For those who do not know, Xinachtli (s/n: Alvaro Hernandez) may currently hold the record for being the Native American political prisoner in solitary confinement for the longest–over 22 years.
To all people enduring colonization and to the anarchists,
The campaign to free Texas Native American political prisoner Xinachtli is unusually busy with good progress this November, which is likely why Xinachtli has been unable to comment on the occasion as many radical Natives do.[*] Coming across some revolutionary Native American peers’ social media, I thought this “statement” in a similar vein would be appropriate.
If you’re looking for something pro-Indigenous to do on “Thanksgiving”, consider donating to Indigenous organizations in your locality and, or to the Xinachtli campaign, bearing in mind the following scattered points:
- The Xinachtli campaign is a great place to donate to in order to support Indigenous prisoner organizing and Indigenous jailhouse lawyering. Xinachtli is a jailhouse lawyer and helps so many Indigenous and non-Indigenous prisoners for free. Anything donated to Xinachtli’s campaign directly and indirectly supports one or more types of Indigenous betterment and survival.
- Beware of non-Indigenous people who pose as Indigenous people in even “well regarded” organizations.
- Understand that some Native Americans and Native American groups are severely colonized and collude in many ways with the occupations we Native folks are enduring. These are difficult matters to understand and navigate and often non-Indigenous people cannot get involved in them. But the least non-Indigenous people can do is not exploit and complicate these matters more, especially to benefit their own career, social standing, etc. I think the best way to navigate this is to not harm Indigenous people, to partake in repair if you have harmed them, and see about how you might be able to build trust with Indigenous people on their terms. In this way you may be able to see who’s who.
- Money and other donations can be helpful. But we must never ignore the central question of #LandBack, a matter that ought to be approached carefully and creatively, bearing in mind the points made in this writing. The occupations we endure will always want to disenfranchise and make invisible the most revolutionary and righteous Native Americans.
- I personally do not want to see Xinachtli paying rent or a mortgage if he gets out, an offer I am not happy to hear about from people who say they want to support. He is a person certainly appropriate to be a recipient of #LandBack without such unnecessary indebtedness.
- Much of the above also applies to Indigenous people who find themselves in the ancestral lands of others–many times we can and should be in better solidarity with our bigger Native family, but we are not; we ought to work together to fix this and to be excellent examples to others.
More complex forms of solidarity are important and exceed capacity at the moment for me to go in deeply about. I will write, though: be careful, take your time to make wise decisions, learn from your mistakes, pass what you learn onto the youth if appropriate, and learn from your elders. Like Xinachtli often says, COINTELPRO never ended. And as I often see, many people, including “radicals”, do the governments’ and colonizers’ work for free (or by default) and in the name of “de-colonization” and helping us out. Know who you’re really benefiting and whether you’re really trying to empower others or tend to your ego (which can mean feeding into inferiority and superiority complexes many of us have). The broader war is more complex than the few battles we are made aware of or might be lucky to have great, direct insights about. Sometimes you’d never imagine who’s really pulling the strings.
Below are ways to donate to the Xinachtli campaign, which was mentioned earlier this month.
As was written in that page,
“Please circulate the […] fundraiser and be cautious about scams that fake Xinachtli accounts out there could pull any day now. The only accounts connected to the campaign are here.
We have no problem working with you one-on-one to ensure your donation is received correctly.
Please be on the lookout for a bank or credit union that can accept the power of attorney that the campaign has for Xinachtli to open a checking or savings account in his name. No bank or credit union that the campaign has tried is able to open an account because Xinachtli has been in prison for so long (many require that he had an account with them prior to incarceration). This is why funds are being received in their current way until we figure out a solution.
The campaign is in need of friendly attorneys in case legal action is required if Xinachtli is denied parole in 2024 or 2025.”
Prax
27 November 2024
[*] I should also note that the past month had a lot of disrupted communication and wasted energies in between Xinachtli and his support team due to “software issues” in the securus communication system.
source: Free Alvaro