“Then, in the 1950s, inspired by the Black Civil Rights struggle in the southern US, Natives also began organizing for civil & treaty rights. In the southwest, Native students began organizing. In the Northwest, coastal Natives began asserting their treaty rights to fish.”
“What many people miss is that the book and film [The Spook Who Sat By The Door] are based on the solid foundation of African American folklore that were the bedtime stories told to my brother and me by my southern maternal grandparents; the Brer Rabbit tales, in particular.”
2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the occupation of Sir George Williams University in Montreal in 1969 by Black and Caribbean students who were protesting racist treatment by professors at the institution, as well as the 150th anniversary of the Métis Nation’s re-occupation of Fort Garry at Red River (Winnipeg) in 1869.
“The established media focused their attention on who they judged to be the leaders and organizers — that is, Native American males. Their cameras and tape recorders only grazed the faces of Martha Grass from Oklahoma or Ann Jock from Akwesasne or the many strong women who like Anna Mae Pictou breathed life into an idea.”
“Why, after killing an Indian, was an avowed political racist charged with manslaughter instead of murder and sentenced to a short prison term? Why was there no trial and no opportunity for a court to publicly examine the crime and Nerland’s political activities?”
This violent state repression consisted of dozens of murders and assaults, including an assault on a non-Native legal defence team.