“It is hard to overestimate the magnitude of
the calamity which happened to the Sioux people by the sudden disappearance of
the buffalo. The boundless range was to be abandoned for the circumscribed
reservation, and abundance of plenty to be supplanted by limited and decreasing
government subsistence and supplies. Under these circumstances it is not in
human nature not to be discontented and restless, even turbulent and violent.”
Commissioner Morgan was not empathetic about
the plight of the indigenous people. He was just stating facts. One year prior
to the massacre, in Oct 1889, he issued a policy paper stating his convictions
regarding the native population.
“The Indians must conform to "the white
man’s ways," peaceably if they will, forcibly if they must. They must
adjust themselves to their environment, and conform their mode of living
substantially to our civilization. This civilization may not be the best
possible, but it is the best the Indians can get. They cannot escape it, and
must either conform to it or be crushed by it. The tribal relations should be
broken up, socialism destroyed, and the family and the autonomy of the
individual substituted.”
The Wounded Knee Massacre is still commonly depicted as a “battle”
that no one can be blamed for, but if blame is assigned it is always made clear
that a Lakota fired the first shot. This is the justification for all that
followed. A century after the murders, Congress issued an apology, expressing
“deep regret” for the events on that day in 1890 when upwards of 370 men,
women, and children were gunned down as they fled for their lives. But the
Wounded Knee Massacre was not an anomaly, nor was it an accident. Wounded Knee
is the entire history of indigenous peoples relationship with Imperialism made
manifest in a single event.
“I did not know then
how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I
can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all
along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And
I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in
the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream.” Black
Elk.
The descendants of the victims commemorate the massacre in
order to honor those who have fallen and to foster healing of their still
devastated communities. The descendants of the perpetrators ignore inflicting the
wound and the wound festers.
From Wounded Knee, where just days after the massacre a
young newspaper editor named Frank Baum (later to become famous for the children’s
story “The Wizard of Oz”) opined, “The Pioneer has before declared that our
only safety depends upon the total extermination of the Indians. Having wronged
them for centuries, we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow
it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the
face of the earth.“
To Vietnam, where Lyndon Johnson’s call to win hearts and
minds of the civilian population was corrupted by GI’s to, "When you have them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow."
To Iraq, where Madeline Albright was asked if the deaths of
½ million children during sanctions was worth it, she replied "I think
this is a very hard choice, but the price — we think the price is worth
it."
To Gaza, where Dov Weisglass said, “The idea is to put the
Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.”
To Iran where a new sanctions regime is in place and the
state department claims, “The sanctions are beginning to bite,” and dozens of
places in between, the wound festers.
In each case, the power with the superior military claims
that the occupied and oppressed are dangerous and threaten the very existence
of the state, even as the state starves the population, restricts their every
move and denies them the most basic rights under the guise of “security”. All attempts by the “enemy” to seek peace are
ignored or derided as “lies” while the theft of land and/or resources continue
unabated. Each time the oppressed demand their rights or dare to strike back
against their oppressors, the oppressor claims that the people are motivated by
hate and seek the annihilation of the state. Negotiations are viewed as a sign
of weakness and are rarely pursued unless they can be used as a tool to further
oppression. The oppressors continually talk about “pursuing peace” as they
systematically destroy any and all opposition.
We kill by starvation, we kill by denying medicine, and we
kill by isolation. When that doesn’t silence dissent of the “malcontents” we do
not hesitate to kill with bullets and bombs. Remember Commissioner Morgan’s
words, “This civilization may not be the best possible, but it is the best they
can get. They cannot escape it, and must either conform to it or be crushed by
it.”
One day we too will be crushed by this flawed concept of civilization.
The Dahiya doctrine is a military strategy in which the Israeli
army deliberately targets civilian infrastructure as a means of inducing
suffering on the civilian population, making it so difficult to survive that
fighting back or resisting occupation are no longer practical, thereby
establishing deterrence. The doctrine is named after a southern suburb in
Beirut with large apartment blocks. Israeli bombs flattened the entire
neighborhood during the 2006 Lebanon War. But this doctrine is not a modern
strategy for controlling populations. Nor is putting the people of Gaza on a
“diet” new- subjugating an entire population through a combination of poverty,
malnutrition, a struggle over limited resources, and violence is the American way,
adopted by our closest allies, (and “the only democracy in the Middle East,”
with the “most moral army in the world,”) the Israelis.
Dec 27th marks the 4th anniversary of the
beginning of Operation Cast Lead, (the name derives from a popular Hannukah
children’s song about a dreidel made from cast lead.) During this attack on
Gaza, 1,417 people were killed (330 children), 4336 were wounded. 6,400 homes
were destroyed. Hospitals, mosques, the power plant, and the sewage system were
deliberately targeted.
Israel accuses Hamas of war crimes for shooting rockets
without guidance systems indiscriminately into Israel. Israeli officials claim
that “Hamas hides behind civilians” as a justification to bomb civilian population
centers and infrastructure. Killing civilians in Gaza using precision
munitions, is a war crime, no matter who is hiding behind them.
After the recent killing of 20 children
in a Newtown, Connecticut grade school, President Obama, wiping tears from his
eyes said,
“This is our first task -- caring
for our children. It’s our first job. If we don’t get that right,
we don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged.
And by that measure, can we truly say, as a nation, that we are meeting our
obligations?“
The just completed eight-day Israeli operation against Gaza called
the Pillar of Cloud (The name is derived from a Biblical passage) saw three
generations of the al-Dalu family wiped out in a single bombing, including 4
children between the ages of 1 and 7 years old. The surviving son does not
speak of surrender, relinquishing the families land, or disappearing. He
demands justice. His tears are mixed with fury. Can he be blamed?
As the ceasefire went in to effect there was one consistent message
from the people of Gaza. We are here. This is our home. We will never leave.
They will have to kill every one of us.
Upon cessation of the bombing, our Congress immediately
voted to replenish Israel’s bombs and munitions in order for Israel to “protect
itself”. The wound festers.
In his speech the President went on to say,
“If there is even one step we can take
to save another child, or another parent, or another town, from the grief that
has visited Tucson, and Aurora, and Oak Creek, and Newtown, and communities
from Columbine to Blacksburg before that -- then surely we have an obligation
to try.”
Wounded Knee has not disappeared. The Lakota people remain.
Gaza has not disappeared. The Palestinian people remain. In Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan,
Yemen, Libya, and Somalia people grieve for the loss of their children. The
violence wrought upon them in our name continues. If we can take one step to save another
child, we have an obligation to try.
