The Irish in America Supports American Indian Treaty Rights
The Irish in America
Sometimes, as in these times, and most certainly unintentionally, those seeking refuge from foreign tyranny in our own beloved lands incidentally become occupiers in the homelands of others.
The Irish American community has long been hopeful for recognition of Irish contributions towards "the building of America".
However, it should not be possible for any colonizing nationality to expect a recognition of itself that is not synonymously aligned with a demand for recognition of the Indigenous peoples whose lands remain under foreign occupation and in which the Indigenous populations continue to suffer due to displacement, denial of rights, lands and resources.
It would be appropriate for all Irish American groups, organizations and communties to officially state through resolution form, with remorse and humble gratitude, that the Irish population who themselves have sought relief on Indigenous Red Lands will not stand honored until the federal government and all states honor Article VI of the United States Constitution, and recommend that a national, federal and state holiday be strived for and which recognizes:
1) occupation
2) genocide of 100 million Red souls - The most rapid and deadly holocaust ever known to human kind, and yet the most denied. 3) the urgent need for the upholding of Article VI;
Article. VI.
Clause 1: All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.
Clause 2: This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
Clause 3: The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
4) the Genocide Act of 1988
5) the validity of all Indigenous Red Nations
6) a need to abolish Columbus Day, the West's comparable version of a Hitler Day.
Certainly all ethnic groups who have sought refuge here in the United States should support these requests as well. And so we should commit to furthering this knowledge throughout the land. It is true that what befalls one of us, will eventually befall all of us. It is in all of our best interests to ensure that the rights of all be protected and honored. It is especially true when a specific ethnicity suffers attacks that no other community in this country would dare be expected to tolerate, and furthermore, is especially atrocious and heartless when that group of People are those on whose lands we have occupied ourselves.
An equally strong effort could be made to clarify the disturbing and painful myth of the "First Thanksgiving."
Any of our own demands for recognition should include an allied demand for a dedicated and profound recognition and visible honoring of the Indigenous Nations not limited to but including their inherent rights, an updated, reasonable and fair honoring of the Treaties, an end to all mascots or racist imagery, the release of Leonard Peltier, an accurate accounting of missing, stolen or withheld funds and resources, a restoration of water rights and ways, discontinued oppression of life, ways and means, and a powerful apology for the great sorrow caused them for what we have clung to - and sometimes fought and killed for - in these others lands, and for what has been lost to them in our own survival.
It is true that the Irish, like any and all other people, have made significant contributions to society, though what the Irish have suffered through colonization, genocide and oppression should be remembered and quite easily recognized, right here in front of us, in what has always been others original homelands and what some call Great Turtle Island, and what many of us now call 'our home.'
In addtion to the land and resources we now benefit from, we should remember the many contributions of Indigenous Red Peoples to all of our lives - the games of team sports like hockey, basketball and lacrosse- which is not even allowed in the Olympics in addition to Indigenous Sovereign Nations being denied entry to the Olympics as such.
According to an article by National Geographic, nearly half of the world's leading food crops trace their origins to domestication by the People of Great Turtle Island. Indigenous farmers introduced Europeans to a veritable bounty of plants like potatoes, peanuts, bean, tomatoes, sunflowers, popcorn, chocolate, squash and yams. The most significant of these being Maize, or corn, which except for Antartica, is grown on every continent. Bubble gum, copper tubing, syringes for injecting medicine under the skin!, freeze drying, duck decoys, chocolate, vanilla, snow goggles, parkas, moccasins, camouflage and excellent dental care as well. This is just according to one article. As we sometimes realize in looking back throughout time and as we learn more and more every day, most modern 'experts' don't nearly know the half of it and the stories the People have told throughout time reveal truths not yet accepted by the western mind.
In much the same way that we still antagonistically speak and teach in such terms as "How the west was won", "my great-grandparents tamed a wild territory", the "discovery of America", "they braved the savage attacks of the Red Indian" and so on, our very language shows us to believe that our lives were the only ones that mattered and that the humans we encountered in their own lands were not deserving of what we find ourselves to be so inherently deserving of. This land was already discovered and peopled. It was not 'wild', it, as all of our Earth, just 'was.'
Furthermore, it must be correctly taught that it was the Dutch who brought the savage art of scalping to these lands. The Indigenous reciprocated in retaliation for the brutalality practiced on their own loved ones.
Hypocritically claiming to be searching for relief from their own religious persecution, devasatingly vicious and cruel destruction was sought for those that prayed differently than those who forgot their own Earth based spiritual life ways and (for Christians) who've forgotten that Jesus himself taught that the beautiful outdoors was in fact 'church', and who still to this day find nothing wrong with continuing to teach, speak and think in European dominating and racist language that ironically reveals in ourselves, the very weaknesses, flaws and behaviors we obliviously accuse others of.
We must remember, that except for the tyranny in our own homelands, we most likely would not be participating in the occupation of others lands today. I'd like to believe that if we did somehow come to find ourselves here in these times, our stay would be through invitation and a thankful warmly reciprocated welcome only. We are not Indigenous to these others lands and have enormous responsibility to demand the Indigenous Nations who suffer for our 'freedom' be freed from all oppression and tyranny entirely.
Source: Indigenous Peoples Literature
Indigenous Peoples Literature
March Reports
Last updated on March 18, 2005