by Anthony J. Marsella
I send this reminder of our commercialized Turkey Day celebration, based on myths regarding the Pilgrims and the Native American Indians, and the subsequent exploitation and destruction of American Indian nations.
Legends say colonists were warmly welcomed, and American Indians appreciated their presence. Over time, actual events of those fateful days have been rewritten many times, each time suggesting the virtues of colonization, commercialization, and corruption, from the point of view of the colonizers. Missing, of course, are the related truths: “exploitation, destruction, and genocide.”
Some have even proposed “Turkey” replace the Bald Eagle as our national bird, in honor of the myths of Pilgrim and American Indian celebration. White-farmed turkey, of course. How easily we fall into the propaganda!
Change is in the air! Amidst the agonizing recognition and struggles against “genocide,” Native American Indian voices have come together with a profound and an undeniable power at “Standing Rock” and other emerging abusive locations. If there is to be another “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” it will not be without a gathering of Native American Indian resistance.
Native American Indian voices are now joined by the voices of people of all ethnic, racial, and cultural groups, conscious of the suffering Native American Indians have had to endure.
I do not wish to romanticize the ensuing struggles between colonists, pioneers, homesteaders, cowboys, and Native American Indians. The violence was appalling for all sides. But in the end, Native American Indians have been the lasting victims!
Victims they will be no longer! No more myths, no more cowboy and Indian shootings, no more blue-clad horse-soldiers, to the rescue, bugles blowing, sabers drawn, rifles against arrows; no more forts, no more sinister half-breeds, no more drunken Indians hooked on firewater, no more passive squaws, no more White-man schools shaming and traumatizing students, invalidating their heritage and being! No more! Never again! Not in my house!
Colonization cannot be undone! Colonization decimated Native American Indian populations across the land. It was, in every sense of the word, genocide! Through the uses of infectious disease, relocation, tragic marches, blatant murder, massacres, and treacherous compacts ands promises, Native American Indians now find themselves victims once again to a government willing to continue the assault upon their lives, their life-affirming culture, traditions, and identity.
“Wounded Knee” will be replaced by “Standing Rock!” Not as a tragic location, but as an assertion and recovery of identity. The United States government must apologize and withdraw the 3.7 billion-dollar Dakota Access Oil Pipeline routes. Canada must also agree human rights “trump” oil! Oil pipelines must be re-routed because of their disastrous risks to polluting the Missouri River: “Native American Indian Lives Matter!” Already more than 200 oil spills have already occurred. Genocides stop here today!
I visited the Pine Tree Sioux (Lakotah) Reservation years ago! I was stunned by what I saw! I was stunned by the words of government officials when I questioned the obvious poverty and destruction. I recognized I had contributed to the entire tragedy as I played cowboys and Indians in my childhood. I bought into the John Wayne mentality! I always took the part of the Indians, and I always lost. Toy rifles against bows and arrows! I recall the words legitimizing our play: “Whiteman speaks with forked tongue. “Soon Iron Horse come! Kill many buffalo! My people will pass.”
Childhood play, modeling TV and movies, affirming and endorsing a harsh and enduring reality for a time. No longer! This destructive affront to American Indians across the land must end.
The Society of American Indian Psychologists (SIP), under leadership of Art Blume and colleagues have challenged the American Psychological Association administration to speak out against the APA Code of Ethics and its implication for abuse. The choice is clear and unambiguous! Standing-Rock Water Protectors are just in protest!
How blind can anyone be to their request? Water is sacred in so many ways, and yet we despoil it and toxic it with impunity and abandon. But more than “water” is at stake. For a people and a government that have abused Native American Indian rights and survival for more hundreds of years, there are the issues of dignity, integrity, and morality. There are issues of priorities: consumerism, materialism, commodification, greed, profit, pollution, crime, corruption, violence.
I say: Help the Native American Indians win when cowboys and Indians is played. Read the plaque. Ring the bells! It’s a new day! And we are moving on!