UnThanksgiving

This morning as I prepared to go to a friend's house for Thanksgiving celebrations, I found myself in an online conversation with a person I do not know well about how indigenous people are treated in the state where we both reside.

This person told me that in Utah (a state which ironically derives it's name from the local indigenous Ute tribe) indigenous people are continually treated with disrespect, derision, and further marginalized. She went on to describe how local and state leaders are disinterested in becoming informed on the issues which affect the indigenous community or to implement effective change to address these issues.

It doesn't take an expert to notice that after being subjected to 500 years of atrocities, the indigenous community is in crisis. While some erroneously blame the various problems affecting the indigenous community as character flaws or even a lack of initiative, the truth goes much deeper. Generational trauma, broken treaties, oppression (to name only a few) are in fact the true cause of the problems.

For decades, indigenous children were ripped from the arms of their parents to be put up for adoption to white families without the consent or even knowledge of the parents.

Beginning in the 1800s, government and church authorities forcibly removed Native children from their parents, culture, and communities to attend boarding schools where the children had their hair cut, were required to wear the white man's clothing, and prevented from speaking their language or having any connection with their culture. It was at these so-called schools that these most vulnerable children endured all manners of horrific abuse and degradation. Many children never made it out alive. Those who survived have lived with the residual effects of this trauma for the rest of their lives.

Today, hundreds, if not thousands, of indigenous women throughout the U.S. and Canada are either missing or murdered. Law enforcement agencies seem slow, or completely unwilling, to search for these women. Laws affecting tribal lands often prevent prosecution of crimes against indigenous people committed by outsiders. It is said that every person in the indigenous community either has a family members or acquaintance who makes up these numbers of missing and murdered women.

When oil companies move into areas near indigenous communities, and set up temporary housing for oil field workers called man camps, violence against, and human trafficking of, indigenous women skyrockets.

Mortality rates of indigenous people are much higher than that if non-indigenous peoples. Suicide rates, particularly among young people, within the indigenous community are if epidemic proportions. Addiction, poverty, diabetes, high school drop-out, unemployment, homelessness, hopelessness and despair are both caused by, and help fuel the ongoing problems which affect Indian Country. I don't have the time or space here to give a full detail of the complete situation.

It shouldn't be a surprise that the Thanksgiving holiday, with it's accompanying fictional folklore, is not wildly popular among the first inhabitants of this land.

In indigenous culture, a person's status in society would traditionally be improved, not by the wealth accumulated, but by how much was given away. Unlike in Western society, the prevailing belief was that what we have belongs to all of us. If someone was homeless, he or she would be given a place to live. If someone was hungry, he would be fed. If someone needed clothing, she would be provided with that as well.

Hoarding of wealth or material goods would be treated with suspicion. If a person had an excess of food, material goods, or housing someone might ask, "This person is homeless (or hungry or naked), yet you have so much."

The Lakota name for the white man is Wasicu, which I am told directly translates as "the one who takes the fattest piece of meat" because when they first encountered the white man and shared their meat, the white man always took the fattest, or most desirable piece of meat for himself. Today, this term is widely used by all indigenous people throughout the U.S. and Canada because it is viewed as such an apt description of the white invaders who came to this land so many years ago.

Today, as I sit down with friends to celebrate the traditional Thanksgiving feast, my thoughts are not centered on the false narrative of Pilgrims and Indians that was taught to me in grade school and still celebrated by so many. Instead, I will find myself mourning the tragedy of what has happened to the first inhabitants of this land who, after being subjected to 500 years of atrocities, are still finding it impossible to have their voices heard or their urgent needs addressed.

Guess What? I'm Blogging Again!

So yeah, I'm posting again. It's been ages. I'm so shocked that it's been so many years. But here I am, blogging from my phone, as one does. Along with posting this, I'm also giving up Facebook for the month of July. So far it's only been a few hours and it's pretty obvious I'm going to have to get some new hobbies. 

I don't think I'll miss all of the crazy people or the mean people on Facebook. And I don't think I'll miss reading about all of the horrible things going on in the world today.  Last night when I couldn't sleep I listened to so me Nanci Griffith, Cat Stevens, Simon and Garfunkel, Dar Williams et al on Pandora until I couldn't handle listening to all the hippie music and had to turn it off.  

A part of me feels guilty for listening to Pandora because I keep hearing how all of these music app are so bad because the musicians don't get money from my free listening, but hey, I've bought tons of music over the years and I pretty much listen to the same music on Pandora as I do on my iPod do I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. Does that make me a bad person? If I could find my iPod I'd be listening to it, but I can't find it so here we are.

I'm posting this without much proofreading and autocorrect seems to have a mind of it's own so there's probably going to be lots of typos here. The world's just gonna have to deal with it. 

That's it for now. I've got other things to tend to.