Lookingglass300

Summary and Response to: Encountering The American Holocaust. The politics of Affirmation and Denial – By Ward Churchill

The American Indians, who are so often dehumanized through practices of cultural imperialism into a single being, are grossly misrepresented in history. These native peoples were seen as less then the European colonists in terms of intelligence, imagination, and usefulness even though without their guidance the first settlers would have had little change of surviving their first winter in the Americas. Yet with no westernize system of land ownership and a strong spiritual connection to nature the government found it necessary to take it upon them to ‘civilize’ these peoples. Part of the ‘civilization’ was the forcing of westernized agricultural practices upon them resulting in the robbing of native land. These lands were then resold to white male farmers. The Native Americans where expected to participate willingly in the assimilation into westernized religion, clothing, language, and social behaviors as well as to teach it to their children.

Those who did not assimilate or give up their land as easily where said to be resisting change and therefore in need of eradication. Millions of native communities were subjected to horrific violence and marginalization. People on the frontier viewed Native Americans as ‘”…vermin, launched literally hundreds of campaigns to effect their extermination, and then reveled in the carnage which resulted.” Genocide is defined as “A deliberate killing of large groups of people, especially those of a particular ethic group or nation.” What was done to the Native Americans through targeted and brutal attacks was in my mind just that; a genocide no matter what the Zionist masses may believe.

There is a condition of mass denial in the United States when it comes to the Native American overthrow. The very language of the discussion tells a tale of long oppressed and stigmatized masses that where always considered the ‘other’ and dangerous. The idea of “Indian Wars” and the savages of the land bring to mind a war like people who came after the European settlers rather then the other way around. Also the ideology of the New World allows and accepts a purely westernized lens of awareness to our history even today. These ideologies are carried on even today in media representations through TV, news, and movies. We listen to “experts” tell us all about the revised history of America and all our children learn the settlers brave tales in school. With what Churchill calls the “interconnecting webs of mythic interpretation” the facts are almost impossible to discern from the mass information. Because of the lost history it has lead educated people to believe that the settlers and government just went a little too far; that the blame should be placed on no one because everyone is allowed to make mistakes. In my mind it’s the equivalent of a three year old says oops. Our government should be more responsible and aware. It is not appropriate for the death of millions to go unnoticed and unrecognized as tragic. Denial should not be tolerated.

Some take it a step farther in my opinion and say that we concentrate too heavily on the genocide and not enough on the positives that came out of it. Charles Krauthammer of Time magazine writes on May 27, 1991 “The real question is, what eventually grew on this bloodied soil.” Later in the article he states that without the mass murder of the ‘barbarous’ society that “…a culture of liberty that endowed the individual human being with dignity and sovereignty.” would not have been possible. The idea that we as a culture are more rich and diverse, or that we are some how better off by glorifying the American Holocaust in our history is absurd. Never would a mainstream author be able to say such things about the German Holocaust. When I place the events side by side I see only small difference in skin color and location in time; what could that say about our society?

In the end those populations of Native people’s that were not ‘liquidated’ where ‘restocked’ and stuffed on to land that had little if any agricultural use. This forced many families into a cash based system of survival. With no good to sell and little too offer a stigmatized society other then there bodies through hard labor and prostitution the people were set up to fail. Today the so-called clumped together Native people of North America are scattered and extremely marginalized, exploited, and abused. For all there suffering I see very little positive benefit to anyone today except those who now occupy land unknown to them as battlefields in history.
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Responses-
To dehumanize a people is to keep them as others and this allows them to become not important as individuals or contributing members of society. This fading also occurs when history is taken away or distorted to such an extreme extent that self identification is difficult. In the minds of many ‘American’s’ there are two gendered version of the Native America. A man: without a shirt sitting bareback on a horse with a bow and arrow or a women: who has long black hair, is wearing skins and has a baby strapped to her back.  These are not accurate representations to show anyone especially not the children of Native ancestry.  This all leads to a point where all that is seen is the negatives blared at us 24 hours a day making it easy to believe in such ‘common sense’. Children are not exposed to truth because, among other reasons, we don’t think they can handle it and therefore the cycle continues.  In so many other countries children are required to learn other languages and cultures of the peoples they live next to and go to school with.  The melting pot of America has resulted in an assimilation of children and assimilated children become assimilated adults.  We would not need such intense degrees of programming.