This lack of language accommodation acts to erase Indigenous identity by refusing to acknowledge it. Doing so robs Indigenous people of their rights, and sometimes, their very lives.

My grandmother, an Oceti Sakowin spiritual leader, always maintained that Natives Indigenous to the Western Hemisphere had occupied these lands for time immemorial. Even if you do not believe her and follow the current prevailing theories of Western science as to our origins, there is ample evidence showing that Natives have lived on the North and South American continents for tens of thousands of years. During the Dark Ages, the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, and before the Egyptian pyramids were being built, we were here.

Indigenous people predate borders. As the saying goes, “We didn’t cross borders; the borders crossed us.”

My own people were once considered refugees in our own lands. We traveled across the newly minted northern border of the U.S. into Canada. We were fleeing colonial violence and extreme poverty, too, just as the Indigenous peoples being held in cages by ICE are now.

Indigenous children are being subjected to neglect and abuse, and will be traumatized forever, on our watch. Others are dying. They are not foreign invaders. Their blood courses through American soil.

The Dakota War of 1862 began when the U.S. unilaterally breached treaties between it and the Dakota people. This caused widespread starvation among the Dakota, who were restricted from hunting and dependent on treaty rations under the agreement. We fought for our lives. The war culminated in the hanging of 38 of our warriors in the largest mass execution in U.S. history by order of President Abraham Lincoln. The accused also faced a language barrier, so as a consequence, they did not receive due process. They did not understand court proceedings, just as many Indigenous at our southern border do not now. According to historical documents, there was even a question as to whether those Dakota who spoke English fully understood what was happening.

After the execution, the rest of my Dakota ancestors, who are part of the Oceti Sakowin , were exiled from their Minnesota homelands. There was a bounty placed on the scalps of every Dakota adult and child. Some were imprisoned or marched to concentration camps now called reservations. Others were able to escape to Canada, where their descendants still reside.

You see, the Indigenous of the past are the Indigenous of today. We are the new ancestors, and the genocide of Indigenous people has not ended. We bear witness to it now. Indigenous are still being brutalized in their homelands and driven out. Their families are being torn apart and confined to concentration camps, just as my Oceti Sakowin ancestors were. Indigenous children are being subjected to neglect and abuse, and will be traumatized forever, on our watch. Others are dying. They are not foreign invaders. Their blood courses through American soil.