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Subject: Anti-Indian Movement Part II
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C O M P E T I N G S O V E R E I G N T I E S
IN NORTH AMERICA AND THE
RIGHT-WING AND ANTI-INDIAN MOVEMENT
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Preliminary Findings
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Center for World Indigenous Studies
Right-Wing Extremism & Anti-Indian Network Project
[Ed. Note: This article may be reproduced for electronic transfer and
posting on computer bulletin boards in part or full, provided that no
profit is made by such transfer and that full credit is given to the
author, the Center For World Indigenous Studies, and The Fourth World
Documentation Project]
PART II
THE ANTI-INDIAN MOVEMENT
Competition for control over Indian reservations now includes
individual non-Indians seeking to force the break-up of reservation
governments and lands. On-reservation non-Indians were joined by off-
reservation non-Indians to achieve the break-up of Indian Nations. Off-
reservation non-Indian activism began to grow as a result of three
factors: Public activism by the American Indian Movement in the early
1970s, growing success by Indian governments to exercise some governmental
powers over lands, resources and activities in "ceded territories," and
movements by several Indian Nations to reclaim original lands and
resources wrongfully taken by the United States.
What is now called the "Anti-Indian Movement" includes non-Indian
activists inside reservations and non-Indian activists outside
reservations. It also includes a small minority of Indians, both inside
and outside reservations, who associate themselves with the values and
aspirations of the non-Indian population. While the Anti-Indian Movement
has an important impact in several areas of the country, the actual
numbers of activists is not more than 1000 individuals. Far greater
numbers of sympathetic followers, have given their names to small
organizations in fifteen states. The total number of sympathetic
followers is currently estimated at 5,000 to 10,000 individuals.
Activists have formed small groups on and near Indian reservations
with names like, ALL CITIZENS EQUAL, TOTALLY EQUAL AMERICANS, CITIZENS
RIGHTS ORGANIZATION, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, WHITE EARTH EQUAL RIGHTS, CONCERNED
CITIZENS COUNCIL, PROPERTY OWNERS' ASSOCIATION, and INTERSTATE CONGRESS
FOR EQUAL RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES. These groups have been linked
through individuals and interest issues with organizations formed in
cities and towns. These include narrowly defined associations of
individuals concerned with sport-fishing, hunting, small business, and
recreation. Such groups like S/SPAWN located in Bellevue, Washington;
Alaskan Constitutional Legal Defense Fund in Anchorage, Alaska; Bonduel
Conservation Club in Wisconsin and East Slope Taxpayers in Cut Bank,
Montana fall into this category. These LOCAL GROUPS are linked
independently and through two main group associations: THE INTERSTATE
CONGRESS FOR EQUAL RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES which has been a recipient
of financial support from Joseph Coors of Coors Beer fame, and the PROTECT
AMERICANS' RIGHTS & RESOURCES ASSOCIATION (PARR) which was formed in
Wisconsin in March 1987.
These small associations of individuals and larger associations of
organizations have worked to gain support for their interests through the
National Associations of Counties (NaCo), the National Wildlife Federation
and the National Rifle Association.
While the Anti-Indian Movement has grown and become more
sophisticated in the last 20 years, its actual impact has been fairly
small. In 1987, however, the Anti-Indian Movement began to have an impact
on the actual functioning of Indian governments, and it had a greater
affect on the political aggressiveness of a number of State governments.
Instead of directing their attention to legal actions, the Anti-Indian
Movement focuses on political action centered on State legislatures, State
Attorneys' General, U.S. Congressional offices and public opinion.
ENTER RIGHT-WING EXTREMISTS
The formation of groups in the Pacific Northwest which have the
intent of intimidating, violently attacking and even killing members of
different societies (Non-Whites, Jewish people, etc.) began in earnest ten
years ago. Organized activities began much earlier in the mid-western
states and the Great Lakes Region. Individuals connected with various
churches, political groups, intellectual groups, and paramilitary groups
broadly identified with the NEW-RIGHT, ULTRA-RIGHT, and the NEO-NAZI
movement assert their intention to occupy and TAKE the five state area
including Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming as a homeland for
what they call the Aryan Nation. Groups like CITIZENS FOR CONSTITUTIONAL
GOVERNMENT, COMMITTEE TO RESTORE THE CONSTITUTION, NATIONAL SOCIALIST
VANGUARD, CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST CHRISTIAN (ARYAN NATIONS), POSSEE
COMMITATUS, THE DUCK CLUB, and THE ORDER have been established in towns
near Indian reservations and on some reservations in Idaho, Washington,
Michigan, Minnesota, Alaska, Wisconsin, Montana and South Dakota.
All of these groups are ultraconservative and far-right in their
ideology. All have close links with neo-nazi aspirations. The most
visible of these on Indian reservations are the Citizens for
Constitutional Government and Committee to Restore the Constitution.
Individuals active in the Anti-Indian Movement have been directly linked
to the Committee to Restore the Constitution.
The Anti-Indian Movement, Extreme Right-Wing groups and the
competition between governments are all concerned with LAND and
JURISDICTION. These are refined terms for the same conflict that has been
going on for more than four hundred years. The conflict now, however, is
political; peppered with occasional instances of violent behaviour. It
is also a conflict which rages both INSIDE and OUTSIDE Indian
reservations.
Organized Anti-Indian activists have been joined by private
individuals on and near Indian reservations who fear Indian tribes.
Growing evidence suggests that Extreme Right-Wing activists connected to
such groups as the "White Aryan Nation," "The Order" and the "Identity
Church" have located on and near Indian reservations; and, they are
winning converts from "those who fear Indian tribes." This is a new
wrinkle in Anti-Indian activity, which may contain the seeds of greater
conflicts in the future.
The Order operates near the Coeur d'Alene Reservation, while elements
of the Identity Church operate near the Quinault and Lummi Indian
Reservations. The Duck Club operates near two Klallam reservations in
Northwest Washington State, and growing evidence suggests that the groups
have actually infiltrated some reservations. Citizens for Constitutional
Government and the Committee to restore the Constitution have strong
political connections in Southern California and have visible presence
near the Yakima, Lummi and Colville reservations in Washington State, and
the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho.
While the Anti-Indian Movement has its "racist leaders," it has
remained primarily oriented to political action and public demonstrations.
The Extreme Right-Wing groups, however, tend to combine political action,
intimidation, paramilitary activity, actual land occupation and public
demonstrations. While both are relatively small, these apparently
converging movements have important impacts on community stability through
the use of intimidation and "bully politics."
ANTI-INDIAN AND RIGHT-WING HARMONIC CONVERGENCE: 1986-1987
The apparent convergence of the Anti-Indian Movement and Right-Wing
Extremists is ominous not only because of the instability and threat posed
to Indian communities.
Both the Anti-Indian Movement and Right-Wing Extremist groups have an
intense interest in both Indian land and reducing Indian government's
powers. When combined with the efforts of State governments and the
United States government to further reduce Indian rights and Indian lands,
the Anti-Indian Movement and emerging presence of Right-Wing Extremist
groups operating from a fundamentally racist, WHITE-SUPREMACIST ideology
pose a serious threat to Indian people.
Out of sight, and out of mind, the movement to organize opposition to
Indian tribes (now twenty years old) has continued to grow. It has grown
into a sophisticated movement involving scores of small organizations, a
few large organizations, businesses, county governments, state
legislatures, offices of State Attorneys General, candidates for
Congressional office in three states, and a growing number of individual
Indians and non-Indians. The Anti-Indian Movement has a few ideological
activists. It now includes conservative and right-wing ideologs, farmers,
on-reservation land-owners, hunters, fishermen, small businesses, and a
growing number of individuals who have become persuaded that Indian Tribes
must be eliminated.
Here are a few "apparently unrelated events" that took place in 1987:
* The PROTECT AMERICANS' RIGHTS & RESOURCES (PARR) organization was
formed in Wisconsin, in March 1987. The PARR called for a boycott of all
high stakes bingo on Indian reservations as a way to counter a threat by
Chippewas to boycott merchants in Ashland, Wisconsin.
* In Montana, about 300 Indian and non-Indian farmers and ranchers
joined a "tractorcade convoy" to protest the Bureau of Indian Affairs'
control over the Flathead Irrigation Project. Water, they said, should be
under the control of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and eventually under
the control of the users themselves. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai
Tribes joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs to counter the protest.
* In Washington, Indians arrested by U.S. authorities for fishing the
Columbia River received an acquittal from the Yakima Tribal Court, but sit
in a Federal jail. Political intimidation inside the Yakima reservation
increased. Non-Indian activist increasingly exploit public ignorance
about a U.S. Internal Revenue Service challenge to the Lummi Indian
Tribe's claim that individual Indian earnings from the sale of trust
protected resources are exempt from U.S. income tax. The subject is of
particular interest to leaders of the COMMITTEE TO RESTORE THE
CONSTITUTION.
* The Michigan based organization, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH protested Indian
treaty-protected fishing and hunting in Northern Michigan.
* In Minnesota, the TOTALLY EQUAL AMERICANS organization expresses
satisfaction and distrust with Montana Senator John Melcher's proposed
legislation for Congress to "review Indian tribal authority to impose
taxes on non-tribal persons on Indian reservations."
* THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES (NaCo) considered supporting a
study to reclassify Indian reservations like counties and cities.
* The Washington State Attorney General authored a letter to U.S.
Attorney General Edwin Meese expressing gratitude for a December 9, 1987
meeting to discuss federal Indian policy, and "the unheard voices [of]
individual Indian and non-Indian citizens who are being directly impacted
by such federal Indian policies."
The Anti-Indian Movement has evolved a jargon of its own with buzz
words and slogans: EQUAL RIGHTS, NON-INDIAN AND NON-TRIBAL-INDIAN RIGHTS,
INDIAN LAWS SUPPLANT THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES, THE U.S. CONSTITUTION
IS BEING IGNORED, INITIATIVE 456, PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION ON THE IMPACT OF
FEDERAL INDIAN POLICY ON NON-TRIBAL INDIANS AND NON-INDIANS, EQUAL RIGHTS
AND RESPONSIBILITIES, SPECIAL RIGHTS FOR A RACE OF PEOPLE, and ABROGATION
OF TREATIES. Out of an historical context, these terms and phrases have
the ring of respectability, and even "mainstream politics." The
contemporary environment in which these phrases have taken on meaning is
decidedly not mainstream. Ultra-conservative groups have adopted buzz
words and slogans that are very similar, and Right-Wing Extremists
frequently rely on such words to express their views.
ANTICIPATING THE YEAR AHEAD
In 1988, the Anti-Indian Movement and elements of the extreme Right-
Wing will continue to agitate on and near Indian reservations over
"special interests" like hunting rights, fishing rights, land rights,
jurisdiction, bingo, taxation and "government representation on
reservations." Organizations will increase efforts to lobby support for
anti-Indian legislation and legal contests through state governments.
Specific emphasis will be placed on Attorneys General in the Western
States who will seek to force U.S. government consideration of new
policies to "protect non-Indians and non-Tribal Indians from tribal
governments." Continuing efforts will be mounted to force the
establishment of a Presidential or Congressional Commission to Investigate
the effects of federal Indian Policies on non-Tribal Indian and non-Indian
citizens of the United States. Finally, the Anti-Indian Movement will
mobilize resources to support anti-Indian political candidates for state
legislatures, and the U.S. Congress. Particular emphasis is being placed
on Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Alaska and Nevada.
It can be further expected, despite recent indictments of leading
Right-Wing Extremists, there will be a greater convergence between Anti-
Indian Movement activists and ultraconservative and right-wing groups like
the Citizens for Constitutional Government, Committee to Restore the
Constitution, Church of Jesus Christ Christian and the Duck Club. Though
closely associated with more militant extremist, these groups have
achieved a level of public respectability and appear (PUBLICLY) insulated
from extremist groups. Because some of the ultraconservative groups are
lead by individuals who have achieved some prominence as State and County
elected officials, they are even more able to wear the label of
respectability.
Indian government, fishing, hunting, land, taxation, equal rights,
will broaden as the principal themes of the Anti-Indian Movement. Changes
in the U.S. Supreme Court opposing Indian tribes will be increasingly
exploited. State legislatures, county governments and popular referenda
will continue to be used to promote "popular opposition to Indian tribes."
Because the United States and Canada are entering a "political year," the
more respectable elements of ultraconservative and right-wing groups will
assume a greater level of public visibility -- exploiting popular
discontent and local economic upheavals. Indian tribes can expect a
substantial escalation in frequency of incidents and political action.
Despite a long felt wish that "people would just leave Indians alone
to live as they wish," organized efforts to subvert Indian governments,
create political division inside Indian tribes and force State,
Provincial, County and Federal Challenges to tribal government authority
continue to mount. Despite the growing Anti-Indian Movement, there is no
effective plan among Indian tribes to counter it across the country or
inside Indian reservations. There is no consensus among Indian leaders
about what the Anti-Indian Movement consists of, nor is there a consensus
about what the movement actually means and why it is occurring. This
condition of disarray will continue to be exploited.
Indian Tribes are on the defensive in nine states in the United
States and three provinces in Canada. Though not winning many actual
concessions from the U.S. government, the Anti-Indian Movement is rapidly
moving with success among State and Provincial governments (many
legislators and Attorneys General), Counties (County Executives,
Commissioners, Sheriffs) and increasing numbers of "distressed non-
Indians" on and near reservations. Anti-Indian organizational efforts are
strongest in Washington, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota,
Michigan, Wisconsin, Alaska and Nevada in the United States. Canadian
Anti-Indian Activists and Right-Wing Extremists have increasingly close
ties with their U.S. counter-parts. Their strength is greatest in British
Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario. In some instances, these
groups will expand by organizing joint actions across the U.S./Canada
border.
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The complete findings of the Right-Wing Extremism & Anti-Indian Project
may be found in _Anti-Indian Movement on the Tribal Frontier, Special 2nd
Edition_, by Rudolph C. Ryser for $10.50 ($US).
For orders or information, please write to:
Center for World Indigenous Studies
P.O. Box 82038
Kenmore, Washington 98028-0038
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