LPLP-RomeroInstitute

Educating yourself is a very powerful way to support Native efforts, because at the end of the day Native efforts are also your efforts. Because our efforts toward environmental stewardship for example, involve not only every human but all beings of any particular ecosystem, a couple examples I can think of now, that I am involved in, is preventing the Dakota Access Pipeline which is set to cross the Missouri river, the source of our drinking water, less than a football field away from our northern border. Additionally, we are engaged in helping the Buffalo Field Campaign to liberate the last real buffalo of North America. We need a way to bring them home because they are being killed due to cattle ranching interests, when we should be welcoming them home to their territory. Buffalo are integral to a healthy ecosystem and cattle are harmful to a healthy ecosystem. So you can help us by going vegan for instance. Keep up with issues by visiting lakotalaw.org, Last Real Indians.com, Buffalo field campaign, and also link with us on social media!

There are two categories that we have to consider. One is tribal nations, they have a distinct legal relationship with the U.S. and with Canada, within that context one of the most destructive policies involves something known as Indian Land Title. Then stems directly from the Doctrine of Discovery, which holds that we as Tribal Nations do not have supreme sovereign title to our land. The U.S. invented something called Indian Land Title, which means by our very nature, we are not capable of a sovereign title. The other, is for the Native American population in general, that enjoys all the privileges and rights of modern American life, and it's not really a policy that is destructive, the general exclusion and eraser of Native American history, Native American institutions and knowledge, our story our narrative is excluded as a matter of policy.

Personally, I started with Black Elk Speaks, those sort of books, that could be considered to be first person narratives, they were written by people close to them. The Gift of Power is another one, I would recommend Sherman Alexie, even though it is banned in certain schools. And there's a book called 1491 that could be used to guide the educational journey of high school students. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is another great choice.

First and foremost it's important to have T&R because we need healing, because Indigenous people need healing, my mother and grandmother went to a boarding school where they endured tragic conditions, where they were made to feel ashamed of who they are, subjected to corporal punishment. And so America and Tribal Nations need to concile in the first instance to say that we need a reconciliation is to say that things were good and amicable at some point. We can call it reconciliation, but what it really means is that we need to be truthful with each other, America and Tribal Nations. Sometimes this may involve ceremonial objects or human remains returned to the living decedents of those people so they can properly have closure and conduct spiritual rights with regard to people who have passed away in these schools. Currently, through our work we are trying to gain a more accurate picture of the scope of the boarding school era and how that era is made to live by subsequent policies like the Indian adoption era of the 70s up to right now, the willful violations of the Indian Child Welfare Act by South Dakota as recent as 2015 in the Van Hunnik case where Judge Viken is making findings against Judge Davis and the city of Rapid City and validating our claims that ICWA is being violated and Native peoples rights are being trampled upon. So we need T&R for a couple of things, one of which is to not hide from the truth. And the other part has to do with healing and promoting a growth out of this spiritual scar.

We must go plant based everywhere. Buffalo, deer, reindeer and other natural game cannot replace cattle in feed lots. The world's diet needs to be plant based majority. We need to create direct relationships with our food sources; historically we had a sacred relationship with our food sources. We've all been colonized in that respect.