Happy Native American Heritage Month From the Army That Brought You the Trail of Tears
Happy Native American Heritage Month From the Army That Brought You the Trail of Tears
After 170 years of armed attacks, forced relocations, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of Native Americans, the U.S. military wants to celebrate.
To celebrate Native American Heritage Month, the Pentagon has gone all out with ceremonies across the United States, from an Air Force-sponsored intertribal powwow in Florida to a celebration of Native American aircraft nose art in Oregon.
The military has also been pumping out feel-good stories about Native American troops: one South Dakota National Guardsman from the Oglala Sioux tribe was allowed to grow out his hair, and an Air National Guardsmen from the District of Columbia who belongs to four different tribes reflected in his Lakota, Seneca, Navajo, and Comanche heritage.
“Acknowledging Native veterans and Native contributions is terrific. And there are a lot of proud Native veterans. But it’s one of those gestures that is nice in theory but is, perhaps, meant to whitewash how we understand Native American history and how Native Americans ended up in the place that we did,.
Another expert on the topic put it more bluntly. “The Army was, bottom line, an instrument of a settler colonial empire that was determined to convert Native lands into private property for mostly white settlers “That was its mission: to carry out a federal government policy that, in practice, often became a genocidal war.”
For clarification: the money would be better spent on reparations than military propaganda to recruit more people to commit more genocides.
25And also from the army that exterminated the bison...
15https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/2022/07/15/american-bison-are-making-major-comeback/
The bison seem to be coming back
8Now that the native lifestyle cannot
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little did they know everyone's descendants wouldn't even have to be on a trail to have tears.
3Native American tribes fought each other over land and resources frequently before and after settlers arrived.
-20Yeah, that excuses precisely 0% of what Colonialism did to them and does not absolve the current Powers That Be of that sin, either.
Don't forget, it's not our fault, but it is our responsibility.
18They had also just signed a massive multi national compact creating a confederacy of tribes that promised to bring years of peace.
Then 95% of them died, for mysterious unknowable reasons. Then some mysterious group had their way of life wiped out, the people scattered and displaced, and eventually forcefully reeducated. But sure, the colonists and later the US had nothing to do with that and they did it to themselves.
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