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Decolonizing the New World Means Listening to Native Voices

by Decolonize the New World
As the one year anniversary of the encampment at Oscar Grant Plaza approaches, we as organizers within the Occupy, Decolonize and Anti-Capitalist movements find ourselves faced with new challenges and opportunities. Thousands have been inspired and served by the camp and important connections have been made that have served to strengthen us in the face of even the most brutal repression. We continue to defy the police state, we continue to open public space, to farm, to build the world we want to see. We now are faced with questions of how to push these critiques of capital and the State further and to continue to strengthen and develop ourselves across scenes and communities. To find these answers we need to first look at the ground we walk.
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As the one year anniversary of the encampment at Oscar Grant Plaza approaches, we as organizers within the Occupy, Decolonize and Anti-Capitalist movements find ourselves faced with new challenges and opportunities. Thousands have been inspired and served by the camp and important connections have been made that have served to strengthen us in the face of even the most brutal repression. We continue to defy the police state, we continue to open public space, to farm, to build the world we want to see. We now are faced with questions of how to push these critiques of capital and the State further and to continue to strengthen and develop ourselves across scenes and communities. To find these answers we need to first look at the ground we walk.

We walk every day on land that is not ours. We step on the bones of ancestors whose remains are not legitimized by the State. We live in a place where the graves of indigenous people are bulldozed and paved over because they do not belong to a federally recognized tribe, because they are invisibilized by colonialism. We ride bikes and walk with friends over ground that is sacred to indigenous people in this area because park districts allow paths to go through these places without regard for their meaning. The indigenous people of the land where you walk are still living and still fighting, and we have the opportunity to fight for these places with them.

The process of colonization is one of invisiblization. It is the process of erasing language, culture and history. It is the process by which an oppressive force seeks to tell the inhabitants of the colonized place that they no longer exist, they are no longer legitimate. The desecration of shellmounds (burial sites) and other sacred sites in this area is illustration of how this process works. It is a statement that these places do not matter, they do not exist, neither do the people who are tied to them. City government and area parks and recreation departments argue that access to parks and other pieces of undeveloped land trumps the desires of native people in the area. And even when these bodies do decide to listen to native voices, they look primarily to groups of federally recognized tribes. These tribes usually gain such recognition by succumbing to pressures by the government to relinquish their land and their ways. For those who refuse to be erased, for those who refuse to be invisible, the struggle is hard-fought, and ongoing.

In the Bay Area, bands of Ohlone people have loved, cared for and lived in this wonderful place for millennia and survived after they were nearly decimated. For those of us who are not indigenous to this land, for those of us whose ancestors arrived from distant places, and especially for those of us who are recently arrived to this beautiful place, it is important to remember and recognize that fact. It is important to recognize that in spite of this systematic genocide, the Ohlone people, their language, their ceremonies and songs have survived. They have survived through their connection to the earth, through their connection to this place.

In developing ourselves within the Occupy and Decolonize movements as well as within the anti-capitalist movement, me must constantly go through the process of acknowledging connection to land, acknowledging the living, active resistance in local indigenous communities where we live. Failing to form these connections and to acknowledge the presence of local indigenous people does a terrible disservice to our movements and perpetuates the colonial ideologies and institutions we purport to deconstruct.

Here in the Bay Area, Ohlone people have requested the presence of supporters at the last of several key public meetings of the East Bay Regional Parks District on October 9th in Richmond. These meetings are meant to gain public input on the Park District’s long-term vision as it revises its master plan. The Park District has control over many sites that are sacred to Ohlone people. Its master plan is vague at best in its vision for some of the most sacred sites and includes no real space for native voices to be heard on how best to care for the land and their sacred places. Please see the callout for more details.

We encourage anyone reading this, and especially those looking to plan a solidarity action, to reach out to the people whose land they occupy, and to work together to break down colonial structures starting at home. We have nothing to lose but our chains.
§Retire Columbus Day INDIGENOUS DAY OF RESISTANCE INDIGENOUS RIGHTS RALLY & MARCH
by United Native Americans
800_una_retire_columbus_sunday_oct_7th.2012.jpg
We as United Native Americans, Founded in 1968 in the San Francisco Bay Area Call for an Educational Rally to Decolonize the World on Retiring the Nation's Oldest Italian Heritage Parade's Celebration of Christopher Columbus since 1869, which was San Francisco's First Columbus Day Celebration. Ending the 144 Year Celebration of Christopher Columbus so called "Discovery of America" and Ending 520 Year's of the Celebration of the Criminal Genocide inflicted upon the Indigenous People of the Americas. We as United Native Americans Refute the Doctrine of Discovery. We Demand that The United States Government Retire the Celebration of Christoper Columbus and We Demand that The United States Government Sign Into Law & Implement The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Retire Columbus Day Sunday, October 7th, 2012


INDIGENOUS DAY OF RESISTANCE INDIGENOUS RIGHTS RALLY & MARCH to Decolonize the World on the Truth of Christoper Columbus & his Insidious Hate Crimes he Committed Against the Indigenous Peoples of The Americas Known as Turtle Island.

Our Peaceful March will begin from foot of Jefferson and Stockton Streets located near Fisherman's Wharf to Coit Tower Rally in Front of the Columbus Statue

Sunday, October 7th, 2012

From 10:00am -1:00pm

Press Conference from Noon to 1:00pm at Coit Tower in Front of the Columbus Statue

Fisherman's Wharf
Foot of Jefferson and Stockton
to
Coit Tower
Telegraph Hill
San Francisco, CA

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=off&q=Fishermans+Wharf%2C+San+Francisco%2C+CA+to+Coit+Tower+Telegraph+Hill&ie=UTF-8

We as United Native Americans, Founded in 1968 in the San Francisco Bay Area Call for an Educational Rally to Decolonize the World on Retiring the Nation's Oldest Italian Heritage Parade's Celebration of Christopher Columbus since 1869, which was San Francisco's First Columbus Day Celebration. Ending the 144 Year Celebration of Christopher Columbus so called "Discovery of America" and Ending 520 Year's of the Celebration of the Criminal Genocide inflicted upon the Indigenous People of the Americas. We as United Native Americans Refute the Doctrine of Discovery. We Demand that The United States Government Retire the Celebration of Christoper Columbus and We Demand that The United States Government Sign Into Law & Implement The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples


Ending the 144 Year Celebration of Christopher Columbus and Ending 520 Years and Counting of Genocide inflicted on the Indigenous People of the Americas.

History:

1876 California accepted a Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella Statue from Darius Ogden. The statue is displayed in the Rotunda of the State Capital. Valued at $30,000, it was crafted by Larkin G. Mead in Florence, Italy.

1892 President Harrison declared October 12, 1492 as the day America was discovered by Christopher Columbus.

1909 California declared October 12 a legal holiday, to be known as "Discovery Day."

1911 Assemblyman Dismo M. De Negri of San Francisco changed the name of the holiday to "Columbus Day."

1910 President Taft declared October 12 to be a legal U.S. holiday.

1915 The San Francisco Columbus Day Committee was organized by the Salesian Fathers of St. Peter and Paul's Church in the heart of North Beach.


INDIGENOUS DAY OF RESISTANCE

Retiring the Nation's Oldest Italian Heritage Parade & Ending the Celebration of Columbus. 1869, San Francisco's First Columbus Day Celebration is held, marking the first time in San Francisco and America that Italian-Americans gathered and held a parade to honor the accomplishments of Italians, as well as the first Italian-American, Christopher Columbus.


View Our Educational Videos

UNA Co-Founder Dr. Jack Forbes argues that Native Americans discovered Europe before Europeans discovered America."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lKtIDm_v10&feature=share&list=PLC192C91C0E6A0CBE


Reconsider Columbus Day Presented by Nu Heightz Cinema
rethink columbus day
reconsider christopher columbus
anti columbus day

http://youtu.be/9DviNNxaJJk

Dr. Lehman Brightman-International President of UNA On Christopher Columbus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-3hFI4nKm4&feature=share&list=PLC192C91C0E6A0CBE



United Native Americans on You Tube
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC192C91C0E6A0CBE&feature=mh_lolz


Friend Us On Facebook.com
http://www.facebook.com/groups/unitednativeamericansinc

Follow UNAINC on Twitter
http://twitter.com/#!/unainc


WE INVITE MEMBERS OF THE PRESS AND COMMUNITY TO JOIN US FOR OUR INDIGENOUS RIGHTS RALLY & FORUM
All Dancers and Drum Groups Are Welcomed!

For More Information
Contact: United Native Americans,Inc.
http://www.facebook.com/events/338254962936905/permalink/339218596173875/?notif_t=like

Quanah Parker Brightman
qbrightman75 [at] hotmail.com
(510) 672-7187


Hinhanska Haney
hinhanskah [at] gmail.com
(510) 478-2191
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Jose M Lopez Sierra
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