Indian reservations are generally recognized as “nations within nations.” Each has its own government and sovereign powers to make laws, tax, etc. and most also have their own tribal justice, health, education and housing systems, also based upon these inherent rights. Therefore, many programs in States do not apply to US Indigenous nations unless specifically mentioned or if there is specific legislation for these nations. Treaty rights do not confer sovereignty, rather they are a mutual recognition of rights that already exist. Since the United States lays claim to the entirety of the physical land within its border and the land or reservations of the native tribes are held in trust by the United States this presents obvious difficulties.

Land, water and food sovereignty make up critical places of primary concern for Native People. Land sovereignty is a critical piece of wholeness. both for the strength of Native community as well as
One example is the Shinnecock Nation, a tribe that has existed since time immemorial on the island that for the last 100 years has also housed one of the most elite white communities in the nation.

Shinnecock Nation Protests To Protect Its Land, Monument With Weeks-Long ‘Sovereignty Camp’

The Land and Water

A critical way that non-indigenous people can act in solidarity with their Indigenous neighbors is through climate justice and other environmental concerns. However, this will only work when done with the utmost respect for sovereignty. How many of us of European descent, had experiences whether at summer camp or elsewhere where we sang the Irving Berlin’s song “God Bless America”?   Whether this song or the famous Woody Guthrie song “This Land is Your Land”,  both reinforce the Doctrine of Christian Discovery by encouraging colonizers to pray for blessings from a Christian God or feel grateful for the land that was “made for you and me.”

“God bless America, land that I love
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with the light from above”

“This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York island,
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters;
This land was made for you and me.”

Many of us are aware that we are at a critical juncture so by respecting native sovereignty we can together enter into the work for the health of our planet.  many of us sense that human survival is under serious, imminent existential threat. Indigenous communities have the ancestral knowledge to lead us through this crisis. They must be given their proper role of honor, respect and deference as the primary leaders of this effort. Racism makes this difficult as seen in the media position granted to Greta as opposed to Peltier. (Note that Greta has been doing her best to include and elevate her indigenous partners.)  It is an “all hands on deck moment.”

Since time immemorial, indigenous people have lived on these lands, which today is called Plymouth. A territory carved by ancient glaciers, creating unique kettle ponds, while laying down layers and layers of profitable sand and gravel. These are lands that have evolved over millennia to become home to some of the world’s greatest and most fragile biodiversity.

The people who have occupied these lands are the Wampanoag, who continue today to retain ancestral rights to these rich unceded territories, having never been sold or signed away by treaty.
Learn how extractive corporations, like Pepsi Cola and Ocean Spray, threaten the water and Wampanoag sovereignty.
Click here for a A Standing Bear Network Exclusive, with Melissa Ferretti, Chairlady/President of the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe.