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November 21, 2008 at 05:10:53
Promoted to Headline (H2) on 11/21/08: by Stephen Lendman Page 1 of 6 page(s) |
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On November 6, South Dakota's governor Michael Rounds declared a state of emergency as heavy snow blanketed the state and threatened all parts of it - including Native American reservations.
They, however, were excluded from his declaration. They'll get no badly needed help, and it's an all too familiar story for our nation's original inhabitants. They've been abused and slaughtered for over 500 years. At Mabila, Acoma Mesa, Conestoga, the Trail of Tears, Pamunkey, Mystic River, Yellow Creek, Sand Creek, Gnadenhutten, and Wooded Knee. At far too many other places as well at a cost of many millions of lives, now forgotten and erased from memory.
Worst still, our Native people continue to be systematically repressed and mistreated. They live in poverty and despair. They're mocked and demonized in films and society as drunks, beasts, primitives, savages, and people to be Americanized or warehoused on reservations and forgotten.
Their cultures are willfully denegrated. Their legacy is one of millions slaughtered, betrayal, treaties made and broken, stolen lands, rights denied, and welfare criminally ignored to this day.
The Lakotahs are one of many examples, and the Republic of Lakotah web site highlights their plight. It welcomes "all self-sufficient People who come with an open Heart, a Passion for Freedom and a Love for Grand Mother Earth."
In a commentary titled "Broken Promises & Laws," it describes a Broken People whose lands were stolen, buffalo massacred, people slaughtered, and who were herded onto reservations in violation of Treaties successive US governments signed and then abrogated.
The Treaty of 1851, for example, in which the government requested a right-of-way for a road through Lakotah lands to the newly-discovered Montana gold fields. It became known as the Bozeman Trail to be used only until all gold was removed. By the Civil War it was gone and the government reneged. Forts were erected on its right of way. Lakotahs demanded they be removed. The US refused, war ensued, and it ended with the Treaty of 1868.
It stated that "The government of the United States desires peace, and its honor is hereby pledged to keep it." It also re-affirmed all rights the Indians were granted under the 1851 Treaty. Those rights and all others were abrogated and denied.
Western North and South Dakota Lakotahs are one of seven Sioux tribes comprising the Great Sioux Nation and are best known by their redoubtable leaders - Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud and Black Elk, among others. Names even young school children know but not their heroic feats and the great price they and their people paid.
Before the 1770s, Sioux held territories from Minnesota to the Rocky Mountains and from the Yellowstone to the Platte Rivers. Until the Treaty of 1868, they were the richest Native American nation of the northwestern plains, but years earlier their lives were irrevocably changed. Treaties were made and broken. Settlers, railroads, and mining interests took their lands and resources.
In 1874, General George Custer invaded the most sacred Lakotah territory, the Black Hills (Paha Sapa), and with him came gold seekers. An illegal occupation followed along with billions of dollars of stolen resources and great numbers of lives lost. All in the name of progress to colonize the continent's West. All at the expense of our Native peoples who lost everything as a result.
The earlier 1787 Northwest Ordinance was deceptive on its face. Supposedly to afford Indians "justice (and) humanity," it, in fact, expanded the nation to admit new states on stolen Native American lands. Wars followed. Broken promises and treaties as well in violation of Article 6 of the Constitution that states:
"This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land" - binding without qualification on the executive, legislature and judiciary.
The Sioux acted in good faith to avoid confrontation, but in vain. The executive, Congress, and judiciary denied them their lands, vital resources, and basic rights through a succession of repressive laws:
-- Homestead Acts - for settlers only that gave them title to 160 acres of "underdeveloped" land outside the original 13 colonies; 1.6 million in all got around 270 million acres, or 10% of all US land between 1862 - 1886;
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| 14 comments |
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Once again an applaud to you.
The first time I visited Oped an article about the North American Union written by you caught my eye. I printed that article and must have read it 3-4 times because it was all new to me. Since that time I have been a constant visitor to this site. I always enjoy your articles and especially this one. It just boggles my mind that we see nothing of the plight of the Lakotahs during their time of need in the MSM. Reading your artilce I could not help but wonder will Obama promote more Native Americans in his new administration. If he did I think that would be one of the biggest steps for change this nation could witness. Please keep up the good work with your enlightening articles. by Sharon Roach (15 articles, 0 quicklinks, 7 diaries, 184 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 9:30:12 AM  (0+)
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Reply: Lakotahs
Many thanks about one of many important topics for me, including NAU that's big and unreported. As for Obama, judge him by the company he keeps, meaning the names popping up for top posts. Not very encouraging, and I see him as Clinton II with "war goddess" Hillary at State. She and others are very scary. by Stephen Lendman (357 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 84 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 9:36:10 AM (0+)
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I Lived On
a Lakotah Rez for a bit as for no apparent reason I arrived there one evening. There is a general store on that Rez. On the outside of the General Store was a picture of man that was hand drawn & proffesionally hand drawn. The strange thing is the picture looked almost exactly like me? The evil that men do they can only do in this world. No matter the Titles men confer upon themselves, the worldly power & wealth they amass upon the earth they still can't take it with them. Worldly men who plot & scheme their evil upon the earth have never had any problems finding & seducing followers of their evil plots & schemes. Life is good. by shadow dancer (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1115 comments [121 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 12:34:14 PM (0+)
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I am so sick and tired of this...
Politicians all give verbage stating that they intend to help the Native American nations, and every time these promises are made, they are broken. by steve scheetz (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 829 comments [52 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 2:56:00 PM (0+)
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Maybe...
...during our next election we will have a Native American running for office. I'd vote for them. It might be the only way the plight of their people would get noticed. However, I feel they just might have too much pride to want to lower themselves to take part in the very institution that has killed so many of their people. by Ginger McClemons (17 articles, 1 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 101 comments [25 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 4:56:03 PM (0+)
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Fate of the Lakotahs and all original people
I am still a bit mystified how the US could sit in judgment at Nuremberg after World War Two, judging Germany for its actions during the holocaust, when this country practiced genocide against the Native Americans and saw nothing wrong with that. by Rabbi (11 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 109 comments) on Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 6:11:18 PM (0+)
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Lakota and Others.
The Lakota are a more recent victum. The Hadanosini fought to depend their homeland for 250 years and then gave this nation it's form of government. We were among the first to sign a treaty with the US and Canada and those treaties have not been honored yet. by Robert N Smith (15 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 152 comments [3 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 8:13:03 PM (0+)
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Lies from Our Grandfathers
I have some Haudenosaunee ancestry as well- just enough to give my father an "olive complexion" and my son straight dark hair and eyes, but not enough to claim tribe. Friends of mine who are living on the rez call this the "wannabe" tribe. My grandfather, the side of the family this geneology was passed down through, called our NA ancestors "indiscretions" - "breeding" mistakes made by our Euro ancestors. That was the source of the only argument I ever had with him- man, was it a doozy. There has been so much lost, and there is so much we need to learn from the first peoples. Our ancestors who were such brutes and selfish pigs need to be given fewer pages in the history books. The people who have suffered at their hands need to be given more of them. Only when we get the story right will we be seeing clearly enough to solve the problems we've inherited along with all those lies. The ignorance that caused this terrible loss remains on the planet in ever-morphing form. The demons of today, by whatever name, are just the latest in the legacy of stupid hatred and destruction. In understanding the truth of things, we gain the only tool that can save us. Willful self-delusion is no longer an option. by Jennifer Hathaway (16 articles, 16 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 760 comments [220 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 8:33:37 PM (0+)
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Fate of Lakotahs
It doesn't help to go Wah, Wah, Wah year after year about native americans as it becomes sort of a macabre hobby to decry the fate of cultures that have been steamrollered by another. There is nothing moral in nature but there are many who attempt to apply artificial rules of morality to phenomena that just are. When a cougar runs down a deer or eats an occasional jogger people want to see it as evil when it is just following its instincts. Stripped of all their technology and timetables and artificial rules, humans are animals too following urges to survive. For the past several hundred years, overpopulations of Europeans and Asians have followed a tendendy to push into underpopulated parts of the earth or to push out populations that were vulnerable. Remember the Goths, and the Visigoths and the Mongols and the Vandals from your European History? Well guess what? They pushed their way to North and South America too. If you feel guilty about what happened to native americans since the European invasion it is probably because you are affected by a judeo-christian belief system. Once you have everything you want and are not threatened by native inhabitants, you have the luxury of feeling bad about their circumstances. It was the kindly christians who lovingly set aside god-awful plots of land for the indians so they would have their own place to live. It was also hoped that they would quietly die off after a time but in the meantime we would send in food and minimal assistance. Native americans did not die primarily of violence by whites but largely by disease that they had no resistance to. The Mandan of the central Dakotas were numerous and powerful and could easily defeat the Lakotah and Cheyenne to their south until smallpox almost completely eliminated them. So, what is the answer? I think we should abrogate every treaty that was ever negotiated. They are anachronisms designed 300 years ago to isolate native americans on something akin to large concentration camps. The U.S. treats the indians as if they can't be trusted to manage their own circumstances. We need to turn the reservations over to native peoples to be held as legal corporations with control over their resources, property and income. If they want casinos, these could be grandfathered into the charters. If they want to sell the whole damned thing to Exxon Mobile and move to Miami, fine. Some reservations are remarkably successful. The Crow Reservation in Montana is a good example. But other reservations are just places where people are robbed of their dignity, trapped by minimal government payments, faced with incredibly high unemployment rates and alcoholism and resigned to the idea that things will never improve. The welfare reform that moved people from assistance to work and dignity in urban areas during the nineties never came to the reservations. It is ugly and we should stop it. by Bryan Emmel (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 415 comments [32 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Nov 22, 2008 at 2:18:11 AM (0+)
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great article, Stephen
And this short article will help explain why the Lakota are so very sick compared to other populations: a nuclear genocide that is ongoing- http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2008/10/10-3 Bonnie Raitt and others have rallied around Pine Ridge on this issue. Here is also a video of the Lakota healing garden with John Trudell- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JyBE53RTjA The horse soldiers did it to the Hawaiians with depleted uranium too, it is ongoing here downwind of the firing ranges. Stole the Nation of Hawaii at gunpoint in 1893, stole the sovereigty of another recognized nation, annexed the land for a military base, and trashed it with nuclear weapons like the Davy Crockett backpack tactical nuclear weapon system. Every native people has learned to their regret that white men speak with a forked tongue. Sadly, Mr. Obama, who was born in Hawaii, seems to have not the slightest clue about any of this and the military in Hawaii plan only to increase live fire, even though the County of Hawaii has passed a Resolution 631 to halt live fire and to address the DU contamination. They simply won't do it and are presently conducting an insidious, phony PR campaign to coopt the Hawaiian people to allow more desecration of the sacred aina. When will it stop? When will the treaties like the Hague Convention on occupied territories that the US has signed and is bound to honor under its Constitution, be followed? Meanwhile the genocide of native peoples goes on irrevocably every day in the US, probably the most criminal nation in world history. by io (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 100 comments [11 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Nov 22, 2008 at 3:07:44 AM (0+)
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If You Look
where your govt is now in many nations you find historically it is just an extension of subjegating other peoples in other lands either through covert or overt manners including those who say these things are illegal under national & international laws. At stake oil, oil pipelines, control of govts, natural resources & peoples. Worldy power & worldly money. In prophecy these things may be related to Mystery Babylon, & the Beast Kingdoms that will form the globalist system of the Beast some refer to as the New World Order? Your nation may be Mystery Babylon or perhaps the Beast Kingdom that speaks like a Lamb but acts like a Dragon. Native prophecies include the coming of the Europeans & that they will say love & peace but fasley & cause the Native Tribes great misery. Or the false use of Creator/God's name merely to seduce people & perpetrate human evil upon others through religion & the nation state. A native prophecy is about a great war towards the end of the world/age in this land. The Native people's are not supposed to take any part in this war, but to take to the hilly ground (mountains) where they will be those of other races who have woke up & will not join in the fighting between the Red Snake (possibily Russia & China) and the White Snake. (US) Another snake called the Black Snake will also fight the White Snake. This may be both other races that do not like the white race or govt, or a combination of white people & other races that have turned against their govt seeing their govt become the NWO. The peoples who have woke up will take to the hilly ground during this fighting then the Prophet will return like lightning from east to west to pick them up as these Snakes/Beast war against one another. by shadow dancer (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1115 comments [121 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Saturday, Nov 22, 2008 at 3:22:15 AM (0+)
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Fate of Lakotahs
Bryan, you are an idiot. You have never lived on a reservation nor stayed for any time on one. How dare you judge what you know nothing about. Natives take care of the land, yes even the land they were forced on. They love the land. Stop with your stereotyping. As far as genocide, it continues even today. You would never believe what goes on created by the government and if the natives do get ahead, there is the fed or state trying to get it away from them. As far as natives not having enough money to back politicians, you are wrong on that point. A few years ago , natives gave three thousand dollars of PAC money to the democrats and immediately after the election, the Republicans tried to outlaw any native PAC money for politicians. As anyone knows, three thousand dollars is chicken feed to republicans but they made a mountain out of nothing anyway. Bryan, I challenge you to go work on a reservation in public service or for a tribe for one year and see if your attitude and intelligence doesn't change. Natives DO NOT get hand outs. Any money they get is for leasing grazing land, agricultural lands, timber, water rights and other things. They aren't allowed to make their own dealings so it comes from the BIA UNDER GOVERNMENT CONTROL. That is why all you white people think they get "hand outs". And just to show you how nice it is...the BIA has embezzeled 500Billion dollars in a hundred years of Native monies that they were suppose to be monoriting. The US government make sure that Natives are kept in control. Half of some of the nations don't have heat or running water or indoor plumbing. I f allowed to hunt, they can get meat. If allowed to fish, they have fish. They have survived. Might I add that no white people I know would last under this many years of abuse. by sandy valencour (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 38 comments [11 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Nov 22, 2008 at 2:08:53 PM (0+)
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Fate of the Lakotahs Highlights
It is long past time that the American Government and people come to grips with the terrible and sadden treatment of the Lakota people and other tribes. It is an everlasting shame that this country so called formed based on freedom, yet denies these rights to our most important people. I was horrorflied to hear that Govenor Rounds forgot the Lakota, Rosebud and the other tribe during this time of great trouble. It is not suprising because the major media out lets didn't speak of it either. I was angry that the news of the storm in Cuba was on the news, but nothing about South Dakota. Some thing is very wrong with this so called Christian Nation and until we start to care for all of the people, these noble notions of freedom of all men is just that, empty words and until we get it right, America will continue to be under a curse because the blood of our people call out for justice and equal rights and to be treated as men. America must help it's own before helpping the rest of the world. I believe that this past election is our last chance to get it right and to take care of the people, the people, our people. Our children, our elderly and our men of all races. Too long have we as a nation have been following a lie and the Lakota, the Apaches, the Ute, some Cherokee's and many other tribes have been given the short end of the stick and it must stop. It is an old saying: "WHAT GOES AROUND, COME AROUND" America must become a nation of "WE" TOGETHER" not just for the rich and the privlate few. 'THIS OUR LAST CHANCE" For judgment is to follow if we don't take care of all our people. America must learn that we are all connected and what effect one people will in time effect all the people. That is Natural Law. I have done what I can in my small way and we must let the rest of the nation know what is going on and there must be a time when ruler's like Govenor Rounds must be throw out, for a ruler who forget's one sediment of his people is no ruler and will be cused. It is time for the lies, short changing and down right disregard of the native people to stop. It is time that we come together as a people, one nation under God. If we don't America will not make it past this this cenurty. "ALL MY RELATIONS" by David K. Steele (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Saturday, Nov 22, 2008 at 9:47:50 PM (0+)
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Nonsigners of Declaration of Native Peoples' Rights
Notice which countries compose the non-signers: The USA, Australia, and New Zealand. All three countries have destroyed their native people and their cultures. We have our "Injuns," Australia has their "Abos," and NZ has their Maoris, but most likely New Zealanders use a derogatory name too. by frank69 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 39 comments) on Sunday, Nov 23, 2008 at 11:34:56 AM (0+)
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