Howard Adams (Métis)
1921-2001
Revolutionary Métis Marxist scholar and professor Howard Adams grew up in a Métis community in Saskatchewan. He was a leader in the struggle for Indigenous rights, self-determination, and socialism.
Excerpt from Prison of Grass – Chapter 12 “Schooling the Redman”
“When a struggle threatens the colonizer, he immediately responds with increased oppression. Severely oppressed people. Severely oppressed people who do not understand their oppression prefer domination They refuse to listen to the call for freedom. Before they will become involved in struggle they must be able to perceive liberation as a real possibility and see that society is transformable. The struggle is advanced when they realize that the colonizer cannot exist without them. Once they realize they are the hosts of the oppressor, they begin to struggle.
The colonized and the colonizer are always polarized. Only through comradeship with the colonized can others understand their characteristic ways of living and behaving, which often reflect the structure of domination. The colonized cannot understand the order that serves the colonizer. This often results in violence – striking out at their own comrades. They have a belief in the invulnerability of the power of the oppressor.
The struggle for liberation must be a result of consciousness. It is a struggle for humanity.”
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