Racism - Silence is No Longer an Option (Start planting seeds in your own backyard)

By Claudia A. Fox Tree

Painting by Claudia A. Fox Tree

I grew up with my parents telling me I was Indigenous and German, spending my early years in Germany and schooling years (elementary through university) in New England. They planted seeds. I can't help how, where, and when I was born or to whom. I can't even say I had much of a role in what I was taught in school. However, I can grow my knowledge with proper "nutrition." This nutrition includes reflecting on my heritage and filling in the gaps of my knowledge so I understand the past, the present, and the future. I also can grow my empathy, advocacy, and willingness to work on equity. One of the most important things I can do is notice my areas of privilege, even if "relative" to others in my identity groups, so I can use it to create change, be an ally, and, as Frederick Douglass says, agitate, agitate, agitate.

My family of German heritage did not participate in sending people to gas chambers (but they could have, and other families might have this in their own history). In fact, my mother was hiding in basements from ally bombs. She talked about the horrors of war almost every day of my childhood. I grew up learning a little about the holocaust, but not much in school. So, I educated myself with books, movies, and by talking with people. I have friends who are Jewish and have attended observances and celebrations. They have been some of my strongest allies, particularly in confronting inequitable holiday/ observance policies in our local school system. I even traveled to Germany and visited sites and museums related to WWII history. I acknowledge that some Germans did commit atrocities and that I have benefited on the basic level of having a German parent who survived something that killed 12 million people. I also have a grandfather who was college educated, owned a home, and had a job as an academic. I recognize that WWII Nazi leaders ordered atrocities and that these leaders should not be remembered and heralded as "great" through such things as statues. Instead, accurate, truthful history needs to be memorialized and told through the voices of survivors, actions of allies, and presence of resistance movements.

Moving forward, I can see that justice needed to include making amends to people who lost their property, health, and family members. Creating equity meant building support systems to help people with this particular trauma integrate back into society. I can see the need for  institutional/ governmental help, so concentration camp survivors could "restart." That may have included support with finances, medical needs, housing, travel, clothing, education, etc. Anti-Semitic laws needed to be rewritten. There is a need for empathy, compassion, and seeing the human dignity in each other. Rebuilding community after destruction is essential. I am not saying Germans were not affected by the war, or didn't work hard, my mother was certainly traumatized and worked hard for her Doctorate, but having family or herself in a concentration camp was not one of her traumas or one of my family's legacies.

As an anti-bias, anti-racist, social justice educator, I have learned that it is important to "name it," so we can see it, talk about it, and do something. Now imagine over 500 years of trauma and you have Indigenous people in the United States. Why do we statues of Christopher Columbus when he initiated genocide?

Get it? That's how racism works in the United States and why we need to do something, anything, within our own spheres of influence. We all have power to start somewhere with education, acknowledgement, and recognition, even if we start with our partner, sibling, cousin, or child. Then we can move toward equity and justice for other populations. We need to "start local" before we can "go global."

Silence shows acceptance. I am not asking you to apologize for what your ancestors did or didn't do. I am asking you to notice and acknowledge your unfair advantage based on racism and request that you do something to make it right, such as, taking down monuments to colonizers and murderers, removing Native American mascots (and mascotry), demanding inclusive curricula and complete, truthful Indigenous history in schools, and advocating for Indigenous Peoples' Day. Otherwise, the racist ideas of superiority prevail and are reinforced from generation to generation, which is what has happened.

Silence is dangerous. When we are taught what racism is, to notice it, to see its damage, and how to dismantle it, through school and media, then we can talk about it and address it. When I hear , "I just don't know what to say or do" or worse, "But that's not racism" or "racism is over," then I know we are not ready to have an honest conversation reflecting on this country's racist history and taking ownership of our part in dismantling it, therefore, you appear to be willing to leave with its advantages, while I live with its disadvantages and systemic institutionalized oppression.

Silence shows ignorance. There is a gap in knowledge between what white people know about racism and what People of Color know. There is a gap in knowledge between what non Indigenous people know about racism and what Indigenous people know. Do you know truthful, complete, and accurate history about Indigenous people? Do you understand the impact of treaties, the construction of dams, and the creation of national parks? Do you understand Indigenous culture? Can you name Indigenous contributions from past to present? Do you only know Indigenous allies who helped white people or can you name role models who helped Indigenous people? There are People of Color and Indigenous people who have internalized inaccurate information and either believe the stereotypes about themselves, or believe if they work hard, they can achieve "like everyone else." Let me remind you that it did not matter how much or how long or how hard women protested for the right to vote, they were not getting it until a man changed the law. That's why we need to learn about our own systemic advantages, so we can see the inequities and support change.

Silence perpetuates silence. As you learn, teach others, so that they can learn to speak up and take action and so you can grow your allies. To this day, most people say they are uncomfortable talking about racism and/ or avoid the topic altogether. The silence of my friends is palpable and painful.

Silence is violence. Racism is about power and intersects with many identity groups. The news media does not talk about missing and murdered Indigenous women, which has reached epidemic proportions. Violence to the land allows fracking and pipelines to disrupt the natural environment and threatens to damage water supplies. Silence about this damage leads to Indigenous protests which rarely make the news. The Dakota Access Pipeline started in the summer, and awareness of this particular pipeline didn't hit national news until December. Violence to land is violence to the body. Uranium and coal mining has increased the rates of cancer and other health ailments among Indigenous populations.

After formal education, I grew my own knowledge with different mentors, resources, and conversations. Start by planting a few seeds and trees in your own backyard and the forest will follow.

5th Annual March Against Genocide - Genocide Awareness Month

Here is a nice summary of some of the speakers comments from Sundays Genocide Awareness March.

Below is the transcript of what I said (it is also on the YouTube link)

Thank you all for coming out. So much of what the previous speakers have said ring true for the indigenous people of North and South America. I am a testament to the survival of 500 years of genocide on this land that many of us have benefited from. I wanted to dedicate my talk today to the ancestors because if they hadn’t survived, I wouldn’t be here today.

And, when we speak our language, even if only one word, even if it’s not perfect, our ancestors hear us.

Good day sisters and brothers. My ancestral linage is Arawak from the island that we called Yurumein and my name is Claudia Fox Tree. I am happy to be there and I said this 4 times to honor the four directions. I offer my deep appreciation to the celestial cosmos (the universe). I offer deep appreciation to the moon. I offer deep appreciation to the earth mother (who is our existence). I offer deep appreciation to the air (the lady which gives breath from the center – sometimes she gets made and gets known as the hurricane). I offer deep appreciation to fire. Water is life (it has sacred breath)

I’m gonna be speaking on my own experiences but also the experience of people who are like me. Who share the same historical trauma and struggle of being indigenous people whose ancestors first figured out what they could eat on this land, what they could use for homes on this land, and for clothing on this land, and who held the bones of every single one of our ancestors.

It is important to recognize that this land we are standing on is indigenous land. The Wampanoag, Nipmuc, and other Massachusetts nations first walked, lived, and named everything on this land that they called, “Shawmut,” and we call, “Boston.” While my nation, the Arawak, isn’t not from here, I have been embraced by the local indigenous people and we have a shared history and culture as “first contact” experiences.

I wanted to… I’m so glad that you did the Pastor’s (Martin Niemöller) piece because I was thinking of that as I was preparing my notes for today and how is it reflective of indigenous people. And so, here it is.

First they took our land… Then they took our bodies… to work their plantations and pan for gold. Then they took our food source… retooling the land for the invasive plants/animals. Later, slaughtering the buffalo. Then they took our religion… and forced Christianity on us. Then they took our children… until 1978, and now our children continue to be taken and put into foster care.  Then they took our language… by not allowing us to speak it. Then they took our lives… The term “Final Solution” was not coined by the Nazis, it was the Indian Affairs Superintendent, Duncan Campbell Scott from Canada. Then they took our women… who are raped, murdered, and disappearing at alarming rates. They are murdered over 10X the national average and raped at 2 1/2 times the average. Then they took our image… for sports team names, for butter and milk products, to sell cornstarch, and so much more. Then they took the rest of our culture… by appropriating parts of our language and pieces of our culture, our words are no longer associated with their original meanings – think of these words: Winnebago, Sequoyah, Pontiac, and Apache. By taking our clothing and using it for costumes on Halloween, we become a “single story” via a single image. By taking our headdresses, our own warriors are mocked after earning each feather. That would be like taking the medals that service men win/are awarded and wearing them as a costume. I wear my regalia today as a visual representation that we are not one single story, that we have a lot of diversity among all of the nations that are represented in the indigenous Americas.

What they couldn’t take by physical and cultural genocide, they took by paper genocide. For example, in the Caribbean, the first census that was taken had the category of “Indian,” the next census only had “mulatto.”

BUT WE HAVE SURVIVED, even though… 90% of all manuscripts written about Native people are authored by non-Native writers. Our schools teach almost nothing about treaties, land rights, and water rights. There is nothing about the fact that tribes and nations are still fighting to be recognized and determine sovereignty. Only 67% of mixed blood multiracial Native Americans finished high school, compared to the national average of 80%. Indigenous youth have a suicide rate 3x that of their peers (males are 8x greater). Indigenous people face issues of mass incarceration and policing and are the MOST likely minority to be killed by police per capita. The federal government is still stripping Indigenous people of their land. Exploitation of natural resources threatens not only Indigenous communities, but all of us. Indigenous patients receive inadequate health care. We continue to protest pipelines running across the land, protect national parks, and fight for enforcement of treaty rights.

But we are taking action… Reclaiming our history, people, and culture. Reclaiming our images through our own artists. Resisting and being noticed, like at Standing Rock. Teaching our culture to the next generation. Staying active on social media and participating in indigenous/tribal organizations. And relearning our native languages.

And, we can’t do it alone. We need the help of our allies… If you have a town that has an indigenous Native American mascot, say something. If you play against “colonials,” that’s another team, then you celebrate the destruction of our culture. Tell five people, today before you forget, that you care how damaging racist mascots and how they’re affecting indigenous populations.  If your alma mater has a mascot, write a letter. Tell them you will not make any contributions until they change their mascot. Instead donate to an organization such as the National Congress of American Indians. Or, join MCNAA, the Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness.

With your help, we can help the tribes fighting to be recognized in today’s battles for land rights, water rights, and against stereotyping.

Hahom, Seneko kakona

Thank you, abundant blessings.

We Are Still Alive - A Traditional People in a Contemporary Society

Thank you for inviting me.  I know… I don’t think you’ve probably ever had an Arawak speaker here and probably haven’t ever heard of Arawak speaker.  We, the indigenous people of the Americas, are refugees. We exist despite an unacknowledged, attempted genocide. Most people associate refugees with being forced to leave one’s country, but a refugee, by definition, has lost their land and way of life, often through war or genocide. There is a long history of genocidal programs initiated by the early colonial settlers and, later, by the United States government.

In 1755, the lieutenant governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, issued a proclamation that called for British subjects “to embrace all opportunities of pursuing, [capturing], killing, and destroying all and every Indian.” A bounty was paid by the colonial government for every Penobscot captured and brought to Boston.

- For every Male above the age of 12 years, 50 pounds. For their Scalp, 40 pounds
- For every Female under the age of 12 years, 25 pounds. For every Scalp, 20 pounds. 

Within a year of the proclamation, the Massachusetts assembly voted to raise the ceiling on the bounty to an unprecedented 300 pounds. This Bounty Proclamation was signed by Lt. Gov. Spencer Phips just a short walk from here in the Old State House on State Street.

At the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864, John Chivington said, “Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians... Kill and scalp all, big and little; nits make lice.”

We were marched, relocated, and put in reserves like animals, ending up no longer being on the land which provided all our needs… where our stories and songs came from… where our ancestors’ bones lay in the ground.

In the 19^th and 20^th centuries, boarding schools were established. Our children were immersed in European-American culture. They were given haircuts, forbidden to speak their indigenous languages, and their traditional names were replaced by European-American names to both “civilize” and “Christianize.” 20^th century investigations have revealed many documented cases of sexual, physical, and mental abuse in these boarding schools.

In 1892, the U.S. Army officer Richard Henry Pratt, founder of the Carlisle Indian School, said, “…all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him and save the man.” On reservations, children were taken from our homes and forcibly sent to boarding schools until 1978, systematically destroying Native American cultural continuity.

Today in 2017, we are still fighting for sovereignty and treaty rights; hunting and fishing access; clean water and healthcare; and political and legal justice. On some reservations, Native women are murdered at more than 10 times the national average. Hollywood films, sports mascots, and many other racist images continue to dehumanize us.

On some reservations, families live on roughly seven gallons of water per day per person, since uranium mining has poisoned the wells and radioactive waste leaves no clean water. 40% of the 173,000 Diné living on the reservation do not have running water.  Today, in the United States.

As First Nations People, we have been made invisible, starting with the first maps that were created showing empty land where none of our languages or nations were identified. Towns were incorporated without any thought to the indigenous inhabits. Each “first” became a colonizer’s first – the first house, the first successful harvest, the first thanksgiving, the first marriage, the first baby – while our “firsts” were ignored and erased.

How does cultural genocide translate into today’s experience? I did not grow up speaking my indigenous language or hearing Native Nations’ music on the radio. I did not see people like me reflected in the literature I read, the television I watched and movies I saw, or even on the walls of my classroom. I did not learn the contributions of Indigenous People to this country, and certainly not the actual history of the United States. I did not have First Nations role-models who resisted and stood up for our culture, only those who helped the white Europeans, like Squanto, Sacagawea, and Pocahontas. There’s nowhere in the world where out story, my story, should even be required to be told, except here.

I’ve raised my children in a world that has not recognized our holidays and observances… In a world with stereotypes that have become the only way we are known and recognized… With peers who have harassed them about their long hair… When my son was in high school, a few boys danced around him singing, “woo woo woo.” They weren’t mimicking something they had seen at a pow wow, they were acting out all they knew from when they were much younger and saw movies, like Peter Pan. The racist images of Hollywood and athletic teams have been their loudest teachers.

Other people tell our story or stereotypes about it. We have no control over our own narrative in our own country. I am not currently fighting for food, or water, or heat, or housing, or healthcare, so I must use the privilege and platforms, the ones that I do have, to temporarily, even if temporary, to stand beside my indigenous sisters and brothers and be an ally to support their access, and all people’s, to these fundamental rights in a country as wealthy as ours.

We are refugees from our original lands. We cannot stay silent about genocide here or anywhere, anymore. Please consider joining an indigenous organization, like the Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness, to learn more about us. We’re still alive - traditional people in a contemporary society.

Why I Am Not Thankful for Thanksgiving in 2014 by CFT

THIS IS OUR LAND. There is NO OTHER PLACE in the ENTIRE WORLD where our story is told even remotely accurately.  There is no place where leaders across the country are of indigenous decent, where our artists, teachers, politicians, lawyers, CEO's, etc. are found easily and everywhere. If we (in the United States) don't tell the Native American story, then it doesn't happen. Who and where else would it be told? There are many research studies that show we are only seen as a stereotype (or dead) and that other people tell OUR stories (and that is the preferred way for the larger society to hear it - not from our own voices). That makes us, as Native Nations, uniquely different than any other group in our own lands.

I can go to Germany, my kids can go to Ireland or Finland, etc. to see a fairly accurate representation of that cultural heritage with folks in power reflective of the ethnicity participating in a broad range of occupations at that - stereotypes or not. That cannot be said for Native Americans and is why it is essential that my allies work with me to tell the Native story - there is no other place where it is told.  It is the absence of images, stories, and truths juxtaposed next to stereotypes that make the impact of those assumptions so damaging - there is nothing to counter them!

I fast and don't "celebrate" Thanksgiving.  There is only a miniscule part of our story that is ever told and almost always in a stereotypical, incorrect, or offensive way, denying the genocide of people and culture.  The flip side is that folks who have their stories told and their holidays off, have very little awareness of their privilege in having that (and, frankly, want more! like a half day before a holiday).  Folks want to hold on to oppressive "traditions" and blame the victims for complaining, or not educating them about alternatives, when it is really their work to undo what has been done, given that they, as a whole, have way more power than the oppressed group. 

I don't think any teacher in the States has ever had to leave lesson plans on Thanksgiving or Christmas, but I do for every Solstice and Equinox when I take those observances as "personal days."  How many people have to take Christmas as a "personal day"?   I also can not send my children anywhere (no country, no school, no house of worship, no embassy, etc.) to learn their Arawak culture, history, or language. In addition, their history and culture is rarely told in movies, books, school, etc., but the person who committed a genocide has a holiday named after him (Columbus).  If you can, do, or could educate your children about their own ethnic heritage then you have power and privilege (and probably don't even notice that you do).

I can't think of anything similar to any other group, certainly not in the history of the United States, than what has happened to the Native Nations. 

~ Claudia A. Fox Tree

Counted Out of Existence

Nice Day for a Genocide: Shocking Quotes on Indians By U.S. Leaders
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/07/10/nice-day-genocide-shocking-quotes-indians-us-leaders-part-1-150362

Natives Experienced American Holocaust by Gray Wolf

http://iloveancestry.com/americatoday/indian-country/item/145-nazi-soldiers-american-soldiers-native-american-holocaust

The Thanksgiving Myth - MOST COMPLETE LIST ON THIS SITE

Thanksgiving 2018 Articles (some of the BEST on this website)
https://nativeamericanresources.blogspot.com/2018/11/thanksgiving-2018-some-of-best-articles.html



LESSON PLANS

Let's start with a sample lesson plan about Thanksgiving (and then move to missing history, multiple sources, resources, and perspectives) 

VIDEOS
Videos about the first "Thanksgiving"
We Shall Remain 
2015 Compilation:  http://nativeamericanresources.blogspot.com/2015/11/2015-thanksgiving-compilation.html

BOOKS
Books  with Thanksgiving theme
Lies My Teacher Told Me Quotes
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz writes about history AND myths

HISTORY
The popularized History of Thanksgiving
Quick history timeline
Tisquantum's Story (also known as Squanto)
Frank James Speech which was supposed to be delivered on the first National Day of Mourning (Day of Remembrance)
Thanksgiving celebrates the death of 700 Pequots
Thanksgiving - Thanks for what?
Real Origins are with Sara Josepha Hale (writer of Mary Had a Little Lamb)

THANKSGIVING PRIMARY SOURCES - We only have TWO (2) and they aren't anything like the popularized story.
Original Source #1
Original Source #2
Wampanoag Perspective

MULTIPLE and MISSING PERSPECTIVES - I use many of these articles to present multiple viewpoints on November as Native American Heritage Month
Thanksgiving Perspectives
Quick Summary by John Two Hawks
James Loewen's Thanksgiving Story - A really good (but long) summary
Myths - by OYATE
Why We Shouldn't Celebrate Thanksgiving - Robert Jensen
The Meaning of Thanksgiving 2010 - Robert Jensen
Day of Mourning
Plimouth Plantation
Connection to Columbus & Genocide
2014 Plimoth Plantation story of "Squanto"
Q and A Summary (Excellent)
6 Myths

TODAY'S IMPACT
Racist Balloons & other racist, inaccurate, and belittling images
In the News:  http://nativeamericanresources.blogspot.com/2013/11/2013-thanksgiving-news.html
Do American Indians Celebrate Thanksgiving? http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/11/20/do-american-indians-celebrate-thanksgiving-145880 
Native American Heritage Day falls on Black Friday

THANKSGIVING ALTERNATIVES - SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
What Would You Do?
What Can You Say?
Anti-Thanksgiving Sites
How do YOU celebrate?  Cher and others answer the question.
5 Socially Accountable Ways To Celebrate Thanksgiving

PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATIONS
Analysis of Proclamations
2011-2012:  http://nativeamericanresources.blogspot.com/2012/11/2012-presidential-proclamations.html
2013:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/11/26/presidential-proclamation-thanksgiving-day-2013
2014:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/26/presidential-proclamation-thanksgiving-day-2014 

YOURS TRULY by CFT:  My Thoughts 2012 and moving forward…
On the day which everyone else celebrates "Thanksgiving," I have a dinner and see my kids, just like any other day of the week.  I don't make turkey (although I might a week earlier, since the price is right and we all like turkey).  With a football player and 2 cheerleaders, I DO go to the local football game in Concord.  When I am not at a game, I go to Plymouth for the Day of Remembrance at Cole's Hill at noon, but I can't get there by noon when there is a game.  I usually stay to break fast with the indigenous people who are there.  We congregate in the hall of the Pilgrim Church.

The biggest issue for me is the (inaccurate) association between Native Americans and Pilgrims.  The "pilgrim thanksgiving" was about prayer.  I mean, they were really religious and would NEVER have prayed in company of the people who they called "heathen savages."  In addition, each of the officially proclaimed Thanksgivings from Massachusetts Bay Coloney Governor Winthrop to United States Presidents, including Lincoln, were about being thankful for killing the "savages" (ie: Native Americans).   For me to "celebrate" on this day is like picking Hitler's birthday as a holiday and then asking Germans to be thankful for their blessings, never mind that it was Hitler's birthday.  Or, expecting Japanese-Americans to participate in a Veteran's Day scheduled on August 6, the day America bombed Hiroshima.   I am making up these examples, but you get the picture.  How can the events of the past be separated from the date of the present celebrations?  The atrocities are intertwined with the day.  They can't be pulled apart for me.

Then, there are other issues, like "everyone celebrates the harvest" and "our ancestors always had harvest festivals, no matter where they originated from, so I don't think about it being Native Americans and Pilgrims" - Well, that may be so, but those ancestors didn't do it "first" on this continent.  The fact that the Native American "firsts" are not honored is an issue, too.  It's not like somewhere else in the world Native Americans are creating and living their history, holidays, and festivals, like say Germans in Germany and Japanese in Japan.  This IS our land.  This is the ONLY place where it makes sense to honor and practice our history, culture, and traditions and the fact that we did things "first" and for thousands of years HERE.

Also, ancestors from other lands did not use these foods - corn, turkey, pecans, cranberry, sweet potato, beans, pumpkin, tomatoes, peppers, maple syrup, etc. since those are all native to the Americas.  For me, it's hard to see a tradition (giving thanks), that was part of my ancestors' practices, be turned into something that honors the oppression of my people without giving much credit to them for all that they did to make it what it is today.

No Pies for Thanksgiving 2007
http://nativeamericanresources.blogspot.com/2007/10/pies-for-thanksgiving.html
My Thanksgiving Alternative

My Letter and My Daughter's Letters to the Editor 2013
http://nativeamericanresources.blogspot.com/2013/11/letter-to-editor-one-hometown-two.html

Why I Am Not Thankful for Thanksgiving 2014
http://nativeamericanresources.blogspot.com/2014/11/why-i-am-not-thankful-for-thanksgiving.html

QUOTES FROM Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

by James W. Loewen. Simon & Schuster, 1995

"Historically, American Indians have been the most lied-about subset of our population" (99).

Did Europeans "civilize" the Americas? Actually, anthropologists tell us that "hunters and gatherers were relatively peaceful, compared to agriculturalists, and that modern societies were more warlike still. Thus violence increases with civilization" (101-2).

"..textbooks cannot resist contrasting "primitive" Americans with modern Europeans" (102).

"In what ways do we prefer the civilized Third Reich to the more primitive Arawak nation that Columbus encountered? If we refuse to label the Third Reich civilized, are we not using the term to imply a certain comity? If so, we must consider the Arawaks civilized, and we must also consider Columbus and his Spaniards primitive is not savage" (102).

"Europeans persuaded Natives to specialize in the fur and slave trades. Native Americans were better hunters and trappers than Europeans, and with the guns the Europeans sold them, they became better still. Other Native skills began to atrophy" (103).

"..because whites "demanded institutions reflective of their own with which to relate," many Native groups strengthened their tribal governments... New confederations and nations developed.. The tribes also became more male- dominated, in imitation of Europeans.. [there was] an escalation of Indian warfare... [the slave trade helped] to deagriculturize Native Americans. To avoid being targets for capture, Indians abandoned their cornfields and their villages" (105-6).

"Europeans did not "civilize" or "settle" roaming Indians, but had the opposite impact" (107).

"…from the start in Virginia.. settlers fled to Indian villages rather than endure the rigors of life among the autocratic English. Indeed, many white and black newcomers chose to live an Indian lifestyle... some Natives chose to live among whites.. The migration was mostly the other way, however.. Europeans were always trying to stop the outflow. Hernando De Soto had to post guards to keep his men and women from defecting to Native societies... right up to the end of independent Indian nationhood in 1890, whites continued to defect, and whites who lived an Indian lifestyle, such as Daniel Boone, became cultural heroes in white society" (109).

"Not one American history textbook mentions the attraction of Native societies to European Americans and African Americans" (109).

"According to Benjamin Franklin, "All their government is by Counsel of the Sages. There is no Force; there are no Prisons, no officers to compel Obedience, or inflict Punishment." Probably foremost, the lack of hierarchy in the Native socieites in the eastern United States attracted the admiration of European observers. Frontiersmen were taken with the extent to which Native Americans enjoyed freedom as individuals. Women were also accorded more status and power.. than in white societies of the time" (109-110).

Lt. Gov. Cadwallader Colden of New York in 1727 said, "Here we see the natural Origin of all Power and Authority among a free People" (110).

"Indeed, Native American ideas may be partly responsible for our democratic institutions. We have seen how Native ideas of liberty, fraternity, and equality found their way to Europe to influence social philosophers such as Thomas More, Locke, Montaigne, Montesquieu, and Rousseau... Through 150 years of colonial contact, the Iroquois League stood before the colonies as an object lesson in how to govern a large domain democratically" (111).

"Both the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention referred openly to Iroquois ideas and imagery... As a symbol of the new United States, Americans chose the eagle clutching a bundle of arrows. They knew that both the eagle and the arrows were symbols of the Iroquois League... John Mohawk has argued that American Indians are directly or indirectly responsible for the public-meeting tradition, free speech, democracy, and "all those things which got attached to the Bill of Rights." Without the Native example, "do you really believe that all those ideas would have found birth among a people who had spent a millennium butchering other people because of intolerance of questions of religion?"" (111-112).

"For a hundred years after our Revolution, Americans credited Native Americans as a source of their democratic institutions... When colonists took action to oppose unjust authority, as in the Boston Tea Party.. they chose to dress as Indians, not to blame Indians for the demonstrations but to appropriate a symbol identified with liberty" (112).

"Indian warfare absorbed 80 percent of the entire federal budget during George Washington's administration and dogged his successors for a century as a major issue and expense... [in many cases] the settlers were Native American, the scalpers white" (116).

"All the textbooks tell how Jefferson "doubled the size of the United States by buying Louisiana from France." Not one points out that it was not France's land to sell--it was Indian land... Indeed, France did not really sell Louisiana for $15,000,000. France merely sold its claim to the territory... Equally Eurocentric are the maps textbooks use to show the Lewis and Clark expedition. They make Native American invisible, implying that the United States bought vacant land from the French... [Textbooks imply that the Indians were naive about land ownership, but] the problem lay in whites' not abiding by accepted concepts of land ownership" (123).

"The most important cause of the War of 1812.. was land-- Indian land... The United States fought five of the seven major land battles of the War of 1812 primarily against Native Americans... [a] result of the War of 1812 was the loss of part of our history. A century of learning [from Native Americans] was coming to a close... until 1815 the word Americans had generally been used to refer to Native Americans; after 1815 it meant European Americans... Carleton Beals has written that "our acquiescence in Indian dispossession has molded the American character." ... destroyed our national idealism. From 1815 on, instead of spreading democracy, we exported the ideology of white supremacy. Gradually we sought American hegemony over Mexico, the Philippines, much of the Caribbean basin, and, indirectly, over other nations... We also have to admit that Adolf Hitler displayed more knowledge of how we treated Native Americans than American high schoolers who rely on their textbooks. Hitler admired our concentration camps for Indians in the west "and often praised to his inner circle the efficiency of America's extermination--by starvation and uneven combat" as the model for his extermination of Jews and Gypsies" (123-126).

Yet we "still stereotype Native Americans as roaming primitive hunting folk, unfortunate victims of progress" (132).

For more on this topic, read Helen Hunt Jackson's famous indictment of Native American policies, A Century of Dishonor.

Also, see her fictional account of the racism Mexicans and Indians both endured at the hands of White and Mexican settlers, Ramona.

More quotes from the book are here:  http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/History/First_Thanksgiving_LMTTM.html

Thanksgiving quotes from the book are here: http://nativeamericanresources.blogspot.com/2007/11/lies-my-teacher-told-me-everything-your.html

GREAT LESSON PLANS FOR THE BOOK HERE:  http://liesmyteachertoldme.wikispaces.com/home

Historical Attempts at Genocide & Deculturalization - MOST COMPLETE LIST ON THIS SITE

Deculturalization and Genocide of NA's may be grouped into several categories:

• RELOCATION: Forcing removal of NA Nations from their traditional land on to reservations, such as, during the Trail of Tears or Long Walk of the Navajos

• GERM WARFARE: Delivering smallpox infested blankets into villages

• OUTRIGHT SLAUGHTER: Systematically killing entire Nations like the Arawak and Pequot

• BOARDING SCHOOLS: Systematically destroying Native American cultural continuity

• UNDERESTIMATING: Not being accurate about how many NA's were in the Americas and therefore being inaccurate about how many were destroyed.

• ENSLAVEMENT: Many Nations were captured and enslaved, some NA's were forced to work on plantations, others were sent to the Caribbean and be re-routed through the Triangular Slave Trade industry of the time. Some of the Nations affected were: Arawak, Pequot, Apache, Navajo, Pawnee

• STEREOTYPING: Hollywood films, sports mascots, and many other racist images dehumanize Native Americans.
  

Here is a post about a panel on genocide where I presented.  It includes a "working definition" of genocide.

ARTICLES
Counted Out of Existence 
Schools Have Failed First Nations by Lying About History

indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/03/07/schools-have-failed-first-nations-lying-about-history
Lies My Teacher Told Me

BELOW ARE SOME COMMON QUESTIONS - (a portion of the response/answer is reprinted below, click the link to be transferred to entire discussion or list of quotes about this topic)

How Many NA's were there?
Death by Disease
"The natives had no resistance to smallpox, influenza, or plague or even to mild (to us) diseases like measles. Entire populations were virtually wiped out, with some Atlantic coast tribes losing 90 percent of their adult members. Some historians go so far as to say European diseases reduced the pre-contact population of the New World as a whole by 90 percent or more. One says the population of central Mexico was reduced from 25 million in 1519 to 3 million by 1568 and only 750,000 by the early 1600s, 3 percent of the pre-conquest total."

Made Invisible so we don't even know about their influence and presence.
"The American Indian influence can be found in every part of America today. Indians can be found in our U. S. Government, local government, law enforcement, health care and our military. According to Jack D. Forbes, an emeritus professor of American Indian studies at the University of California-Davis, because of undercounts and other census quirks the total number of Indians in the United States today may be close to fifteen or even thirty million. In reference to the 2000 census data, Indians can be called America’s fastest-growing minority."

Was this really a barren wilderness?
No Way! Unfortunately, books"still stereotype Native Americans as roaming primitive hunting folk, unfortunate victims of progress" (132).

References
Loewen, J (1995). Lies my teacher told me. New York, NY: Touchstone.
O'Nell, T. D. (1996). Disciplined hearts: History, identity, and depression in an American Indian community. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Genocide Panel

I was on a panel last night at Bunker Hill Community College. The program took place from 4:30 - 6:00 p.m., in the Culinary Arts Dining Room (E-421), on the Charlestown campus. I presented on the issues of the Native American genocide, the other panelists were all professors from Boston College with PhD's: Devin Pendas, Zine Magubane (she knew my brother, Erich, and is actually on the same fellowship as him), and Dikran Kaligian. They presented on the Jewish/German, African/African diaspora and Armenian holocausts/genocides. It was fascinating. There was one newspaper there, The Armenian Weekly.

Devin Pendas talked about the four “E’s” of genocide:

• Exclusion (laws) – not allowing access, citizenship, property taken
• Emigration (movement and relocation)
• Enclosure (ghettos, camps, reservations) – no viable economic situation or food
• Extermination – a historical “process” which occurs over time

We each had approximately 15-20 minutes for our presentations. We all took about 30. We went an hour and a half over their allotted time.  One of the speakers  summed up our thoughts at the end by saying, "You just can’t talk about genocide in fifteen minutes." At program's end, we were going to light candles, take a moment to reflect on what we have heard and to offer our silent prayers or wishes that this kind of destructive behavior ends, but we ran out of time so we went up home with candles and were asked that we begin contemplation as to what each of us can do to help bring peace and justice to the world. I lead the group in the bird survival song.  It's a song from the Southwest which honors the survival of the winged creatures, for if they can't fly, breath, and survice, then humans aren't far behind in failing to thrive.

It was intense and worth it. Genocide towards NA's continues today with oppression through the use of mascots.

UPDATE:  Boarding schools are declared a form of genocide