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Turtle Island Study Group / Grupo Leer Isla de Tortuga
We address genocide caused by imperialism in all its forms. We promote solidarity between the global south and indigenous people of Turtle Island by mobilizing for migrant rights, studying indigenous Marxist theory, and working towards national liberation and national development. Family separation, settler colonialism, MMIP, trauma-informed, healing, dialectical materialist spirituality, language and cultural reindigenization, anti-BQ. Indigenous people exist globally
Indigenous Resistance Movements
Oral history plays a significant role in Turtle Island indigenous philosophy during the centuries of colonialism, but some written things can be referred to.
Symbolism
There commonly exists an intercultural symbolism with the colors red, white, black and yellow, with some slightly different meanings depending on nation, some more explicitly defined than others. Cultures that have historically used this theme include the Lakota[1], the P'urhepecha,[2]
Red Cloud's Treaty (1868)
"the Wasichus had made a treaty with Red Cloud (1868) that said [the Black Hills] would be ours as long as grass should grow and water flow." - Black Elk Speaks
Tecumseh
Crazy Horse
Sitting Bull
Religious and Spiritual Movements
The Ghost Dance Movement
Legends
- The Great Peacemaker
Prophesies
- There is a prophesy that appears in writing in 1932. A long time before the European colonizers arrived (the year is unknown), Drinks Water, a Lakota "holy man", had a dream about the future. He dreamed that the animals were going "back into the earth" and that foreign beings "had woven a spider web all around the Lakotas". And he said, "When this happens, you shall live in square grey houses in a barren land, and beside those square grey houses you shall starve." He died soon after he saw this vision, and it was sorrow that killed him. It is believed that he saw the future of his people occupied by the United States and trapped in the Reservations system.[3]
- Black Elk had a series of visions that revealed the future liberation of his people, the Oglala Lakota. He brought back from his visions particular shirts, instructions on a 'way of life' for his people, and songs. "Then all at once great happiness overcame me, and it all took hold of me right there. This was to remind me to get to work at once and help to bring my people back into the sacred hoop, that they might again walk the red road in a sacred manner
pleasing to the Powers of the Universe that are One Power.⁹ I remembered how the spirits had taken me to the center of the earth and shown me the good things, and how my people should prosper. I remembered how the Six Grandfathers had told me that through their power I should make my people live and the holy tree should bloom. I believed my vision was coming true at last, and happiness overcame me. ... I thought of my vision, and how it was promised me that my people should have a place in this earth where they could be happy every day. I thought of them on the wrong road now, but maybe they could be brought back into the hoop again and to the good road. ... From the center of the earth I had been shown all good and beautiful things in a great circle of peace, and maybe this land of my vision was where all my people were going, and there they would live and prosper where no Wasichus were or could ever be. ... Then we began dancing, and most of the people wailed and cried as they danced, holding hands in a circle; but some of them laughed with happiness. Now and then some one would fall down like dead, and others would go staggering around and panting before they would fall. While they were lying there like dead they were having visions, and we kept on dancing and singing, and many were crying for the old way of living and that the old religion might be with them again. ... I must have fallen down, but I felt as though I had fallen off a swing when it was going forward, and I was floating head first through the air.⁶ My arms were stretched out, and all I saw at first was a single eagle feather right in front of me. Then the feather was a spotted eagle dancing on ahead of me with his wings fluttering, and he was making the shrill whistle that is his. My body did not move at all, but I looked ahead and floated fast toward where I looked. ... There was a ridge right in front of me, and I thought I was going to run into it, but I went right over it. On the other side of the ridge I could see a beautiful land where many, many people were camping in a great circle. I could see that they were happy and had plenty. Everywhere there were drying racks full of meat. The air was clear and beautiful with a living light that was everywhere. All around the circle, feeding on the green, green grass, were fat and happy horses; and animals of all kinds were scattered all over the green hills, and singing hunters were returning with their meat. I floated over the tepees and began to come down feet first at the center of the hoop where I could see a beautiful tree all green and full of flowers. When I touched the ground, two men were coming toward me, and they wore holy shirts made and painted in a certain way. They came to me and said: “It is not yet time to see your father, who is happy. You have work to do. We will give you something that you shall carry back to your people, and with it they shall come to see their loved ones. ... I thought how in my vision everything was like old times and the tree was flowering, but when I came back the tree was dead. And I thought that if this world would do as the vision teaches, the tree could bloom here too."
- 7th fire prophesy
Turtle Island Indigenous Cultural Particularities
Gender
Matrilineal inheritance: P'urhepecha, Lakota,
Patrilineal inheritance:
Political-social status of women and men:
Sexual division of labor: Lakota: "The women were all busy cutting the meat into strips and hanging it on the racks to dry." ...Men hunt[Black Elk Speaks] P'urhepecha: women cook and take care of the house, men hunt
Attitudes towards women and men:
- "Among us there in the brush and out in the Hunkpapa camp a cry went up: “Take courage! Don’t be a woman! The helpless are out of breath!” I think this was when Gall⁶ stopped the Hunkpapas, who had been running away, and turned them back."....('Prove yourselves to be men!')..."They hurt and made sores, but if we knocked them off or cried Owh!, we would be called women." (Black Elk Speaks)
- Tariacuri quote: "Are these not the words of women?" ... (&: Those men who do not prove themselves as men in masculine pursuits are teased as being like women.)
Attitudes towards manly women:
Attitudes towards womenly men:
Attitudes towards two-spirit people:
Attitudes towards homosexuality:
Relationship to the Land
- Referring to aspects of the universe as "grandfathers" or "grandmothers". (P'urhepecha, Oglala Lakota)
Modes of Production
Original communism
Travelers vs. Villagers
- P'urhepecha = Mostly villagers with some "chichemeca" travelers
- Lakota: late 1800s travelers