NICKESTES, nicholas.w.estes@gmail.com, @nickwestes
Estes co-host of The Red Nation Podcast and is lead editor of Red Media which just posted “Leonard Peltier is going home!” His is books include Our History is the Future,
In Trump’s inaugural address about the trajectory of U.S. history, he invoked “Manifest Destiny.” See piece from the Associated Press: “Trump, the ‘America First’ candidate, has a new preoccupation: Imperialism.”
Estes noted: “The United States is a treaty-breaking nation. In the first century of its existence, the United States signed more than 300 treaties with Indigenous nations, more than any foreign power. And it violated every single Indigenous treaty. Today, the United States has the worst record of ratifying international human rights and environmental treaties and has always broken its treaties, pacts, and promises. The recent U.S.-led and supported genocide in Palestine, in defiance of international law, is a case in point.
“Trump is U.S. settler colonialism with the mask off. Invoking Manifest Destiny during inauguration is just a new chapter for U.S. imperialism; this time, it is a scramble for planets, oceans, continents, and energy resources. … Palestinians are being released as part of a ceasefire deal.” Estes wrote the piece “Settler ‘Self-Defense’ and Native Liberation.”
Estes added: “The first day of the ceasefire, North American Indigenous peoples forced concessions from the Biden administration, securing the clemency of Indigenous political prisoner, Leonard Peltier. Although his life sentence will be commuted to home confinement starting Feb. 18, it is nonetheless a significant victory against the dirty war the federal government has waged against the American Indian Movement and Indigenous movements in general. This concession from the most powerful nation on the planet might seem small. Still, it took five decades of intense organizing from some of the poorest and most oppressed people to return an elder and veteran of the Indigenous liberation movement to his people. This sets a positive precedent for future battles that the humble people will carry the day in the next four years and for the next generation.”