Re: Native American land rights

[Michael Eisenscher <meisenscher@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have resisted getting engaged in this discussion, but several thoughts dog
me about which I would welcome further comment.

First, without having to lay claim to any particular revolutionary theory or
objectives, is it not sufficient on simple grounds of basic human rights
that we defend American Indians against the genocidal practices employed
against them throughout our history, and acknowledge that their rights to
self-determination have been trampled by profit/power-hungry interests
throughout U.S. history?  It does not require that one be a Marxist to come
to this conclusion, but certainly anyone who claims to embrace Marxism ought
to do so.

Second, without laying claim to any particular expertise, I seem to recall
that long before Europeans drove the indigenous peoples from their lands,
Indian tribes quite regularly engaged in pretty significant inter-tribal
warfare over hunting grounds and resources.  Capitalism brought horrific
devastation to these tribes, but their pre-capitalist lives were not idyllic
or free from conflict and human suffering as some who overly romanticize
them would have us believe.

Third, for the entire history of humankind, distant societies have
influenced one another as they came into contact, borrowing technologies and
culture from one another that in turn contributed to further transformation
of social structures and practices, and cultural mores and ideas.  This has
been true of societies at the same relative level of social and economic
development, as well as of those at widely different levels.  It has been
true on this continent as well as on every other.  It is unavoidable that
even the most remote and isolated Amazonian tribes will sooner or later
touch and be touched by outsiders.  The issue is not whether by on what
basis this takes place.

Perhaps there are some social anthropologists out there who can contribute
more to these points.

Bottom line, however, is that whatever the historical record may be, there
is no turning back the clock.  The challenge that confronts us and Indian
peoples today is to chart the course ahead -- how to create a system that is
more just, which respects peoples' rights to their cultural traditions, and
which provides everyone in society with a sufficient standard of living,
education, and social benefits to sustain and nurture their human dignity,
intellectual and social development, and freedom from bigotry, racism,
sexism and the other poisons that afflict the present order.

Michael E.