What Is Land Back? A Natives Eye
Land Back is a phrase that has been gaining popularity lately. To put it simply, Land Back is about freedom. Real freedom, and not the controlled version colonial states have been lying to you that you have.
Land Back is about giving such reverence to the lands, the air, the waters, to all life on it that we relinquish our false sense of control and ownership of it.
You see, Native peoples and Indigenous peoples across the world understood one thing. The Land is sacred. Some gave such reverence to this respect of life and nature they formed their spiritual connections around it.
Land Back is about changing the way we participate and impact the lands. a shift from ownership and control to stewardship and respect.
The United States itself was a failed copy of these principles. the Founding Fathers of the US examined native diplomacy and native legal structures like representative democracy and separation of powers to create the system they use today.
Unfortunately, they kept the feudal-european governance style of ownership and control. The US failed at creating a free society because it gave the bones of freedom with the soul of ownership and control. a system seeks control and ownership can not inherently be free as freedom knows no owners.
“Before our white brothers came to civilize us we had no jails. Therefore we had no criminals. You can't have criminals without a jail. We had no locks or keys, and so we had no thieves. If a man was so poor that he had no horse, tipi or blanket, someone gave him these things. We were too uncivilized to set much value on personal belongings. We wanted to have things only in order to give them away. We had no money, and therefore a man's worth couldn't be measured by it. We had no written law, no attorneys or politicians, therefore we couldn't cheat. We really were in a bad way before the white men came, and I don't know how we managed to get along without these basic things which, we are told, are absolutely necessary to make a civilized society.”
― John Lame Deer, Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions
Land Back means freedom, not simply to men, but to all life.
Land Back isn’t about relinquishing and replacing control of land to Native peoples for domination and control.
It is about Freedom of all Life.
It is about creating a society that respects all life, that sees natural elements not as resources, but as a living being that demands respect because it gives us a temporal connection to the past, present, and future. The waters our grandparents drank, the waters we drink, and the waters the children not yet born will drink.
Land Back is about Freedom in its truest form.
Someone might read this and say, you are talking about anarchy. a silly claim meant to scare you of your freedom. Land Back is not the end of laws. it is the rise of natural and cultural laws that we all agree upon even today. You can Call it morality, ethics, respect, dignity, or any number of things. A system that is tied to respected councils and elders who come from your community.
This post is meant to be a simple introduction into a beautiful and complex concept, until next time.
Goco
