From the early days of the original theft of Turtle Island, the Stealing Fathers have perpetrated the myth of their implicit entitled “legality” on the land they call the United States, while they built the notion of the Brown and Black criminal as coming from “somewhere else.”
This all was happening even though the millions of melanated indigenous residents were here for thousands of years before the white European immigrants arrived and began their genocidal terrorist campaign of removal.
But in their massive public relations campaign, the settlers launched a complete counter-narrative.
The savior, implicitly and conveniently “legal,” hard-working, white immigrant (settler) from Europe was never questioned, charged or imprisoned for hundreds of years of murder, terror, land theft, genocide and—most importantly for this argument—border-jumping.
The truth is, the European settlers—immigrants—who “arrived” here, claiming they were “discoverers” never had a proper immigration process, a green card issued, or a passport demanded.
What they did bring was a huge set of anti-poor and anti-disabled-people laws that they imported and implemented on the land they stole, which laid the groundwork for the other violent aspect of their residency, the criminalization of poverty and ultimately the creation of homelessness.
“We had no concept of homelessness in the time of my ancestors. This was created by the settlers,” said Corrina Gould, co-founder of Sogorea Te Land Trust, Indians Working For Change, and The Family Edelrs Council of Homefulness /POOR Magazine.
Once these immigrants flooded in to “save us” and create their genocidal campaign of so-called civilization, it was all about land grabs, fake treaties they never honored, and bloody wars leading to more false lines on their maps. But most importantly it led to the individual “ownership” of land and the privileging of so-called private property and even so-called public property, over people.
“This is your five minute warning.” That’s said by police, Caltrans and ICE agents across so-called California to houseless humans existing outside and indigenous peoples from the false side of the colonial border facing an ICE “raid” or ICE “sweep” of a workplace.
There are so many connections. Beginning with the word “sweep,” a hygienic metaphor used to describe the removal and criminalization, arrest and seizure of humans that this racist, classist, ableist, system no longer wants to see, use, or exploit.
And then there is the fact that a large percentage of the houseless humans being swept, seized, arrested, and criminalized in cities from Chicago to San Francisco are indigenous migrants themselves.
This is stolen land, and yet we as houseless people are criminalized for being on it. We are told this is public land, but it’s really only for the white, rich public. The borders are a false colonial construct of the same colonial government that stole the land, killed the original inhabitants and commodified Mama Earth right out from under us.
Article 10. – Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories. No relocation shall take place without the free and informed consent of the indigenous peoples concerned and after agreement on just and fair compensation and, where possible, with the option of return.
—From the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a liberatory document created by leaders of indigenous nations all across Mama Earth over several painstaking years. It must be included in our conversation, our understanding and our resistance to this moment of so much racist, classist, ableist hate, harassment and illegal acts directed at indigenous relatives from the other sides of the false border by the US privileged settler class of illegal immigrants.
“As Indigenous peoples we have the right to traverse anywhere and around our sacred Mama Earth,” Tony Gonzalez, from AIM-West, said to POOR Magazine reportera Teresa Molina in Los Viajes/The Journeys, a POOR Press publication. “In our efforts to indigenize ourselves in society it is to recapture that relationship to the earth and our inherent rights.”
As I noted in the terrible climate-change-fueled fires of 2017, the wineries were still having indigenous relatives pick grapes without masks or protections when they should have had them shelter in place and stay home. Where are the reparations payments from these billionaire wineries to their workers for years of unsafe and barely paid work?
When will reparations be paid to indigenous relatives from the US government for these violent PTSD causing, work-stopping, family and child abusing, and terrorizing income-interrupting raids?
“There wasn’t a mumbling word said when thousands of Ukrainian immigrants came to the US,” said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who went on to say he would not, as a Black man, let white supremacy pit him against indigenous peoples (immigrants) whose land were stolen from them in the first place by this government.
Johnson mentioned the white immigrants and refugees, who last time I checked aren’t being deported, raided or harassed while so many Haitian, Mexican, Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants face the terror of these raids right now. White supremacy is alive and well.
In the end we are implementing protocols of protection within POOR Magazine’s and Homefulness family on our blocks, our communities, our barrios and our neighborhood. But we are also continuing with liberation and liberatory narratives.
This land doesn’t belong to the White settler/immigrants. In the face of all of this collective terror against Black and Brown relatives from all across Mama Earth, it is more important than ever to lift up liberation, love, interdependence and deep community care giving.
Stay tuned to Poor Peoples Radio for our forum on UNDRIP, Immigration and wite Illegal immigrants with indigenous leaders from across the US. As well, this year POOR Press will release the long-awaited KlanMarks, Plakkks and ManUmeants an UnTour Book Across Occupied Turtle Island, a new genre “guidebook”to help us all honor the sacred and the true heroes, leaders, stewards and caregivers of our sacred Mama Earth as well as the Resistance Marks to honor all the victims of colonization, Police Terror, Homelessness and removal. There will be three dates locally April 12th in So-called San Rafael, April 26th at the East Side Arts Alliance and May 20th at City Lights Books for more information go to poormagazine.org/calendar or email poormag@gmail.com
