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JOHN,
Today is Indigenous Peoples’ Day!
Native groups in my congressional district are coming together today, for the first powwow in downtown Detroit in 30 years.
A local Indigenous leader who works with the North American Indian Association of Detroit said: “This is an opportunity for us to celebrate who we are and come together like we used to and invite the public to come…. This is an opportunity for people who don’t know about the Native cultures to engage with us and disregard negative stereotypes.”
(photo credit: North American Indian Association of Detroit)
One of the elected officials I’ve endorsed is Detroit City Councilwoman Gabriela Santiago-Romero. She helped coordinate the event and said: “Before Detroit was “Detroit,” it was Waawiyaataanong. Detroit is on quite literally the ancestral and contemporary homeland of the Anishinaabe, or the Three Fires Confederacy. It’s important that we acknowledge this truth…” I agree!
Today is a reminder to honor the original stewards of this land, who are still here celebrating their cultures and fighting for justice.
I’ve worked alongside Indigenous leaders to protect our lands and waters, taking on corporate polluters and demanding to shut down dangerous pipelines like Line 3 and Line 5.
As part of legislation to fund community projects, I secured $1.5 million in federal funding for a local Native healthcare provider: American Indian Health and Family Services of Southeastern Michigan.1 (The group also helped put on today’s powwow, and regularly hosts powwows in Detroit—just not downtown.)
Supporting Native health organizations is especially important right now, as Trump and Republicans cut and freeze funding for healthcare.
The federal government has a constitutional responsibility to honor Tribes’ sovereignty, and an obligation to uphold Tribes’ treaty rights. As laid out in treaties that the government coerced Tribes into signing when violently stealing Native lands, the U.S. government owes Native people healthcare, food, and other resources.
Trump and Republicans have abdicated their duties to Tribes, through opening up our public lands to corporate polluters without respecting Tribal consultation or co-management, and cutting essential government services.
For example, Republicans’ Big Ugly Bill moved to kick families off nutrition assistance and kick 17 million Americans off their healthcare. Nearly 2 million Indigenous people in the U.S. use Medicaid, which is an important supplement to the always-underfunded Indian Health Service.
This itself is a violation of the federal government’s responsibilities to ensure Indigenous people have adequate food distribution and healthcare.
On top of that, Republicans have frozen federal funding, shut down the government, and jeopardized essential Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits. And they just introduced legislation to repeal the ACA altogether. In my district alone, 33,000 people would see their health costs soar if Republicans let ACA tax credits expire.
I will keep fighting to reverse the extreme Medicaid cuts, protect Medicare and SNAP, and renew the Affordable Care Act tax credits.
I’ll keep speaking up alongside everyday people to demand a government that honors everyone’s rights, including Indigenous peoples’ treaty rights and right to sovereignty.
Trump’s trying to suppress U.S. history, including Native history. This has real impacts on Natives living here now, who disproportionately experience health problems, poverty, and police violence. To counter erasure, we can learn more and spread the word about whose lands we live on.
To find out more about Tribes near you, check out https://native-land.ca. You can click on the names of Tribes in your area to see links for more information.
If you’re Indigenous to this land or to other lands, happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day, JOHN!
In solidarity,
Rashida
1 Check out more about American Indian Health and Family Services of Southeastern Michigan at their website. They’re doing incredible work in my community!
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