The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in 2007 has affirmed that it is morally and socially unjust, and legally invalid to define or give superiority to people based on religion, race, ethnicity, or culture. The declaration further affirmed all other rights of the indigenous people to determine their future in their own ways. It also recognized the rights of the indigenous people to exercise their own religions, rituals, among other things that define them as distinct people. Moreover, the UNDRIP recognized the historical injustices that the natives have been suffering because of neglect, and spiritual, cultural and racial discrimination.
However, the declaration is a long overdue because indigenous people had been fighting for this for a long time. Susan Shown Harjo from the Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee is one of those who had been fighting for these rights since their youth. One of the rights that Harjo is passionate about is religious freedom. In one of her speeches before the UN, she mentioned of their deep connection to their ancestral land as their source of life. Aside from being their source of livelihood, most of their religious traditions are done in synergy with the nature. She mentioned of a prayer which should be done in a blue stream but today, it is too hard to find one because nature is deteriorating not because of them but because of development projects that undermine their rights as people and undermine the environment.
Harjo mentioned that there are laws existing that are supposedly protecting their sacred places but in practice, they are left in disadvantage positions in court processes. Harjo (2003) in a statement said “All the other religions have several doors to the courthouse. We do not have even one door.” She stressed that this is a grave discrimination. With the Religious Freedom Act Harjo and her people are demanding the responsibility of the federal government to protect their sacred places.
In Harjo’s statement in 2003, she identified some of their sacred places that are threatened due to corporate or government projects. The Bear Butte in South Dakota is a holy land to the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Lakota and other peoples is lined up with a proposal for private and state gunnery which will disrupt the sacredness and peacefulness of the place. The Bear Butte is a place for them to pray, and execute their several ceremonies. In Georgia, the Ocmulgee Old Fields is a ceremonial and burial ground for the Muscogee, the federal government is planning to build a multi-lane state highway. It is ironic because the cultural site for the Native Americans is in the 2003 list of “11 Most Endangered Historic Places” (Harjo, 2003). Another healing place for the natives is in danger for a corporate proposal for the construction of geothermal power plant.
In her video interview, she stressed that they as peoples with distinct identity cannot exercise their right to self determination including their right to religious freedom because of so many threats on their land. Their ancestral lands she always iterates is where their life is rooted. It is where there people are born and it must also be their burial ground. Their ancestors they believe are living in their sacred grounds and if these grounds are destroyed, they will be stripped off their identity and cannot be reunited to their ancestors when time comes. As the modern world is increasingly spreading in the Native American lands, the indigenous peoples are fearing that their values that have been passed on from generation to generation will be lost. Harjo and her people have been neglected by the federal government for a long time. Aside from being neglected, their lands which they have nurtured since the time of their ancestors are being treated as a mere resource base of minerals and other natural resources undermining their rights to their land. Therefore, in fulfilling their rights to self determination, the federal government should respect their self governance over their lands and resources. As long as the threats are still hounding their land which is their life, they will not stop fighting until their rights are recognized and respected.
References
Harjo, S. (2003). Statement of Suzan Shown Harjo, President, The Morning Star Institute, For the Oversight Hearing on Native American Sacred Places Before the Committee on Indian Affairs, United States Senate, Washington, D.C., June 18, 2003. Retrieved from http://thenativepress.com/sacred_statement.html
Susan Harjo. Cultural Survival. Retrieved from https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/culturalsurvivalquarterly/unitedstates/suzanharjo
SevenGenFund (27 April 2012). “Suzan Shown Harjo - UN DRIP Conference & Consultation - Tucson, AZ.” Online video clip. Youtube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yuhY0tTiu0
