As we close out yet another month meant to honor indigenous peoples and their heritage, we can’t help but think about the irony and hypocrisy of devoting one single month–that includes the farce of thanksgiving no less–to highlight one community of color that our society wants to uplift. Instead of uplifting a community, though, we see the continued marginalization and othering. We see people continuing to be segregated or who remain invisible in our urban centers, not to mention the neglect of the devastating impact COVID-19 is having on reservations across the country.
Speaking of “the Rona,” not even the pandemic will slow down the smooth hum of the capitalist machine. It’s not lost on us that while we sit here typing (day before thanksgiving), there are so many people surfing the web as they begin their holiday shopping madness. We don’t use “madness” lightly. We see the headlines and the protests and the action to help various BIPOC communities try to maintain some kind of foothold in our society so they don’t lose their job, their home, their health. And there are many others simply worried about which sale they’ll take advantage of first, second, third on thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday. But wait, there’s Giving Tuesday! Whew, we can all feel better about our gluttonous consumption now.
Today’s medicine comes from learning about some of the most pressing issues in Native communities followed by the resiliency of communities using self-determination to uplift themselves. Let’s be clear: this post is not meant to go into detail about any of the following topics; it should merely be seen as an introduction to some of what Indian Country survives through.
The Hypocrisy of Thanksgiving, aka Thanks-taking
As most are aware, the most common story taught in our schools across this country about thanksgiving is a lie. It is better known among many Native communities as the National Day of Mourning. Other ways to refer to it, whether you’re indigenous or not, are Truthsgiving, Thanks-taking, and Takesgiving. Bottom line: it’s time to stop the false narrative of the pilgrims and indians sitting down to a large feast to celebrate the sharing of two cultures.
In our capitalist culture, it’s easy to fall into all the ways of consuming anything and everything–food, football, holiday shopping, and holiday decorating. And it all begins with the thanksgiving break. While many will say their gratitudes before diving into the turkey feast laid out before them, the gratefulness is quickly washed down with all of the “traditional” food piled on their plate. Whose tradition is this really, though?
One way out of this is to reframe the entire idea of thanksgiving. Consider what your relationships mean to you. Consider how your gratefulness can transcend into generosity; think of it as paying it forward. Consider how you can become active in your community to help uplift those pushed to the margins; do this consistently, not just during the holiday season.
#LandBack
One of the most foundational needs for humans is safe shelter. In the land currently known as the United States of America, 17 of every 10,000 people on a given night (data from 2019) experience a lack of that need; they encounter houselessness. In particular, Native folks are six times more likely than a white person to be houseless, or four times the national average. Although houselessness has decreased overall since 2003–the first year to gather these statistics–these declines have been modest and are likely to be completely wiped out by the time we see the COVID-19 pandemic pan out, especially as the CDC eviction moratorium is set to expire at the end of 2020 while the national unemployment rate is still more than double this time last year.
These statistics reflect the disgusting system which the US has created and upholds–a system in which the historic stewards of the land that Americans call home cannot reliably stay housed on the land that was forcibly taken away from them. The Landback Movement is one with roots in different indigenous nations over past decades, and fulfillment of its principles would alleviate houselessness while uprooting the system which perpetuates it. Tribes and nations throughout this continent are calling for white supremacist structures to be dismantled and defunded and for all “public” lands to be returned to indigenous hands.
The Onslaught of COVID-19 on the Rez
As Native people, and indeed most people outside of the ever-wealthier “leading” class, struggle to keep themselves in house and in work, the worry of catching the virus looms heavy in our minds. The ever-present shadow of COVID-19 has thrown into harsh light and exacerbated the struggles already present in our society, which folks must juggle while handling the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the recognition that we are truly living through a pandemic, those in the US have had to come to terms with the fact that officials in power are not devoted to keeping people healthy (with consistent public health messaging or adequate testing/PPE) anymore than they are interested in assuring that sick folks still have the ability to live (by providing adequate unemployment benefits or rent moratoriums).
For Native folks, these conditions are in ever harsher light as communities face up to 4x the rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations as non-Latinx white people of the same age group. This statistic is stark, but what is even scarier is the unreported truth of the people who do not make it to the full hospitals, those who may not ever receive a COVID test, or those delegated to the demographic marker “Other.” Only 23 of the 50 states even have enough race/ethnicity data to report on Native rates to begin with, so the story that most people may be able to learn about their chances with the virus based on statistics is woefully incomplete. On many reservations, the main sources of revenue and taxes have been closed to comply with safety guidelines, but this leaves the local public services, which the rest of the country relies on (due to the willful lack of action on a national front), devoid of the funding necessary to keep their communities taken care of as COVID-19 cases continue to rise by the day.
Many folks have turned to more grassroots efforts in order to care for their communities: mutual aid networks are the ones that are carrying people through crisis, since we cannot rely on governmental institutions made to serve the few, to help the many.
How to Support Native Communities + Allyship
At this point, you might be thinking what you can do to help. There are a number of ways to move forward, but first and foremost, you must be willing to be more than an ally to any marginalized community. Being an ally means that you have recognized your own privilege and you speak up to interrupt white supremacy. You don’t wait for Natives–in this particular case–to teach you how to interrupt white supremacy; you do that learning on your own. (If you’d like some help to get started, you can check out our Resources page and all the links on this page!) You then use your own learning to disrupt white supremacy in your family, in your workplace, and in your community.
While allyship is a necessary step, it takes more than that to effectively and radically uplift a community that has been oppressed for hundreds of years. You must work toward being a co-liberator* instead, but don’t fall into the trap of “white saviorism”! Definitely look to Native communities to see what they are already doing to uplift their own people. Listen to Native leaders, activists, and elders to understand what they need in their own local community. Instead of asking Native leaders to tell you what to do, though, attend their public forums and read their websites. Take what you learn and do your own work to help them achieve their mission and goals.
We’d argue that as you work to challenge the white supremacy in your local spaces, you are starting the process of liberating indigenous communities. To further your work as a co-liberator, you can take another impactful step that requires you to reach out to your various (privileged) networks to donate to grassroots organizations and mutual aid funds. As mentioned above, this is the best way for a local community to make the greatest impact immediately since the bureaucracy of our state and federal governments move at a snail’s pace.
Check out these mutual aid fund organizations for a variety of options:
- Indigenous Mutual Aid network
- Grand Canyon Trust Mutual Aid and Relief Funds
- Seeding Sovereignty Community Care Fund
- Network of 17 Organizations providing food relief
JOY and RESILIENCY in Native Communities
We are a year into this pandemic and several months beyond what we once knew as normal. Needless to say, COVID-19 adds to the degree of difficulty that BIPOC and the working classes must navigate in order to maintain life on the day to day. It’s hard to not look at this last year as one that is “lost”; there has been far too much loss and devastation to even consider that. It’s hard to recall a time (in recent history) that there has been a more appropriate Day of Mourning for the greater collective. Mourning gives us time and space to grieve, to reflect, to recalibrate, and to be grateful. All these things happen so that we can prepare for a season of renewed light and hope.
While acknowledging the horrific circumstances and all that has transpired in 2020, we know we have survived worse. Our existence alone is proof of that. Our ancestors have left us the blueprint, in fact. This instance is no different. We will prevail, and we will do so together. The past, present, and future are shining a light for us to hold and to follow in this dark time.
We still have a ways to go in this tunnel we’ve found ourselves in but at least there is that light, which in large part is what the youth and our indigenous people help to illuminate and help us not lose focus on when that day comes. We pray that we all reach the other side together. Until then we evolve and we take yesteryears and the hope of tomorrow to get us through today. Here is to a better future with you all.
In solidarity,
until and beyond liberation and land back 🌹
Sources:
What are Truthsgiving, Thanks-taking, and Takesgiving? (2020, November 23). Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://sicangucdc.org/blog/f/what-are-truthsgiving-thanks-taking-and-takesgiving
State of Homelessness: 2020 Edition – National Alliance to End Homelessness. (2020). Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-hom
LANDBACK Manifesto – LANDBACK. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://landback.org/manifesto/
Employment Situation Summary Table A. Household data, seasonally adjusted. (2020). Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.a.htm
Civil Eats TV: Liquid Gold on Tribal Land | Civil Eats. (2020, November 24). Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://civileats.com/2020/11/24/civil-eats-tv-liquid-gold-on-tribal-land/
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). COVIDView: A Weekly Surveillance Summary of U.S. COVID-19 Activity | CDC. Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html#hospitalizations
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). HHS/CDC TEMPORARY HALT IN RESIDENTIAL EVICTIONS TO PREVENT THE FURTHER SPREAD OF COVID-19 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/declaration-form.pdf.
Hatcher, S. M., Agnew-Brune, C., Anderson, M., Zambrano, L. D., Rose, C. E., Jim, M. A., … McCollum, J. (2020). COVID-19 Among American Indian and Alaska Native Persons — 23 States, January 31–July 3, 2020. MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 69(34), 1166–1169. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6934e1
Mineo, L. (2020, May 8). The impact of COVID-19 on Native American communities – Harvard Gazette. Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/05/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-native-american-communities/
Petty, T. “Honeycomb” [@combsthepoet]. (n.d.). Posts [Instagram page]. Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://www.instagram.com/combsthepoet/
Sherman, S. (2019, November 11). Since the Thanksgiving Tale Is a Myth, Celebrate It This Way | Time. Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://time.com/5457183/thanksgiving-native-american-holiday/
Thompson, C. E. (2020, November 25). What is the Indigenous landback movement — and can it help the climate? Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://grist.org/fix/indigenous-landback-movement-can-it-help-climate/
Wade, L. (2020, September 24). COVID-19 data on Native Americans is ‘a national disgrace.’ This scientist is fighting to be counted. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abe9552
Wynne, K. (2019, November 27). What is National Day of Mourning? How Anti-Thanksgiving Day Started and Everything To Know About It. Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://www.newsweek.com/what-national-day-mourning-how-anti-thanksgiving-day-started-everything-know-about-it-1474425
The Wobble 
