Mar 03 2008

MSNBC Covered Native American Issues Last Tuesday…

At approximately 10:12 p.m. last Tuesday MSNBC covered Native American issues after the presidential debate. “It’s high time we started covering these critical concerns affecting American Indians that are in our own back yard at least as much as we cover what happens across the ocean in other countries,” one MSNBC commentator said. I couldn’t believe my ears as to what they said next.

“The next president should heed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” one commentator strongly suggested.

My mouth hung open.

“Yes, because the United States voted against the declaration, whilst 143 nations voted in favour and eleven abstained,” the other commentator agreed and confirmed.

My mouth hung wide open now, but what he said next made me jump to my feet.

“Indigenous People have been labeled “savages” and considered to be satanic, all which boils down to dehumanization; consequently, excuses for land encroachment and land theft.”

I started yelling “Yes! Yes! Yes!” at the top of my lungs; I just couldn’t help myself.

He continued, “The next president heeding the Declaration would help change all of that.”

I then felt a strong tug on my shoulder. My wife was staring at me, “The television service was interrupted at 10:12 for some reason, what were you dreaming about?”

The adulation left me as I realized I had only been dreaming and I responded, “Nothing honey, let’s go to bed.”

Now that the dream is over, here’s the draft that didn’t pass.


Source

Article 7

Indigenous peoples have the collective and individual right not to be subjected to ethnocide and cultural genocide, including prevention of and redress for:

(a) Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities;

(b) Any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing them of their lands, territories or resources;

(c) Any form of population transfer which has the aim or effect of violating or undermining any of their rights;

(d) Any form of assimilation or integration by other cultures or ways of life imposed on them by legislative, administrative or other measures;

(e) Any form of propaganda directed against them.

And here’s some information leading up to the draft that passed in 143 nations.

Finally, the version that passed in 143 nations can be downloaded at the link at the bottom of this page.

I can dream, can’t I?

3 comments

  2. after someone at Kos suggested it. See what happens.


  3. Source

    Name one aboriginal group that lost out to an advanced society and kept it’s own court system. Consider the alternative. Every other country would not have been so accomodative. “We were here first” would not have carried any weight elsewhere. Contrary to accepted liberal thought, non-assimilation is divisive. If we elect Obama I suppose we could revert to his traditions and settle the matter with goats or cattle.

    next,

    American Indians

    Lost the war. As PJD noted, no other people in the world of conquest has kept its own court systems. To begin with, the Indians were not the first people here: there is evidence of lots of prehistoric travels to the American continent by Orientals and Europeans. The Indians weren’t original, rather they were the latest prior to the European invasion in the 16th and 17th centuries. They are a conquered people. So why do they get to be their own “nations” inside our U.S.? AH, but they also get all the benefits of being Americans. Assimilate the way all other conquered peoples have. It won’t hurt a bit. You can still keep your cultural heritage in your homes and in your groups, but join the rest of American society outside the home. My ancestors include Waumponoag Indians, but I dont’ whine about how mistreated they were. My wife is Cherokee descent, but she doesn’t whine about the Trail of Tears. It’s history, it happened. Get over it.

    and this lovely,

    As the man said:…

    …”The only good Injun is a dead Injun.”

    It’s blatant racism and genocide denial.

    Furthermore, when a traditional pre – adolescent or adolescent (can’t remember how old they said they were exactly) first entered the boarding school, I heard first hand from the individual how the others, who were from the same tribe, made fun of them for speaking their language – the assimilation was so complete. That was sooner in history than most realize, at a boading school that didn’t close until 1970 or the very early 1970’s.

    And today Sheridan is quoted, the general who said “The only good Indians I ever saw were dead,” who mounted his winter campaign that helped lead to Black Kettle’s death almost 4 years to the day he survived the Sand Creek Massacre, who had a vision of peace with the whites.

    Will any presidential candidate heed the Declaration?

    Probally not, because there’s so much Goddamned racism out there against American Indians that it’d cost them votes to mention it now.

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