Reprinted by permission
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Date: Tue, 23 Jul 96 18:50:38 EST
From: "Glen WELKER"
Subj: The Great Lie (fwd)
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by Rudolph C. Ryser
(c) 1994 Center for World Indigenous Studies
(c) 1994 The Fourth World Documentation Project
(Re-edited from the originally published, "Nation-States,
Indigenous Nations, and the Great Lie" (c) 1986 CWIS)
In this paper I will analyze the relationship of selected indigenous
nations in various parts of the world to the governments of the countries
in which they are found. I have selected for analysis the United States,
Canada, Chile, and Nicaragua. These countries have been selected for three
reasons. One, the policies of these states towards indigenous nations have
all been drawn from the American governmental experience. Two, these
indigenous populations share common political, economic, and social
aspirations. Three, they all illustrate relationships that have resulted
from what I call 'the great lie.'
In my opinion, nowhere does a MODEL OF RELATIONS exist between
indigenous populations and states that is acceptable to indigenous peoples.
There are, however, hundreds of examples of state and indigenous-nation
relations where the dominant political and economic interests practice
deception aimed at the elimination of indigenous nations. It is my intent
to answer three questions in this paper: What is the great lie? How has
the great lie been used by states to control and then eliminate indigenous
nations? Finally, what are the alternatives available to indigenous
nations if they are to avoid ultimate and final destruction by states?
Indian nations are made up of peoples who are the descendants of the
original landlords of territories occupied for thousands of years. These
Indian nations are the successor nations to great civilizations that
dominated the world for thousands of years. By contrast, the states within
which these indigenous people are found today are political organizations
that have come into existence only in the last two-hundred-year period. By
various means they have sought to expand their influence throughout the
indigenous nations, surrounding indigenous peoples and establishing
colonial regimes designed to confiscate indigenous lands and natural
resources while suppressing and exterminating the political identity of
whole indigenous nations. The contemporary reality is that indigenous
nations do continue to exist, though greatly weakened, while the states
have grown larger, more powerful, and more threatening to the indigenous
nations.
The states of Canada, the United States, Nicaragua, and Chile have come
to dominate and repress indigenous nations principally by means of what I
call 'the great lie.' Though each of the states began its existence as a
politically and economically weak group of people with only a small
foothold on the territory, the people of these fledgling states used their
weakness to gain help and support from the more powerful indigenous
nations. Indigenous nations permitted the small and helpless states to
organize governments and even to increase their populations by allowing
increased entry of political and economic refugees from other nations and
states in Europe. During this process the great lie began to have
importance as a political and economic tool for the new states occupying
indigenous territories.
As a means to gain greater concessions and aid from indigenous nations,
the new European states began the selective process of convincing
indigenous peoples that it is the destiny of European states to govern,
control, and exploit the indigenous peoples, lands, and resources. The
European states, so they argued, had the right to govern the world because
they were superior beings. Indigenous peoples, on the other hand, were
primitive, savage, and incompetent. Indigenous peoples should be treated
as non-humans. The theory was that if enough indigenous people could be
convinced of their own incompetence and that their own political, economic,
and cultural systems were evil, then they would reject their own
indigenous nations. Once indigenous people rejected their own values and
systems, they could then be drawn into the European states and be
effectively controlled.
The new European states have worked diligently to wipe out indigenous
history and intellectual thought and replace these with European history
and intellectual thought. The great lie is simply this: IF INDIGENOUS
PEOPLES WILL ONLY REJECT THEIR OWN HISTORY, INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT,
LANGUAGE, AND CULTURE AND REPLACE THESE THINGS WITH EUROPEAN VALUES AND
IDEALS, THEN INDIGENOUS PEOPLE WILL SURVIVE. It is from this twisted
thinking that European states have convinced millions of indigenous people
all over the world to surrender their freedom and accept subjugation as a
way of life.
Nowhere in the world has the great lie had a greater success than in the
United States. After many years of writing treaties and forcing indigenous
nations to agree to their contents, the United States government would
systematically violate those same agreements. To excuse these violations,
the United States would tell the indigenous nations that, since they were
incapable of understanding the agreements in the first place, the United
States would use its OWN system of justice to find a remedy for treaty
conflicts - not international law or the laws of indigenous nations. Since
1831 the United States has been adjudicating disputes between itself and
indigenous nations. History has demonstrated that the more dependent
indigenous nations become upon American legal and political institutions,
the more they experience erosion of their own governmental powers,
territorial and natural resource rights, and cultural development.
The United States did not stop at simply asserting its superiority over
indigenous nations through its legal system. After 1871, when the United
States unilaterally declared its intention to cease treaty-making with
indigenous nations, it imposed a new concept on its relations with
indigenous peoples. It asserted that the Congress of the United States
would exert PLENARY POWER over all matters involving indigenous nations.
In more direct terms, the American government declared that it would
exercise absolute and unlimited political power over the internal and
external affairs of indigenous nations. The United States installed a
legislative dictatorship over the affairs of indigenous peoples within the
newly established United States boundaries. In fact, the United States
government declared indigenous governments illegal and asserted that such
governments would be forcibly suppressed. Indian nations would be cut off
from the world family of nations.
In 1934 the U.S. Congress enacted a law called the Indian Reorganization
Act, designed effectively to replace any vestige of the original
indigenous governments with governments to be designed and implemented by
the United States itself. These governments would be recognized by
Congress as the legitimate governments over indigenous territories. The
constitutions for the American-made indigenous governments placed all of
the political authority of government under the control of an appointed
bureaucrat, the secretary of the Interior, and the legislative power in
the U.S. Congress. These tribal governments were granted limited powers to
enact laws, but they were granted substantial powers to regulate and
control tribal people on behalf of the United States. In a very real way,
these tribal governments became direct extensions of the United States
government, operating under U.S. laws and policies. These tribal
governments in effect became colonial governments. The rules under which
these colonial tribal governments operated ensured U. S. access to and
control over indigenous peoples, lands, and natural resources.
Indigenous political leaders did not at first agree to the U.S.-
sponsored colonial government system. Indeed, many indigenous political
leaders actively opposed U.S. intervention in indigenous political and
legal affairs. Many of these leaders were able to convince their own
peoples not to accept the U.S.-designed tribal government system. Yet
other political leaders within indigenous nations accepted money,
guarantees of political power, and other gifts from the United States in
exchange for their support of the colonial tribal government system. While
many indigenous nations retained their own government systems, a greater
number did accept U.S. government authority. Now, forty-seven years later,
many indigenous political leaders are questioning the wisdom of accepting
U.S.-sponsored Indian governments. Indeed, many indigenous nations have
discovered that under this system the rights and interests of indigenous
peoples have been overwhelmingly subordinated to the interests of the
United States. Tribal economies, political structures, and cultural
systems have been eroded or destroyed.
Indigenous peoples in the United States have become refugees in their
own land. They have become hostages to the American legal and political
system. Indigenous law and political development is being vigorously
suppressed. The timber, oil, coal, uranium, water, and land belonging to
the indigenous nations are being used by the United States to benefit that
country's goals and aspirations, while the invented tribal government
system is being used against indigenous peoples to deny them the sole use
of their own property.
An American-invented educational system is being forced on indigenous
populations to ensure that succeeding generations of indigenous people
will have completely forgotten the existence of indigenous nations.
Indigenous children are being taught that George Washington was the
founding father of their nation. They are being told that their nation is
the United States and that the American political system was created to
give freedom to the oppressed. They are being told that America is a
beacon of freedom for all peoples. What they are not being told, however,
is that the United States has sought to destroy their homeland, their
history, their language, and their culture, as well as their freedom.
Deception through the great lie has permitted the United States, once a
weak and defenseless state, to become the dominant political and economic
force throughout the Western Hemisphere. With their economies decimated,
their governments in shambles, and their peoples in poverty, the
indigenous nations now look to the United States government for help and
for sustenance. The United States and its corporations say only, 'Give us
your land, your minerals, your petroleum, and your water, and we will give
you your freedom.' This may seem a harsh indictment of the United States,
but let me remind you that if you ask about the present condition of
indigenous peoples in the United States and try to explain how that
condition came to be, you must conclude that it resulted from the actions
of traitors among indigenous peoples, or from the actions of deceitful
Europeans, or from the actions of both. I subscribe to the view that
indigenous nations have been deceived by the Europeans with the help of
indigenous traitors who gave their loyalty to the United States and turned
against the indigenous nations.
In many ways, the situation in Canada resembles the stage of political
development in the United States during the latter nineteenth century and
the early twentieth century. Both the state of Canada and the state of the
United States were born of the same mother. The United States gained
release from its mother over two hundred years ago. Canada has just
recently severed the umbilical cord, called the British North America Act,
by which it was tied to its mother. Like the United States, Canada wants
to become a full-grown power able to act on its own without following the
rules set down by the mother. Unlike the United States, Canada had to wait
a long time before asking the royal mother if it could leave home and grow
up. Everything Canada knows about conducting relations with indigenous
nations it learned either from its mother or from its bigger brother, the
United States. Just as the United States made agreements and broke them
with indigenous nations, so has Canada. Just as the United States created
a legislative dictatorship over indigenous nations, so has Canada.
Now Canada is at a crossroad. Belatedly separated from the mother, it
views the indigenous nations as an obstacle. Canada cannot claim to be an
independent country unless it exercises full control over the territory
within its boundaries - over, that is, all of the people, all of their
land, and all of the natural resources. The indigenous nations in Canada
have learned from the mistakes of their brothers to the south and they are
not prepared to give Canada control over their people, lands, and natural
resources. To remedy this problem, the Canadian government is now seeking
to follow the example of its brother in the south by promoting the
parliamentary enactment of an Indian-government act. This act is, for all
practical purposes, a direct copy of the U.S. Indian Reorganization Act.
In fact, the Canadian government has consulted extensively with U.S.
officials over the years to learn about the model policies and approaches
that Americans used so successfully in subjugating their indigenous
governments.
While Canada's administrative structure is somewhat different from that
of the United States, it has worked to accomplish the same goals: the
elimination of indigenous nations and the substitution of Canadian-
European values for indigenous values. Assimilation of indigenous
populations is the essential goal. Canada will be able to achieve its goal
if Canadian officials can convince the indigenous people to believe the
great lie. Paradoxically, the effort to assimilate indigenous peoples
politically in Canada constitutes a tacit recognition by Canada that
indigenous nations are wholly outside of the Canadian federal system.
Canadian officials know that 64 per cent of the territory known as
Canada belongs to the indigenous nations and not to Canada. These are
unceded territories. Canada cannot exercise full national dominion without
controlling indigenous people, their lands, and their resources. So what
they offer in exchange is recognition of Indian governments in the
Constitution and in the laws. Just as the United States instituted Indian
governments for its own ends, Canada is now proposing to institute such
governments. Just as the United States sought to gain control over
indigenous lands, resources, and people, Canada is now seeking such
control. Canada has already worked to implement the great lie by telling
indigenous peoples that the Canadian Constitution can and will protect
indigenous nations and prevent further erosion of aboriginal rights. But
Canadian officials offer indigenous peoples no control or political power
in Canada's government. Indeed, indigenous leaders must understand
unequivocally that Canada cannot permit their nations to continue to exist.
For, as long as they exist, they will always be a threat to Canada's
sovereignty and its political integrity as a state.
The Canadian government has, time and time again, officially denied that
the nations of Canada, the indigenous nations, have original claim to the
vast territories that are called Canada. They have denied that the first
nations have a political identity separate from that federation called
Canada. Canada insists on claiming political and economic rights within
indigenous territories. To admit that such rights do not exist would
create a situation in which it could be argued that Canada has only an
administrative responsibility towards indigenous nations. So Canada's
solution is to institute the great lie. 'We will help you, brothers. Come
and join us and you can be yourselves.' But look at what happened in North
America to the south. Many of the brothers are not a part of the family
anymore. They are part of America.
In Nicaragua, we have a very similar situation. There are three
indigenous tribes in Nicaragua, the Miskito, the Rama, and the Sumu. They
occupy the eastern half of the country, where they make up the majority
population. Under the Somoza regime, they were told that they must 'Be
Nicaraguans, not Miskitos, not Ramas, not Sumus. You must be Nicaraguans,
and if you are not to be Nicaraguans, then you will be dead.' Many of the
people in those tribes revolted in 1978 against the Somoza regime, even
though it was sustained in power by the United States and other Western
powers. It was a revolution instituted by the indigenous people against an
oppressive regime.
The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), Hispanic descendants.
not indigenous people, who were the religious and labour leaders in
Nicaragua, said, 'We will take the lead and we will save you from this
madman Somoza.' So they took up the revolution against Somoza and they won
in 1979, and everyone was proud, for now they were done with the
oppression. The Miskitos, the Ramas, and the Sumus believed that they
would now have an opportunity to have their own land and their own nations
once again. But not long after the Sandinistas assumed leadership and
control of Nicaragua, they went to the indigenous peoples and said, 'You
are Nicaraguans. You are not Miskitos, you are not Ramas, you are not
Sumus. If you are not Nicaraguans, you are dead.'
The Sandinistas offered to the Miskitos, Ramas, and Sumus a role in the
new government. An organization called MISURASATA was formed to represent
the more than 185,000 Indians. 'We will give you a government as a part of
our government, and we will even permit you to have a representative in
our government,' the Sandinistas said. They then went ahead and selected a
person to represent the indigenous people in the parliament of the
Sandinistas. So, where is the indigenous nation now? In February 1981,
thirty-three leaders of MISURASATA were arrested. Security forces charged
that the Indians were preparing a separatist movement. The Indians want to
protect their territories from exploitation, and the Sandinistas want to
extract minerals and metals from Indian soils. You see, the revolution to
produce an indigenous nation must continue. The same controversy exists
there as exists in Canada, as exists in the United States and everywhere
where states and indigenous nations collide. The central issue remains:
Are the goals of states the same as those of indigenous nations? All we
can conclude by looking through history is no, they are not. Indigenous
nations and states can coexist, but if indigenous nations become part of a
state as subordinate peoples, then indigenous nations will disappear. The
states' urge to exploit indigenous peoples and their resources is
overpowering.
In Chile, the situation is exactly the same. The new government of
Pinochet advised the Mapuche people who had occupied the territory for
thousands of years, 'You must move from that territory because there is
copper and tin under your ground.' The Pinochet government urged the
Mapuche to become full Chilean citizens and exercise their 'equal' rights.
When they would not move, the Pinochet government enacted a law that says
the government has the right to take the land. All they require is that
one person, not necessarily a Mapuche but one person within the indigenous
territory, say: 'Yes, you can have my land.' and then the government has
the authority to take it all. And so they have. One hundred indigenous
communities in the last year have been devastated. Their land has been
opened up for mining copper, coal, zinc, nickel, and tin to advance the
interests of Chile, to advance the interests of other peoples, but not to
advance the interests of the Mapuche. Even their own land cannot benefit
them now. The Mapuche have never played a role in the Chilean government -
they are not a part of Chile.
The proclaimed superiority of the state has, in each of our examples,
been used to justify the dislocation and exploitation of indigenous
nations. The 'laws of nations' have been subverted by domestic
rationalizations to deny whole peoples their basic rights as human beings.
The myth of superiority has been used to enrich colonial populations and
impoverish indigenous peoples. The patterns of oppression are essentially
the same. Indigenous nations in all of our examples have been surrounded
by invading peoples leaving only tiny enclaves for indigenous homelands.
Each indigenous nation seeks to secure its homeland against further
invasion. Each indigenous nation is denied its right to exercise its
distinct political powers. The objective of each state is the same:
elimination of the indigenous population as a distinct nation and the
exploitation of indigenous people, lands, and resources for the benefit of
the state.
What can be done? The answer is simple, and perhaps that is why it is so
difficult. As our elders have said over and over again, through the
centuries: 'Hold on to the nation of people. Defend the nation of people
against all enemies. Assert your own government; you don't have to ask for
a government. You have a government. If you have no government, you have
no people; then there is nothing even to argue about.' All over the world
today there are indigenous populations that carry out governmental
activities as separate and distinct peoples, but too many feel they must
ask the state to give them the power to govern themselves. The only power
that exists for any people, whether it is the United States or Canada,
Shuswap or Blackfoot, Miskito or Mapuche, any nation, lies in the decision
of the people to take the initiative, to conjure up the strength, to
assert their nationhood to the rest of the world and say, 'We are here and
we do not plan to disappear. Our power comes from within and from our
access to the Great Spirit.' With those two things, the indigenous nation
can survive. It cannot survive by asking someone else to allow it to exist.
The great lie must be rejected and replaced by a renewed dynamic among
indigenous peoples. The indigenous nations are ancient in their origins -
they are the seed of humankind. They must resume their role among the
family of nations to reassert the balanced values that have ensured human
survival on this planet.
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