Skip to main content

And Watson wants to continue the ethnic cleansing by terminating the Cherokee Nation

We should atone for our 'aboriginal sin'

03/29/2008

Morning Sentinel

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/view/letters/4884582.html

We usually think of ethnic cleansing and apartheid as occurring in other lands. But we have our own historical brand of these offenses against humanity. Under the banner of "Manifest Destiny," our Europe-derived ancestors decimated the Native American population and displaced the survivors to undesirable tracts of land.

The "apartness" of these peoples has been buttressed, not by military checkpoints, but by an indifferent Bureau of Indian Affairs and a complacent public. Indian reservations are among the poorest areas of rural America, with the poverty-associated problems of inadequate education and unemployment.

A small spark of justice was ignited in January when Appeals Court Judge James Robertson ruled that the Interior Department "unreasonably delayed" its accounting for billions of dollars owed to Indian landholders.

The Blackfeet Nation claimed in Cobell v. Kempthorne, filed in 1996, that the government has mismanaged more than $100 billion in oil, timber and other revenues held in trust since 1887.

The judge said that a remedy must be found for this breach of fiduciary duty over the past century. It remains to be seen how fully the government complies with the court's finding.

Professor Jay Adler has called our treatment of native people our "aboriginal sin."

It may not be possible to return all their land, but we can continue the process of atonement initiated by Robertson's ruling and restore to Native Americans some greater equality of opportunity and dignity.

Charles W. Acker
Whitefield

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Americanization of Native Americans

Americanization can refer to the policies of the United States government and public opinion that there is a standard set of cultural values that should be held in common by all citizens. Education was and is viewed as the primary method in the acculturation process. These opinions were harshly applied when it came to Americanization of Native Americans compared to immigrant populations who arrived with their "non-American traditions". The Americanization policies said that when indigenous people learned American customs and values they would soon merge tribal traditions with European-American culture and peacefully melt into the greater society. For example in the 1800s and early 1900s, traditional religious ceremonies were outlawed and it was mandatory for children to attend English speaking boarding schools where native languages and cultural traditions were forbidden. The Dawes Act of 1887 , which allotted tribal lands to individuals and resulted in an estimated total o

Indian Boarding Schools - the US Solution to the Indian Problem

American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many by Charla Bear This is the first in a two-part report. For the photos with this piece and the rest of the story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16516865 May 13, 2008 Col. Richard H. Pratt founded the first of the off-reservation Native American boarding schools based on the philosophy that, according to a speech he made in 1892, "all the Indian there is in the race should be dead." CORBIS 'Kill the Indian...Save the Man' According to Col. Richard Pratt's speech in 1892: "A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one, and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man." From Need to 'National Tragedy' Early in the history of American Indian boarding schools, the

Cherokees and their California Connections

Sheriff Edward “Ned” Bushyhead http://sheriffmuseum.org/index.php?/Museum/comments/sheriff_edward_ned_bushyhead The San Diego Sheriff’s Department’s history is rich with men who were not only recognized as being excellent lawmen, but built often colorful reputations outside of law enforcement. From our first Sheriff, Agostin Harszthy, who moved north to start the California wine industry and who seemingly was eaten by an alligator, SDSO sheriffs were prominent figures throughout the history of the United States. San Diego County’s 12th sheriff, Edward “Ned” Wilkinson Bushyhead was no exception. Perhaps no character in all Cherokee history was more revered and respected by his people than Rev. Jesse Bushyhead, who was born in the old Cherokee Nation of southeastern Tennessee in September 1804. Called Unaduti by his Indian friends, he had two children with his first wife and nine children with his second wife, Eliza Wilkinson who was half Cherokee. The Bushyhead home was in a small Chero