These are all pretty terrible things -- they range from shabby to very nasty treatment. But which of these is evidence that the U.S. is attempting to exterminate Native Americans? I just finished an article on how the media are advertising a spurious "genocide" in Kosovo. It's pretty clear that the media are trying to pin the word genocide onto the Serbs for propaganda purposes. It's an abuse of the term when the mainstream media use it for Kosovo and it's an abuse of the term when activists use it for Indians.
seth
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Doug Henwood [SMTP:dhenwood at panix.com]
> Sent: Sunday, April 11, 1999 9:34 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: Fwd: Re: genocide
>
> [Seth Ackerman asked for background on claims that the US & Canada
> still
> practice genocide against their native populations. Here's his answer
> (irrelevant bits snipped).]
>
> From: Nativejmc at aol.com
> Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 12:31:54 EDT
> Subject: Re: genocide
> To: dhenwood at panix.com
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Reply-To: Nativejmc at aol.com
>
> Tell whomever questioned you to start with a definition of genocide
> and tel
> them to go to Article II of the 1948 Convention on Genocide which the
> US
> refused to sign until 1988 and even then is not a full signatory
> because of
> the Lugar/Helms/Hatch "Sovereignty" Amendment which says that nothing
> in
> international law can override US Sovereignty and law (so if genocide
> is a
> sort of American thing, we''ll our "sovereignty" trumps any law on
> genocide).
> Canada ratified the UN convention in 1953.
>
> Then tell them to go to works like "The Circle Game" by Roland
> Chrisjohn or
> Shingwauk's Vision" by J.R. Miller for openers. Tell them to go also
> to the
> highly sanitized Royal Commission Report on Aboriginal Peoples which
> is also
> revealing in what was cut out (what is now in The Circle Game) as well
> as
> what is in it. They can also go to a recent article--two weeks ago--in
> US
> News and World Report on billions of Indian monies gone (remember I
> mentioned
> it on your show over a year ago--now they are getting around to the
> story).
> Thousands have died in Indian Country who could have been saved with
> the
> stolen monies.
>
> We still have: forced assimilation; transfering children of one group
> to
> another group through adoptions,; we still have Indian children being
> sterilized--previously though naked coercion and now through
> deception; we
> have overwhelming evidence of Indian children and adults being used
> for
> medical experimentation including on the infamous MK-ULTRA LSD
> program; we
> have land/resource hungry oil companies engaging in massive corruption
> to
> bribe tribal officials to turn over large and desperately-need lands
> and
> resources for a song (recent aqgreement at Browning with K2 and Miller
> Oil of
> Texas for 50 year lease, full mineral/gas/oil royalties over 740,000
> out of
> the Reservation's 937,000 acres at $20 per acre when the going rate
> across
> the border is $5000 per acre),; we have the highest
> uninvestigated/unsolved
> murder rates in the country; we have DIA/RCMP in Canada and BIA/FBI in
> the US
> fully aware of drug networks destroying Indians at high rates, fully
> aware of
> who is behind them and refusing to do anything (drunken and drugged-up
> Indians are easier to steal land from); we have Indian children being
> sexually/physically assaulted and used by pedophile rings,
> pornographers and
> in foster homes--they are regarded as open season with no likely
> penalties;
> we've gott grossly under-funded and under-staff Indian Health Services
> unable
> to deal with even basic and survivable illnesses with resulting high
> and
> preventable mortality rates;
>
> That is only for starters. Next ask them what Reservations/Reserves
> they have
> been on. Ask what their experience/sources are that lead them to
> question or
> deny the reality of Genocide. Ask them why US Senate records show that
> the US
> Senate repeatedly refused to ratify the UN Convention on Genocide and
> in the
> debates repeatedly referred to the fact that Jim Crow Laws and
> Laws/treatment
> of Indians would leave the US open to a charge of genocide--their
> words. Ask
> them if they have read "Indians Are Us?" or "A Little Matter of
> Genocide" by
> Ward Churchill or have they read "An American Holocaust" by David
> Stannard or
> have they read any of the works of Vine Deloria (e.g. "Custer Died for
> Your
> Sins" or "American Indians, American Justice").
>
> That's only for openers. BTW Mike Levine has asked me to do three
> maybe four
> hours on WBAI to be broadcast in installments. We will be taping on
> May 4 to
> be broadcast later in May. He asked me as a result of hearing me on
> your
> program and being outraged. He also asked me to help to produce his
> show--producer at large--because I have a background and knowledge in
> other
> areas he deals with.
>
> You may publish this or use it as you see fit. Anyone can question and
> that
> is good. But now it is time to cough up sources, reasons, experiences
> to be
> believe genocide is not going on. It is, I live with it every day and
> I do
> know the definitions under law. Perhaps give this person a copy of my
> Tribunal Findings also.
>
> I hope that helps. Take care and if you need more information or
> sources, I
> can of course provide a whole library full. This is just off the top
> of my
> head for the moment.
>
> Jim