The Manukan Declaration (2004)

1990-2010, Date, Disruptive Spaces, Indigenous, Subjectives of Refusal, The 'Natural World', Women

The Manukan Declaration was signed by seventeen different organizations across North America, South America, Asia, and Africa that make up the Indigenous Women’s Biodiversity Network in 2004. Generally, it advocates for indigenous voices. It highlights the importance of indigenous women in particular to indigenous culture, tradition, and environmental biodiversity.

“As Indigenous women, we have a fundamental role in environmental conservation and preservation throughout the history of our Peoples. We are the guardians of Indigenous knowledge and it is our main responsibility to protect and perpetuate this knowledge. Our weavings, music, songs, costumes, and our knowledge of agriculture, hunting or fishing are all examples of some of our contributions to the world. We are daughters of Mother Earth and to her we are obliged. Our ceremonies recognize her and we return to her the placentas of our children. She also safeguards the remains of our ancestors.”

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“We are an honorable people – can you say the same?” (1973)

1946-1989, Date, Defining the Enemy, God, Country, Property, Indigenous, Subjectives of Refusal

This document was written by the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy in 1973. It states their solidarity with the occupation of Wounded Knee. It is written for the United States government. It addresses the destruction and violence that indigenous people face at the hands of the United States government.

“We have not asked you to give up your religions and beliefs for ours. We have not asked you to give up your language for ours. We have not asked you to give up your ways of life for ours. We have not asked you to give up your government for ours. We have not asked that you give up your territories to us. Why can you not accord us the same respect?”

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The Longest Walk Statement (1978)

1946-1989, Date, Indigenous, Subjectives of Refusal

In 1978, a group of about 2,000 marchers – indigenous and not -, marched from Alcatraz Island, California to Washington, D.C. to protest bills that threatened indigenous rights. This document was their statement.

“Today we address you in the language of the oppressor, but the con- cepts predate the coming of the invaders. The injustice we speak of is centuries old, and has been spoken against in many tongues. We are still the original people of this land. We are the people of The Longest Walk.”

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“Call Me Human” (2015)

2011-Present, Date, Indigenous, Subjectives of Refusal

This poem was written by Lyla June Johnston, a Diné activist, in 2015. It explores the meaning of “America” through a reflection of history. It can be found below and as a PDF.

“from birth we etch these lines

engrave them inside your mind

by the rockets red glare

the bombs bursting in the air

the war it begins

to make the imaginary country

as real as your skin.

America doesn’t exist

it’s an idea men have obsessed over since 1776.

an excuse we use to manifest a reality that

destroyed the destiny of Native civilization.

they always told me I was an American

and so I said to them,

“can you show me America?”

can you tell me where it is?

I’ve been looking for it all my life!

looking for the reason why my people had to die.

but the only place I can find America is inside of your mind.

they said, no don’t worry… just

stand up

put your hand right there on your heart

now turn just a little bit towards the flag.

there it is. Right there. Don’t you see it?

there you go.

okay ready?

I pledge allegiance to an illusion

called the United States of America

and to the non-existent boundaries

for which it stands

one deception

under a Christian god

with which we legitimize the genocide

of its indigenous peoples

America doesn’t exist

but it is a psychological sickness we catch with years

of exposure to our public schools to baseball games

and once we believe that America is real we believe that we have a

reason to steal a reason to kill.

the Long Walk 1965

9,000 Navajo are marched with barrels at their backs

herded like sheep for over 400 miles

to their own special concentration camp.

in the name of America

Wounded Knee Massacre 1890

U.S. Calvary descend on a Lakota camp

with 530 women and children

and with “America” in their minds

and red and white stripes blinding their sight

they sunk bullets into the chests of children

that could have been their own

in the name of America

look on the twenty dollar bill my friends, see the man who

marched 15,000 Cherokee–

pregnant women, their children, the elderly–

marched from Georgia to Oklahoma

in the name of America.

do we remember what has been done in the name of an abstract nation

or has it all been buried along with our hearts and our tongues.

and I should not hate fireworks on warm summer nights

and I should not hate a combination of colors

and I should not hate dead men on paper money

and I should not hate.

so let me tell you that I love you

dear soldiers

dear president of the imaginary states of America

dear school teachers

dear man behind the curtain

let me tell you that I love you

and that I am leaving it in the past

let me tell you that I too am in love with my motherland

but know that this Earth is the foremother of your forefathers

she existed before Hancock and before Nixon

before money before America

and that she will exist long after America is forgotten.

raising hands to our hearts for a fairytale

that America is anything more than a word

we’ve drawn so many maps, we’ve put so many flags in the ground

we’ve labeled all the land

we’ve drawn imaginary lines all around the sand

but people hear me and separate your fact from fabrication

this is the projection of our imagination onto

the holy earth.

and today we unite to remember what is real

to remember that humanity is real

a beating heart is real

the earth beneath us is real

but America is a thought that

has turned us against ourselves

history into myth

entire cultures into forgotten languages

and the free mind into a society, deceived

so please do not call me an American

please do not even call me a Native American

please, I beg you, call me human

and do not call this land America

if you listen hard she will tell you her true name

as the nighthawks dive at twilight

as the wolves howl at midnight

as the waterfalls rage cascading

when the avalanches fracture breaking

she WILL tell us her true name with earthquakes

that split states and break fences to

remind us she does

not belong to us.

but that we belong to her.”

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Letter to President Washington (1790)

1700-1830s, Date, Defining the Enemy, God, Country, Property, Indigenous, Subjectives of Refusal

This document is a letter to President George Washington from Chiefs and Counsellors of the Seneca Nation – Big Tree, Cornplanter, and Half-Town. In this letter, the Chiefs and Counsellors address violence and deceit from the government.

“We could bear this confusion no longer and determined to press through every difficulty, and lift up our voice so that you might hear us, and to claim that security in the possession of our lands, which your commissioners so solemnly promised us; and we now entreat you to inquire into our complaints, and to redress our wrongs.”

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“We are Power” – John Trudell (1980)

1946-1989, Consciousness Raising, Date, Indigenous, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption

John Trudell, an active member of the indigenous struggle, gave this speech on July 18, 1980 at the Black Hills Survival Gathering. In his speech, he speaks of oppression, power, and liberation.

“We have to understand that when our oppressor treats us this way and do these things to us, we allow him to do it so long as we accept his lies. As long as we make excuses for his lies, as long as we tolerate his brutality, then we allow him to mistreat us. We have been allowing it too long. That’s genocide… It’s not revolution we’re after; it’s liberation. We want to be free of a value system that’s being imposed upon us. We do not want to participate in that value system. We don’t want to change that value system. We want to remove it from our lives forever. Liberation. We want to be free.”

We-are-Power Download

To the Peoples of the World – Zapatistas (2021)

2011-Present, Capitalism, Consciousness Raising, Date, Defining the Enemy, Indigenous, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption

This letter – written on January 1, 2021 – includes a description of what unites the people of the Zapatista movement and agreements to keep the struggle active.

Only very few things unite us:…
The understanding that a system is responsible for these pains. The executioner is an exploitative, patriarchal, pyramidal, racist, thievish and criminal system: capitalism…
The commitment to fight, everywhere and at all times – each and everyone on their own terrain – against this system until we destroy it completely. The survival of humanity depends on the destruction of capitalism. We do not surrender, we do not sell out, and we do not give up.

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