How a New Indigenous Autonomous Movement could help lead the Next American Revolution

Roberto Mendoza

This is a call for a new Indigenous movement for the 21st Century. We have evolved to a new understanding of our path of liberation. New visions and ideas are needed to move to a higher level and to coalesce into a new and more effective movement in this period. This new movement has developed some ground breaking ideas and a sustainable vision that does not rely on the State and colonized tribal governments. Here are some of the key ideas and visions that define this new movement:

1. We have to move beyond what Chief Justice John Marshall described as: “… domestic dependent nations… Meanwhile they are in a state of pupilage. Their relation to the United States resembles that of a ward to his guardian.” This describes the current state of our BIA created tribal governments. They depend on the U.S. Congress for their money to operate, plus what they can get from casinos (which are not based on our values). Their structures follow the top-down hierarchical structures of the colonizers and their tribal businesses follow the profit making values of the Capitalist system. Now we have been assimilated into the Colonists mind set, which sees National States as our goal. Nationalism is not part of our values. Indigenous values, as outlined in this article, Answering MLK’s Call for a ‘Radical Revolution of Values’.