A Nation of Settler Militias

What “An Indigenous People’s History of the United States” by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz teaches us about the genocide happening today.

American soldiers following the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

I have been reading a lot about Indigenous history lately. It’s been a major area of interest of mine for some time, for both personal and political reasons, but it seems even more essential to study during Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinians.

The United States’ genocide of Indigenous peoples parallels the forcible displacement, cultural erasure, and murder of Palestinian people by Israeli settlers to an absolutely eerie degree. And in the study of past Indigenous movements of resistance, we can learn lessons about how we all might oppose violent settlement now, and what a post-colonial life on this planet could look like.

Armed Israeli settlers and soldiers threaten Palestinian farmers in the South Hebron Hills in 2020. Image by Basel al-’Adrah, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Learning about the many diverse Indigenous cultures that exist on this continent and abroad fills me with hope and a sense of possibility for humanity’s future. Grappling with the violence that has been wrought against native peoples is clarifying to me, and gives me purpose, even when fighting against an oppressive government seems…