BY CHARLENE NIJMEH
When RFK Jr.’s campaign came to Oakland to announce Mr. Kennedy’s running mate, I thought it made perfect sense for them to request a land acknowledgment considering Oakland is part of our aboriginal territory, which spans most of the San Francisco Bay Area. But the more I thought about it, the more I started to realize it wasn’t a common request.
During this current election season, Democrat Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey are running to be California’s next Senator and have been in the SF Bay Area many times and neither reached out to acknowledge the existence of our people. Neither have the dozens of candidates from both parties running for congressional districts in our territory. So, the request for a land acknowledgment in and of itself was a view into the sensibilities of this man Bobby Kennedy that spoke volumes about his respect for Indian Country.
Land acknowledgments are not an endorsement of any political party or person and are intended to simply recognize, honor, and respect the indigenous peoples of the lands. No other politician cared enough to show this kind of respect. Of course, words of respect flow freely from every politician, but Mr. Kennedy leads by his actions and not by mere words.
California sees itself as a bastion of progressivism and a beacon for the rest of the United States, but I see a different California. One that ignores our calls for justice and continues its modern-day war of oppression against my people. In my Berkeley ted talk, “The Colonizers who live among us”, I outline the continued political erasure of the Muwekma Ohlone people by corrupt institutions and politicians in California who think and act with the colonizer mindset insisting that Indians cannot exist in Urban areas.
It was the late Senator Feinstein who obstructed the restoration of our federal recognition for decades and told my people “I don’t want an urban tribe in my city”. A sentiment now echoed by Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren and others amongst the Democratic party elites. Mr. Kennedy was different. He speaks differently and more importantly he acts differently. He acts with moral courage and integrity that I haven’t see in a long while.
It was an honor to meet his family and to thank them for their legacy of political activism on behalf of Indigenous peoples. The fact that he has spent the last 40 years fighting big corporations and big government in defense of Mother earth and of the indigenous peoples of turtle island, I knew that my ancestors were calling on us to endorse his candidacy for President. I certainly don’t agree with all his positions, but I do know he’s a courageous and moral man who cannot be bullied, threatened, or bought off. These are the leadership traits we need in this Country.
It’s rare to see relentless courage from a politician. It’s a courage that my people have been praying for. When I met Mr. Kennedy, I told him that my people are praying for him and his family. We’re praying for their safety, and we’re praying that he has the courage to speak the truths that bring justice to All Peoples.
Some don’t realize that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been a leading environmental lawyer and activist who has worked on behalf of Indigenous peoples and our lands across Turtle Island. Whether representing Tribes here in the United States, or our brothers and sisters in Canada and South America, RFK Jr. has waged battle after battle to protect our land, water, and natural resources from environmental degradation and industrial pollution.
RFK Jr. has been a vocal advocate for Indigenous rights and Indian sovereignty, constantly working to hold corporations and government agencies accountable for eroding the sovereignty of our governments and polluting our lands and waters. He has been a leading voice on climate change, loss of biodiversity, and the existential threats to our cultures and traditional ways of life.
He’s not just a conservationist. He’s helping us all build a carbon-light economy, promoting renewable energy development on Indian land, and working to ensure that Indigenous communities have a voice in decision-making processes that impact us.
I believe Mr. Kennedy is the leader who will liberate Indian Country, heal a divided America, and prevent the catastrophe of another World War.
And he has a record of accomplishment in Indian Country that foretells his leadership in the White House. RFK Jr. represented the Navajo Nation in a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the agency’s approval of a uranium mining operation near the Navajo reservation, which posed a threat to the Navajo people’s land, water, and health.
RFK Jr. was involved in a lawsuit on behalf of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to challenge the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which threatens their water supply and sacred sites. RFK Jr. represented the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin in a lawsuit against the state’s Department of Natural Resources over the tribe’s right to protect a sacred site from a proposed sulfide mine.
RFK Jr. has represented First Nations in Canada and Native Villages in Alaska in disputes over land rights, resource extraction, wildlife conservation, land use, and environmental protection. In Central and South America, Mr. Kennedy represented communities affected by large-scale development projects, land grabs, and environmental destruction.
We shouldn’t be surprised by his commitment to justice for indigenous people. His family leaves a powerful legacy of advocacy and accomplishment on behalf of Indian County – and it’s a legacy that we are confident that RFK Jr. will expand on, profoundly.
Mr. Kennedy’s father served as Attorney General of the United States from 1961 to 1964, during which time he advocated for Native American rights and worked to address various legal issues affecting Indian Tribes in the United States, playing a key role in advocating for the protection of Native American cultural heritage, including historic sites and artifacts, and to prevent the exploitation of Indigenous lands and resources.
As Attorney General and later as a candidate for President himself, RFK Sr. supported efforts to improve education, healthcare, and economic opportunities for Native American communities, promoting greater self-determination and autonomy for Indian Tribes – even before the era of self-determination policies was finally ushered in.
It was RFK Sr. who said, “the commitments made to the Indians should be fulfilled, their rights should be protected, and when they have legitimate grievances, those grievances should be settled. We must be just and fair toward our Indian population, and that is why I am determined upon a program of improving their standard of living, developing adequate health facilities, and promoting the economic well-being which can be the only basis of self-respect and self-support.”
It might seem uncontroversial and entirely sensible today, but RFK Sr. was speaking these words at the height of the Indian Termination Era, when the policy of the United States was still to assimilate us out of existence so that we could be eradicated in the eyes of the federal government. He ran for President on that message, and he should be credited – with ending that terrible chapter in American history, by calling us all to a higher ethical plane.
RFK Jr. is his father’s son. I was impressed to hear him speak words in defense of my people, and in defense of similarly marginalized Tribes across the country that struggle to be seen. At his VP announcement rally, at the beginning of his speech, he pledged to affirm my Tribe’s existence and that of other federally unrecognized tribes that were wrongfully erased during the Termination Era.
In the small and insular world of federal Indian law and politics, this is an enlightened view that is much more just than anything that Joe Biden’s administration would be willing to pursue, given that the gaming tribes bankroll today’s Democratic Party and they pay tens of millions annually on lobbyists to prevent the most marginalized Tribes from affirming their existence in the eyes of the federal government. It’s a sinister genre of corruption, and the Biden Administration ought to be scrutinized for it.
I have spent the better part of my adult life listening to promises of positive change from our leaders that end up becoming meaningless lip service. Words in today’s political arena rarely rise to the level of action. The only real measure of what someone “will do in the future” is what they have “already done in the past”.
When I look at what Bobby Kennedy has already accomplished for Indian Country, I can predict what he will do for us when he becomes the next President of the United States.
Thank you for your leadership, Mr. Kennedy.
Charlene Nijmeh has served as the Chairwoman of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe since 2018, following her mother’s 43-year tenure as Chairwoman. This August, she is planning a months-long expedition by horseback across the United States, in order to raise awareness for the issues facing Indian Country. She has invited all of the candidates for President to join her on that ‘Trail of Truth’
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