Illegal Immigration

My friend posted this comment on Facebook: "I'd like to remind everyone that unless your heritage is Native American, you too are an illegal immigrant to a country."

My initial reaction to this was, wait a minute, I'm not illegal, I was born here, and my family went through Ellis Island, filled out their paperwork, they're totally leg--

Wait another minute. She's right.

Here was my response: "The treaties that were signed by members of the United States Army and leaders of American Indian nations were reneged, The United States did not honor their legally binding contracts and therefore, all land upon which people migrated that was relinquished as a result of these treaties is illegally acquired land. It was stolen. Period. Therefore, immigrants who live on stolen land are living on that land in direct opposition to the terms of the treaties. They are illegal immigrants, just not in modern terms. (I am an illegal immigrant as well, and I have not forgotten.)"

This led me to wonder if we as "Americans" shouldn't have a more humble view of our immigration laws. I mean, if you think about it, this new horde of "American" marauders comes in, kills off all the indigenous people, rapes the land, and then has the audacity to chastise people for coming in and using its resources and living in its cities?

Not to get Christian here, but the Gospel of Matthew has something to say about this, the thing about the waiting to tell your brother about the speck in his eye until you've figured out how to dislodge the splintery log that's in your own.

Hey America, you want Immigration Reform? How about let's start by reforming our policies (or the lack thereof) towards indigenous people, how about let's go back and try to fix the deplorable way we've handled every Indian treaty we ever signed?

Before we continue expounding on the ways we need to "deal" with our immigration "problem," let's, for the first time, REALLY deal with our "Indian Problem," once and for all. Let's do a real bit of penance here. Let's cordon off Devil's Tower and the Black Hills and all the other sacred sites and stop drilling in them and climbing on them and otherwise defacing holy ground. Let's pour some government money into restoring Indian territory and ensuring that people who live on reservations have access to the best resources, the best health care, the best psychiatric care, the best education. Let's preserve Native languages and give the bodies of the dead that are languishing in natural history museums back to the descendants and give those peoples' deaths some dignity.

Let's make sure that indigenous people aren't forced to live in third world squalor on Pine Ridge while we look the other way. Let's help these people fund their nations on some other source of income than casinos. Let's promise to put to death our stereotypes, let's bury those despicable sports mascots like the Redskins and the Braves, let's find a way to eliminate the plagues of alcoholism, drug abuse, and diabetes.

I don't think any of us illegal immigrants (squatters on foreign land) have a word to say about people of other nations crossing our borders and using our resources, because you know what? They aren't really ours and they never were. I think we have over two hundred years of illegal activity on our own behalf to resolve before we can start examining the speck in the other's eye, the Mexican border.