DOCUMENT: GREATLIE.TXT
STATES, INDIGENOUS NATIONS, AND THE GREAT LIE
by Rudolph C. Ryser
(c) 1994 Center for World Indigenous Studies
(c) 1994 The Fourth World Documentation Project
(Re-edited from the originally published, "Nation-States,
Indigenous Nations, and the Great Lie" (c) 1986 CWIS)
In this paper I will analyze the relationship of
selected indigenous nations in various parts of the world to
the governments of the countries in which they are found. I
have selected for analysis the United States, Canada, Chile,
and Nicaragua. These countries have been selected for three
reasons. One, the policies of these states towards
indigenous nations have all been drawn from the American
governmental experience. Two, these indigenous populations
share common political, economic, and social aspirations.
Three, they all illustrate relationships that have resulted
from what I call 'the great lie.'
In my opinion, nowhere does a MODEL OF RELATIONS exist
between indigenous populations and states that is acceptable
to indigenous peoples. There are, however, hundreds of
examples of state and indigenous-nation relations where the
dominant political and economic interests practice deception
aimed at the elimination of indigenous nations. It is my
intent to answer three questions in this paper: What is the
great lie? How has the great lie been used by states to
control and then eliminate indigenous nations? Finally, what
are the alternatives available to indigenous nations if they
are to avoid ultimate and final destruction by states?
Indian nations are made up of peoples who are the
descendants of the original landlords of territories
occupied for thousands of years. These Indian nations are
the successor nations to great civilizations that dominated
the world for thousands of years. By contrast, the states
within which these indigenous people are found today are
political organizations that have come into existence only
in the last two-hundred-year period. By various means they
have sought to expand their influence throughout the
indigenous nations, surrounding indigenous peoples and
establishing colonial regimes designed to confiscate
indigenous lands and natural resources while suppressing and
exterminating the political identity of whole indigenous
nations. The contemporary reality is that indigenous nations
do continue to exist, though greatly weakened, while the
states have grown larger, more powerful, and more
threatening to the indigenous nations.
The states of Canada, the United States, Nicaragua, and
Chile have come to dominate and repress indigenous nations
principally by means of what I call 'the great lie.' Though
each of the states began its existence as a politically and
economically weak group of people with only a small foothold
on the territory, the people of these fledgling states used
their weakness to gain help and support from the more
powerful indigenous nations. Indigenous nations permitted
the small and helpless states to organize governments and
even to increase their populations by allowing increased
entry of political and economic refugees from other nations
and states in Europe. During this process the great lie
began to have importance as a political and economic tool
for the new states occupying indigenous territories.
As a means to gain greater concessions and aid from
indigenous nations, the new European states began the
selective process of convincing indigenous peoples that it
is the destiny of European states to govern, control, and
exploit the indigenous peoples, lands, and resources. The
European states, so they argued, had the right to govern the
world because they were superior beings. Indigenous peoples,
on the other hand, were primitive, savage, and incompetent.
Indigenous peoples should be treated as non-humans. The
theory was that if enough indigenous people could be
convinced of their own incompetence and that their own
political, economic, and cultural systems were evil, then
they would reject their own indigenous nations. Once
indigenous people rejected their own values and systems,
they could then be drawn into the European states and be
effectively controlled.
The new European states have worked diligently to wipe
out indigenous history and intellectual thought and replace
these with European history and intellectual thought. The
great lie is simply this: IF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES WILL ONLY
REJECT THEIR OWN HISTORY, INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT,
LANGUAGE, AND CULTURE AND REPLACE THESE THINGS WITH EUROPEAN
VALUES AND IDEALS, THEN INDIGENOUS PEOPLE WILL SURVIVE. It
is from this twisted thinking that European states have
convinced millions of indigenous people all over the world
to surrender their freedom and accept subjugation as a way
of life.
Nowhere in the world has the great lie had a greater
success than in the United States. After many years of
writing treaties and forcing indigenous nations to agree to
their contents, the United States government would
systematically violate those same agreements. To excuse
these violations, the United States would tell the
indigenous nations that, since they were incapable of
understanding the agreements in the first place, the United
States would use its OWN system of justice to find a remedy
for treaty conflicts - not international law or the laws of
indigenous nations. Since 1831 the United States has been
adjudicating disputes between itself and indigenous nations.
History has demonstrated that the more dependent indigenous
nations become upon American legal and political
institutions, the more they experience erosion of their own
governmental powers, territorial and natural resource
rights, and cultural development.
The United States did not stop at simply asserting its
superiority over indigenous nations through its legal
system. After 1871, when the United States unilaterally
declared its intention to cease treaty-making with
indigenous nations, it imposed a new concept on its
relations with indigenous peoples. It asserted that the
Congress of the United States would exert PLENARY POWER over
all matters involving indigenous nations. In more direct
terms, the American government declared that it would
exercise absolute and unlimited political power over the
internal and external affairs of indigenous nations. The
United States installed a legislative dictatorship over the
affairs of indigenous peoples within the newly established
United States boundaries. In fact, the United States
government declared indigenous governments illegal and
asserted that such governments would be forcibly suppressed.
Indian nations would be cut off from the world family of
nations.
In 1934 the U.S. Congress enacted a law called the
Indian Reorganization Act, designed effectively to replace
any vestige of the original indigenous governments with
governments to be designed and implemented by the United
States itself. These governments would be recognized by
Congress as the legitimate governments over indigenous
territories. The constitutions for the American-made
indigenous governments placed all of the political authority
of government under the control of an appointed bureaucrat,
the secretary of the Interior, and the legislative power in
the U.S. Congress. These tribal governments were granted
limited powers to enact laws, but they were granted
substantial powers to regulate and control tribal people on
behalf of the United States. In a very real way, these
tribal governments became direct extensions of the United
States government, operating under U.S. laws and policies.
These tribal governments in effect became colonial
governments. The rules under which these colonial tribal
governments operated ensured U.S. access to and control over
indigenous peoples, lands, and natural resources.
Indigenous political leaders did not at first agree to
the U.S.-sponsored colonial government system. Indeed, many
indigenous political leaders actively opposed U.S.
intervention in indigenous political and legal affairs. Many
of these leaders were able to convince their own peoples not
to accept the U.S.-designed tribal government system. Yet
other political leaders within indigenous nations accepted
money, guarantees of political power, and other gifts from
the United States in exchange for their support of the
colonial tribal government system. While many indigenous
nations retained their own government systems, a greater
number did accept U.S. government authority. Now, forty-
seven years later, many indigenous political leaders are
questioning the wisdom of accepting U.S.-sponsored Indian
governments. Indeed, many indigenous nations have discovered
that under this system the rights and interests of
indigenous peoples have been overwhelmingly subordinated to
the interests of the United States. Tribal economies,
political structures, and cultural systems have been eroded
or destroyed.
Indigenous peoples in the United States have become
refugees in their own land. They have become hostages to the
American legal and political system. Indigenous law and
political development is being vigorously suppressed. The
timber, oil, coal, uranium, water, and land belonging to the
indigenous nations are being used by the United States to
benefit that country's goals and aspirations, while the
invented tribal government system is being used against
indigenous peoples to deny them the sole use of their own
property.
An American-invented educational system is being forced
on indigenous populations to ensure that succeeding
generations of indigenous people will have completely
forgotten the existence of indigenous nations. Indigenous
children are being taught that George Washington was the
founding father of their nation. They are being told that
their nation is the United States and that the American
political system was created to give freedom to the
oppressed. They are being told that America is a beacon of
freedom for all peoples. What they are not being told,
however, is that the United States has sought to destroy
their homeland, their history, their language, and their
culture, as well as their freedom.
Deception through the great lie has permitted the
United States, once a weak and defenseless state, to become
the dominant political and economic force throughout the
Western Hemisphere. With their economies decimated, their
governments in shambles, and their peoples in poverty, the
indigenous nations now look to the United States government
for help and for sustenance. The United States and its
corporations say only, 'Give us your land, your minerals,
your petroleum, and your water, and we will give you your
freedom.' This may seem a harsh indictment of the United
States, but let me remind you that if you ask about the
present condition of indigenous peoples in the United States
and try to explain how that condition came to be, you must
conclude that it resulted from the actions of traitors among
indigenous peoples, or from the actions of deceitful
Europeans, or from the actions of both. I subscribe to the
view that indigenous nations have been deceived by the
Europeans with the help of indigenous traitors who gave
their loyalty to the United States and turned against the
indigenous nations.
In many ways, the situation in Canada resembles the
stage of political development in the United States during
the latter nineteenth century and the early twentieth
century. Both the state of Canada and the state of the
United States were born of the same mother. The United
States gained release from its mother over two hundred years
ago. Canada has just recently severed the umbilical cord,
called the British North America Act, by which it was tied
to its mother. Like the United States, Canada wants to
become a full-grown power able to act on its own without
following the rules set down by the mother. Unlike the
United States, Canada had to wait a long time before asking
the royal mother if it could leave home and grow up.
Everything Canada knows about conducting relations with
indigenous nations it learned either from its mother or from
its bigger brother, the United States. Just as the United
States made agreements and broke them with indigenous
nations, so has Canada. Just as the United States created a
legislative dictatorship over indigenous nations, so has
Canada.
Now Canada is at a crossroad. Belatedly separated from
the mother, it views the indigenous nations as an obstacle.
Canada cannot claim to be an independent country unless it
exercises full control over the territory within its
boundaries - over, that is, all of the people, all of their
land, and all of the natural resources. The indigenous
nations in Canada have learned from the mistakes of their
brothers to the south and they are not prepared to give
Canada control over their people, lands, and natural
resources. To remedy this problem, the Canadian government
is now seeking to follow the example of its brother in the
south by promoting the parliamentary enactment of an Indian-
government act. This act is, for all practical purposes, a
direct copy of the U.S. Indian Reorganization Act. In fact,
the Canadian government has consulted extensively with U.S.
officials over the years to learn about the model policies
and approaches that Americans used so successfully in
subjugating their indigenous governments.
While Canada's administrative structure is somewhat
different from that of the United States, it has worked to
accomplish the same goals: the elimination of indigenous
nations and the substitution of Canadian-European values for
indigenous values. Assimilation of indigenous populations is
the essential goal. Canada will be able to achieve its goal
if Canadian officials can convince the indigenous people to
believe the great lie. Paradoxically, the effort to
assimilate indigenous peoples politically in Canada
constitutes a tacit recognition by Canada that indigenous
nations are wholly outside of the Canadian federal system.
Canadian officials know that 64 per cent of the
territory known as Canada belongs to the indigenous nations
and not to Canada. These are unceded territories. Canada
cannot exercise full national dominion without controlling
indigenous people, their lands, and their resources. So what
they offer in exchange is recognition of Indian governments
in the Constitution and in the laws. Just as the United
States instituted Indian governments for its own ends,
Canada is now proposing to institute such governments. Just
as the United States sought to gain control over indigenous
lands, resources, and people, Canada is now seeking such
control. Canada has already worked to implement the great
lie by telling indigenous peoples that the Canadian
Constitution can and will protect indigenous nations and
prevent further erosion of aboriginal rights. But Canadian
officials offer indigenous peoples no control or political
power in Canada's government. Indeed, indigenous leaders
must understand unequivocally that Canada cannot permit
their nations to continue to exist. For, as long as they
exist, they will always be a threat to Canada's sovereignty
and its political integrity as a state.
The Canadian government has, time and time again,
officially denied that the nations of Canada, the indigenous
nations, have original claim to the vast territories that
are called Canada. They have denied that the first nations
have a political identity separate from that federation
called Canada. Canada insists on claiming political and
economic rights within indigenous territories. To admit that
such rights do not exist would create a situation in which
it could be argued that Canada has only an administrative
responsibility towards indigenous nations. So Canada's
solution is to institute the great lie. 'We will help you,
brothers. Come and join us and you can be yourselves.' But
look at what happened in North America to the south. Many of
the brothers are not a part of the family anymore. They are
part of America.
In Nicaragua, we have a very similar situation. There
are three indigenous tribes in Nicaragua, the Miskito, the
Rama, and the Sumu. They occupy the eastern half of the
country, where they make up the majority population. Under
the Somoza regime, they were told that they must 'Be
Nicaraguans, not Miskitos, not Ramas, not Sumus. You must be
Nicaraguans, and if you are not to be Nicaraguans, then you
will be dead.' Many of the people in those tribes revolted
in 1978 against the Somoza regime, even though it was
sustained in power by the United States and other Western
powers. It was a revolution instituted by the indigenous
people against an oppressive regime.
The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN),
Hispanic descendants. not indigenous people, who were the
religious and labour leaders in Nicaragua, said, 'We will
take the lead and we will save you from this madman Somoza.'
So they took up the revolution against Somoza and they won
in 1979, and everyone was proud, for now they were done with
the oppression. The Miskitos, the Ramas, and the Sumus
believed that they would now have an opportunity to have
their own land and their own nations once again. But not
long after the Sandinistas assumed leadership and control of
Nicaragua, they went to the indigenous peoples and said,
'You are Nicaraguans. You are not Miskitos, you are not
Ramas, you are not Sumus. If you are not Nicaraguans, you
are dead.'
The Sandinistas offered to the Miskitos, Ramas, and
Sumus a role in the new government. An organization called
MISURASATA was formed to represent the more than 185,000
Indians. 'We will give you a government as a part of our
government, and we will even permit you to have a
representative in our government,' the Sandinistas said.
They then went ahead and selected a person to represent the
indigenous people in the parliament of the Sandinistas. So,
where is the indigenous nation now? In February 1981,
thirty-three leaders of MISURASATA were arrested. Security
forces charged that the Indians were preparing a separatist
movement. The Indians want to protect their territories from
exploitation, and the Sandinistas want to extract minerals
and metals from Indian soils. You see, the revolution to
produce an indigenous nation must continue. The same
controversy exists there as exists in Canada, as exists in
the United States and everywhere where states and indigenous
nations collide. The central issue remains: Are the goals of
states the same as those of indigenous nations? All we can
conclude by looking through history is no, they are not.
Indigenous nations and states can coexist, but if indigenous
nations become part of a state as subordinate peoples, then
indigenous nations will disappear. The states' urge to
exploit indigenous peoples and their resources is
overpowering.
In Chile, the situation is exactly the same. The new
government of Pinochet advised the Mapuche people who had
occupied the territory for thousands of years, 'You must
move from that territory because there is copper and tin
under your ground.' The Pinochet government urged the
Mapuche to become full Chilean citizens and exercise their
'equal' rights. When they would not move, the Pinochet
government enacted a law that says the government has the
right to take the land. All they require is that one person,
not necessarily a Mapuche but one person within the
indigenous territory, say: 'Yes, you can have my land.' and
then the government has the authority to take it all. And so
they have. One hundred indigenous communities in the last
year have been devastated. Their land has been opened up for
mining copper, coal, zinc, nickel, and tin to advance the
interests of Chile, to advance the interests of other
peoples, but not to advance the interests of the Mapuche.
Even their own land cannot benefit them now. The Mapuche
have never played a role in the Chilean government - they
are not a part of Chile.
The proclaimed superiority of the state has, in each of
our examples, been used to justify the dislocation and
exploitation of indigenous nations. The 'laws of nations'
have been subverted by domestic rationalizations to deny
whole peoples their basic rights as human beings. The myth
of superiority has been used to enrich colonial populations
and impoverish indigenous peoples. The patterns of
oppression are essentially the same. Indigenous nations in
all of our examples have been surrounded by invading peoples
leaving only tiny enclaves for indigenous homelands. Each
indigenous nation seeks to secure its homeland against
further invasion. Each indigenous nation is denied its right
to exercise its distinct political powers. The objective of
each state is the same: elimination of the indigenous
population as a distinct nation and the exploitation of
indigenous people, lands, and resources for the benefit of
the state.
What can be done? The answer is simple, and perhaps
that is why it is so difficult. As our elders have said over
and over again, through the centuries: 'Hold on to the
nation of people. Defend the nation of people against all
enemies. Assert your own government; you don't have to ask
for a government. You have a government. If you have no
government, you have no people; then there is nothing even
to argue about.' All over the world today there are
indigenous populations that carry out governmental
activities as separate and distinct peoples, but too many
feel they must ask the state to give them the power to
govern themselves. The only power that exists for any
people, whether it is the United States or Canada, Shuswap
or Blackfoot, Miskito or Mapuche, any nation, lies in the
decision of the people to take the initiative, to conjure up
the strength, to assert their nationhood to the rest of the
world and say, 'We are here and we do not plan to disappear.
Our power comes from within and from our access to the Great
Spirit.' With those two things, the indigenous nation can
survive. It cannot survive by asking someone else to allow
it to exist.
The great lie must be rejected and replaced by a
renewed dynamic among indigenous peoples. The indigenous
nations are ancient in their origins - they are the seed of
humankind. They must resume their role among the family of
nations to reassert the balanced values that have ensured
human survival on this planet.
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