Re: Amerind an offensive term (was: Early Amerind assimilation
Xina (Xina@netins.net)
3 Aug 1996 21:17:05 GMT
"Stephen W. Russell" <srussell@lonestar.jpl.utsa.edu> wrote:
>
>
>On 1 Aug 1996, Gary Cruse wrote:
>> >
>>
>> Eric, can you think of a reason why your wish
>> to deny the nativity of white Americans should
>> be binding on the rest of us? Or is this
>> not a "timely" question?
Very simple, most of the *dominant society* (read that as decended from
European ancestors, not aboriginal to this country) dont give a damn about
the country, just what they term in real estate as "highest and best use
of the land". The AmerInd, Native, aboriginal (insert choice descriptive
here) people for the most part find this idea abhorrent. As far as the
rest of us are concerned who grew up outside of *your* dominant society,
we have been in occupied territory since the 1600's.
Many of the tribes are as sovereign a Nation as Israel or France. There
are treaties with many of these sovereign nations and some of them have
even signed those rights away to become part of your 'one big happy
melting pot'. The majority of non-aboriginal people in this country have
absolutely no awareness of this whatsoever. I know of some convinced that
the last indians were killed at Wounded Knee and that Native Americans can
be seen at a theater or in museums only. *shakes head*
>>
>Not to interfere in anyone else's pissing match, but in the immortal
>words of Cool Hand Luke "What we got here is a failure t' communicate."
Thats because we still arent speaking the same language yet. It may sound
like English, but the dominant society's perceptions of how things are to
the way the native people see it is still vastly different. You cant
really understand it until you live it.
>
>Eric is in the resistance mode. Your are in the conquered peoples mode. >If you want Eric to change his mind about who he is, what you have to do
>is quite simple: kill him.
And the rest of us....because, (quoting John Trudell, formerly of AIM,
'sometimes they have to kill us. Cause they cant break our spirit'.
The US policy of assimilate or eliminate has failed and will continue to
fail until there are no more of us left. We will continue to resist. Some
of us may drive a saturn and work a nine to five programing computers,
but the culture wont be entirely taken away. Get used to it.
Xina
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