I would like to respond to some historical
inaccuracies presented earlier, in the last
series of postings.
Anyone who has read--with anything approaching
objectivity--of the history of the European conquest
of the Americas must confess that the systematic
and wholesale destruction of a series of nations
has seldom approached the rapacity, brutality, or
greed of that conducted by the Spaniards, English,
French and Americans during the course of the 16th-
19th centuries. Yes, Native Americans engaged in
warfare...but within the boundaries of North America,
-particularly our region-that combat was highly
ritualized and conducted with a degree of civility
far above, morally, that of the European powers
who confronted them. The Great Sioux (Dakota-Lakota)
uprising of 1862 and its aftermath (the mass hangings
that were carried out), Wounded Knee...these are the
more famous of the many infamous atrocities
perpetrated against the Native populations of our
region. Warfare deteriorates into barbarism often,
in all cultures, at all times...to minimize that
which occured not all that long ago in our own
state perpetuates an injustice.
For those who think that these events are
something best left in the past, that no longer have
any validity in our society, or are a cause for
concern in our community...please go to the Council
for Crime and Justice's web-site, based in
Minneapolis.
There you will find a study of low-level intensity
(livability) crime in the City of Minneapolis.
In a reading of said study you will note that a
Native American is 16 times more likely to be arrested
for a livability crime in Minneapolis than a
caucasian.
This study was completed in Novembeer, 2004...not in
1862. The Racial Disparity Initiative initiated in
the State of Minnesota also addressed these issues-
as the 2002 RDI study corroborates.
That people of color, in general, suffer a much
higher rate of homelessness is indisputable--as the
Wilder Foundation's 2002 and 2004 (updated) studies
show.
This is not the society I chose to defend when
I enlisted in the military, it is not the society
my brother went to the Middle-East 4 times to defend,
it is not the society my grand-uncles defended in
World War II, nor the society my more distant
ancestors sought to defend in the Great War, or
the Civil War...not that which relations or
friends who went to Vietnam sought to defend...
I am a mix of ancestries and religious beliefs
and traditions--like many Americans...until there
is a greater parity for all in the community it is
an egregious error to formulate historical statements
without paying close attention to that which really
transpired. We need to appeal to the Higher Angels
of our Nature, to paraphrase Lincoln. To think that
all these issues were settled in the 60s and 70s
and are invalid at this late date...is to peer through
a lens darkly, to view things from one angle and one
angle alone...and to minimize the errors of the
past is antithetical to the dream that our ancestors
had of a higher form of government.
all my relations,
gakina go indinawemaaganag,
en honor de mis antepasados,
mitakuye oyasin!
Guy Gambill
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