1000's of Native American Children Stolen

[Nakosis]

This sounds like excuse-making to justify doing ****-all to make things better.

So you think it was ok to screw up their lives as long as you write a check for it?

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

Please don't take offense when I say that most of the Native Americans I've met over the years don't want any help from outsiders, and that's particularly true if the outsiders are white people. They're actually offended by the attempt because they feel like the white people only want to help Indians because they think that the Indians aren't capable of taking care of themselves. I've often heard the term White Savior Complex and The White Man's Burden whenever this subject is discussed among Native Americans.

 

[Kooky]

IMO, you can't.
All you can do is repent and sin no more.

How about trying to make amends?

 

[Kooky]

Please don't take offense when I say that most of the Native Americans I've met over the years don't want any help from outsiders, and that's particularly true if the outsiders are white people. They're actually offended by the attempt because they feel like the white people only want to help Indians because they think that the Indians aren't capable of taking care of themselves. I've often heard the term White Savior Complex and The White Man's Burden whenever this subject is discussed among Native Americans.

There is a difference between help and empowerment, I would say.

 

[Nakosis]

How about trying to make amends?

Sure, if you want to make yourself feel better. Not sure how that fixes the lives you destroyed though.

If someone injures me, the best thing I can hear for them is that they will never do anything like it again.

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

How about trying to make amends?

What kind of amends do you suggest?

 

[Kooky]

Sure, if you want to make yourself feel better. Not sure how that fixes the lives you destroyed though.

Never mind "fixing" lives, Americans haven't even moved to stop the ongoing discrimination and oppression that the indigenous population still suffers from.

As to your argument, first of all, I don't believe that centuries of discrimination and ethnic cleansing simply cease to have any consequence whatsoever as soon as somebody in charge says that they're sorry about them. Second of all, you seem to have missed that the entirety of American capitalism is built on stolen land and stolen resources, which have never been given back to their rightful owners.

If someone injures me, the best thing I can hear for them is that they will never do anything like it again.

Your example is not a sensible analogy for what has been going on in America with regards to the treatment of its indigenous populations.

 

[Kooky]

What kind of amends do you suggest?

Reparations for the stolen land and resources that American industries have profitted from for the past two centuries, perhaps also additional reparations for the multiple war crimes and atrocities committed by American uniformed forces between the founding of the USA and the current day.

That will, of course, never happen, because the logic of property rights under capitalism only ever extends to those who serve the interests of the wealthy and powerful. You can only acquire property either by sale or theft, and since America didn't like paying, they simply stole.

 

[Nakosis]

Never mind "fixing" lives, Americans haven't even moved to stop the ongoing discrimination and oppression that the indigenous population still suffers from.

As to your argument, first of all, I don't believe that centuries of discrimination and ethnic cleansing simply cease to have any consequence whatsoever as soon as somebody in charge says that they're sorry about them. Second of all, you seem to have missed that the entirety of American capitalism is built on stolen land and stolen resources, which have never been given back to their rightful owners.

I believe a different narrative.

Your example is not a sensible analogy for what has been going on in America with regards to the treatment of its indigenous populations.

Ok, what is your solution?

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

Never mind "fixing" lives, Americans haven't even moved to stop the ongoing discrimination and oppression that its indigenous populations still suffers from.

As to your argument, first of all, I don't believe that centuries of discrimination and ethnic cleansing simply cease to have any consequence whatsoever as soon as somebody in charge says that they're sorry about them. Second of all, you seem to have missed that the entirety of American capitalism is built on stolen land and stolen resources, which have never been given back to their rightful owners.

Your example is not a sensible analogy for what has been going on in America with regards to the treatment of its indigenous populations.

Reparations for the stolen land and resources that American industries have profitted from for the past two centuries, perhaps also additional reparations for the multiple war crimes and atrocities committed by American uniformed forces between the founding of the USA and the current day.

That will, of course, never happen, because the logic of property rights under capitalism only ever extends to those who serve the interests of the wealthy and powerful. You can only acquire property either by sale or theft, and since America didn't like paying, they simply stole.

Kooky, you and I are in total agreement on this issue. Well said. That being said, I would like to add some more of my thoughts.

Personally, I think that public recognition and an official apology by the US federal government would be a good start. It can't be a mere announcement by the President of the United States that sounds like a tree falling in a forest (ahem... Barack Obama).

And what I'm about to say next is a generalized statement. It isn't personal against you or anyone else in particular.

Respect Native Americans and publicly acknowledge the living hell they were forced to live in throughout the history of this country.

Public acknowledgment that many Native Americans today suffer from the psychological effects of Intergenerational Trauma and Historical Trauma, and it's especially true with Native American youth. Native Americans adults and children suffer from PTSD.

No more mockery of Native Americans or their culture. No more double standard of telling them to just "get over it!" when we are expected to commemorate national holidays of non-Indian American historical events or people, such as President's Day, MLK Day, and Veteran's Day. We're told every year to never forget September 11th. We're also told to remember Pearl Harbor and the Alamo.

Keep politicians' greedy paws off of what scraps of tribal lands that Native Americans have left.

No more fracking, drilling for oil or placing an oil pipeline route on tribal lands without the consent of the tribe.

Congress and states governments must honor the treaties, and pay all the tribes back payments in accordance with these treaties.

Stop trying to justify all the inhumane injustices and atrocities committed against Native Americans by saying that the tribes once fought and had wars against each other. And lastly, show respect for their culture and their traditions, and stop misappropriating their culture. There are better ways to honor Native Americans than with racist Indian mascots for American sports entertainment or a non-Indian person wearing a ceremonial headdress and beads strutting around in public while pretending to be an Indian.

And there's an uncomfortable truth in this quote.

"No matter where you live in America, you're living on occupied land that indigenous people were murdered for," - Frank Waln, Native American rapper and social activist - Watch the 7th Generation Rise on ‘Rebel Music: Native America’.