cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/379642

Hello relatives, comrades, and allies. My name is Sungmanitu. I formed this collective of activists last winter in order to fundraise and bring out wood to keep elderly alive during the winter. This was a great accomplishment for us, and so this summer we helped put on a traditional ceremony known as Sundance that is historically one of the longest standing Sundances that was continued in the Badlands during the period of history they were outlawed.

The way of life the Sundance helps preserve is called “the Red Road” or Chunka Luta which is where our name comes from. It is a message of hope and an offer of direction to those who lack direction, but know it is time to do something to build the world we want to see for the next generation. This traditional seat of power has withstood the test of time against US Imperialism, and therefore I think is worth investing our time and energy in. So we hope to raise a grand total of 30k-35k USD, based on costs incurred at Sundance and the multiplication of available hands, and skilled trades people with tools for their use building the house before winter, moving the roof, feeding people etc.

We also wanted to try and raise money for a comrades wheelchair (10k), and help with a down payment on a car and a cheap trailer to cheapen rental costs of moving trucks (2.5-3k). We are set to launch our website after the webmaster is out of the hospital, and there we will be posting the receipts from the projects, and various updates and newsletter, as well as paying a professional camera person to help us film quality videos of the land and showcase just how much we accomplished in less than a year, with all extra fund we would buy wood to haul and chop there, as well as lay the foundations of the steel distribution center which will also serve as a meeting hall for the Oceti Sakowin traditional headsmen. Along with this will be finishing a four day interview process with my Uncle David Swallow Jr to write his memoir before he dies, and preserve the wisdom and stories that helped me grow, and helped inform the movement we carry forward.

But our goal is so large for this fundraising cycle due to the unique opportunities presented to us; namely the purchasing of 150+ acres of land that has hosted the longest continuing Sundance at these grounds since 82. This is when my uncle took it over from Fools Crow, who continued it from his teacher even while it was illegal to Sundance, and thus it remains a center of power and community, as well as a symbol of resilience. My uncle being the headsmen of the Oceti Sakowin places the cadre in a unique position in the community, where other Indigenous nations like the Crow and Ponca come to us to reclaim their traditions.

The Crow do not hold their national flag, and so when doing ceremony they come to us to retrieve their national flag in shame, for the crimes committed on behalf of the US against us. The Ponca use our Sundance grounds for the Sundance now, and so it is even more important to use this place of international unity to its fullest. To place the movement in the nexus of so many peoples from around the globe who come there to pray, will only legitimize and strengthen our ties to my community there. Not only are we reclaiming sovereignty, but we are preserving dignity, dignity we gain by the land. It is not only construction, but preserving what has withstood the test of time.

I've been working my way through the Decolonized Buffalo episodes in order and over the last few weeks every time I update my feeds I get a network error when fetching the list of episodes.

Text Mirror:

What does decolonization of Hawaii, and the US look like? From one Native Hawaiian's perspective (me)

The US military is destroying our islands along with the 12 million tourists under foreign billionaire-owned tourism. Too many Americans are buying up our lands forcing us out by jacking home prices to $1.5 million etc.

But the solution in places like Hawaii, North America is not as simple as everyone who is white or non-indigenous simply leaving.

If the people in Hawaii & North America could repair the inequities with the indigenous people there, respect treaties, allow indigenous and ethnic minorities to exist as equal yet different - the way Vietnam, China have 50+ ethnic minorities who co-exist, allow them to speak languages, don't mass-arrest imjpoverish, etc - then everyone would not need to leave.

If the colonizer-mindset people in Hawaii leave and go to N America, that pushes the problem to Native Americans. If they go to Europe, at least you don't have re-settler colonialism.

When the French colonizers were defeated and kicked out of Vietnam, they were < 5% of the population, had clearly delineated 'us and them' lines, and so decolonization was more straightforward. Most French chose to leave Vietnam, because they were there to extract resources and labor from their 'coolies' and when they couldn't anymore, they went back to Europe.

At the same time, all people of French/white heritage were not required to leave Vietnam after the dismantling of colonial yt supremacist rule.

As an example, my Vietnamese friend Luna Oi has a white American husband in Vietnam, and he is not required to 'go back to America' because he's white. He simply has to follow the rules of Vietnam, its socialist anti-imperialist country, and co-exist peacefully, and it is fine. Vietnam is 98% indigenous.

Bolivia is ~60% identifying as indigenous, with a unique history, but they have had great successes with their indigenous-led socialist plurinational - meaning many language, many peoples, coexisting within one state - in the Western sense.

They do not require the 40% white/non-indigenous identifying people to leave Bolivia and go back to Spain, Europe, US, etc. but over time, they will need to learn to co-exist in actual equality with the indigenous.

The US is 98% identifying non-indigenous, with ~20-30% non-white identifying.

The US is the worlds' largest European settler colony by far with 330 million people, and the worlds' capitalist superpower that dwarfs and puppeteers its parent Europe itself.

The process of undoing colonization, and healing the broken people and ways (including indigenous and non-white people who have had our ways and languages severely harmed by colonization) will not look identifical to either Bolivia or Vietnam, and will be unprecedented in human history - but we can learn from each of these struggles.

Education, listening to the marginalized, indigenous etc. and implementing that education in concrete ways is certainly an important part of the process. Which is why the US is banning CRT, anything that makes white people 'uncomfortable' from schools. Because it would indeed be the undoing of the US over time.

Long story short - it will be a long story and there is no easy shortcut out of it, lol.

If you appreciated this thread, consider helping this Native Hawaiian and family keep doing this educational / decolonizational work with ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/silverspook Or consider becoming a Patreon patron! https://www.patreon.com/neofeud

The review is still progressing so we'll find out more, I think.

Let us hope that he gets through this!

Y'all should read White Supremacy Confronted by Gerald Horne.

We need more stuff like this.

Of course, at the end of the day, this is just them trying to appeal to minority groups, I feel. If they knew just who Zitkála-Šá was, they probably wouldn't put her on the Search Page (or at least, if everybody else knew). I would recommend Nick Estes' recent book which talks about her and her life.

History time.

Monthly Review has hot takes from time to time, but their historical research and the general information they give to newcomers of Marxism is invaluable.