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.
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