Native Americans are not just an ethnicity, and they are not a race. They are a collection of several sovereign nations within the United States. They have treaties, constitutions, laws, and heads of state that meet with American politicians for diplomacy and to make demands.
These sovereign nations have made choices historically and continue to make choices on how to run their governments. Some have practiced slavery. Because Indigenous nations are sovereign, US declarations of emancipation and US constitutional amendments did not apply to slaves
owned by Native masters. This is the power of sovereignty. Many Indigenous nations carried out their own forms of slavery and anti-Blackness outside of the confines of US law. This is how they practiced anti-Blackness.
Black American descendants of American slaves on the other hand have no recognized sovereignty in this nation. They have no political independence. Black Americans do not have their own constitution(s) or legal codes. Much of the harm that they committed against Indigenous
communities was under the direction of US federal law or as agents of the US military or federal government. These were not legal orders made by sovereign Black nations. Black Americans have no sovereignty and thus there are no sovereign entities to hold accountable.
Unlike with Indigenous nations, there are no capabilities for reparations, formal government-issued apologies, or state-funded research programs. We can amend harms on the personal and independent level, but we have no government systems to hold accountable.
This is why it will be very different for Black communities to make amends vs. Indigenous nations. Most descendants of slaves are demanding reparations from the US govt, not individual families. Similarly, we seek justice from Indigenous sovereign nations, not individual families
There isn’t a similar capability with Black communities, because they have no sovereign power.
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