Dancing with Ghosts

[Editor's Note: On Monday, after an all-night session, the House moved to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling as one of its final acts of the year. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) was battling drilling in ANWR this weekend when he filed this report. See also the related story by Robert Collier and photo essay by Deddeda Stemler, Life and Death in the Arctic to learn what is at stake.]

Early in the morning of Monday, Dec. 19, the United States House of Representatives will vote on the defense authorization bill, which will contain a provision to permit drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). I have taken three opportunities on the floor of the House early today to alert the American people to this backdoor approach to passing a very controversial bill that is desecration of the basic human rights of the Gwich'in people.

When will America get off the treadmill of sacrificing native rights to greed, territorial ambitions and fear? We will soon observe a grim anniversary that testifies to our persistent moral dilemma when it comes to those who were here first.

One hundred fifteen years ago, on Dec. 29, 1890, the U.S. Seventh Calvary, under the control of Col. James Forsyth, directed artillery fire against Lakota men, women and children. One hundred fifty Native Americans were killed in what became known as the Massacre at Wounded Knee, in South Dakota.

U.S. government troops were drawn to the land of the Lakotas to enforce a ban on Ghost Dance religion, a native mysticism that taught nonviolence and included chanting prayers and dancing by which one could achieve the ecstasy of harmony with the paradise of the natural world. The dance was forbidden out of fear that excitation of religious passions would turn to Indian violence against the U.S. government.

The history of the United States' relationship with our native peoples has been one shame-ridden chapter after another of expropriation, humiliation and deception, theft of lands, theft of natural resources, destruction of sacred sites and massacres. The U.S.' relationship with our native peoples has been an endless cycle of exploitation and contrition. Massacres and apologies.

Who in the future United States will apologize to the descendants of today's Gwich'in tribe, whose humble, natural way of life, religion and culture is threatened with extinction by the plan to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? The Gwich'in tribe has lived on its ancestral lands for 20,000 years in harmony with the natural world.

Drilling in the coastal plain of the Arctic refuge, called by the Gwich'in "the Sacred Place Where All Life Begins," will disrupt caribou calving grounds, leading to the long-term decline not only of the herd but of the tribe that depends upon it for survival. This will violate Gwich'in internationally recognized human rights and make a mockery of our founding principle of the inalienable right of each person to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Members of Congress will come to the floor today and say we need to drill to protect our economy, to defend our country, to keep our way of life. I intend to point to the reciprocal nature of our moral decisions.

Christian teaching tells us to do unto others as we would have them do unto ourselves. We learn from other spiritual insights that what we do unto others we actually do to ourselves. We cannot in the consciousness of true American spirit return to a history of slavery, a history in which women had no rights, or a history in which native peoples were objectified and deprived of their humanity, their culture, their religion, their health, their lives.

We must make our stand now not only as to who the Gwich'in are, but, in a world where all are interdependent and interconnected, who we are, and what we will become based on our decisions today.