by Sasha Irby
On Jan. 18, thousands of people from hundreds of Indigenous nations across the country and the world convened on Pawmunkey and Piscataway land (so-called “Washington, DC”) to stand united against the continuing injustices endured by the Indigenous peoples of North, Central and South America, Oceania, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.
The march demanded immediate action on a host of issues, including the following:
- Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW), of which there are over 7,000 confirmed since 2016 with many cases going unreported.
- Environmental racism, evident in the oil, mining, and petrochemical companies that operate illegally on Indigenous land, often in violation of treaty terms between Indigenous nations and the United States.
- Violence against Indigenous children, as demonstrated by the cruel kidnapping and caging of Indigenous children by ICE or by the right wing attacks on the Indian Welfare Act which protects Indigenous children from being stolen from their families by adoption agencies.
- Voter suppression targeting people living on reservations.
The march began with prayer and song at 8AM outside of the Department of the Interior Building, now home of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (originally a division of US Department of War). Participants marched, drummed, and sang as they made their way through the National Mall to the Lincoln Memorial. Of the many issues facing Indian Country brought up in the march, there seemed to be a common thread – the exploitation of Indigenous peoples by the capitalist ruling class and the continuing genocide, by intended action or neglectful disregard, of Indigenous peoples by that same ruling class.
