanding tribal authority to prosecute crimes last year.
"#LD958 represents the next area of focus, although an omnibus bill is still expected to be considered during the second regular session of the Legislature next year.
"Sponsored by House Minority leader Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) and bipartisan co-sponsors, LD 958 would amend the #SettlementAct and the 2023 #MikmaqNationRestorationAct — as the Mi’kmaq Nation hadn’t been included in the earlier act — to prohibit eminent domain, a protection already afforded to almost all other federally recognized tribes.
" 'Much of our land contains irreplaceable cultural, spiritual and ecological resources,' said #Passamaquoddy Tribal Rep. Aaron Dana, a co-sponsor of the bill who sits on the Judiciary Committee. 'This bill ensures those places are safeguarded and are not subject to #destruction or #appropriation. Too often in our history, our #TribalLands have been taken, divided and exploited under the guise of progress.'
"The U.S. government can seize private property for public use, known as eminent domain, however that authority is restricted by the #FifthAmendment U.S. Constitution, which requires just compensation for land taken, as well as some federal laws.
"Rep. Rachel Henderson (R-Rumford), a co-sponsor who sits on the Judiciary Committee, questioned whether the bill is in conflict with the Constitution. It is not, Faulkingham, tribal leaders and attorneys explained, because the Constitution outlines when eminent domain can be exercised but not that it can’t be further restricted.
" 'There’s nothing in the Fifth Amendment that prohibits a state from enacting laws that says we won’t do that,' Faulkingham said.
"LD 958 applies to land protected under federal law — trust and reservation land — but fee lands — private property for which the owner owns the title — would still be subject to state power of eminent domain. A constitutional amendment allows states to condemn individually owned plots within tribal reservations.
"Maine has seized Wabanaki land from the start of their intertwined histories, as the state territory today had first been inhabited by the Wabanaki people."
Read more:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/bipartisan-lawmakers-wabanaki-leaders-propose-204713964.html#MaineSettlementAct #FirstNations #WabanakiConfederancy
#MaineFirstNations #Maine #MainePol #NativeAmericanNews #LandTheft
#PenobscotNation #PassamaquoddyTribe #HoultonBand of #Maliseets #MikmaqNation #Dawnland #TribalSovereignty -
Returning land to tribes is a step towards justice and #sustainability, say #Wabanaki, #EnvironmentalActivists
by Emily Weyrauch, December 1, 2020
"Last month, the Elliotsville Foundation gave back 735 acres to the #PenobscotNation, a parcel of land that connects two Penobscot-held land plots. While this return of land is a significant milestone in terms of the work of conservation groups in Maine, it also reflects a larger shift in thinking about land ownership, from property and caretaking toward #IndigenousStewardship.
"Before European settlers arrived, the land in Maine was stewarded by the Wabanaki people—a confederacy of five nations including Penobscot, #Passamaquoddy, #Maliseet, #Mikmaq and #Abenaki.
"Early treaties between Indigenous tribes and settlers were signed, but not upheld. Early Maine court cases set the precedent for #LandTheft. The state legally prohibited treaty obligations from being published in its constitution. Ever since the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act, the state government has significantly limited tribes’ sovereignty and access to ancestral lands. Now, the Maine legislature is preparing to take up a bill that would make 22 law changes to the 1980 act to promote Wabanaki sovereignty and correct the impacts of the 40-year-old piece of legislation that placed Wabanaki people in a separate category from other federally-recognized tribes.
"Currently, a vast majority—90 percent—of land in Maine is privately owned, unlike in states like Nevada, Utah and Idaho, where the vast majority of land is owned by the U.S. government. Less than one percent of Maine land is owned by #Wabanaki people.
"To many Indigenous people, the legacy of white-led conservation groups in Maine and nationwide represents a failure of true environmental stewardship.
"'Across the country, land conservation groups and land trusts participated in depopulating, cutting off Indigenous access to certain lands and resources,' said Dr. Darren Ranco, associate professor of Anthropology and coordinator of Native American Research at the University of Maine.
"Dr. Ranco said that the history of environmental protection in the U.S. starts in the 19th century and focuses on two movements: conservation and preservation.
" 'On the one hand, you have people saying, ‘You want to use the public lands wisely’ — and that often led to extreme forms of exploitation through oil and gas contracts. The other side of it was, ‘Let’s just keep it wild and preserve it as-is, as a wild space,' " said Dr. Ranco, who is a member of the Penobscot Nation. 'Ironically, both of those approaches in the 19th century sought to displace Indigenous people.'
" 'A lot of the [conservation] practices in the past actually marginalized native people, and didn’t allow for their voice to be heard, and discouraged their voices,' said Suzanne Greenlaw, a #Maliseet forestry scientist and PhD student at the University of Maine.
" 'The native approach is very much in the center—we do harvest, but we harvest in a sustainable way that actually forms a relationship with the resource,” said Greenlaw, who conducts research on the sustainable harvesting of sweetgrass by Indigenous people.
"In fact, the way that Indigenous people understand land is markedly different from western ideas of ownership.
" 'The idea of private property puts us in this framing where the land, the water, and the air, and the animals, and everything else—all our relations—are meant to serve us, they are things below us, things to dominate and control and take ownership over,' said Lokotah Sanborn, a Penobscot activist.
" 'For us, it would be absurd to say ‘I own my grandmother,’ or ‘I own my cousin,’ or ‘I own my brother.’ You don’t talk about things like that. And so when we’re talking about land ownership, it’s that same idea —these are our relations, these are things that hold a lot of significance to us,' said Sanborn.
"While the planet’s Indigenous people make up less than five percent of the global population, they manage 25 percent of its land and support 80 percent of global biodiversity, research shows.
" 'We’ve been led down this path toward climate catastrophe and the extinction of millions of species, all to drive #ExtractiveIndustries,' said Sanborn. 'If we wish to reverse these things, we need to give land back into the hands of Indigenous peoples and to respect our ability to protect those lands,' said Sanborn.
"This growing recognition of Wabanaki #stewardship is part of the mission of First Light, a group that serves to connect Wabanaki people with conservation organizations who seek to expand Wabanaki access to land. Currently, 50 organizations are participating, including #MaineAudubon and #TheNatureConservancy.
"Lucas St. Clair, president of the Elliotsville Foundation, participated in First Light’s year-long educational program before fulfilling a request by #JohnBanks, Natural Resources Director for the Penobscot Nation, to return the 735-acre property to the Penobscot Nation. This comes four years after the foundation gave 87,500 acres of land to the federal government for the establishment of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. St. Clair said the foundation currently holds 35,000 acres of land.
" 'In the grand scheme of things, this is not a lot of land,' said St. Clair, about the foundation’s recent transfer of 735 acres. 'It was more about justice, relationship-building and awareness.'
" 'You see this move toward Indigenous knowledge and practices of management and conservation that have existed for hundreds of years, and this possibility with land conservation groups and Wabanaki people having a more central role in understanding and managing the lands is coming to the fore,' said Dr. Ranco.
"And while organizations undergo the learning and transformational processes that precede giving back land, and as the legislature and courts are taking up questions of Wabanaki sovereignty and stewardship, people are working on the ground everyday to re-imagine relationships with land.
"Alivia Moore, a Penobscot community organizer with the #EasternWoodlands #Rematriation collective, said that a crucial part of the work of expanding Indigenous access to land in Maine is recognizing and restoring the history of matriarchal Indigenous societies.
" 'To restore land to Indigenous #matriarchies is to make sure that everybody has what they need on and from the earth. There’s enough for everyone,' said Moore
"With #EasternWoodlandsRematriation, Indigenous people are growing their connections to #RegenerativeFoodSystems. Whereas cultural use agreements are more formal ways Indigenous people can access resources from the private land of people and organizations, Moore said other relationships can form and strengthen even informally.
"Years ago, a white farmer offered land to Indigenous women to use for farming to restore their connection to the land. That has been an ongoing relationship that became one of mutual exchange of information and resources, shared learning and shared meals, said Moore.
"The movement to give land back to Indigenous stewardship is not confined to a single organization, legal battle, or project. For Indigenous people—and a growing number of environmental organizations—it is a step toward justice and a sustainable future.
"'Land back is not just about righting past wrongs. The point of land back is that it’s the future, if we wish to adequately address and avoid further global devastation from climate change,' said Sanborn."
#LandBack #WabanakiConfederacy #Wabanakik #WabanakiAlliance #MaineFirstNations #Maine #TraditionalEcologicalKnowledge #IndigenousPeoplesDay
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Behind #Israel’s ‘end game’ for #Gaza: Theft of #OffshoreGas reserves
By Betsey Piette
November 14, 2023"In 1999, #BritishGas (BG) discovered the existence of natural gas in the #GazaMarineFields, 20 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza, at a depth of 610 meters below the surface. Further exploration by BG through two successful wells — Gaza Marine 1 and Gaza Marine 2 — determined the field could contain up to 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. (EgyptOil-Gas.com, April 5, 2018)
[Fast forward to 2022...]
"On June 18, [2022], Israel gave preliminary approval for the development of a gas field off the coast of Gaza, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming progress would hinge on 'preserving the State of Israel’s security and diplomatic needs' and coordination with the Palestinian Authority and neighboring Egypt. At the same time, Hamas official Ismail Rudwan told Reuters: 'We reaffirm that our people in Gaza have the rights to their natural resources.'
"Two months before Oct. 7, [2023], the Pentagon began building a $35.8 million troop facility in Israel’s #NegevDesert, 20 miles from Gaza, allegedly as a radar site to monitor for missile attacks on Israel. The base is part of a 'secret' U.S. military presence in Israel. (The Intercept, Oct. 27)
"Since Oct. 7, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made it clear that Israel intends to kill as many Palestinians as possible in order to pressure others to leave the Gaza Strip and move to the Sinai in Egypt.
"Netanyahu has been adamant in refusing to order a cease-fire to let in aid to stop the horrific genocide being carried out in Gaza.
"The people of Gaza are well aware, as their grandparents experienced with the 1948 Nakba, that once Israelis forcefully remove Palestinians from Palestinian land, returning is a near impossibility.
"Israel’s genocidal war on Palestinians has not stopped the Israeli regime’s plans for further oil and gas exploration. On Oct. 29, Israel announced that it awarded 12 licenses for exploring additional offshore natural gas fields to six companies, including #BritishPetroleum and Italian energy giant #Eni. These awards show that Israel has no intention of letting the genocide it is carrying out against Gaza’s people interfere with its ongoing theft of Palestinian resources."
Read more:
https://iacenter.org/2023/11/15/behind-israels-end-game-for-gaza-theft-of-offshore-gas-reserves/
#BigOilAndGas #BP #BG #Genocide #LandTheft #FreePalestine #GazaGenocide #Genocide #BibiIsAWarCriminal #IsraeliWarCrimes #KamalAdwanHospital #HumanRightsAreNeverWrong #StopArmingIsrael #IDF #GenevaConvention #HumanRightsViolations #NoWar #WorldWarBibi #GazaGasFields -
Here’s what’s at stake for #Indigenous peoples at #COP28
Negotiations happen behind closed doors, but for Indigenous peoples, “a lot of work happens in the hallways.”
by Anita Hofschneider, Nov 29, 2023
“Ozawa Bineshi Albert wants the world to stop relying on #FossilFuels. So last year, the co-executive director of #ClimateJusticeAlliance flew from the U.S. to Egypt to make her voice heard at COP27, the international conference on climate change where world leaders gather to negotiate new commitments to battle the #ClimateCrisis.
”But at COP27, Albert, who is Anishinaabe and Yuchi, noticed that Indigenous peoples like herself were outnumbered by fossil fuel #lobbyists. She was also struck by how many people touted #nuclear energy as an alternative to burning #oil and #gas.
'#Nuclear is one of the most dirty, damaging energy sources, particularly for #IndigenousPeople,' she thought. 'It touches Indigenous communities all along its lifecycle from where it gets #mined, to where it gets #processed, to where #NuclearPower plants are placed, to where #NuclearWaste gets stored.'
“That observation was just one indication of how the perspectives, and experiences, of Indigenous peoples aren’t always reflected in the broader #EnvironmentalMovement. As COP28 kicks off in the United Arab Emirates this week, hundreds of Indigenous advocates are making their way to Dubai with the hope of ensuring that their communities aren’t overlooked by global leaders.
“Though the conference doesn’t officially begin until Thursday, the work has already started. Jennifer Tauli Corpuz is Kankanaey-Igorot from the Philippines and is managing director of policy at Nia Tero. She spent eight hours Tuesday in an auditorium with about 350 fellow members of the #IndigenousPeoplesCaucus, a delegation representing Native peoples, working on the details of a two-minute opening statement that the Caucus will be allowed to give during COP28’s opening ceremony. Corpuz says it’s not easy to distill everyone’s perspectives and issues into such a short statement and the work required interpreters in five languages.
“Apart from ending fossil fuel reliance, Indigenous advocates at COP28 want to ensure that funding to offset the impacts of #ClimateChange reaches their communities; ensure Indigenous knowledge is seen as a solution to climate change; and prevent governments and private actors from violating their rights, especially as those actors pursue #GreenEnergy projects.
“Corpuz said the caucus plans to approve advocacy papers outlining their positions Wednesday. Then comes the work of convincing negotiators to listen. But it’s not easy.
“The estimated 350 Indigenous peoples at COP28 is an attendance record for Native advocates, but it’s still far fewer than the 600 fossil fuel lobbyists who attended COP27 last year. As well, the most important work at the conference, negotiating the exact language of international climate change treaties, gets done behind closed doors among designated representatives from United Nations member countries.
“Corpuz estimates that perhaps 20 of the 350 #IndigenousPeople at COP28 this week have government badges that allow them access to negotiations. But even then, because they aren’t credentialed delegates representing a negotiating party, they are only able to watch and listen, not speak, she said.
“Still, it’s an improvement over past years when Indigenous peoples’ representatives were locked out from even more rooms, said Corpuz. At least now Indigenous representatives will be able to hear the details of the negotiations, the perspectives of international representatives, and carry the information back for advocates to lobby government delegates. 'A lot of the work of the Indigenous Caucus happens in the hallways,' Corpuz said.
“A key question that’s expected to be decided this year is how much money wealthy nations like the U.S. should pay in order to cover the costs of climate disasters in the Global South, an initiative known as the loss and damage fund. One study estimates that nations in the Global North are responsible for 92% of excess carbon emissions each year, compared with 8% in the Global South.
“‘What’s at stake is how these finance mechanisms are going to impact and be accessible to Indigenous communities and other impacted communities, how they will be funded, and to what levels will they be funded,' Albert said. 'And will those resources actually get to communities and not be taken up by agencies that will administer them?'
“Eriel Deranger of the #Athabasca #Chipewyan #FirstNation in #Canada and executive director of Indigenous Climate Action, thinks that it makes sense that wealthy countries would be paying for climate impacts, but Deranger also wants the money to be available to Indigenous people no matter what country they live in due to already extreme climate impacts, many of which are exacerbated by #colonization and #LandTheft .
“‘If Canada, for example, or the U.S. is contributing to the loss and damage fund and we don’t have access to it as Indigenous people in North America or in the Global North, where are we going to see those kind of climate reparations and restitution for the damages that we are facing from the climate crisis?' Deranger asked.
“But money is only part of the equation, said Kandi White, a citizen of the #Mandan, #Hidatsa, and #Arikara Nations in the U.S. and program director at the Indigenous Environmental Network, which sent a 25-member delegation to Dubai. 'For Indigenous peoples, it’s not just about the money, but it’s also about the return of our #sovereignty over our lands,' said White.
“That sovereignty has been threatened by #landgrabs, including recent #landdeals between a #UnitedArabEmirates company and five #African nations for the #CarbonCredit trade, White said. The land deals were touted as a way to help conserve land and offset #pollution, but White is concerned about whether the Indigenous people living there truly #consented to the plan as well as how they’ll be affected. It’s part of a broader pattern of conservation deals that are creating conflict in Indigenous territories around the world.
“Both Deranger and White, who are in Dubai this week, also hope to establish a grievance procedure through which Indigenous peoples whose rights are infringed upon could hold governments accountable. 'We need there to not just be lip service of, ‘We recognize Indigenous rights,’ but we need to see language that has teeth,' Deranger said.
“But securing that level of accountability may be an uphill battle. Even when world leaders make promises, they don’t always fulfill them: wealthy countries blew a 2020 deadline to spend $100 billion a year to help poorer nations cope with climate impacts and make progress toward #decarbonization. One study suggested that goal may have been met last year, two years late, even as the world hurtles toward 3 degrees of warming.
“The combined challenges—a lack of access to negotiating tables and tepid commitments by global leaders—have fueled disillusionment. Moñeka De Oro, who is Chamorro from the Mariana Islands and co-executive director of the #Micronesia Climate Change Alliance, says that last year at COP some Indigenous Caucus members discussed boycotting the convention, 'no longer being a part of these processes that continuously degrade our input,' she said.
“De Oro recently helped draft a declaration for peace, unity and climate justice in the Pacific to be read at COP that called for a future free of #colonialism and #militarization. But as much as she believes in that message, she joined a boycott of this year’s convention with Grassroots Global Justice Alliance protesting the Israeli government’s war on Gaza, and questions whether to attend future meetings.
"'If you’re going to continue to continuously be ignored and continuously be just erased from the entire process, I don’t know how much longer we want to be complicit in attending these sorts of things,' she said.
“The power imbalances can be discouraging but Ozawa Bineshi Albert still feels determined.
“‘#COP is not a place that we go to thinking we’re going to get everything we want,' she said. To her, the overarching question is: 'How can we make sure that we at least hold the line and make sure the least amount of damage and the least amount of harm is caused to frontline and Indigenous communities?’”
#IndigenousRights #ClimateJustice #IndigenousConsent #EnvironmentalRacism #BigOilAndGas
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How to #decolonize your #Thanksgiving dinner in observance of #NationalDayofMourning
Meredith Clark
Wed, November 22, 2023"Thanksgiving is almost upon us, a time when many #Americans gather together to eat turkey and talk about what they’re most thankful for. Growing up in the #UnitedStates, almost everyone can recall the 'First Thanksgiving' story they were told in elementary school: how the local #Wampanoag #NativeAmericans sat down with the #pilgrims of #Plymouth Colony in 1621, in what is now present-day #Massachusetts, for a celebratory feast.
"However, this story is far from the truth - which is why many people opt out of celebrating the controversial holiday.
"For many #Indigenous communities throughout the US, Thanksgiving remains a National Day of Mourning - a reminder of the devastating #genocide and #displacement that occurred at the hands of European #colonisers following their arrival in the Americas.
"Every year since 1970, #IndigenousPeople and their allies have even gathered near #PlymouthRock to commemorate a National #DayOfMourning on the day of Thanksgiving. 'Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands, and the erasure of Native cultures,' states the official website for the United American Indians of New England. 'Participants in National Day of Mourning honour Indigenous #ancestors and Native resilience. It is a day of #remembrance and #spiritual connection, as well as a #protest against the #racism and #oppression that Indigenous people continue to experience #worldwide.'
"This year, the 54th annual National Day of Mourning takes place on 23 November - the same day as Thanksgiving. While not everyone can support the event in person, there are still many ways people can raise awareness toward issues affecting Indigenous communities from wherever they are - by '#decolonising' their Thanksgiving dinner.
"#Decolonisation can be defined as the active resistance against #settlerColonialism and a shifting of power towards Indigenous sovereignty. Of course, it’s difficult to define decolonisation without putting it into practice, writes Eve Tuck and K Wayne Yang in their essay, #Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor. Rather, one of the most radical and necessary moves toward decolonisation requires imagining and enacting a future for Indigenous peoples - a future based on terms of their own making.
"Matt Hooley is an assistant professor in the department of Native American and Indigenous Studies at Dartmouth College, where he teaches about US colonial powers and Indigenous cultural production. 'Decolonisation is a beautiful and difficult political horizon that should guide our actions everyday, including during holidays like Thanksgiving,' he tells The Independent. 'Of course, Thanksgiving is a particularly relevant holiday to think about decolonisation because the way many people celebrate it involves connecting ‘the family’ to a colonial myth in which colonialism is inaccurately imagined as a peaceful event in the past.'
"By decolonising our Thanksgiving, we can celebrate the holiday with new traditions that honour a future in which Indigenous people are celebrated. This year, we can start by understanding the real history behind Thanksgiving as told by actual Indigenous communities.
"While Americans mainly dedicate one day a year to give thanks, Indigenous communities express gratitude every day with the #Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address - often called: 'The words that come before all else.' The Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address is the central prayer and invocation for the #HaudenosauneeConfederacy, which comprises the #SixNations - #Mohawk, #Oneida, #Onondaga, #Cayuga, #Seneca, and #Tuscarora. When one recites the Thanksgiving Address, they’re giving thanks for all life and the natural world around them.
"According to Hooley, one of the most straightforward actions people can take to decolonise their Thanksgiving includes supporting Indigenous land acknowledgments and land back movements. #LandBack is an ongoing Indigenous-led movement which seeks to return ancestral lands to Indigenous people and the recognition of Indigenous #sovereignty. While the movement is nowhere near new, it received international attention in 2016 during protests against the #DakotaAccesSPipeline - which continues to disrupt land and #water sources belonging to the #StandingRockSioux Tribe.
"This year, sit down with family and friends to discuss an action plan and highlight the concrete steps you plan on taking to support Indigenous communities. 'Another, even simpler way would be to begin participating in what’s called a ‘Voluntary Land Tax,’ whereby non-Indigenous people contribute a recurring tax to the tribal communities whose land you occupy,' said Hooley.
"Food is perhaps the most important part of the Thanksgiving holiday, with turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes taking center stage. However, there are many ways we can make sure our dinner tables honour Indigenous futurisms too. Donald A Grinde, Jr is a professor emeritus in the department of Africana and American Studies at the University at Buffalo. Grinde - who is a member of the #YamasseeNation - tells The Independent that crops such as #corn, #beans, #squash, #tomatoes, and #potatoes are central to #IndigenousHistory and future.
"'A good thing is to be thankful for the abundance in the fall and note that Native people created over 60 percent of modern #agricultural #crops,' he said. 'People can be thankful for the crops that Native people created, #medicines created, and traditions about #democracy, #WomensRights and #environmental rights.'
"Rather than buying food from major corporations this year, Hooly also recommended people consciously source their Thanksgiving dinner from Indigenous producers. 'Industrial agriculture is one of the most devastating contributors to the destruction of land and water everywhere, including on Indigenous land,' he said. 'Instead of buying food grown or made by colonial corporations, people could buy their food from Indigenous producers, or even simply make a greater effort to buy locally grown food or not to buy meat harvested from industrial farms.'
"Thanksgiving is just a day away. While it’s important that we’re actively working toward highlighting Indigenous communities on this special holiday, decolonisation efforts are something that should be done year-round.
"'People can also learn about political priorities of the Indigenous communities near them and support those priorities by speaking to their representatives, participating in a protest, or by making sure that their local school and library boards are including Indigenous texts in local community education,' Hooley said."
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/decolonize-thanksgiving-dinner-observance-national-213225020.html
#Decolonization #CorporateColonialism #LandTheft #CulturalGenocide #CulturalPreservation