Gault, Mia

"America is Not a New World"

This drawn interpretation displays the event of Christopher Columbus interacting with Indigenous people for the first time. Image and information gathered from Digital Public Library of America.

Citizens in America often question why there are many problematic issues within the institutions of this nation. It’s probably because it resides on an ancient burial ground, where the foundations were built upon destroying millions of lives for a corrupt patriarchy. Whitewashed American history has created a society of people to believe that the land millions of Americans currently reside upon was achieved equally and freely among collaboration between European settlers and Indigenous peoples.

The History.com video delivers context to understanding the concept of Manifest Destiny. The photos to the left portray the initial interactions of Manifest Destiny with Indigenous people while the one below shows a photo referring to Manifest Destiny being reborn in the 1890s.

As Indigenous people continue to speak out about the reality of the genocide, Americans can see the tragedy of what Indigenous peoples lost due to the ideology of manifest destiny. Many Indigenous authors, such as Qwo-Li Driskill, express their traumatic experiences of living in America to show the truly horrific issues of having to deal with colonization. Based upon the argument of Qwo-Li Driskill, Indigenous people were stolen from their homes and stolen from their bodies due to not only the disruptions of their foundations in the past, but also how restoration is still to come to this day.

European colonizers venturing upon the Americas. Information gathered by Eupedia.

With the progress Indigenous people have had to fight for and continue to strive for to fight against injustice, it is important to analyze the foundations of what they have had to fight against because of colonization. Prior to European colonization in America, Europeans nearly had a precise colonization format.

As discussed in the novel An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, the author discusses how colonizers had conquered Northern Africa and parts of the Middle East by means of “relocation, deportation, and expropriation” (p. 33). Colonizers in these areas stole Native people from their nations to bring to the Americas while also taking valuable resources made of gold and silver to use as money. Colonizers had a system of stealing, which should have never have belonged to them, and brought that conception of power to the Americas, where they stole the land and the everyday lifestyle that Indigenous people went by.

Novel cover for An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.

Also mentioned in this novel is the idea of privatization of land, which stole Indigenous land right from their hands. European settlers brought in privatization in order to make Indigenous people out to be as “lazy, violent and stupid” (p.35). Indigenous people have strong connections with the Earth and forcing Indigenous people off of their native land just to make them pay for it disrupts their spiritual connection.

This illustration shows the impact of cultural Imperalism between a man and his son. The father still remains dressed in his Indigenous clothing while his son has adapted to colonized norms. Information gathered by Wikipedia.

Professor Whatcott mentioned how Indigenous men and women were stolen from their bodies by elaborating on the idea of Cultural Imperialism (p. 17). Professor Whatcott mentioned that “cultural imperialism imposed ideas about the body”, which ultimately forced Indigenous peoples to adapt to settler societal norms and lose touch with their representation. This is most tragic to learn that people had to lose a part of themselves because of what society forced them to do.

This photo displays two Two-Spirited people. Information provided by Indian Country Today.

Many members of Indigenous groups who may have been Two-Spirited people lost a sense of themselves by being shamed for having a different view on sexuality than what colonizers forced them to believe. By analyzing the history of colonization, this continues to support Qwo-Li Driskill’s argument that Indigenous people were stolen from their land and from their bodies, and how Indigenous people continue to face these injustices in the present.

Everything that Indigenous people had to deal with in the past of having their land and their sense of self stolen from them still has yet to be returned for many Indigenous people. They have had to unfortunately struggle with being involved back into everyday life because of their unfair and demoralizing treatment from the system instituted into this nation. As seen in the Beyond Recognition documentary, the Ohlone people have been displaced and gentrified in their city along with other members of their community, including veterans and homeless people. It is extremely disturbing to see people whose families originate from their own land are not granted the land that they first stood upon.

Logo and brand image provided by the Land Trust Alliance in partners with Ethos Project.

Thankfully, in order to fight the colonization and gentrification front for the Ohlone people, the documentary also discusses a non-profit organization called the Land Trust, which reinvisions the hope for conservation and restoration of Indigenous Ohlone land to prevent more extensive colonization.

To further discuss the importance of resisting colonization, there is also a means of reversing colonization. In Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy’s lecture, she discusses that the best way to decolonize is to give the land back to Indigenous people. If there is anything to take away from this is that the way to apologize to Indigenous people is to give back what was forcefully stolen from them. This continues to support Qwo-Li Driskill’s argument that Indigenous people were stolen from their land and from their bodies and this idea of decolonization can help restore what they lost.

Native and Indigenous Healing Garden at San Diego State University. Photo taken by Mia Gault and source information and site provided by SDSU.

Overall, it is apparent that Indigenous people’s ways of living and viewing themselves were violently and immorally stolen from them for the sake of building a “new world”. It is extremely disturbing to hear what American colonizers did to Indigenous people and it is also extremely disturbing that people continue to support this inexcusable behavior and thought process. Americans have an engrained idea of what it means to be a proud American and be proud of what foundations this nation has been built on, but American citizens should not normalize cultural appropriation and genocide as something to be proud of. Whitewashed American history has convinced much of the population to not give the proper respect that Indigenous people deserve in their own land. Americans need to do work towards educating themselves and to return what they stole.

Gabrielino-Tongva Land Acknowledgement

This map shows the territories that belonged to the Gabrielino-Tongva tribes. Information gathered from Native-land.ca.

This land acknowledgement is to give accreditation, respect, and overall aims to educate those who may accidentally or intentionally stand in the light of ignorance. The land that we currently reside upon in Orange County, California belongs to the Gabrielino-Tongva tribes. Their land ranges into the Los Angeles Basin area and also contains the Santa Catalina, Santa Barbara, San Clemente, and San Nicolas Islands. To first start off this land acknowledgement, it is important to look at the past history of the Gabrielino-Tongva tribes and how they were overtaken by Spanish soldiers. It is of concern to recognize that Spanish soldiers forced members of the Gabrielino-Tongva tribes to build the Spanish Mission system and helped build the San Gabriel Mission located in San Gabriel, California. While also being forced to build these missions, women and children of the Gabrielino-Tongva people were raped by these Spanish soldiers and also were dismantling their system of living. Amidst all of this tragedy, the Gabrielino-Tongva tribe has struggled with proper representation and still does to this day. Through this land acknowledgement, it is important to focus on what needs to be done for them currently.

This screenshot represents the cover page of "The Constitution of the Gabrielino-Tongva Nation". Information gathered from Gabrielino-Tongva.com

This land acknowledgement also encourages an emphasis on what to do currently for the Gabrielino-Tongva tribes. It is important to make sure that one’s state government representatives are giving the proper respect to the Gabrielino-Tongva nation as well as to the other Indigenous peoples in the state of California. Along with supporting proper representation of the Gabrielino-Tongva tribes in local and state government positions, it should be of utmost importance to support the Constitution of the Gabrielino-Tongva nation recently amended on February 22, 2020. In their constitution, they ask for the California state government to recognize their traditional name as Tongva and Gabrielino as the name given by the Spanish conquistadors. Other mentions in this land acknowledgement are to ensure that members of the Gabrielino-Tongva people have accurate representation by documentation of lineage. While writing this, I want to use this to acknowledge my ignorance to this issue but how I will no longer allow myself to coalign with societal norms of ignoring what settlers did to Indigenous people. This land acknowledgement is to show that there are resources to educate oneself on this problematic history and hopefully that people will truly decide to educate themselves instead of ignoring what could be right in front of them.

References

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