I was once asked by a Warren staffer if I would rather get hung up on the Cherokee issue, or let Trump win. As if to say, there are two options: let go of my conviction that Cherokee sovereignty matters, or allow more years of this... /1
It is a false dichotomy, obviously, but that interaction has repeated itself over and over again since we published the open letter. The letter, for me at least, is bigger than electoral politics, even while it intervenes during the electoral cycle-- /2
it is only by using the pressure created by that cycle that EW's team actually responded to us at all--but has at its core a defense of Indigenous self-determination: who we are and who we defend as our own. That the US election has to boil down to the lesser of two evils is, /3
at least for me, yet another indication of how settler governance cannot account for our continued presence, our survivance, as Indigenous peoples. We cannot exist in this system in the way that we exist for and by each other, as kin, /4
as mutually responsive to each other's well being. I'm not saying anything new for Native folks, I'm sure, but for whoever this may be useful: /5
please refrain from telling Native people what is good for us. Please refrain from asking us to choose between one form of settler occupation or another. We understand how this works. We've been doing it for centuries. /6
For those of you wondering about "the letter," this is it: medium.com/@ewarrenisnotc…
