Peoples of the Earth: Chapter Five

Imagined Communities: Marxism and the Indian Nation-State

Revolution is the extreme case of the explosion of political participation. Without this explosion there is no revolution. Samuel Huntingtoni

Indian issues are not, in the main, either leftist or rightist, although many non-indigenous activists try to co-opt Indian issues into their own agenda. Marxist dialectical materialism, in which social and political institutions progressively change their fundamental nature as economic developments transform material conditions, differs from capitalism in large part ecause of differing appreciations of the role of private property, ut these !uropean constructs are not in fact philosophical antipodes. "t the most fundamental level, the indigenous agenda is one of political and economic empowerment and of cultural sovereignty, its focus field representing to varying degrees a spiritual inheritance, an environmental reverence, as well as a struggle for sustenance. !fforts to cast native demands in the left-right dichotomy not only does a disservice to understanding the issues at hand# they fre$uently further marginali%e those who have little voice in their own la eling. &sing the leftist rhetoric of 'olivia(s !vo Morales or Mexico(s )apatistas as the prism through which all or even most indigenous activism is evaluated can lead to egregious misperceptions of Indian demands and aspirations. *urthermore, careful examination of leftist claims of progress for their countries( indigenous populations under their stewardship often contradicts the pu lic pronouncements. *or example, +ene%uela(s mercurial ,resident Hugo -have% has claimed that, under his government, the country went from eing the region(s most ac.ward on indigenous rights to a hemisphere leader. However, as +an -ott(s research has shown, +ene%uela(s Indians were already well on their way to unity and political advantage efore -have% ecame president in /001. Indigenous organi%ations and their civil society allies, she wrote, allowed them to successfully include in the /002 state constitution in "ma%ona3with 42 percent of its population 5ative "mericans the largest percentage in any +ene%uelan state3unprecedented recognition and rights, including recognition of the state as multiethnic and pluricultural. 6he Indians then went on to win important Supreme -ourt decisions in /007, /008, and /001. 'y the time -have%, who assumed the presidency in *e ruary /000, convo.ed his controversial 5ational -onstituent "ssem ly that same year, Indians representing "ma%onas drew on the .nowledge of 9atin "merican constitutional law, mo ili%ation s.ills, and increased political awareness and interest among the indigenous population developed during the state constitutional process. In other words, -have% did not li erate Indians from +ene%uela(s ac.ward stance# y the time he ecame president, +ene%uela(s indigenous peoples were already on their way to pulling the country into the twenty-first century. ii 5onetheless, the political usefulness to the new generation of regional left-wing populist politicians of 5ative "merican identity politics3including the power of victimi%ation rhetoric3can e seen in the dispute etween -have% and :ing ;uan -arlos of Spain. <uring a summit in -hile in 5ovem er =>>8, the monarch3who himself was under some pressure at home from right-wing factions who wanted him to resign in favor of his more conservative son3admonished -have%, ?hy don(t you shut up@ after the +ene%uelan accused a former Spanish ,rime Minister, ;ose Maria "%nar, of eing a ro.en-down fascist. -have%, who claims some Indian parentage, later stated that the reason for the contretemps was that the .ing could not a ide y indigenous peoples coming to power in the former Spanish colonies. I thin. he is not used to hearing so many truths together, -have% declared. 9atin "merica is changing, there is an Indian president . . . I am half Indian. ?e were left
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for many years, three hundred years of genocide, so when Indians rise up and we say the truth, it doesn(t go down well. 'ecause of that he .ind of lost patience and exploded and was aggressive towards me.iii 'y appealing to a claim of Indian ancestry, -have% appeared to successfully change the way the controversy was reported, moving the focus away from his undisputed violation of the comity typical of such international forums to sto.ing resentment a out what he portrayed as the latest iteration of a centuries-old legacy of slights. In "ugust =>>1, the Aussian media reported that -have% had upped the rhetorical ante y proposing to rename 9atin "merica Indian "merica. Spea.ing to an indigenous community in -aracas, -have% urged that the international community should call our continent Indian "merica instead of 9atin "merica, suggesting that his idea would restore historical Bustice.iv 'olivian ,resident Morales( em race of leftists *idel -astro and Hugo -have%, indigenous peoples( opposition to free trade agreements and multinational investment, and their hostility to the international an.ing community, have led to a generali%ed and fundamental mischaracteri%ation of the dynamics of *irst 5ation nationalist politics. Ironically, the lin. etween neo-Marxist populist ideology and Indian activism, while sometimes real, is ased in part on a misreading of the recent and past history of indigenous peoples. 6oday(s armed Indian movement in -hiapas, led y a Marxist nonIndian, is named after the charismatic mestizo peasant general !miliano )apata, raised in an indigenous 5ahuatl-spea.ing community, who fought and died during the Mexican Aevolution in the /0/>s. 6he )apatista movement in the /0/>s was parochial, fundamentally defensive, ac.wardloo.ing and nostalgic, with virtually no Marxist or neo-Marxist influence, wrote Cxford historian "lan :night.. ,aul *riedrich added that it was, a conservative reaction against economic and social changes that were proving detrimental to indigenous culture. v 6he influential ,eruvian Marxist intellectual ;osD -arlos MariEtegui, although he strongly defended indigenous peoples, in the /0=>s found himself em racing the most orthodox of Marxist positions in maintaining that the oppression of the Indian was a function of their class position and not their race, ethnicity, or national identity. vi More recently, when faced with demands y the growing num er of Indian students for programs that oth reflected and were relevant to their cultures, many of the maBority leftists in 'olivia(s educational institutions resisted the idea, elieving social class to e more important than ethnic identity. Indian faculty mem ers at the San "ndres &niversity who pushed for more research and academic curriculum in 5ative "merican history and culture were considered old-fashioned and nostalgic for the past.vii 'y the end of ?orld ?ar I, the 9eft reali%ed that its internationalism and perceived universal class solidarity had lost its primacy to the much more powerful sentiment of particularistic nationalism.viii &ntil the end of the -old ?ar, as ?al.er -onnor points out also was the case in the Second ?orld of !astern 'loc nations, leftist scholars in the "mericas largely accepted the official position of Marxist-9eninist governments that the application of 9eninist national policy had solved the national $uestion, leading the masses to em race proletarian internationalism. In .eeping with that view, -onnor writes that, In 6hird ?orld scholarship also, ethnic heterogeneity tended to e ignored or to e cavalierly dismissed as an ephemeral phenomenon. !ven as late as /00>, !ric ;. Ho s awm, the doyen of academic Marxism, could expansively, if wrongly, opine that nationalism was no longer a maBor vector of historical development. ix ;ennie ,urnell offers that, until recently, academia had a much more fundamental consensus that peasant re ellions are essentially economic phenomena, explica le in terms of structural transformations and class- ased interests. ,olitical identity is a non-issue in this literature . . . ,easant re ellions that are not readily characteri%ed as instrumental struggles for concrete material ends, usually ecause of their
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cultural or religious content, are often dismissed as Fmillenarian( in nature, a term used loosely and eclectically to designate proBects and participants involved as utopian or irrational.x -lass- ased theoretical approaches o scured the essential meaning of 5ative "merican protest, their distinct ways to view, appreciate and apprehend the world. ?ithin the last decade and a half, however, social scientists have egun reevaluating their own characteri%ation of rural populations as peasants driven y class imperatives, a hoary icon with roots in pre-industrial !uropean and colonial rural societies, a $uestioning that has opened up the possi ility for a more complete understanding of the emerging ethnic politics. 6his includes the impact of glo ali%ation outside the community, where great num ers of rural people in 9atin "merica were forced to loo. for safety, shelter and economic well- eing during the wrenching economic and political crises of the /01>s and /00>s. *aced with e.ing out a living in a transnational economy, where families struggle to su sist while forged to compete in a vortex of cultural differences, many encountered continuity and new meaning in ethnicity. 6hus in the whirlpool of out-migration, whether to 9atin "merican metropoles or in agri usiness and arrios of the &nited States, ethnic fellowship ta.es on additional significance, strengthened y the very yearning for the community and solidarity of ac. home.xi -ulture, not class, is .ey. Mixtec lawyer and activist *rancisco 9Gpe% 'Ercenas points to the examples of how even the most militant efforts y Indians are sustained y images of their own history in which class ta.es a ac. seat, if it is along for the ride at all. 6hese include -hilean Mapuche Indians see.ing to defend their natural resources against logging interests, 'olivian "ymara mo ili%ing to protect water from privati%ing schemes, and the !cuadorian Huechua I:ichwaJ, protesting the despoliation of the rainforest y foreign oil companies. Instead of turning to sophisticated political theories to prepare their discourses Kthese see. toL recover historical memory to ground their demands and political practices KgivingL . . . the new movements a distinctive and even sym olic touch. Indigenous peoples in Mexico recuperate the memory of !miliano )apata, the incorrupti le general of the "rmy of the South during the revolution of /0/>-/0/8, whose principal demand was the restitution of native lands usurped y the large landowners. -olom ians recuperate the program and deeds of Manuel HuintMn 9ame. "ndeans in ,erN, !cuador, and 'olivia ma.e immediate the re ellions y 6upac "maru, 6upac :atari, and 'artolina Sisa during coloni%ation, and y ?ill.a ,a lo )arate during the repu lican period. 9ocal and national heroes are present again in the struggle to guide their armies, as if they had een resting, waiting for the est time to return to the fight.xii 5ative peoples( own intellectual and spiritual elites are well aware of historical and recent neo-Marxist and even 'olivarian, hostility to their cultural agenda. !cuadorian investigator *redy Aivera +ele% has noted that the Marxist left has traditionally displaced ethno-nationalist pro lems to a second theoretical level since they would e solved in the new socialist society. In this way the paternalism of traditional elites is replaced y a class- ased paternalism in su tle revolutionary-proletariat camouflage.xiii 5onetheless radicali%ed Indian leaders such as Morales and ,eru(s Cllanta Humala3 and other non-Indians who pretend to lead indigenous peoples, such as +ene%uela(s -have% and Mexico(s self-designated su commandante3continue to spea. as if in their name. 6he legacy of left-wing antagonism to Indian causes includes memories of violence at the hands of Marxist regimes or those who sought to create them. !xamples include atrocities carried out against indigenous communities y ,eru(s Maoist Sendero 9uminoso and more recent efforts to ring 5icaragua(s Sandinista ,resident <aniel Crtega efore a civilian court on charges that he led a genocide campaign against that country(s Mis.ito, Sumo and Aama peoples during the /01>s.xiv &nder Crtega, sixty five Mis.ito and Sumo indigenous communities were urnt to the ground# seventy
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thousand Mis.itos and Sumos3one half the population3were forced into state and external refugee camps, with thousands su Bect to ar itrary arrest, Bailings and torture. Soviet helicopter gunships and Sandinista elite troops attac.ed Indian communities whose crime was see.ing to maintain their traditional ways of life. In his oo., Where White Men Fear to Tread, Indian activist Aussell Means3 an Cglala Sioux and a vocal critic of the &.S. government, someone the Los n!eles Times called the most famous "merican Indian since Sitting 'ull and -ra%y Horse3recalled traveling to 5icaragua. 6here the Sandinistas were trying to force the Indians to integrate with the rest of the country y using all the tools of traditional colonialism. Means said that he learned that the Sandinistas were trying to .eep the Indians from raising an army y systematically murdering young men. In one village Sandinista helicopters had landed KandL rounded up all oys etween the ages of twelve and sixteen, herded them into a local schoolhouse, and set it afire, urning them alive. . . . I heard the same story, with minor variations, in almost every village. In ?ounta, soldiers had clu ed the youngsters to death. In a village near Su.upin, children had een uried alive. In several other communities, they had een machinegunned. I<uring this time Ouatemalan indigenous activist Aigo erta MenchN, who later won the 5o el ,eace ,ri%e, pu lically sided with the SandinistasP "t international forums she sang their praises, contradicted Mis.ito leaders denouncing human rights violations, and lectured them on their o ligations to the antiimperialist cause, wrote anthropologist <avid Stoll. *or the enemies Aigo erta made, it was all too o vious that her first loyalty was to the Marxist International.J In negotiations with the Sandinistas Indian demands included that the Marxist government sign a formal peace treaty with oth Indian and -reole nations, and recogni%ed their territorial oundaries, and their rights to self-government and self-determination. 6he creation y the Sandinistas of 5icaragua(s autonomous regions in /018, while seen y 9Gpe% 'Ercenas as unprecedented in -entral and South "merica and Mexico, was done in order to deactivate the armed opposition, and this, over time, also effectively deactivated the indigenous movement. "nother commentator, an adviser to Mis.ito negotiators during the /01>s, pointed out that the Sandinistas used Soviet-style autonomy laws in an effort to stamp out the peoples( wishes for self-determination. I6he Sandinista operation, a reaction to a firestorm of international criticism of their treatment of indigenous peoples, egan as thousands of anti-Sandinista Indians gave up the fight, angered, as the Wall "treet #ournal reported the same year, that the -entral Intelligence "gency supported only those leaders that it could control and forced them to unite with the &.S.- ac.ed -ontra re els, who are hostile toward the Indians( traditional aspirations. . . . 6he -I" also didn(t fully recogni%e that the Indians were struggling for autonomy for their region3something that oth the Sandinistas and many -ontra leaders oppose. 6he conservative newspaper $uoted anti-Sandinista Mis.ito leader 'roo.lyn Aivera as saying, 6he -I" cow oys want us to e their little Indians.Jxv In Mexico, the $%&rcito 'apatista de Li(eraci)n *acional I)apatista "rmy of 5ational Li(eration, $'L*J re els in -hiapas ro.e into international consciousness as an +ndian phenomenon, ringing unprecedented attention from the mass media and recognition from civil society. 6he )apatistas( roots, leadership and early proposals, however, were leftist rather than indigenous-oriented. ,olitical scientist <onna 9ee +an -ott noted that the )apatistas are an anomaly among oth guerrilla organi%ations and indigenous movements, distinguishing themselves from other Indian groups y their non-5ative "merican organi%ational forms, political rhetoric, and tactics, influenced in their formative stage y revolutionary socialism and thus fundamentally incompati le with indigenous peoples( ethnic and cultural demands. +an -ott demonstrates that the )apatistas emerged at a time when the electoral credi ility of Mexico(s long-ruling ,artido Revolucionario +nstitucional IInstitutional Aevolutionary ,artyQ,R+J was at an all-time low, when a precipitous fall in international commodity prices sent agricultural prices through the floor, particularly for goods produced without irrigation on commonly held Indian lands, and when state violence against 5ative communities in -hiapas was on an upswing. " proto-)apatista movement egan in the late /08>s, when Marxist and Maoist intellectual outsiders learned the languages and organi%ed groups of Indians in agricultural cooperatives deep in the
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9acandon tropical forest where few indigenous peoples lived. 6hose Indians who Boined Su comandante Marcos and other leftists in the new settlements were largely young people from other areas in -hiapas who were prepared to rea. their ties to the cultural and ethnic communities. It wasn(t until the !)95 offensive in ;anuary, /004, when the )apatistas came to depend on the physical and moral support of the indigenous communities as uffers etween them and the Mexican army, that KtheyL fully em raced the indianista agenda and moderated the rhetoric that characteri%ed the socialist revolution. 6his, +an -ott wrote, can e demonstrated y studying oth in the !)95 official communi$uDs and the declarations of its leaders from efore the insurrection until /001. 6he group(s multiethnic composition and the Marxist ideology of its leaders, she noted, led the group to initially minimi%e ethnicity as divisive and irrelevant. "ttention paid to the five-hundredth anniversary of -hristopher -olom us( arrival to the "mericas, and press attention to the re els( Indian mem ership in the wa.e of their revolt, persuaded the )apatistas to fly the indi!enista anner with greater enthusiasm. "t the same time Mexican peasant and indigenous organi%ations not lin.ed to the re els sought to hoo. up their fortunes to the )apatistas( notoriety, while eing careful not to endorse their means. Indianist organi%ations that sent out communi$uDs supporting the -hiapas Indians expressed their solidarity with the !)95 ut roundly reBected their violent tactics, as can e seen y the words of 5ahuatl leader !usta$uio -elestino de OuerreroP ?e support all of its demands. ?e .now first hand what corruption and ro.en promises mean. 'ut the solution is not in weapons, ut in dialogue. 'oth -hiapas peasant and Indian pacifist organi%ations forged a delicate political alliance with the )apatistas, ut at the same time continued to distance themselves from the violent tactics of the re els. . . .. 6he tenuous tie, a marriage of convenience, etween the )apatistas and Mexico(s indigenous organi%ations, was increasingly strained as negotiations with the government dragged on. " peace plan supported y oth the government and the )apatistas was reBected y more than 8> Mexican Indian organi%ations as not ade$uately spelling out the relationship etween 5ative peoples and the state. "nother group of Indian organi%ations reBected the re els( modification of the term indigenous peoples to ethnic minorities, a term reBected y indigenous organi%ations in the entire "merican -ontinent ecause it is considered to e derogatory and restrictive of their rights within the framewor. of international law. . . . 6he re els had greater interest in provo.ing the creation of a national political movement rather than resolving the grave social deficit that afflicted -hiapas and that led to the re ellion. " great num er of poor indigenous families that suffered the loss of a loved one, of their goods or scarce possessions ecause of the insurrection, now turned their anger and frustration against the !)95. 5onetheless, the marriage of convenience that united the destiny of the indigenist movement with that of the re els has enefited oth sides. 6he incorporation of the Mayan Indians of -hiapas3supposedly the most at ris. and mistreated people of Mexico3in their ran.s has given the !)95 credi ility in the eyes of Mexicans and of the international community. 6he indigenist organi%ations enefited from the re ellion due to the fact that they were a le to attract a certain amount of attention to their demands and to the resolution of their old pro lems.xvi 9ess than four years after they erupted into the national and international scene, +an -ott found that the )apatistas( main contri ution to Indian groups was some increase in pu lic attention to pervasive violations of human rights in -hiapas. It was a modest harvest at est, as we shall see later on.xvii 5atividad OutiDrre%, a Mexican researcher, found the )apatista revolt lac.ing in any ideological ethnic input that would credential it as an Indian movement. It is led y non-Indians# claims that its principal spo.esman su commandant Marcos is only carrying out orders from a clandestine Indian
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committee cannot e ta.en seriously. Moreover, the poetic messages Isome call them postmodernist criti$ueJ, plans, and negotiating positions proposed y this charismatic spo.esman are more li.ely to capture the imagination of the young, ur an, educated middle sectors of society than to arouse support, identification, and trust in rural villages. OutiDrre% found that indigenous intellectuals and their ideas had een systematically left out of the de ates and negotiations of the various phases of the Indian conflict. Instead, those roles were left to a long list of non-Indian social scientists, civil servants, and political men and woman acting as advisers, spo.espeople, and negotiators. OutiDrre% $uotes a 5ahua researcher, Marcos MatMasP Myself and other colleagues have een invited to spea. y the !)95 delegation and the official delegation# in oth we noticed a lac. of grass roots leadership. . . . 6hey have done everything possi le to isolate our voices and impede the uilding of a ridge among Indian peoples. . . . K"L group of us wrote our own version of a proposal of constitutional reforms for indigenous peoples. ?hen this document was handed to Marcos, he ignored it, arguing that he already had his proposal. Indian peoples cannot e restricted to K eing represented yL a nonindigenous man. 6his cannot e. Such disregard for oth Indian intellectuals and the grass roots of indigenous communities, OutiDrre% noted, strengthens conventional wisdom in non-Indian society, that Indians lac. means to ma.e themselves heard, that they cannot articulate a convincing discourse, or3even more piercing3that they are suscepti le to manipulation. 9eftwing vanguardism, a handmaiden to manipulation, occupied a front ran. in Indian concerns a out the direction the )apatistas were headed while, as Mexican researchers "raceli 'urgete -al y Mayor and Miguel OGme% OGme% found, in the aftermath of the uprising, the state of -hiapas actually lost autonomy. xviii In !cuador, economic anthropologist +ictor 'reton Solo de )aldivar noted critically, 6he ethnici%ation of the indigenous movement has prioriti%ed culture and identity politics at the expense of the class- ased peasant agenda still very much alive in the mid-/00>s, thus hindering the formation of alliances etween indigenous groups and other sectors of society. xix Meanwhile, the elected nonIndian, left-wing populist ,resident, Aafael -orrea <elgado, who spea.s :ichwa and pu lishes his speeches in that language as well as in Spanish, consistently invo.ed indigenous rights and Indian well- eing as part of his governing agenda. 5ative leaders repeatedly complained that his emphasis on a strong central government neutrali%ed congressional oversight, co-opted Indian social movements, and reinforced anti-democratic and colonial and li eral ideologies that oppressed and erased the uni$ue histories of Indigenous nationalities that emphasi%ed control over land and natural resources. Historian Marc 'ec.er wrote that despite the leading roles of indigenous organi%ations in challenging oth neo-li eral economic policies and perceived violations of national sovereignty, once -orrea too. office their voices were increasingly marginali%ed to the sidelines in favor of state-centered actions. . . . -orrea(s personal charisma and left-populist discourse demo ili%ed the left, leaving popular movements in a worse situation than when he too. power.xx Indian identity politics in 'olivia changed the national agenda, from eing ased almost entirely on one small group(s interests Ithose of the non-Indian eliteJ to one that is3at least in part3 community- ased with attention to shared principles. 6he country(s political structure changed in ways the Marxist left was never a le to even approximate. 6raditionally, as 'olivian anthropologist Savier "l G has noted, ecause Marxist-9eninist movements in his country were mostly ur an, they used Indian names, slogans and standards in order to attract rural support. xxi 5onetheless, a month after !vo Morales( election, indigenous intellectuals attending a symposium in 9a ,a% to share perspectives on issues of identity, territory and education, openly $uestioned whether Morales would e more influenced y his "ymaran traditions or y the leftwing presence around him, such as that of -have%
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and -astro. Some spea.ers critici%ed the 9eft for using Indian movements for their own ends. xxii 6wo months later, traditional Indian leaders at another indigenous conclave in 9a ,a% recalled the 9eft(s historic hostility to cultural demands, a critical element in contemporary Indian mo ili%ations. Mexico(s left-of-center newspaper La #ornada reported thatP -uriously, many have a strong position against Marxism and its class concept. 6his can e explained ecause historically Kthe IndiansL were considered Fpeasants( and it has een difficult for the current movements to position themselves as indigenous.xxiii Some indigenous intellectuals even $uestioned the historical consistency of lining up under the 'oliviarian standard of +ene%uelan strongman -have%, who, sharing some indigenous ancestry, regularly invo.es the names of his country(s -aci$ue IchiefJ Ouaicaipuro and the Inca leader 6upac :atari in his speeches efore 5ative "merican groups. ?e disagree with the 'olivar idea, noted ,a lo Mamani, the head of the sociology department at the &niversidad de !l "lto, 'olivia. 6he 9i erator sought through the decrees of 6ruBillo and -u%co to ta.e away the Indians( communal lands and forced them to e individual private holders, Mamani said, which dealt them a serious low from which many never recovered.xxiv <istrust of the 9atin "merican 9eft was also much in evidence in the remar.s of "rgentine Mapuche activist 5ilo -ayu$ueo, who complained in late /01/, that leftist political parties wereP not willing to recogni%e the Indian people as eing oppressed# they Bust see them as another social category. . . . Some of my rothers, some of the leaders, say that this attitude of the left is a ne- form of $uropean colonization. Socialism is a !uropean . . . concept ecause socialists want to replace the Indian communes that exist in South "merica with socialist organi%ations. So it.s a sociall/ disruptive process (ecause the/ -ant to destro/ the or!anization that exists amon! the +ndian people. 6hese communes, or a/llus, exist in all the "ndean countries# they are already collective, and they don(t need to ecome socialist. xxv IItalics added.J 6he instrumentality of the 9eft in dealing with Indians could also e seen in the role played y the -olom ian guerrilla group, the M-/0, which roughly paralleled Marxist guerrilla activity in Ouatemala. -onsciousness raising activities among Indians left the peasant communities dangerously and perhaps deli erately exposed to military repression. -ayu$ueo wrote that, 6he pro lem is that M-/0 is trying to gain influence with the Indians, and what they(ve done is gone into Kthe -auca valleyL and .illed various landlords who have een stealing land from the Indians. . . . ?hat happens is that then the government comes in and they .ill the Indians. 9eft-wing guerrillas in the highlands of Ouatemala, where indigenous peoples faced a &.S.-supported scorched-earth counterinsurgency campaign, also used such tactics, to disastrous effect as we will see later.xxvi 6he experience of 5ative "mericans with leftwing activists in the &nited States, who also find in the plight of Indians a useful metaphor and tool for their own causes, is relevant here. *or example, "merican Indian Movement I"IMJ leader Aussell Means, descri ed y the Washin!ton ,ost as one of the iggest, addest, meanest, angriest, most famous "merican Indian activists of the late twentieth century, tells a revealing story from the time the "IM carried out a seventy-one-day armed siege in /082 at the hamlet of ?ounded :nee, historic site of the last massacre of the Indian wars, at the ,ine Aidge 9a.ota Sioux reservation. Impassioned, idealistic "IM activists from more than seventy five Indian nations converged on the spot, issuing a series of demands that included the recognition of outstanding 9a.ota treaty rights. "rrested y federal authorities, Means was imprisoned and see.ing his freedom at the time when a friend of his overheard one of Means( lawyers, a leftist, say the longer I stayed in Bail, the etter it would e for everyone. . . . He elieved that if I were "IM(s martyr, everyone would rally around, ma.ing it easier for us to raise money, and simpler to point out the
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federal government(s continued oppression. More roadly, surveying the experience of tri al peoples under Marxist regimes in the Soviet &nion, -hina and +ietnam, Means noted that, in theory and practice Marxism demands that non-!uropean peoples give up their values, their traditions, their cultural existence altogether. Marxism, he concluded, is as alien to my culture as capitalism and -hristianity are.xxvii Ingrid ?ashinawato., a founder of the Indigenous ?omen(s 5etwor. and an award-winning lecturer from the &.S. Menominee tri e in ?isconsin, was one of three humanitarian wor.ers murdered in /000 y the -olom ian Aevolutionary "rmed *orces I*"A-J in a +ene%uelan field near the -olom ia order. 6he trio was on a mission to help -olom ia(s &wa tri e esta lish a cultural education system in order to continue its traditional way of life. "ccording to one account, perhaps summari%ing the innocence of some 5ative "merican activists attracted to left-wing promises of social Bustice, "merican Indians now admit that they made maBor miscalculations in their analysis of the *"A- during those eight days when ?ashinawato. was held captive. ?e operated from the point of view3hey, we(re Indians. +n!rid had studied in 0avana, she spo.e Spanish and she had wor.ed with Indian people all over. ?e thought it should e C:, said "lex !wen of the Solidarity *oundation, a 5ew Tor. Indian philanthropic group. We didn.t understand that this !roup -as different.xxviii IItalics added.J

. Huntington, ,olitical 1rder in 2han!in! "ocieties, p. =77. . Statement su mitted y the author to the ?estern Hemisphere Su committee of the House -ommittee on *oreign "ffairs, *e ruary =, /004, Federal 3ocument 2learin! 0ouse 2on!ressional Testimon/ # a useful picture of the disconnect etween leftist groups and ideology and the 5ative "merican agenda in the &nited States during the tur ulent /07>s can e found in Shorris, The 3eath of the 4reat "pirit, particularly chapters 1, -ra%y Horse is "live in San *rancisco, and //, ?elcome to the ,roletariat.# +an -ott, "ndean Indigenous Movements and -onstitutional 6ransformationP +ene%uela in -omparative ,erspective, Latin merican ,erspectives, +ol. 2>, no. /, Indigenous 6ransformational Movements in -ontemporary 9atin "merica, ;anuary =>>2, pp. R=-R2. iii . Spain(s .ing can(t handle Indians in power, says -have%, Reuters, 5ovem er =/, =>>8. iv . -have% proposes renaming 9atin "merica to Indian "merica, R+ *ovosti, "ugust /=, =>>1 httpPQQen.rian.ruQworldQ=>>1>1/=Q//R087178.html. v . :night, The Mexican Revolution, op. cit., p. 2/># *riedrich, !rarian Revolt in a Mexican 5illa!e, p. R2. vi . Marc 'ec.er, MariEtegui, op. cit., p. 4R>. vii . 'ollag, 'olivia(s Indian MaBority Ooes to -ollege, op. cit. viii . "ndrei S. Mar.ovits, 6he !uropean and "merican 9eft since /04R, 3issent, ?inter =>>R, +ol. R=, Issue /. ix . -onnor, $thnonationalism, op. cit, p. 71# Ho s awm, *ations and *ationalism since 6789, p. /72. x . ,urnell, ,opular Movements and "tate Formation in Revolutionar/ Mexico: The !raristas and 2risteros of Michoacan , p. /7. xi . See, for example, Michael :earney, Reconceptualizin! the ,easantr/, op. cit., especially -hapter /4, -lass and Identity,P 6he ;uBitsu of <omination and Aesistance in Caxacalifornia. xii . 9Gpe% 'Ercenas, Indigenous Movements in the "mericas, op. cit. xiii . Aivera +ele%, 9os indigenismos en !cuadorP de paternalismos y otras representaciones, merica Latina 0o/, ;ulio, /001, vol. /0, &niversidad de Salamanca, pp. 7/-R0. xiv . 6im Aodgers, " tale of genocide in a year of politics, Miami 0erald, ;une /0, =>>7# on Crtega(s potential pending date with the Bustice system, see alsoP ;ohn -orry, Cn /2, Sandinistas vs. Mis.itos, The *e- ;or< Times, ;uly =0, /017# Crtega "cusado de Oenocidio -ontra Mis.itos, $F$ "panish *e-s !enc/, ;une 1, =>>7. xv . 'ernard 5ietschmann, The =n<no-n War> The Mis<ito *ation, *icara!ua and the =nited "tates , pp. 7=-7R# Aoger Miranda and ?illiam Aatliff, The 2ivil War in *icara!ua, pp. =R2-=R4# Means and Marvin ;. ?olf, Where White Men Fear to Tread: The uto(io!raph/ of Russell Means, pp. 471-470# <avid Stoll, Ri!o(erta Mench? and the "tor/ of ll ,oor 4uatemalans , p. =/4# 9Gpe% 'Ercenas, Indigenous Movements in the "mericas, op. cit.# 5icaragua(s indigenous peoples were the first to em race armed re ellion against Sandinista rule, their num ers swelling to more than />>,>>> y /012 and offering, as The Wall "treet #ournal noted, the most promising anti-Sandinista front. In *rederic. :empe and -lifford :rauss, *lawed "pproach# &.S. ,olicy on Indians in 5icaragua <amages "nti-Sandinista !ffort, March =, /018. xvi . +an -ott, Matrimonio de -onveniencia, op. cit. xvii . +an -ott, op. cit. xviii . OutMerre%, *ationalist M/ths and $thnic +dentities: +ndi!enous +ntellectuals and the Mexican "tate , pp. /0R-/08# "raceli 'urgete -al y Mayor and Miguel OGme% OGme%, Multiculturalismo y go ierno permitido en San ;uan -ancuc, -hiapasP tensiones intracomunitarias por el reconocimiento de Fautoridades tradicionales,( in Sochitl 9eyva, et. al. I!ds.J, 4o(ernar @enA la diversidad> experiencias indB!enas desde m&rica Latina. 0acBa la investi!aci)n de coCla(or , pp. 27=-277. xix . +ictor 'reton Solo de )aldivar, *rom "grarian Aeform to !thnodevelopment in the Highlands of !cuador, #ournal of !rarian 2han!e 8, no. 4, Ccto er =>>1, cited in 'ec.er, !cuadorP Indigenous Struggles and the "m iguities of State ,ower, op. cit., p. 4/. xx . 'ec.er, !cuadorP Indigenous Struggles and the "m iguities of State ,ower, op. cit., pp. />, =2, =R, =7, R/, R4. xxi . See "l G, "nd from :ataristas to M5Aistas@, 6he Surprising and 'old "lliance 'etween "ymaras and 5eoli erals in 'olivia, in <onna 9ee +an -ott, I!d.J, +ndi!enous ,eoples and 3emocrac/ in Latin merica, pp. RR31=. xxii . 9isa Oarrigues, Morales( victory rings indigenous leaders to 'olivia, +ndian 2ountr/ Toda/, *e ruary />, =>>7. xxiii . Magdalena Oome%, 'oliviaP te$uio del pensamiento, La #ornada, March =1, =>>7. xxiv . Mamani, 9as estrategias del poder indMgena en 'olivia, Re(ellion, "pril =4, =>>7. xxv . Interview with 5ilo -ayu$ueo, Latin merican ,erspectives, +ol. 0, 5o. =, Minorities in the "mericas, Spring /01=, pp. />/, />2-/>4. xxvi . -ayu$ueo, op. cit, p. />7. xxvii . Means and Marvin ;. ?olf, Where White Men Fear to Tread, op. cit., pp. =0>-=0/, RR>-RR/, RR4. xxviii . "na "rana, Murder in -olom iaP "merican Indians see. to avenge the murder of one of their leaders y leftist re els, "alon, <ecem er /4, /000.
ii