Trump, NAFTA, and Indigenous Resistance in Turtle Island

In recent weeks, we have witnessed a growing reaction to the Trump’s administration. We have heard about how he has come to epitomize rampant bigotry, misogyny, unlawfulness, and white supremacy, none of which supposes to represent the reality of the United States. Although Trump’s election and all that he represents have been seen as an exception, the long-standing structure of dispossession and invasion that has characterized this country tells otherwise. The fact that Trump gained traction with large portions of the population demands an analysis that goes beyond this individual. While dispossession of Indigenous lands, slavery, and invasion have been crucial to the maintenance of the United State’s hegemonic project, colonial narratives produced in light of colonial competition in North America have historically justified the United States’ expansionist tendencies in the hemisphere. For example, the invasion of the Mexican territory, which resulted in the transfer of over half of the Mexican territory to the United States, was elevated to a clash of moral influences and principles that conveniently served to keep Mexicans “in their place,” while taking away their resources. These days, a similar rhetoric is being mobilized for the purpose of building a wall along the Mexico-US border to “maintain” Mexican and, others, in their place. These convenient narratives erase the history of the border and the violence inflected on people and communities who were divided by it. Moreover, these colonial discourses concealed and continues to conceal dynamic Indigenous past and present interactions in Turtle Island.

Trump did not invent white supremacy but he celebrates it loudly and clearly. Trump did not create anti-immigration sentiments, there is something to be said about the prosecution of certain types of immigrants and the militarization of borders that Mexicans and the Indigenous peoples divided by the US-Mexico border have historically known all too well. To suggest that Trump is an exception is to ignore history and its effects. What makes Trump different is that he does not refrain from promoting a white nationalist vision of the country. “Make America great [white] again” resonated among disenchanted US citizens, who have experienced a decline in their standard of living and who felt cheated by an economic system that no longer spreads wealth to its middle class. What makes Trump dangerous is the authoritarian regime he is instituting. The flow of executive orders to ban Muslims from entering the country, revoke Obama’s Medicare, build a wall on the US-Mexican border, and approve the construction of two of the most controversial pipelines, the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines without consultation signals the shift. The tensions between Trump and the justice system reveal his unwillingness to accept no for an answer. Trump’s authoritarian style brings home some memories of the dictators that the US has supported in Latin America.

Trump’s style, however, is not only authoritarian but also points to a new configuration of forces, alliances, and relationships. Trump has replaced the political class with the ultra billionaire oligarchy, whose actions and policies will speed up and widen existing systems of theft and war¹. Trump represents the fusion of the transnational capitalist class with reactionary political power. The fact that Trump choose to meet first with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and not President Peña Nieto reveals a “corporacratic” approach, which can be characterized by the central role that oligarchs play as brokers of the global economy. Trump’s policies and actions are about reorganizing economic alliances and forces in order to expand capitalism by other means. Efforts to open and connect certain some people and certain resources coexist with efforts to contain other people. This approach has important implications for Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island.

The approval of pipelines and the fast tracking of environmental reviews are central to the US’ energy plan under the Trump administration and aims at eliminating obstacles to the exploitation of natural gas, coal, and oil. This plan can be pursued even if North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is renegotiated. Bilateral relations already exist that are activating extractive projects in Canada...