Native Americans Say "Occupy" Terminology Is Offensive

[Zorra]

61. Mic check! Here in Arizona, Native Elders indigenous to this land sometimes speak/pray at Occupy

gatherings in support of the movement.

None, to my knowledge, have expressed any displeasure over the word occupy.

The Occupy Movement has collective leadership, and seeks to replace the entire political, social, and economic culture with a wider sense of human community. A system far more similar to ancestral North American indigenous tribal societies than the insane unnatural greed oriented, nature destroying system forced upon this land by European invaders.

We occupied this land before the Europeans came.

This is the time for us to begin fully occupying it again, as part of a collective of all peoples, so many of whom are dedicated to actually returning to a system of respect, balance, and harmony with our mother.

Isn't this what so many of us have been hoping and praying for, for centuries, that people would someday come to realize that this system is completely insane, and will inevitably destroy all life on this planet, and that a way of respect for all life and mother earth would return to this land?

Please. How will being contentious over "Occupy" help bring this about? Why unnecessarily jeopardize progress and distract from focus upon the goals?

Relabeling this important, vibrant movement would be counter productive. The 1% has already been relentlessly trying to relabel the Occupy Movement as the 99% movement.

Corporations and political groups that do bad things very often relabel themselves so as to become less recognizable as the entity that did those bad things because of the reputation they earned for doing bad things.

Plainly speaking, I am not convinced that this idea of relabeling Occupy originated from a source with sincere intentions.

mitakuye oyasin