Cultural Heritage Survival and Perseverance:
Our Shared Global Human Interest and the Medicine that Heals
Author’s Note: The following reflections and perspectives are part of my own individual journey, but influenced by many teachers, advocates, leaders, and individuals along the way in whom I hold tremendous respect, including my parents, wife, and children who taught me to walk in this life with passion, confidence, honesty, sincerity, and humility. I offer the following in a good way and none of it should be interpreted as intentional disrespect or as an attack on the views and opinions expressed by others, but I ask for forgiveness in recognition of the possibility, and invite respectful discourse.
A message for your consideration to all my relations fighting to protect and strengthen Indian Country…
As I sat an ocean away reflecting on the possibilities of what should be the righteous arc of the moral universe’s long bend towards justice, the juxtaposition of the tranquil natural beauty and the violent colonizer-mindset comingled and embedded in the Italian cityscapes continued to unsettle me. This was my first time in the “Old World” and I was there at the Gonzaga School of Law 2024 Human Rights Conference: Cultural Heritage as a Human Right presenting on “The Story of Tribal Nation-U.S. Relations and Its Impact on Our Cultural Survival & Perseverance” {Full Abstract} My presentation included a discussion on the foundations of U.S. federal Indian law and policy, including the impacts of U.S. colonization on our cultural heritage, and the current challenges and opportunities of our diplomatic relationship. What began as just another educational opportunity, albeit on the international stage, I have since realized it has changed me profoundly both personally and professionally. Cultural heritage is a fundamental human right and my experience here reinforces the need to relentlessly oppose cultural erasure at all costs, especially against the backdrop of this European hotspot of an oppressor, conqueror, colonizer, and human-rights-violator mindset.
My journey to Italy presented me with the opportunity to experience all of its breathtaking beauty, both natural and man-made. From the warmth and light of the Morning Star gently dissolving the mist hugging the Tuscan countryside, revealing the Mediterranean cypress, olive, and fig trees, to the stone and marble architecture of its cities, peopled and re-peopled through the Roman, Medieveal, Renaissance, and modern centuries, it is easy to be distracted from the roots of the Doctrine of Discovery that lie beneath and its negative implications for indigenous peoples across time and space. The unvarnished truth is that the same people and institutions that contributed to so much beauty are also responsible for tremendous atrocities perpetrated against people perceived to be unlike them. For those they believed to be less than and unworthy, they denied the fundamental rights to which every human being is entitled. The attributes of kindness, love, and humanity that their God taught them as attributes to be honored were not applicable. During a visit to one of its many grand cathedrals, uncomfortably, I found myself being gazed at and looked down upon with condanna (condemnation) by dozens of statue heads of religious leaders from centuries ago, the very ones who held such beliefs. In fact, Italy embodies the Catholic and Christian faiths, and only in 2023 did the Vatican repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery, recognizing the tremendous damage it inflicted upon non-Christian indigenous peoples around the globe, including here on Turtle Island.
These collective European people and institutions manipulated religious teachings and created legal fiction that violated the laws of humanity and laws of the universe to justify their entitlement to lands and natural resources that did not belong to them. Their actions are in fact human rights violations, attacking people and their culture along with them, through genocide and terrorism that sought to erase, and make way for their greed and professed superiority. This typifies an external attack on cultural heritage, the kind of attacks that have occurred throughout history. Their collective actions stunted our natural growth and are directly attributable to many of our circumstances today, the many related disparate conditions across Indian Country, and the historical trauma that we continue to confront and heal.
While there, I also had the opportunity to visit my wife’s homelands in the village of Terravecchia, nestled at the top of the Calabrian region, and experience cultural heritage fading from an internal impetus. Perched atop a mountainside overlooking the turquoise waters of the Ionian Sea, Terravecchia is abundant in peace and tranquility where one can slow down to hear the whispers of nature and loved ones long passed. However, despite the endurance of centuries-old stone structures, the village is on the brink of becoming a historical footnote. Her youth are fleeing for opportunities in the larger cities with no expressed desire to return to an existence they view to be decades behind. The vibrant culture and traditions which once flourished are slowly disappearing, her elders left behind holding onto what little remains while simultaneously oblivious to what is occurring, just as the fish who cannot recognize the water that immerses them. Whether internal or external, the threats to heritage loss all end in the same tragic void and there is too much power and beauty there to allow this tragedy of cultural erasure to unfold, for the benefit of all her children near and far, including my own.
In an ironic twist, as a person who contends with the effects of European Christian occupation and colonization, there I found myself, standing in a place that played a part in our own dark history, including being the home to the human rights violator Christopher Columbus, as well as the home to Amerigo Vespucci where the name “America” is derived. The irony was found in the sharing of my concerns with family and community about what is likely to occur should they not course correct, and the loss and sadness that will accompany that fate. They seem to be oblivious to the truth that the subsequent effort it will take to restore is substantially more than it takes to prevent. The experience made it clear to me that one who has experienced and endured cultural loss, and who works to recover and rebuild in the aftermath, is able to better see threats to cultural heritage that exist on the horizon.
The deep meaning of proactive prevention against Terravecchia’s cultural loss, which I work to restore in my own colonized world, had a profound impact on the need to preserve this human right, propelling me toward a profound spiritual occurrence that I did not see coming. One beautiful and tranquil late afternoon, as the warm and bright day faded to dusk, I ventured out on a hike by myself. As I traversed the hills, I encountered beautiful flowers and plants of every color, many creatures dancing about, the village prophetically receding as I ventured further away. As I made my way up the mountainside, I began feeling an immense sense of strength overcome my body, followed by a sense that my body was shapeshifting from a two-legged to a four-legged being. I began seeing and smelling things from a vantage point that was unfamiliar in one sense, but intrinsic and awakening to my inner being in another. Regardless of whether another views it to be imaginary, metaphorical, or literal, it was a gift nonetheless and one that I embrace. In trying to understand this occurrence, a dear friend of mine suggested that it may be part of my own transformation and evolution process, a process that includes a reminder and grounding in our shared humanity and interests, but also as a bridge and healing medicine as I pursue justice and righteousness. The occurrence was personal to me and I continue to understand the full meaning, but I feel embedded are lessons intended to be shared for our common benefit, lessons that are part of the necessary truth and reconciliation process as Indian Country continues to forge ahead as part of our own renaissance.
The outcome of the story of Terravecchia is neither predetermined nor predestined, and only time will write the subsequent chapters of her story. Further, I recognize that this experience is a minor moment in the greater scheme of things, but I believe the openness, honesty, and trust during the intimate moments I shared with her children is what respect for one another as human beings looks like. This is how the healing and bridging process can occur as my dear friend so eloquently shared with me. This is how we as relatives and children of the same mother can find common ground, regardless of the location we call home on Mother Earth, regardless of the history preceding us.
Our Indian Country story includes colonization, tragedy, and suffering, culminating in attempted physical and cultural genocide inflicted by purposeful and cruel design. However, more importantly, ours is a story about our strength, perseverance, and power. Ours is a story, a lesson to be shared, to teach and enlighten cultures around the world, especially in a moment when the world is lost and people are searching for answers, purpose, and peace. I genuinely believe that the desire to protect one’s cultural heritage is a shared global concern and priority. If Indian Country properly recognizes and owns its story and related power, it can serve as a global example of how cultural heritage and traditions must be protected despite history. It can ensure that each culture’s legacy endures and thrives, despite the societal pressures of “progress” that are often ignorant to the pricelessness of cultural heritage.
However, the gift we have to offer ourselves and the world will never be realized should we continue to be held hostage to an oppressive structure that has conditioned us for centuries. We operate in a structure fashioned to diminish the inherent sovereign rights and authority we rightfully claim, sovereignty that predates the arrival of uninvited foreign invaders to our shores, and an unjust structure based on the accepted plenary authority of another sovereign rooted in a medieval Doctrine of Discovery still used today [City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York]. Indian Country routinely talks honestly about the consequences and impact of what external forces have and continue to do to us, but it is time to speak with equal honestly about the unjust excuses and rationalizations we continue to accept and normalize; excuses and rationalizations that violate trust and treaty obligations [A Quiet Crisis: Federal Funding and Unmet Needs in Indian Country (2003); Broken Promises: Continuing Federal Funding Shortfall for Native Americans (2018)] and that stand in direct contrast to our inherent sovereign existence, all while knowing these violations are directly responsible for many of our circumstances today. We must stop blindly and ignorantly reinforcing systems placed upon us; systems of colonialism, termination, assimilation, paternalistic and capitalistic constructs and origins; systems designed to create dependency and to tear us apart. While we must understand these systems of colonization to navigate them, our pride should never be in mastering them, but rather in dismantling them. As is sometimes necessary, we must proactively unlearn to create the space for proper learning. Now is not the time to be our own worst enemy or to be distracted while opposing forces attack us, both directly and in the shadows.
Additionally, we are inflicting upon ourselves internally manufactured attacks. The most tragic, yet preventable, last chapter in a story of genocide is not when the oppressing colonizer blames us for our current circumstances. Instead, it is when we turn inward and start scapegoating and attacking one another as we prioritize minding our own garden, while simultaneously disrespecting the very cultural heritage that we claim differentiates us. Our common enemy should not be ourselves. When we engage in this behavior, we are carrying out their master plan of self-destruction and self-erasure. Whether done consciously or unconsciously, this self-inflicted genocide is the result of ignorance, greed, and corruption. Rooted in individualism and its related pursuits, it increases the likelihood of destroying the “whole” needed to survive and thrive. The unity required to advance our shared interests will never occur if we continue to prioritize issues that distract, scapegoat, and divide us, with consequences for generations to come. As so eloquently expressed by the brilliant visionary and humanitarian Rod Serling, “suspicion can destroy…and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own-for the children and the children yet unborn.”
“suspicion can destroy…and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own-for the children and the children yet unborn.” ~ Rod Serling
Consciously countering this genocide will require confronting the antiquated systems we are reinforcing and the uncomfortable divisive identity crisis facing Indian Country. While I adamantly agree we must not allow non-Natives to appropriate our culture, rob us of our identity, or to claim government status when none exists, this matter has swelled into something far more concerning. We are so worried about non-Natives taking our identity, yet simultaneously individuals are self-appointing themselves as Indian Country’s identity police and challenging the identity of those that they deem to not be Native enough. We claim to understand the effects of federal policies of assimilation and termination, including blood quantum, yet have internalized the use of blood quantum in measuring one’s authenticity. We have manufactured and introduced ideas such as “Pretendians” that has further evolved into “Descendians”. Indian Country possesses an intimate experience with the consequences of a mindset of racial superiority, one that should forever remain imprinted in our memory. It is unacceptable for us to be guilty of the same abhorrent mindset ourselves.
Furthermore, the time and energy being focused on identity, including related racial arguments, is allowing the concept of race shifting to dominate conversations despite knowing that our unique diplomatic relationship is rooted in our sovereign government status, including the political relationship we have with our own people, and the political relationship we as individual Native people have with the federal government. Just like we were able to bundle our arrows in the same direction as part of the recent Brackeen v. Haaland Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) fight, a fight defined by government status, not race, or said another way, what one looks like. As sovereign governments, we must respect the rights of each sovereign to make decisions for itself, whether we agree or disagree, because the growth and maturation of a nation must include learning from both good and bad decisions. However, in making our decisions, we must not be guilty of human rights violations ourselves. We must embrace who Indian Country is today and own the responsibility to understand our current situation is far more complicated than some make it out to be. We must reflect this understanding in our actions and behaviors. Myopicism is not an acceptable excuse.
Concerningly, this is all occurring while the very nation-to-nation, constitutional foundation of our diplomatic relationship with the U.S., and its ability to deliver on its trust and treaty obligations to us, is under siege by those who oppose our sovereignty, our unique status under the law, and the U.S.’s delivery on the promises made to us in exchange for the taking of our lands and natural resources. These actions hold the potential to upend the very foundation of our unique relationship.
Indian Country is currently facing an existential crisis. We are at a fragile moment in time and we all must choose to be on the right side of history, to stand in solidarity, understanding that it is true that a rising tide lifts all boats. If we do not, then we will all suffer the same fate while fighting each other for crumbs. We must not be the architects of our own chaos. We have endured more than our fair share of trauma, and we must not be guilty of unnecessarily inflicting more upon ourselves. I believe that we all possess the ability to do what is right, not only for ourselves, but for the collective good, yet, I also know, as stated by Nelson Mandela, “fools multiply when wise men are silent”. In the end, we must all answer to the Creator for our actions, or the lack thereof, when we had the opportunity to be at our best. If we fail to act appropriately in this moment, our inability to course correct will result in catastrophic consequences that may be impossible to recover from.
“Fools multiply when wise men are silent.” ~Nelson Mandela
As a shared starting point, we must recognize that the efforts of colonization were partly successful, including programmed untruths circulated since the first European invaders arrived. While they have impacted our views, thoughts, and behaviors up to this point, we are not mere victims of our circumstance. We possess the power to deconstruct, reimagine, and redesign, our diplomatic model with the U.S., society’s overall understanding of us, and our own treatment of each other. In addition to modern-day challenges, we carry with us centuries of human rights violations that are responsible for many of our current circumstances. This shared experience must always remain our common bond, our North Star, especially during moments of disagreement.
It is also time to decolonize our minds, processes, and practices. Just like an abusive relationship, we have been guilty of rationalizing, justifying, and normalizing, even victim blaming, but it is time to dump all that nonsense and reclaim our power. Through abandoning the many distractions across Indian Country, we can achieve unification and use the unbreakable will within us to oppose the external attacks on our sovereignty.
This unification will set the stage for a new era of U.S.-Tribal Nation relations grounded in true and respectful diplomacy [USET SPF Principles and Priorities for Federal Officials and Candidates for Federal Office], one distinctly designed for our unique domestic nation-to-nation relationship [Marshall Plan for Tribal Nations: A Restorative Justice and Domestic Investment Plan]. The next era must abolish antiquated structures and legal fictions that suffocate us, including the manufactured notion of plenary authority over another sovereign rooted in the Doctrine of Discovery. As suggested by Justice Gorsuch in his concurring opinion in the recent Brackeen v. Haaland decision, it must contain a recognition by the colonizer, including under its own laws, that there are limitations on what it can take from us. The next era must proactively craft constitutional legal tests on our own terms or our adversaries will define them for us. The next era must also use language that is reflective of our special, inherently sovereign political status, both in how we talk about ourselves as Tribal Nations and in how we talk about our people, abandoning colonizer language that is rooted in a framework of genocide. The U.S. must fully deliver on its trust and treaty obligations to us, including through full and mandatory funding in a manner that is flexible enough for our exercise of inherent sovereignty in the use of that funding [Executive Order 14112: Reforming Federal Funding and Support for Tribal Nations To Better Embrace Our Trust Responsibilities and Promote the Next Era of Tribal Self-Determination] and that recognizes these trust and treaty obligations must be judicially enforceable. We must recondition ourselves to a belief that the next era must be one that uplifts Tribal Nations’ own inherent sovereignty without exception.
During this same time of reflection and looking ahead, the U.S. endured the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump. Despite where one’s political persuasions lie, the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate is an affront to the process of democracy. Additionally, it further reflects the overall state of the deepening division that has been growing in the U.S., including the associated, extreme and harmful rhetoric. It has long been my contention that this is the symptom of Americans not sharing a common understanding of the history of the U.S., or a genuine appreciation and respect for the very principles that are supposed to serve as its foundation. As we also see in other places around the globe, it is a consequence of “othering,” the struggle about who gets to be included and who doesn’t, the struggle over power and who gets to make decisions, and emotional responses to the feeling that something is being taken away through the country’s evolution to that “more perfect union” and the analogous “self-evident truths”. While economics are a component of the struggle, it also includes emotive issues such as culture and identity. Bottom line, the American democratic experiment is being challenged and it too, is at another existential threat moment. As domestic sovereigns, and recognizing our sometimes complicated status as dual citizens, we are directly impacted by what is occurring. However, Indian Country must commit ourselves to not be guilty of emulating the same division that is going on around us. We should not be guilty of creating an Indian Country civil war as we fight over those same issues that are tearing the U.S. apart.
Tough conversations are ahead and it will inevitably be uncomfortable at times, but we must be willing to endure some discomfort to get to a place of comfort; together, I am confident we can meet this moment and lead the change that is necessary. Like the IHS Nashville Area’s recent Shared Learning Session: Tribal Sovereignty — Learning from the Past/Leaning into the Future at Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage, in which I participated and presented, decolonization requires intentionally leaning into these moments and reclaiming our power, and like anything, progress and evolution are a process beginning with a single step. As this step grows into a series, these steps may seem insignificant at the time, but when you look back you realize the vast distance traveled. We are called to do the work of advocacy, education, change, and sovereignty protection and exertion by our Creator, to ensure that generations to come will continue to persevere and prosper in communities and nations that are thriving and healthy. Without unity amongst ourselves, if we choose the path of self-destruction, we will only make the path easier for the U.S. to continue to break its promises and fail to live up to its trust and treaty obligations, and the human rights violations will continue.
We must return to our better sensibilities grounded in basic decency and reverence for one another, our shared humanity, and with openness to our relatives who are trying to make their way home to help us in our efforts. We must get out of our heads, a place that is often corrupted by western civilization ideology, including capitalism, that often stands in direct contrast to our indigenous cultural beliefs and values. We must listen to our hearts, the place where the voices of our ancestors reside and speak to us across generations. Upon my return from Italy, I am reinvigorated and see with even sharper clarity the road ahead, what we can offer the world, and the need to fight to protect and restore all that is sacred to us. We are a collection of cultures and people that are far older than the European and oppressor “New World” version that their history would suggest. We are cultures not defined or measured in stone and marble, but by the beauty of a people who have endured and whose stories have thrived and survived since time immemorial.
If we choose to overcome the historical and modern efforts of internal and external erasure, we will become a global example of cultural preservation and human rights protection. As we traverse this current path together, we must never lose sight of who we are, we must never lose sight of the forest for the tree, we must never compromise our principles, we must unapologetically lead with our indigenous truths, and we must never forget about the journey that has led us to this moment. This must be our shared commitment and promise to one another, a promise that includes respectful discourse that will allow us to transcend our transgressions and disagreements. Let this moment be when Indian Country collectively achieves unfettered independence from the chains keeping us from reaching our greatest potential.
