An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States

it over, and retrieved thousands of documents related to tribal issues.
Carmichael, speaking as head of the All-African People’s Revolutionary
Party (AAPRP), offered to “support this movement 100 percent. The
question of native Americans is not just a question of civil rights,” he said.
“This land is their land . . . we have agreed to do whatever we can to
provide help . . . there can be no settlement until their land is returned to
them.” 16 Carmichael understood what it meant to be in solidarity with
Indigenous peoples on their land. Vernon Bellecourt, a founding member of
the American Indian Movement who became one of its key spokesmen,
fondly remembered Carmichael’s sustained support of Native causes in the
US. At a memorial service in 1998 celebrating the life of Carmichael at
City College, Bellecourt remarked, “Brother Kwame Ture was the first to
come in and show his solidarity with the indigenous struggles of the
Americas. One year later, at Wounded Knee, the AAPRP and Kwame Ture
were there standing with us.” 17 Another example of solidarity was that of
Angela Davis. Davis, a radical Black intellectual who had at the time been
recently forced to go on the run, attempted to show up and support the
resistance at Wounded Knee, though the FBI denied her from joining the
occupation. 18
On February 24, 1974, in Detroit, Michigan, Davis participated in a rally
to end political repression. Sponsored by the Michigan Alliance Against
Repression and attended by more than one thousand people, Davis gave a
speech covering a variety of topics, including the recent election of
Detroit’s first Black mayor, Coleman A. Young. Regarding this historic
event, she remarked, “The fires of revolutionary struggle are raging in
Detroit.” 19 Also there was Clyde Bellecourt, a member of the American
Indian Movement, demonstrating the forging of a Black and Indigenous
radicalism that had been vibrant since the 1960s. There to raise funds for
those under political repression who occupied Wounded Knee, Bellecourt
shared with the Detroit audience that he hoped the US would live up to its
treaty obligations toward tribal nations. He also commented on the
limitations of being an Indigenous person born in a settler colony,
remarking that they become “political prisoners of the United States at
birth.”
They also showed some historical and ideological connections in public
discourse. While this discourse is not always cordial, it demonstrates to me
that Black and Indigenous people were aware of each other’s struggles, and