Rinku Sen

What kind of Indian are you?

On Columbus Day I am in Indian country, a land of Swinomish and the Lummi in Washington State. Since I immigrated to the United States, I have spent my life answering the question "what kind of Indian are you?" This connection between Eastern American Indians isn't discussed much but we recognize in each other's history the European desire to exploit our resources and control our people.

Last summer, I watched President Bush speak to thousands of journalists of color. Responding to the question about what sovereignty meant to him, Bush defined the word with the word itself: "Tribal sovereignty means that, it's sovereign. You're a -- you're a -- you have been given sovereignty and you're viewed as a sovereign entity... And therefore, the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities." Repetition doesn't hide the fact that Bush's policies constitute an attack on American Indian self-determination. During his first term, he protested not at all when Congress tried to end the federal appropriation for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, attempting to destroy the structure that maintains the treaties and trust between the U.S. and these nations.

Under Bush's administration of the National Environmental Act, landless tribes seeking space are made to spend millions of dollars preparing complicated environmental impact reports while the energy industries are allowed to use outdated and irrelevant studies to justify and win the right to extract natural resources. My friend Randy Ross from the Native Networking Policy Center tells me that in his home state of South Dakota, extractors are preparing again to mine for uranium, a devastating practice banned in the 1980's. Randy also predicts that if conservatives succeed in defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, they could wipe out struggling native radio stations. The media conglomerate ClearChannel has already begun buying up South Dakota stations. Randy organizes tribes to expand their communications capacity--starting with telephone service for all.

Today, I celebrate indigenous people, their long history of rebellion, and their many brilliant efforts to thrive in this 500 year occupation. I walk their lands and remember my own.

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Posted at 1:17 PM, Oct 10, 2005 in Tribal sovereignty
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