Move to Amend honors Indigenous Peoples Day, which recognizes Native people as the first inhabitants of the Americas -- including the lands that later became the United States of America.
To date, 14 states— Alabama, Alaska, Hawai'i, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wisconsin—and the District of Columbia, more than 130 cities, and a growing numbers of school districts celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day in place of Columbus Day. We love to see it!
Indigenous people -- like Black people, women and poor people -- were not who the founders had in mind when they wrote "We the People." Our Declaration of Independence -- that we are taught to believe is a fundamentally good instrument -- refers to Indigenous people as "savages." The racism is baked right into our foundation.
These things matter.
And it's why we have always believed that if we are to ever have genuine democracy in this country, we must be critical and honest about our founding documents. We must be able to appraise them objectively, cutting through a lifetime of indoctrination that tells us that we aren't allowed to question these "God-given" ancient papers. We must be able to ask ourselves: can we really expect to have genuine justice, reconciliation and democracy if these are the documents that continue to guide our nation's justice system, and general ethos?
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We also want to challenge people to engage in visionary thought exercises, like: what would it look like to have a People's Constitution?
What would that process look like -- if it's led by Indigenous people, Black people, Latinos, women, LGBTQ, tenants, immigrants, people with disabilities, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, unhoused people -- in other words, the 96% who were never supposed to be part of "We the People."
If this sounds interesting to you, we encourage you to join us later this month, for a virtual People's Movement Assembly:
"Toward a People's Constitution"
October 24-25
**This is not a space to discuss strategy or whether we should rewrite our Constitution -- rather, it is a space to imagine what a democratic constitution could look like, using a process we've used for years that is participatory, visionary and powerful.
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Before we go -- we hope you find ways to observe the holiday in an enriching way. Some ideas:
- watch a documentary about Indigenous history
- read/order a book like "An Indigenous People's History of the United States" (through an indy bookseller if you can!)
- plant something local
- research the Tribe who inhabited the land you live on before it was colonized (and learning to pronounce their name[s])
Land Back. Water is Life. Honor the Treaties. Move to Amend stands with Indigenous People in the United States and worldwide against racism, colonialism and corporate rule.
In Solidarity,
Milly, Kaitlin, Shelly, Alfonso, Daniel, Leila, Jason, Tara, George, Joni, Greg, Jessica, Keyan
P.S. Please support our work! Move to Amend can't lead the fight to end corporate personhood without you, please make a donation to keep us going strong!
