thesis: The struggle over the Dakota Access Pipeline emphasizes a longstanding history of colonialism and demonstrates threats to environmental justice.
Struggles to overcome colonialism and exploitation characterize the history of many indigenous populations, such as the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. In his essay, Kyle Powys Whyte analyzes the impacts of colonialism in relation to the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy and defines colonialism as “a “complex social process in which at least one society seeks to move permanently onto the terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial places lived in by one or more other societies who already derive economic vitality, cultural flourishing, and political self-determination from the relationships they have established …show more content…
Colonialism is firstly defined by one society seeking to move permanently onto the terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial places lived in by another society. When one society moves onto the land of another, they have the intentions of utilizing that foreign land and those foreign resources for their own economic, political, or social endeavors. A direct example of a historical event that deals with the exploitation of resources involves the Spanish colonization efforts of the Philippines in the sixteenth century. The Spanish took advantage of the surplus and durability of timber such as molave, lanang, and laguan in order to generate a monopoly on Galleon shipbuilding (McCarty,124). They also utilized the local Indio population’s superior “knowledge and skill in ship design” (123). A similar form of exploitation can also be seen through in the debate over the DAPL. The US government is attempting to “to move permanently onto the terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial places lived by” the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. This indigenous group is being exploited in the exact same way the Indios of the …show more content…
This was the case for the indigenous Haitian populations who were originally under French colonial rule. Napoleon Bonaparte opened a speech to his French people with “Whatever your origin, your color, you are all Frenchmen; you are all free and all equal before God and before men” (McCarty, 206). While Haitians considered themselves “frenchmen” as well as “free and equal before God,” Napoleon Bonaparte thought otherwise. “France would [eventually] deprive [them]…of the most precious of [their] possessions…liberty” (207). The Haitians “deserved the favors of liberty, by [their] indissoluble attachment to the mother country” (207). They deserved to be treated as an equal individual in the French nation, but in turn, were denied these liberties due to the colonization of the French. This example brings into question what it means to be sovereign or uphold sovereignty. In the case of the Haitians, this sovereignty was falsified. In the case of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, a notion of sovereignty was also falsified. In an interview with an opponent of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, an individual voices her opinions about what sovereignty means to them in our modern society. She believes it is “an imagination [the
Struggles to overcome colonialism and exploitation characterize the history of many indigenous populations, such as the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. In his essay, Kyle Powys Whyte analyzes the impacts of colonialism in relation to the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy and defines colonialism as “a “complex social process in which at least one society seeks to move permanently onto the terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial places lived in by one or more other societies who already derive economic vitality, cultural flourishing, and political self-determination from the relationships they have established …show more content…
Colonialism is firstly defined by one society seeking to move permanently onto the terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial places lived in by another society. When one society moves onto the land of another, they have the intentions of utilizing that foreign land and those foreign resources for their own economic, political, or social endeavors. A direct example of a historical event that deals with the exploitation of resources involves the Spanish colonization efforts of the Philippines in the sixteenth century. The Spanish took advantage of the surplus and durability of timber such as molave, lanang, and laguan in order to generate a monopoly on Galleon shipbuilding (McCarty,124). They also utilized the local Indio population’s superior “knowledge and skill in ship design” (123). A similar form of exploitation can also be seen through in the debate over the DAPL. The US government is attempting to “to move permanently onto the terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial places lived by” the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. This indigenous group is being exploited in the exact same way the Indios of the …show more content…
This was the case for the indigenous Haitian populations who were originally under French colonial rule. Napoleon Bonaparte opened a speech to his French people with “Whatever your origin, your color, you are all Frenchmen; you are all free and all equal before God and before men” (McCarty, 206). While Haitians considered themselves “frenchmen” as well as “free and equal before God,” Napoleon Bonaparte thought otherwise. “France would [eventually] deprive [them]…of the most precious of [their] possessions…liberty” (207). The Haitians “deserved the favors of liberty, by [their] indissoluble attachment to the mother country” (207). They deserved to be treated as an equal individual in the French nation, but in turn, were denied these liberties due to the colonization of the French. This example brings into question what it means to be sovereign or uphold sovereignty. In the case of the Haitians, this sovereignty was falsified. In the case of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, a notion of sovereignty was also falsified. In an interview with an opponent of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, an individual voices her opinions about what sovereignty means to them in our modern society. She believes it is “an imagination [the