This week has brought us to another recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day – conversely stated, to another lamentation of the wave of undocumented, oppressive immigration precipitated by one Christopher Columbus. It occurs to me that putting the anti-immigrant attack in this country under the lens of European migration into (read invasion of) this country allows us to see why, among many other reasons, such an attack is foolish and arrogant. If we examine the history of indigenous (i.e., “Native American,” “American Indian,” “First Nations,” etc.) folk in this country, the hypocrisy of the current anti-immigrant xenophobia becomes glaringly evident.

One must, to make a grave understatement, consider Columbus, the crews with him, and many of the people that followed him immigrants of highly questionably character and purpose—judging by what they did to the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere. If, as today’s anti-immigrant ranting would have us believe, good is “legal” and bad is “illegal,” then Columbus and his ilk should obviously be considered illegal immigrants who decimated whole societies through the evil of their attacks. Yet I do not hear, from FAIR, the Minutemen, the Community Watchdog Project, or other anti-immigrant groups, any outcry against the oppressive, illegal imperialism and colonialism enacted against the indigenous nations of this hemisphere. Hmmmm—I wonder why?

Could it be something to do with the fact that the people who lived on this land first were not what would later come to be known as “white?” Is it due to the sense of entitlement and white privilege that drives today’s anti-immigrant hatemongers, making them believe that their nativist exclusionary worldview is somehow justified, even after they’ve inherited a land stolen by their immigrant ancestors? Suppose the indigenous people of this country, based on the suffering they’ve endured, had the opportunity to exclude the descendants of white people from enjoying the fruits of this land and this nation—just as the anti-immigrant movement is attacking the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship. I dare say there would be quite the resistance to such.

I don’t see anti-immigrant groups advocating for indigenous rights, nor do I hear in their arguments any recognition of how various aspects of their hate efforts are detrimental to indigenous communities. As Marta Donayre reports:

Yes, European undocumented immigrants devastated the way of life of Native Americans. First Nation peoples, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, had their lands, dignity and history stolen by the newcomers.

Bill Means, a member of the Indian Treaty Council went farther and called the proposed fence another “Berlin Wall” that would violate federal laws such as the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act and American Indian Religious Freedom Act.

The current proposal for a wall, as well as the need for Indigenous people to migrate to the United States, have one thing in common: they result from the continuous disregard and disrespect of Natives since the European colonization. (“Listen to the Native Americans on Immigration,” Marta Donayre, New America Media Oct 19, 2006)

A group of leaders from 19 indigenous nations, while gathered in 2007 to examine border issues, stated quite clearly:

We…recognize that many of our inherent, sacred and fundamental human rights, including our cultural rights and freedom of religion, self-determination and sovereignty, environmental integrity, land and water rights, bio-diversity of our homelands, equal protection under the law…among others, are being violated by current border and “immigration” policies of various settler governments.

Indeed, many of the immigrants to this country are indigenous themselves. Thus, much of the anti-immigrant attack is directed against those who are already a part of the first peoples of this hemisphere. How arrogant of the xenophobes to be in someone else’s side of the world and high-handedly presume just who should and should not be our neighbor!

The history of this so-called “Columbus Day” and that of indigenous people generally, is a reminder for anti-immigrant xenophobes to check themselves on their hypocrisy. On this land, stolen from others, how dare they assume the right to regulate which groups of people are worthy to be here?