For this paper, I listened to the episode “The Logic of Settler

Colonialism” of the radio program “Indigenous Politics: from Native New

England and Beyond” [07-13-2010]. The guest speaker for this episode was

Patrick Wolfe who talked about Settler Colonialism and its impact on

indigenous peoples, the differences between settler colonialism and the

normal colonialism we know of and the impact of settler colonialism as on-

going process.

Colonialism is a phenomenon that was global in nature and spread

across all continents. By the end of WWII in 1945, the process of

decolonization began and a number of nation-states were added to the world

map. It is now thought that the days of colonization ended with the

departure of colonizers. However, this is a misconception as settler

colonialism is very much present in today’s world. Wolfe describes settler

colonialism “as a situation in which settler society invades native society,

tries to takes over all of it and tries to replace the natives rather than use

them as labor. It brings its own labor, tries to eliminate the natives

completely and do something else with their land where they once

were”[ CITATION Pat10 \l 1033 ]. This means that unlike other colonized nations,

indigenous people are not forced into being labor on their own lands, rather

they are forced out. Their role is to disappear and be replaced by colonizers

and enslaved labor.

 Wolfe gives examples of Australia and India to explain this

difference. In Australia, the colonizers replaced Aborigines and became

themselves Australians. Opposite to this is Indian style colonialism where

Europeans sat on top of native society, remaining a minority and dependant

on native labor. The impact on India was that come the nationalist

movements, Indians were able to throw the British out because of their

dependency on Indians. However, the aborigines and other natives were

conquered and eliminated and made into a minority, hence they never had a

chance to get rid of their colonizers the same way. Moreover, in Hawaii,

lands from natives were taken away and instead of using the natives

themselves as labor, enslaved labor was brought in. Due to this, today the

number of Asian immigrants surpasses that of native Hawaiians. Hence we

see that colonizers bring outsiders to replace natives and form a settler

society.

Hence we see that settler colonialism has been the historic reason for

replacement and dislocation of indigenous peoples from their lands. Wolfe

says that this replacement was done in two steps. The first was conquest

and elimination. Native people were killed or expelled out and their lands

were taken. During the post-contact era, the number of natives in Wintu

tribe in USA reduced from 4000 to 395. Once the population figures fall

radically, the method changes. They are now treated as the romantic dying

race. By transporting them to far off reserves, their ties with their land are
cut. For indigenous peoples, land is the center of their culture, religion etc.

denying them the land means a serious attack on their culture.

The next step is assimilation. It is mainly done under the guise of

giving the same opportunities to the indigenous peoples that colonizers had.

Missionaries are used to give them the boons of western civilization i.e. to

Christianize and civilize them. Wolfe gives example of kids being taken away

in boarding schools where they were abused. In the film In the Light of

Reverence, Florence Jones of Wintu tribe [USA] talks about being taken

away as a kid to a boarding school even though her parents were training

her to become a spiritual doctor for her tribe. Hence assimilation becomes

another form of elimination. These tactics for assimilation didn’t end. They

still continue in the world today. The lands containing the holy shrines of

Lakota tribe in USA were taken away from them and are now federally

owned under the Park Reserve. The Devil’s Tower is holy to the Lakota

people and hence they want the hikers to stay away from it, at least in the

holy month of June. However, the US government doesn’t give them any

such privileges. Moreover, the UN Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous

Peoples gives indigenous peoples certain rights to protect them from forced

assimilation. However, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have not

endorsed this declaration. Hence the indigenous peoples in these countries

do not have any protection against assimilation.

 The broader question in the program was whether invasion was

merely an event or an ongoing process. Program host Kehaulani Kauanui

mentioned that it is generally said that invasion was merely an event of the

past. Wolfe disagrees with this statement and talks about invasion being a

structure, not an event. he gives the example of former Australian Prime

Minister John Howard from whom the indigenous groups demanded an

apology on behalf of the Australian state for the stolen generations of

indigenous people throughout the 20th century. Wolfe points out that John

Howard failed to recognize that “history results from causes and

preconditions. And the cause and precondition for contemporary Australian

affluence and democracy is initial robbery, genocide and continual

elimination of aboriginal people. Hence it is very important to acknowledge

that invasion reverberates their continuing history”[ CITATION Pat10 \l 1033 ]. It

has to be acknowledged that states became powerful by grabbing indigenous

lands and their resources. An example of indigenous lands being taken away

is found in the invasion of Black Hills [USA] which belonged to the Sioux. “By

treaty, the Black Hills and Devils Tower belonged to Sioux. However, in 1874

an expedition led by General George Armstrong Custer broke the treaty,

entered the hills and found gold. The Black Hills gold rush was on. Since

then the Sioux have battled to regain title. It is the longest standing legal

battle in US history, fought from reservations far from their sacred places”

(In The Light Of Reverence). To right these wrongs, an apology isn’t enough.
Governments must negotiate with the indigenous peoples to make

reparations and recognize them as separate nations with their own law and

culture.

Another example of invasion being a continuous process, rather

than an event, is racial discrimination. Wolfe compares the situation of

indigenous peoples with that of African slaves. African people served as

enslaved labor, hence, their demand was ever on the increase. Since

Africans were a valuable property their off springs remained slaves too even

if the children were fathered by a white man. It didn’t matter what skin color

an African had, he was still a slave. Wolfe calls it the one-drop rule as “any

amount of African blood makes you a slave” [ CITATION Pat10 \l 1033 ]. The case

with indigenous peoples is totally the opposite. Colonizers were only

interested in the lands and resources of indigenous peoples and they wanted

fewer and fewer natives. Hence the role assigned to the indigenous peoples

was to disappear. Blood quantum, the rule for indigenous peoples is the

complete opposite of one-drop rule. Wolfe describes it as “almost any ab-

mixture of white blood compromises native indignity” [ CITATION Pat10 \l 1033 ]. It

classifies people as fully indigenous, half-blood etc. hence we see that

invasion doesn’t occur only through conquest. “it continues right through

society in these less violent, more genteel, more thoroughly legalized and

bureaucratic ways, but the outcome to eliminate the presence of native rival

alternatives is consistent”[ CITATION Pat10 \l 1033 ].

 Settler Colonialism hasn’t ended. It will remain an ongoing event

until the wrongs being done to indigenous peoples aren’t ended. One of the

wrongs is failure to acknowledge them as independent and sovereign

nations. Indigenous peoples are sovereign nations to whom great historic

injustices have been done. The UN passed a Declaration on the Rights of

Indigenous Peoples to promote and protect indigenous rights. However there

are serious problems with the declaration. It doesn’t provide a definition of

indigenous people which leaves a big loophole for states to ignore indigenous

rights by characterizing their indigenous populations as non-indigenous.

Furthermore, the declaration doesn’t give the right to external self-

determination i.e to form independent nation-states. This means that

indigenous peoples cannot, under any circumstances, be free of states who

have been wronging them. Moreover the declaration isn’t legally binding and

hence states cannot be forced to enforce it. These issues show us the

disregarding attitude of the global community towards indigenous peoples.

In the end, Wolfe discusses Palestine as a proof of continuous

invasion and settler colonialism. He sees the Israeli occupation of Palestinian

lands as the latest example of settler colonialism. Israel became a Jewish-

only state in somebody else’s land; “65% of all Palestinians were driven

outside of mandate Palestine”[ CITATION Pat10 \l 1033 ]. The most astonishing

factor in the creation of Israel is the support from the international

community. On November 29,1947 the UN voted to divide Palestine into

Jewish and Palestinian areas. Furthermore, Israel was created in an era

when decolonization characterized the international sentiment. UN was

created to help nations decolonize and form independent states. Yet in that

anti-colonial mood, Israel, the last settler colonial society, is created was

created “right under the noses of the world”[ CITATION Pat10 \l 1033 ] without any

significant protest from the global community. This once more shows the

world’s indifferent attitude towards settler colonialism. Wolfe describes the

situation in Palestine being on the frontier level. The aim right now is to

eliminate Palestinians through conquest. The process of assimilation hasn’t

yet begun. So we see from the ongoing conflict in Palestine that settler

colonialism is a continuous world issue.

In conclusion I’d like to say that settler colonialism is a grave issue

faced by indigenous populations since centuries. While other nations have

been decolonized and made into independent-states, the situation of

indigenous peoples remains pretty much the same. The main issue is lack of

acknowledgment of settler colonialism. People are unaware of the issue of

how natives still continue to be discriminated. Until settler colonialism is

recognized as a wrong done to sovereign indigenous peoples, there is not

much hope for reparations and a better future for indigenous peoples.