Independence- Autonomy, Sovereignty, Decolonization
This past weekend the United States celebrated its’ Independence Day, as always on the 4th of July. Growing up as an American Indian detached from the mainstream world there was never a US holiday that I felt so confused by and still to this day it can be mind baffling to me. Independence Day for the United States is a celebration of the long battle of separation between the new colonies of the USA and Britain. However the Indigenous population already in North America was colonized throughout this period of American Revolution, Independence and Manifest Destiny.
Knowing that there is another side to USA history that goes untold in textbooks and the mainstream history it is a conundrum when it comes to celebrating “our” independence. “First of all, weren’t we (we as in the Indigenous people already here, my ancestors) already independent upon the arrival and settlement of Europeans? Weren’t we enslaved, murdered, discriminated against, colonized, forced onto desolate reservations and terminated all in the name of manifest destiny?,” these are my gut reactions to celebrating the federal holiday. I know there are other opinions and mine is completely biased by my genealogy, but if we look at the different histories I think that the holiday celebration of Independence can be debatable depending on what your personal history is.
This past weekend I attended the Navajo Nation 4th of July Fair on the Navajo Nation. The Navajo tribe is the second largest Native American tribe in the country, it spans across parts of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. People from all over the reservation come together to celebrate Independence Day in the capitol of the Navajo Nation, Window Rock, AZ, which is just miles from the New Mexico state border. Watching Native American people celebrate and rejoice the 4th of July made me wonder if my thoughts and doubts of the holiday were valid, ignorant, resentful, wrong or right? Is there a safe place in the middle where I can just be confused by the irony of Indigenous people celebrating a holiday of Independence?