The Lies We're Taught in History Class

 Excerpt from Where White Men Fear to Tread

"In the Europe of his time, it was against church law to enslave or murder human beings, although such canon rarely prevented wholesale murder . To enslave Indians for his own enrichment, he had to convince the Church that indigenous people were subhuman, and therefore could be slaughtered or enslaved with impunity.  To persuade the church that they were subhuman, Columbus accused the Indians of such unnatural acts as cannibalism - a lie.  Later,  Cortez accused the Aztecs of human sacrifice- another lie, but my own recent conversations and experiences with Aztec medicine men convinces me that their ancestors, aided by a masterful understanding of plants which temporarily slow the body's functions to near-paralysis, performed open-heart surgery.  This has been partly confirmed by recent archaeological and pharmacological research.  In order to conceal this truth and sell the lie of human sacrifice, the Franciscans who accompanied Cortez burned every Aztec book.  The church policy of genocide was the basis for European colonization of two continents- and as the 1994 revolt in Chiapas illustrated, nothing has changed."  

The Birth of Tatanka

 Excerpt from Where White Men Fear to Tread

"I wiped the blood from his face, ears, and eyes and held him close.  I wouldn't let the nurses have Tatanka back.  I began to sing to him.  One of the white women in the delivery room ,perhaps and anesthesiologist of the head nurse said something like, "I suppose we'll have to listen to these savage chants now."   

 

It was these very white nurses who worked alongside white BIA medical doctors as they sterilized Indigenous women after giving birth, often without their consent or knowledge, and who also tried to convince new, Indigenous mothers to put their children up for adoption. 

The U.S. Government's Aim to Impoverish

Excerpt from Where White Men Fear to Tread by Russell Means p. 451-453

"Anaya worked for Tom Lubban, who represented the Western Shoshone.  Their research had confirmed what the Shoshone had been saying for generations- because their only treaty cession in 1851 to the United States was a right of way to the California goldfields, the tribe still posessed aboriginal title to all land in Nevada.  Although the few remaining Shoshone raise horses and cattle, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management had illegally claimed jurisdiction over all their land.

Many Shoshone ranchers refuse to pay grazing and usage fees for their own land, so the BLM periodically raids their ranches and confiscates their livestock.  When that happened to two elderly women, The Dan sisters, they sued for the return of their herds and for punitive damages.  While their case worked its way through the courts, the BIA, without the tribe's knowledge, hired attorneys who went before the Indian Claims Commission with a claim for wrongful appropriation of their Nevada land.  The commission awarded the tribe $27 million dollars- a few cents an acre. Very surprised to learn about the settlement, the Shoshone said, "We didn't ask for this money and we don't want it, because we never agreed to sell our land."   

When the Dan sister's lawsuit reached the U.S. Supreme Court, the government twisted the law, ducking the larger issue of land ownership and turnign the case into a personal claim.  THe high court refused to hear their appeal, thus upholding lower-court rulings, which held taht the Dan sisters must pay grazing ees and penalties- and would never get their cattle and horses back.  In yet another example of the white man's justice, the BLM was given a license to steal Indian livestock.  The fial irony of the case is that Shoshone lands are not being used by non-Indians- so it was a clear-cut case of theft, among the most blatant by the federal government in this century.

When I heard about all that from Anaya and lubban, I conculed taht uthe U.S. government wanted toforce all Indians to become welfare recipients.  There are very few Western Shoshone.  THey ahve no tourist attractions and live in remote corners of the states, so they are largely out of sight and out of mind.  Why not leave them alone?  Because the U.S. government's policy is to impoverish all Indian people, including those who for centuries have been self-sufficient and productive, even by the standards of white society...I knew that the white man couldn't let those Indians have their rights because then other Indians would demand the same."