On a clear October Monday in Lawrence, Kansas, the streets of downtown were filled with nearly 200 people protesting the celebration of Columbus Day. Most of the marchers were students of Haskell Indian Nation University, the only 4 year native college in the nation.
Initially founded as a boarding school for kidnapped native youth, the school served in a broad campaign bu the U.S. Government to break native youth of cultural and traditional beliefs and values in favor of embracing whiteness and white culture.
Though still run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the school has become a place for native youth from across the country to discover a shared cultural identity, and in recent months, has become a hotbead of anti-colonialist organizing within the Midwest.
The march on October 8 was a product of the organizing and effort of several Haskell related clubs and organizations that have demanded that the celebration of Columbus Day ends, and is instead replaced by the celebration of "Indigenous Peoples Day", a celebration already practiced in parts of California and the entirety of South Dakota.
Spearheaded by Haskell's American Indian Studies (AIS) club, the march was also actively supported by other local social justice organizations, including the Kansas Mutual Aid anarchist collective and the Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice.
The day started with a rally in South Park, with speakers that included elders and native leaders, Haskell faculty and students, and key organizers within the local native community.
After the gathering in South Park, the streets became alive with with sign, banners, chants and drums. The march proceeded down the length of the downtown economic corridor, along Massachusetts Street to chants of “We will never go away, this is Indigenous Peoples Day” and “Fight imperialism, fight genocide, no more Columbus Day.”
The march was escorted by police officers and agents from the Department of Justice. Police Chief Ron Olin, a long time anti-leftist that teaches counter-terrorism courses at the local University of Kansas was on hand to observe the march as well as several undercover police officers. They included Detective Warren Burkett, a local police officer that has been admittedly assigned to collect information on local anarchists, anti-imperialists, and other radicals. Obviously, the march and related events were taken very seriously by law enforcement at the local and even national level.
Haskell senior Jimmy Beason, local anti-colonialist organizer, said of the event, “It’s a time for celebration. We’re still here, we’re still resisting.”
The day’s events concluded at Haskell, where participants took part in “teach-ins”, film showings, presentations, a potluck and discussions concerning the demonstration and the march.
The march and related events had three specific goals:
To bring enlightenment to the atrocities of Columbus, not the storybook version mainstream education teaches
To educate the public that the government is constantly trying to negate the responsibility it has toward Native peoples
To work toward a permanent change in Lawrence from Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day
Nearly a week before the march, members of the AIS club had presented a proposal to the Lawrence City Commission to proclaim Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples Day. The City Commission denied all accountability to the native community by ignoring the request and failing to take any action. Mayor Sue Hack commented, "I think you are exactly right about the history, but our policy has been to not use proclamations to make a political stand or do something that the state should change.”
This statement came despite Mayor Hack herself signing over a dozen proclamations about the names of days and weeks to be celebrated in Lawrence, including a proclamation signed by her to proclaim Tuesday May 15, 2007 as "Peace Officer's Memorial Day.
The name change move wouldn't have been unprecedented. In 1992, the city declared it American Indian Day, but the tradition didn’t stick. The move is less likely to occur today, at a time when the City Commission is dominated by pro-development candidates representing local developers and their interests.
The march and other recent events illustrate a new trend within the radical movements in Lawrence, a notable alliance growing between the mostly white working class anarchist movement and the native decolonization movement. For the past months, the local movements have co-hosted events, met together frequently, and offered each other much needed support on programs and initiatives being organized locally.
As the lines in the sand are drawn even more clear between those in power and those struggling for dignity and survival in Lawrence, the work of organizers in the local native community as well as the alliance and overlap now being fostered between the native and anarchist movements will continue to grow and become more potent.
This movement of movements is not likely to recede until self determination, dignity, and liberty come to all peoples.
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