2022 marks the 530th year since the landfall of Christopher Columbus and his crew on the island of Hispaniola in 1492, and the subsequent claiming of the island for the Empire of Spain.
For the next five centuries, the events on this date would be endlessly paraded around as a milestone for the constantly morphing cultural and political needs of the societies which arose in the wake of the imperial scramble to eat up the land now known as “America.”
From the beginning, the story which was ignored or outright attacked was the story of the Indigenous peoples who had resided on this continent for thousands of years before. In recognition of the truly horrific history of Native American brutalization, which spanned the majority of half a millennium, the celebration of “Columbus Day” began to be abandoned in favor of the more inclusive Indigenous Peoples’ Day, something we recently celebrated this past Monday here at Brandeis.
The event started at noon on the front patio of the Intercultural Center (ICC). While I will say that the ICC was appropriate for this event, it was a little out of the way, to the point that (other than people who live in East Quad) it would be hard to take part in this event. That may have been the intention, however, as the day’s activities were to include both an interactive dance ritual as well as a catered lunch.
To begin the event, guest speaker Jean-Luc Pierite was invited to speak. Pierite is the board president of the North American Indian Center of Boston. He is originally from New Orleans, and a member of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana. Before he was board president North American Indian Center, Pierite was elected to the Community Linguist seat at the Institute on Collaborative Language Research, or “CoLang.”
Pierite was a very captivating speaker for the hour or so in which he talked. He spoke about his previous experience in preserving Native American heritage through projects aimed at revitalization of Native languages, as well as organizing “teach-ins,” events designed around informing people of facts when it came to the history of Indigenous peoples in America.
His speech touched on a number of topics, ranging from the exploitation of natural resources located on native land (as exacerbated by the Dakota Access Pipeline), to the efforts by various groups to continue the erasure of Indigenous Americans through the minimization of Indigenous Peoples’ Day itself (for example, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s declaration of “Italian American Heritage Day” this past weekend).
A piece of the talk struck me. I believe he had been talking about a proposed silica mine in the Black Hills of South Dakota, when he mentioned how the developers of the plan had insisted that the effect of the mining would be minimal, all of the stripping would occur underground, unseen, unheard. Pollution would be kept to a minimum, historic water rights would be respected. As if this changes the fact of the matter, was his response, that in the end all of these schemes only serve to strip the Earth, our mother, of her plentiful natural resources. At the same time he was saying this, I thought back to an interview I had read with William Shatner last summer, in which he described what he had seen as he was being flown out into space on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket: “I saw a cold, dark, black emptiness. It was unlike any blackness you can see or feel on Earth. It was deep, enveloping, all-encompassing. I turned back toward the light of home. I could see the curvature of Earth, the beige of the desert, the white of the clouds and the blue of the sky. It was life. Nurturing, sustaining, life. Mother Earth. Gaia. And I was leaving her.”
On that note, another thing struck me, as a cloud moved lazily out of the way of the sun; isn’t campus so unbelievably paradisiacal this time of year?
About midway through his time he opened the floor up to questions and comments from the audience. A lot of good dialogue was shared here; notably, a person asked for advice on how to get in contact with other Native groups outside of the Boston area. Pierite took some time to point out that a lot of the best connections are made through rigorous work in both volunteering and outreach, and that a stable foundation of trust would have to be built in order to be in a place where individuals can start making a difference.
One of the names brought up was the National Congress of American Indians, which is one of the oldest and most widely-respected organizations for the representation of native interests, having been founded in 1944. They offer opportunities relating to outreach, which are listed on their website. Another thing Pierite mentioned was the urgent need to contact local as well as federal lawmakers, an essential task for everyone and anyone who views themselves as an ally to the cause of Indigenous rights.
For more details on issues regarding Massachusetts state law, a good resource is the MA Indigenous Legislative Agenda, which can be found at their webpage.
After the end of the Q&A portion, it then was time for the round dance part of the event. We began with a blessing with a drum led by a native man (who unfortunately I wasn’t able to catch the name of), who made a sacrifice of tobacco over the drum’s face. We then went into the round dance. The dance consisted of two concentric circles made out of people holding hands. We moved in a circle, and over time the inner circle connected to the larger outside circle, and the two circles switched places. We were told that in doing this we were replicating the life cycle of a snake. This continued until we ended up in the places we had been when we had started.
After the short dance, we headed inside the ICC for the lunch which was provided for us. I thought this was actually one of the highlights of the whole event; the food was actually really delicious. The meal included lima beans, chickpeas, roasted squash, cranberry sauce, cornbread and stuffed baked onions. What I considered to be the best part of the whole thing was that the entire meal was completely vegetarian, which really helped justify the amount of it that I was putting into my body.
I think that, going into the future, the Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebration here at Brandeis was very worthwhile. It might be a good idea to try and change the location, or have it be on two days, like last year. However, in total, I will certainly be planning on attending next year’s celebration as well.
