The Debate Over Indigenous Land Acknowledgements; New Laws to Project Catalytic Converters–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Oct. 10, 2022

Indy Digest: Oct. 10, 2022

Happy Indigenous People’s Day, everyone.

You may have been at an event in recent years at which a speaker began by acknowledging the Indigenous people who used to own the land.

This is a good thing, right? Well, after reading two different articles in two different publications today, I’m really not sure.

On the pro side comes this piece, from NPR, headlined “Which Indigenous lands are you on? This map will show you.” The article says, in part:

Acknowledging an area’s original inhabitants and stewards is a valuable process, albeit a complex one, as the National Museum of the American Indian explains. The museum suggests reaching out to local Indigenous communities for guidance involving formal land acknowledgements, which can be offered at the start of public and private gatherings.

“Many places in the Americas have been home to different Native Nations over time, and many Indigenous people no longer live on lands to which they have ancestral ties,” the museum says. “Even so, Native Nations, communities, families, and individuals today sustain their sense of belonging to ancestral homelands and protect these connections through Indigenous languages, oral traditions, ceremonies, and other forms of cultural expression.” …

Native Land Digital, an Indigenous-led nonprofit based in Canada, is working to facilitate such conversations and document this history including by putting together a searchable map of Native territories, languages and treaties.

This article—which, in fairness, is more about the map in question and less about the efficacy of such acknowledgements—made me go re-read an article from The Conversation which we linked to in this space on Indigenous People’s Day last year. Its headline: “Land acknowledgments meant to honor Indigenous people too often do the opposite—erasing American Indians and sanitizing history instead.” It says, in part:

No data exists to demonstrate that land acknowledgments lead to measurable, concrete change. Instead, they often serve as little more than feel-good public gestures signaling ideological conformity to what historians Amna Khalid and Jeffrey Aaron Snyder have called—in the context of higher education’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts—“a naïve, left-wing, paint-by-numbers approach” to social justice.

Take, for instance, the evocation in many acknowledgments of a time when Indigenous peoples acted as “stewards” or “custodians” of the land now occupied. This and related references—for example, to “ancestral homelands”—relegate Indigenous peoples to a mythic past and fails to acknowledge that they owned the land. Even if unintentionally, such assertions tacitly affirm the putative right of non-Indigenous people to now claim title.

This is also implied in what goes unsaid: After acknowledging that an institution sits on another’s land, there is no follow-up. Plans are almost never articulated to give the land back. The implication is: “What was once yours is now ours.”

Additionally, in most cases these statements fail to acknowledge the violent trauma of land being stolen from Indigenous people—the death, dispossession and displacement of countless individuals and much collective suffering. The afterlives of these traumas are deeply felt and experienced in Indigenous communities.

It’s a complicated issue, for sure. I recommend reading both pieces to learn more.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• If you have not heard about the mess in Los Angeles regarding the racist remarks made during a conversation among three members of the L.A. City Council and a labor leader … you should heading to the Los Angeles Times to catch up. For a quick primer, I recommend this column by Gustavo Arellano. A taste: “This wasn’t a case of your rancho libertarian cousins from Corona drunkenly mouthing off during a backyard carne asada, or small-town politics in southeast L.A. County or the San Gabriel Valley. These are some of the most powerful politicians in Southern California—and some of the most prominent Latino politicos in the United States. (Nury) Martinez is head of the City Council of the second-largest city in the United States. (Kevin) De León was the first Latino California Senate president pro tem in more than a century (and placed third in the mayoral primary). *(Gil) Cedillo is an immigrant rights legend, while (Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron) Herrera is head of an organization with the money and manpower to sway elections. They should know better than to say quiet things out loud, even in private — and the fact that they don’t isn’t just frightening but telling.”

• Palm Springs wastewater testing done last week shows that there was a little bit more SARS-CoV in the wastewater than the week before: “The average number of copies (per liter) recorded at the city’s wastewater treatment plant increased. The average of 172,136 copies/L from the previous week went up to an average of 214,720 copies/L for October 3 and 4.” In context: Despite the increase, these numbers are still among the lowest in months. However, these numbers still represent a lot of COVID-19 cases.

• Our partners at CalMatters look at new laws meant to curb catalytic-converter theft—and whether they’ll actually do any good. Explaining how big the problem is in the state: “Nationally, 37% of catalytic converter theft claims tracked by the (National Insurance Crime) Bureau in 2021 were in the Golden State—a disproportionate share, even accounting for California’s large population. About 1,600 are stolen per month in California, per a 2021 presentation from the state’s Bureau of Automotive Repair. Hondas and Toyotas, particularly older Priuses, are most often targeted, according to claims data provided by the AAA Automobile Club of Southern California. Hybrids have two converters and the parts tend to get less wear, making them more valuable, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau. Thieves sell the converters, which can be removed in minutes with an electric saw, for $50 to $250, the bureau wrote in a statement.”

• Also from CalMatters: Gov. Gavin Newsom says he’ll call the Legislature into session in December regarding a tax on oil-industry profits: “Newsom said today that he would convene the special session on Dec. 5, the same day that a new class of lawmakers is sworn in. The work will take place on a separate track from the regular session to focus attention on what Newsom said has become one of the most urgent priorities for Californians: an ‘inexplicable’ gap between gas prices in California and the national average that has grown to a record $2.50 a gallon. … Gas prices in California have soared in recent weeks to an average of $6.39 per gallon, as of Friday, according to AAA, near the highest they’ve ever been. That compares to a national average of $3.89 per gallon. Analysts have blamed maintenance-related shutdowns at several refineries in California, constricting the supply of a special blend of gasoline mandated by the state to reduce pollution. But Newsom said that the stoppages had knocked less than 6% of production offline, not nearly enough to justify the surge in costs at the pump. He said oil companies were clearly taking advantage of the situation to manipulate prices and pad their profits.”

• Example No. 328,954 of How Messed Up the Medical System Is in This Country comes compliments of NBC News, and this story, with the subheadline “A small but growing number of “cash” pharmacies take no insurance, instead selling generic drugs, often at far lower prices than customers pay with insurance.” A bit more: “As patients struggle with rising prescription drug prices and insurance deductibles, everyone from members of Congress to entrepreneurs like Mark Cuban and small-business owners like (pharmacist Nate) Hux are trying to lower drug costs. By opting out of the insurance system altogether, Hux and other cash pharmacy owners are able to avoid many of the fees and rules that inflate medication prices. Consumers say they are reaping the benefits. While 91% of prescriptions in the U.S. are filled through insurance, according to the health care data analytics and consulting firm Avalere Health, pharmacists like Hux are betting that the savings and service they can offer outside that system will draw enough customers to make their experiments a success. So far, it’s been working, said Hux, who regularly advises patients which of his two side-by-side pharmacies will be the best place to fill their prescriptions. Pickerington is still the more profitable of the two pharmacies, but the gap is closing and if the trend continues, he said, all-cash Freedom will eventually overtake it.”

• And finally … this a friendly reminder to go vote in the final round of our Best of Coachella Valley readers’ poll if you have not done so already. Yeah, yeah, there are a lot of readers’ polls out there, but ours is different, because we care first and foremost on having a good, reliable slate of winners—so we ask people to vote once per round. Not once per day … once per round. We ain’t desperate for web traffic like those other publications. If you’ve voted already, thank you; if you haven’t, make sure you do sometime before Sunday, Oct. 23!

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