Saturday October 17, 2009, 11:40 am
Just goes to show how greedy the white man and thier government were and still are to an extint still today...But now people want to be like us??? Horrifying to me for noone can be like us.

Big Gorilly Hugs

Saturday October 17, 2009, 11:50 am
Gorilly......I agree. And, I suspect many want to be indian
so they can benefit from what the government owes the
indian nations.

I'm amazed that there has never been any native American
indian high profile anything in all of our society.!!!!!!!!

Aside from Sacajawea there was the young native American
who help to raise the flag at Iwo Jima.........He died lonely,
broke and from alchoholism.

Seems to me all we gave in return for their land was reservations
& booze.

Hopefully real soon we will have an American indian as V.P.,
or even the presidency............I'll be first in line to vote!!

Plant trees for life....................

Saturday October 17, 2009, 1:01 pm
Oh the lovely fire water...Yeah thats what america was built on...I also will be right behind you on the prez being a Native American...

Big gorilly Hugs

Saturday October 17, 2009, 1:46 pm
Thanks Lone Wolf. The author said basically what I have been saying for years about the American Government."Is there a parallel between our attempt to force American Indians into a mold of our liking and today's attempts to force a western style democracy on Iraq and Afghanistan? Were these "opportunities" or attempts to force others to adopt what we consider appropriate behavior?" If America doesn't like you they will destroy you.

Saturday October 17, 2009, 1:49 pm
From the 1927 Grand Council of American Indians

"The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, they want us to be what they call "assimilated," bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from our way.
We want freedom from the white man rather than to be intergrated. We don't want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We don't want power, we don't want to be congressmen, or bankers....we want to be ourselves. We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here.
The white man says, there is freedom and justice for all. We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated. We shall not forget this."

This says it all folks right here in black and white from the elders..

Big gorilly Hugs

Saturday October 17, 2009, 2:38 pm
"A lot of information is available on the Internet about the impressive feats of Jim Thorpe, Olympic athlete, who is revered in the annals of sports. The Navajo Code Talkers, who defeated the ability of the Japanese to break our codes, were instrumental in the Pacific in World War II. Are we thankful for a favored few, while ignoring the majority of American Indians?

"...Sadly, our relationship with the first citizens of this country, the American Indians, has been a series of tragedies. We stole this country from them and slaughtered the buffalo, upon which the Plains Indians depended for food, clothing and shelter, nearly into extinction. We called them "bloodthirsty savages" when they defended their homes from our greedy lust for their lands. We herded them, like cattle, away from lands that had been their homes for hundreds of years. We committed massive genocide, and forced Indian children into schools, where we attempted to erase all memory of their culture.

"... American Indians lived in harmony with nature and wasted nothing. We took their homes, destroyed their means of survival and independence and made them, essentially, wards of the government. In earlier days we slaughtered the buffalo. More recently, we destroyed their ancestral fishing grounds when The Dalles Dam flooded Celilo Falls.

While the justification for our many dams is our growing need for power, they've also pushed our native salmon to the brink of extinction. Salmon were, to Northwest Indians what buffalo were to Plains Indians. How many more species will go extinct before we find an effective means of curbing the explosive growth of the human population on this planet?

Is there a parallel between our attempt to force American Indians into a mold of our liking and today's attempts to force a western style democracy on Iraq and Afghanistan? Were these "opportunities" or attempts to force others to adopt what we consider appropriate behavior?"
-------------

What goes around, comes around. The great promise of America is crumbling from its own broken promises...

Thank you for a great, sobering article, Terry.

Saturday October 17, 2009, 3:58 pm
Thank Terry for this important article.

Saturday October 17, 2009, 5:57 pm
Thank you Terry!

Sunday October 18, 2009, 1:28 am
it a shame people cant get on with one other. it must be greed

Sunday October 18, 2009, 2:29 am
problem now is that corrupt govts & certain corrupt religious , want to take sole control & authority of the mystical keys & teachings of american indians (& tibetan buddhism) , because everyone now knows these keys can save the planet from disasters & global warming etc etc etc.
already evil people are known to have historically distorted the mystical teachings in wars , hecatombes.
already just simple vegetarianism has become a killer mafia elite syndicate with mostly corrupt members. buddhism is also like this for a large part.
]so we hope the american indians don't go wrong as well now.
it is so disrespectful to always have these heavy political debates about indian natural culture & where to buy & steal the info for which uviversity to control . all this time, the animals are suffering & dying more & more & drought burning everything, & it would not cost too much monet to make a few animal refuges & sanctuaries with planting trees , make water areas , etc. ehy does it have to be called money ?
tourism is going to be brought in to the secret , private [places & we have no choice . but - let us rather decide now to avoid this or even choose who can & can not be there.
i am a white woman sufering abuse, i became vegetarian & buddhist , but am not completely happy because some members are very cruel so impossible to practise enough mediation to attain anything.
victims with pets or animal-lovers maybe should also find new concepts, such as mediatae & travel with pets & animals in nature .
i think the hurtful europeans or others will have to submit & confess their insanity & give way -it looks like this can soon happen .
i bought some american indian herbs in cape town last week , & the shop was angry with me because they wanted to control & be in charge of america , they resented me & tried to say i was a criminal & not allowed to but the white sage smudge from new mexico. i nearly was assaulted by the shop staff.
what is going to happen when someone wants to be alone in a cave , but the govt & olympics & china & africa want to rape-open the whole mountain & caves for olympic events, or only university members are allowed to retreat in snow mountain caves , not simple sole individuals ?

the american indians somehow have to make rules so other mountains elsewhere can save themselves from olympics & congo xenpophobics & the like.

Sunday October 18, 2009, 5:05 am
thanks terry great article

Sunday October 18, 2009, 9:01 am
they are right when they say talk with fork tounges.

Sunday October 18, 2009, 1:18 pm
"But now people want to be like us??? Horrifying to me for noone can be like us. "

I often wish I were as Indian in the flesh and blood as I am in the heart. I simply have more respect for the tribal peoples, of all nations, than I do for the white man, anywhere.

Sunday October 18, 2009, 2:29 pm
The younger American Indians who left the Reservations and were swallowed up by the big city, linger in purgatory. They are at the bottom of the minority aide programs & are loosing their Indian identity as a result of marrying outside their culture while struggling to stay alive on harsh city streets. The entire Indian culture is in jeopardy. As the elders die off on the reservations there are fewer & fewer to pass on their proud legacy. As it is now, the only young Indians born off the reservations who know anything about their heritage are those who's parents are still interested enough to bring them back to the reservations for visits. During those visits the young learn the ways & values of their ancestors. Those who's parents are not able to travel back & forth or are just not interested are being absorbed & diluted by the society that broke them in the first place. One day their will no amount of Indian blood anywhere. They will be a red blurb in a white man's history book.

Sunday October 18, 2009, 2:51 pm
You could write books on the injustices of how Indians have been mistreated, in fact some have. Yes, they were vicious at times amongst themselves, but there is no compaerison how they were collectively as a whole rounded up and taken off their ancestral lands only to be herded in and corralled into reservations, while for the longest given no provisions or resources to live adequately.

For the curious, do you know it wasn't the American Indian who first scalped humans? No, they learned it from the Europeans in early day America, when whites would collect the scalps of Indians and be rewarded with a colonial government bounty fee.

Sunday October 18, 2009, 2:57 pm
Michelle my family is this way...but my mum would not talk about it so I went backwards and went to granny she taught me everything she could...so now I learn about my heritage myslef...my mom is in denial...LOL

Sunday October 18, 2009, 3:31 pm
My culture is French Canadian. We are distinct and have a history VERY different from the rest of Europeans who came here. My first ancestor arrived in 1534. There were no women here. They were all dying. Native people came to their rescue and taught them how to live in this land of cold. Then my people split in two: those who stayed in the feudal system of aristocrats/church, and those who blended with the Native people, the coureur de bois. They traverse the continent, leaving French names like Coeur d'Haleine, Saint Louis, Nouvelle Orleans (New Orleans). Those in Acadia, 350 years ago this year, had their possessions and land confiscated by the English, and sent off in boats. Some made it to land, like the 'Cajuns'.
There was much intermingling of blood - most of us are actually metis, but the Church blocked all references to these marriages and children. There is no way to track it. Now, those in Quebec (the majority) have an extremely racist attitude towards the Native People. It horrifies me...
I was raised in a different place, in a different family culture. When I discovered the real history of 'America', I basically rejected most of my culture.
When I discovered the Prophesies in which all colors and all peoples would come back to the traditional beliefs of the First Nations, and of White Buffalo Calf Woman, I realized that others had discovered MY(aren't we all like that in youth) spiritual beliefs. Whatever part of me is native, like my facial structure, but not my color, I know that I can make no claims, take parts of culture and use them as I please....I cannot even be part of the very large metis culture in the central part of Turtle Island. I can only be who I am and go where my soul directs me (along with my ancestors). I do what I can, knowing that I must keep my distance and not be a Wannabe. But it hurts, because all of my being cries out that I am what my metis friends in Vancouver called me (an honour to me) - Redbone. (perhaps more like 'redsoul'?
There are whites stealing Native culture, Natives misusing Native cultures, ...like always, good and bad all at once and everywhere. I will continue to be and do what I always have - boo the Cavalry that came over the hill in the Saturday Matinees in the 50's, and be true to my father's love of nature and his deep respect for all cultures. That will make me a bad person to many. So be it. The only thing that can save humans, perhaps even this world, are the beliefs of the People close to the Earth Mother. I do all that I can, like sign petitions, demonstrate, support, which is one of the reasons that I am here, in Care2 . I shudder in horror at these 'sweat lodges' and cultural/archaeological thefts. It will take many strong voices to stop it....

Sunday October 18, 2009, 7:04 pm
Madeleine, I believe you should write a book.

We can start by giving their land back to them.

Monday October 19, 2009, 4:46 am
may these people rise up to be what God intended them to be.. not what the white man envisaged for them to be... Arrows of strength, courage and integrity.. God sees all and in due time he will exalt them into the inheritance that they so deserve...