Taking Control

A few years ago, W. Ron Allen, former president of the National Congress of American Indians, remarked, “Tribes must come to the realization that the federal government will never fully live up to its obligations to our peoples and that we must take control of our destinies through our own resourcefulness”. Examining the unbroken chain of broken treaties, that is probably sage advice.

What that means in the present, is that in order to survive the breakdown of modern states and collapse of the market system, Indian tribes (and indigenous nations worldwide) will have to strengthen their own institutions. It also means they will have to assume management of all their lands and resources, a power of governance presently usurped in large part by federal agencies.

To take such bold measures in the face of tyrannical organizations like the United States of America and the United Nations, means that American Indians and indigenous peoples everywhere also need to develop and nurture their international solidarity networks. When you’re taking on the giants of globalization, it’s nice to have a few friends.