I have been doing a lot of reading lately. You can't rely on the newspaper, TV, or radio for educational programs anymore! Most of the major media out there is owned by the same small group of rich folk with their own agenda. I find it hard to believe radio talk show knuckleheads, (I love that word),like Rush Limbaugh, (or is it Lush Bimbo),who claim the "media" is liberal. Maybe we have different views on what is liberal and what is conservative.
If the media is so liberal then why are political prisoners like Leonard Peltier still sitting in jail? If they are so liberal why didn't anyone from the "liberal press" question George Bush's use of the Paha Sapa,(the Black Hills), and that Shrine of Hypocrisy the wasicu call Mount Rushmore, for a backdrop to give his speech on Homeland Security and terroism? For those who don't remember thatspeech it was in the summer of 2002. The Lakota people have another word for the Paha Sapa. It is a sacred name and it's translation means "the heart of everything that is". Even today the great Lakota Nation refuses millions,(if not, now billions), of dollars held in trust for the Lakota people for the U.S.Government stealing their sacred Black Hills. Crazy Horse,(Tashunka Witko), said that one does not sell the earth upon which the people walk. His relatives have continued to refuse the money. Refusing the money means they do not recognize the sale or accept any settlement for them. This is from a Nation whose Pine Ridge Reservation is the poorest county in the United States. Unemployment is around 80%. The life expectancy of the Lakota on Pine Ridge is at least 15 years younger than the rest of Amerika! You can see where the wasicu green frog skins (money), might just come in handy. Yet these sacred Black Hills are that much a part of the Lakota consciousness! If you don't believe me read Lame Deer or Black Elk, Fools Crow, or, better yet, go there and ask the traditional people yourself. The old ones say it is the center of the universe! It is the geological center of the North American Continent. Who needs euroamerican education anyway? The old ones knew and still know.
The United States Court of Claims said, "A more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealings will never, in all probability, be found in our history"! There are four white presidents carved into that sacred mountain. Read what they had to say about the indigenous people of Turtle Island, (the North American Continent); George Washington said, "lay waste all the settlements around...that the country may not be merely overrun but destroyed." He was talking abut Native American's homes, families, and food source. It was common practice to trade blankets infested with smallpox to the Indians, (receiving valuable furs in the trade by the way), paving the way for the army to mop up what was left of the indigenous people that did not die from the disease. Gee it kind of sounds like Sadam don't it? I think G.W.Bush and his thugs are worried about terrorism because they know their greedy ancestors used those same terroistic tactics to claim this country.
Lets see, Thomas Jefferson, (that founding father of founding fathers), said, "...to pursue [the indians] to EXTERMINATION, or drive them to new seats beyond our reach." Oh Thomas, you mean like Sadam tried to do to the Kurds? You can see why Hitler was a very big fan of U.S. policy when it came to "undesireables" and their removal. Hitler learned a thing or two from the Extermination of Indian people here in the good ole U.S. of A.
You'll love this one folks; Teddy Roosevelt said,(and I QUOTE),"I don't go so far as to think that only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn't like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth." Can you believe that one?! And they try to tell our children that America is about opportunity for all! What a load of wasicu shit! Oh it's opportunity for all if you tow the wasicu line which means the bottom line is the dollar! If anything gets in the way of the leaders of this country, past, present, and probably future, they will use terrorism, lies, propaganda, genocide, murder, and what ever means they think they need to get the end result they want. The only difference between Sadam and our leaders is the terrorism has already been done here. And leaders like G.W.Bush can grin as he stands in front of a true symbol of Amerikan Democracy,(Mount Rushmore), because he knows only too well that his daddy and his daddy's daddy, and on back, did the dirty work for his generation! He knew exactly what he was doing stand ing in front of the sacred Paha Sapa. He was giving us all a silent history lesson and he knows that, like little spoiled kids, we won't pay attention to the history lesson! We'd rather watch Fox News and Leave it To Beaver re-runs.
But I digress. The great Abe Lincoln told his army boys to "render it secure for the advancing settler." Some of his greatest military men proceeded to terrorize the Indigenous people of the plains and south west, because we have to keep those "doggies rollin" don't we. And make sure nothing holds up those railroads. And gee, Mr. Hearst and all his buudies need that gold in dem der hills don't they! Honest Abe also ordered the LARGEST OFFICIAL MASS EXECUTION [of Indians] IN HISTORY IN WHICH GUILT OF THE EXECUTED COULD NOT BE POSITVELY DETERMINED!!!! Yeah sure Abe, we are all created equal. Go sell your propaganda someplace else.
One of Lincoln's top Generals was Philip Sheridan and he said about massacres like the Washita River, (lead by George Armstrong Custer),"If a village is attacked and women and children killed, the responsibility is not with the soldiers but with the people whose crimes necessitated the attack." This sounds like another piece of history Bush is prepared to echoe with his War on Terrorism and the Axis of Evil. Indians were fighting for survivial and their very way of life. They were freedom fighters in the truest sense of that word. They not white American lived the "American Dream"! Before Amerika subdued the indigenous people, everything they [the Indians] needed to survive was here; given by Creator to all who respected creation and tried to live in harmony with their relations! Food, clothing, and shelter came from the Buffalo for the people of the plains. They did not owe a bank, they had no taxes to pay, they had no landlords, they had no jobs. They spent their lives with family and friends everyday. How about that for "family values" George Bush? They hunted, fished, hiked, made crafts and, sung songs, danced, ran, walked, shot bows and arrows and guns, (after the wasicu came along),went swimming, held religious ceremonies, and told stories. All of these things we wasicu work all week long, and save up time, to do on weekends and vacations! Who are the civilized people again?
Like the lawyer character in Easy Rider said, "...they're not afraid of you they are afraid of what you represent...freedom...it's one thing to have parades and wave the flag and talk about freedom but let someone start being free...First one wants freedom and then the whole damn world wants freedom...."
General Willaim Tecumseh Sherman said to General Philip Sheridan "it would be wise to invite all the sportsmen of England and America... for a Grand Buffalo Hunt, and make one grand sweep of them all." And he endorsed Sheridan's plan of attacking Indian encampments during the winter, when their supplies and mobility were severely limited. It was government policy to exterminate as many Buffalo as possible. They reasoned if they killed off the food souce the Indians would have no choice but to surrender to reservation life.
Sheridan was quick to pick up Sherman's idea and use it in his remarks to the Texas legislature in 1875. Keep in mind that General Philip Sheridan was the Commander of the Armies of the West at the time: "These men (the buffalo hunters) have done...more to settle the vexed Indian question than the entire regular army has done in the last thirty years. They are destroying the Indians' commissary....Send them powder and lead if you will, but for the sake of lasting peace let them kill, skin, and sell until the buffalo are exterminated. Then your prairie can be covered with speckled cattle and the festive cowboy who follows the hunter as the second forerunner of an advanced civilization."
Near an army post in Kansas, Colonel Dodge reproted that buffalo were limitless in numbers as late as the winter of 1871. In the fall of 1873 he wrote, "...where there were myriads of buffalo the years before, there was now a myriad of carcasses. The air was foul with a sickening stench, and the vast plain, which only a short twelve months before teamed over with animal life, was a dead, solitary, putrid desert." He estimated over four million buffalo had been exterminated! No King George Bush, we don't act anything like Sadam towards our indigenous people do we? I'd say the Kurds have it no worse than the Lakota at the hands of their respective ruling regimes.
In November of 1875 the government issued an order that all tribes come into the reservation by January 31st 1876 or be considered hostile by the United States of Greed,(oops Amerika). They knew full well great and caring leaders like Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull would never make their people travel such a distance with out food supplies or shelter in the dead of a mid-western winter! Like King George knows, Sadam will not disarm his country completely. What sane leader would with a President like G.W. Bush who has the power to do what ever he likes at any time he finds it in his best interest. Right now it's OIL King George and his thugs want. Back in 1874 it was the gold that Custer found in the Black Hills. Invading the sacred Black Hills was a violation of treaty rights by they way but not too many history books explain that to our school children! When the Lakota did not show up at the various forts/reservations,(death camps), on January 31st, 1876, the big boys in DC said those tribes were now hostile and therefore a major campaign was launched against the Lakota people. The added bonus was; now the GREEDY corporations, in a joint effort with army, could claim the sacred Black Hills. It was fair game now that the Lakota had not come into the reservations and had the nerve to arm themselves and fight back against this agreesive and repressive country called the United States of America. This was accomplished at tax payers expense. Once again the greedy man's wealth was built on the working man's back. Cattle ranchers could now sell beef to the government for the reservation Indians and army personal who watched over them. Railroads were free to lay their track in union with the cattle ranches to tranport their beef product back east and elsewhere. Mineral rights were free for the taking. These greedy people who manipulated the American people, to foot the bill for them and make them rich, are the ancestors of todays oil companies and other energy corporations.
To quote myself from my song GREED: Some people see what they want to see buying the illusion that America's free...it gets down to greed.... And from LET US BE: No soldier of fortune should died for my freedom. In the face of a tyrant I'll bang on my own drum....
Now I am sure Sadam is a jerk just like our leaders were and are jerks today. He is a greedy man but he learned all that from the big boys like King George the 1st and King Ronald Rayguns. They put him in power in the first place! I am not by any means comparing the plight of Native Americans to that of Iraqi leaders like Sadam. But I am pointing out that the same rhetoric and propaganda is being used to attack Iraq as was used against> Naitve Americans. Remember that back then leaders like Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and anyone else who stood in the way of the greedy U.S. system, were referred to as terroist, hostiles, and murderers. Is that what Sadam is? More than likely, but really, we only know what they tell us! Why didn't G.W. have the courage to debate Sadam? If God is on King George's side and Sadam is part of the 'axis of evil'why would he be afraid of a debate. Maybe Sadam might bring some skeletons out of the family closet? Maybe that's what scared George so much that he couldn't debate a man who is so clearly in the wrong, in an open forum. I say rent out a big hall and stick the two of them in there and let them fight it out instead of killing all the innocent people we will kill there. If we are such a "God fearing" Nation then walk your talk I say. George claims he is a Christian. It's funny, when the right wing Christian types want to wage war they can't quote Jesus can they? Jesus said love your enemy. Jesus said turn the other cheek didn't he. Above all Jesus focused on love! This should tell the 'band wagon' Chrisitans that this man is not a Christian in the true sense of the word!
I think the bottom line is GREED and control in this case. I think a nation that has never appoliogized or made an effort to right any of the wrongs that were done in this country should never point a finger at anyone else. It is easy for the sons and daughters of terrorist to claim righteous moral ground after the wrongs have already been committed in their favor. With out the subjugation of the indienous people in this country America would not be the "great nation" that it appears to be. Certainly it would not have the wealth that it's ruling class has. It's like we are saying it was okay for us to practice germ warfare, genocide, murder, lies, cheating, and what ever was needed, to secure our wealth. Now that we have what our "founding fathers" wanted for us we all of a sudden become the voice of reason and righteousness? How can we do this with out making things right here in our own backyard? The answer is leaders like George Bush don't really care about any of the horrible things that were done in this country's history. He just says all those cute things because he knows that is what you want to hear.