*FakeStatehood Address on United States Imperialism
Honolulu, August 21, 2009
Tony Castana
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Aloha kakou. In regard to U.S. imperialism in Hawai’i and the Pacific, I am
here today to say that the origins of the American Republic and its foreign
policy have always been based on lies and contradictions. The United States
has always said one thing on the one hand, and done something different on
the other. The U.S. has always talked about freedom, democracy and equality
on the one hand, yet perpetuated genocide, slavery and imperial policies
on the other.
The first big lie, and many of which we continue to teach our children
in the schools, is that “America” was somehow “discovered” by European
explorers, and thus Native Americans were not human beings because they
were not Christians. Nevertheless, in the beginning, the U.S. entered into
treaty relations with American Indian nations because it viewed them as
formidable foreign powers and sovereign and independent nations. The first
treaty signed with the Delaware in 1778 allowed American troops to cross
Delaware lands in order to fight the British. However, things began to
change at the turn of the century as the American population began to grow
and lands and resources increasingly coveted. Some key U.S. Supreme Court
decisions came to brand Indian nations as “domestic dependent nations.”
This is not what Native Americans had asked for or wanted. They had always
seen themselves as sovereign and independent with their own lands, cultures,
and spiritual values and traditions.
This led to the infamous “Trail of Tears” in the late 1830s, which was the
terroristic relocation of numerous native nations from the eastern coast
of the United States to Oklahoma. Thousands perished in the process. The
U.S. continued its westward expansion and Indian wars culminating in the
massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. Throughout this process, at a bare
minimum, 10-12 million Native Americans were killed off. The U.S. violated
the over 370 formally ratified treaties it had entered into with Amerindian
nations. Many of you have probably heard the quotation, “The only good
Indian is a dead Indian.” This signifies the intentional motivation to
wipe out a people. This is genocide, and this is what American foreign
policy is based on.
In the 1890s, U.S. imperial policies of course continued into the Pacific
and Caribbean. In Boriken (Puerto Rico), the Jibaro or Boricua people had
resisted and led the battles against the Spanish for 400 years, ultimately
gaining their autonomy from Spain in 1898. The next step for Puerto Rico
would have been independence. This was not to be as the U.S. moved in
and plucked the pear there as it had done here. This was a premeditated
strategic decision. As U.S. Secretary of State James Blaine wrote to
President Harrison in 1891, “I believe that there are only three places
of sufficient value TO BE TAKEN: One is Hawai’i, and the others are Puerto
Rico and Cuba.”
The U.S. military then cracked down in Puerto Rico and began an era of
repression. I recently spoke with a native elder there (who was 106 by
his account), who told me he witnessed American troops going into homes
and raping the women and killing the children. They would wait until the
men came home. They would then kill them and often take the women and the
land. These American atrocities were the same ones taking place in the
Philippines at this time. This is well documented. That was a bloody war
taking place there! Thousands were killed. That native elder said, “The
gringos came to take the land from the people.”
Finally, I was in Guanica in 1998 to observe the commemoration of the U.S.
invasion a hundred years earlier. The independence supporters would shout,
“Jibaro, Si, Yankee, No!” The Jibaro refer to the Indian people who have
survived 500 years of colonialism. Many came here to Hawai’i as sugar
plantation laborers. This has been a popular saying for decades. So
in Puerto Rico, it is an indigenist nationalist struggle for self-
determination and decolonization that continues today, which has
been clearly seen in the battle against the military in Vieques.
U.S. imperial policies continue to be perpetuated today through the over
800 military installations around the world - in the Middle East, South
America, Asia, etc., and of course right here in Ka Pae’aina. This must
end. Mahalo.
*******