Moccasins on the Ground

A group of leaders from 10 sovereign nations dramatically walked out in protest this week from “nation to nation” talks with the US State Department.

Russia?  China? Cuba?

No, it was the chiefs and elders of the Southern Ponca Pawnee Nation, the Nez Perce Nation and 8 nations of Sioux and Oyate people who rejected talks with State Department officials on the proposed Trans Canada/Keystone XL Pipeline.  Their statement read in part:

On this historic day of May 16, 2013, ten sovereign Indigenous nations maintain that the proposed TransCanada/Keystone XL pipeline does not serve the national interest and in fact would be detrimental not only to the collected sovereigns but all future generations on planet earth. This morning [these ten] sovereigns informed the Department of State Tribal Consultation effort at the Hilton Garden Inn in Rapid City, SD, that the gathering was not recognized as a valid consultation on a "nation to nation" level.

The State Department has decision-making power over the proposed pipeline because it crosses an international border with Canada.  But they must also negotiate with native  leaders, who have “domestic sovereign nation” status under US law.  And it seems they underestimated the diplomats from the native nations, who are exercising concerted legal and moral action to stop the pipeline.

The State Department made a fool of itself already last year when it released a report saying the pipeline would have no impact on climate change, in contrast to evaluations by climate scientists, environmental organizations and even the U.S. Government’s own Environmental Protection Agency.  All have expressed grave concerns about the proposed project, because of its environmental impacts, cost, potential damage and spills,  and because all the oil will be shipped oversees, thereby not reducing our oil dependency one drop. (See my Feb. 17 column re Ash Wednesday and 350.org protests.) 

President Obama must decide on the pipeline’s future later this year.  He delayed it once, calling for more study.  Speculation is that he will approve it this time, citing economics and jobs.

The American government has been making and breaking treaties with the indigenous peoples of our nation for over 200 years.  It is in those treaties that the various tribes are recognized as “domestic dependent nations.” The record is particularly shameful and tragic when it comes to who can decide and profit from natural resources on areas designated as tribal lands.  For example the Ft. Laramie treaties of 1851 and 1868 designate the land which the XL pipeline will cross as sacred tribal land. 

So last year these ten native nations within the US got together with their counterparts in Canada, where the indigenous people are called First People or First Nations.  The Canadian government is not much of a friend to native people either. 70% of the site where the oil will be extracted is under treaty-recognized stewardship of the Lubicon Lake First Nation of Canada.  With 10 nations in Canada they signed an International Treaty to Protect the Sacred Against the Tar Sands.  The United Nations has also recognized the legal right of these nations to prevent corporate grab of their lands.

But the native folks know that laws and treaties are often broken or ignored, especially with them.  So in good American populist style they are also organizing non-violent protests at the construction of the pipeline, should it be approved.  At a training event earlier this year, held at the Wounded Knee District School in South Dakota, 300 people, mostly native, learned the tactics of non-violent resistance and pledged to lay their bodies on the line should construction begin.

One of the organizers of the training was the group “Moccasins on the Ground.”

US Army generals and politicians often say they are working to get “boots on the ground,” shorthand for troops ready for action.  “This bill will guarantee that by next week we have boots on the ground in Lower Slobovia.”

The native folks in Northern Great Plains are lacing up their moccasins for action, putting their moccasins on the ground.

Moccasins, says the dictionary, are “footwear of soft leather like deerskin designed for outdoor wear.  They protect the foot while allowing the wearer to feel the ground.” 

I picture Chingachgook of James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans, wearing moccasins and loincloth and not much else, running silently through the Eastern woodlands, his moccasins sensitive to each branch and leaf, making not a noise, outsmarting the British. 

The job of boots on the ground, unlike moccasins, is to make it so you can’t possibly feel the ground.   Or much of anything else.

In the fantastic Tony Hillerman books set in the southwest desert, Navaho police detective Joe Leaphorn tracks mostly white killers by following the destructive path their boots have left even in barren wilderness.  He’s probably required to wear police boots, but he seems to have moccasin memory, tracking those booted bad guys even in dark canyons.

Boots are also designed so you can kick.  People proudly call their boots “shit kickers.”

Boots are the emblematic American footwear.  Kick shit, and do all you can not to feel.

In a video made by the young people at the Moccasins on the Ground training one young woman turned their slogan into a rap:

Moccasins on the ground for Mother Earth
Keeping it sound.
Yeah, keeping it sound and on the ground.
As we plant ourselves here,
As we plant the seeds to reawaken and let the light grow,
I keep my feet down,
But I’m not down.
We all got feet,
And it’s time for us to stand.
Moccasins on the ground.

Copyright © 2013 Deborah Streeter