Pale Blue Dot: Native American Day

Todayis Native American Day

September 27th, while widely recognized,

especially among indigenous tribes,

is not a Federal Holiday.

In honor, I present this, not as a day of celebration

but as a day of reflection. Or mourning, if you so choose.

Brief Cherokee History

I have not been in a physical "fist fight" since middle-school.

(I won the last one, btw, glasses went flying, don't fuck with me...

I'm not a big guy, but I'll bring a gun to a knife fight.

I don't fight for honor, if choose to fight, I fight to win. Period.)

Since then, I have seldom felt the need to exchange blows. Yet there have been times when various people have said (regarding U.S. & Native history) "Get over it, they lost" or "They couldn't stand up to it, too bad." or words to that effect.

Never have I wanted to punch someone in the throat

and watch them twitch with a collapsed wind-pipe

more than at those moments.

Anecdotally, I am part Cherokee. I have no proof with papers. That evidence was squelched with the Dawes Rolls. No matter which side of the railroad or river you lived, you and your descendants inherited "origninal sin." I don't pretend to know of a Native Utopia... tribes fought, and I don't need to watch Dances With Wolves to get it.

How many of you reading this know that most

Native Americans were not citizens of the USA until 1924?

If you own your property, and I come by and pitch a tent on the corner and say, "But I'll only be here a few weeks" is that OK? Likely not, because next thing ya know, my friends & family might show up. You would be wise to not give me a toe-hold.

By extension, if I have a semi-automatic weapon, and you have a bolt action, does that somehow make your culture or ownership of property inferior? But that logic has been used on me repeatedly.

Let's just put it really succinctly and simply... Say you own a lovely porcelain and crystal shop. I want to open up a video game shop. One day, you are sitting around, cleaning your muzzle loading weapon (I don't want to make you TOO passive...) and I burst in, saying I want to take over, breaking your Hummel figurines & Swarovski crystal, but you can sell your stuff in the back room, by the restroom, the least desirable area of the shop. Sound familiar?

Indigenous tribes have been repeatedly screwed by European settlers, in the U.S., Canada, South America, Australia, and so on. Their conquerors' perceived "might" did not, nor ever will, make them "right."

Keep that in mind... we can't undo history... but we can learn from it.

This is a presentation I did for a college class. I took the class (Indian Studies 101) to learn more than I knew from popular culture. I needed a "Culture and Gender Diversity" class, so I thought it would be easy. It actually was... but not only because of the instructor, who was 100% native. It helped, but it also gave me a reason to delve deeper into what was already festering in my noggin.

These are the very same slides "Death by PowerPoint" which I used,

only the name has been changed.

There is no "American Indian" race... the culture was as varied as is Europe.

So there ya go... the Cherokee tried to play nice, as did other tribes. Look where it got them....

Sequoya... a "civilized Indian."

Right up there with my buddy, Thomas Jefferson... what a renegade Indian,

and he apparently could not live among White People.

Must have been too busy going around saying
"Me scalp-um pale-face squaw."

Oh, yeah... and whooping his hand over his mouth yelping "Ya Ya Ya yah.... etc....

I want to put up so many stereotypes as to inherit a label that says "Panasonic" on that clip.

But 'sall right... All ya gotta do is put up a hand and say "How."

I find this reprehensible. Even Richard Nixon was forced to "abdicate" when faced with a Supreme Court against him, and no allies in Congress. Yet when 2/3 branches of government agree... we (or the Cherokee) are screwed! The Supreme Court has no enforcement power!

As I have presented evidentairy... the Cherokee were indeed civilized... they just happened to live where whites wanted to live. Some even adopted the white culture of owning slaves...