Part I. DeclarativeNatives of California, unite!
A specter is haunting Native California—the ongoing erosion of inherent tribal sovereignty. Often under the guise of benefitting California Natives, the powers of the United States and its complicitors have crafted laws, policies, and recommendations that erode our status as albeit “domestic dependent” yet still sovereign “nations.” Complicitors include the following persons and entities, in general: federal and state, progressive and conservative, partner and pretendian. Worse yet, we are complicit in our own oppression: recognized and unrecognized tribes violate one another’s inherent tribal sovereignty, especially when opportunity arises vis-à-vis federal and state policy. We have succumbed to the self-interest, arrogance, and greed inherent in capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy. We have become the colonized as colonizer. Where are the California Natives who stand in opposition to the ongoing erosion of inherent tribal sovereignty? Two things result from this fact. 1. Inherent Tribal Sovereignty has already been acknowledged in international law, in federal law, in state law, and by Natives themselves. 2. It is high time that the unrecognized tribes of California should openly, in the face of the whole world, advocate for their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet inherent tribal sovereignty with a manifesto of unrecognized tribes itself. |