(https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/native-american-timeline)
Not only have indigenous men and women had their entire culture, home land, and livelihood taken away, Native Americans have also had the rights to their bodies stolen from them. The European colonization of the Americas forced European traditions, customs, and cultural norms onto Native Americans, and subsequently became detrimental towards the lives of thousands of Native American tribes. European colonization is notorious for instituting the beginning of major structures of power, privilege, and oppression. However, the sociological effect on the body autonomy of Native Americans is often neglected to be addressed, yet still remains prevalent in our society today.
(https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/hhf8w2/native_american_women_with_her_children_one_of/)
Settler colonists not only took over the lands that were already occupied by native americans, they also incited violence and mass genocides against those who did not have the same color skin as them. This continued for decades, but this conquest can often be referred to as brave, courageous, and heroic inside the textbooks of young Americans across the country. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz addresses the fact that these glorified colonizers were also the ones who were “killing the unarmed women, children, and old people and burning homes and fields” (59 Dunbar-Ortiz). This type of violence against Native Americans during colonization is commonly attributed to the rampant racism that polarizes our country consistently through the centuries.
(https://www.eupedia.com/history/european_colonisation_and_the_spread_of_languages.shtml)
While it is commonly known that European imperialism took over the sacred homes of North American indigineous people, Qwo-Li Driskill additionally describes a concept he refers to as “colonized sexuality” in his essay entitled “Stolen From Our Bodies” (Driskill). This can be defined as how we as the American society have internalized the sexual values of a dominant, caucasian culture (Driskill). Qwo-Li Driskill claims that the impact of European colonization has also shifted the way that we regard concepts of gender and sexuality. Driskill claims that this has gone so far to the point that Two-Spirit people are likely to commit suicide or become drug abusers as a coping mechanisms to deal with the shame and trauma that colonization has implemented onto their lives (Driskill). In addition to the shame that have left bruises on the darker skin of indigenous people, white people commonly practiced the involuntary sterilization of Native American women throughout the 1970’s (Davis). This technique was commonly forced upon women without their knowledge in a way to limit the Native American population. In this way, doctors and medical officials were “eliminating the ‘unfit’ sectors of the population” by the practice of compulsory sterilization" (223 Davis).
The topic of decolonization would mean that the land that was once owned and considered sacred to Native Ameriacns would be returned. In addition, indigenous people would be able to reclaim the traditions practiced before colonization, and begin to accept the cultural norms around sexuality and gender. Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy describes decolonization as the responsibility of those with privilege to give back the land previously owned by Native Americans in order to show true change and uplift the oppressed group of Native Americans in the United States today. Dr. Cutcha is also very adamant about the importance of returning the land back to indigenous tribe members in order to emphasize the pain, suffering, and trauma that is often ignored within Native American voices.
(https://www.restonnow.com/2019/08/14/virginia-native-american-festival-heads-to-great-falls-in-september/)
(https://kanyonkonsulting.com/ohlone-california-native-resources-introduction/)
(https://thebolditalic.com/yes-we-live-on-ohlone-land-but-what-does-that-mean-70a34c249e70)
One specific group of indigenous people who have been victims of violence and oppression since the time of European colonization are the people of the Ohlone tribe near Santa Cruz, California. The Ohlon e people resided around the central coast, and lived their lives between Big Sur and San Francisco next to the Pacidic Ocean. Recognizing the land that was once owned and loved by the Ohlone Native Americans is the first step to the process of decolonization.
This group of Native Americans “consisted of approximately forty different tribelets ranging in size form 100-250 members” (Cartier). Within the culture of the Ohlone people of Santa Cruz, there were generational stories, myths, traditional arts and crafts, and family legacies that enlightened the customs and values of the Ohlone people. They had their own games, tool making techniques, music and dancing styles (Bacich). When you realize that this rich and amazing livelihood and culture of the Ohlone people were stripped from the family members that made up the tribes of Native American on the central coast, it is absolutely heartbreaking. Recognizing the fact that our country as a whole has a murderous and horrifying history behind how we came to be as a nation is a very important concept to understand.
Today, the Ohlone culture was thought to have disappeared because of the violence and genocide that many nativee American tribes went through during the time of European colonization. However, ancestors of Ohlone people stool thrive today, and traditions are passed down through descendents along the central coast (Bacich).
Works Cited
Bacich, Damian, and Robert Brown. “Native Americans of the San Francisco Bay Area: The Ohlone, Part 2.” The California Frontier Project, 4 Dec. 2018, www.californiafrontier.net/ohlone-tribe-culture/.
Cartier, Robert. “An Overview of Ohlone Culture.” Santa Cruz Public Libraries, history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/files/original/45b78e7b5309ee5dede50d1182ac03bf.pdf.
Davis, Angela. “Women, Race and Class.” Amazon, Penguin, 2019, www.amazon.com/Women-Race-Class-Angela-Davis/dp/0394713516.
Driskill, Qwo-Li. “Stolen From Our Bodies: First Nations Two-Spirits/Queers and the Journey to a Sovereign Erotic, Studies in American Indian Literatures.” DeepDyve, University of Nebraska Press, 8 July 2004, www.deepdyve.com/lp/university-of-nebraska-press/stolen-from-our-bodies-first-nations-two-spirits-queers-and-the-SgqA0vqcQ6.
Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne. “An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States.” Amazon, Beacon Press, 2015, www.amazon.com/Indigenous-Peoples-History-ReVisioning-American/dp/0807057835.