Charles Kader: Sovereignty means never having to ask

It would be big news if an incident such as the 1973 Occupation of Wounded Knee were to be repeated by a modern group of Native activists. Yet, the act of demonstration is not enough to see that political exercise attempted. It would be unlikely that such an event would serve to inspire many more than the radical fringe population already in play. It was not as if a North American Indian rescue force relieved the surrounded members of the American Indian Movement when they were at the center of that storm. Instead, U.S. President Nixon sent in the armored vehicles to display federal power at that time.

So what is the likelihood of a large-scale uprising taking place somewhere in Canada or the United States? I guess the possibility will remain in the hands of those who choose to display their social conscience despite the ramifications. I doubt that many will come from the Bury Your Head in the Sand Tribe. The Three Monkey Band Council membership also will come up short of what is needed. No, it will not come from institutionally-compromised American Indian Congresses or from bucket-footed Assemblies.

But those people who do act will have to make the most of their opportunities, where they find them. The alienation of dormant and listless Native populations is just not productive. Calling people out only substitutes vinegar with honey in the grander scheme of things. There will always be room for the washed next to the unwashed at that moment of solidarity. An army is only an army because it can concentrate numbers, not because it can divide them.