April 22, 1999

Lets talk. Some people feel that my recent soapbox about things went too far. Some people think that I shouldn't have talked about white people the way I did. Time for a history lesson???

In 1492 Columbus sailed and landed in the area we call Bermuda. He never made it to "America" at all. But the term "Indian" stuck anyway. Shortly after that America was found along with all its Indians. Trading began and then what we now call Mexico was found. Then the illnesses began. Indians began dieing because they had never been exposed to all the stuff whites brought with them to the New World. But we survived, kinda.

Then the group calling themselves the "Pilgrims" came along. Not the first group to come to the eastern seaboard but for sure the most dangerous. Just prior to this the Spanish destroyed the villages in Mexico and all the Indians that didn't run for the hills were killed. Estimates put the number around 3 million.

Now the Pilgrims. That first year they didn't do anything to put food away and there was a hard winter coming, the Indians knew this. They gave the whites some of their stores, what they could afford to give. Then the whites came and massacared the entire village - about 3,000 Indians and took what ever they could. Men, women and children. After all they were just Indians.

Thanksgiving my ass.

Then comes along this war with England. Indinas were enlisted to help everyone concerned. Before that there had not been any real fighting - some unrest but most was handled by games. Nothing as deadly as war on a scale such as was proposed then. Indinas learned how to use guns and how to kill with ease. The Indians in the northeast were taught how to scalp by the French. Yes, scalping was not something Indinas had done prior to white contact. Only after.

Once that war was over slavery became the top news maker and Indians again were taught to enslave their brother - by whites. The civil war came around then and more were killed. All the while Indians were breeding with whites - not by choice in many instances - after all they were only Indians right?

Then came the serious moving out of Indians from their homelands. The Trail of Tears and others and the ongoing movement of whites westward. Late in the 1800's laws came into effect that stripped Indinas of their rights to land. Land that had been theirs for centuries. It was no longer theirs. Indians had no concept of "owning" land and were easily cheated. By whites.

Then came the boarding schools. First run by military type men who couldn't face being without some kind of war and then run by the churches. Indian children were taken from their families, never really knowing why, "to be a part of the white culture" they said. The children were told never to use their native tounge to speak, they couldn't practice their religion, they couldn't even wear their own clothes.

They were forced to wear wool robes in winter and summer, they couldn't have any contact with their families except when they graduated. They were punished for talking in their own language or for running away - they ran home - or for anything that the operators wanted. Punishment often ment that they were to kneel and pray for forgivness and atonement. They knelt on small beans under each knee. Try it sometime and see if it hurts. These children did this for hours.

Then came the forced sterilization in the early 1900's. I said forced. Indians were to be eliminated. Reservations got smaller, and the flow of alcohol was continued. The church was forced down their throats and their culture eliminated.

The Pow-Wow's that are previlant now were not so before. In 1909 the congress passed a law that said "those heathens cannot practice that heathen religion anymore". We were not allowed to even dance. Not until 1965 (?) when Indians got their own religious freedom amendment to the constitution.

And now we have several people who are getting college degrees and making names for themselves. And we are Indian.

It took us a very long time to realize that we were being massacared. And longer to turn that around. They say that about 7 million Jews were killed in WWII, over the course of time since about 1550 when the Jesuit Priests started marking time with Indians we have lost a few more. They estimated that there were about 70 million Indians throughout North America in the early 1500's. There are about 70,000 true Indians now. You do the math. We didn't kill ourselves.

I am not a full Indian but I claim the right. According to the government you must be at least 1/4 Indian blood to say you are Indian. We even have little cards to carry around saying we are. No other race on the planet has to have something like that to prove they are of some particular race. Only in the US and only Indians.

You want to talk race relations and cultural genocide fine, just don't do it with me and expect little or no fight. You want to hear the truth or read about it, I got a list.

Old Wolf