The Forgotten Genocide

On this day in 1909, Chief Red Cloud, the chief of the Oglala Lakota, died on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Red Cloud, whose Lakota name was Makhpiya Luta, spent much of his adult life leading the fight to defend his people's rights. We know from history that his fight was doomed to failure, but I admire those who stand up against giants regardless of the odds. Red Cloud is even known as one of the few (possibly only) American Indian chiefs to win a war against the United States. During "Red Cloud's War", the leader and his people forced the U.S. Army to abandon several forts that had encroached on their territory ended with a complete victory and return of lands to the Oglala. Of course in the end, the Oglala got screwed like every other American Indian tribe and were shipped off to reservations, but for that one shining moment the big guy got kicked in the nuts. Hard.

Makhpiya Luta spent his life on the reservation still fighting (although this time through peaceful means) the U.S. government to ensure that the rights of his people were respected.

And no, I didn't know all of this off the top of my head. I actually read the first tidbits during my reading class today and then came home and researched the rest. I do, however, take more interest in this sort of thing than most because of my own Indian heritage. It's a very small portion of my genetic heritage, but then my Scottish heritage is probably pretty watered down and I was raised to honor that part of myself. Still, the American dealings with the previous inhabitants is one of the greatest overlooked genocides. It wasn't always an active, intentional genocide, but it shared more elements with the Nazi persecution of Jews than we as Americans should be comfortable with. The fact that we're still cool with an NFL team going by the racial slur Redskins as their moniker just goes to show that we still haven't gone as far with civil rights with the Indian population that we have with other minority groups.

This isn't even saying that the Indians were the perfect people before the arrival of Europeans. They fought, enslaved, and tried to exterminate each other just like every other group of people ever to come into contact with each other throughout the history of the Earth. It still doesn't justify the acts of supposedly enlightened people later on. I personally don't want to think that racism, slavery, and ethnic violence against me and my family is justified because of what my ancestors did and thought in the not-so-distant past.