My ancestors should have known better, but the lure of

sure what happened. However, no one can dispute the

the fur trade and the desire for political and economic

results. The soldiers opened fire with their Hotchkiss guns

gain lead them to take up arms against other Native

and almost two hundred Lakota men, women and

American nations. The French, Dutch and English were

children were cut to shreds. Those who did not die in the

master manipulators. With their steel tomahawks and

first minutes were hunted down and killed. Unarmed

flint lock guns, the Haudenosaunee dominated native

women and children were shot at point blank range.

world in the northeast. We forgot much of the Original

Some suffered multiple wounds but were able to escape

Instructions and began to hack at the sacred web of life.

the carnage. It is a sad moment in American history.

We settled for bright beads, shiny silver and powerful

It is made even more horrific when you realize that the

weapons.

American soldiers were given 24 U.S. medals of honor for

However, it was a short lived  victory.  Once the fur

the massacre. Imagine, a medal of honor for killing babies!

trade moved further west and the Europeans were no

No soldier was ever charged with murder. Despite

longer in such fierce competition, the Americans began to

congressional hearings and review of the Medal of Honor

systematically remove the land from under the feet of my

recipients, the massacre is still honored as a glorious battle

ancestors. We have all become aware of the dispossession

in military history. To this very day, when the U.S.

of the Native Americans from their homelands. But think

government brings out its full color guard, the American

for a minute of what that dispossession must have done to

flag is decorated with colorful battle streamers to

the spirit of the people. Blood stained the ground where

commemorate that massacre by the U.S. Army. A blizzard

sacred ceremonies were once held. Great villages were

hit the killing ground the next day and images of the

turned into heaps of ash. Thousands of people were

frozen bodies of Big Foot and his people have become

forced to flee into the uncertainty of the woods. Families

seared in our collective memory. While we are not all

became separated and lost. There was a disconnection to

Lakota, every Native American Nation has a similar story.

the places where the ancestors had practiced the Original

The bloodstains are hard to remove from the earth. They

Instructions. Their footprints were lost under wagon

are even harder to remove from our hearts and minds.

trails, train tracks and sidewalks. The grandchildren

It is no wonder that some of our ancestors turned that

became confused about where to go and what to do.

oppression inward. A sad legacy was created as many a

The same story could be told of the hundreds of native

generation suffered from self hatred as a result of almost

nations of this land. As the zeal of manifest destiny swept

being nearly exterminated, displaced and sent off to

from the East to the West, the Native Americans became

schools that denied the validity of the ways of the

the sacrificial lamb in the quest for spiritual unity in

ancestors. Our great grandparents were taught to hate

American culture. The irony of that fact is part of our

themselves because of their way of life. Even those who

collective memory. It still stings us to know that the

did not go to the boarding schools have inherited the

romantic horizon of America's past is littered with the

dysfunction from a generation that did not see any family

bones of our ancestors. The basic denial of our

love, did not experience any community sharing, and had

unalienable rights seems hard to fathom when we hear of

no models of respect. As tragic as the massacres were

religious freedom and the right to life, liberty and the

against Indian people, perhaps the more serious damage

pursuit of happiness.

was done to the survivors. The culture, beliefs and values

About seven generations ago, the U.S. Army tracked

that had sustained their communities for centuries were

down a small band of Lakota people who were heading to

now replaced with a plow, school bell and bible.

the Stronghold in South Dakota to seek peace and

For several generations the Native American survivors

renewal during turbulent times. Because of the

lived in virtual poverty, being considered wards of the

unfounded fears of an Indian uprising, these folks were

federal government. Our grandparents were not even

declared to be  hostiles  and the army was sent to return

considered capable of taking care of themselves. The

them to their reservation. It was just after Christmas in

sacred relationships of the past were severed. Reservations

1890 that the soldiers found the followers of Big Foot

and Indian agencies were operated more like prisons. It is

along Wounded Knee Creek. Big Foot agreed to surrender

amazing that any of our traditions survived at all.

and the people settled in for the night. However, another

Children were taken away from their families, many to be

officer arrived during the night and broke out some liquor

adopted by non Indians. Despite it, the stories of the past

for his troops. It was a deadly cocktail.

were shared in the quiet moments, away from the eyes and

The next morning, as the soldiers attempted to round

ears of the jailers. Teachers would wash out the mouths of

up all the Lakota, a struggle ensued. No one knows for

our parents if they spoke their native languages. The

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DENOUNCING RACISM