This is your community page where members can post ... anything!
by Stephanie
I had heard about the Wounded Knee incident that happened in 1890. As long ago as high school was for me, I learned about it in my U.S. History class. Our teacher liked to show documentaries, most of which, I slept through, but I remember this one vividly. We also revisited it in my American literature class when I took that a few years ago.
When we watched the movie, Reel Injun, a few weeks ago, they talked about Wounded Knee, and I was a little confused because they were speaking of it like it happened only a few decades ago. Then someone who was actually there was speaking on camera. I was like, “That must be the oldest living dude ever!”
But seriously, I had no idea that there was a second incident in 1973. I wanted to look it up to see what it was about and what happened there, and here’s a little of what I found.
Because Indians risked their lives to fight in WWI along side white men, who stole their land and gave them the sloppy seconds to try and farm, they were given American citizenship. The government just proclaimed that they were Americans. Hmm... Kinda makes you wonder at the irony. I mean the Indians where here first, so why would Indians want to become a part of the society who has done them wrong for so long? And I kinda want to know if the Indians had the right to choose to become American citizens. So, I looked up the 1924 Native American Citizenship Act.
Some Indians had married white people giving them citizenship. Some had entered the military, which gave them American citizenship, but most were still considered non-citizens and were even barred from the naturalization process in which immigrants were allowed. So, an Indian who was born on land within the boarders of the United States was not an American Citizen.
In order to right this wrong, "Congress took what some saw as the final step on June 2, 1924 and granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States." Now, I don't know about you, but that sentence is full of irony. Really? The U.S. government, an organization formed by immigrants about 150 years before, felt obligated to give citizenship to a group of people, or natives, who had lived on U.S. land since the beginning of time simply on the basis that they were born here? Wow. Talk about aristocratic arrogance. And, "The granting of citizenship was not a response to some universal petition by American Indian groups." Hmm... Sounds like the Congress has something up its sleeve, and its name is "Manipulative Supremacy."
"Because government treaties cannot exist among people of the same country, all the agreements formed between Native Americans and the U.S. government were voided, and their lands began to be seized." But what he doesn't say is the reason why the government wanted the land in the first place.
In a PBS' Episode on Wounded Knee one Indian says that his people were tired of giving up their land, giving up the Indian way of life. All they wanted was to be left alone and allowed to live the way they wanted, but the U.S. government kept interfering and taking all that they had left.
However, that seemed to be a little to basic of an explanation. In the continuation of watching the PBS piece, I learned that there was a dictator in office on the Pine Ridge Reservation. This man, Dick Wilson, was an Indian, but he was on the government payroll. He helped whom he wanted and shunned those he didn't like. He favored assimilation of the Indians into the white man's way of life, and he persecuted the traditionalists. Wilson had the reservation under his control and the police in his pocket.
Evidence was gathered against him, miss use of funds, civil rights violations, but none of it helped. The man intimidated witnesses and paid people off, so his impeachment failed. But the traditionalists didn't give up.
Now, this all seems like an internal argument among Indians on a reservation, so why bring in the U.S. Marshal's office? Why did the government get involved?
And that was because the government supported the assimilation of Indians into the white man's way of life, too. It was on the same side as Dick Wilson and his men. There was also some confusion on whether or not there were white hostages being held within the compound, but these white people told the government that they were free to leave whenever they wanted, but they weren't going to because as soon as they did, the Marshals would kill the Indians. Hmm... sound's like good sense to me.
So, Wounded Knee was held by traditionalist Indians in 1973 because they were tired of their way of life being stepped on by non-traditionalists and the U.S. Government. It doesn't seem like much has changed in the last 250 years. The government keeps bullying the Indians and eventually they get tired of it and push back. Are you still in middle school, Congress?
Comments