"Like Arab Spring, the success of American Indian self-determination is dependent not only on restructuring and rebuilding community with the goal of empowerment of the people, but it also is dependent upon developing international relationships and communications. These relationships ought to be oriented toward the political, cultural, and educational.

For example, the young people who mobilized in Egypt did not work in isolation, shut off from the international community. A few years before January 25, one of the best-known Egyptian groups devoted itself to the study and practice of nonviolence (itself an international philosophy, and one that is rather successful) while networking with individuals from successful movements such as Otpor, a 2004 Serbian student movement, and from the 2004 Ukrainian youth movement. In addition, the young Egyptians utilized what Professor Manuel Castells terms “informationalism”—in this case, using social media intelligently with the goal of spreading/gaining knowledge while increasing political development. The result was a revolution, one that of course will take years to unfold.

It is this type of international support and networking—the significant exchange of ideas and information—that will enhance the Tribal Nation self-determination movement. Of course, pockets of mutual support already exist as illustrated by the international Indigenous groups that worked on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Indigenous Environmental Network also works with others outside the geopolitical borders of Indian Country. The goal in this activity is to assist us in the international necessity for respectful coexistence."

Get the Story:
Julia Good Fox: From Arab Spring Into Indian Summer? (Indian Country Today 9/23)