 |
Add to My Group
2
2
1
View Ratings |
Rate It
Fate of Lakotahs Highlights America's Failed Native American Policies
By Stephen Lendman (about the author) Page 3 of 6 page(s)
Nowhere does it say "We the People" are the chosen few or that the minimum function of government is less than to insure the "general welfare" as stated in the Preamble and Article I, Section 8 as follows:
"The Congress shall have power to....provide for....(the) general welfare of the United States" - the so-called welfare clause for all its citizens.
Nowhere does it sanction rampant crime, unequal justice, political or corporate corruption, dishonest officials, raging social problems, the right to ignore the law, or to be able to slaughter and abuse its Native people. Nonetheless, it happens. Most egregiously to native Indians for over 500 years and counting.
Before early Europeans arrived, the Americas (North and South by expert estimates) were home to over 100 million indigenous peoples. From 1492 to 1892, US Census Bureau figures showed less than 250,000 survived. Or put another way - white Europeans committed the greatest ever genocide that was rivaled only, but not equaled, by the one against black Africans who were stolen into slavery for the "new world." Millions of them died during capture and the Middle Passage.
Our Native peoples in even greater numbers - victimized by ritual slaughter. By being hacked apart, buried alive, trampled under horses, hunted as game and fed to dogs, shot, beaten, stabbed, and even scalped for bounty or as trophies. They were also hung on meathooks like beef, thrown into the sea from ships (the way blacks were), worked to death as slaves, starved, frozen to death during forced marches and internments, and infected with deadly diseases. Our disturbing "civilization" that's untaught in American schools, and when it is Indians are the villains and the settlers their victims. History on its head the way Hollywood portrays it and still does.
Ward Churchill recounts otherwise about what he calls "the American holocaust" and compares it to the Jewish one under the Nazis. He explains that:
"Distinctions....between right, center, left and extreme left in the US are quite literally nonexistent on the question of genocide of indigenous peoples. From all four vantage points, the historical reality is simultaneously denied, justified, and in most cases celebrated (or just forgotten. But preposterous as these arguments are, all of them are) outstripped by a substantial component of zionism which contends not only that the American holocaust never happened, but that no 'true' genocide has ever occurred, other than the Holocaust suffered by the Jews" in Nazi Germany.
It's an all too familiar pattern of historical revisionism or denial to view one people's ordeal as important, preeminent or unique and another's as non-existent - depending, of course, on who suffered and who caused it. After WW II, Zionist Jews copyrighted Hitler's genocide, rebranded it "The Holocaust," framed it as a one-off event, and created the myth of unique Jewish suffering.
The Plight of the Lakotah People
The Republic of Lakotah web site recounts it from the first official political and diplomatic contacts "between Lakotah and the (US) government began in earnest after the United States (completed) the (so-called) Louisiana Purchase in 1803."
It refers to "fantasy" US history about the purported French sale of 530 million acres for a mere $15 million - part of which belonged to Lakotahs who weren't consulted or consented to the transaction. The first "peace and friendship" treaty followed in 1805. Like others later on, it was systematically ignored and violated as settlers invaded, encroached, and occupied Lakotah lands.
Throughout the 19th century, the US government "engaged in multiple military, legal and political strategies....to deny Lakotah our right to freedom and self-determination." Even after the Supreme Court's 1883 Ex Parte Crow Dog decision, it persisted. The Court recognized Lakotah freedom and independence in ruling that tribes held exclusive jurisdiction over their internal affairs. It didn't matter as in 1885 Congress passed the Major Crimes Act to extend US jurisdiction into Lakotah territory, and more egregious actions followed.
One was the 1903 Supreme Court Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock decision that recognized near absolute plenary congressional power over Indian affairs, virtually exempt from judicial oversight. It was an outrageous ruling to let the government freely expropriate tribal lands and resources on the pretext of fulfilling its federal trust responsibilities. Quite simply, it empowered Washington and rendered Indians impotent over their own internal affairs, with no rights of any kind without Washington's permission.
This ruling was then used to violate hundreds of treaties between the government and indigenous peoples, including Lakotahs. As a result, the sacred Black Hills were stolen along with billions of dollars of resources from them. America was on the move. Lakotahs were in the way, so they were shoved aside through all the various ways described above.
Today, the Republic of Lakotah explains the "Genocidal Results of the Failed American Indian Policies of the United States" under the following headings:
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
 Contact Author |
Contact Editor |
 View Authors' Articles |
by Christopher Vecsey
$5.95
Number of pages: 2
Publisher: Theological Studies, Inc.
$16.95
Lowest New Price $8.18
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Nation Books
$69.99
Number of pages:
Publisher: Nation Books
by Marijo, edtor Moore
$79.99
Number of pages:
Publisher: Thunders Mouth Press
| 14 comments |
Want to post your own comment on this Article? 
|
||||
|
||||||||||||||
Well Said (0) 
News (0) 
Touching (0) 
Funny (0) 
Interesting (0) 
Inspiring (0) Tell a Friend:
|
Copyright © 2002-2009, OpEdNews |
