Reflections
from the Ahnishinahbæótjibway (We, the People)
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Dear Shaman,
Why
are the Treaties only written in the English language,
why aren’t they also written in the Indian languages?
Shouldn’t a Treaty be written in both languages, eh?
Traditional
Indian
Dear
Wanna-be,
That’s
a very good question.
I’m glad you asked that. The
treaties have been interpreted many in different ways, by many
different
people: by sportswriters, by the DNR, by the BIA, by the courts, by
would-be
Indian leaders... The treaties were not
recorded in the indigenous languages because they were never
interpreted into
them. Here, for example, the treaties
were interpreted into French and into the creole trade language,
Chippewa, but
not into the indigenous language, Ahnishinahbæótjibway, which
is a
language the treaty interpreters did not speak or understand.
One
of the big problems with the so-called Indian Treaties is
that they were negotiated between European parties: the Americans and
the
French Métis. The indigenous
languages
are not a part of the treaties, because the indigenous people were
excluded
from the treaties. The “Indian
Treaties” were based European laws of “discovery,” which are foreign
European
laws which do not belong here.
The
“Indian Treaties” are not really treaties. The
World Court does not recognize them—and
they never were a part of international law.
Even when they were being negotiated, the “treaties” were
considered to
be internal affairs of the United States, on land already claimed as
United
States territory. They were never
intended to be international law, because neither the United States
Government
nor any other European nation ever recognized indigenous people’s right
to our
own land on this continent. That’s a
human rights violation.
The
so-called treaties were written to fulfill the bare
letter-of-the law requirements of Article V of the U.S. Constitutional
amendments, that: “No person ... shall be ... deprived of ... property,
without
due process of the law.” Because of
their white patriline, the Indians all came under the Constitution, and
the
“Indian Treaties” were the U.S. Government’s way of claiming that they
stole
the land legally, in their way of thinking.
The English language is so crooked that it creates a criminal
culture.
Dear Shaman,
What
about the “hunting and fishing rights” in the
Treaties? Where do the rights of the
red-blooded American citizens fit into this?
True Sportsfisherman (Catch-and-Release)
Dear Bearer
of Tall Tales,
The
whole thing is a tourist trap. Any way
it’s been interpreted, the Indian still has to buy a
license from the White man: from the State, or from the IRA “tribal
councils”
that the White man established. Whether
sovereign or semi-sovereign, the Indians have always come under the
jurisdiction of the White man, because Indians are also Europeans.
The
Mille Lacs Treaty has been a big circus, because both the
treaties and the white laws behind them are written only in crooked
English,
from a European point of view. The
White man keeps reviving the dead treaties because the existence of the
United
States depends on them. In the early
1970’s, the American Indian Movement was hollering, “honor the
treaties,” as
were the IRA “Tribal” governments. The
U.S. didn’t honor the treaties, so the Indians quit hollering—their
loud and
violent protests didn’t produce anything but job security for the
media, more
violence and social problems. But, the
United States Government’s claim to this land rests on the treaties, so
now the
White man (Congress and everyone else) is hollering, “honor the
treaties.” It’s hot air out of Washington,
D.C.—the
Euroamericans are hiding their genocidal guilt behind the Indians that
they
created.
Hunting
and fishing is a red herring: it aggravates and
agonizes public feeling about the treaties, builds White backlash, and
makes
money for the White man. Even though
some of the treaties have clauses about hunting and fishing in them,
the United
States never intended to honor anything about the treaties except that
the U.S.
got to claim the land: the French Métis and the Spanish Mestizos
(who were the
people who signed the “treaties”) were a conquered people who had to
take the
identity of “Indian” as a part of the conquest, had no rights then, and
still
don’t have any rights. “Indian” is a
foreign name, and is not indigenous to this land.
Dear Shaman,
How
did “sovereignty” get into the treaties and into these
reservation tribal governments?
Indian
Law Student
Dear Future
Shyster,
“Sovereignty”
is a form of segregation, and the “Indian laws”
are so bad that the Whites don’t want to apply them to their own people. They are part of the Jim Crow system of
apartheid which was supposedly abolished in the South after the Civil
Rights
Act in the 1960’s. The United States
has no legal basis for taking indigenous peoples land and
resources—they simply
stole them by declaring eminent domain under the authority of the Roman
Catholic Church. “Indian Sovereignty”
discriminates against both Whites and Indians, and it hides the
genocide and
the grand land theft here. The Whites
need to get honest about their history, but they can’t, because their
language
restricts them.
Dear Shaman,
Why
are all the Indians called “the First Americans”?
A
Concerned White Guy
Dear White
Boy,
The
indigenous people of these continents were destroyed in
the genocide. The “Indians” are called
the “first Americans” to hide this genocide and to pacify the
Euroamericans’
conscience.
The
Pope made a statement in 1985 about the genocide here,
when the Catholic Church was going to Canonize one of the Spanish
Missionaries
in California. But, the Catholic Church
was into genocide on this continent.
Since the mid-1500’s their legal documents have justified
genocide here
with statements like Aristotle’s, “War arises in a certain sense from
nature,
since a part of it is the art of the hunt, which is properly used not
only
against animals, but also against those men who, having been born to
obey,
reject servitude: such a war is just according to nature.”
Aristotle tells you a whole lot about your
European criminal culture and values.
Dear Shaman,
I
went up to get my last payment check from the Bureau of
Indian Affairs, and it wasn’t ready.
Everyone was sitting around filing their nails and standing at
the water
cooler, and just gossiping. What’s
wrong with this system?
Ration
Indian
Dear Dole,
When
Custer rode off to his last appointment, he told the
Indian Agent at the fort, “Don’t do anything until I get back.” This order has never been rescinded.
My
mailing address is P.O. Box 484, Bemidji, MN 56619, and my
telephone number is (218) 679-3984.
Wub-e-ke-niew
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