by Doug George-Kanentiio©

Here is my wish list for the coming year. It is from a Mohawk perspective but applies to all of Indian Country.

1. More attention needs to be paid to the Western Shoshone land dispute by the Native and non-native media. The Dann family is holding strong in defense of their homelands in what is now Nevada and eastern California but the U.S. is determined to take it from them in the largest land theft of our generation. With more coverage this issue can become the Native cause for this coming year and perhaps compel our people to become directly involved in pressuring the Democrats to abandon this scheme.

2. The Indian Gaming Act must be revised to protect the human rights of our people while providing for open audits of all gambling operations. The Act should also require revenue sharing between the casino rich groups and those in greatest need. The per capita payments are becoming ludicrous: while most Natives remain mired in poverty a select few, through accident of birth, are getting filthy rich. This inequity is building resentment and fostering divisions. We need to end the disgraceful policy of disenrolling our citizens without just cause as our external enemies are pouncing on this issue to further strip away what’s left of Aboriginal sovereignty.

3. The establishment of a National Indian University, fully accredited yet grounded in aboriginal values, should be done. Here in Six Nations territory we have long sought such an institution, one which will strengthen our traditional knowledge systems, enhance our languages and preserve our status as distinct peoples. This has been tried in the past: Dartmouth, Hamilton, Harvard and Yale were supposed to address our needs for higher education but failed to do so for various reasons. We need our own Division I school which teaches the fine arts, alternative technologies, spirituality and the hard sciences while having our own athletic teams which will revive the Carlisle glory days. 

4. A movie about an episode in Aboriginal history without reference to Europeans either as demons or saviours is overdue. Apocalypto was a disaster which convinced viewers we were savages in dire need of salvation. There are many powerful stories in our respective histories which merit Hollywood’s attention as long as we can liberate the studio owners from their fixation on Natives as blood thirsty psychopaths.

5. A Native oriented television show on one of the major U.S. networks featuring Indian actors, directors and writers would be appropriate. In Canada the CBC television network had a very successful run with North of 60 a program which told stories about a Native community in the far north. It was powerful and effective. It gave Canadians insights into the Aboriginal world and was very popular across the nation. As Northern Exposure proved, audiences are interested in seeing Native performers so why not duplicate North of 60 and having the storyline take place among the Haudenosaunee, the Dine or the Anishnabe?

6. A national Native television network should be on the horizon. In Canada, they have the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) which is available on all the cable networks. APTN offers news, sports, cooking shows, children’s programs, movies and cartoons from an Aboriginal perspective. We know TV is the most powerful of all mediums and has had a disastrous effective on our cultures for the most part. Why not covert this to something which makes us stronger? Why not have movies like Lord of the Rings or Casablanca dubbed in Cree or Mohawk? It would seem Native businesses would be salivating over the opportunity to have their products and services known on a network owned by Natives.

7. We need commitment by casino operators to hire Native performers. There are now a couple of hundred Native run casinos, almost all of which offer entertainment venues. But almost without exception none of the entertainment directors are Native or know anything about Indian music. They, like the general public, seem to think our music is restricted to drums and flutes or that the public will not pay to see a Native act. What we need is to expose them to a show such as the one which took place on October 20 at the Mondavi Theater in Davis, California. Entitled First Nations Women the show featured Rita Coolidge, Mary Youngblood and my wife, Joanne Shenandoah (all Grammy winners). The theater was filled, the audience excited and satisfied by what they heard coming from these amazing women. This show needs national exposure which the Native casinos can make happen. Yet a review of what is on stage at most venues reveals tired country acts and golden oldies rock bands. It should be a policy to hire Indian musicians and comedians first but that is not happening. We need Native people to ask why.

8. A “Buy Native First” campaign needs to be initiated by the various national Indian organizations. They need to promote Native businesses, particularly to the casinos, as a way of stimulating economic growth in Indian Country. There is no reason why most products used by a casino, from food to furniture, cannot be either grown or manufactured by Indian producers. There is no reason why a Native trucking company cannot be employed to transport these goods. We need a Native American Free Trade Act to protect our people from the intrusions of the state tax agents while encouraging the exchange of goods among our nations without the threat of interference from tax hungry states.

9. Human rights and democracy are indigenous to this hemisphere. At no time in European history was there a nation in which all of its residents were free to take an active role in their government or had basic human rights for all. Here in Anowarakowa (The Great Turtle) such liberties were commonplace. Since the Europeans arrived they have tried to strip us of our humanity and our freedoms. Sadly, some Native governments are doing the same thing. Since the Bill of Rights, and the Canadian Charter of Freedoms, are Native based there is nothing wrong in seeking to have all Native institutions, assemblies and agencies agree to abide by a Native Bill of Rights. Such rights, and duties, must include freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of worship and a strict limitation on the powers of governments. Some Indian communities have slipped into rule by fear and coercion, conditions which must be stopped before the U.S. courts or Congress steps in to put the brakes on these overt acts of political oppression.

10. We need to press for a return to ecological sanity. In the recent U.S. elections a great deal of money was given by Indian governments to American politicians who had very bad records on the environment. These politicians, such as Richard Pombo in northern California, were rated among the worst when it came to protecting our earth. Yet Pombo solicited huge campaign donations from Indians. This does not make sense since it contradicts our spirituality and undermines our status as custodians of mother earth. We have to look beyond our local needs and realize we are in a time of great climatic and ecological changes. Our sacred duty is to preserve the natural world for its own sake while guaranteeing our descendants their rights to clean air, pure waters and fertile soils. Our money resources can make a huge difference if directed to the right people and not just those who are seeking to become rich at our, and the earth’s, expense.