From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Commentary: 500 years of injustice
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 03:19:09 GMT

/** native.1492: 124.0 **/
** Topic: INSIGHT FEATURES / CONTENTS / April **
** Written  3:57 pm  Apr 13, 1992 by gtrujillo in cdp:native.1492 **
/* Written 10:08 am  Apr 13, 1992 by igc:hrcoord in cdp:gen.nativenet */
/* ---------- "INSIGHT FEATURES / CONTENTS / April" ---------- */
Original-Sender: hrcoord@igc.org (Human Rights Coordinator)

/* Written  8:22 pm  Apr 12, 1992 by ihandler in cdp:nfd.ifeatures */
/* ---------- "INSIGHT FEATURES / CONTENTS / April" ---------- */

Commentary / 1335 Words

500 Years of Injustice
Christopher Columbus,
Native Americans
and the Rest of Us

By Julie Davis
Insight Features

   When Cahuilla Red Elk went to Pasadena early this year, she was dismayed
that only 25 Indians joined the Native American protest at the Rose Bowl
Parade, which passes through the largest urban Indian concentration in the
country.

   But that was less jarring to Red Elk than the behavior of the U.S. Calvary.
As the mounted soldiers rode by the Indians, who were chanting, the officer
in charge spit into his glove and then, in a menacing gesture copied by the
entire Calvary troop, jutted his sword into the air.

   One can hardly imagine a similarly hostile gesture being made to a group
of Jews, Blacks or Asians.  It is the kind of aggressive display reserved for
those who have been dehumanized, marginalized and dismissed without fear of
repercussion.

   That is the point the American Indian Movement (AIM) is making about the
ongoing treatment of Indian people.  Both issues--the dehumanization and the
lack of committed response--are at the heart of Native American concerns.
For 1992 is not just any year; it marks the 500th anniversary of the
beginning of the genocide, conquest and domination that continues to the
present day.

   According to AIM's Glenn Morris, 1992 should be the year for Indians and
their non-Indian allies to confront the legacy of Columbus and move together
toward reversing the effects of 500 years of repression.

   Cahuilla Red Elk is an activist from Colorado Springs.  Since last year,
Colorado AIM has been in the forefront in defining the issues and taking
political action.  Last October, AIM and the Indian Anti-Defamation Council
sponsored a successful protest against the Columbus Day parade that delayed
the start of the event for 45 minutes and focused public attention on the
nature of the celebration.  They called for a campaign to confront racism
against Indian people.  They also called for Indians and their allies to join
forces to transform Columbus Day from a derisive holiday honoring conquest
to a positive celebration of the hemisphere's cultural and racial richness.

   Columbus Day started in Colorado.  It was only in 1971 that it became a
national holiday.  Thus the goal is to stop Columbus Day in Colorado, and for
Colorado to be the first state that transforms it into a holiday of dignity and
respect.

   Glenn Morris and Ward Churchill are co-directors of Colorado AIM.  They
joined Red Elk, who is also the American Life Center in Colorado Springs, for
an interview last month with Press for Peace. They talked about AIM, its
challenges, and their desire for major action this Fall.

   The trio couldn't be farther from the media stereotype portraying radical
leaders as ranting ideologues.  Morris and Churchill are both academicians
whose activism is informed by solid scholarship.  Red Elk speaks
knowledgeably about the problems of identity confusion, activism and risk-
taking for Native Americans in everyday life.

   What is important, says Morris, is not to substitute a Native American
holiday for Columbus Day, but to have "an inclusive holiday." "And what's
wrong with that? Why does it have to be a divisive holiday?  Why does it
have to celebrate this maniac? And he was a maniac."

   Even popular publications are now putting out special issues portraying
Columbus in a less favorable light.  His diaries and letters speak for
themselves about his mental instability and and his utter lack of remorse in
enslaving and slaughtering the very Indians who had helped him.

   AIM's campaign also addresses "the broader experience of Indian people
having to suffer through this society's canonizing and idolizing Indian
killers."  For instance, AIM is calling for the removal of a state capitol statue
honoring Col. J.M. Chivington and the 3rd Colorado Volunteers who massacred
the Cheyenne and Arapaho at Sand Creek, Colorado in 1864.  The three leaders
don't understand why this seems an obscure point to many people.  Churchill
points out that Jews would find it offensive if Berlin created a Reinhard
Heydrich Boulevard honoring the SS Leader.

   "We would support protests of the Jewish community of any such honoring
of Heydrich," says Churchill.  "And we would expect support of people of
conscience for us."

   Protesting the racism of Columbus Day is not just an "Indian thing," he
adds.  "There are many Italian-Americans and other non-Indians who do not
want to be represented by this legacy.  We can find common ground on that
basis."  AIM hopes these people will make their sentiments known.

   The Columbian legacy is evident in federal laws, Indian massacres, Supreme
Court decisions and commonplace sports mascots.  "People don't see the
connection," Morris explains, "between the Columbian legacy and Indian
mascots for sports teams. You have people going, `Oh, man, get a life! What's
the importance of that issue?' And on a basic level, they're right.  Who does
care whether people stand up in the stands with sponge tomahawks and do
the little tomahawk chop?"

   "But that's not the point.  The point is about the way Indians are
perceived in this society.  There is a manifest disrespect for Indian people,
Indian culture, Indian society.  Everything Indian is the plaything of America
that can be manipulated and abused for the entertainment of the masses of
America without any pangs of guilt or conscience."

   Just imagine, Churchill suggests, "renaming the Washington Redskins the
Washington Niggers and instead of doing the tomahawk chop, put bones in
your nose and chuck spears and do some kind of simulated African dance on
your cheerleading line and watch what happens." Nobody would tolerate it, he
argues.

   The AIM leaders note that before the mascot controversy began, people did
these things without thinking.  "But one the issue was brought to their
attention," says Morris, "they did it even more, with a vengeance."  Morris
sees the tomahawk chop, like the Calvary's belligerent gesture, as grassroots
manifestations of institutional attitudes right up to the international level.
When issues of human rights or genocide are raised, nations are allowed to
argue that what they do with "their own" indigenous peoples is "their own"
business.

   "That single phrase," he concludes, "reflects the mentality that defines
Indians as possessions, as domestic pets or animals.  That is the legacy of
Columbus."

   Cahuilla Red Elk sees the confusion among Native Americans about their
identity as one of the major factors blocking action in the Indian community.
Too many Indians have internalized the attitude that there is nothing of value
in Indian culture.  "The whole colonialized kind of thinking has affected our
own people severely," she says.

   Currently there is a fragmentation of perspectives on Columbus Day.  Too
many progressive groups are focusing on how to tie their own agendas into
the quincentenary without realizing the need for a united effort.  In addition,
one problem Churchill says Indians have encountered is being cross-examined
by progressive groups "demanding that we subordinate ourselves in some
symbolic way to their agenda in order to be worthy of their support.  We
shouldn't have to say--and this is just one example among many--that all
Indians were basically gay in order to be worthy of gay support.  I don't go
out and support gay issues because I'm gay.  I'm not.  I support gay issues
because these are human beings that are entitled to fundamental human
rights.  I would expect the same respect, but there's this little interrogation
that goes on: `What's your position on...'  What the hell does that have to do
with the fact that we're protesting a celebration of genocide?"

   AIM does not see opposing oppression as an Indian issue; they welcome
allies.  The progressive community should unite around acknowledging the
intensity of their struggle, as well as in honoring Indian values, traditions
and cultures.  Most important is the need to join their struggle for basic
human rights.

                            -- 30 --

   Julie Davis writes for the Rocky Mountain Press for Peace, where a longer
version of this article first appeared.  Kalen Landow also contributed to the
article.  For more information, write PO Box 480141, Denver CO 80248.
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