November 12, 2024
Cultural Heritage Survival and Perseverance: Our Shared Global Human Interest and the Medicine that Heals
Kitcki Carroll, USET/USET SPF Executive Director
This essay was published on Medium.com on July 23, 2024
As I sat an ocean away reflecting on the possibilities of what should be the righteous arc of the moral universe’s long bend towards justice, the juxtaposition of the tranquil natural beauty and the violent colonizer mindset comingled and embedded in the Italian cityscapes continued to unsettle me. This was my first time in the “Old World”, and I was there at the Gonzaga School of Law 2024 Human Rights Conference: Cultural Heritage as a Human Right presenting on “The Story of Tribal Nation-U.S. Relations and Its Impact on Our Cultural Survival & Perseverance” [Full Abstract]…
…Our Indian Country story includes colonization, tragedy, and suffering, culminating in attempted physical and cultural genocide inflicted by purposeful and cruel design. However, more importantly, ours is a story about our strength, perseverance, and power. Ours is a story, a lesson to be shared, to teach and enlighten cultures around the world, especially in a moment when the world is lost, and people are searching for answers, purpose, and peace. I genuinely believe that the desire to protect one’s cultural heritage is a shared global concern and priority. If Indian Country properly recognizes and owns its story and related power, it can serve as a global example of how cultural heritage and traditions must be protected despite history. It can ensure that each culture’s legacy endures and thrives, despite the societal pressures of “progress” that are often ignorant to the pricelessness of cultural heritage…
…However, the gift we have to offer ourselves and the world will never be realized should we continue to be held hostage to an oppressive structure that has conditioned us for centuries. We operate in a structure fashioned to diminish the inherent sovereign rights and authority we rightfully claim, sovereignty that predates the arrival of uninvited foreign invaders to our shores, and an unjust structure based on the accepted plenary authority of another sovereign rooted in a medieval Doctrine of Discovery still used today [City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York]. Indian Country routinely talks honestly about the consequences and impact of what external forces have and continue to do to us, but it is time to speak with equal honestly about the unjust excuses and rationalizations we continue to accept and normalize; excuses and rationalizations that violate trust and treaty obligations [A Quiet Crisis: Federal Funding and Unmet Needs in Indian Country (2003); Broken Promises: Continuing Federal Funding Shortfall for Native Americans (2018)] and that stand in direct contrast to our inherent sovereign existence, all while knowing these violations are directly responsible for many of our circumstances today. We must stop blindly, and ignorantly reinforcing systems placed upon us; systems of colonialism, termination, assimilation, paternalistic and capitalistic constructs and origins; systems designed to create dependency and to tear us apart. While we must understand these systems of colonization to navigate them, our pride should never be in mastering them, but rather in dismantling them. As is sometimes necessary, we must proactively unlearn to create the space for proper learning. Now is not the time to be our own worst enemy or to be distracted while opposing forces attack us, both directly and in the shadows…
…Tough conversations are ahead, and it will inevitably be uncomfortable at times, but we must be willing to endure some discomfort to get to a place of comfort; together, I am confident we can meet this moment and lead the change that is necessary…
Learn more about Native American Heritage Month.