Rapsure Risin

My people will sleep for 100 years, but when they awaken, it will be the artists who will give them their spirits back — Louis Riel

Dear people, that 100 years is up, and the bell is ringing, we are here to represent the 7th generation and ourselves — Rapsure Risin

A big thanks is due to the work of the Aboriginal People’s Television Network of Canada (APTN), the world’s first aboriginal television network, for always showing me something new and interesting. Today, it happened that I would learn about Rapsure Risin, a dynamic duo of two Aboriginal female hip hop artists whose work is just fantastic. When I saw/heard the speed at which they rapped, smoothly and effortlessly, and the other fluid melodies they have produced, it was a pity to learn that they do not get much support in financial terms — both are taking up separate government positions soon and it is unlikely they will tour.

Rapsure Risin Homepage

Make sure you check their audio gallery

Rapsure Risin on MySpace

Rapsure Risin on Bebo

And their only video online, which does not do them justice the way APTN did, but is definitely better than nothing at all:

“Canada” — The Name of a Hate Crime

I have often thought that “Canada” is probably best understood as a euphemism for hate crime, a code word for invasion, a federal fantasy born of imperialism, built on internal colonialism. It’s the kind of case study that could be used for validating the notion of “invented tradition,” as it was created in part by a Marxist historian (Eric Hobsbawm) whose target was the nation-state and its ruling elites (and yet somehow, out of some questionable logic, in anthropology the target of the “invented tradition” approach has mostly been indigenous peoples and non-state actors).

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports today in “Race the top motivator for hate crimes in Canada,” that race and ethnicity still account for the overwhelming majority of hate crimes in Canada. This conclusion is based on a survey of police forces covering 87% of the population. In 2006, 892 hate crimes where reported by police, and about 60% of those were linked to race or ethnicity. One can assume that this figure excludes the hate crimes which police themselves engage in, on a more routine basis than most Canadians would be comfortable recognizing. Almost half of the 502 hate crimes that police relate to “race,” involved “blacks”. The vast majority of “blacks” in Canada are in fact from the Caribbean. One third of the hate crimes involved assault. The Muslim community, according to the head of the Canadian Islamic Congress, has suffered from such an onslaught of hate crimes that it has been unable to keep up with filing complaints to the police.

And, if anyone is still not swayed, visit any news story on the CBC news website itself that involves aboriginals, Muslims, or some other category of usual suspects, and read through the tons of hate messages posted underneath each story — another hate crime, this time enabled by the CBC, and reported to no one.

Finally, there has been some debate about why Canada seems to lack “iconic photographs” that express the “essence” of Canadian national identity. The leading candidate for the “iconic Canadian photo” is the one shown at the top of this post, one widely reproduced on many blogs, and features a “Canadian” soldier in a standoff against a Mohawk warrior, during the Oka intervention of 1990.

Restoration: More Indigenous than the Ancestors, in the Poet’s Eye

I was struck by this passage from Derek Walcott‘s acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992. I had read this at the time it was released and had forgotten this passage until I accidentally found it again in the last few weeks.

Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole. The glue that fits the pieces is the sealing of its original shape. It is such a love that reassembles our African and Asiatic fragments, the cracked heirlooms whose restoration shows its white scars. This gathering of broken pieces is the care and pain of the Antilles, and if the pieces are disparate, ill-fitting, they contain more pain than their original sculpture, those icons and sacred vessels taken for granted in their ancestral places. Antillean art is this restoration of our shattered histories, our shards of vocabulary, our archipelago becoming a synonym for pieces broken off from the original continent.

The love that goes into restoration is even stronger than the love which took reality for granted. In the vision of the poet, what some have called the “Taino restoration” brings us face to face with people who are more firmly committed, attentive, and protective of indigenous heritage than even the ancestors that they take care to respect — what a refreshing difference from scornful remarks about the “neo-Taino” as mere “wannabes” who are not “real,” not “real” like “real Indians of the past.” I take it that “white scars” can have multiple meanings here: a direct reference to glue, thus of binding, and healing; the sea, uniting Caribbean islands, these fragments of the mainland; and/or, the history of colonialism, white domination, that wrought the breakage to begin with. And finally the poem places the Antilles within a South American embrace, now bringing together the poet with the archaeologist while reminding a region of a history that is too often forgotten, willfully even.

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Republic of Lakotah

Lakotah Unilateral Withdrawal from All Agreements and Treaties with the United States of AmericaWe as the freedom loving Lakotah People are the predecessor sovereign of Dakota Territory as evidenced by the Treaties with the United States Government, including, but not limited to, the Treaty of 1851 and the Treaty of 1868 at Fort Laramie.

Lakotah, formally and unilaterally withdraws from all agreements and treaties imposed by the United States Government on the Lakotah People.

Lakotah, and the population therein, have waited for at least 155 years for the United States of America to adhere to the provisions of the above referenced treaties. The continuing violations of these treaties’ terms have resulted in the near annihilation of our people physically, spiritually, and culturally. Lakotah rejects United States Termination By Appropriation policy from 1871 to the present.

In addition, the evidence of gross violations of the above referenced treaties are listed herein. Lakotah encourages the United States of America, through its Government ,to enter into dialogue with Lakotah regarding the boundaries, the land and the resources therein. Please contact the Republic of Lakotah at (605) 867-1111 or info@republicoflakotah.com.

Should the United States and its subordinate governments choose not to act in good faith concerning the rebirth of our nation, we hereby advise the United States Government that Lakotah will begin to administer liens against real estate transactions within the five state area of Lakotah.

Lakotah, through its government, appointed the following representatives to withdraw from all the treaties with the United States of America based on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties entered into force in 1980 and the

U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2007:

Teghiya Kte Canupa
Heretofore known as Gary Rowland

Gluha Mani
Heretofore known as Duane Martin Sr.

Oyate Wacinyapin
Heretofore know as Russell Means

Mni yuha Najin Win
Heretofore known as Phyllis Young

Republic Of Lakotah P.O. Box 99 Porcupine Lakotah 57772,
http://www.republicoflakotah.com

LAKOTA NATION DECLARES INDEPENDENCE

We are a Sovereign Nation

A Declaration of Independence from the USA
By LAKOTA FREEDOM DELEGATION
Lakota Sioux Indian representatives declared sovereign nation status today in Washington D.C. following Monday’s withdrawal from all previously signed treaties with the United States Government.The withdrawal, hand delivered to Daniel Turner, Deputy Director of Public Liaison at the State Department, immediately and irrevocably ends all agreements between the Lakota Sioux Nation of Indians and the United States Government outlined in the 1851 and 1868 Treaties at Fort Laramie Wyoming.

“This is an historic day for our Lakota people,” declared Russell Means, Itacan of Lakota. “United States colonial rule is at its end!” “Today is a historic day and our forefathers speak through us. Our Forefathers made the treaties in good faith with the sacred Canupa and with the knowledge of the Great Spirit,” shared Garry Rowland from Wounded Knee. “They never honored the treaties, that’s the reason we are here today.”

The four member Lakota delegation traveled to Washington D.C. culminating years of internal discussion among treaty representatives of the various Lakota communities. Delegation members included well known activist and actor Russell Means, Women of All Red Nations (WARN) founder Phyllis Young, Oglala Lakota Strong Heart Society leader Duane Martin Sr., and Garry Rowland, Leader Chief Big Foot Riders. Means, Rowland, Martin Sr. were all members of the 1973 Wounded Knee takeover.

“In order to stop the continuous taking of our resources ñ people, land, water and children- we have no choice but to claim our own destiny,” said Phyllis Young, a former Indigenous representative to the United Nations and representative from Standing Rock. Property ownership in thefive state area of Lakota now takes center stage. Parts of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana have been illegally homesteaded for years despite knowledge of Lakota as predecessor sovereign [historic owner]. Lakota representatives say if the United States does not enter into immediate diplomatic negotiations, liens will be filed on real estate transactions in the five state region, clouding title over literally thousands of square miles of land and property. Young added, “The actions of Lakota are not intended to embarrass the United States but to simply save the lives of our people”.

Following Monday’s withdrawal at the State Department, the four Lakota Itacan representatives have been meeting with foreign embassy officials in order to hasten their official return to the Family of Nations. Lakota’s efforts are gaining traction as Bolivia, home to Indigenous President Evo Morales, shared they are “very, very interested in the Lakota case” while Venezuela received the Lakota delegation with “respect and solidarity.” “Our meetings have been fruitful and we hope to work with these countries for better relations,” explained Garry Rowland. “As a nation, we have equal status within the national community.”

Education, energy and justice now take top priority in emerging Lakota. “Cultural immersion education is crucial as a next step to protect our language, culture and sovereignty,” said Means. “Energy independence using solar, wind, geothermal, and sugar beets enables Lakota to protect our freedom and provide electricity and heating to our people.”

The Lakota reservations are among the most impoverished areas in North America, a shameful legacy of broken treaties and apartheid policies. Lakota has the highest death rate in the United States and Lakota men have the lowest life expectancy of any nation on earth, excluding AIDS, at approximately 44 years. Lakota infant mortality rate is five times the United States average and teen suicide rates 150% more than national average. 97% of Lakota people live below the poverty line and unemployment hovers near 85%.

“After 150 years of colonial enforcement, when you back people into a corner there is only one alternative,” emphasized Duane Martin Sr. “The only alternative is to bring freedom into its existence by taking it back to the love of freedom, to our lifeway.”

We are the freedom loving Lakota from the Sioux Indian reservations of Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana who have traveled to Washington DC to withdraw from the constitutionally mandated treaties to become a free and independent country. We are alerting the Family of Nations we have now reassumed our freedom and independence with the backing of Natural, International, and United States law.

For more information, please visit our new website at
http://www.lakotafreedom.com/
Lakota
444 Crazy Horse Drive, P.O. Box 99;
Porcupine, SD 57772

FROM THE LAKOTA FREEDOM WEBSITE:

We are the freedom loving Lakota from the Sioux Indian reservations of Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana who have suffered from cultural and physical genocide in the colonial apartheid system we have been forced to live under.

We are continuing the work that we were asked to do by the traditional chiefs and treaty councils, and 98 Indian Nations at the first Indian Treaty Council meeting at Standing Rock Sioux Indian Country in 1974.

During the week of December 17-19, 2007, we traveled to Washington DC and withdrew from the constitutionally mandated treaties to become a free and independent country. We are alerting the Family of Nations we have now reassumed our freedom and independence with the backing of Natural, International, and United States law.

In the face of the colonial apartheid conditions imposed on Lakota people, the withdrawal from the U.S. Treaties is necessary. These conditions have been devastating:

MORTALITY
–Lakota men have a life expectancy of less than 44 years, lowest of any country in the World (excluding AIDS) including Haiti.
–Lakota death rate is the highest in the United States.
–The Lakota infant mortality rate is 300% more than the U.S. Average.
–Teenage suicide rate is 150% higher than the U.S national average for this group.

DRUGS AND ALCOHOL
–More than half the Reservation’s adults battle addiction and disease.
–Alcoholism affects 8 in 10 families.

INCARCERATION
–Indian children incarceration rate 40% higher than whites.
–In South Dakota, 21 percent of state prisoners were Native.
–Indians have the second largest state prison incarceration rate in the nation.

DISEASE
–The Tuberculosis rate on Lakota reservations is approx 800% higher than the U.S national average.
–Cervical cancer is 500% higher than the U.S national average.
–The rate of diabetes is 800% higher than the U.S national average.
–Federal Commodity Food Program provides high sugar foods that kill Native people through diabetes and heart disease.

POVERTY
–Median income is approximately $2,600 to $3,500 per year.
–97% of our Lakota people live below the poverty line.
–Many families cannot afford heating oil, wood or propane and many residents use ovens to heat their homes.

HOUSING
–Elderly die each winter from hypothermia (freezing).
–1/3 of the homes lack basic clean water and sewage while 40% lack electricty.
–60% of Reservation families have no telephone.
–60% of housing is infected with potentially fatal black molds.
–There is an estimated average of 17 people living in each family home (may only have two to three rooms). Some homes, built for 6 to 8 people, have up to 30 people living in them.

UNEMPLOYMENT
–Unemployment rates on our reservations is 85% or higher.

THREATENED CULTURE
–Only 14% of the Lakota population can speak Lakota language.
–The language is not being shared inter-generationally, today, the average Lakota speaker is 65 years old.
–Our Lakota language is an Endangered Language, on the verge of extinction.

We do not represent those BIA or IRA governments beholden to the colonial apartheid system, or those “stay by the fort” Indians who are unwilling claim their freedom.

FOR MORE, PLEASE READ THE LAKOTA DECLARATION OF CONTINUING INDEPENDENCE AT:
http://www.lakotafreedom.com/declarationofcontinuingindependence.pdf