On the clear, cold morning of December 29, 1890, on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, three U.S. soldiers tried to wrench a valuable Winchester away from a young Lakota man. He refused to give up his hunting weapon. It was the only thing standing between his family and starvation, and he had no faith it would be returned to him as the officer promised: he had watched as soldiers had marked other confiscated valuable weapons for themselves.
I have stated earlier-We still have time to avert the” massacre” of 2024.Thank-you,Heather, once again for illuminating the past and to tie it to our today and tomorrow.
And part of changing the future is to enforce the 14th Amendment, if for no other reason than to prevent the next insurrectionist from holding office under the United States. If the Supreme Court fails in their duty, it will make it clear for all time that they failed. That, too, will change the future.
Each reading of this story saddens me anew. If only foresight could have averted this ugly tragedy. Ugly because of how cavalierly the soldiers behaved, how little they regarded the lives of Native Americans.
We hope it is never too late to change the future, but if it changes to reduce hate, destruction, increase in uninhabitable areas, and increase loving care to all, it rests on gen z and millennials to make changes. Go, fight, win is a football cheer that produces desire for domination. Instead, go and tell others who need your help that you will support them, suffer with them, do all you can to lift them up, even though they don't look like you, think like you, worship like you, and so forth. When we can lift the "other" instead of denigrating them, then the future will be better.
'Nevada tribe says coalitions, not lawsuits, will protect sacred sites'
'A Nevada tribe is gearing up for a different kind of fight against the U.S. government as it tries to build more public support for protecting Native American sacred sites'
BySCOTT SONNER Associated Press
December 24, 2023, 12:01 AM
'RENO, Nev. -- The room was packed with Native American leaders from across the United States, all invited to Washington to hear from federal officials about President Joe Biden's accomplishments and new policy directives aimed at improving relationships and protecting sacred sites.'
'Arlan Melendez was not among them.'
'The longtime chairman of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony convened his own meeting 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) away. He wanted to show his community would find another way to fight the U.S. government's approval of a massive lithium mine at the site where more than two dozen of their Paiute and Shoshone ancestors were massacred in 1865.'
'Opposed by government lawyers at every legal turn, Melendez said another arduous appeal would not save sacred sites from being desecrated.'
“We’re not giving up the fight, but we are changing our strategy,” Melendez said.
'That shift for the Nevada tribe comes as Biden and other top federal officials double down on their vows to do a better job of working with Native American leaders on everything from making federal funding more accessible to incorporating tribal voices into land preservation efforts and resource management planning.'
'The administration also has touted more spending on infrastructure and health care across Indian Country.'
'Many tribes have benefited, including those who led campaigns to establish new national monuments in Utah and Arizona. In New Mexico, pueblos have succeeded in getting the Interior Department to ban new oil and natural gas development on hundreds of square miles of federal land for 20 years to protect culturally significant areas.'
'But the colony in Reno and others like the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona say promises of more cooperation ring hollow when it comes to high-stakes battles over multibillion-dollar “green energy” projects. Some tribal leaders have said consultation resulted in little more than listening sessions, with federal officials not incorporating tribal comments into the decision making.'
'Rather than pursue its claims in court that the federal government failed to engage in meaningful consultation regarding the lithium mine at Thacker Pass, the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony will focus on organizing a broad coalition to build public support for sacred places.'
'Tribal members are concerned other culturally significant areas will end up in the path of a modern day Gold Rush that has companies scouting for lithium and other materials needed to meet Biden's clean energy agenda.' (AP) See link below.
Let's learn from the mistakes of the past, and use them to change the future for the better! It's our responsibility. Thank you for always reminding us of the past and the present, and make us think of the future.
And so goes another night of unexpected learning yet more about our nation’s disgraceful past. The treatment of the Lakota fits into a long pattern of deceit and death that white people have never atoned for.
I agree, but we have to become more honest about human nature, both the horrifying side of it and and also the beauty and compassion also in the mix. We already know the formulas for collective sociopathy, and that one can ride the cosmic force of entropy as it's home court advantage. We have also seen barriers crumble when we enough of us are of a like mind and shared passion. The struggle continues.
Comment tangential to today's post, sorry, just wanting to share this thought with this community--I've read some commentary that enacting Art. 3 of Amendment 14 against Trump is somehow undemocratic. However, if we think of democracy as a living thing, then 14.3 is like part of democracy's immune system. Just as someone who has the flu gains antibodies that will help to resist the next exposure to the same strain of flu, so this part of the constitution is like an antibody which has now become activated because presented with the same threats as in the past.
Part of Woke needs to be awareness of the profound injustice done to indigenous peoples. This country was not founded just on chattel slavery, but on the genocide, physical and cultural, of the people who lived on this land for thousands of years before the Europeans invaded.
MAGA encompasses the same outlook and attitude that murdered the people at Wounded Knee.
Many of us thought we had put that part of our national character behind us. The 2016 election was a frightening reminder that we haven’t.
Thank you, HCR, again and again and again for the history lesson that shines a light on today.
I remember well the spectacular and out of the blue best seller success of Dee Brown's "Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee". Even without reading the book at such a young age, I remember seeing it in bookstores and hearing of its text, being stunned by the tales of brutality and ugliness that jarred my young self. After all, at ten years old, I had only learned of the vaunted nature of the Louisiana Purchase, and the inevitable expansion of America, of the Civil War period jumping directly to the WWI period. I couldn't grasp what I realized later was a vast dichotomy between the conventional history and the actual, more complex history. I couldn't then, and can still not now fully grasp the fact that in our great Nation, there are other Nations, Indigenous Nations, that still exist within our geographical borders.
The Cowboys and Indians ethos, fully suffusing our collective culture at everyone's neighborhood movie house and infused with strongly subliminal Manifest Destiny, was so powerful that it took decades to even begin the process of removing the mote from our collective eyes.
Even today, there are most likely many of our fellow Americans who do not blink an eye upon hearing Phil Sheridan's infamous statement---"The only good Indian is a dead Indian".
Our Nation, born in the mixed fiery baptism of brilliant Enlightenment thinking and hard focused Revolution was a small Country of 3 million, clinging to the Atlantic seaboard within 13 states. In perhaps the most glaring example of "be careful for what you wish for" in history, within a quarter century we had expanded westward three times over due to the mutual interests of our burgeoning population's ambitions, and those of a Corsican warrior with short man's syndrome to garner funds for his ceaseless wars in Europe. Napoleon gave us the entire modern Midwest and eastern portion of the Mountain States, even though none of it was his to give.
A Nation that once honored the Iroquois for their political organizing and whose principles we adopted, and whose first national holiday of Thanksgiving honors the generosity of the Powhatan and others, gradually turned to the darkest of rationalizations for taking the lands of those similarly indigenous North American peoples who just happened to be in our way.
Treaty upon innumerable treaty broken, promise upon innumerable promise forgotten, ethnic cleansing begun with Jackson in Florida and Georgia, repeated over and over again upon far more Trails of Tears than just those trod by the Cherokees and Creeks.
We took their land, their sustenance and even tried to take their pride.
And this isn't just "history".
It was only recently that the professional football team in our Nation's Capital finally found the grace to change their name from the disgraceful epithet, "Redskins". It was only recently that the team that has long played in the great industrial City on the shores of Lake Erie changed their name from "Indians". Even now, the Atlanta Braves and their horrifically racist tomahawk chop, and the Kansas City "Chiefs", with their fabulous defending champion team and their top notch celebrity follower refuses to make the simple changes necessary to return just a bit of dignity to those who have suffered so long.
And finally, as at least one other contributor has commented, still sits Leonard Peltier in a federal prison, all these near half century of years later, like "Buddha in a ten foot cell, an innocent man in a living hell."
Or as was otherwise sung,
"Good Morning America, how are ya?! Say don't you know me, I'm your NATIVE SON?"
I have stated earlier-We still have time to avert the” massacre” of 2024.Thank-you,Heather, once again for illuminating the past and to tie it to our today and tomorrow.
Wow! Once again,EXCELLENT post with a key conclusion. We must do all we can to create the future we want and need. Forward all.
And part of changing the future is to enforce the 14th Amendment, if for no other reason than to prevent the next insurrectionist from holding office under the United States. If the Supreme Court fails in their duty, it will make it clear for all time that they failed. That, too, will change the future.
Each reading of this story saddens me anew. If only foresight could have averted this ugly tragedy. Ugly because of how cavalierly the soldiers behaved, how little they regarded the lives of Native Americans.
We hope it is never too late to change the future, but if it changes to reduce hate, destruction, increase in uninhabitable areas, and increase loving care to all, it rests on gen z and millennials to make changes. Go, fight, win is a football cheer that produces desire for domination. Instead, go and tell others who need your help that you will support them, suffer with them, do all you can to lift them up, even though they don't look like you, think like you, worship like you, and so forth. When we can lift the "other" instead of denigrating them, then the future will be better.
'Nevada tribe says coalitions, not lawsuits, will protect sacred sites'
'A Nevada tribe is gearing up for a different kind of fight against the U.S. government as it tries to build more public support for protecting Native American sacred sites'
BySCOTT SONNER Associated Press
December 24, 2023, 12:01 AM
'RENO, Nev. -- The room was packed with Native American leaders from across the United States, all invited to Washington to hear from federal officials about President Joe Biden's accomplishments and new policy directives aimed at improving relationships and protecting sacred sites.'
'Arlan Melendez was not among them.'
'The longtime chairman of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony convened his own meeting 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) away. He wanted to show his community would find another way to fight the U.S. government's approval of a massive lithium mine at the site where more than two dozen of their Paiute and Shoshone ancestors were massacred in 1865.'
'Opposed by government lawyers at every legal turn, Melendez said another arduous appeal would not save sacred sites from being desecrated.'
“We’re not giving up the fight, but we are changing our strategy,” Melendez said.
'That shift for the Nevada tribe comes as Biden and other top federal officials double down on their vows to do a better job of working with Native American leaders on everything from making federal funding more accessible to incorporating tribal voices into land preservation efforts and resource management planning.'
'The administration also has touted more spending on infrastructure and health care across Indian Country.'
'Many tribes have benefited, including those who led campaigns to establish new national monuments in Utah and Arizona. In New Mexico, pueblos have succeeded in getting the Interior Department to ban new oil and natural gas development on hundreds of square miles of federal land for 20 years to protect culturally significant areas.'
'But the colony in Reno and others like the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona say promises of more cooperation ring hollow when it comes to high-stakes battles over multibillion-dollar “green energy” projects. Some tribal leaders have said consultation resulted in little more than listening sessions, with federal officials not incorporating tribal comments into the decision making.'
'Rather than pursue its claims in court that the federal government failed to engage in meaningful consultation regarding the lithium mine at Thacker Pass, the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony will focus on organizing a broad coalition to build public support for sacred places.'
'Tribal members are concerned other culturally significant areas will end up in the path of a modern day Gold Rush that has companies scouting for lithium and other materials needed to meet Biden's clean energy agenda.' (AP) See link below.
https://apnews.com/article/tribes-mine-energy-environment-sacred-sites-biden-f08e1c42e81982fea32b0baaa9b46106
Let's learn from the mistakes of the past, and use them to change the future for the better! It's our responsibility. Thank you for always reminding us of the past and the present, and make us think of the future.
I read the book when it came out. I have been hanging my head ever since. Thank you, Professor.
There are, I fear, some very current potential ‘parallel's’ …..as usual Heather, serious thanks.
Many many years ago I read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
And so goes another night of unexpected learning yet more about our nation’s disgraceful past. The treatment of the Lakota fits into a long pattern of deceit and death that white people have never atoned for.
Heartwrenching. I’m hanging my head in shame as I learn more about this massacre.
"But it is never too late to change the future."
I agree, but we have to become more honest about human nature, both the horrifying side of it and and also the beauty and compassion also in the mix. We already know the formulas for collective sociopathy, and that one can ride the cosmic force of entropy as it's home court advantage. We have also seen barriers crumble when we enough of us are of a like mind and shared passion. The struggle continues.
Comment tangential to today's post, sorry, just wanting to share this thought with this community--I've read some commentary that enacting Art. 3 of Amendment 14 against Trump is somehow undemocratic. However, if we think of democracy as a living thing, then 14.3 is like part of democracy's immune system. Just as someone who has the flu gains antibodies that will help to resist the next exposure to the same strain of flu, so this part of the constitution is like an antibody which has now become activated because presented with the same threats as in the past.
Part of Woke needs to be awareness of the profound injustice done to indigenous peoples. This country was not founded just on chattel slavery, but on the genocide, physical and cultural, of the people who lived on this land for thousands of years before the Europeans invaded.
MAGA encompasses the same outlook and attitude that murdered the people at Wounded Knee.
Many of us thought we had put that part of our national character behind us. The 2016 election was a frightening reminder that we haven’t.
Thank you, HCR, again and again and again for the history lesson that shines a light on today.
So well said, so beautifully seen.Thank you as always.
Evening to All!
I remember well the spectacular and out of the blue best seller success of Dee Brown's "Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee". Even without reading the book at such a young age, I remember seeing it in bookstores and hearing of its text, being stunned by the tales of brutality and ugliness that jarred my young self. After all, at ten years old, I had only learned of the vaunted nature of the Louisiana Purchase, and the inevitable expansion of America, of the Civil War period jumping directly to the WWI period. I couldn't grasp what I realized later was a vast dichotomy between the conventional history and the actual, more complex history. I couldn't then, and can still not now fully grasp the fact that in our great Nation, there are other Nations, Indigenous Nations, that still exist within our geographical borders.
The Cowboys and Indians ethos, fully suffusing our collective culture at everyone's neighborhood movie house and infused with strongly subliminal Manifest Destiny, was so powerful that it took decades to even begin the process of removing the mote from our collective eyes.
Even today, there are most likely many of our fellow Americans who do not blink an eye upon hearing Phil Sheridan's infamous statement---"The only good Indian is a dead Indian".
Our Nation, born in the mixed fiery baptism of brilliant Enlightenment thinking and hard focused Revolution was a small Country of 3 million, clinging to the Atlantic seaboard within 13 states. In perhaps the most glaring example of "be careful for what you wish for" in history, within a quarter century we had expanded westward three times over due to the mutual interests of our burgeoning population's ambitions, and those of a Corsican warrior with short man's syndrome to garner funds for his ceaseless wars in Europe. Napoleon gave us the entire modern Midwest and eastern portion of the Mountain States, even though none of it was his to give.
A Nation that once honored the Iroquois for their political organizing and whose principles we adopted, and whose first national holiday of Thanksgiving honors the generosity of the Powhatan and others, gradually turned to the darkest of rationalizations for taking the lands of those similarly indigenous North American peoples who just happened to be in our way.
Treaty upon innumerable treaty broken, promise upon innumerable promise forgotten, ethnic cleansing begun with Jackson in Florida and Georgia, repeated over and over again upon far more Trails of Tears than just those trod by the Cherokees and Creeks.
We took their land, their sustenance and even tried to take their pride.
And this isn't just "history".
It was only recently that the professional football team in our Nation's Capital finally found the grace to change their name from the disgraceful epithet, "Redskins". It was only recently that the team that has long played in the great industrial City on the shores of Lake Erie changed their name from "Indians". Even now, the Atlanta Braves and their horrifically racist tomahawk chop, and the Kansas City "Chiefs", with their fabulous defending champion team and their top notch celebrity follower refuses to make the simple changes necessary to return just a bit of dignity to those who have suffered so long.
And finally, as at least one other contributor has commented, still sits Leonard Peltier in a federal prison, all these near half century of years later, like "Buddha in a ten foot cell, an innocent man in a living hell."
Or as was otherwise sung,
"Good Morning America, how are ya?! Say don't you know me, I'm your NATIVE SON?"