Black And Indigenouse Futures: Lessons from The Winnemucca Frontline
Lithium is not the answer..
The future of Black and Indigenous people is one of healing through the liberation of the land.
This photo document series is reflective of the awakening power that emerges from Black and Indigenous resistance movements that I have witness. This reflection takes place alongside my journey of deepening relationship with land, using philosophies of the land to build a world outside settler colonialism.
In this second Iteration of my largest body of work, I look to the lessons from the Winnemucca Indian Colony Frontline, in Winnemucca, Nevada, taking a further look into ego and trauma.
How does our ego and trauma affects us and the way we show up to resistance spaces?
How can the land help us heal and build a world outside of settler colonialism?
What is your relationship with land?
Akira | _indio__
Editor| Lorena Bally | Lorenitaliveslife
The Fight for the colony
Welcome to Settler Colonialism. The first rule of Settler Colonialism is: you do not talk about Settler Colonialism.
―Iktomi
The resistance here in the United States has been largely different from the resistances happening around the world. I live within a society that utilizes patriarchy and nationalism to justify its oppression and resource extraction of foreign lands to sustain a settler colonial (European)timeline/history on indigenous lands. After the false sense of change for Black people in the uprising of 2020 and the construction of the Enbridge pipeline in 2021, I was consumed by anger as I watched the world burn faster.
Several new frontlines were built in the Fall of 2021 after the Stop Line 3 campaign to obstruct the Enbridge pipeline construction ended. One was Pee’hee Mu’huh, which means “rotten moon” in the Paiute language, named for the massacre of Paiute ancestors in 1865. Now known as Oxsam Camp, it is obstructing lithium mining of Thacker Pass near the Nevada-Oregon border. An hour to the south, another frontline was the Winnemucca Indian Colony frontline, which centered on caring for and stopping forced evictions of elders in Winnemucca, Nevada.
I read a call for help in Winnemucca after several resident’s’ homes had been bulldozed under a corrupt tribal council. I decided to go, seeking to find my place in the liberation of the land because I could no longer continue being part of American society. I contacted the frontline, but several days after they vetted me, they stopped answering me and the frontline had gone silent on social media.
It was winter, a day after my birthday in February, I prepared to depart to my third frontline in Winnemucca, Nevada. My only experiences had been with the Stop Line 3 campaign to reference my naive expectations of this frontline.
I arrived by train to the Twin Cities after midnight to meet with allies and travel together to Winnemucca. Unfortunately, at the last minute they revealed they were still recovering from the impact of Stop Line 3 and were unable to continue. I was afraid to go alone and be dropped off at a new environment. I couldn't sleep that night thinking about the life I would be leaving behind if things were to go wrong.
Maybe it was the trauma that had been built up since the marches of 2020, or the courage to see things through, but I didn’t want to go back to the life I had. I wanted to continue finding liberation for the land and its people.
