Blueberry Moon: Waawiiyaatanong Resurgence

 MIINI GIIZIS, Blueberry Moon 2020

 ᓃᐙᒃ ᒦᓇᐙ ᓈᓂᒥᑕᓇ ᐊᔑᓃᔥ

LVNDBVCK@gmail.com | (419) 540 8589

(with minor edits)

BIISKAABIYANG

July 4th is a symbolic colonizer ritual that weaponizes the land into a nation state for settlers to celebrate the triumph of white supremacy. The “freedom” celebrated on this day by millions of people, is a formal representation of genocide and slavery by colonists. The celebration of American independence on July 4th, signifies the ongoing oppression of African Diasporic Peoples and Indigenous Peoples of North America through a continuing legacy of stolen land and stolen labor. This settler society on occupied Turtle Island continues these traditions of violence and oppression to this day.

In other words, we will not lose our way.We will not disgrace the honor of our ancestors. Let us honor our relationships with the sacred land and not colonial infrastructures & holidays rooted in white supremacy.

MIINI GIIZIS

This action of The Waawiiyaatanong Resurgence is taking place during the blueberry moon. During this blueberry moon, the blueberries are at their sweetest. We also receive a beautiful amount of medicine from the thunderbirds moments after the recent summer solstice; as the thunder and lightning of summer storms herald us into the second half of the year with great changes.

In the sacred spirit of the story, it is said that when a young boy becomes a man he gets thunder in his voice after a blueberry becomes stuck in his throat, and this thunder medicine brings great depth and importance to his voice.

The Anishinaabe, sacred beings of the lands, and the diasporic Africans, sacred beings stolen from their land, will join together in solidarity to form spiritual bonds through ceremony to heal the land and exchange ancestral knowledge. Our ceremony today has three intentions:

Our first intention is to acknowledge the land and honor the spirits of the people who have been destroyed by colonialism and its consequences. We seek to uplift forgiveness with the spirits for not honoring our native ways and falling into the traps of assimilation and erasure. We would also bring clarity to a traumatic past, re-establish connection with the land, and ask for guidance for the future.

Secondly, we seek to acknowledge the African diaspora by uplifting and honoring Black life stolen by the colonial institutions. The displacement and enslavement of African people to work this land, is disrespectful to the land and its people. We therefore ask for healing for Black lives as they face their own ongoing battle with the colonizers. We honor Black lives as our relatives, acknowledging and helping to release the trauma the colonial structures have imposed on Black lives. Our struggles are intertwined.

We uplift prayers to our white accomplices and community members who likewise seek to destabilize colonial power and uplift indigenous resurgence.

MISI-ZAAGA’IGANI ANISHINAABEG ZIIBAASKA`IGANAGOODAYAN

The jingle dress was created by the Ojibwe people of The Mille Lacs Band of Anishinaabe during the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919. It came as a dream to a father who’s daughter was ill with the virus. His dream revealed the new dress and dance that had the power to heal. When the dresses were made, they were given to four women to perform the dance. When the little girl heard the tinkling of the jingles, she became stronger. During the big drum ceremony she was dancing again.

The healing aspect of the dance is carried through the sounds that the metal jingles make as the dancer moves. We started making jingle dresses here as soon as we lit the sacred fire, IshKode Meshkikwin, on May 30th, 2020. Our women & 2 spirits dance in these dresses to cleanse the land of energies brought to it by colonial rule and oppression. July 4th is the right moment to perform this cleansing ceremony because of its symbolism to the colonizers. We chose to cleanse the land at Campus Martius, due to its history of use for colonial power and its current ongoing symbol of gentrification, as known as settler colonialism. Our purpose is to cleanse this land to prepare it for the Anishinaabe, relative indigenous communities, and local communities to thrive on it again without being haunted by poisonous colonial legacies.

WAAWIIYAATANONG RESURGENCE

In what is commonly referred to as Detroit, Anishinaabe math & science knowledge unveils the language and the knowledge of the land here, Waawiiyaatanong, where the land bends with the water.

Since May 30, 2020, IshKode & The Aadizookaan have helped build and host the base for The Waawiiyaatanong Resurgence. This is ground zero for the Anishinaabe and other nation relatives to gather in Detroit and have access to a sacred fire to support Native ancestral technology, Black Life, and the ANCIENT FUTURE.

The goal of our resurgence is to create political and social paradigm shifts that will divert power away from the colonial patriarchy, and to an indigenous matriarchy headed by women and two-spirited people. We demand a halt to the continuous step of colonization by reinstituting indigenous names for the land, re-indigenizing traditional knowledge systems, and reestablishing sacred relationships with the land. Colonialism flourished on a diet of stolen land and stolen labor. Reviving the relationship to the land breaks the bonds of colonial power.

Waawiiyaatanong Resurgence is a movement rooted in Anishinaabe Meshkikiwiin; uplifting original native organizing structures and protocols that honor the sacred relationships to the land and creation. Ways to think of this work is Language, Land, & Legend:

The original LANGUAGE of the land, people, and creation of the Anishinaabe has had its existence threatened by the violent history of settler colonialism on Turtle Island. Restoring the language includes renaming and replacing violent colonial words, organizing our understanding of the passage of time around the moon cycle, and sharing knowledge of medicine and the land. If the language dies the people die. Restoring the language and sharing it with everyone supports native lifeways and ways of being, and shares the original connection with how people live their lives. The land speaks to Indigneous peoples differently because our creation stories have to do with the land. Working with the language in all types of ways revitalizes it, and therefore revitalizes the people and the land.

The LAND provides us with food, shelter, medicine, and self defense. Therefore, the land is a member of our community and not something to exploit. The land defends us and allows us to grow and develop and care for traditions. Without the land, we would be dead.

Our relationship with the land is extremely important. Part of our work is shifting our relationship with the land back to Indigenous lifeways. Our goal is to share community education about the land we live on as if it is a part of our community or our family, in order to shift the paradigm of how we relate to the land.

The land, furthermore, is our mother and has been exploited and abused. This exploitation and abuse has therefore leaked out to the women in our community. The patriarchy is a colonial construct. Women, who move with the moon, must lead us in repairing our relationship with the land. Empowering women & 2 spirits in leadership directly defies the patriarchy.

When we speak about “LEGEND” as a tool for the resurgence, we refer to the sacred spirit of the story. Through telling our story, we give voice to our experiences and generational trauma at the hands of the colonizers. The art being created, including poetry, music, food, visual arts, etc, are all legendary pieces of the resurgence. This is how we celebrate. We are living the legend at the moment and we celebrate our growth as we grow.

Celebrating creativity and creation allows us to share with each other in a way that’s uplifting and educational for the community. Legends provide us with political education, documentation, and synthesis of information. People have used legends for thousands of years as tools of education, in order to be passed down to future generations. This is exactly what we’re doing here.

Scott Preston Collins: Indian Mulatto Black and White

The definition of mulatto in the American South, was applied also to persons with an admixture of Native American and African Americans, not just mixed with white in general. I have to correct you the Moors were also black Africans. Spain was occupied by the Moors around 711 AD, when the African Army crossed the Strait of Gibraltar. Under the US Census any individuals with ancestry from North Africa, or the Middle East is considered white, just saying.

Indians Turned into Negros and Mulattos

"Legal definitions of Indian abound; according to a 1978 congressional survey, there were upwards of 33 separate definitions of "Indian" used in federal legislation. The number of definitions increased when tribal enrollment statutes were included."

Brownell (2001) p278, Garroutte 2003, 16

The following by Steven Pony Hill in his work "Patriot Chiefs and Loyal Braves"

http://sciway3.net/clark/freemoors/CHAPTER1colonial.htm

"Arguably the most influential event to occur in the 1600's happened in 1660 when Virginia determined that "…an Indian sold by another Indian or an Indian who speaks English and who desires baptism will now receive his or her freedom." This allowed many Algonquin and Siouan war captives held in slavery in the colonies to regain their freedom, but it also provided incentive for their masters to downplay the Indian ancestry of those in servitude in order to retain them. These former slaves quickly rejoined their tribesmen bringing with them their acquired skills as carpenters, wheelwrights, and ferry operators. Most importantly, these newly freed Indians brought with them their new English names and Christian religion. Unfortunately they also retained the stigma of being former slaves, a condition which would cause their white neighbors to eye them with suspicion for generations."

As pointed out by Joanne Pezzullo:

Relabeling Indians into Mulattos in Virginia

Virginia

October 1705-CHAP. IV. An act declaring who shall not bear office in this country.

[The text of this act suggests that a free man of color did hold an office sometime before October of 1705. The statute contains the first definition of a mulatto in Virginia's laws.]

''Be it enacted and declared, and it is hereby enacted and declared, That the child of an Indian and the child, grandchild, or great grandchild, of a negro shall be deemed, accounted, held and taken to be a mulatto.''

Source: Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large, vol. 3, pp. 250-251, 252.

I think that *Henings Statutes at Large* predates Wikipedia. Note the Virtual Jamestown site says this 1705 law was the FIRST DEFINITION OF A MULATTO IN VIRGINIA LAWS and it states THE CHILD OF AN INDIAN shall be deemed, accounted, held and taken to be a MULATTO.

http://www.virtualjamestown.org/laws1.html

South Carolina

Mulatto and Free Person Of Color Not Negro

Wicazo SA Review

The Red Pencil Review

Fall 1995 Vol. XI No. 2

"The Use of Racial and Ethnic Terms in America: Management by Manipulation" by Jack D. Forbes

Pages 58 and 59

"In 1857, a William Chavers was charged "as a free person of color" with carrying a shotgun. Chavers was able to win his case eventually...because he is charged as "a free person of color" whereas...the act...makes it penal for any "free negro" to carry arms...Free persons of color maybe...persons colored by Indian blood. The indictment cannot be sustained."

Page 55

"In 1719, South Carolina decided who should be an "Indian" for tax purposes since American slaves were taxed at a lesser rate than African slaves. The act stated:

And for preventing all doubts and scruples that may arise what ought to be rated on mustees, mulattoes, etc. all such slaves as are not entirely Indian shall be accounted as negro.

This is an extremely significant passage because it clearly asserts that "mustees" and "mulattoes" were persons of part American ancestry. My judgment (to be discussed later) is that a mustee was primarily part-African and American and that a mulatto was usually part-European and American. The act is also significant because it asserts that part-Americans with or without African ancestry could be counted as Negroes, thus having an implication for all later slave census."

http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/lunenburg.htm

http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/lunenburg/census/sun001.txt

In the 22nd year of George II, October, 1748,[66] an act was passed

covering the subject of tithables, and repealing the above noticed act of

4th Queen Anne, and 12th George II, to be in force "from and immediately

after the tenth day of June, which shall be in the year of our Lord, one

thousand seven hundred and fifty-one."

This law defined tithables as "all male persons of the age of sixteen

years and upwards, and all negroe, mulatto, and Indian women of the same

age, except Indians tributary to this government and all wives of free

negroes, mulattoes, and Indians, except as before excepted," and "excepting

such only as the county court, for charitable reasons appearing to them,

shall think fit to excuse."

How Native Americans Became "W, C, B, M or FPC"

NATIVE INTELLIGENCE, a column by Jack D. Forbes, Native American Studies, University of California, Davis

"The Federal government began to use "degree of blood" in the latter part of the nineteenth-century, especially in relation to the enrollment of persons before the Dawes allotment commission. The use of "full," "one-half" etc. at that time was both an extension of the previous racist system and also a step in terminating Native Americans. Persons with greater amounts of white ancestry were assumed to be more competent than persons with lesser amounts. In other words, the degree of white blood was much more important than the degree of American ancestry. The white blood entitled an Indian citizen to greater privileges, including being able to have "wardship" restrictions removed, being able to sell property, acquire the right to vote in state and federal elections, and so on.

"Thus it may be that many persons chose to exaggerate their amount of white ancestry when enrolling. Persons without white ancestry were restricted persons, with the Bureau controlling their financial lives. It was also expected that when a person became "competent" (white enough) he would no longer be an Indian and that process would eventually terminate a tribe's existence.

"Thus the recording of blood quantum is both a product of white racism and of white social science theories of a racist nature, and also a product of a plan wherein Native nations are expected to vanish when the white blood quantum reaches a certain level (above three-fourths, for example). For this latter reason alone, the use of blood quantum is exceedingly dangerous for Native Nations today, although the Bureau and some eastern Oklahoma Indians don't seem to care about this danger."

From War to Self-Determination

A history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs

http://www.americansc.org.uk/Online/indians.htm

http://www.thefiatlux.com/.../experts-agree-bureau-indian...

http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/opinion/30272599.html

From Joanne Pezzullo's site and the excerpt from Steven Pony Hill...

"1741-1745…..Robin a Negro Man now in possession of Thomas Cocke, Gent., petitioning for leave to sue for his freedom.

- Robin, an Indian Plt. Against Thomas Cocke Genbt. Deft. In Trespass Assault and false imprisonment…We find that James Jones late of Prince George County in the year of our Lord 1693 was in the possession of an Indian girl named Sarah as a slave and that we did find the said girl in the year aforesaid was 4 years old. We find that the parents and Native Country of the sd. girl were Heathens and Idolators. We find that the aforesaid girl did live and die in the service of the aforesaid James Jones as a slave. We find that the Plt. Robin is the issue of the aforesaid Indian Sarah.

(Robin is described as a Negro until he proves his Indian descent, then he is described as Indian…use of the term is influenced by his servitude)"

This excerpt is one of many that can be found at...

http://www.historical-melungeons.com/mixed_bloods.html

...this proving that Negro, Mulatto and Mustee were dependent upon the status of servitude and not ethnicity. Indians and Indian mixed bloods could thus be labeled as Africans without proven merit. On the contrary the person or persons labeled as Negro, Mulatto and Mustee had to prove their ancestry even way back then. Our Native American Indian ancestory has been challenged for hundreds of years.