Imagine if you can the Proud young Indian warrior sitting on his pony on a hilltop scouting out a Buffalo herd. The wilderness is quiet except for the sounds of nature, streams are running clean and pure past an Indian village. Indian children play their games and young boys pretend to be warriors like their fathers and grandfathers. It is almost a perfect setting.
Native
Americans have been oppressed for a
long time. Their oppression started when
the white man discovered America. Still today, Native Americans resent the celebration of Columbus day as they consider him to be the devil that came into their world and took it from them. When
they arrived, the Indian was the
superior race. With more and more
whitemen coming over to America, it was
not too long before they wanted to
control this country. Here they were
escaping the rule of the Queen and what
they saw as religious oppression and
took over. A Good eample of this is when the Indians started what they called the "Ghost Dance" it was their belif that their ancestors would protect them from the White man and the White man, being ignorant and not understanding it. got scared and ordered that it could no longer be practiced without punishement. What really happened is that the word of the Ghost Dance spread and soon you had Indians traveling along way to be there for one of the cerimonies and it intimidated the Whiteman so instead of learning about it, they destroyed it and a lot of innocent Native Americans lost their live's because they believed in something other than what the Whiteman thought was right. They treated the Native American as they had been treated back in England, not even stopping to take a look at their behavior
The White man begain to see the Indian as savages and wanted their land for farming and in the Dakotas' they wanted it because gold was found there. One of the most famous Soliders after the Indians was Gen.George Custer. They had bigger armies, more
advanced weapons,and tricked the Indians
into accepting treaties that were never
honored. They were driven to land that was unfit for farming and it was a struggle to feed everyone. In the book "Son of The Morning Star" by Evan S Connell. Son Of the Morning Star being what Custer was know as to the Native American Indian because of his bright blonde hair, it said that while he despised the Indians, he actully was accepted by a tribe of Lakota Sioux and even fathered a baby while one of the Native Women. He was told if he ever lied to as what the WhiteMan said, then the wrath of Hell would come down on him. And it did happen that way in the battle of Little Big Horn. This book went on to say that there was a letter sent from SHerman to Grant that stated " We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women and children. Nothing less would reach the root of the case." If the word Sioux was prelaced with Jew, this could have been a Letter from Hilter to his followers.
They developed the wilderness
and the wildlife that the Indians
depended on for food, clothing, shoes and shelter became scarce. An
example of this would be the buffalo,
the white man shot at the buffalo out train windows just for for sport,
leaving carcucuses to rot on the prairies.
thus taking an important food and
clothing source away that was needed for
survival.
As I have revisited just alittle of the past injustices of the Native American Indian, many people today miss the fact that these injustices still happen today. The White Man, as the broader society of America, try to sweep the past away and ignore what is happening right outside the city limits on the reservations. Lands is still stolen,for example, the Crow reservation in Montana, forced to accept a shockingly low 0.01% return rate on its valuable coal mines.Instead of gold, in modern times it is the vast reserves of uranium, oil, and coal underneath Indian reservations that corporations and the government covets. Reservation areas like the Black Hills in South Dakota have become lethally polluted and radiated.
Indians are still in bad health,women are treated with no respect and though not to the public knowledge, the military will still take action agaisnt tribes who do not do as the White Man dictates for them to do.In reality, the BIA was imposed on Indians against their will, and BIA-enforce policies of "Assimilation" and "Termination" have attempted to destroy what remains of Native societies, cultures, and values. The BIA quickly acted to eliminate traditional tribal governments and traditional means of livelihood, and attempted to force them against their will into the "mainstream" of American society.
Charon Asetoyer who is a Comanche Indian married a Dakota Sioux from the Yankton resevation and she wrote an article"From The Ground UP" In this article she describes the conditions of the reservation as follows:
"In the reservation communities accross the US, Health problems on the reservation are devestating. The worst being on the Yankton Sioux Reservation. The infant mortality rate has been as high as 23.8 per thousand."
That infant mortality rate is higher than the following countries: US 7, Spain 5.7, Russia 17, and Yugoslavia at 10. The total world infant mortality rate stands at 57, so what more information or proof is needed to see that something needs to be done quickly to save the children on these reservations.Charon Asetoyer goes on to to say,
"Many health problems are related to poor nutrition, caused by years and gererations of eating government commodity foods that are high in salt, sugars and fat and low in fiber.Native Activests have brought the Indian Health service under fire for their neglect and mistreatment of Native women. In the 1960's and again in the eighties, accusations of sterilization abuses surfaced. Today the Indian Health service is still abusing Native women's reproductive rights by limiting contreceptive choices. They are promoting Depo-Provera ( which was used on developmently disabled Native women before it was even aproved by the FDA) Norplant and of course steralization.The Indian Health Care Service, their primary provider is a division of the US Public Service-- that is the US Governement."Why is it that in what everyone calls "Free America" is there a need for the BIA? Are any other groups of people monitored so closely? The answer is simple.. no they are not.Today, Native Americans are stereotyped as lazy, out of control drunks. I have experienced this biased stereotyping whileI lived in Lawrence in the early 80's. Whith Haaskell Indian College in town, every Friday night if some Indian college students were seen walking down the street, it was assumed that they were headed for the liquor store to get booze and beer because that was all they did. The Police also seemed to stop a lot of Indian students on the weekend. Many walked around town because they had no transportation. Around Lawrence, everyone walks places because it is a college town and there arn't that many parking spots. Here today The White Man sterotypes Indians as drunks, But who introduced them to alcohol, the Whiteman. Is that an excuse for them to become drunks. no but it is a reason for White American Government to step in and get these Human beings help as they do with everyone else. The reservations are run with subpar schools and doctors. Jobs that are available to them are not those with advancement possibilites. A Friend of mine told me a story of a little Indian boy going to school and was in the second grade when the teacher asked what they would like to be when they grew up. This little boy very proudly stated that he wanted to become president of the United States. The teacher had the nerve to laugh and tell this child that his dream would never come true because he was an Indian. How demoralizing this is for a second grader, heck it would bother me at 37 to have something like said about me. It is no wonder that a lot of Indian children don't see themselves going to college. With comments like that the message to them is " no matter what you do, you will never ammount to anything. Everything the Native American achieves, is due to very hard determination and drive. Take professional sports for instance, there are very few pro athletes. this is due to the fact that on the reservation, the equipment needed for training and stuff is non exsistant. It is very hard for Native Americans to get away from the reservation life. One such Native American that broke through the White man's barrier was Billy Mills. He was given a scholarship to Kansas University to run track, but due to racial tensions and the fact that while at KU he was tore between two worlds. He was not accepted in the White World unless he was winning track medals, and he was considered to be a :white: Indian now by his tribe because he was talking and abiding by the Whitemans rule just like they wanted him to do. He left KU and joined the marine corp. He went on to come from no where and win a gold medal at the Olympics. Another Indian to come out of KU is Jim Ryan, Today, he is a Congressman. This may be the year 2000, but with people still believing these stereotypes, it is once again showing that people in power will take away things from those people not in power, not even caring about what the take overs have done to this proud race of people.
Learn about the Trail Of tears: Displacement of the Native American Indian for the White Mans beniffit.
Site About all the broken Promises made by the Whiteman
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