Our chapter is engaged with coalition partners to stop the continued pollution and disempowerment of Little Earth and East Phillips residents. Entering this fight means directly confronting the history of colonialism that has been the rule for centuries, as well as recognizing the history of indigenous resistance to the ruling class. This land acknowledgement was read at the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) and Educational Support Professionals (ESP) rally against the demolition of the Roof Depot to center us in this moment.
We acknowledge we are holding this meeting on land stolen from the Santee Dakota and Anishinaabe people through brutal military campaigns by the US government and State of Minnesota. Those government entities attempted to exterminate the Dakota and Anishinaabe through destruction of language, culture, family and murder. Despite these efforts they remain unbroken. We want to acknowledge our brother Leonard Pelletier who has been imprisoned by the US government for 50 years for daring to stand against 531 years of genocide and theft and we urge President Biden to immediately release him so that he may rejoin his family and all of us as we struggle to create an new world.
We join with the Dakota and Anishinaabe as relatives, comrades, brothers, sisters and siblings in a fight to save our planet, to return the Earth to a garden planet. This means land and resources for indigenous people to thrive and not just survive. It means recognizing all human beings, not as vessels for creating profits for the wealthy few, but as divine creations that can create a new world. It means living in harmony with the Earth and its creatures rather than carrying out rapacious policies that amount to a death sentence for our planet and its people.
Today we recognize and solidarize with the fight of Little Earth and the people of East Phillips to defend the land, to stop the demolition of the Roof Depot and to create a beautiful alternative to pollution and death with an urban farm complex. We are not beaten. We are just beginning.
By Kip H