Still Lying After All These Years

Glenn Morris



This bold assertion reasonably requires some evidentiary support, which, unfortunately, is not difficult to produce. Significant, irrefutable evidence can be found in the thirty-year historical record of U.S. opposition to the international rights of indigenous peoples at the U.N. Working Group on Indigenous Populations, at the Human Rights Commission/Council, at the International Labor Organization, and at the Organization of American States, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Although US officials suggest that Obama reversed previous history with his announcement, in fact, just the opposite is true. The most damning and conclusive evidence of US rejection of the Declaration is found in the State Department’s own December 16 document, which was released simultaneously with Obama’s statement. The long, shameful history of US denial of the rights of indigenous peoples has now been formally reinforced by Obama and his State Department.

Most people who applauded Obama’s announcement are unaware of, and probably have not read, the fifteen-page State Department elaboration of the United States government’s position on the Declaration. Instead of “lending support,” what the State Department document reveals is the US plan to gut the Declaration, and to “domesticate” it into an instrument to serve the national security interests of the US. In the process, indigenous peoples, especially those within the territories claimed by the US, will continue to be denied the basic international rights and protections that the Declaration promises.

There are six major areas in which the United States explicitly rejects the fundamental elements of the Declaration: 1. the international character and personality of indigenous peoples; 2. the international right to self-determination for indigenous peoples; 3. the international nature and enforcement of treaties between indigenous nations and the United States; 4. indigenous nations’ authority over territory and natural resources; 5. indigenous peoples’ control of traditional knowledge and intellectual property; and 6. the requirement for the U.S. to obtain the free, prior and informed consent (not solely consultation) of indigenous peoples before implementing any law or policy that fundamentally affects indigenous peoples.

Space prevents a detailed elaboration of the U.S. position in these six areas, but I will be glad to provide a copy of my expanded analysis on these points. At bottom, US representatives at the United Nations for the past thirty years have regularly stated that the US will endorse the Declaration only to the degree that the document is consistent with existing US federal Indian law. That position is merely reinforced with the Obama announcement; there is nothing new or revolutionary in that stance.

My intention here is not to minimize the difficult work of some indigenous individuals in the Obama administration who are working to make positive change in a thankless environment. People such as Kim Teehee, Jodi Gillette, and Wizi Garriot are good, principled individuals, but they are engaged in what the poet Audre Lord called the impossible task of “dismantling the master’s house, using the master’s tools.” In the final analysis, Obama’s ultimate loyalty, as with his forty-three predecessors, is to the national interests of the United States, which are rarely (and then only accidentally) the same as the interests of indigenous peoples.

Neither is my intention to sow seeds of pessimism. There are reasons for indigenous peoples to take heart. The fact that the US is on record supporting the Declaration, regardless of its duplicity in doing so, is a positive development. Now, indigenous peoples must keep pressure on the US (as well as Canada, Australia and New Zealand), and not allow the US to pervert the Declaration to its own purpose, otherwise, a major opportunity will have been lost.

In particular, one sentence in the State Department’s document should be seared into every indigenous person’s consciousness, and the US should be forever held to it. The statement reads: “[t]he United States is committed to serving as a model in the international community in promoting and protecting the collective rights of indigenous peoples, as well as the human rights of all individuals.”

Almost immediately in the document, the US then tries to qualify and limit its statement by suggesting that indigenous peoples possess only “certain” collective rights – presumably those defined by the US. As much as the US might want to pick and choose which aspects of the Declaration should apply to it, indigenous peoples must remind the US that there is no “American exceptionalism” provision in the Declaration. All provisions in the Declaration should apply to the US, as much as to any other country.

Indigenous peoples, however, should not view the Declaration as a panacea; it is not a cure-all. It is simply one tool that may be used to ensure the freedom of indigenous peoples, globally. Ultimately, the survival of indigenous peoples rests in our recollection of the spiritual principles, cultural examples and political strategies of our ancestors that have allowed us to be here today. It also rests in the collective action of a cohesive global indigenous peoples movement that will continue to resist the destructive, invader paradigm of unbridled individual sloth, political unaccountability, corporate criminality and environmental destruction. If we fail to provide an alternative to the death culture around us, then there is no conceivable Declaration, Convention or Charter that will help us, or our future generations.

Glenn Morris (Shawnee) is a professor of political science at the University of Colorado at Denver, and director of the Fourth World Center for the Study of Indigenous Law and Politics. He has participated in a variety of UN forums since 1982. He is also a member of the Leadership Council of the American Indian Movement of Colorado. He can be contacted at gtm303@gmail.com

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michaelmack's picture
Amen! The U.S. government's economic/political system and "success" was built upon and remains dependent upon Indian land, and its resources. U.S.'s mythologized history starting with Thanksgiving whitewashes (ever think about this term?) or covers up the factual history of how the U.S. gained control through murder, deception, lies, and ignoring the preachings of its supposed moral foundation - the Bible, particularly the New Testament. It is unrealistic to expect the U.S. to ever honor is legal commitments simply because not only would it be too expensive - it would bankrupt the country - but also because the U.S. would also have to admit before the world, that it's mythologized history is a lie - THIS would be too much to bear, because frankly it is all that most Americans have - Thanksgiving, the 4th of July, the "brave" Pilgrims, all shams but still essential elements of the American psyche. Indian people have to stop looking to the Euro-American worldviews - religions, economics, social structures, etc. because they are grounded in lies and deception. Rather, Indian people need to remember and to educate that we lived here successfully long, long before Euros even knew we existed. Our energy needs to focus on our on ancient histories and cultures because THEY WORKED. When we take our focus off how Euros define us, and their expectations for us, we need to recover and re-initiate that which worked long before the Euros arrived here.
honorindians's picture
What good does it do tribal nations to even tell them that the U.S. is "lending support" to a UN Declaration? A UN Declaration is not binding upon the U.S. government. A UN Declaration is not going to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Johnson v. M'Intosh which adopted the doctrines of discovery and conquest. It is misleading and dishonest to suggest to tribal nations that "lending support" to a UN Declaration is going to make a difference to U.S. tribal nations.
wanbli's picture
This declaration is a counterfeit, passed under false pretense and thus in not honorable and liberating text and not the original. It is the text of the same construct of falsehoods, lies, manipulations and political imperialist and colonial positioning within the special privileged class of red oppressors. To me, to continue to talk about this UN US text and keep promoting it, isn't the remedy that the majority of all unrepresented enrolled members of the federal government, whose red politics are exploited with lands and that are being systematically exterminated, mislead by those who were in league and bought off by the UN and Empire are the enemy and a clear and present danger to all indigenous sovereign nationhood's of earth. The construct this writer and other serve is the construct of hypocrisy and contradictions and murder to all authentic indigenous cultures and lands and destiny as free. That hate and fear they're own responsibility to there own humanity as a genuine warrior to other Oyate's, that are continuing being persecuted, lied about, mislead and force to comply with the terms of those that hate Life, instead of those that cherish her and respects her red ways of truth, justice and unconditional love....to liberate us by those of the UN and Empire and all Empires!
tmsyr11's picture
Why are most of you all sounding soo surprised? Buyer's remorse to the Presidential Elections of 2008! If there was any-one who speaks with a forked (slithering) tongue, it is Barrack Obama....I've never witnessed a man (aside from Bill Clinton) who spoke from both sides of his mouth. Too for Indian tribes after all these decades, the US Federal Government is broke as THEY outsourced federal dollars to special interests and gave to illegitimate causes (without Congressional approval) and NOW owe a whopping huge debt to foreign interest Governments, i.e. Communist China. Every-one in the world (foreign interests) have a stake in US dollars and like past decades, the Indian Tribes just don't get or understand what Barrack Obama is un-doing>
wabanaki's picture
I must sadly but strongly agree with Professor Morris regarding the lack of willingness on the part of the United States to honor the United nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. I was at the 1994 meeting at the United nations when a delegation of the United nations walked out while Elders from the Hopi Nation were delivering a warning to the world. Time and time again we petitioned the US and canada to honor the Jay Treaty . My elder Chief William Commanda from Kitigan Zibi in Quebec is keeper of the 1797 Jay Treaty wampum belt and we are still not allowed to come from the US into Canada and live with our families free from harassment. When is this going to stop and when are we going to stand up for our rights and not take casino payoffs for our spirituality?
wanbli's picture
Just remember Wanbli been telling this to us.. and he said the oppressor of this empire will never free the oppressed of our poor red nationhood's! He's right!!!!