By Prensa Latina
Havana : The assistant director of research of the Smithsonian Institute in the National Museum of the American Indian, Jose Barreiro, highlighted here the resistance of the Indigenous movement in the United States.
In an interview published in the Cuban daily Juventud Rebelde, he affirmed that the Indian people are increasingly gaining force in important educational movements, in schools of survival and rescue of the language.
Today we have 40 tribal community colleges in different parts of the country and there are more than 500 known tribes who want to maintain their jurisdiction, he explained.
Barreiro added that total extermination did not occur and there is still considerable amount of land in the hands of the American Indian in the reservations.
He blamed economic and political interests of the United States government for destroying the power of the tribes to take over their natural resources.
When they removed the Indians from their lands during the 19th century many received lands that, at the time, were barren and isolated, but during the next century oil, uranium, minerals and even gold were found, he added.
Now, he emphasized, “these lands are valuable and the tribes have had to fight to maintain their control over them and use the resources for the benefit of their people.
The specialist noted that the Indian movement is sovereign, is concerned about its existence as a people and to maintain its tribal identity that guarantees its customs, traditions and generational continuity.
Indigenous cultures have a natural socialism because it is based on collectivism and a strong sense of anti-materialistic and spiritual culture although not necessarily religious, Barreiro concluded.