While I am grateful that President Biden offered this apology, all know that it was too long in coming. As a citizen with Cherokee heritage, I have long been aware of the appalling treatment of indigenous Americans...and blacks...and ... and ...and... the list seems endless, and all a product of a false assertion that white European Christian culture is superior to all others. And it's still driving our politics...which is disgusting and infuriating.
And what President Biden has done and acknowledged is but a drop in the bucket. I seriously doubt anything more will be done for the American indigenous peoples under Trump.
Agree. The disgusting incoming “administration” will focus solely on white upper middle to billionaire class males and the “poor” treatment they have received for the last few years in being canceled, so to speak. Poor things.
And just wait until someone finds a huge oil or silver or gold or rare earth deposits on Native American lands. We'll see the so-called treaties/promises broken again & the people moved out so that development of the natural resources will be permitted, you know for the 'good of the population' as a whole & it's just a happy coincidence that the modern day Robber Barons will once again make a killing (quite possibly in every respect of the word!)!
I learned some exciting news yesterday that while fossil fuel companies bullying has indeed succeeded in getting candidates like DT elected all over the planet, demand for fossil fuel has now plateaued and is predicted to decline due to the rapid and exponential adoption of green energy — which is proving increasingly efficient and cheaper…
Susan, that’s extremely interesting. China’s … as you’re aware….ahead of us in this. I watched an NPR, think it was an excellent Nova program on the rise of Xi Jinping (not for the faint of heart!) last night, that included the fast forward of electrification. However, it also and mainly highlighted the repression of every single soul within the grasp of Xi. You may well know that there’s an ongoing attempt to destroy the predominant Muslim culture so reminiscent of what we’ve done to the original people here. If you haven’t watched it, I recommend you do.
I think the context was their objections to DT undoing some of the projects in the Inflation Reduction Act related to climate change. Apparently they are banking on money from that.
Interesting comments. Tariffs on Canadian exports means a tax on the 25% of our oil and gas usage. Doesn’t that mean more US drilling in places like Utah’s sensitive lands and Theodore Roosevelt NP in North Dakota? ND’s new governor is an oil and gas industry owner and there’s no stopping the industry now.
Count on it. This administration has treated the First Nations with dignity and respect. The next will not. It is up to us the keep this dialogue alive.
Gigi, that’s no surprise, the media has barely covered any of Biden’s accomplishments the last four years. I believe we’re can thank them, once again, for trump.
Louis Giglio, Wouldn't it be interesting if said workers disappeared themselves in solidarity with the so-called invaders targeted for internment and/or deportation? A Day Without a Mexican is currently unavailable to stream... such a surprise.
Lauren Lundgren: for what it’s worth, I checked with several of my libraries to see if any still have copies of A Day Without a Mexican. Los Angeles County Library has seven copies of the 2004 movie and I have reserved one.
I may go screaming crazy while I watch it, but I vaguely remember hearing about it and always wanted to see it. Thank you for reminding me of it!
Good post and thanks for the quote from W, though I’m suspicious he thinks “The Haves” includes people living in poverty, the working poor and the lower middle class. I’m open to correction if wrong.
Can't and wouldn't even if he could, Richard. Why can't half the flipping populus see something as clear as daylight- He doesn't, and CAN'T. CARE about ANYTHING or ANYONE but HIMSELF. (A complete mystery to the maga masses.)
You're judging Trump much too harshly. He also cares about anyone who can do anything that serves his interests. And, to show how that care crosses class boundaries, it includes the faceless servant who brings him his next fizzy water.
Of course, everyone knows his interest in the servant will vanish as soon as Trump gets what he wants from him. But the big shots gathering around Trump don't realize that their fate will be exactly the same, someday.
I agree. Reparation is a long time coming but the compass was set in the right direction. Now, we have to simmer for two years and hope voting wont be nullified.
So many benefitted from Biden era plans and yet, still voted for Trump because of repeated lies.
I'm not sure if the US Federal government will ever do reparations to affected groups, but at the least the government should build up these communities and help them grow to make up for the opportunities they lost, actually invest and build these places and people up.
Philly, I didn’t know that, I’m shocked. trump has no respect for the law or treaties. If it serves his purpose, he will drill where he wants. Anything, to make money for himself and this billionaire friends.
The following is a footnote to my composition requesting the president to pardon or offer clemency to Native Indian activist, Leonard Peltier. It would be a fitting act as he ends his public life. Bill Clinton had a pardon on the table in 2000 when 400 FBI agents walked in front of the White House as a protest. They have held back evidence that you free Leonard.
Leonard Peltier was falsely convicted of conspiracy in the deaths of 2 FBI agents in 1975 on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Even his prosecutor now regrets the conviction. The government wanted someone to pay for the crime and they found it in Leonard and he has paid for more than 45 (now 50) years in prison. That’s called political imprisonment. We call on the president to pardon Leonard so he can spend what little time he has remaining, with his family and friends. "Mr. President Please Pardon Leonard Peltier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8ell2BLzNA
I have tried to jump start a concert in Washington and also to take out a full page in the Washington Post ($100,000) but so far, no takers. I contacted Steven Van Zandt who has written passionately of Leonard hoping something might happen. I don’t know if his management ever passed my email on. Yesterday I asked Amnesty International to spearhead such an event. I’m waiting. I wish I had thought of that when I wrote the song 2 years ago.
Bill Clinton withdrew his freedom papers after FBI walked 400 in mass. Yet he pardoned a tax cheat who had donated to his campaign. I have no respect for Clinton never did.
Bear in mind, we are all illegal aliens having stole lands from those who were here first. But that is the perennial position of humanity isn’t it. We are a migratory species firs descending from trees then to caves and crevices in the earth.
I am more than disappointed that HCR did not use the occasion of lauding Biden’s positive approach to Native American policies to at least mention Leonard and the injustice and inhumanity he suffers.
True. But we could probably begin to suspect who Biden really is when he squashed Anita Hill. And then when he lied about being a transition president.
True true. Biden has never been someone I was thrilled to have to vote for as President but of course the alternative was so much worse that there really was no choice. I have been saying this ever since Biden used his position in the Senate to help get Clarence Thomas onto the Supreme Court, just one of the many things Biden's legacy will always be tainted with.
Agree. Often, I’m for want to vote for the lesser evil although I wouldn’t suggest Biden is evil. Just the lesser of the bad. I was relatively satisfied with Obama but… he opened a war effort in Libya and destabilized the region. Who knows. I was dead set against withholding a no NATO pledge to Putin since Ukraine was never a worthy candidate anyway.
And really when it comes down to it, most political leaders have an ugly side that they carefully hide. The trick is to pick once again, the lesser ugly.
Agree. Whenever I have criticized Biden here, I’ve gotten much flack for it. When he first announced running for president in 2015, and then his son died, the Clinton’s met him on their planes and no one knows what was said but later, Biden withdrew. My wild guess is that Biden was bought off with Clinton’s offering unlimited government research money to end cancer.
I would point to my proposed AFSFA (A Fresh Start For America) which requests Biden prior to leaving office to issue a blanket pardon for ALL Americans, including federal prisoners as well as anyone who might be charged with federal crimes for acts committed prior to Jan 20, 2025 (Biden's last day in office). It would be VERY wide ranging but very effective for blocking any Trump effort to scapegoat people who supported our democracy over the last four years.
It has risks as all "blanket" actions do, but I believe the risks (freeing some peopke currently in federal prison for actual crimes) are outweighed by the benefits (eliminating any Trump retribution on prior who served our country and whom Trump had threatened to scapegoat with arrest and indictment and possibly imprisonment).
It sounds overreaching and in some ways it is, but it is likely completely legal and within the Presidents pardon power. And it will almost completely defuse Trump's ability to use the federal judicial system to attack his perceived "enemies".
What's more it would force Trump to actually immediately start governing rather than waste time on political retribution. And we ask know Trump clearly doesn't really want to govern.
Jon.. so how're you gonna protect the prosecutors who put those"Americans" in the clink? The un-ethical ones might pay a price, and rightly so. Got any more ideas?
FBI refuses to reveal the evidence or lack thereof even today lawyers are attempting to get it. They just want to run out the clock. After his passing, the evidence will come out. The FBI has a history of injustice we know that from the civil rights period.
Fear? I’m not a conspiracy theorist but I would put it past them to engage.i mean, who really killed Malcolm X? I think the authorities did and used the conflict X had with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Yes... the list seems endless... because it probably is. Will our political leaders (those who still believe in democracy) ever have the humility to admit how much they need to learn if they are going to save this nation? I don't have much hope of this happening. They are too wedded to the existing system of power. The hope I do have comes from believing a bottom-up transformation may be coming.
Yes, the political leaders are reprehensible but let's not forget that just about 1/2 the people that voted, voted for a felon, pathological liar, adjudicated molester, a con artist, a theif & an overall disgusting excuse for a human being. It's not just the political leaders that need changing, it's the mindset of Americans in general. I'm 76 & I remember my Mom telling me over & over that, like Rome, the US would rot from within & it's playing out for the entire world to see! That song "Proud to be an American" needs to be updated to reflect what we have become. Our heroes that fought fascism in WWII must be rolling in their graves to see the likes of trump & his cronies in the government. And just wait til the round ups begin!!!
I’m 79, and I’ve been thinking the same thing. They truly were the Greatest Generation. My three uncles were there, the sons of Italian immigrants, and my grandparents was so proud of them and of being an American. It was by grace of God, they all came home. However, their younger brother was old enough to serve in Korea, and was wounded, but recovered. They’re all gone now. What did they fight for? It was thrown away.
Steve, can you say more about democratic leaders need to learn and what a bottom-up transformation would be like? I’m afraid I am this morning, like Winnie the Pooh, “…a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.”
'Heartbreaking' is reading Dee Brown's "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee"... Having been a Pioneer at Vaunted Institutions, and have felt like a 'Token Indian', the Struggle Goes On...
For what it is worth, I hear you. And so admire the resilience you seem to have developed against such unjust odds. I grew up in an area of Maine where the Penobscot call home: “Indian Island” was the pejoratively laden common place name for their diminished lands. The racism, condescension and discrimination was palpable. (I also had a younger brother with roots in the western indigenous peoples but and was lumped under the same umbrella and had the same spectrum of hate to utter ignorance directed at him in schools and sports.
I was raised in Nebraska and have been fortunate to have known many Native Americans of several tribes. I have learned so much about being a good person from my limited time with Sioux, Omaha, Sac & Fox, Winnebago, Cherokee and others. Thank you Dr. Richardson for reminding us of the horrible way Americans have ALWAYS treated indigenous people.
I understand. It's so heartless and cruel....and none of us were taught this before college....and even then back in the 70's we were just starting to illuminate the realities. Before It was all about "Manifest Destiny".
Indeed. One of my ex-students asked me what I had learned about local Native Americans. Practically nothing I said although some rivers, parks, cities named after them.
Anyone interested in the topic of U.S. government treatment of indigenous Americans, especially the lack of respect for its own treaty agreements, should read Bury My Heart; well researched, well written, and available at your local library.
On top of the cultural genocide, the boarding schools were rife with physical/sexual abuse and neglect of the children, causing many to die and intergenerational trauma among those who survived.
As a community health nurse, I had one case years ago of a Native woman with what appeared to be fetal alcohol effects, if not full fetal alcohol syndrome. She was able to function well independently possibly because, when she was young, she was taught those "menial tasks" such as cleaning and cooking in an Indian boarding school.
MaryPat, we have a local boarding school, Chemewa, not far from us. It now has newer buildings and I am not sure where the students come from of what happens there. A tribe owns the land at the end of our street where they want to put a casino which is still unresolved as other tribes with reservation casinos oppose it. Personally, I wish they would do something else other than a casino, but we will see.
I worry as well with a heartless administration about to move into control in January, what additional appalling treatments may further come. Bless you and yours.
I find it hard to believe that many of America's white Christians are so oblivious to the harm they perpetrated on the Native peoples of this land. I've heard people say that was 150 years ago. Get over it...or I didn't do it...but as a country we still make their lives difficult in so many ways.
That fits right in with the right not wanting anything taught or read in schools to make little white kids 'feel uncomfortable'. Feeling uncomfortable as we learn harsh truths is part of growing up and ensuring the bad history won't be on repeat.
Mike, they are oblivious to a lot of things including the harm that Europeans have done, not only here, but all over the world. This kind of harm lasts forever and the Native Americans now are not going to get over it nor is anyone who supports them.
We got a lot of the "colonial fervor" of our British ancestors. They really thought the world was theirs for the taking...and all of the non white folks were supposed to serve the King...and they built up the most advanced Navy in the world to make it possible....and the Dutch, French, Spanish all played along...but the Crown of England perfected subjugation.
Joanne, I am reading a book called Ancestors which is focused on primarily Neolithic sites in the UK, but mentions sites all over Europe. A couple sites show violence on large scale and now only the technology has changed and has become much more lethal.
Some have not evolved...and yes things are just the same...for that reason. People refuse to change because they have been brainwashed by media that being angry and hating others because your life sucks is the answer. The anger and hate reflects their own anger and hate toward themselves and everyone else.
I found her book too hard to read but since I saw the film "Origin" which is the biography of Wilkerson's life during the time she had published her first book and why she wrote Caste - I saw the film 3 times and it is currently my all time favorite film - Ava Duvernay brilliantly directed it - stunning film - a must see!!!
When a group has the power to subjugate others, those wielding that power inevitably develop a sense of superiority. This perceived superiority often leads to abuse. History offers countless examples of such dynamics, where the targets are typically minorities lacking the resources to defend themselves against impending subjugation.
Joe Biden may not be a perfect man, but he damn well was a nearly perfect president for ALL of us. Now "we" may have voted to willingly walk off of a cliff. Biden kept us from falling into the maga-fascist abyss as long as he could. I'm tired of people's ingratitude towards a brave, decent American president......maybe the LAST one.
To use a hackneyed expression, Biden (and his administration) speak with a forked tongue. The apology is not backed by meaningful actions such as giving native people sovereignty over their own lands or paying meaningful reparations. We colonialists need to stop with the self-congratulatory rhetoric
Infrastructure as reparations, don’t make me laugh! White man’s projects like pipelines through native territory, unwanted interstate highways, ICBM silos, and the like. Last time I checked, none of the infrastructure programs passed under Biden’s presidency had native pre-approval.
The very least we can do is to restore all the land promised them but later siezed, and gerrymander Congressional districts so that Native Americans are guaranteed a significant voice at both the state and national level.
The reason I’m against reparations are several but if you do it for one you do it for all. Too, those alive today weren’t the ones harmed. Also, this is an issue that splits us apart and we need to unite. also, who will pay for it? I don’t want to. And neither do you. Reparations aid not a smart avenue to go down in my opinion.
" those alive today weren’t the ones harmed." oh yes, they were...they have been, every single person that is descended from the native peoples, the "First Nations". and the kidnapped and enslaved peoples brought here from Africa has born the horrific generational trauma inflicted by the European "conquerors". The question to ponder is what is the best way to make the reparations.....
Enslavement of blacks, destruction of indigenous American culture, internment of Japanese citizens - not German citizens - are not coming from the assertion of superiority of white European Christian culture, but rather from lack of true understanding of Christian faith resulting in "fear of other cultures" on the part of those in power who are mostly white. Just a thought.
Janelle Mahoney -- Deep thanks to you for your comment to HCR. (IMO, Heather's letter today for me is one of the most important that she has ever written. ) It was/is an opportunity to discuss our early history, and learn more, without **any** need or invitation to mention HWSNBN. I am as always disheartened to see how the discussion below turns away from HCR's actual topic.
Gail, maybe we should begin asking why others are republican as a first Stepin reforming our ideals. Please take the blinders off and began questioning and then taking issues that sound reasonable and incorporating them. This is what wise people do.
I really don’t know what you’re asking Bill, but if it’s the why of their position it’s because they, like other members of their generation, are dedicated Fox viewers, and wholeheartedly embrace otherism and christian nationalism.
Success in politics is a continual adjustment or tweaking of positions and one hopeful outcome is success on Election Day. Representatives understand this but maybe the general public doesn’t.
Or perhaps that continual tweaking leads to abandonment of progress, the motivating factor reduced to winning. Capitulation for the sake of populism and victory. Sad.
This was a tough read. While I grew up in NYC, I retired to a small town on Route 66 in Oklahoma that borders the Sac and Fox Nation (best known for being where Jim Thorpe was born). I have respected Native America culture since childhood, when I found a book that explained the truth behind the story told about Manhattan being "sold" to the Europeans for thirteen dollars. Learning that Native Americans did not believe in "owning" land and had thought the Europeans were honoring their stewardship of the land with the gift changed my young mind... because I then understood that the Europeans had not cared they were dealing with an obviously foreign culture enough to learn what cultural differences might exist. And "not believing land can be owned" was certainly a BIG difference. But back to the history presented by Heather here, we now have proof that "separating children from their parents" isn't just what Trump did to the people at America's southern border. That act disgusted many of us... but actually fit our historical pattern of behavior. What behavior? We don't care about anyone who isn't just like us. We - as a nation - have a LOT of growing up to do. The humility Joe Biden demonstrated in apologizing could set an example for the nation. But I fear it will be lost in the larger struggle we face between forces of democracy and fascism. If I could wave a magic wand, that humility would extend to the leaders of the Democratic Party... who need to acknowledge that their party is run by people who (truth be told) only care about their own power. (ex: Look at how AOC is held back from contributing the true leadership she has to offer by a "Top down / wait your turn / we know what's best" party leadership. Sorry to go on a bit of a rant here. But America is historically such a mess. And that mess will only be cleared up when we stop saying "We are the beacon to the world" and instead say "We have a lot to learn from the rest of the world... including from the Native Americans who truly know what it means to be stewards of the future".
Well said. For some reason many white American Christians believe everyone should be JUST like them, with no respect for their centuries old cultures and spiritual beliefs. They immigrated here for religious freedom...but don't believe in it for anyone else.
I’m not sure what “Christian” meant to those re-educating the children, but I doubt it was about kindness and generosity. Sexual abuse was reportedly common in the schools, as well as harsh physical punishment. The tribal community near me is teaching their youth whatever traditions and language the community can find teachers for. Many were lost all around the country in the boarding school system, and are quite old now. It’s wonderful to see the road signs going up in the native language of those who have lived here for so very long!
A valuable comment, but I'm curious about your use of "our" and "we." Almost from the beginning, "we" has expanded to include some who started out as "other," aka "not-us": noticeably the Irish and the Italians and anyone who was white enough and/or willing to obscure their "ethnic" family names. And women are rarely fully incorporated into the body politic unless they attach themselves to a man, customarily obscuring the name they grew up with.
Now please write about the good of America. Every single Nation, Community, Family and Individual is a mixed bag of deeds that ranges from evil to the holy.
Maybe, just maybe when Americans stop hating on America we will stop electing bastards.
No one asked you to apologize for anything either now or in the past. These are not just good thoughts. It is called balance.
I repeat:
"Now please write about the good of America. Every single Nation, Community, Family and Individual is a mixed bag of deeds that ranges from evil to the holy."
Thank you for reminding me about a memoir I read in the early 1990's in an Environmental Ethics class, "The Education of Little Tree." I was in my early 50s. The impact this book had on me remains today as I prepare myself for the next four years. Long forgotten is the fact that we are only stewards of the land and not the owners and should only take what is needed to survive.
Dems rarely fight back, just plod on doing the work, for the most part. Rupert has never had to answer for the lies, slander and propaganda…. The court case had the effect of a gnat on his crocodile skin. Since he has no heart or soul, nothing to cause him distress or motivate a change.
This may not have made your local papers, but it was widely covered in both Texas and on the Cape. Linda Coombs, an Aquinnah Wampanoag tribal member who lives in Mashpee, was asked to write a book on the history of colonization in the United States that would be appropriate for middle school children. When an anonymous complaint stated that the book, Colonization and the Wampanoag Story, had been erroneously classified and demanded that it be moved to the fiction section of the library, it was moved without consultation with the librarians. It has since been moved back to the non-fiction section, but this is just one small reminder of the ongoing attempts to erase Indigenous people's reality.
I will miss Joe very much. People will soon miss this time of prosperity, decency and calm. I so wish someone in the Democratic Party would step up, become the voice for Democrats and to speak up about the crazy scary stuff coming. Otherwise, the Democrats are about to get blamed for all the bad things.
Yes, Democrats will be blamed for the failures of the new administration. It's always been part of Trumps playbook. Try to stay positive and stay in forward gear because things will turn in time but not without pain and suffering. We've been here before.
Thank you for your kind words. I am always positive and moving forward. Are we as a Country primed to do that? I don't think we have been here before Chris. The totality of the vote, the complete takeover of the reins of Government by fascists and the implementation of Project 2025 spell a historical challenge for the United States. I bet I am not the only person walking around with a chronic pit in their stomach.
Give it a year or less,and I'm being generous, most Americans will know that they've been gaslighted. The outrage and pushback on Republicans in Washington will be fierce. Americans may just come together for the first time in many years.
A respectful and serious question for you Chris. People already knew from his first term he was a nightmare. He won the popular vote--a real nightmare statement for sure. Just how bad does it have to get for Americans to wake up?
That is a very good question. I hope, with all my heart, that within a year, people will recognize the truth. I also know that people can become so attached to an abuser that they come to prefer the abuse to creating conflict.
The incoming train wreck isn’t going to be easy to watch and accept! For the wrong reasons, they’ll not be forgotten either! I keep waiting for the Trump crowd to implode!🤞🤞🤞
Ok guys. I'll go with you on this one. Fingers crossed people rebel against the nightmare that is headed our way. I doubt there will be one untouched group of people from his Administration.
There are good reporters making sure the Biden admin. gets the credit for what will be coming to fruition next year and years after. Speaking of the Sec. of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg may be that spokesperson we need.
Sorry, Biden may get accolades but only because his replacement is so much worse. In a fair independent evaluation, Biden has no right to a "positive" legacy. As president he has done some good things but his overall political career has been in support of the oligarchy (both left AND right), the worst act being his support for the appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court despite the alarming Anita Hill revelations. Thomas should have been absolutely rejected and we are paying the price for Biden's sycophancy to this very day. He gets little political sympathy for me given the disastrous results of many of the things he supported over the years.
Such long-lost history needs to be recovered or not buried. Kudos to Biden for acknowledging it. And to think Native Americans did not receive US citizenship until 1924. There's so much we weren't taught in high school history classes. https://jimbuie.substack.com/p/native-americans-struggled-for-us
Jim - citizenship, yes 1924 but the right to vote for indigenous people has been a challenge - less a challenge in 2020 than ever before. I do not have the stats on 2024.
As you no doubt know, Heather, this abominable plan schooling plan took root in Canada, too, and destroyed (and continues to destroy) thousands and thousands of lives. The generational trauma is deep and will take many more years to fade—if ever.
Jesus, F'n Christ. Boarding schools? What about the Indian Removal Act of 1835? The seizure of Native American lands that had been owned communally for 12,000 years can never be rectified. Never.
What the attempted genocide of the adults didn’t accomplish, the imprisonment of children in boarding schools largely and nearly did, and is a huge factor in the struggles of today’s
residents on the remaining tribal lands. The children were “trained” to do domestic work for non-existent jobs (no whitey would hire them of course), it infantilized the entire culture in the minds of the American culture as a whole - both progressive and conservative - and those now-grown young adults returned to tribal lands with no language of their own families and elders, no knowledge of their own deep histories, and no skills required by their own communities.
Any who read Dr. Richardson’s pieces are well aware of the processes white American governments/soldiers did to create the enslavement of the Tribal Peoples.
Few, however, know more than they were “sent to boarding schools to learn skills”. A lie, a travesty and a disgrace to white America continuing into the 70s.
And today.
This is the current Army War College description of the history of the Indian Schools.
Is it history, or is it a reminder of how then it was normal to do as the U.S. billionaires who want to go forward with their again-elected convicted criminal in chief now set themselves to consign many more former working class Americans into the menial work, penury, serfdom, and helplessness in their future as Heather describes as routine for treating other Americans in the past?
DJT's Have's, and Have More's, are essentially the New Feudal Lords.... They are 'Dark Siths'... Didn't the Feudal Lords own the People that worked their Lands?
Serfdom formally abolished in 1861 under Alexander II. The ensuing history of Russian politics from that point seems, to me, still anchored in this. They have had brief moments of democracy, but are still a people under totalitarianism.
In 2005, while working at Arizona State University, I was invited to join a Steering Committee for American Indian Studies since I had recently made responsible for the Labriola National American Indian Data Archive. Before attending my first meeting I met with Peterson Zah, former Chairman and first President of the Navajo Nation, who had taken on a role as Special Advisor to the ASU President on Indian Affairs. As a white American from New England, I wanted his advice on my role in this planning group.
Dr Zah had attended the Phoenix Indian School in the 1950s. He noted that only a small percentage of American Indian students enrolled at ASU completed a full course of studies and that this was the major issue on the agenda. He explained that, as a boy, he had been taken from his home in Window Rock, AZ, to attend the boarding school in Phoenix. He was away from family, disallowed from speaking his own language, eating unfamiliar food. He ran away from the school and walked the 375 miles home only to be returned to the school, where he was sometimes handcuffed to his desk to prevent him from escaping again,
He saw this kind of experience as what education meant to native people; that many continued to see it as a bad thing because of how it forcibly removed people from their land, their home, their language, their culture. This was the legacy of the Indian schools, and leaving home for university education carried many attributes of the kind of experience Zah himself experienced.
None of this had bene known to me at the time and hearing it from Dr Zah was hugely impactful. It was all I needed to know to understand the challenge in front of the American Indian Studies group I was joining.
Thank you for reaching out to Dr. Zah. It shows your heart and desire to honor the truth and make a significant difference in the lives of the Native American students attending ASU and prayerfully with a larger percentage of individuals finishing!
I grew up in a place where a dam was built in the 70s.
The only place upriver that they found suitable was an old Native American settlement. They bought out everyone there at... what they claim was market prices. Then, they didn't even really bother to raze the settlement or tear things down or otherwise... show any respect to the history. They just flooded it.
The people in that settlement had a treaty that dated back nearly 200 years. A river kept flooding, so it had to be stopped, and of course they were the ones who gave up land to do it. Shows you how little these treaties meant, even when, as the local historical society loved to inform us on this topic, they were signed by Washington himself.
Treaties with Indigenous Peoples have always been disregarded, basically not worth the paper on which they were written. White Europeans coming to the Americas were generally intent on subjugating or eliminating the native peoples. Racism is America’s founding value.
As a child I heard kids call someone “an Indian Giver!” I assumed that meant Indians took things away. After high school I read Centennial by Michener and learned that white men were the “Indian Givers” by reneging on the treaties with the Native Americans. I didn’t learn this history in my schooling. I was heartbroken to learn what white men did to the Native Americans and literally cried reading it.
That’s a lot of heartbreak and terrible wrong that has been done and I am grateful Biden has taken action to soothe their sorrows and assist in their recovery of this travesty. Thanks so much Heather for tonight’s highly detailed letter which needed to come to light. You help our nation heal every day with your courageous efforts to shed light on greatness that might otherwise be overlooked, another reason too why Substack is vital to this effort as well 🌻🥁🕯️❤️👏
Jim Thorpe attended this Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
He was the first Native American to win Olympic gold (two of them, in the 1912 games). He also played professional football, professional baseball, and professional basketball in his long American athletic career after those Olympics.
I now live in Oklahoma next to the Sac and Fox Nation... home to Jim Thorpe. What an amazing example he was... and how much I wish America's leaders had learned from his example.
Sadly that’s often true. Who was the comedian who said in the 70’s that ‘blacks have come a long way… on TV.’ First Americans even less so. The caste system continues, with more fine examples of leadership, integrity and accomplishment among POC that just seem to inspire fear and spite in a large percentage of Americans. President Obama is an obvious example—but so many more…What a nation we could be if we acknowledged our past, celebrated our diversity and imagined a future built on the strengths of all our peoples.
One way of honoring those Native Americans who were treated so poorly is not just to apologize to them but to LEARN from them. I invite you all to seek out videos of Chief Oren Lyons, who I first heard in 1991 at a symposium organized by John Denver. Here is a more recent speech at the annual Bioneers conference. He is in his 90s now. So much wisdom!
Thank you for this information, Heather. As a non-Native American, I think it’s important to learn all I can about what the original Americans endured. And hardly any of this was covered in my own education as a child. When you come back to my part of the country, I think you would love a visit to the Hibulb Cultural Center in Tulalip (maybe 30 min from me). Last time I visited, there was an excellent exhibit on the Tulalip Indian School and the atrocities that occurred there. It was very sad to learn about but so necessary to know. And I am so sorry that we will lose Secretary Haaland during the change in administration. She has been wonderful and is hard to replace.
Thank you, Heather and thank you, President Biden. Via our television, my wife and I witnessed and were moved by your - and our - apology, even if it came 90 years late.
I feel that Biden’s apology and transformational change for Indigenous People may unfortunately be in vain when Trump implements his immigration policies. Deportation and the separation of families will be another form of horrific mistreatment resulting in a continuation of generational trauma among people of color and vulnerable populations.
Native Americans can not get deported and the money is 'committed' so as a matter of law can not be 'clawed back' by the Orange clown. "$32 billion from the American Rescue Plan and $13 billion through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law". There are 954,791 Native Americans living on reservations, which means there is an infrastructure infusion of $47,131 per person, assuming the money is going to reservations! THAT is real money!
Laura: This concept is reprehensible and need not be promoted or assumed before the fact. Keeping hope in our hearts and collaborating with courage to a higher standard of consciousness rather than fear or cynicism will show us the way forward.
Perhaps this was a poor analogy, but the practice of separating families is what we have seen under Trump and what they are promising to do come January.
Laura - half the American people voted for this. There was a bill brought forward by republicans and dems on the border crisis that could have passed but the president-elect told the RNC not to vote on it and it failed. Now half of the American people will begin to see what they have wrought and perhaps stop supporting TFG’s lies. It’s a hideous situation.
While I am grateful that President Biden offered this apology, all know that it was too long in coming. As a citizen with Cherokee heritage, I have long been aware of the appalling treatment of indigenous Americans...and blacks...and ... and ...and... the list seems endless, and all a product of a false assertion that white European Christian culture is superior to all others. And it's still driving our politics...which is disgusting and infuriating.
And what President Biden has done and acknowledged is but a drop in the bucket. I seriously doubt anything more will be done for the American indigenous peoples under Trump.
Agree. The disgusting incoming “administration” will focus solely on white upper middle to billionaire class males and the “poor” treatment they have received for the last few years in being canceled, so to speak. Poor things.
And just wait until someone finds a huge oil or silver or gold or rare earth deposits on Native American lands. We'll see the so-called treaties/promises broken again & the people moved out so that development of the natural resources will be permitted, you know for the 'good of the population' as a whole & it's just a happy coincidence that the modern day Robber Barons will once again make a killing (quite possibly in every respect of the word!)!
This is already happening with lithium mining...
That has already happened. "Killers of the Flower Moon" excellent book and also film. about the Osage in Oklahoma when oil was found on their land.
Scratch any income level below billionaire! middle class no longer exists!
Reader/Writer -- there is no need at all to mention any other person in this discussion.
Cathy, I am no expert on this but I have read that his drill, baby, drill lust is intended to open up lands that are under tribal stewardship.
I learned some exciting news yesterday that while fossil fuel companies bullying has indeed succeeded in getting candidates like DT elected all over the planet, demand for fossil fuel has now plateaued and is predicted to decline due to the rapid and exponential adoption of green energy — which is proving increasingly efficient and cheaper…
Susan, that’s extremely interesting. China’s … as you’re aware….ahead of us in this. I watched an NPR, think it was an excellent Nova program on the rise of Xi Jinping (not for the faint of heart!) last night, that included the fast forward of electrification. However, it also and mainly highlighted the repression of every single soul within the grasp of Xi. You may well know that there’s an ongoing attempt to destroy the predominant Muslim culture so reminiscent of what we’ve done to the original people here. If you haven’t watched it, I recommend you do.
Thank you for your recommendation!
Is it this one? https://youtu.be/t4ew0cbG1IU?si=-fhF4i_8-PnFlhpV
Susan Coleman and Cindy del Valle, thank you for recommendation and link.
Ty. Will check it out
Thnx samani, will check it out. Yes, makes a good case for the efficiency of authoritarians. I’m a fan of the former, definitely not the latter….
Which of course is good news for all of us, but I suspect will not discourage the oil, gas and uranium industries that Trump will have to reward.
I have read that Exxon Mobil has been investing heavily in carbon sequestration and expects that market to be even more profitable than selling oil.
It’s a smokescreen … don’t fall for it.
I think the context was their objections to DT undoing some of the projects in the Inflation Reduction Act related to climate change. Apparently they are banking on money from that.
Interesting comments. Tariffs on Canadian exports means a tax on the 25% of our oil and gas usage. Doesn’t that mean more US drilling in places like Utah’s sensitive lands and Theodore Roosevelt NP in North Dakota? ND’s new governor is an oil and gas industry owner and there’s no stopping the industry now.
...
Wouldn’t be surprising.
Count on it. This administration has treated the First Nations with dignity and respect. The next will not. It is up to us the keep this dialogue alive.
And what a damn shame that Biden’s visits and speeches were barely covered in the media! I hope that money has been delivered and is not pending.
Gigi, that’s no surprise, the media has barely covered any of Biden’s accomplishments the last four years. I believe we’re can thank them, once again, for trump.
Gigi. They are too busy covering death star who is now acting like he is already president.
Also federal lands. Grrrrrr!
Correct
I doubt Mar-a-Lago has any Indigenous Members... Mar-a-Lago is DJT's base... Or as George W. Bush said. "The Haves, and The Have Mores'...
Tsar-a-Loco is what i call it.
Oh Michele, thank you, I really needed a laugh. Tsar-a-Loco😂😂
No, they use immigrants as their servants!
But those workers will NOT be deported!
Louis Giglio, Wouldn't it be interesting if said workers disappeared themselves in solidarity with the so-called invaders targeted for internment and/or deportation? A Day Without a Mexican is currently unavailable to stream... such a surprise.
Lauren Lundgren: for what it’s worth, I checked with several of my libraries to see if any still have copies of A Day Without a Mexican. Los Angeles County Library has seven copies of the 2004 movie and I have reserved one.
I may go screaming crazy while I watch it, but I vaguely remember hearing about it and always wanted to see it. Thank you for reminding me of it!
…onward and upward.
They are most likely undocumented and the wealthy will continue with that.
Good post and thanks for the quote from W, though I’m suspicious he thinks “The Haves” includes people living in poverty, the working poor and the lower middle class. I’m open to correction if wrong.
W…3rd generation politician suckled on the ample bosom of generational wealth! No concern for the have nots!
Like tRump cares about anyone other than himself?
I think that tRump is so handicapped by his malignant narcissism that he can't care for anyone else.
He is a pawn for Putin...Christian Nationalism...Opus Die cult......picking up underage girls......Depends.........McDonalds..........
Can't and wouldn't even if he could, Richard. Why can't half the flipping populus see something as clear as daylight- He doesn't, and CAN'T. CARE about ANYTHING or ANYONE but HIMSELF. (A complete mystery to the maga masses.)
Bullseye!
Exactly!
You're judging Trump much too harshly. He also cares about anyone who can do anything that serves his interests. And, to show how that care crosses class boundaries, it includes the faceless servant who brings him his next fizzy water.
Of course, everyone knows his interest in the servant will vanish as soon as Trump gets what he wants from him. But the big shots gathering around Trump don't realize that their fate will be exactly the same, someday.
Mobiguy, already a lot of people who have served him have found themselves under the bus. May need a second bus.
To quote Jaws, "[he's] gonna need a bigger boat."
Prayer hands on that🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼and the sooner the better that the revolving doors start to spin.
Apache, sadly and all too true😫
I agree. Reparation is a long time coming but the compass was set in the right direction. Now, we have to simmer for two years and hope voting wont be nullified.
So many benefitted from Biden era plans and yet, still voted for Trump because of repeated lies.
I'm not sure if the US Federal government will ever do reparations to affected groups, but at the least the government should build up these communities and help them grow to make up for the opportunities they lost, actually invest and build these places and people up.
At least President Biden had the guts to do it. He's amazing.
It's nuts to me that even Native Americans swung to vote more for Trump in this election as well.
Philly, I didn’t know that, I’m shocked. trump has no respect for the law or treaties. If it serves his purpose, he will drill where he wants. Anything, to make money for himself and this billionaire friends.
Cathy, yes I think we are going to see a lot of destruction under his appointees.
The following is a footnote to my composition requesting the president to pardon or offer clemency to Native Indian activist, Leonard Peltier. It would be a fitting act as he ends his public life. Bill Clinton had a pardon on the table in 2000 when 400 FBI agents walked in front of the White House as a protest. They have held back evidence that you free Leonard.
Leonard Peltier was falsely convicted of conspiracy in the deaths of 2 FBI agents in 1975 on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Even his prosecutor now regrets the conviction. The government wanted someone to pay for the crime and they found it in Leonard and he has paid for more than 45 (now 50) years in prison. That’s called political imprisonment. We call on the president to pardon Leonard so he can spend what little time he has remaining, with his family and friends. "Mr. President Please Pardon Leonard Peltier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8ell2BLzNA
We should all reach out to the President and our elected reps to FREE Leonard Peltier now.
I have tried to jump start a concert in Washington and also to take out a full page in the Washington Post ($100,000) but so far, no takers. I contacted Steven Van Zandt who has written passionately of Leonard hoping something might happen. I don’t know if his management ever passed my email on. Yesterday I asked Amnesty International to spearhead such an event. I’m waiting. I wish I had thought of that when I wrote the song 2 years ago.
Bill Clinton withdrew his freedom papers after FBI walked 400 in mass. Yet he pardoned a tax cheat who had donated to his campaign. I have no respect for Clinton never did.
Bear in mind, we are all illegal aliens having stole lands from those who were here first. But that is the perennial position of humanity isn’t it. We are a migratory species firs descending from trees then to caves and crevices in the earth.
I am more than disappointed that HCR did not use the occasion of lauding Biden’s positive approach to Native American policies to at least mention Leonard and the injustice and inhumanity he suffers.
YES to urging him to do the right thing. At last.
Mike, Biden has been informed repeatedly. If he doesn’t do it, it will reveal who Biden really is, in my opinion.
"who Biden really is"
True. But we could probably begin to suspect who Biden really is when he squashed Anita Hill. And then when he lied about being a transition president.
True true. Biden has never been someone I was thrilled to have to vote for as President but of course the alternative was so much worse that there really was no choice. I have been saying this ever since Biden used his position in the Senate to help get Clarence Thomas onto the Supreme Court, just one of the many things Biden's legacy will always be tainted with.
Agree. Often, I’m for want to vote for the lesser evil although I wouldn’t suggest Biden is evil. Just the lesser of the bad. I was relatively satisfied with Obama but… he opened a war effort in Libya and destabilized the region. Who knows. I was dead set against withholding a no NATO pledge to Putin since Ukraine was never a worthy candidate anyway.
And really when it comes down to it, most political leaders have an ugly side that they carefully hide. The trick is to pick once again, the lesser ugly.
Agree. Whenever I have criticized Biden here, I’ve gotten much flack for it. When he first announced running for president in 2015, and then his son died, the Clinton’s met him on their planes and no one knows what was said but later, Biden withdrew. My wild guess is that Biden was bought off with Clinton’s offering unlimited government research money to end cancer.
Interesting that my responses are word limited. If I write too lengthy, it won’t post. Anyone else have this issue?
Not only Free him (commute his sentence) but pardon him.
But in the least, give him brief but precious time with his family and people.
I would point to my proposed AFSFA (A Fresh Start For America) which requests Biden prior to leaving office to issue a blanket pardon for ALL Americans, including federal prisoners as well as anyone who might be charged with federal crimes for acts committed prior to Jan 20, 2025 (Biden's last day in office). It would be VERY wide ranging but very effective for blocking any Trump effort to scapegoat people who supported our democracy over the last four years.
It has risks as all "blanket" actions do, but I believe the risks (freeing some peopke currently in federal prison for actual crimes) are outweighed by the benefits (eliminating any Trump retribution on prior who served our country and whom Trump had threatened to scapegoat with arrest and indictment and possibly imprisonment).
It sounds overreaching and in some ways it is, but it is likely completely legal and within the Presidents pardon power. And it will almost completely defuse Trump's ability to use the federal judicial system to attack his perceived "enemies".
What's more it would force Trump to actually immediately start governing rather than waste time on political retribution. And we ask know Trump clearly doesn't really want to govern.
I see you’re in the music theater business so let’s organize a concert for Leonard, lol.
Jon.. so how're you gonna protect the prosecutors who put those"Americans" in the clink? The un-ethical ones might pay a price, and rightly so. Got any more ideas?
Even the Attorney General at the time - Ramsey Clark - said Peltier did not receive justice - the FBI wanted a scapegoat and they got one - in him.
FBI refuses to reveal the evidence or lack thereof even today lawyers are attempting to get it. They just want to run out the clock. After his passing, the evidence will come out. The FBI has a history of injustice we know that from the civil rights period.
Completely agree, it's long overdue as is compensation to Leonard and his family.
Why o why do Democrats allow a justly deserved pardon overturned by FBI agent protests....why don't we just do the RIGHT thing?
Fear? I’m not a conspiracy theorist but I would put it past them to engage.i mean, who really killed Malcolm X? I think the authorities did and used the conflict X had with the Muslim Brotherhood.
I left a message and emailed the White House comment line urging executive clemency. I urge others to do so too.
He is extremely aware so if he doesn’t, we see his true colors.
...
Yes... the list seems endless... because it probably is. Will our political leaders (those who still believe in democracy) ever have the humility to admit how much they need to learn if they are going to save this nation? I don't have much hope of this happening. They are too wedded to the existing system of power. The hope I do have comes from believing a bottom-up transformation may be coming.
Yes, the political leaders are reprehensible but let's not forget that just about 1/2 the people that voted, voted for a felon, pathological liar, adjudicated molester, a con artist, a theif & an overall disgusting excuse for a human being. It's not just the political leaders that need changing, it's the mindset of Americans in general. I'm 76 & I remember my Mom telling me over & over that, like Rome, the US would rot from within & it's playing out for the entire world to see! That song "Proud to be an American" needs to be updated to reflect what we have become. Our heroes that fought fascism in WWII must be rolling in their graves to see the likes of trump & his cronies in the government. And just wait til the round ups begin!!!
I’m 79, and I’ve been thinking the same thing. They truly were the Greatest Generation. My three uncles were there, the sons of Italian immigrants, and my grandparents was so proud of them and of being an American. It was by grace of God, they all came home. However, their younger brother was old enough to serve in Korea, and was wounded, but recovered. They’re all gone now. What did they fight for? It was thrown away.
Steve, can you say more about democratic leaders need to learn and what a bottom-up transformation would be like? I’m afraid I am this morning, like Winnie the Pooh, “…a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.”
That is, “…more about *what* democratic leaders need to learn…”
It is heartbreaking.
'Heartbreaking' is reading Dee Brown's "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee"... Having been a Pioneer at Vaunted Institutions, and have felt like a 'Token Indian', the Struggle Goes On...
Or watching "Little Big Man" or reading HCR's book "Wounded Knee: Party Politics and the Road to an American Disaster."
The Professor is one of the pre-eminent historians on Native Americans as most of you are aware.
Don’t bother with the movie, read the book. It’s so much better.
I was not, so thank you for sharing this.
For what it is worth, I hear you. And so admire the resilience you seem to have developed against such unjust odds. I grew up in an area of Maine where the Penobscot call home: “Indian Island” was the pejoratively laden common place name for their diminished lands. The racism, condescension and discrimination was palpable. (I also had a younger brother with roots in the western indigenous peoples but and was lumped under the same umbrella and had the same spectrum of hate to utter ignorance directed at him in schools and sports.
I was raised in Nebraska and have been fortunate to have known many Native Americans of several tribes. I have learned so much about being a good person from my limited time with Sioux, Omaha, Sac & Fox, Winnebago, Cherokee and others. Thank you Dr. Richardson for reminding us of the horrible way Americans have ALWAYS treated indigenous people.
It's one of the hardest books I've ever read...but everyone needs to read it.
I just ordered the book, am 84 and have never read it. Shame on me. I learn so much from the daily comments. Thank you.
No shame; you’re rectifying the situation.
I have a book that tells the story of the removal of Native Americans from the eastern United States and I still haven't been able to finish it.
I understand. It's so heartless and cruel....and none of us were taught this before college....and even then back in the 70's we were just starting to illuminate the realities. Before It was all about "Manifest Destiny".
Indeed. One of my ex-students asked me what I had learned about local Native Americans. Practically nothing I said although some rivers, parks, cities named after them.
Yes, I cannot even remember how many times I have read “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee” by Dee Brown. It is an incredible book and well worth the time.
Anyone interested in the topic of U.S. government treatment of indigenous Americans, especially the lack of respect for its own treaty agreements, should read Bury My Heart; well researched, well written, and available at your local library.
This should be required reading for every young adult in order to receive a high school diploma or GED.
Exactly the word I was going to use, "heartbreaking."
On top of the cultural genocide, the boarding schools were rife with physical/sexual abuse and neglect of the children, causing many to die and intergenerational trauma among those who survived.
As a community health nurse, I had one case years ago of a Native woman with what appeared to be fetal alcohol effects, if not full fetal alcohol syndrome. She was able to function well independently possibly because, when she was young, she was taught those "menial tasks" such as cleaning and cooking in an Indian boarding school.
MaryPat, we have a local boarding school, Chemewa, not far from us. It now has newer buildings and I am not sure where the students come from of what happens there. A tribe owns the land at the end of our street where they want to put a casino which is still unresolved as other tribes with reservation casinos oppose it. Personally, I wish they would do something else other than a casino, but we will see.
I worry as well with a heartless administration about to move into control in January, what additional appalling treatments may further come. Bless you and yours.
But they want to install a theocracy according to Project 2025. How can they be heartless? /S
The democratic Republic of the United States was inspired by the Iroquois Confederation.
I find it hard to believe that many of America's white Christians are so oblivious to the harm they perpetrated on the Native peoples of this land. I've heard people say that was 150 years ago. Get over it...or I didn't do it...but as a country we still make their lives difficult in so many ways.
That fits right in with the right not wanting anything taught or read in schools to make little white kids 'feel uncomfortable'. Feeling uncomfortable as we learn harsh truths is part of growing up and ensuring the bad history won't be on repeat.
Bullschitt reason to cover for power plays. Kids are not offended by truth, the parents are
Bingo!
You have to be carefully taught… for better or worse
Ain’t that the truth?!?
Mike, they are oblivious to a lot of things including the harm that Europeans have done, not only here, but all over the world. This kind of harm lasts forever and the Native Americans now are not going to get over it nor is anyone who supports them.
We got a lot of the "colonial fervor" of our British ancestors. They really thought the world was theirs for the taking...and all of the non white folks were supposed to serve the King...and they built up the most advanced Navy in the world to make it possible....and the Dutch, French, Spanish all played along...but the Crown of England perfected subjugation.
Have you read Caste by Isabelle Wilkerson...explains a good deal.....and yes, it's revolting that we have not evolved as a species.
Joanne, I am reading a book called Ancestors which is focused on primarily Neolithic sites in the UK, but mentions sites all over Europe. A couple sites show violence on large scale and now only the technology has changed and has become much more lethal.
Some have not evolved...and yes things are just the same...for that reason. People refuse to change because they have been brainwashed by media that being angry and hating others because your life sucks is the answer. The anger and hate reflects their own anger and hate toward themselves and everyone else.
I found her book too hard to read but since I saw the film "Origin" which is the biography of Wilkerson's life during the time she had published her first book and why she wrote Caste - I saw the film 3 times and it is currently my all time favorite film - Ava Duvernay brilliantly directed it - stunning film - a must see!!!
When a group has the power to subjugate others, those wielding that power inevitably develop a sense of superiority. This perceived superiority often leads to abuse. History offers countless examples of such dynamics, where the targets are typically minorities lacking the resources to defend themselves against impending subjugation.
tRump would NEVER apologize for anything. Rule #1 from Roy Cohn.
Joe Biden may not be a perfect man, but he damn well was a nearly perfect president for ALL of us. Now "we" may have voted to willingly walk off of a cliff. Biden kept us from falling into the maga-fascist abyss as long as he could. I'm tired of people's ingratitude towards a brave, decent American president......maybe the LAST one.
There is only practically perfect. Nothing on this earth is flawless....
Absolutely...the Canadians made their apology a few years ago, too. Why has it taken us so long? Disgusting and infuriating for sure.
To use a hackneyed expression, Biden (and his administration) speak with a forked tongue. The apology is not backed by meaningful actions such as giving native people sovereignty over their own lands or paying meaningful reparations. We colonialists need to stop with the self-congratulatory rhetoric
Reparations? No we can’t open that can of worms. Building infrastructure are reparations
Infrastructure as reparations, don’t make me laugh! White man’s projects like pipelines through native territory, unwanted interstate highways, ICBM silos, and the like. Last time I checked, none of the infrastructure programs passed under Biden’s presidency had native pre-approval.
The very least we can do is to restore all the land promised them but later siezed, and gerrymander Congressional districts so that Native Americans are guaranteed a significant voice at both the state and national level.
The reason I’m against reparations are several but if you do it for one you do it for all. Too, those alive today weren’t the ones harmed. Also, this is an issue that splits us apart and we need to unite. also, who will pay for it? I don’t want to. And neither do you. Reparations aid not a smart avenue to go down in my opinion.
" those alive today weren’t the ones harmed." oh yes, they were...they have been, every single person that is descended from the native peoples, the "First Nations". and the kidnapped and enslaved peoples brought here from Africa has born the horrific generational trauma inflicted by the European "conquerors". The question to ponder is what is the best way to make the reparations.....
Enslavement of blacks, destruction of indigenous American culture, internment of Japanese citizens - not German citizens - are not coming from the assertion of superiority of white European Christian culture, but rather from lack of true understanding of Christian faith resulting in "fear of other cultures" on the part of those in power who are mostly white. Just a thought.
Ah, in a word, bigotry. Wide spread in this country from its very inception.
Janelle Mahoney -- Deep thanks to you for your comment to HCR. (IMO, Heather's letter today for me is one of the most important that she has ever written. ) It was/is an opportunity to discuss our early history, and learn more, without **any** need or invitation to mention HWSNBN. I am as always disheartened to see how the discussion below turns away from HCR's actual topic.
The irony is many are Republicans.
You’re right, Daniel. My husband’s tribe, in which he is tribal council speaker, contains many Trump supporters. SMH.
Gail, maybe we should begin asking why others are republican as a first Stepin reforming our ideals. Please take the blinders off and began questioning and then taking issues that sound reasonable and incorporating them. This is what wise people do.
I really don’t know what you’re asking Bill, but if it’s the why of their position it’s because they, like other members of their generation, are dedicated Fox viewers, and wholeheartedly embrace otherism and christian nationalism.
Success in politics is a continual adjustment or tweaking of positions and one hopeful outcome is success on Election Day. Representatives understand this but maybe the general public doesn’t.
Or perhaps that continual tweaking leads to abandonment of progress, the motivating factor reduced to winning. Capitulation for the sake of populism and victory. Sad.
This was a tough read. While I grew up in NYC, I retired to a small town on Route 66 in Oklahoma that borders the Sac and Fox Nation (best known for being where Jim Thorpe was born). I have respected Native America culture since childhood, when I found a book that explained the truth behind the story told about Manhattan being "sold" to the Europeans for thirteen dollars. Learning that Native Americans did not believe in "owning" land and had thought the Europeans were honoring their stewardship of the land with the gift changed my young mind... because I then understood that the Europeans had not cared they were dealing with an obviously foreign culture enough to learn what cultural differences might exist. And "not believing land can be owned" was certainly a BIG difference. But back to the history presented by Heather here, we now have proof that "separating children from their parents" isn't just what Trump did to the people at America's southern border. That act disgusted many of us... but actually fit our historical pattern of behavior. What behavior? We don't care about anyone who isn't just like us. We - as a nation - have a LOT of growing up to do. The humility Joe Biden demonstrated in apologizing could set an example for the nation. But I fear it will be lost in the larger struggle we face between forces of democracy and fascism. If I could wave a magic wand, that humility would extend to the leaders of the Democratic Party... who need to acknowledge that their party is run by people who (truth be told) only care about their own power. (ex: Look at how AOC is held back from contributing the true leadership she has to offer by a "Top down / wait your turn / we know what's best" party leadership. Sorry to go on a bit of a rant here. But America is historically such a mess. And that mess will only be cleared up when we stop saying "We are the beacon to the world" and instead say "We have a lot to learn from the rest of the world... including from the Native Americans who truly know what it means to be stewards of the future".
Well said. For some reason many white American Christians believe everyone should be JUST like them, with no respect for their centuries old cultures and spiritual beliefs. They immigrated here for religious freedom...but don't believe in it for anyone else.
I’m not sure what “Christian” meant to those re-educating the children, but I doubt it was about kindness and generosity. Sexual abuse was reportedly common in the schools, as well as harsh physical punishment. The tribal community near me is teaching their youth whatever traditions and language the community can find teachers for. Many were lost all around the country in the boarding school system, and are quite old now. It’s wonderful to see the road signs going up in the native language of those who have lived here for so very long!
A valuable comment, but I'm curious about your use of "our" and "we." Almost from the beginning, "we" has expanded to include some who started out as "other," aka "not-us": noticeably the Irish and the Italians and anyone who was white enough and/or willing to obscure their "ethnic" family names. And women are rarely fully incorporated into the body politic unless they attach themselves to a man, customarily obscuring the name they grew up with.
Sadly, that Brookings Institute report from the 30s would have been considered as "woke", part of the Left's betrayal of "white America"....
"But America is historically such a mess."
Now please write about the good of America. Every single Nation, Community, Family and Individual is a mixed bag of deeds that ranges from evil to the holy.
Maybe, just maybe when Americans stop hating on America we will stop electing bastards.
I applaud your good thoughts. On the other hand, I will not apologize for hating Jim Crow back in the day.
No one asked you to apologize for anything either now or in the past. These are not just good thoughts. It is called balance.
I repeat:
"Now please write about the good of America. Every single Nation, Community, Family and Individual is a mixed bag of deeds that ranges from evil to the holy."
"a mixed bag of deeds that ranges from evil to the holy"
If we don't call out, confront, and fight against the evil, we put "the holy" at risk.
Thank you for reminding me about a memoir I read in the early 1990's in an Environmental Ethics class, "The Education of Little Tree." I was in my early 50s. The impact this book had on me remains today as I prepare myself for the next four years. Long forgotten is the fact that we are only stewards of the land and not the owners and should only take what is needed to survive.
Dem leaders don’t deserve your harsh words.
An example of why we lost. Unbelievable how much people hate on this Country and love scapegoating Democrats.
Dems rarely fight back, just plod on doing the work, for the most part. Rupert has never had to answer for the lies, slander and propaganda…. The court case had the effect of a gnat on his crocodile skin. Since he has no heart or soul, nothing to cause him distress or motivate a change.
This may not have made your local papers, but it was widely covered in both Texas and on the Cape. Linda Coombs, an Aquinnah Wampanoag tribal member who lives in Mashpee, was asked to write a book on the history of colonization in the United States that would be appropriate for middle school children. When an anonymous complaint stated that the book, Colonization and the Wampanoag Story, had been erroneously classified and demanded that it be moved to the fiction section of the library, it was moved without consultation with the librarians. It has since been moved back to the non-fiction section, but this is just one small reminder of the ongoing attempts to erase Indigenous people's reality.
Ignorant and entitled.....a horrible combination
Sad
On going and with malice
And intent, JD.
So right. They are laser-focused on intent.
Reported on NPR which is also in the cross hairs of ethnocentric, hypocritical MAGAs.
Here's the link to the piece on WCAI, one of our NPR stations on the Cape and Islands: https://www.capeandislands.org/text/local-news/2024-10-30/controversy-over-book-on-history-of-wampanoag-and-colonization-at-texas-library
Thanks Betsy !
Betsy. 😫😢
Gonna miss Joe!
I will miss Joe very much. People will soon miss this time of prosperity, decency and calm. I so wish someone in the Democratic Party would step up, become the voice for Democrats and to speak up about the crazy scary stuff coming. Otherwise, the Democrats are about to get blamed for all the bad things.
Yes, Democrats will be blamed for the failures of the new administration. It's always been part of Trumps playbook. Try to stay positive and stay in forward gear because things will turn in time but not without pain and suffering. We've been here before.
Thank you for your kind words. I am always positive and moving forward. Are we as a Country primed to do that? I don't think we have been here before Chris. The totality of the vote, the complete takeover of the reins of Government by fascists and the implementation of Project 2025 spell a historical challenge for the United States. I bet I am not the only person walking around with a chronic pit in their stomach.
Anyway. Have a good day.
Give it a year or less,and I'm being generous, most Americans will know that they've been gaslighted. The outrage and pushback on Republicans in Washington will be fierce. Americans may just come together for the first time in many years.
A respectful and serious question for you Chris. People already knew from his first term he was a nightmare. He won the popular vote--a real nightmare statement for sure. Just how bad does it have to get for Americans to wake up?
That is a very good question. I hope, with all my heart, that within a year, people will recognize the truth. I also know that people can become so attached to an abuser that they come to prefer the abuse to creating conflict.
1. Many if not most voters use emotions instead of reasoning.
2. Many have short attention spans. Often we want to look back at familiarity rather than the unknown.
3. Social Media is the big elephant in the room that distorts
I think Ally said said it best Barbara.
Harris DJT vote totals today on NYT are
49.9% Trump; 50.1% not Trump
48.3% Harris
1.6% Other;
Less than half of voters voted for Trump, so how is that a "mandate" to wreck the republic!
The incoming train wreck isn’t going to be easy to watch and accept! For the wrong reasons, they’ll not be forgotten either! I keep waiting for the Trump crowd to implode!🤞🤞🤞
Ok guys. I'll go with you on this one. Fingers crossed people rebel against the nightmare that is headed our way. I doubt there will be one untouched group of people from his Administration.
There are good reporters making sure the Biden admin. gets the credit for what will be coming to fruition next year and years after. Speaking of the Sec. of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg may be that spokesperson we need.
I'll nomonate Jamie Raskin, Gretchen Whitmer, Pete Buttigieg, Mitch Landrieu, Sen. Mark Kelly, and loads more
Sorry, Biden may get accolades but only because his replacement is so much worse. In a fair independent evaluation, Biden has no right to a "positive" legacy. As president he has done some good things but his overall political career has been in support of the oligarchy (both left AND right), the worst act being his support for the appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court despite the alarming Anita Hill revelations. Thomas should have been absolutely rejected and we are paying the price for Biden's sycophancy to this very day. He gets little political sympathy for me given the disastrous results of many of the things he supported over the years.
As well as Pete Buttigieg and Jake Sullivan to name a couple of others.
Pete was able to oversee the clean-up of the Baltimore bridge collapse, several train derailments and over 90,000 infrastructure projects.
I can't begin to imagine all of the red tape he has dealt with in his 3 1/2 years as transportation secretary.
And what did Trump do with our infrastructure? Showed us his fat ass as he climbed into the cab of a semi. That's something none of us needed to see.
Well said.
Such long-lost history needs to be recovered or not buried. Kudos to Biden for acknowledging it. And to think Native Americans did not receive US citizenship until 1924. There's so much we weren't taught in high school history classes. https://jimbuie.substack.com/p/native-americans-struggled-for-us
Jim. Are these things taught in high school classes now?
Depends on which state. In NC, when I did a unit on Native American history, a white student laughed and said, "I thought we killed them all."
Jim - citizenship, yes 1924 but the right to vote for indigenous people has been a challenge - less a challenge in 2020 than ever before. I do not have the stats on 2024.
As you no doubt know, Heather, this abominable plan schooling plan took root in Canada, too, and destroyed (and continues to destroy) thousands and thousands of lives. The generational trauma is deep and will take many more years to fade—if ever.
And here in Sweden…a sordid history with the Sami.
Sweden too? Oh no...
Here is some English accessible story on the Sami : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5287168/ and https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Stolen/Ann-Helen-Laestadius/9781668007167
Thank you.
I had no idea! Thanks, I’ll definitely check this out!
Jesus, F'n Christ. Boarding schools? What about the Indian Removal Act of 1835? The seizure of Native American lands that had been owned communally for 12,000 years can never be rectified. Never.
Maybe the US simply needs to give it back? All of it.
What the attempted genocide of the adults didn’t accomplish, the imprisonment of children in boarding schools largely and nearly did, and is a huge factor in the struggles of today’s
residents on the remaining tribal lands. The children were “trained” to do domestic work for non-existent jobs (no whitey would hire them of course), it infantilized the entire culture in the minds of the American culture as a whole - both progressive and conservative - and those now-grown young adults returned to tribal lands with no language of their own families and elders, no knowledge of their own deep histories, and no skills required by their own communities.
Any who read Dr. Richardson’s pieces are well aware of the processes white American governments/soldiers did to create the enslavement of the Tribal Peoples.
Few, however, know more than they were “sent to boarding schools to learn skills”. A lie, a travesty and a disgrace to white America continuing into the 70s.
And today.
This is the current Army War College description of the history of the Indian Schools.
https://www.armywarcollege.edu/ciis/index.cfm
What is this Heather is writing about today?
Is it history, or is it a reminder of how then it was normal to do as the U.S. billionaires who want to go forward with their again-elected convicted criminal in chief now set themselves to consign many more former working class Americans into the menial work, penury, serfdom, and helplessness in their future as Heather describes as routine for treating other Americans in the past?
DJT's Have's, and Have More's, are essentially the New Feudal Lords.... They are 'Dark Siths'... Didn't the Feudal Lords own the People that worked their Lands?
Serfs in Russia were bound to the land. never to have to have any opportunities or freedom of movement, except to work for the aristocrats.
Serfdom formally abolished in 1861 under Alexander II. The ensuing history of Russian politics from that point seems, to me, still anchored in this. They have had brief moments of democracy, but are still a people under totalitarianism.
Phil, the answer is “yes”. Or both.
In 2005, while working at Arizona State University, I was invited to join a Steering Committee for American Indian Studies since I had recently made responsible for the Labriola National American Indian Data Archive. Before attending my first meeting I met with Peterson Zah, former Chairman and first President of the Navajo Nation, who had taken on a role as Special Advisor to the ASU President on Indian Affairs. As a white American from New England, I wanted his advice on my role in this planning group.
Dr Zah had attended the Phoenix Indian School in the 1950s. He noted that only a small percentage of American Indian students enrolled at ASU completed a full course of studies and that this was the major issue on the agenda. He explained that, as a boy, he had been taken from his home in Window Rock, AZ, to attend the boarding school in Phoenix. He was away from family, disallowed from speaking his own language, eating unfamiliar food. He ran away from the school and walked the 375 miles home only to be returned to the school, where he was sometimes handcuffed to his desk to prevent him from escaping again,
He saw this kind of experience as what education meant to native people; that many continued to see it as a bad thing because of how it forcibly removed people from their land, their home, their language, their culture. This was the legacy of the Indian schools, and leaving home for university education carried many attributes of the kind of experience Zah himself experienced.
None of this had bene known to me at the time and hearing it from Dr Zah was hugely impactful. It was all I needed to know to understand the challenge in front of the American Indian Studies group I was joining.
Thank you for reaching out to Dr. Zah. It shows your heart and desire to honor the truth and make a significant difference in the lives of the Native American students attending ASU and prayerfully with a larger percentage of individuals finishing!
I grew up in a place where a dam was built in the 70s.
The only place upriver that they found suitable was an old Native American settlement. They bought out everyone there at... what they claim was market prices. Then, they didn't even really bother to raze the settlement or tear things down or otherwise... show any respect to the history. They just flooded it.
The people in that settlement had a treaty that dated back nearly 200 years. A river kept flooding, so it had to be stopped, and of course they were the ones who gave up land to do it. Shows you how little these treaties meant, even when, as the local historical society loved to inform us on this topic, they were signed by Washington himself.
Treaties with Indigenous Peoples have always been disregarded, basically not worth the paper on which they were written. White Europeans coming to the Americas were generally intent on subjugating or eliminating the native peoples. Racism is America’s founding value.
As a child I heard kids call someone “an Indian Giver!” I assumed that meant Indians took things away. After high school I read Centennial by Michener and learned that white men were the “Indian Givers” by reneging on the treaties with the Native Americans. I didn’t learn this history in my schooling. I was heartbroken to learn what white men did to the Native Americans and literally cried reading it.
Me, too!!!!!
This happened in ND also.
That’s a lot of heartbreak and terrible wrong that has been done and I am grateful Biden has taken action to soothe their sorrows and assist in their recovery of this travesty. Thanks so much Heather for tonight’s highly detailed letter which needed to come to light. You help our nation heal every day with your courageous efforts to shed light on greatness that might otherwise be overlooked, another reason too why Substack is vital to this effort as well 🌻🥁🕯️❤️👏
Here's "before and after" photos of a Native American boy who went to the Carlisle Indian School. The school motto was “Kill the Indian, save the man.” The school goal was to "Drive the Indian" out of its students. https://forgottenfiles.substack.com/p/kill-the-indian-save-the-man-c1882
Jim Thorpe attended this Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
He was the first Native American to win Olympic gold (two of them, in the 1912 games). He also played professional football, professional baseball, and professional basketball in his long American athletic career after those Olympics.
I now live in Oklahoma next to the Sac and Fox Nation... home to Jim Thorpe. What an amazing example he was... and how much I wish America's leaders had learned from his example.
They did: individual token examples allow broader patterns of travesties to continue unabated.
Cynical but I think true in many cases.
Sadly that’s often true. Who was the comedian who said in the 70’s that ‘blacks have come a long way… on TV.’ First Americans even less so. The caste system continues, with more fine examples of leadership, integrity and accomplishment among POC that just seem to inspire fear and spite in a large percentage of Americans. President Obama is an obvious example—but so many more…What a nation we could be if we acknowledged our past, celebrated our diversity and imagined a future built on the strengths of all our peoples.
Yes, I think much of Trump’s support in 2016 was a direct racist backlash to President Obama being Black. Some things some people simply cannot abide.
"celebrated our diversity and imagined a future built on the strengths of all our peoples"
That Black Female running for president in 2024 gave the country an opportunity to do this and voters turned her down.
Path lit by Lightning is an excellent biography of Jim Thorp
I did not realize he attended that school
It is a story of triumph followed by tragedy
One way of honoring those Native Americans who were treated so poorly is not just to apologize to them but to LEARN from them. I invite you all to seek out videos of Chief Oren Lyons, who I first heard in 1991 at a symposium organized by John Denver. Here is a more recent speech at the annual Bioneers conference. He is in his 90s now. So much wisdom!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj5bxLEoL0M
Thank you for this information, Heather. As a non-Native American, I think it’s important to learn all I can about what the original Americans endured. And hardly any of this was covered in my own education as a child. When you come back to my part of the country, I think you would love a visit to the Hibulb Cultural Center in Tulalip (maybe 30 min from me). Last time I visited, there was an excellent exhibit on the Tulalip Indian School and the atrocities that occurred there. It was very sad to learn about but so necessary to know. And I am so sorry that we will lose Secretary Haaland during the change in administration. She has been wonderful and is hard to replace.
Thank you, Heather and thank you, President Biden. Via our television, my wife and I witnessed and were moved by your - and our - apology, even if it came 90 years late.
I feel that Biden’s apology and transformational change for Indigenous People may unfortunately be in vain when Trump implements his immigration policies. Deportation and the separation of families will be another form of horrific mistreatment resulting in a continuation of generational trauma among people of color and vulnerable populations.
Native Americans can not get deported and the money is 'committed' so as a matter of law can not be 'clawed back' by the Orange clown. "$32 billion from the American Rescue Plan and $13 billion through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law". There are 954,791 Native Americans living on reservations, which means there is an infrastructure infusion of $47,131 per person, assuming the money is going to reservations! THAT is real money!
Thank you.
Laura: This concept is reprehensible and need not be promoted or assumed before the fact. Keeping hope in our hearts and collaborating with courage to a higher standard of consciousness rather than fear or cynicism will show us the way forward.
Perhaps this was a poor analogy, but the practice of separating families is what we have seen under Trump and what they are promising to do come January.
Laura - half the American people voted for this. There was a bill brought forward by republicans and dems on the border crisis that could have passed but the president-elect told the RNC not to vote on it and it failed. Now half of the American people will begin to see what they have wrought and perhaps stop supporting TFG’s lies. It’s a hideous situation.
That’s the plan man