Indigenous Culture Archives - Page 2 of 2

Giving Thanks for Our Occupation of America?

November 23, 2017 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Thanksgiving is a special time to remember all the things we have and forget the genocide our ancestors committed to get it

meme by unknown creator

Here it is, that time of year (the fourth Thursday in November) when we are all beseeched to consider “what we are thankful for.” This mass cultural ritual imposes a conformity of thought that does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed or gender; it goes way deeper. The fundamentals (literally, the foundational elements) of the “American” mind are laid each year at this time.

Those fundamentals hold that we are a strong, brave, resourceful people—whether by our evolved nature or by the grant of a deity—standing atop the shining hill of history, surveying our domain. This belief is adorned with different coats, some prettier than others, varying by class or other social division, but itself is unquestioned except on the margins of society.

Like many other beliefs, this one is false. It is far more accurate to describe our role simply as “occupier.” That is, what is called “the United States” is factually an active occupation. Those of us here who have no Native American heritage are engaging in ongoing acts of military, cultural and economic war not only against the people who lived here first but against the land itself.

Did Native Americans introduce Fan Palms to California?

March 23, 2017 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

“Pygmy Grove” in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

I recently spent some highly enjoyable time with a friend exploring groves of Desert Fan Palms in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in San Diego County. Tucked into canyons in the foothills of the mountains, these striking trees seemed out of place. Nothing else is as tall and lush as they and the cool microhabitat made by their shade provides a welcome escape from the sun and heat that feels almost magical. I wanted to know more about them.

So I was thrilled when I found a book called “Desert Palm Oasis” (Nature Trails Press, Palm Springs, CA: 2010). The author is James W. Cornett, an expert on Desert Fan Palms who spent over 25 years studying them and who published more than three dozen technical papers about them. The book is short, at only 75 pages, but lushly illustrated with the author’s photographs, and is dense with information. Topics covered are lifecycle, ecology, animal associations, use by Native Americans, and more.

Much to my surprise, he also overturned the conventional wisdom on the history of Fan Palms and their origins, and that’s what fascinated me the most.

A Glimpse of the Past and a Taste of the Future in Hell’s Canyon

December 16, 2016 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Hell’s Canyon rimland, July 2016

Since giving up farming a couple years ago, my interest in sustainable diets has only changed focus, not waned. Turning away from the domestic, I have been exploring wildcrafted food and medicine, including plants traditionally used by Native Americans. So this spring, when my former farming partner, Clara, invited me to visit northeast Oregon with her for the early summer harvest season of wild foods there, I was thrilled.

We spent six weeks in and around Hell’s Canyon on the Oregon/Idaho border, an area that’s abundant for foragers and has been for millennia. Fruit trees, berry bushes, wild roots and medicinal herbs can be found in profusion, mostly on public land. Most of this flora is native but some was introduced through European colonization. All of it is threatened to one degree or another by misuse of the land, both contemporary and historic, and by Climate Change. Indeed, every place we explored offered us a glimpse of the past and a taste of the future.

2016: A Century of Theft from Indians by the National Park Service

March 7, 2016 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

History poster about the Fort Mojave Indians, as displayed in the Hole-in-the-Wall visitors center in Mojave National Preserve.

In early February, I stopped in the men’s room at the Hole-in-the-Wall visitor center in Mojave National Preserve in southern California. Above the urinal was a framed history poster entitled, “Fort Mojave – Aha Mocave – And Then the White Man Came.” I was instantly offended by its placement. After all, figuratively, what a man would be doing under this poster is exactly what European colonialism has been doing on Indians for centuries.

The poster’s voluminous text, in three columns, along with eight captioned photographs, presented far more information than could be absorbed in even a long visit to the urinal (not that I’m suggesting it should have been hung in the toilet stall where people are likelier to spend more time). I was quite interested in its content so took some photos so I could study it more carefully later.

The Mojave National Preserve is run by the National Park Service, which, in contrast to previous times, has been including more Indian history in its displays and programs, and presumably this oddly-sited poster is part of that effort. Why wasn’t it inside the visitor center itself, where one might read it with better attention? And was it also displayed in the women’s room? I didn’t check. Among the books on sale in the visitor center, one full shelf was dedicated to the topic of Indians, and though the selection was decent, this particular poster — hung on the wall with other ones — would have given the topic visibility to more people.

Getting back into my truck, it occurred to me that someone with a mischievous sense of humour — with what some Indians might call “coyote spirit” — could have purposefully placed the poster above the urinal, so that the fact of Indian mistreatment by Europeans would be square in the face of every man who went in there, the majority of whom would be white. (According to research of visitors by the Park Service itself, “ethnic and racial minorities are virtually absent from the major parks in the system,” with Blacks and Latinos comprising only 3.5% each, well below their proportion of the general population.[1]) The idea that the poster was there as a prank gave me a wry smile, but if I was going to make a bet, I’d put my dollar on insensitivity.

Indian history, specifically as it relates to the National Park Service (NPS), had already been on my mind.
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The Malheur Wildlife Refuge Occupation: A Skirmish among the Colonizers

January 5, 2016 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Map of Oregon showing pre-Colonial language groups

On January 2nd, a group of armed “militia men” broke into and took over the headquarters and visitors’ center of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon. As of this writing, no law enforcement action has been taken against them, though the County Sheriff has said that “a collective effort from multiple agencies is currently working on a solution” which includes the FBI.

The stated reason for the take-over was to protest the imminent imprisonment of two local ranchers – Dwight Hammond, Jr., and his son, Steven – for committing arson on public lands in 2001 and 2006. The Hammonds did not solicit the attention of the militia men, who all are reportedly from out of state.

Two of the militia men are Ryan and Ammon Bundy, son of Cliven Bundy, the rancher who, in 2014, famously prevented the Bureau of Land Management from removing his cattle that were illegally grazing on public lands. In an interview with the Oregonian, Ryan said: “The best possible outcome is that the ranchers that have been kicked out of the area… will come back and reclaim their land, and the wildlife refuge will be shut down forever and the federal government will relinquish such control.”

Ammon Bundy characterized the building as “the tool to do all the tyranny that has been placed upon the Hammonds” and the refuge as “destructive to the people of the county and to the people of the area.”

The Bundys have stated that they are prepared to occupy the building “for years” if necessary, and that they “would not rule out violence if law enforcement tries to remove them.”

This is a provocative action and inflammatory language, especially coming from people with guns.
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The Mark of Malice in California’s “Emerald Triangle”

December 22, 2015 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Clearcut in Humboldt County, making way for Cannabis cultivation

In November of 2015, I spent three weeks working at a medical Cannabis operation in Humboldt County. My time there was filled with realization and sadness. Though the land in that part of the country is sparsely inhabited and appears wild or even untouched, it has in fact been abused for well over a century and a half, and the mark of malice lies undeniably upon it. Waves of genocide and environmental destruction have swept through it and, unfortunately, the “Green Rush” of recent years is bringing more hurt.

Postcard From Eastern Oregon: When planting food is illegal

March 14, 2015 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

[Originally published on Energy Bulletin, September 2012]
This Spring my farming partners and I found ourselves landless. For the past eight years, we had been actively exploring a variety of forms and practices of small-scale agriculture and restoration, including bicycle-based urban farming, CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), plant-breeding and seed-saving, staple crops (grains, legumes and oilseeds) and the cultivation and processing of medicinal herbs (no, not pot). Last year I wrote an article, “Who Will Feed The People?”, discussing the challenges to small-scale agriculture in the United States, such as lack of equipment, knowledge, financial resources, and markets; the polluted wasteland left behind by conventional farming; increasingly volatile and unpredictable weather patterns brought by Climate Change; and, last but not least, the social barriers: people of the U.S. are by and large uninterested in significant changes to the socio-economic status quo, and resist cutting edge projects. It was the social factor — which can and did embody a profound hostility to Truth — that brought down our own farming efforts, at least for now.

With sadness and anger, we put our tools and seeds in storage, found foster homes for our perennial medicinals, and raised traveling cash by selling our home (a school bus) and an old but reliable Volvo. After tearfully parting with our beloved farm cat, two of us hit the road in an old pickup to see what we could see.

This journey took us to Eastern Oregon to seek out Finisia Medrano, a.k.a. “Tranny Granny”, a Shoshone-trained elder who knows the ways of “The Hoop”, an ancient tradition of food gathering and cultivation that sustained the Native Americans and the land in good health for thousands of years until being violently disrupted by the European Invasion. The Hoop is not dead but, as we were to see, is severely threatened.
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