The REAL Definition Of ‘Indigenous’ w /Kyle T. Mays

What does the term 'Indigenous' really mean? Author Kyle T. Mays join us to discuss.

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Sam: One of the points you make in the book and at the beginning of the book in fact is the failure of historians to contemplate the idea that Africans brought to the United States as or at that time you know to this country at that time we're also indigenous. so do we talk about that concept of what it means to be indigenous? I mean how do you have a group of people who are indigenous on land that is not theirs because they've been forcibly brought from their land.

Mays: Yeah so when I am utilizing a term like indigenous there's a legal concept within the u.s. within the united nations. So within the u.s. it's about the recognition from the federal government. I'm a bit hesitant to always think we should try to reject the recognition of the state in some ways. native nations don't always need the recognition of the state to be indigenous. but within federal law that's a requirement. Now according to the declaration of the rights of indigenous peoples indigenous means people who have a long history of connection to the land of language cultures and a host of other things, right? and they're recognized by other groups as such. Now, of course, the United Nations doesn't always have a lot of say, and the United States initially although they support it now did not support the declaration of the rights of indigenous peoples which passed in 2007. and so what I'm saying is indigenous Africans I'm not meaning to say that they are indigenous to us and therefore are the new indigenous peoples. but what I'm trying to get people to understand historically is that those people were indigenous. and if we imagine that they were indigenous and forced to come to the u.s similar to indigenous peoples forced to come from central America el Salvador Honduras etc because of us's neoliberal policies then how can we create better relationships between those two instead of just marking them as black or African or simply as Latinx or Latina.