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Liberating The Navajo Nation

 

            For the Navajo Nation to rid themselves of 21st century colonialism, they must first put an end to corporate hegemony and in particular Peabody Mining Corporation hegemony within their sovereign borders through nonviolent means. Violence will only reinforce the preeminence of corporations on reservations, and will bring reprisals from the U.S government, as history is an indicator that nonviolent resistance is the only method for sustainable change. Finding a means of liberation will require the Navajo Nation to implement acts of nonviolent resistance that have been successfully deployed against historical imperialistic forces. The British Empire was brought to its knees through nonviolent movements for independence, beginning with the Egyptian Revolution of 1919 which acted as a prelude to losing the last of their most valuable overseas colony; India. In regards for human rights, the British Empire was forced to abolish slavery six years earlier than planned, due to the civil disobedience in Trinidad ("Formerly Enslaved People End Apprenticeship Practices in Trinidad, 1832-1838.").
             Oppression is a constantly evolving phenomenon that continues to plague mankind, and disproportionality perpetuated against the former colonized. Nowhere else is this more prevalent than on American reservations, which have become virtual prisons of poverty void of opportunity. The largest of these reservations is the Navajo Nation, which has managed to retain much of their ancestral lands against the onslaught of American settlers, despite surviving the American policy of cultural genocide. The Navajo people are again enduring against an invading foreign force. Large mining operations are currently stripping ancestral lands of their wealth (Vice News), causing a health epidemic and the largest relocation of Native Americans since the 19th Century (Vice News). The only path for the Navajo Nation is to banish all mining operations, cleansing their governing body of corruption, which has taken hold of the governing body of the Navajo and has ceased the practice of an open council, even removing tribal elders who are in opposition to the mining (Vice News).


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