Our Creation Stories Say We Were Made Here

We didn't walk, take a boat, migrate, or any other terms you want to use.  This fact has been terribly inconvenient for anthropologists and others who simply want us to also be invaders to this land we call Turtle Island, albeit earlier in our encroachment.  Oral history has always been looked down upon as inaccurate and fraught with error, ignoring the fact that our ability to relay oral information accurately on what is safe to eat, where to find it, how to live well, and how to be good members of the Circle of Life seem to be accepted as fact.  Enough so that modern medicine is finding many of our "primitive" approaches to health are actually the sources of "new" medical treatments.

It appears that "science" is catching up to our knowledge, or at least is being confronted to facts and data that force a re-evaluation.

In work funded by the National Park Service, the National Geographic Society, the University of South Carolina, the Archaeological Research Trust (SCIAA), the Allendale Research Fund, the Elizabeth Stringfellow Endowment Fund, Sandoz Chemical Corp. and Clariant Corp., Dr. Albert Goodyear of the University of South Carolina published evidence that humans were in North America 50,000 years ago.

Now, an article in Nature online by Pedersen et al. (2016) concludes with the following statement:  "Our findings reveal that the first Americans, whether Clovis or earlier groups in unglaciated North America before 12.6 cal. kyr BP, are unlikely to have travelled by [the Bering Strait] into the Americas. However, later groups may have used this north–south passageway.  The Bering Strait could not have supported humans 13,000 years ago.

______________

Pedersen, M.W., et al., 2016, Postglacial viability and colonization in North America’s ice-free corridor:  Nature, 10 August 2016, doi:10.1038/nature19085. <http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature19085.html>

University Of South Carolina. "New Evidence Puts Man In North America 50,000 Years Ago." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 November 2004. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041118104010.htm>.

Our Creation Stories Say We Were Made Here

We didn't walk, take a boat, migrate, or any other terms you want to use.  This fact has been terribly inconvenient for anthropologists and others who simply want us to also be invaders to this land we call Turtle Island, albeit earlier in our encroachment.  Oral history has always been looked down upon as inaccurate and fraught with error, ignoring the fact that our ability to relay oral information accurately on what is safe to eat, where to find it, how to live well, and how to be good members of the Circle of Life seem to be accepted as fact.  Enough so that modern medicine is finding many of our "primitive" approaches to health are actually the sources of "new" medical treatments.

It appears that "science" is catching up to our knowledge, or at least is being confronted to facts and data that force a re-evaluation.

In work funded by the National Park Service, the National Geographic Society, the University of South Carolina, the Archaeological Research Trust (SCIAA), the Allendale Research Fund, the Elizabeth Stringfellow Endowment Fund, Sandoz Chemical Corp. and Clariant Corp., Dr. Albert Goodyear of the University of South Carolina published evidence that humans were in North America 50,000 years ago.

Now, an article in Nature online by Pedersen et al. (2016) concludes with the following statement:  "Our findings reveal that the first Americans, whether Clovis or earlier groups in unglaciated North America before 12.6 cal. kyr BP, are unlikely to have travelled by [the Bering Strait] into the Americas. However, later groups may have used this north–south passageway.  The Bering Strait could not have supported humans 13,000 years ago.

______________

Pedersen, M.W., et al., 2016, Postglacial viability and colonization in North America’s ice-free corridor:  Nature, 10 August 2016, doi:10.1038/nature19085. <http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature19085.html>

University Of South Carolina. "New Evidence Puts Man In North America 50,000 Years Ago." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 November 2004. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041118104010.htm>.

Reclaiming the Black Hills, One Name at a Time

No longer named after a murderer!  On September 2 and 3, 1855, Brigadier General William S. Harney and  600 soldiers attacked 250 Sioux, killing 86 Brulé women and children as well as warriors.

And just this quickly, a web search of its former name produces top results with its new name.  It is gratifying to see just how fast corrections can occur.  I applaud the U.S. Board of Geographic Names for its recognition of how correct and overdue this re-naming is.  Pity the Washington football team, Chief Wahoo, and the other pro-sports team names can't follow this example.

#NoIJustWon'tMoveOn

   

Hitler Studied U.S. Treatment of Indians

Elicia Goodsoldier

8/8/16

Indian Country Today Media Network

http://bit.ly/2b8aQjp

On June 7, the United States House of Representatives passed H. R. 129, a bipartisan piece of legislation, sponsored by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), urging Germany to reaffirm its financial commitment to address the health and welfare needs of Holocaust survivors. This legislation passed unanimously with a vote of 363-0.  

According to the bill’s summary, this legislation was needed to ensure “that all Holocaust victims live with dignity, comfort, and security in their remaining years.” It calls on Germany “to reaffirm its commitment to this goal through a financial commitment to comprehensively address the unique health and welfare needs of vulnerable Holocaust victims, including home care and other medically prescribed needs.”

The irony that lies in this situation is the fact that Adolf Hitler studied many of the United States’ policies implemented against American Indian people, as models for how he would deal with Jewish people....

I believe it is time the United States begins to recognize its own true history, rather than the popular myth of manifest destiny, and “do the right thing by fulfilling its commitments and obligations to all survivors” and descendants of the United States Holocaust....

The full article is brimming with information on the First Nations Holocaust in the United States.  It is a good read, but it is one that simultaneously makes me both grief-stricken and full of anger.

Whenever someone tells me to "let it go", "it is in the past", and "move on", I get angry and then take a deep breath to give myself a moment to calm down, to recognize their ignorance, to remember peace. Often, in response, I will ask them if the Jewish people have done what I as a Lakota am being advised to do - get over the Holocaust and just move on.  Usually, if I get more than a stunned silence and stare in response, I get a vehement denial of "that is NOTHING like what happened here".   Unless I am speaking with a citizen of another Indigenous nation, people just don't see (want to believe) the analogy.  It is easier to point fingers at some other person, some other country, than it is to point them at oneself or one's country.  Maybe that is the reason so many different First Nations people don't actually point at all.....   (You've really got to watch us closely - we "point" at something with our lips or our chins.)   

For the U.S. to begin to recognize its own true history, the U.S. needs to first own up to, accept, and fully TEACH its own history to all of its citizens.

Like the Jewish nation, we of the Indigenous Nations, will not and cannot "get over it" and "move on".

‘No I Won't Just Move On’ Hashtag: Why I Made It, We Need It:  Vincent Schilling, 5/11/16.  

Trauma May Be Woven Into DNA of Native Americans:  Mary Annette Pember, 5/28/15.