Anarchy Works.pdf - Infoshop.org

evolution
Anarchy Works
of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana.
During the war, the Lakota and Cheyenne organized without
coercion or military discipline. But contrary to the typical
dichotomies, their relative lack of hierarchy did not hamper their
ability for organization. On the contrary, they held together during
a brutal war on the basis of a collective, self-motivated discipline
and varying forms of organization. In a Western army, the most
important unit is the military police or the officer who walks behind
the troops, pistol loaded and ready to shoot anyone who turns and
runs. The Lakota and Cheyenne had no need for discipline imposed
from above. They were fighting to defend their land and way of life,
in groups bound by kinship and affinity.
Some fighting groups were structured with a chain of command,
while others operated in a more collective fashion, but all of them
voluntarily rallied around individuals with the best organizational
abilities, spiritual power, and combat experience. These war chiefs
did not control those who followed them so much as inspire them.
When morale was low or a fJght looked hopeless, groups of warriors
often went home, and they were always free to do so. If a chief
declared war, he had to go, but no one else did, so a leader who
could not convince anyone to follow him to war was engaging in an
embarrassing and even suicidal venture. In contrast, politicians and
generals in Western society frequently start unpopular wars, and
they are never the ones to suffer the consequences.
The warrior societies played an important role in the indigenous
organization of warfare, but women's societies were vital as well.
They played a role similar to that of the Quartermaster in Western
armies, provisioning food and materials, except that where the
Quartermaster is a simple cog obeying orders, the Lakota and
Cheyenne women would refuse to cooperate if they disagreed with
the reasons for a war. Considering that one of Napoleon's most
important contributions to European warfare was the insight that
"an army marches on its stomach," it becomes apparent that Lakota
and Cheyenne women exercised more power in the affairs of their
nations than the histories written by men and white people would
lead us to believe. Additionally, women who chose to could fight
alongside the men.
Despite being impossibly outnumbered by the US military and
white settler paramilitaries, the Native Americans won. After Red
Cloud's War, the Lakota and Cheyenne enjoyed nearly a decade of
autonomy and peace. Contrary to pacifist allegations about militant
resistance, the victors did not begin oppressing one another or
creating uncontrollable cycles of violence just because they had
Violently fought off the white invaders. They won themselves
several years of freedom and peace.
In 1876, the us military again invaded the Lakota territory to
attempt to force them to live on the reservations, which were being
transformed into concentration camps as part of the campaign of
genocide against the indigenous populations. Several thousand
troops were involved, and they met with several early defeats, the
most notable of which was the Battle of Greasy Grass creek, also
known as the Battle of the Uttle Bighorn. Around 1,000 Lakota
and Cheyenne warriors, defending themselves from an attack,
decimated the cavalry unit commanded by George A. Custer and
killed several hundred soldiers. Custer himself had previously
invaded Lakota lands to spread reports of gold and provoke another
wave of white settlers, who were a rn;;yor driving force for the
genocide. The settlers, aside from being an armed paramilitary
force responsible for a large share of the encroachments and
murders, provided a sufficient pretext for bringing in the military.
The logic was that those poor humble homesteaders, in the act of
invading another country, had to be defended from "marauding
Indians." The US government ultimately won the war against the
Lakota, by attacking their villages, invading their hunting grounds,
and instituting strong repression against the people living on the
reservations. One of the last to surrender was the Oglala warrior
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