Fighting for Indigenous rights

Indigenous rights:

It seems to me that the idea of equality in the U.S. is under the umbrella term of democracy. Within democracy, everyone is equal. It's in our very sacred 200-year-old Declaration of Independence that "All men are created equal." Yet, under democracy, majority rules. People start to think: Minorities just got the short end of the stick. Too bad they got dealt those cards. I can't really care though because I'm in the majority, as are most of the people I socialize with.

But what people don't realize is that indigenous peoples are not a minority group. They are their own people. They are the majority of their population as they are 100% of their population. And when the governing population is not doing right by another population or another political entity — as with Tribes and the U.S. government — something needs to change and people need to speak up for those that may not have a loud voice.

Native people in the U.S. are NOT a minority group. They are their own nation, separate from the United States of America and their rights are not being respected. They have no rights. When the countries in the UN almost unanimously agree to sign the U.N. Declaration of Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) except for four of them — one of them being the United States — means that people still just don't get it. 

Finding identity means fighting for your rights. The U.S. needs to respect native peoples and sign this document. Obama needs to do what is good for the people and let go of the noose being held by the U.S. government. It's racist and ridiculous that they have not signed this document yet. 

Listen to the radio show Native America Calling about UNDRIP here. Click on the May 21, 2009 episode to listen to what I was listening to as I wrote this post.

Finding identity as not only a native person, but of a greater global indigenous population seems to be something that people are really starting to take a look at. People who are non-native have only been here for at most 400 years, yet somehow they feel that's long enough, or too long to change things. 400 years is nothing compared to the beginning of time. And the borders have been around even shorter than that. Some borders are as recent as the last hundred years. Borders shouldn't stop people from fighting for rights of their people that cross the borders. Keep fighting. Keep talking. Keep educating. 

-Colleen