Alfred, a Mohawk who teaches in the Indigenous Governance Program at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, discussed the contents of his new book, ''Wasase: Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom'' - namely, ways in which Natives can learn to live and think as Onkwehonkwe, original people. The book, he said, is based on the experiences of Natives who have accomplished this goal.
''It is time for our people to live again,'' the book begins. It goes on to detail a journey away from the effects of the white invasion of the Americas, which Alfred sees as the source of most major problems in Indian communities today.
''The journey is a living commitment to meaningful change in our lives by ... regenerating our cultures, and struggling against the forces that keep us bound to our colonial past,'' Alfred wrote.
Colonial values have become ingrained in the Indian community, he said, addressing a packed room at the Syracuse University College of Law. These values, which run contrary to traditional Native beliefs, have caused long-standing problems of the community, the body and the spirit.
''The most damaging aspect of colonization was the way it was premised on a relationship of white domination and Indian subordination,'' said Scott Lyons, a Native scholar and creative writing professor at Syracuse University who attended Alfred's lecture.
This colonial notion of Indian inferiority was drilled into Native communities throughout history, Lyons added. The policy of allotment, for example - privatizing and parceling out tribal land to individuals - was designed to create capitalistic values in the Indian community. Capitalism, and the dependency on the non-Native world that necessarily accompanies it, still dominates Indian life today.
For this reason, Alfred said, Natives have discovered that the legal and legislative battles won by their communities over the last few decades are what he called ''hollow victories.'' Tribal courts and indigenous governments, for instance, have arisen, and many Natives communities have won independence from the United States or Canada. Too often, however, these institutions resemble those of the colonizers. No real change can come from the halls, desks and courts of such institutions.
''When it comes down to surviving or not surviving, none of these laws are going to matter,'' said Regina Jones, an Oneida and the program coordinator for Syracuse's Office of Multicultural Affairs, who also attended the lecture. ''What we really need is a society that doesn't depend on department stores.''
Recalling his first two books, Alfred traced the evolution of Indian resistance to colonial problems over the last few decades. Native scholars and activists soon realized that legal victories were ''very dangerous,'' leading to more dependency on white ways of thinking.
Alfred added that the academic world of Native studies is not immune to the pitfalls of a colonial way of thinking. He sees that sometimes ''being an intellectual'' can overshadow truly traditional Native point of view.
''There's a [Native] perspective ... a way of thinking that is oftentimes lost in academia,'' he said.
Alfred's ideas are innovative in the academic world, said Lyons, but not in traditional Native thinking.
In ''Wasase,'' Alfred advocated a personal commitment to escaping colonialism in daily life, from returning to traditional ways of eating to relearning Indian languages.
''It's an effort on the part of every individual to carry the weight of living as an Onkwehonkwe,'' he said, adding that this is not an easy task. Of the 13 Onkwehonkwe interviewed in ''Wasase,'' all cited the difficulties of living a life rooted in traditional values. One of the hardest to overcome, Alfred said, is the bias of the outside world.
The psychology of colonized peoples has been explored in academic circles by writers like Frantz Fanon, who famously analyzed the deforming effects of colonization, but the way in which Alfred presented it is relatively new. Alfred suggested that the re-rooting of Natives in their traditional values can and must be the source of inspiration for Native government. Creating effective institutions without this traditional knowledge is impossible.
''It's putting the cart before the horse,'' he said.
The way of the warrior, he said, is what inspires this individual struggle, and the word Wasase captures the spirit of this movement. Wasase is the name of an ancient Mohawk warrior's ritual, the Thunder Dance, which represents unity, strength and commitment to action.
''I'm talking about reviving the true spirit of being a warrior,'' he said. This means facing bias and intolerance head-on. Only by facing bias and economic problems the way that warriors once faced battles, on a deeply personal level, will real progress be made, Alfred said.
''Change happens one warrior at a time.''
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