We need to be recognized

I want to share a letter from an Alaskan Brother,
Matthew Gilbert, who has an organization that fights for the rights of our Alaskan Native families.

By Yo’Nas Da LoneWolf McCall-Muhammad

Greetings Relatives,

In the past month, I have been swarmed with emails of issues concerning Indigenous people. I watch the news daily reporting on more issues concerning Indigenous people. We are all striving to be recognized. There were thousands of protesters in California and throughout the country fighting for immigration rights. There were protesters marching for voting rights in New Orleans due to the displacement of people in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. All over the world, people are fighting to be recognized. We want the government to see us, put our issues and concerns on their platform and address them for the better.

One thing I learned from my mother when it comes to wanting to be recognized by a man is that you should only put your faith into God and not any man. People come and people go, so if you put too much faith into a man, you will be hurt in the long run, because God is the One Who will never let you down.

We want to be recognized but, in our biggest daily news (which is the Bible and the Holy Qur’an), the headline states: “God Gets The Glory: The Wicked Is Falling!!” If we believe that God takes care of the righteous, then we are all recognized. We are His children. But God will get the glory only when we unite. Our people are being trampled throughout the world. If you see a man getting beaten by 10 men, will you walk by or help him out? If we unite, then, as a united family, we will not need the recognition of the government because we will be governing ourselves.

I want to share a letter from an Alaskan Brother, Matthew Gilbert, who has an organization that fights for the rights of our Alaskan Native families. He also is reaching out to all of his Black Brothers and Sisters to visit Alaska. Let’s unite in one mind, one heart and one spirit!—Mitake Oyasin

***

Dear Sister Yonasda,

In God’s love, I greet you. Before colonization, Alaska Natives kept within their borders and had established trade. We had no sicknesses, disputes over spirituality, poverty, orphanages, huge wars or wide-scale crime. We adapted almost perfectly to all landscapes and climates of this giant land called Alaska. Alaska itself is a native word.

My people have gone through hell and most of us are a generation born of grief and despair. Alaska Natives suffered epidemics on Biblical proportions losing 80-90 percent or more of our population when European disease struck in the late 1800s to early 1900s. We saw an influx of an alien world and saw our land strip-mined, polluted, congested and manufactured. We are a people suffering from internal grief across generations.

At beginning of the 20th Century, we saw hundreds of thousands of our people die and we turned to alcoholism. Our people saw villages die. We saw new cultures, religions and peoples coming in, and felt so defeated and confused that alcohol served the right escape. It’s these actions, behaviors and thoughts that were passed down through generations, to my day.

We lead the nation in teen suicide, violent crime, alcoholism, domestic problems, unemployment, high school dropout rates, women raped in urban areas, racism more than any other ethnic group, and it goes on. These are all related, in that we are a colonized Indigenous people. What to do?

We need to feel empowered before we take power. We realize we are just as good as everyone in the world. We educate our children in the western and traditional worlds. We begin to lead by example, because that is an Alaska Native trait.

The second big milestone in this transition into the alien world called the Western Civilization is the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). This law was not made by Native hands, but by White hands giving little to no attention to Alaska Native input. This act sectioned Native people into 12 regional corporations and mandated them to start soulless corporations in order to secure dividends to their Native shareholders. We had to become businessmen and adhere to principals of business, globalization and capitalism that have zero relation to our traditional ways of life.

In every corporation region I’ve visited, they all have one thing in common: They are fighting their own corporations! The White man has done this with every Indigenous people he has visited. He has drawn lines in the sand, which gives birth to genocide and eternal division to where it never existed before; cases include India, Pine Ridge Reservation, Rwanda and other parts of Africa. Now, it is happening here. The United States Congress is working to enact the same system, ANCSA, in Hawaii. A friend of mine in Hawaii told me in an email that it is not having an appeal with the Hawaiians. The world, and the United States especially, need to recognize that Alaska Natives/American Indians need to be recognized and respected like any other people in the world.

—Mahsi Cho(Yo’Nas Da LoneWolf McCall-Muhammad is the director of the National Indigenous Alliance-Millions More Movement. She may be reached via email at yonasdamuhamad@yahoo.com.)

Posted: 5/1/06

Source: http://www.finalcall.com

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