Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: angry

America's Dirty Little Secret

While America has often criticized other nations for their barbaric treatment of human beings, it's not considered polite here to point out America's own history of multiple cases of cultural and physical genocide (partial and complete) and widespread abuse, torture, theft, murder, and other illegal acts perpetrated upon indigenous peoples. Here is an article about one such example:

FOCUS: Dahr Jamail | Destroying Indigenous Populations
Dahr Jamail, Truthout: "There is uranium all around the Black Hills, South and North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. Mining companies came in and dug large holes through these lands to extract uranium in the 1950's and 1960's prior to any prohibitive regulations. Abandoned uranium mines in southwestern South Dakota number 142. In the Cave Hills area, another sacred place in South Dakota used for vision quests and burial sites, there are 89 abandoned uranium mines. In occupied Iraq and Afghanistan, the uranium that has caused genocide of sorts at home has proceeded to wreak new havoc."


This is personal for me. Pine Ridge is "my" reservation: my father's brother, John Barrette, has kin-by-marriage there (in a rather convoluted way). Our family has visited Pine Ridge. We have visited Paha Sapa, the Black Hills, several times. We have hiked up Harney Peak several times, and Bear Butte once. This is land that I consider sacred. I am extremely displeased by how the land and the native people have been treated. Racism is alive and kicking people to death on the Great Plains.
Tags: environment, ethnic studies, news, politics, spirituality
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  • 8 comments
ionotter

ionotter

June 23 2009, 05:15:40 UTC 12 years ago Edited:  June 23 2009, 05:26:08 UTC

This was actually one of the plotlines in the fictional account of the Wounded Knee Incident and Leonard Peltier's arrest, in the movie "Thunderheart".

The director packed a lot of stuff into that movie. It is good to see how much "fiction" had a strong basis in reality.

Oh, and by the way?

The best way to "fix" this problem of radiation if for the residents of Pine Ridge to hire a tanker truck, fill it up at the wells, and then unload it in the streets of the state capitol. Be sure to spread EXTRA in front of the schools and shopping malls.

When they find out how radioactive it is, the Elders can just go on TV and say, "What? This water came from my drinking well. See? I have signed documents from my lawyer who witnessed the driver taking water from the well that Uncle Sam declared perfectly safe to drink. You wouldn't be telling me that my DRINKING WATER is unsafe, now would you???"
ysabetwordsmith

Ooo...

ysabetwordsmith

June 23 2009, 06:12:05 UTC 12 years ago

... that's as good as the traditional AIM response to "Why don't you go back where you came from?"

Which is to pitch a tent on the racist jerk's lawn.

Also, your icon is hilarious.
ionotter

Re: Ooo...

ionotter

June 23 2009, 07:07:13 UTC 12 years ago

Also, your icon is hilarious.

Hunter S. Thompson and Spider Jerusalem: orgasmic delight in a single icon.
browngirl

Re: Ooo...

browngirl

June 23 2009, 13:01:35 UTC 12 years ago

Word.

I'm just here to agree with both of you, and to put this article in my files for next time I have to argue with people.
fayanora

fayanora

June 24 2009, 09:53:29 UTC 12 years ago

LOL! I would love it so much if someone did that. I think I would actually laugh my arse off.
poeticknowledge

poeticknowledge

June 23 2009, 20:38:18 UTC 12 years ago

This truly sickens me to the core and makes me all the more angry--I can't stand injustice.
fayanora

fayanora

June 24 2009, 09:51:50 UTC 12 years ago

That does indeed suck mightily. The least they could do is cover that shit up with rocks or something so it's not as dangerous.

However, I still feel more anger about how the Australian aborigines are being treated. They have it worse than the American native peoples do.

Sorry to wander, there. But I don't see many articles about the Australian aborigines.
ysabetwordsmith

Hmm...

ysabetwordsmith

June 24 2009, 17:05:18 UTC 12 years ago

From what I have seen, the two indigenous peoples are treated with a similar level of abuse, historically and currently. The details differ, but most of the same things have happened: cultural and physical genocide, mass theft of land and other valuables, broken treaties, murder, torture, mockery, wholesale kidnapping of children, forced sterilization, near-total unemployment, unlivable conditions, etc.

Neither America nor Australia really want their dirty laundry hung to dry on the global stage, so news is scarce outside of native or alternative resources. I find some because I'm always keeping an eye out for it. Since I started the dogsbody story arc, I have raised my level of attention to Australian issues.

I am generally displeased with how indigenous peoples are treated worldwide. Recently central and South America have returned to the traditional method of simply murdering large numbers of natives who are in the way of resource exploitation.