I shouldn’t have to remind people but this is what genocide looks like. This is the U.S. History Republicans are trying to prevent you from knowing. #TeachTruth
Chief Spotted Tail’s band of Minneconjou, Lakota massacred by the U.S. at Wounded Knee Creek, December 29, 1890.
I was never taught any of this in school. I was taught that white men were benevolent pioneers and compassionate, benign explorers. Did you learn any factual, uncensored U.S. History as a kid?
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If these children were strong enough to survive boarding schools (many didn’t) — then their children are strong enough to learn about it.
My father, a survivor/victim of the Draconian boarding school system, suffered unmentionable trauma and physical abuse at the hands of clergy staff. A priest once knocked him across the room for speaking Lakota in “class.” I remember him, at night — crying in his sleep.
My mother once told me about the cemetery at her boarding school, she said the children were forbidden to speak about it. The darkness of her imprisoned nightmare followed her her entire life. She always slept with the light on — too afraid to see the haunting ghosts of her past.
In an effort to return the care of buffalo to Native people, several were recently gifted to the Lipan Apache of Texas, fulfilling a prophecy that says — the reemergence of the buffalo will usher in an era of strength and healing.
I saw a homeless man walking on scorching hot pavement with no shoes. A driver in front of me rolled down his window and gave the homeless man his shoes. Such random acts of kindness — helps restore my faith in humans.
Selflessness, altruism, compassion for others less fortunate than ourselves — these are the attributes we need to normalize — now more than ever.
Among the Lakota, things like food, clothing and medicine were distributed equally, so long as you put in work. Individualism was seen as detrimental to the collective good of the oyate (people.) If someone needed a meal or a blanket—the community rallied together, to provide it.
They were abducted from their families. Had their hair cut off. Were forbidden to speak their language, and then were expected to smile for a photo op? Boarding school Indigenous angels had absolutely nothing to smile about—my heart is heavy today.
I desperately search for a myriad of different ways to assuage my grief. It’s an impossible endeavor. As my tears for these poor children continue to flow, unabatedly so. If there is a god out there, among the stars—today would be a good day to make his presence known…
When my takoja (granddaughter) cries out in the middle of the night, I run to her, and hold her gently and tightly against my chest, until our hearts beat in tranquil synchronicity. I think of all those children crying in the darkness of a thousand lonely boarding school nights…
Women of the Sauk and Fox Nations disguised themselves in battle dress attire to fool adversarial tribes. To make their male warrior army appear more numerous.
Artist credit: Daniel Ramirez (Saginaw-Chippewa)
You recall our last discussion vis-a-vis Indigenous women warriors? It would not surprise me if Sauk and Fox women fought along side their men. With the same exquisite ferociousness as Pretty Nose (Arapaho) and Buffalo Calf Road Woman (Cheyenne)—heroes of Little Bighorn slayed.
1870–Gouyen (Apache) hunted down and scalped a Comanche chief for killing her husband. She tracked him to his camp and seduced him. She then took her knife and stabbed him to death as he slept. Gouyen rode back to her camp on his horse, carrying his bloody scalp all the way.
Let’s get one thing straight—Natives were never conquered. Our land was stolen through 500 years of cheating, swindling, lying and bamboozling by greedy, predatory, unscrupulous non-Native colonizers—this is an historical fact.
I was taught settler propaganda in school. I was indoctrinated to believe the Columbus “discovery” fallacy. Then one day I went to my local library—and saw the light.
The U.S. illegally rescinded every single treaty it signed with its Indigenous populations. Every. Single. One.
Settlers descended upon the land of my grandfathers like malevolent white locusts. A plague of disease infested vermin. 50-100 million Indigenous people succumbed to the smallpox they brought with them. They were not “conquerers”—they were carriers of deadly pathogens. Like rats.