One thing has been made clear to me in the last couple of years… the United States of America is not a legitimate nation. We are settlers on Native American land. We are colonizers, though we wanted to escape our own colonization. This land upon which I live is Ohlone land. I was born on Yokuts-Chumash land. Manifest Destiny can kiss my ass. There is a salon I want to go to, to get my hair colored, and on their website they mention that they pay Shuumi. Shuumi is a land tax that is paid by settlers on Ohlone land to the Sogorea-Te Land Trust, run by Indigenous women, which aims to return Indigenous land to Indigenous peoples. They want to “rematriate” the land. I think it’s a brilliant idea. Shuumi means “gift.”
We “Americans” have RUINED this land. The Indigenous peoples of our land take care of the land with love and respect. No factory farms, no CAFOs, no deluge of plastic and hazardous waste, no pesticides, no fossil fuel pollution. Can you imagine what this land would be like if the Indigenous peoples once again owned the land? It would be so wonderful.
I’m not proud to be an “American,” unless you are referring to my citizenship as a North American, like Canadians and Mexicans. They are Americans too. That was the first thing my host mother in Costa Rica told me: We are ALL Americans. I asked her what I should then call myself. She replied, “You can say, I am from the United States.” That’s a mouthful. I think I’m going to combine things… I am a U.S. American. That qualifies my Americanness in a clear non-supremacist way.
One reason I listen to listener-supported radio is that they often acknowledge that we are on Ohlone land. There are no commercials, they don’t participate in capitalism in that they are community stations with community support, not corporate support. They are the non-profits of the radio world. Thank God for streaming… If I have to move back to Bakersfield (my husband has been toying with the idea) I’ll still be able to stream my listener-supported Bay Area stations on my phone or computer. KCSM, KALW, KDFC, KFJC, KALX, KKUP, KZSU, KPOO… I think that’s all of them.
Anyway, I digress… I am so tired of capitalism, U.S. nationalism, white supremacy, the plastic nightmare, the corporate nightmare… We do not deserve this land. We should be apologizing to our Ohlone brothers and sisters, and give Shuumi when/where we can.
