On Wed., Dec. 6 1995, Nelson Wong wrote a lot of stuff about US
and Canadian subjugation of Native Americans, in response to a comment
about Malaysian treatment of traditional forest dwellers (e.g. Penan).
Reply: I will be the last to defend the actions of my ancestors, and,
indeed, of my government in the last decades, in their treatment of
Native Americans on this continent. Many of those actions were pure
and simply genocidal; most of the rest were intended to deny natives
of any power and most of the means for their own self-determination.
Nelson Wong needn't have gone back to the 19th century for
evidence; there was a confrontation at Wounded Knee in the 1970's,
and just a few years ago there were confrontations between Indians and
non-Indians over fishing rights (I think it was the Mohawk in
Michigan--somewhere east of the Mississippi anyway!).
Although much still needs to be done to redress past wrongs and
address current ones, I think it is important to point out the gains
that have been made by many tribes. All my examples come from the
West coast of the US; I can't say how representative they are.
Several tribes in Washington state regained their treaty rights to
half of all the anadromous fish caught in the state. At least one
tribe in Oregon and one in Washington have regained some ancestral
properties from the federal government that were originally granted by
treaty. The natural resource management of many tribes is emerging
from the heavy hand of the federal bureacracy so that they can set
their policy. And although it's a shaky relationship, all tribes have
government status in relations with state and federal government.
Of course, with all the focus on North American tribes, Mr. Wong
never did tell us about the Penan...
He is not entirely correct in saying that Native American issues have
been ignored by environmental groups in this country--cultural
genocide is an issue linked with preservation of natural ecosystems in
several countries, including the Cree and hydroelectic development in
Quebec, which was a major priority of NRDC and several other groups,
and Clayoquot Sound in British Columbia, in which Rainforest Action
Network has been involved; I suppose addressing current "destruction"
is more of an issue for these groups than redressing past wrongs
(maybe rightly so?).
Andrew Gray
graya@fsl.orst.edu
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