Dear friends,
As an acronym-challenged person, I puzzled for a while over the name of the NDN Collective, until I said it aloud.
NDN is an advocacy group with the mission to
build the collective power of Indigenous Peoples, communities, and Nations to exercise our inherent right to self-determination, while fostering a world that is built on a foundation of justice and equity for all people and the planet.
“When we celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day in place of Columbus Day, it shows a victory for Indigenous people. It represents how we won’t be erased, how we still stand in our power, no matter what they did to try to kill us off and steal our land.”
Tell Congress to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day. This quick action is from the Lakota Law Center.
President Biden appointed the first Indigenous person to a cabinet-level post, and was the first president to commemorate Indigenous Peoples Day. Last year, he noted that in addition to honoring Indigenous People and their contributions,
“we have more to do to help lift Tribal communities from the shadow of our broken promises, to protect their right to vote and to help them access other opportunities that their ancestors were long denied.”
This is another situation in which the Biden Administration has done more than its predecessors and not enough.
Because the impacts of climate change fall harder on Indigenous people than most other groups in the US, we need more than words to address the problems. This includes protecting Indigenous lands from mining and drilling projects that threaten their livelihood, burial sites, and access to clean water.
The EPA blocked the Pebble Mine in Southwest Alaska in response to efforts by 15 tribes to protect the Bristol Bay from pollution in an important salmon fishing area. Alaska is appealing this case to the Supreme Court, the same court that recently
ruled against the Navajo Nation in a water rights case, rejecting the tribe’s suit against the federal government in a dispute over access to the drought-depleted Colorado River system.
It’s time for more action. One precedent comes from 1988, when the US government finally acknowledged the wrongful US policy to force Japanese-Americans from their homes during World War II.
Ronald Reagan signed legislation to apologize for
the injustice of "internment," and provided a $20,000 cash payment to each person who was incarcerated.
This apology came after previous action to create a modest reparations fund in 1998, which was accompanied by a Statement of Reconciliation.
Call on the Biden Administration to issue an apology for broken treaties and harmful policies. Ask him again to declare a climate emergency as a means of protecting Indigenous lands and people.
Fighting erasure is not unique to those who are indigenous to the lands that are part of the US. The same impulse creates context as we oppose book bans, support the teaching of Black history, and try to make sense of the massive assault by Hamas on Israel.
Ofer Cassif, an Israeli legislator and members of his minority party, the Hadash coalition, warned the Netanyahu government that the continued illegal occupation of Palestinian lands would lead to a violent response.
The current escalation appears to be even more precarious than normal, as Israel’s far-right government grapples with the unprecedented security breach, while Palestinians are mired in despair due to the ongoing occupation in the West Bank and the suffocating blockade in Gaza.
I am not the right person to provide a cogent history of the conflict in Israel and Palestine. I find it helpful to look at maps.
I was, however, aware that the massive rocket attacks this weekend came almost exactly 50 years after the inception of the Yom Kippur War, which I learned about in Hebrew school and at the dinner table.
[T]he Yom Kippur war began with a surprise attack by Syrian tank columns and Egyptian brigades. That made it even more surprising that Israel was not more on guard.
The [Israeli] defense official said this was most likely not a coincidence but a careful choice by Hamas to pick a date perceived as a national trauma. The intelligence surprise, as well as Hamas’s ability to cross the border and cause heavy losses, is strikingly reminiscent of the 1973 war.
Like so many others, I am looking for guidance about what to think and how to feel about events in Israel and Palestine and our own government’s role in them.
This message from Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) was helpful to me:
As JFREJ we know that many of our members, friends, and allies have loved ones in danger. We are frightened for them and for Israeli hostages and civilians, for Palestinians in Gaza, and all people in the region.
We are fearful about what’s to come tomorrow and far into the future.
We are angry that leaders continually choose extremism, violence, and occupation and dismayed that official Israeli and US statements are calling for massive escalation.
We recognize that attacks on civilians by Hamas are neither justifiable nor unprovoked. This has been the deadliest year for Palestinians in decades of occupation and of the stifling blockade of Gaza.
How do we “foster a world that is built on a foundation of justice and equity for all people and the planet”? Send your ideas.
with love,
L