Lopez, Fatima

Indigenous People: Stolen From Their Homes and Bodies

The indigenous people have been on an ongoing fight for decolonization for many years now. When colonizers came to their land they stripped them off everything, even their culture. Forcing them to adapt to their way of life and beliefs, not being able to practice their own beliefs. Even when they were forced to do all of this, they still weren’t seen as equal by colonizers. Today they are fighting to gain recognition and to get acknowledgment for the lands they once belonged to because even though they were shut down years ago, they never stopped practicing who they really were. Indigenous people were stolen from their lands and from their bodies, forced to be and live a life that they didn’t agree with.

Indigenous people were stolen from their homes when colonization began to take place in their lands. They weren’t the kind of people who would willingly leave their customs and culture since it was sacred to them, so something happened for them to do so. According to Jess Whatcott in lecture 5, the Spanish padres would get the California Indians to live in the missions by terrorizing them with Spanish soldiers and destroying all their resources. This forced them to seek help from the missions in which they would force them to convert into Christianity, leaving their beliefs behind (Slide 5). This didn’t just happen in California but all over the country as well. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz explains how the Europeans were able to conquer the America’s so quickly because they would terrorize the natives until they became dependent on them (Chapter 2). The natives had no other choice than to give in because with the diseases brought by the Europeans they were weak and decreasing in population, the only way they could survive was by giving in.

Today the natives are still feeling the pain their ancestors felt when they got their land taken away. For example, as seen in the Beyond Recognition documentary, Indigenous people are still suffering to this day because buildings continue to be built on land where their ancestors are buried. This is seen as disrespectful because those lands are sacred to them. If a person decided to build a shopping center on a cemetery people would be upset and protest for it to not happen, so why is it okay for people to do this on sacred native land?

When Indigenous people say they were stolen from their bodies it means that colonization stripped of their identities and put labels on them. According to Matika from the All My Relations podcast, indigenous people were equal to eachother because they weren’t being ruled by a patriarchy. This means that woman were equal to men, they weren’t oppressed and didn’t have to fight for “rights” just like we have to do now. They all lived in peace and that was all taken away by colonization, now indigenous woman have to be oppressed by not only men but also women of european descent. This is why Matika also explains that she doesn’t identify as a feminist because white feminism in no way recognize the struggles of indigenous women.

Discrimination was never a topic that indigenous people had to worry about before colonization. In Qwo-Li Driskill’s essay he writes about the term “Two Spirit” which represents the idea that there are more than one gender traditions and sexualites within the natives in North America (p. 52). Indigenous people were accepting no matter what the other person identified as, if colonizers hadn’t forced them to leave this ideal behind we would probably be living in a more accepting environment. Homophobia, transphobia and sexism are all results of colonization, that has caused years of trauma for the indigenous people.

Colonization is still an ongoing problem in todays society, we continue to ignore the demands of indigenous people for recognition and justice. Decolonization for the indigenous people would be to hand them back their land, after all it’s sacred to them due to the fact that most of their ancestors reside in them. All they want is to be recognized for the years of abuse and trauma that they’ve had to live with. Everyday they have to spend living in our society they are reminded of the injustice that their ancestor had to live through. They should be allowed to decide what’s best for them and their communities.

The fight for decolonization will continue until the day indigenous people are set free in the land that belongs to them. Until the day where all the reminders of colonization are removed from our cities and we give them the respect they deserve.

How Can I Acknowledge Indigenous Land?

Recently it has come to my attention that I reside on land that belonged to the Kumeyaay. Their land was unfairly taken away from them by the Spanish back in the 1700s, forcing them to abandon their customs and way of life. They were colonized and some were even driven to identify as Mexican in order to be able to keep some of their lands through the Guadalupe-Hidalgo Treaty but unfortunately, it didn’t work like they wanted to. They used to tend to live in Shmulq’s, which are clans, and would form alliances for beneficial purposes. There were no fights or wars between the clans, they lived peacefully and shared all the resources their lands had to offer. A community that lived so peacefully was destroyed, ignored and now has nothing to acknowledge represent them.

As part of the Spring Valley community, I acknowledge that this land belonged and still belongs to the Kumeyaay. During the 4 years I have lived here I never sat and thought about who this land really belonged to. I know that what I learned isn’t enough for me to feel educated about them and their situation. The lack of representation they have is upsetting, we live on their land we should be able to recognize them for it. I’m glad they are continuing their fight for recognition, so far they have been able to take down the Christopher Columbus statue that once resided in Chula Vista. Although it doesn’t seem as much this was an accomplishment for them, I hope they continue fight for their recognition and are acknowledge fully by the community.

Citations

Banegas, Carol. “Kumeyaay Society.” Kumeyaay, 2020, www.kumeyaay.com/kumeyaay-society.html. Banegas, Larry, and Carol Banegas. “Kumeyaay Cultural and Religious Ceremonies.” Kumeyaay, 2020, www.kumeyaay.com/kumeyaay-cultural-and-religious-ceremonies.html. “Beyond Recognition.” Natural Heroes, 2017, naturalheroes.org/videos/beyond-recognition/. “Chapter 2.” An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Beacon Press, 2015. Connolly, Mike. “Spanish Contact.” Kumeyaay, www.kumeyaay.com/kumeyaay-spanish-contact.html. Connolly, Mike. “Who Are the Kumeyaay?” Kumeyaay, www.kumeyaay.com/who-are-the-kumeyaay.html. Driskill, Qwo-Li. “Stolen From Our Bodies.” 2017. Gonzales, Antonia. “City of Chula Vista Removes Its Columbus Statue before Planned Protest.” National Native News, 15 June 2020, www.nativenews.net/?s=kumeyaay. Keene, Adrienne. “All My Relations & Indigenous Feminism.” All My Relations, performance by Matika Wilbur, episode 1, 2019, www.allmyrelationspodcast.com/podcast/episode/32b0bd95/ep-1-all-my-relations-and- indigenous-feminism.

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