Whose Land Is It?

We belong to the land, not vice versa

Trump and his thugs, including his jackbooted ICE hooligans — and now the National Guard and US Marines — are perpetrating authoritarian violence in Los Angeles. Many other parts of America are under siege from Trump, too. He has dramatically escalated his war on America.

Rebecca Solnit has the smartest perspective: “I think it's begun, the bigger, fiercer backlash against the Trump Administration, which is itself a violent backlash against every good thing that's happened over the past several decades — the advance of rights for nature, women, children, indigenous peoples, BIPOC and immigrants/refugees, queer people, trans people, people with disabilities, workers, the right of us all to be free from being poisoned by food, water, air.

“It's begun in Los Angeles, the city of angels, a city of almost 4 million people, almost half of them Latino, in a region of almost 12 million that National Guard soldiers and US Marines cannot and will not subjugate.

“All they can do is punish and incite, and I hope that some of the protesters are telling them they're violating their mission and maybe the law. In the nonwhite-majority state of California, which recently advanced to become the fourth largest economy in the world . . . “

I highly recommend reading the rest of Rebecca Solnit’s essay, which is here: https://tinyurl.com/TrumpWarOnAmerica

ABOLISH ICE — ABOLISH ICE — ABOLISH ICE
Blessings and protection to everyone protecting their community, their students, their coworkers, their kin, their neighbors, their people, to everyone in the streets in LA and everywhere

—Chani Nicholas said this, and I am in full accord

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I also recommend Chris Hedges’ essay, “The Rule of Idiots”: https://tinyurl.com/RuleOfIdiots

One way to evaluate the hysterical oppression of immigrants now being perpetrated by the Trumpocalypse is to gather historical understanding about the issues that underlie these atrocities.

WHOSE LAND IS IT?

Let’s address the subject, “Whose Land Is it?”

My teammates and I don’t know 10,000 conservative white American men. But we have known hundreds. We are always confounded when one of them tells us his theories about why Europe’s invading immigrants had every right to take the American continent for their own.

When we ask them to elaborate, they espouse some version of the opinion, “Everyone does it."

They say it’s no big deal. Happens all the time. Throughout history, the migration of people from one land to another has always been common. Sometimes they add, “So stop whining.”

They present themselves as realists, these white-skinned interlopers of European descent. Everyone on earth came from somewhere else, they say. "Native Americans were just earlier immigrants. They wandered to the Americas from homes on another continent. What's the difference?"

They neglect to acknowledge a dramatic distinction. Thousands of years ago, people from Asia and Siberia migrated into previously uninhabited land, while a few hundred years ago, Europeans invaded land already occupied by millions of humans.

The hypocrisy of the shucksters would be hilarious if it weren’t so astoundingly ignorant. They sputter and go blank when we remind them that some of the ancestors of modern Native Americans arrived here at least 16,000 years ago—640 generations—and as long as 37,000 years ago, almost 1,500 generations.

The shucksters are unwilling to acknowledge the truth that even if their forebears reached the “New World” as early as the 17th century, their people have occupied the land for a mere 16 generations. That’s at most 5 percent and possibly as little as 1 percent of the Indigenous span. A deeper fact: For the vast majority of white Americans of European descent, at least one of their forbears arrived after 1800: nine generations.

What strikes us as most hysterically irrational is their worship of property rights. For them, the concept of private property is a sacred dispensation—until those rights belong to others. They sanctify ownership when it serves them, dismiss it when it doesn't.

Let’s say a 21^st-century colonialist apologist bought the property and home where he now lives in North Seattle. Or maybe he inherited it from his family. Is that place more thoroughly his personal property than, say, the places inhabited by the Duwamish people, circa 1800, who had already been living in what’s now the Seattle area for at least 450 generations?

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Imagine this scenario: Advanced extraterrestrials arrive tomorrow. Their technology makes resistance futile. They seize your land, your home, your life's work. Do you accept this as natural migration? Do you say, "Everyone does it," and walk peacefully into exile?

Maybe the white conservative colonialist apologist would say to himself, “Oh, well, the migration of people from one land to another has been common throughout history. I’m just another example. Guess it’s time for me to move on.”

But he probably wouldn’t say that.

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Ruminating on “whose land is it?”, let’s reminisce about 1803's Louisiana Purchase. It was the greatest real estate fraud in history. The US government bought a huge chunk of North American land from the French government. At a price of three cents per acre, the new republic doubled its size, acquiring what are now Louisiana and Montana and everything between.

Here’s the tragicomic twist: The Americans bought and the French sold land they didn’t actually own. It belonged to the native people who had lived and died there for at least 450 generations.

Two groups of invaders haggled over prices for land they stole and signed papers that transformed theft into law.

But wait! The pageant of plunder continued. Fast forward to 1846. The Americans, drunk on their delusional doctrine of manifest destiny, picked a fight with Mexico. They called it the Mexican-American War, but Mexico knew what it really was—a land grab wrapped in patriotic rhetoric.

The pretext was laughably thin: a border dispute over Texas. President Polk wanted California and the Southwest, so he manufactured a war to take that land. There was an additional motive lurking beneath the surface—slavery.

Here's what the history books often gloss over: Mexico had abolished slavery in 1829, nearly three decades before the American Civil War. But American settlers from the South had been pouring into Mexican territory for years, including Texas, bringing their enslaved people with them and expecting to continue the practice.

The Mexican government kept trying to enforce its anti-slavery laws, creating tension with the invasive American emigrants who saw vast expanses of fertile land perfect for plantation agriculture. These settlers wanted their peculiar institution protected, not outlawed.

So when Polk launched his war, he wasn't just grabbing land. He was grabbing it for the sake of slavery. The Southern states knew that controlling these territories meant the potential for new slave states, shifting the balance of power in Congress. The Mexican-American War was as much about expanding human bondage as expanding borders.

After defeating Mexico in 1848, the US forced the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. With the stroke of a pen, Mexico lost half its territory—what became California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and parts of Texas. All for a mere fifteen million dollars that Mexico had no choice but to pay.

Fifteen million! For land larger than all of Western Europe! The Americans paid Mexico roughly two cents per acre for territory that Mexico had claimed for three centuries.

And here's the exquisite irony: Mexico itself had seized this land from Indigenous peoples who had stewarded it for millennia.

So we have layers of theft, like geological strata of dispossession. The Pueblo peoples, the Navajo, the Apache, the Comanche, the Pima: They watched as their ancestral territories were bartered between empires that had no legitimate claim to them.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo promised to respect the property rights and civil liberties of Mexican citizens who chose to remain. But those promises soon crumbled. Mexican landowners found their vast estates carved up by American courts that didn't recognize their deeds. Their children were barred from schools, their language forbidden in courts.

What's extra galling is how the narrative was sanitized. Americans called it "winning the West," as if it were an empty frontier waiting to be claimed. They erased the Mexican ranchers, the Indigenous nations, and the complex societies that had flourished there for hundreds of generations.

The speed of the transformation was breathtaking. In California alone, the Mexican population went from being the majority to a persecuted minority within a decade. Their land grants, some dating back centuries, were declared invalid by American courts that demanded proof in English of ownership that had been understood in Spanish and Indigenous languages.

And today, the hypocrites speak of their sacred property rights while standing on soil twice stolen—first from Indigenous peoples by the Spanish and Mexicans, then from the Mexicans by the Americans. Each conqueror claimed divine sanction, each theft became someone's inheritance.

WHO GETS TO BE “FROM HERE”?
An incantation against the amnesia of the conqueror’s children.

The United States is a dream-in-progress built by immigrants, exiles, runaways, seekers, and survivors. With the exception of Native peoples — who have always been here — and the descendants of enslaved Africans — who were kidnapped and dragged here in chains — almost everyone else came from somewhere else.

Yet the children of Ellis Island and Plymouth Rock forget. How arrogantly the great-great-grandchildren of persecuted English refugees and dissenters, fleeing Italians, starving Irish, displaced Poles, and landless Germans wrap themselves in the tattered myth of “We belong, they don’t.”

It’s galling. It’s hall-of-mirrors hypocrisy.

The very people who now sneer at the asylum seeker from El Salvador, or rail against the mother fleeing cartel violence in Honduras, are often the descendants of people who were once spat on in the streets, called vermin, or told they’d never belong. Their ancestors were accused of “stealing jobs,” “breeding too fast,” “not assimilating.” Sound familiar? It’s the same fear-drenched script.

Here’s the cosmic punchline: The country they now claim as their inheritance was never “theirs” to begin with. It was seized—through smallpox, guns, treaty violation, and Manifest Destiny delusion. It was fertilized with stolen labor and watered with blood.

So when white Americans of European descent raise their angry voices against the newest immigrants, they are not defending heritage. They are betraying it. They are desecrating the very journey their own ancestors took — the long, trembling leap into the unknown, seeking a place to build, breathe, and belong.

To reject newcomers now is to spit on your own ghost.

Better to greet the border-crossers with familial welcome. Better to remember that the Statue of Liberty doesn’t wield a whip. She carries a torch, lighting the way for the tired, the poor, the huddled masses. Including your people, white Americans of European descent — once upon a time.

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“OWNING” THE LAND

The idea that anyone can own a river, a mountain, or a forest is preposterous. It’s a Promethean delusion. The concept of private property is an arrogant and tragicomic hallucination with ludicrous rationales.

French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau said that the first person who claimed a piece of nature as his own exclusive possession was the one who invented evil.

Anthropologist David Graeber viewed property as a faux magical fiction enforced by threat of institutionalized brutality. He said “ownership” is a collective hallucination backed by bureaucratic incantations and weapons.

Scholar Silvia Federici says early capitalism needed to invent private property by violently destroying communal traditions and women’s control of the commons.

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy and many Indigenous traditions have never accepted private property. The land is a sacred relative and communal caretaker, not a thing to be owned.

French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon declared, “Property is theft!” He said ownership of land, capital, or resources was fundamentally unjust and exploitative—a legalized form of plunder. Private property is a colonial malediction that disenchants the world and forbids ecstatic communion with the soul of the land.

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The fact is: We don't own the land. We can’t own the land. We belong to it. Every creature except humans understands this. To be in right relation with land is not to pretend to possess it but rather to belong to it. Not to conquer it, but to be claimed by it in return.

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Let’s give Indigenous Australians the last word here. Of all the perspectives we know of, it’s closest to ours.

For them, the land is understood as a conscious, living entity. The Dreamtime ancestors didn't just create the land and then leave. They became the land. Every geological feature, waterway, and natural formation contains the living presence of these ancestral beings who are simultaneously the creators and the creation itself.

For the Indigenous Australians, the land is an active agent that owns, claims, shapes, and defines the people who belong to it. The land owns the people! It communicates with us through feelings and spiritual inklings. It has its own agency and will. Our job is to care for it and love it.

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

For the Week of June 12

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I’ve always had the impression that honeybees are restless wanderers, randomly hopping from flower to flower as they gradually accumulate nectar. But I recently discovered that they only meander until they find a single good fount of nourishment, whereupon they sup deeply and make a beeline back to the hive. I am advocating their approach to you in the coming weeks. Engage in exploratory missions, but don’t dawdle, and don’t sip small amounts from many different sites. Instead, be intent on finding a single source that provides the quality and quantity you want, then fulfill your quest and head back to your sanctuary.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Let’s talk about innovation. I suspect it will be your specialty in the coming weeks and months. One form that innovation takes is the generation of a new idea, approach, or product. Another kind of innovation comes through updating something that already exists. A third may emerge from finding new relationships between two or more older ways of doing things—creative recombinations that redefine the nature of the blended elements. All these styles of innovation are now ripe for you to employ.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Leo psychotherapist Carl Jung was halfway through his life of 85 years when he experienced the ultimate midlife crisis. Besieged by feelings of failure and psychological disarray, he began to see visions and hear voices in his head. Determined to capitalize on the chaotic but fertile opportunity, he undertook an intense period of self-examination and self-healing. He wrote in journals that were eventually published as The Red Book: Liber Novus. He emerged healthy and whole from this trying time, far wiser about his nature and his mission in life. I invite you to initiate your own period of renewal in the coming months, Leo. Consider writing your personal Red Book: Liber Novus.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In the coming weeks, you will have chances to glide deeper than you have previously dared to go into experiences, relationships, and opportunities that are meaningful to you. How much bold curiosity will you summon as you penetrate further than ever before into the heart of the gorgeous mysteries? How wild and unpredictable will you be as you explore territory that has been off-limits? Your words of power: probe, dive down, decipher.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): When traditional Japanese swordsmiths crafted a blade, they wrapped hard outer layers around a softer inner core. This strategy gave their handiwork a sharp cutting edge while also imbuing it with flexibility and a resistance to breakage. I recommend a similar approach for you, Libra. Create balance, yes, but do so through integration rather than compromise. Like the artisans of old, don't choose between hardness and flexibility, but find ways to incorporate both. Call on your natural sense of harmony to blend opposites that complement each other.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Scorpio journalist Martha Gelhorn (1908–1998) was an excellent war correspondent. During her six decades on the job, she reported on many of the world’s major conflicts. But she initially had a problem when trying to get into France to report on D-Day, June 6, 1945. Her application for press credentials was denied, along with all those of other women journalists. Surprise! Through subterfuge and daring, Gelhorn stowed away on a hospital ship and reached France in time to report on the climactic events. I counsel you to also use extraordinary measures to achieve your goals, Scorpio. Innovative circumspection and ethical trickery are allowed. Breaking the rules may be necessary and warranted.

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SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): My spirit guides enjoy reminding me that breakthrough insights and innovations may initially emerge not as complete solutions, but as partial answers to questions that need further exploration. I don’t always like it, but I listen anyway, when they tell me that progress typically comes through incremental steps. The Sagittarian part of my nature wants total victory and comprehensive results NOW. It would rather not wait for the slow, gradual approach to unfold its gifts. So I empathize if you are a bit frustrated by the piecemeal process you are nursing. But I’m here to say that your patience will be well rewarded.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): "Sometimes I’ve got to pause and relax my focused striving, because that’s the only way my unconscious mind can work its magic." My Capricorn friend Alicia says that about her creative process as a novelist. The solution to a knotty challenge may not come from redoubling her efforts but instead from making a strategic retreat into silence and emptiness. I invite you to consider a similar approach, Capricorn. Experiment with the hypothesis that significant breakthroughs will arrive when you aren't actively seeking them. Trust in the fertile void of not-knowing. Allow life’s meandering serendipity to reveal unexpected benefits.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Are you interested in graduating to the next level of love and intimacy? If so, the coming weeks will be a favorable time to intensify your efforts. Life will be on your side if you dare to get smarter about how to make your relationships work better than they ever have. To inspire your imagination and incite you to venture into the frontiers of togetherness, I offer you a vivacious quote from author Anais Nin. Say it to your favorite soul friend or simply use it as a motivational prayer. Nin wrote, "You are the fever in my blood, the tide that carries me to undiscovered shores. You are my alchemist, transmuting my fears into wild, gold-spun passion. With you, my body is a poem. You are the labyrinth where I lose and find myself, the unwritten book of ecstasies that only you can read."

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): What deep longing of yours is both fascinating and frustrating? To describe it further: It keeps pushing you to new frontiers yet always eludes complete satisfaction. It teaches you valuable life lessons but sometimes spoofs you and confuses you. Here’s the good news about this deep longing, Pisces: You now have the power to tap into its nourishing fuel in unprecedented ways. It is ready to give you riches it has never before provided. Here’s the “bad” news: You will have to raise your levels of self-knowledge to claim all of its blessings. (And of course, that’s not really bad!)

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Your definition of home is due for revamping, deepening, and expansion. Your sense of where you truly belong is ripe to be adjusted and perhaps even revolutionized. A half-conscious desire you have not previously been ready to fully acknowledge is ready for you to explore. Can you handle these subtly shocking opportunities? Do you have any glimmerings about how to open yourself to the revelations that life would love to offer you about your roots, your foundations, and your prime resources? Here are your words of power: source and soul.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Do you have any frustrations about how you express yourself or create close connections? Are there problems in your ability to be heard and appreciated? Do you wish you could be more persuasive and influential? If so, your luck is changing. In the coming months, you will have extraordinary powers to innovate, expand, and deepen the ways you communicate. Even if you are already fairly pleased with the flow of information and energy between you and those you care for, surprising upgrades could be in the works. To launch this new phase of fostering links, affinities, and collaborations, devise fun experiments that encourage you to reach out and be reached.

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