Postcard Series: Greetings from Stolen Land by Mallory Culbert

etings from e r G

by Mallory Culbert @mivcv, @culbert_mallory bit.ly/nevertoldus

N Ʉ M Ʉ N ɄɄ SOOKOBIT Ʉ "Comanche" Land

“Indigeneity” (in-dij-in-ay-it-ee) usually refers to an endangered cultural identity that is oppressed by European

colonization

embodiment

by

&

the

geographical

settlement place)

of

their

asserts

a

ancestral political

homeland.

right

to

Claiming

their

“indigeny”

homeland

and

(cultural

rejects

the

hegemonic (dominating) settler-colonial culture. Indigenous coexistence with the land is quite different from settler-colonial views on land ownership. By definition, “settler colonizers” systematically occupy, dominate, and destroy indigenous peoples in order to overthrow them, then they claim to be rightful inhabitants

of

that

land.

Settler

colonizers

impose

European

values

on

the

land

and

its

indigenous

peoples with the assumption that their white ethnic (read: moral) superiority is natural and undeniable.

In addition to exploiting the natural environment for economic resources and the colonized peoples for labor, settler colonizers displace the inhabitants through settlements. Settler colonialism is a tool of the dominant culture to normalize continuous settler occupation of indigenous land.

In

contrast

to

settler

occupation,

indigenous

relationships

with

the

landscape

of

Turtle

Island

(now

called the united states) is similar to that of Medieval European monarchs to their nations: there is an inherent responsibility to care for the land and its people. The land is a conscious subject that feels and perceives,

rather

than

a

thing

or

object

to

own.

This

view

showcases

an

intimate

relationship

that

cannot be understood or properly interacted with within the institutions that they have formally defined.

A settler-colonial relationship with the land is detached and unbalanced. This allows for mental and emotional

freedom

to

exploit

surroundings

and

culture.

For

example,

the

tobacco

used

in

spiritual

Ceremony pre-colonization is a far cry from the tobacco on the market today. Its origin in the united states economy was as a highly toxic cash crop grown by slaves–the complete opposite of a respectful offering during a spiritual experience. Now, many Indigenous peoples don’t have access to traditional tobacco, even though tobacco companies often use Native imagery to advertise their toxic products at a higher rate to people of color. Because of histories like these, it is important that we accurately understand what the harm is before we can begin to reduce it.

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"Osage" Ancestral Territory

Biopiracy is a tool of cultural and economic control enacted by colonizers

upon

peoples

who

are

recovering

from

being

colonized. Rather than connect to the earth through their own cultural

practices

biopirates

or

disconnect

re-establishing by

using

endangered

patents

to

control

species, access

to

naturally-occuring substances. These substances are then used to

develop

cosmetics.

commercial

Endangered

products

white

sage

like that

pharmaceuticals is

stolen

from

or

Native

lands is now sold at Sephora cosmetics. Until the passage of the American Indians Religious Freedom Act in 1978, white sage was considered illegal for Native folks to use. The demand created when

traditions

natural

supply.

quickly

being

like The

these

are

remaining

taken

away

commercialized

connections

from

future

to

depletes

the

cultures

are

our

generations

when

our

traditional medicines and drugs are sold for profit.

In 2021, this looks like big companies patenting psilocybin (which naturally

occurs

in

shrooms)

for

military-related

PTSD,

but

arresting civilians for self-medicating after the trauma of being incarcerated. It looks like clinical PTSD trials that only include cisgender, heterosexual white men when PTSD rates are higher among

Black,

Latinx,

and

Native

folks

because

of

involuntary

racial trauma. When the awful way we practice medicine in the united states gatekeeps access to stolen traditional medicines, those most in need of care cannot access it. This. Must. Change.

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NÚU-AGHA-T Ʉ V Ʉ -P Ʉ̱ Traditional "Ute" Territory

Biopiracy

is

one

of

many

white-supremacy

maintaining

&

promoting

entitlement practices. Other practices of this sort include the joint efforts of cultural appropriation efforts, strategies, and schemes alongside cultural criminalization and separation from its source. The mass, coordinated, and forceful

displacement

colonial

violence

of

indigenous

separated

the

populations

people

and

so

by

and

their

through

culture

settler-

from

their

source: the land they are indigenous to. Political domination, through an expanded, forcefully imposed, and insincere bureaucracy–which only serves as

an

unneeded

barrier,

a

measure

of

separation,

between

indigenous

populations and the services and resources they need– a need created by governmental bureaucracy through the forceful separation of people and land.

The

separation

and

destruction

of

the

land

whose

memory

of

a

mutual

relationship of care and sustenance with those who inhabit her is a part of a settler-colonial engineered exclusion from its economy. The s-c narrative paints this very engineered impoverishment of indigenous populations and their land as a personal problem, as resultant from individual choice. The settler-colonial

narrative

about

indigeneity

discusses

a

traditional

or

‘primitive’ society, rather than exploited and intentionally impoverished.

Harm reduction efforts in indigenous communities must center Indigenous Knowledges deprivation united

and of

states

histories

resources

in and

indigenous

order

to

adequately

separation

policy.

Rather

address

from

the

source

than

only

the that

thinking

systematic has

been

about

what

happens after substance use, harm reduction efforts must also look to what inspires

using

in

people-centered

the

first

place.

practice...this

Harm

reduction

includes

a

community-driven,

centering

is

population-wide

structural inequities as the root of (inter)personal harms in the community.

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