Native Groups Not Waiting for Apology
June 20, 2008
In the Lakota way, the burning of sage is meant to clear away evil spirits.
Sometimes words can have the same effect.
On June 11, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a formal apology in the House of Commons for his government's treatment of the First Nations peoples in residential schools.
"I stand before you today to offer an apology to former students of Indian residential schools," Harper said. "The treatment of children in Indian residential schools is a sad chapter in our history."
He recognized the traumatizing effects that efforts to assimilate students within the schools had on those students.
Here in the United States, efforts are underway to being a healing similar to that which began last week in Canada.
In February, the U.S. Senate passed the Indian Health Care Improvement Act that carried with it an amendment issuing a formal apology on behalf of the government for its mistreatment of Native people. Congress is now taking up consideration of the bill and the attached apology amendment.
And while some are hopeful the apology will get passed and lead to reconciliation between Native people and the U.S. government, others aren't waiting.
Starting in May 2009, Native riders will cross the country on bicycles to raise awareness of the government's abuse of Native people in boarding schools. The two coast-to-coast bicycle relays will be part of a national education campaign called the 2009 Way Home Tour.
Two Colorado nonprofit groups — White Bison Inc. and and the Ancient Ways of Knowing Foundation — are sponsoring the campaign, which will lead riders to Indian school sites in 17 states.
The groups hope the campaign will bring light to the intergenerational trauma inflicted on Indian people after the first boarding school was opened in Carlisle, Penn., in 1879.
"We are going to heal and we are going to take our voice back, never to have our voice taken away again," said Don Coyhis, founder and president of White Bison, in a news release. "We are taking our voice back so our children will have a voice and be able to stand tall."
Coyhis said the anger, guilt, shame and fear underlying many of the social problems facing Indian communities are legacies of the boarding schools.
Like the burning of sage, the Way Home Tour is meant to dispel the evils caused by boarding schools through workshops, talking circles and traditional Indian ceremonies at school sites along the routes.
The journey is intended to send the message that Indian people can heal from the boarding school era without waiting for a formal apology or monetary settlement from the U.S. government.
"We'll make that run and get our voice back," Coyhis said. "It would be nice if we could get an apology from the government. The Australian government did it this past February. ... But we're not going to hurt any more."
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Comments?
U.S. Justice for Native People.
Now that the Cobell case has been tenantively resolved to the sad tune of around $455 million, I am waiting to see if the U.S. will stand by the ruling or try to weasel itself out of even paying that amount. Given this administration, I suspect the latter.
Given a recent opinion piece on Aug. 6th in the Madison Daily Reader in WI, saying the reservation system is broken and a new remedy to the "Indian" problem devised, my words not the article, though the sentiment is similar. I say, at least for those tribes with a substantial land base, it is time to consider unilateral independence. If Kosovo and East Timor, which are substantially smaller than some tribes can do it why not the Lakota or Dine?
At least the Canadian govt. has now decided to issue monetary compensation for First Nation People victimized by it through their boarding schools. The U.S. can't even give Native People their rightful monies for resources taken from their lands. I'd bet that corporate welfare in the last decade or so is many times more what the U.S. Judge says is just compensation for the Cobell case plaintiffs.
Let's take our chances, since we can't be in even more desperate situations with regard to economic, educational, or public safety issues. Maybe the EU or UN will give us better economic aid packages or food relief than the U.S. can or does. Then maybe our People might be given hope and opportunity, rather than just being punished for acting out their anger and frustration in destructive or criminal manners. Seems the law (or the U.S. Powers that be are powerless to help us, but more than effective at punishing us.
Pissed Native veteran.
Apology meaningless without action.
Am not holding breathe on an apology from the United States Senate, without strings attached. Especially in light of recent Supreme Court Cases like Commerce Bank v. Long which ignored established jurisprudence and made a sovereignty case into a business case. So saying "I'm sorry" doesn't mean anything when the U.S. govt. through legislation or judicial rulings continue to undermine Native Sovereignty whenever and wherever it can.
This goes for the rights of individual Native People as well, like just compensation for members of the Cobell case who have lost untold millions of dollars because the govt. under various republican and democratic administrations did not fufill its responsibility to Native People. Another example is when the Coville Tribe successful battled a Canadian company dumping toxic waste into the Columbia River and neither the Justice Dept. or EPA stepped in to support the Tribe. I guess a Tribe fighting for clean water for all who use the Columbia isn't incentive enough for the govt. to promote the general welfare as the Declaration of Independence says.
Even the recent Australian apology was followed by a statement that there would be not compensation or any radical change in policy. Ditto for the Canadian apology. It is obvious to me that these apologies are more pr stunts meant to deflect criticism on the respective countries since all have opposed a UN declaration on the rights of Indigenious People from a couple of years ago.
Just like when the state of SD quickly issued its own investigation with the compliance of the Univ. of SD in 2001 to refute and minimize the U.S. Civil Rights Commission's damning report on the plight of Native People in SD. In the end the poli sci professors at USD said inequities in the state were purely economic and not racial based and crafted their questionnaires used in their surveys to reflect this and ignored any ancillary data that would undermine this conclusion.
If the American apology does not come with a public declaration of a change in "Indian" policy that is substantive and not just empty rhetorical meant to ease their guilty conscience, then I say they can keep it. I would add that Tribes might consider unilateral declarations of independence like Kosovo recently did and taking their grievances to the World Court. So that when America isn't a superpower anymore (an that is coming quicker than you think) it might be compiled to respect what the World feels is just for Native People an not what it thinks is right.
Disillusioned Native.
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