James Giago Davies. Photo courtesy Native Sun News Today
Sovereign subjects of Wasicu power
The oldest play in the Wasicu playbook
By James Giago Davies
Native Sun News Today Columnist
nativesunnews.today Defining the identity of one Indian treaty signatory is easy, the United States, but defining the identity of the other(s), gets seriously problematic. Not just because tribes have many names, and the passage of time has obscured their precise identity, but because the identity of who the tribe was before the advent of the reservation, compared to who they are now, gets routinely conflated. By the tribes themselves. All tribal administrations are creations of the federal government. The tribe had no say in their creation and they are not the leaders of the tribe as tribes define leadership, just the managers of the Wasicu controlled reservation system. Not that tribal chairman see themselves as such; many can and do conduct themselves in traditional ways and with traditional support, but they were not selected to their positions by a process in anyway resembling or connected to the process whereby historical Lakota leaders were selected. They are two separate things. Bernie Sanders showed up and asserted he talked to our chiefs. Oh, really? Who would that be? Tribal Chairman? They are not chiefs, no matter how many war bonnets they put on, or sacred ceremonies honoring their office. People claiming to be chief? By what authority? There are no hereditary chiefs in Lakota culture so just because your father or uncle were chiefs or spiritual leaders, you are not chief royalty, and you are heirs to nothing.
Read the rest of the story on the Native Sun News Today website: Sovereign subjects of Wasicu power (Contact James Giago Davies at skindiesel@msn.com) Copyright permission Native Sun News
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