Lakota will never forget Wounded Knee

It seems a lot of people aren't really understanding this issue or my take on it. For those wondering why the Lakota will never forget Wounded Knee, a history reminder.

To the non-Indians of South Dakota and the rest of America, Dec. 29, 1990, was another day. But to the Lakota people, it was a day they commemorated every year since 1890. It was a day when nearly 300 of their relatives were shot to death in cold blood by the enlisted men and officers of the Seventh Cavalry. Ironically, 21 members of the Seventh Cavalry were awarded Medals of Honor for this horrific slaughter of women and children.

Ah, but those were different times requiring different measures, were they not?

In early December of 1990, as the 100th anniversary of the massacre at Wounded Knee approached, I wrote the cover story for USA Today. I quoted an editorial that appeared in the Aberdeen Saturday Review on Jan. 3, 1891, just five days after the massacre.

The author wrote about those terrible “Redskins,” his favorite word for Indians. He wrote, “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 or more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth.”

That editorial calling for the genocide of the Lakota people was written by L. Frank Baum, the man who would later write, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”

Similar terms to 'untamable' have been used for Native Americans since the Europeans first came over here. In some of the earliest communications sent back to the homeland in regards to the matter it was often noted that Indians make poor slaves since they seem to have an indomitable spirit.

I reiterate, we gave the Jews back their ancestral homeland after Hitler's Germany tried to wipe them out. We don't even have to give back the Lakota's lands, just cease insisting it doesn't belong to them. And I say we throw in Northern Minnesota for good measure. A nation really needs a sea port, even if it is an inland sea port like Duluth.

Why do I support a Lakota Nation? Total selfishness. This is one of those clear cases where government in conjunction with the media will try really damned hard to craft a reality in which everyone will ignore the situation and it will just go away. I want to see a different kind of reality created that is a thorn in the side of the descendants of the liars and crooks who can't seem to keep treaties they sign regarding environmental issues, prisoners of war, torture or relations with aboriginal peoples. I like to see habitual liars and crooks get screwed.

It is also in the best interests of the preservation of Native American culture, even if it is only a small slice of it. As we move forward and get our butts off of this giant rock and out into space (which we as a people will do, damn it), Earth will be best used as a living museum (in my opinion). It can be like those living history places that are only interesting to a handful of visitors and to almost all of the people working there. In that same vein I would like to see Europe eventually split into the World War recreation area and the rest can be a giant Ren Fest.

Recognize the right of the Lakota to self determination. Accept your own right to self determination.