An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States

indeed fought in every war since the American Revolution, for the ability to
be a citizen of the US. Black people had made a “greater sacrifice than
anybody” and had “collected less” than any other group. For this reason,
Malcolm believed no one deserved land more than Black people. Malcolm’s
argument exists in certain Black nationalist discourses today, including that
of the American Descendants of Slavery, or ADOS. Let’s sit back and think
about the implications of Malcolm’s argument. If Black people deserve
land, what about the Native people who were forcibly removed from those
southern states? It is a question that Black nationalists have rarely, if ever,
truly engaged with. In other words, we can’t uncritically assert Black land
ownership without understanding the possibilities of continuing the ongoing
genocide and land theft against Native people.
Malcolm’s belief in a separate land for Black people made a lot of sense.
If a nation-state that purports to uphold democracy, equality, and freedom
does not actually do so in practice, and if Black folks are barred from voting
and participating in civic life, why wouldn’t you advocate for separation?
However, Malcolm’s erasure of Indigenous histories and rights would have
benefited his case greatly.
Since the writing of the US Constitution, the US government understood
Native peoples to be sovereign nations, although unequal in status to the
US. In the Cherokee v. Georgia decision of 1831, Chief Justice John
Marshall wrote that Native Americans were a “domestic dependent nation.”
They were separate from other US citizens, and to be governed by different
laws but dependent upon the higher authority of the US government. This
idea of the domestic dependent nation is the basis for contemporary legal
relations between the US government and tribal nations. It raises tough
questions, such as, are tribal nations truly sovereign under this
arrangement? Has the ideology of the domestic dependent nation hampered
our ability to be visionary about what a future would look like outside of
this arrangement? Finally, how sacred are treaties if one party—the US
government—doesn’t keep its end of the bargain?
Perhaps Malcolm best articulated the importance of Black land as an
integral part of Black liberation in a speech delivered in Detroit. That
speech, titled “Message to the Grassroots” and given on November 10,
1963, remains perhaps one of his most eloquent public speeches on the
necessity of a Black revolution. In this speech, he spends significant time
outlining his historical understanding of revolution, including the