Thread by @AliNahdee

Something that always strikes me about the Wounded Knee Massacre besides the cruelty and horror of it was that it took place in 1890 and how NOT long ago that was.

Really think about that. 1890 is just under 30 years before World War 1, just over 50 years before World War 2. Think of it like this: children born in 1890 would've been 83 years old at the standoff at Wounded Knee in 1973.

If a child born in 1890 lived to be 100 years old that means they stayed alive up until 1990. That's the year --I-- was born.

I know it seems like ancient history and I know school teachers and politicians and racists would rather it be treated as such but it's not. It's really not that many generations apart.

Columbus invaded the Caribbean in 1492. Think of every atrocity that undoubtably happened between 1492's invasion and 1890 at Wounded Knee.

Then think of everything indigenous people endured between 1890 to 2022.

That is 530 years of colonialization.
That is over half a millennium.

On the one hand, this is probably one of the longest, continued genocides at least on this side of the world. And our oppressors tried very diligently to kill us in many different ways. Through violence, assimilation, colonialism, sterilization, the list goes on.

On the other hand, 530 years later and we're still here even when many of us are not. Even though they didn't want us here. Their best efforts at removing and destroying us did not work.

Remember your loved ones. Remember your ancestors. Remember everybody who didn't survive, who didn't have their happy endings, who couldn't be here with us now. But keep fighting even if it takes another 530 years. Another 1000 years. We're not going anywhere.

Let's get rid of that narrative that Natives are going to wither away into nothing, that we're disappearing, that we're dying out, that we're just going to fade away. We're not. That is not an option. We have so much to fight for and live for and we're going to do it.

My heart and my love goes out to the families and descendants of those who died at Wounded Knee on this day 131 years ago. I'm thinking of you. I'm praying for you. I love you.