Hi Diane,

Thanks so much for me being scooped, it is an honor.

WORDS OF WISDOM

Hi Pat, Love the picture.

Monday, January 22, 2007 - 22:16
Were American Indians the Victims of Genocide?
On September 21, the National Museum of the American Indian will open its doors. In an interview early this year, the museum’s founding director, W. Richard West, declared that the new institution would not shy away from such difficult subjects as the effort to eradicate American Indian culture in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is a safe bet that someone will also, inevitably, raise the issue of genocide.

The story of the encounter between European settlers and America’s native population does not make for pleasant reading. Among early accounts, perhaps the most famous is Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor (1888), a doleful recitation of forced removals, killings, and callous disregard. Jackson’s book, which clearly captured some essential elements of what happened, also set a pattern of exaggeration and one-sided indictment that has persisted to this day.

Thus, according to Ward Churchill, a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado, the reduction of the North American Indian population from an estimated 12 million in 1500 to barely 237,000 in 1900 represents a"vast genocide . . . , the most sustained on record." By the end of the 19th century, writes David E. Stannard, a historian at the University of Hawaii, native Americans had undergone the"worst human holocaust the world had ever witnessed, roaring across two continents non-stop for four centuries and consuming the lives of countless tens of millions of people." In the judgment of Lenore A. Stiffarm and Phil Lane, Jr.,"there can be no more monumental example of sustained genocide—certainly none involving a 'race' of people as broad and complex as this—anywhere in the annals of human history."

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Wounded Knee Massacre 122 Years Ago Today: We Remember Those Lost

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Native Condition. Discussion »

One hundred and twenty-two winters ago, on December 29, 1890, some 150 Lakota men, women and children were massacred by the US 7th Calvary Regiment near Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Some estimate the actual number closer to 300.

The Wounded Knee Massacre is when most American history books
drop American Indians from history.

Snowfall was heavy that December week. The Lakota ancestors killed that day were left in brutal frigid wintry plains of the reservation before a burial party came to bury them in one mass grave. The photograph of Big Foot's frozen and contorted body is a symbol for all American Indians of what happened to our ancestors.

Some of those who survived were eventually taken to the Episcopal mission in Pine Ridge. Eventually, some of them were able to give an oral history of what happened. One poignant fact of the massacre has remained in my mind since first reading it, and every time I think about Wounded Knee, I remember this:

"It was the fourth day after Christmas in the Year of Our Lord 1890. When the first torn and bleeding bodies were carried into the candlelit church, those who were conscious could see Christmas greenery hanging from the open rafters. Across the chancel front above the pulpit was strung a crudely lettered banner: "Peace on earth, good will to men,"

writes Dee Brown in "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee."

There was no peace on earth for the Lakota four days after Christmas. No wonder so many American Indians question the validity of Christianity.

Later, as absurd as it may sound, some 20 soldiers were given the Medal of Honor - for killing innocent Lakota men, women and children.

The Wounded Knee Massacre is a symbol for all American Indians of what happened to our ancestors.

History records the Wounded Knee Massacre was the last battle of the American Indian war. Unfortunately, it is when most American history books drop American Indians from history, as if well.

Fortunately, American Indians have survived - one generation after another - since Wounded Knee. It is for us who remain to remember our ancestors as we make for a better life for those we encounter today. We are also taught to prepare for the next seven generations, but as we do, we must remember our ancestors.

Today, we remember those ancestors lost on this date in history 122 winters ago.

posted December 29, 2012 6:00 am est

Myrna,

Thank you for the reminder.

It is so sad and another historical reminder of how fear made people do the most horrible of things.

The history here is complicated but it seems that the new growing beliefs of the Native Americans told them that they could restore the old positions. The government, who, right or wrong, had populated the continent felt threatened and suppressed this move by the native americans.

This is echoed in the disputes in Ireland, Israel, SriLanka, and anywhere else that long-term residents feel they were displaced from there rightful place.

Talking has to be the answer but it so rarely feels strong enough by the wronged party.

So very sad.

Soldiers under orders to do there duty to restore their governments control and a proud people who had lost everything to invaders and thought that there was a way to regain what they had lost. 150 years is nothing in historical terms and the pain is still real.

I pray that the healing process continues and that UNDERSTANDING prevails.

Roger