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Basic Ideas And Philosophy
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Basic Ideas And PhilosophyChurchill’s most adamant stances--and most useful philosophical viewpoints--come in such books as STRUGGLE FOR THE LAND and INDIANS ARE US?, where he presents the case for a self-determining and self-governing Native North America. In these books Churchill argues that the United States has no actual legal right to occupy the territory it does. Churchill draws on history to argue that, after the revolutionary war, the United States was an international pariah, shunned economically by other countries. Thus, the United States needed to do two things: 1) Acquire its own economic wealth so as to attain self-sufficiency, and 2) maintain the appearance of compliance with international law while it was doing so, to avoid further alienating potential allies among other countries. Churchill posits that then-Chief-Justice John Marshall “inverted” international law, custom, and convention, by finding that the Doctrine of Discovery imparted “preeminent title” over the Americas to the European settlers. Through a series of opinions, Churchill says, Marshall declared the new lands “effectively vacant,” though the Native Americans were indisputably occupying those lands. Through “convoluted and falsely premised reasoning,” according to Churchill, Marshall established the somewhat paradoxical policy that “Indian nations were entitled to keep their land, but only so long as the intrinsically superior US agreed to their doing so.” Churchill also documents situations where he feels that the US has violated the principles set up in international law at Nuremberg. For instance, he discusses the case of Julius Streicher, a nazi who was condemned to death not for murder, but for running a magazine that published inflammatory caricatures of Jews. Streicher was found to have contributed to the dehumanization of Jewish people through his publications. Churchill juxtaposes these findings against 1) the US’s record of genocide against Native Americans through land policies, bounty policies, etc., and 2) the caricatures of Native Americans throughout history and contemporary culture. He places one of the nazi caricatures immediately opposite the Cleveland Indians’ mascot, Chief Wahoo, and lets the striking similarity speak for itself. Churchill also points out the feasibility of returning lands to their original owners. He notes that most of the land initially taken from Native Americans is not held by private individuals, but by the government or corporations. He also claims that 2/3 of the total land mass could still reside in the hands of non-natives. As an activist for many progressive causes, he is careful to point out the benefits this could have for other progressive causes, such as pacifism. Efforts to stop US hegemony and militarism, for instance, would be greatly advanced by the weakening of US military might that returning the land would represent. Churchill is also concerned with all manner of social issues related to the condition of Native peoples. He writes extensively on what he calls “radioactive colonialism”; that is, the tendency of the US federal government to use resources it finds on Native reservations while leaving the hazards of those resources for those who get no benefit from them. He notes that one hundred percent of US uranium reserves were obtained from reservation lands, but that the government admitted in 1991 that, since the 50s, it had been dumping wastes from these products at 2,000 times a level deemed “safe.” Churchill is suspicious of many other “revolutionary” agendas advanced by radical groups in the United States. He deals with the subject at length in MARXISM AND NATIVE AMERICANS, but refers to it elsewhere in many other places. He opines that any revolution which still allowed the continuance of “colonialism”--non-Native occupation of traditional Native lands--would merely be a continuance of the oppression which existed before, merely in another form. By contrast, Churchill argues that the realization of the Native land struggle would pave the way for many liberatory agendas, such as the elimination of sexism, racism, and discrimination against homosexuals. Churchill, as this should show, is concerned with many of the same issues progressives axe in terms of inequalities, class disparity, and discriminatory practices. He merely traces all these back to a common root: the colonial ideology which has been in place since Columbus. He argues that land rights and the recognition of such are a necessary precondition for the success of all these other transformative movements. Application To DebateChurchill’s application to debate comes on a few levels. On any topic where issues of self-determination are prevalent, Churchill can be counted on to defend those values. Understandably, the value of self-determination is what he hopes will eventually assist in the liberation of the land he so hopes for. Churchill is a staunch advocate of related values, such as localized democracy and direct self-reliance for communities. Churchill also provides debaters with excellent insight to multiculturalism. Not only will he defend the Native American worldview, and the ecological and social insights it can bring to virtually any other culture, but he will passionately argue that lack of multicultural respect can have genocidal consequences. His savage indictments of sports mascots are only one example. Churchill also points out how nazi ideologies were, in some respects, based on the same “Manifest Destiny” policies that helped massacre and drive from their homes countless Native peoples in North America. This kind of historical analysis and documented evidence is convincing in any debate on cultural issues. Churchill is also useful against any type of “radical” philosophy which leaves the native peoples in the same position the status quo holds for them. According to Churchill, to ignore the sufferings of the Native Americans is to commit the same sin of oppression that the dominant paradigm does, and to gloss over the insights that Native Americans can bring to matters ecological, spiritual, and social is a risk we take at our peril. He indicts certain socialists, anarchists, communists, feminists, and progressive activists of all shapes and sizes on this point. Finally, Churchill’s attack on New Age spiritualities and specifically the “Men’s Movement” led by Robert Bly is of particular venom. Churchill’s assault comes down specifically on Bly and his ilk, but is directed more generally (and usefully against) any philosophy which co-opts elements of native traditions while being unconcerned with the fate of actual Native Americans. Churchill condemns these “fake shamans” and declares that such practices are sacred to Native Americans, and must not be allowed to fall into the hands of individuals using them to make money, or who will corrupt them in any way. 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