Rising amid the ubiquitous and sweeping black Lives Matter protests, it is undeniable to miss the Lakota Sioux protests opposed to President Trump’s misuse of Mount Rushmore as a backdrop for his greatest politician friend debatable activities of the July 3 crusade, slightly disguised as Independence Day celebrations.
In my opinion, Trump’s “celebration” is not practical from a public aptitude perspective. What he said and how he said it is unfair and divisive. I hope we agree that the indigenous peoples of this country have been mistreated through the settlers of European Desmell who shaped and supported the United States.
They were conquered. Conquerors are just for patients in their conquests. Our European ancestors were not except directly to this rule. The Sioux say Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills around them were forcibly expelled in violation of treaty obligations when gold was discovered.
This declaration has some ancient merit, although they are not the first settlers of the region, and their ancestors of the eighteenth century were no kinder to the peoples who displaced than ours. The “noble savage” was not noble noble noble.
However, I cannot blame the Sioux for the green with the envy of using a mountain they sarated for the creation of a monument to four citizens who oppressed Native Americans. Washington was referred to as a “village destroyer” through some indigenous tribes for the army’s first movements that gave it little merit. A man of his time, was not enlightened in his therapy of natives or black slaves.
Jefferson had some wonderful words to mention about the natives. He advocated honorably trinating them. But then he ordered William Henry Harris to withdraw them directly west of White American settlers from Mississippi from possible alliances between Natives and French or British.
Then, in his inaugural address at the time, he indicated that even the spaces west of the Mississippi might not be available to the natives.
The only non-public service in Lincoln’s army was as a member of the defense force that fought Black Hawk, an indigenous leader who had to reclaim the land from birth and unite the American efforts of the Indigenous tribes to get rid of the natives. Lincoln’s next behavior toward the natives was neither soft nor enlightened.
Teddy Roosevelt said: “I’m probably not the most likely to think that the only wise Indians are the dead Indians, but I think nine out of ten are. And I don’t ask too much about the case of the tenth.”
Sioux protesters are right to bring this discordant feature of our heritage forcefully to our attention. While our courts and our Congress have done somewhat more to acknowledge and atone for historical wrongs done to native tribes than to remedy the wrongs done by Black slavery, our desecration of native religious and cultural sites remains a problem that needs serious attention.
Having said that, I hope to honor and appreciate the very genuine virtues and achievements of these former citizens despite the f-legislation in their behaviour that derives from the giant component of the old spirit in which they lived.
Looking back, I see my own shameful attitudes toward black Americans and the LBGTQ community. We will have not to forget the “rays” in our own eyes when we judge the old characters of the “motas” that we see in their eyes.
Reference sources: 1. https://bit.ly/2Z6JGTR; 2. https://bit.ly/3f8ytHT; 3. https://bit.ly/3fl3cC1; 4. https://bit.ly/2VPZloH; and five. https://bit.ly/2O5ApoY.
Gregory H is a Richboro resident and board member of The Intelligencer/Bucks County Courier Times.
Gannett (c) USA TODAY RED