Indigenous in Iraq

This is an issue in Iraq we almost never hear about:

The Senate Appropriations Full Committee legislated support for Iraq's indigenous Assyrians, including Chaldeans and Syriacs. The Full Committee supports the Art. 125 process towards the establishment of a province in the Nineveh Plain. Policy submitted by Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL), received Full Committee support, asserting:

The Committee continues to recognize the importance of providing targeted assistance to ethno-religious minorities in Iraq to help ensure their continued survival, especially those living in the Ninevah Plains region. The Committee directs the Department of State to submit a report, not later than 90 days after enactment of this act, detailing U.S. efforts to help these communities, including assistance consistent with Article 125 of the Iraqi Constitution; assistance in building an indigenous community police force in the Ninevah Plains; and efforts to support NGOs in the region.

Brazil Approves Mega-Dam, Displacing 40,000 People

Dam building seems to be one of the most consistent threats to Indigenous lands; Brazil just approved a new mega-dam project in the Amazon.

In the face of fierce opposition from indigenous peoples, social movements and scientists, IBAMA issued an environmental licence on 1 June, which will enable the Norte Energia consortium to start construction work.

COIAB, an alliance representing many indigenous organizations in Brazil’s Amazon said it ‘rejected IBAMA’s decision vehemently and with profound indignation’, stating that the government will not consult with indigenous peoples and treats their interests with ‘an authoritarianism never before seen in our young democracy…. In truth it wants to destroy indigenous communities with its model of development.’

This photo, of "Chief Raoni crying when he learned that the President of Brazil approved the Belo Monte dam project on the Xingu indigenous lands," really is worth a thousand words in getting across how devastating this is for the communities, and honestly just breaks my heart.

Israel - Palestine

It's all about indigeneity and who gets to define it. A photo essay "delineating the borders and porous entries between spaces.''

Individual Voices:Israelis and Palestinians on how the two sides can share the Holy City.

Wampanoag Powwow in Bermuda

In 1675-1676, during and after King Philip's War (that link goes to Jill Lepore's book The Name of War, which is an excellent read), victorious colonists sold members of the defeated Wampanoag tribe into slavery in Barbados. (Slave owners and traders tended to prefer slaves who were not native to any given area, as it decreased the likelihood of successful escapes.) Centuries later, the descendants of those Wampanoag people still celebrate their Native American heritage.

"Development" and Human Rights Abuses

An independent United Nations expert has released a report detailing current problems facing Indigenous populations; resource extraction and "development" projects are "the most significant sources of abuse of [Indigenous peoples'] human rights worldwide":

“In its prevailing form, the model for advancing with natural resource extraction within the territories of indigenous peoples appears to run counter to the self-determination of indigenous peoples in the political, social and economic spheres,” the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples James Anaya told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Anaya also pointed out that more understanding of Indigenous concerns could help resolve some of these conflicts.

“The lack of a minimum common ground for understanding the key issues by all actors concerned entails a major barrier for the effective protection and realization of indigenous peoples’ rights,” he added, praising a new Peruvian law compelling private companies to consult indigenous communities before going ahead with major projects such as mining.

Cherokee Freedmen Agreement Reached

Apparently, the Cherokee Nation, the Freedmen, and the U.S. government have reached an agreement on the issue of citizenship for the Cherokee Freedmen.

"We've agreed to everything," Freedmen attorney Jonathan Velie said. "We've agreed upon an order between the Cherokee Freedmen, Cherokee Nation, the (federal) government ... to essentially reinstate the citizens into the Cherokee Nation, so that they may vote equally with fellow Cherokee citizens."

The agreement was reached as a preliminary hearing was held in federal court in Washington, D.C. to decide whether the September 24 election for principal chief of the 300,000-member Cherokee tribe could proceed without Freedmen votes.

102-Year-Old Athabascan Matriarch Passes Away

Hannah Solomon was a living part of history.

The longtime parishioner and respected Native leader died peacefully at her Fairbanks home late Friday afternoon with family members by her side. "It's time," she said, in her Native Gwich'in language, before taking her last breath, daughter Daisy Stevens said.

Born on Oct. 10, 1908, in Old Rampart, a remote community on the Porcupine River near the Canada border, and raised in Fort Yukon, Hannah's life experience is unmatched by few living today.

She grew up living a traditional subsistence lifestyle, which meant moving around to seasonal trapping and fish camps.

...Recently, during one of her daily visits to see her mother, Varner said Hannah told her of a dream that foretold her death. "I was sitting on a stump on the bank of the Yukon River. It was so beautiful all around, and then I saw people walking by with their heads down and I wondered why they were so sad. And then I saw a coffin and I wondered why they were so sad, because I was so happy."

Bringing a Language Back to Life

Reviving a language that's no longer spoken? It's possible - one child is even being raised with it as her first language!

According to literature from the project, “Recognizing that the colonists preferred” written documents, the native people of Cape Cod “became the first American Indians in the English-speaking New World to develop and use an alphabetic writing system…to record personal letters, wills, deeds, and land transfers amongst each other and between communities.”

Ironically, the very method that the settlers used against the natives has become a tool for the reclamation. Court documents use written Wampanoag language, and those records allow scholars of the language to deduce rules of grammar and vocabulary.

Sounds like a fascinating project on a lot of levels.

Blood Quantum Issues

A very interesting blog post over at the National Museum of the American Indian blog, written by NMAI cultural specialist Dennis Zotigh, about blood quantum and determining tribal identity.

A colleague and I were discussing tribes that use blood quantum to determine their membership. She said, "Tribes that do this are setting themselves up for extinction. Eventually intermarriage will wipe fixed blood quantum out.” I totally agree with her: under the current blood quantum of my own tribal membership, my future grandchildren will not qualify to be members. As an American Indian and tribal member, this concerns me.

My colleague said her tribe recently opened up their membership for new members including new babies, people who moved out of state, etc. In order to become a new member each person seeking enrollment had to answer, historical, cultural, and family questions that pertained to the tribe's identity. For newborns, their parents had to answer these questions.

It was this tribe’s belief that if prospective members were connected to their community roots, they would know the answers to the tribe’s questions. Individuals who moved away and did not maintain any connection to their tribal community were not able to answer the questions and were refused membership, regardless of blood quantum. Perhaps this is one alternative that tribes will consider to replace blood quantum requirements.

Worth reading in full - and keep an eye out for the podcast of Friday's conference session on this. I have it marked in my calendar already.

Faultlines of Sovereignty, Race, and Citizenship: Cherokee Freedmen

The issue of the Cherokee Freedmen is one of the more interesting intersections of sovereignty, racism, treaty rights, and tribal identity. The Freedmen are African Americans who are descended from slaves owned by Cherokees; the Cherokee Nation granted them citizenship after the U.S. Civil War, as part of its articles of surrender. (Though there were Cherokees on both the Union and the Confederate sides, the Cherokee Nation as a whole was considered part of the Confederacy.)

In 2007, the Cherokee Nation voted to approve a constitutional amendment restricting citizenship to people who could prove descent from a Cherokee ancestor, which essentially terminated the citizenship of most Cherokee Freedmen. The battle over their Cherokee citizenship has gone back and forth through many courts (both tribal and federal), and this past week, the U.S. Federal Government demanded that the Cherokee Nation reinstate the citizenship of members who were descended from Cherokee-owned slaves. Chad Smith, the current Principal Chief of the Cherokees, has voiced his support for removing the Freedmen's citizenship, as Indian Country Today explains:

Smith wrote and spoke publicly in support of the 2007 constitutional amendment to remove freedmen from Cherokee Nation citizenship rolls if they had no documentable Indian blood. “Cherokees are Indians,” he wrote in a March 9, 2007 Indian Country Today editorial. “They are the indigenous and aboriginal people of this land and there is a commonality of history, language, heritage and culture. It finally came to a point that non-Indians were claiming to be Cherokee when, in fact, they are not. So the vote was an affirmation of identity as Indian for those voting.”

Representatives of the Cherokee Freedmen strongly disagreed:

“I think it’s a huge injustice,” said Marilyn Vann, Cherokee Freedmen and president of the Descendants of Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes Association. “Number one, the freedmen people have citizenship based on the 1866 treaty. Our ancestors helped build up the tribe. [Citizenship] was something promised by the U.S. government and the tribal government, just as every nation that has enslaved or [colonized] people has brought those minorities into their society. Ancient Rome; the U.S. with the blacks in the Deep South; Romania, which enslaved Gypsies—they’ve all done it. That’s only the right and proper thing to do.”

This issue shows the multiple fault lines that exist when we talk about membership, citizenship, sovereignty, indigeneity, and national belonging. (It is also connected to an ongoing tribal election in the Cherokee nation, but that's a whole other story.)

Malaysian Indigenous Tribes Lose Case Against Dam

Indigenous tribes in Malaysia brought a lawsuit against the seizure of their lands to make way for a giant hydroelectric dam. The nation's highest court decided that their eviction was legal and did not violate their rights.

"It is an unfair decision. I have not been fully compensated," said Ngajang Midin, 50, of the Ukit tribe, as tears rolled down his face. He has already moved to higher ground and the multi-billion-dollar dam has begun operations.

"My cocoa and pepper trees are underwater. My ancestors' graves are buried under the sea of water," he said.

About 15,000 people were forcibly relocated to make room for the dam and a reservoir about the size of Singapore, which began generating power last month. Many have made an unhappy transition to life in drab resettlement areas, and representatives of the evicted indigenous people launched a series of legal appeals.

Colin Nicholas, founder and coordinator of the Center for Orang Asli Concerns -- whose name uses the Malay term for indigenous people -- said..."The fear now is these people will become internal refugees because they can be forced to relocate," he said.

Sounds familiar - Chippewa Flowage anyone?

Language Politics in Australia

In Australia's Northern Territory,

Almost three-quarters of the 1300 Aboriginal children who enter Northern Territory schools each year are from families where languages other than English are spoken in the home.

The Northern Territory Government recently revised its law on English-only instruction during the first four hours of the school day, allowing for flexibility in deciding what language young children are taught in.

Under the draft policy, bilingual schools would be able to continue teaching in Indigenous languages during the first four hours of each day. English will now be regarded as an additional language rather than the primary language is some schools.

There has been a considerable amount of debate on this issue; some articles to get you started are Early language support for Indigenous school learning success and English off pedestal in remote language schooling.