Testimonies on behalf of Lipan Apache Women Defense Strength against the U.S. and Mexico Boarder Wall

Link to Video

5.Border Wall in Texas, United States

After hearing the testimonies and both sides of the boarder wall issues, I feel like everyone did not get an equal opportunity to express their thoughts and opinions. Even in the meeting, it was really rude how the commission just cut off the indigenous presentation on the impacts the wall had on their people and community, the environmental commission, homeland security and government side were never cut off even though they spoke a larger amount of time. I don’t know if it is directly or indirectly happening but the same thing that happen to start construction of the wall is happening in the meetings and hearings. To start the wall I feel the United States government simply took questions and opinions from indigenous communities just to make it seem like they had a say. The government already had a vision though and the indigenous community was not a part of them, they figured the indigenous community could be displaced and left to the side like history shows. The exact same thing appears to be happening in the meeting. Margo Tamez had little time to effectively express the problems with the wall and open the eyes to many who are unfamiliar with important native issues. The commission might not think that Tamaulipas is not of importance because it lies in Mexico, but to the indigenous community it is of great importance. To me it seemed like the Indigenous community was just pushed to the side and was not taken seriously in to consideration with the final decisions. Like I said I don’t know much of this subject but it was very apparent how the Indigenous Community was quickly cut off while many other representatives were not. This shows that both Mexican and U.S governments really see native community as inferior and once again the indigenous community finds itself struggling to keep the little land they have.

Unsettling Settler Societies into&ch5

Major purpose to locate the shifting conditions and politics of women in settler societies within frameworks that provides a sense of how indigenous people and other migrants not regarded as settlers are constructed and viewed by the public eye. It also illustrates how tension and national ethnic struggles as well as racial violence have transferred over to the United States with its European Settlers. When Europeans arrived to the Americas they had no clue of how the Indigenous culture function and many had never seen them. The European settlers only new “civilized society”, the indigenous community was the total opposite of what they wanted to see or even expected. They also rejected the traditional oral stories to tell history and important events. This was just out of the question for the new immigrants. Settlers suggested that oral stories are not a reliable source to tell history because it can be told different by each individual. This book really wants to make sure the readers can understand each individual issue concerning settler societies like, colonialism, capitalism, gender, class and race/ ethnicity. It is important that one can understand these issues and then be able to visualize how they never occur on their own; instead it is always a mixture of problems that occur. With the rising conflict between the settler societies and indigenous people it is important to understand the conflicts that occurred within a society. For example when an indigenous person is educated in a white school and becomes more involved with the settler society, it can cause much chaos and discontent within the society. Just the idea is disrespect towards the elders and the indigenous community, because it sends the message that they are not good enough. European settlers proclaimed themselves the superior culture since upon arrival indigenous communities were dispossessed without remorse. The expansion of tobacco farms west was bad news for the indigenous community once more. The European settlers just too the land they need and didn’t think twice to displace Natives. Natives put up a fight and a series of wars broke out, but the European style army was to powerful, land was soon occupied by slaves and plantations. This became a regular pattern, European settlers needed land and they would simply take it from the Indigenous community and send them further and further west.

Chapter 2: Every Day is a Good Day

In chapter two I found many stories of indigenous women who travel back to their native land and they are marveled, it is as if they were reborn and reconnected to their spiritual being. These women did not leave their native land by choice they were part of a government program to break the indigenous ways and culture. Since the 1930s and 40s the United States wanted to whiten the natives they wanted to make them in some way human, the way to do this was through Christianization. Boarding schools were set up in the first major step to bring the indigenous people to a human level. Many tribes sent thousands of children to these schools in belief that they were going to better themselves and in turn better their tribe. What they found was that the white man was not trying to help the Indian culture instead they wanted to break it down. Chiefs soon found that children were getting molested by both priests and nuns, this brought distrust to many and fewer and fewer children participated after these rumors reached the public’s ears. Religion was no longer much of a powerful pull for the majority of natives, but for some it was these were usually children that grew up hearing the Christian ways and did not have much of a choice because they did not get to experience their native ways. After boarding school was no longer a success the government began to displace indigenous groups and move them from their homelands. This is what really sparked natives to be disconnected from their spiritual self because natives were no longer around their hills, creaks, rivers and trees all these are a part of their family and part of their spiritual self. For many years these displaced natives were not able to continue practicing their customs and slowly forgot their ways providing a spiritual limbo. Natives were not allowed to attend traditional festivities and they chose not to participate in Christian ones either so they were left in the middle. Then chapter two discusses stories of how indigenous women feel upon arriving to their once long ago native lands. Like the story of Felicia and her daughter Gina when they returned to Oklahoma in 1976 Felicia describes it as a beautiful experience. She describes herself as being spiritually revived, she says that it was until she moved back to Oklahoma that she discovered the spiritual Dimension of her life. She could remember her childhood stories and home even though it was full of weeds and trees where their once was none. Still her childhood is very vivid and she finally feels at home. She even describes how she bathes in the cold stream to be reintroduced to her land. She also learned her old ways and really enjoyed the relearning process that she went through at the camp site.

"Educating Indian Children"

In an attempt to educate Indian Children the United States ran a boarding school equivalent to that of Nazi Germany. Children were taken from their home town and forced to forget their costumes, languages, and family. Children did not attend these boarding schools voluntarily. The General was able to persuade the Indian Chief to give up three hundred of their children for the first class of the boarding school. Children felt like they were being taken to the edge of the world and were going to be thrown off upon arrival. The Children did not trust the white man and they clearly did not want to be a part of this educating process. To the General educating the Indian children was the only way to break down the culture and Americanize them. These boarding schools became a very dangerous learning institute it became a gateway to death, many children died. Children died of malnutrition, homesickness, and poor living conditions. Children were given little or no clothing and had to sleep on the cold floor with no banquets. Why take the children if the school is not prepared to host them? I think the answer is the Americans still saw the Indians as not human and they believed they could survive under any conditions they were viewed more like wild animals. These camps to me are the equivalent of Nazi Germany because children were taken and placed in camps involuntarily and many died. General who started the program believed he was helping the Indians become Americanized and that he was doing the right thing. He was doing the complete opposite though; he was robbing these children of their youth and family. Hitler believed he was doing the right thing when he set Jews in concentration camps. He believed he was helping man kind but like the general he was wrong. No one ever thought these boarding schools were immoral or any thing is that because the children were Indian? What if it was the opposite? What if white children were taken from their homes and “Indianized”?