Beyond Proclamation, Unite Our Fight For Self-determination

In the United States of America, October 11 is now declared as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. This year, President Joe Biden proclaimed Indigenous Peoples’ Day to celebrate “the invaluable contributions and resilience of Indigenous peoples” and recognize “their inherent sovereignty.”

The proclamation comes after calls for racial equity and decolonization by renaming the federal holiday Columbus Day. For First Nations, Columbus Day was meant to bring back to mind the losses suffered by the Native American peoples and their cultures through diseases, warfare, massacres, and forced assimilation brought by the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas.

The International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL) salutes the decades of struggles of First Nations against giving honor to Columbus and the colonial domination he signifies. The proclamation is one of the many steps the US government can undertake.

The Indigenous Peoples’ Day proclamation must be immediately backed by massive and institutionalized educational campaigns that reclaim First Nation narratives. It must counter discrimination and emphasize on Indigenous history, rights, aspirations and realities.

Many of the First Nations and Native Americans remain the most impoverished under the structural inequality with one in three Native Americans living in poverty. One in every five Native American reports discrimination in health care. Compared to other races, they are 2.5 times more likely to be victims of violent crimes and at least 2 times more likely to be victims of rape or sexual assault. In addition, an alarming 84.3 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native women had suffered violence at some point in their lives.

On top of historical violence, their lands and territories have been the target of oil pipeline projects that result in climate crisis, oil spills and infringement on Native treaty rights. The Dakota Access pipeline, Keystone XL and Minnesota’s Line 3 pipelines have been met by numerous opposing protests from First Nations and environment activists with police arresting hundreds of demonstrators.

Such proclamations will remain empty without upholding Native treaties, strengthening sovereignty and land rights. This means stopping all the pipelines, respecting Indigenous rights, and fully implementing Free, Prior, and Informed Consent by putting an end to the anti-Indigenous imperialist fossil fuel extractivism.

Let us build on our Indigenous success by saying more than platitudes. While proclamations do not erase historical oppression, state aggression, or brutality towards First Nations protecting their land, water, and heritage, let us use this victory to unite our fight for self-determination.

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