There are, of course, arguments for giving the illegally seized Hawaii back to indigenous Hawaiians, of giving back most of Oklahoma, and so on. Putin argues for Crimea (and all of Ukraine), while Kyiv has arguable supremacy over that late-comer, Moscow.
New Zealand. Australia.
To whom should belong most of Africa? Ther ancestors of all of us came from there; personally, I want the Olduvai Gorge.
I’m not Indian but I have mixed feelings regarding land acknowledgments. I agree it can be performative and when I hear one I often think that if I were Indian I would ask the speaker: “So what are you going to do about it?”. However, I do think it’s a good reminder for those of us who have only been here in the West for 6 or 7 generations that there were (and still are) cultures here that thrived for 100+ generations who had knowledge that we never had.
Certain historical injustices cannot be undone. The virtue of recalling them, however, is to make us alert to whatever opportunities there may be to make amends and especially to stop unjust practices in the present and future.
Currently, we have one such opportunity. The Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act (S. 1723) passed the Senate unanimously this week. The House could do likewise before adjournment on Jan. 3. Below are key provisions of the act. I urge everyone to contact their U.S. Representative and urge support for the House version of the bill. I also urge everyone to inform themselves of the gruesome reality of the boarding schools. It was the subject of one of my columns in Ashland.news earlier this year. You can read it at https://ashland.news/relocations-a-long-overdue-reckoning-with-the-horror-of-indian-boarding-schools/
Establishment of a Truth and Healing Commission to investigate the impacts and ongoing effects of Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States. The Commission would
1. Document the experiences of Native American children who attended these schools, including any cases of abuse, deaths, and disappearances
2. Locate and analyze records related to the federal Indian boarding school system
3. Hold public hearings to gather testimony from survivors and their families
Investigate and document the ongoing impacts of historical trauma on Native communities
3. Make recommendations to Congress for healing and justice.
The Commission would be composed of
1. Native Americans, including boarding school survivors or their relatives
2. Experts in education, health, and Native American issues
3. Representatives from tribal organizations
A Final Report requirement to document findings and recommendations for
1. Addressing historical trauma
2. Providing resources for healing
3. Preventing similar policies in the future
4. Preserving documentation and historical records
The farm my great-grandparents hacked out of the northern Wisconsin woods likely belonged to the Ho-Chunk nation or a sub-tribe of the Chippewa. The Sternbergs were among the nineteenth-century flood of German immigrants who became one of the most essential ingredients in the American melting pot. I fondly remember my grandfather’s pioneer story of hiking to town and shooting partridges that obligingly sat on tree branches. He would sell them to the hotel in town to pay for the makings of his homemade ammunition, and they would serve them as the “blue plate special” to the salesmen (“drummers”) arriving on the train. I remember a visit to a Blackfoot reservation when I was eight or nine, but I was blithely unaware of the role Native Americans had played in what I thought of as my home. I have no idea whether they valued the land more than my ancestors.
I agree that acknowledgment of the “white man’s burden” is likely wasted on liberals. Even Hollywood and Martin Scorsese mix up the message with movies like “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Reparations don’t feel right because I firmly believe that money shouldn’t buy everything. So what should we do? Critical race theory and Project 1619 are rejected as too didactic. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn causes too much white guilt. Honestly, I’d like to wring a few necks rather than wring my hands. Maybe we should just let the casinos and tax-free reservation cigarettes be the proper representation of our “sins.”
You mention that "(t)he "lost cause" of the American South has survived in various forms for seven generations so far..."
It seems to me that the recent Presidential election was actually the final battle of the American Civil War, and the Southern Oligarchs have indeed won...
My thought, too. But in writing these posts, I need to resist the temptation to add another paragraph or two on a related subject, linking Trump to the Lost Cause, even though you are exactly right. Posts work best if they are shorter than 700 words, and if they stick to a single clear point. I often write paragraphs or two or three than I have to leave on the cutting room floor.
Draft a guest post making your point. Title it something like: "Finding the Lost Cause right under our nose." Try 500 to 600 words. I don't promise to publish it, but I promise to read it and consider it. It is a good, worthy point. There is a progression from succession to Black Codes, to Jim Crow to voter suppression into the 1960s to white flight to Nixon's Southern Strategy to Reagan's starting his 1980 campaign in, of all places, Philadelphia Mississipi, the town that hid the killers of the Civil Rights workers, to Donald Trump.
There are, of course, arguments for giving the illegally seized Hawaii back to indigenous Hawaiians, of giving back most of Oklahoma, and so on. Putin argues for Crimea (and all of Ukraine), while Kyiv has arguable supremacy over that late-comer, Moscow.
New Zealand. Australia.
To whom should belong most of Africa? Ther ancestors of all of us came from there; personally, I want the Olduvai Gorge.
I’m not Indian but I have mixed feelings regarding land acknowledgments. I agree it can be performative and when I hear one I often think that if I were Indian I would ask the speaker: “So what are you going to do about it?”. However, I do think it’s a good reminder for those of us who have only been here in the West for 6 or 7 generations that there were (and still are) cultures here that thrived for 100+ generations who had knowledge that we never had.
Certain historical injustices cannot be undone. The virtue of recalling them, however, is to make us alert to whatever opportunities there may be to make amends and especially to stop unjust practices in the present and future.
Currently, we have one such opportunity. The Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act (S. 1723) passed the Senate unanimously this week. The House could do likewise before adjournment on Jan. 3. Below are key provisions of the act. I urge everyone to contact their U.S. Representative and urge support for the House version of the bill. I also urge everyone to inform themselves of the gruesome reality of the boarding schools. It was the subject of one of my columns in Ashland.news earlier this year. You can read it at https://ashland.news/relocations-a-long-overdue-reckoning-with-the-horror-of-indian-boarding-schools/
Establishment of a Truth and Healing Commission to investigate the impacts and ongoing effects of Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States. The Commission would
1. Document the experiences of Native American children who attended these schools, including any cases of abuse, deaths, and disappearances
2. Locate and analyze records related to the federal Indian boarding school system
3. Hold public hearings to gather testimony from survivors and their families
Investigate and document the ongoing impacts of historical trauma on Native communities
3. Make recommendations to Congress for healing and justice.
The Commission would be composed of
1. Native Americans, including boarding school survivors or their relatives
2. Experts in education, health, and Native American issues
3. Representatives from tribal organizations
A Final Report requirement to document findings and recommendations for
1. Addressing historical trauma
2. Providing resources for healing
3. Preventing similar policies in the future
4. Preserving documentation and historical records
The farm my great-grandparents hacked out of the northern Wisconsin woods likely belonged to the Ho-Chunk nation or a sub-tribe of the Chippewa. The Sternbergs were among the nineteenth-century flood of German immigrants who became one of the most essential ingredients in the American melting pot. I fondly remember my grandfather’s pioneer story of hiking to town and shooting partridges that obligingly sat on tree branches. He would sell them to the hotel in town to pay for the makings of his homemade ammunition, and they would serve them as the “blue plate special” to the salesmen (“drummers”) arriving on the train. I remember a visit to a Blackfoot reservation when I was eight or nine, but I was blithely unaware of the role Native Americans had played in what I thought of as my home. I have no idea whether they valued the land more than my ancestors.
I agree that acknowledgment of the “white man’s burden” is likely wasted on liberals. Even Hollywood and Martin Scorsese mix up the message with movies like “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Reparations don’t feel right because I firmly believe that money shouldn’t buy everything. So what should we do? Critical race theory and Project 1619 are rejected as too didactic. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn causes too much white guilt. Honestly, I’d like to wring a few necks rather than wring my hands. Maybe we should just let the casinos and tax-free reservation cigarettes be the proper representation of our “sins.”
You mention that "(t)he "lost cause" of the American South has survived in various forms for seven generations so far..."
It seems to me that the recent Presidential election was actually the final battle of the American Civil War, and the Southern Oligarchs have indeed won...
My thought, too. But in writing these posts, I need to resist the temptation to add another paragraph or two on a related subject, linking Trump to the Lost Cause, even though you are exactly right. Posts work best if they are shorter than 700 words, and if they stick to a single clear point. I often write paragraphs or two or three than I have to leave on the cutting room floor.
Draft a guest post making your point. Title it something like: "Finding the Lost Cause right under our nose." Try 500 to 600 words. I don't promise to publish it, but I promise to read it and consider it. It is a good, worthy point. There is a progression from succession to Black Codes, to Jim Crow to voter suppression into the 1960s to white flight to Nixon's Southern Strategy to Reagan's starting his 1980 campaign in, of all places, Philadelphia Mississipi, the town that hid the killers of the Civil Rights workers, to Donald Trump.
Peter Sage