-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Fwd: Indians and Iraq Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2003 13:46:51 -0600 From: Susan Kalter <smkalte at ILSTU.EDU> Reply-To: Susan Kalter <smkalte at ILSTU.EDU> To: ENGDEP-L at listserv.ilstu.edu
Forwarding from a Native American literature listserv I'm on.
Hello All,
This is a bit long, but please take a moment to read. There are three things in this email: an email address, a letter criticizing US plans for Iraq which considers treatment of Indian peoples, and a satirical "memo" from the new "BIA" with the same subject. The website is for folks to sign-up to give time to barrage the media with alternative views ot this war and its wider implications, which aren't getting reported in US corporate newspapers and stations.
What I'm doing with this letter is putting in the time I have promised to spend EACH DAY doing something, anything, any little something, to protest this war and to protest the behavior which supports such a thing. I am not going to spend time speaking on the details of this latest injustice, since on this particular list, I'd be "preaching to the choir." But, I will say this:
INDIAN VOICES ARE ESSENTIAL IN THIS BATTLE - as Simon Ortiz indicated at the conference. The story indigenous people have to tell about this country is the story which will make the difference to people's attitudes about this war. Of course, I realize completely that you tell that story constantly, and more often than not, you tell that story, continue to share that story, despite the hardship and frustration of doing just that.
But, what I'm advocating here is that, in the same manner of these things I've attached, that RIGHT NOW, you get busy and get vocal with attaching THAT story to THIS war.
I think two things can be served by doing so. First, I think this might actually help the general, close-minded, "leave me alone, I'm watching Joe Millionaire" public to give some thought to their responsibilities as citizens living on this continent, in terms of what has gone down here and what continues to go down here with indigenous peoples. Second, in a much larger sense, such a linkage might encourage the awakening that needs to happen in people in order for the entire human race to survive the lightening-fast course it is on towards extinction. In these ways, maybe some light will then come from this very dark, dangerous episode in the follies of mankind.
My husband said something last night that I want to share. He said he was fighting this thing inside himself that so badly wanted to see Bush and crew fail. He said he wanted that failure so much, that he listens with anticipation and something akin to satisfaction when he hears about how badly things are going in Iraq, about the deaths of civilians and soldiers and the POWs and the failure of the script that has Iraqis cheering the USA in the streets while Saddam Hussein is run out of town. He said he has to fight a kind of gloating and remind himself that every failure in the battle plans of these warmongers means even more death and destruction. He said he needs to focus on his outrage that human beings can do this to other human beings and not on the sense that these fundamentalist lunatics will get what is coming to them, one way or another. I think this is a kind of profound admission. And I understood exactly what he was talking about. I fight the same battle. I see other people fighting it. I try to remember that it is not a matter of satisfaction over the downfall of destructive fools, but a question of just how much of the earth and her living beings they'll take with them, when they crash.
Some years ago, a really wise friend of mine, when I was very angry and terribly shaken by something that had been done to me, said that the best gift I could give to the world was not to pass that anger on, was not to hurt the world with what had hurt me. Those are words I struggle to live by. I hold on to the thought that there are more things to connect people than there are to separate them. It is time to focus on those connections rather than on the things which separate us, to focus on what makes us strong in the face of those who are, in the words of Silko, "the destroyers."
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THE LETTER:
Saturday, January 25, 2003 U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said this week that if the United States invades and wins in Iraq, our government will hold the country's oil fields "in trust" for the Iraqi people. American Indians must be laughing themselves sick.More than a century ago, Uncle Sam took control of Indian assets -Including oil and gas fields. The government also took control of Indian grazing leases,timber rights and so forth, promising to hold the assets in trust for the Indians. But the government never kept proper track of the money, such as basic bookkeeping and legal errors that if committed by anyone else, would have landed the trustee in prison.Among other things, the government mixed funds owed to some people with other accounts, failed to bill oil companies and other leaseholders for royalty payments and didn't keep tabs on payments to the Indians.
Today, more than 300,000 American Indians nationwide may be owed a total of $10 billion say lawyers for the Indians who sued the federal government over the issue.The Boulder-based on Native American Rights Fund and former Denver lawyer Dennis Gingold filed the lawsuit six years ago.The case has dragged on through two presidential administrations and more than a half-decade. The government simply has not figured out how to fix the mess, despite installing a fancy new computer system and making innumerable promises to Indians and to Congress. Now the U.S. government is assuring the world it can properly hold Iraqi oil fields in trust.
If events unfold to place the U.S.government in such a position, two questions inevitably will arise.First, the Iraqis may ask why they should trust the U.S. government to treat them any better than Uncle Sam has treated American Indians.Second, if the U.S. government keeps its promises to the Iraqis and implements an efficient, honest accounting system, American Indians will have every right to demand to know why their government can't do the same for them.
Fredericka J. Joseph National American Indian Employment Program Manager U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Civil Rights Mail Code 1201A 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20460 Phone: (202) 564-7286 Fax: (202) 501-1836
THE SATIRE::
Subject: From the new (BIA) Bureau of Iraqi Affairs
Formed March 20, 2003
Dear People of Iraq,
Now that you have been liberated from your tyranist oppressors, we at the BIA look forward to our relationship with you.
Below you will find a list of what to expect from the services of our good offices.
#Henceforth, English will be the spoken language of all government and associated offices. If you do not speak English, a translator fluent in German will be provided.
#All Iraqi people will apply for a spot on the citizen roll.Citizenship will be open to those people who can prove that they are Iraqi back four generations with documents issued by the U.S. Christian church records may also be given in support.
#All hospitals will be issued with a standard emergency aid kit. The kit contains gauze, band aids, burn cream, and iodine, tweezers, and duct tape.
#Your oil is to be held in trust for you. We will appoint your new American approved government a lawyer with a background in the oil industry. Never mind that he works for the company that he will eventually cut a deal with. This close relationship will guarantee you more money for your oil.
#Each citizen will be allotted one hundred acres of prime Iraqi desert. They will be issued plow, hoes, seed corn and the King James Bible. All leftover land will be open to settlement by Israelis.
#Each citizen is entitled to draw a ration of milk, sugar, flour and lard. If you can not use the rations for health or religious reasons you may file a complaint with your BIA liaison company, Crisco. Those Iraqis showing signs of diabetes, heart disease, or glaucoma will be issued with double rations in place of adequate health care.
#We will mismanage your trust monies, allowing any five year old with minimal computer skills to hack into the system and set up their own account. Records of your accounts will be kept, but you must receive express written permission from the head of the BIA to examine them.
#In keeping with the separation of Church and State supported by the constitution, Christian missionaries will be sponsored through government funding.Only Iraqis who convert to Christianity will be allowed to hold jobs within the government.
#For the purposes of treaty making, any single Iraqi will be found to sign on behalf of all other Iraqis.