2008 Woodie Awards
Genocide ongoing within US
Shane Kemiss Clark
Issue date: 3/7/06 Section: Opinion
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Our government is criminal by its own definition. Society punishes thieves with stringent laws against the possession of stolen property, and the United States Federal Government has stolen the greatest possession of all time… the land that we now call home. It is about time we give back what we have stolen. I propose, no rather I demand, that our government give back the land to the Native Americans. That is right. I contend that the Federal and State governments should dissolve themselves and give back the land and autonomy to its' original inhabitants.
The reality is that the cultural genocide that the founders of this society embarked on nearly five hundred years ago is nearly total. The extinction of the rightful purveyors of our land is imminent unless the current trajectory is changed. Native Americans are still being subject to the policies of cultural eradication that the USFG adopted at its conception.
For a country that regards itself as a champion of human rights, America could not be more hypocritical. The apathy of Americans in these issues makes us every bit responsible for the eradication of Native American cultures than the cavalries of centuries past. Our complicit attitude toward this ongoing genocide is enough to make me ashamed of being a citizen of this stolen land.
Many of us may be able to say that our families migrated decades or even centuries after what happened to the Native Americans, but this excuse is no more than a distraction from the truth. The truth is our government is essentially quarantining Native Americans in what we call reservations. It is no coincidence that the inhabitants of these reservations are economically and resourcefully the poorest people in America. Reservations were and are intentionally constructed by our government in the least desirable locations. Reservations are removed from consumer society making them unable to attract businesses in order to create an economic infrastructure. When valuable natural resources are discovered on the lands of reservations, our government relocates it's citizens and begins extracting the resources. What is more, we are currently using the land in and around reservations as our personal atomic waste trash cans.
The reality is that the cultural genocide that the founders of this society embarked on nearly five hundred years ago is nearly total. The extinction of the rightful purveyors of our land is imminent unless the current trajectory is changed. Native Americans are still being subject to the policies of cultural eradication that the USFG adopted at its conception.
For a country that regards itself as a champion of human rights, America could not be more hypocritical. The apathy of Americans in these issues makes us every bit responsible for the eradication of Native American cultures than the cavalries of centuries past. Our complicit attitude toward this ongoing genocide is enough to make me ashamed of being a citizen of this stolen land.
Many of us may be able to say that our families migrated decades or even centuries after what happened to the Native Americans, but this excuse is no more than a distraction from the truth. The truth is our government is essentially quarantining Native Americans in what we call reservations. It is no coincidence that the inhabitants of these reservations are economically and resourcefully the poorest people in America. Reservations were and are intentionally constructed by our government in the least desirable locations. Reservations are removed from consumer society making them unable to attract businesses in order to create an economic infrastructure. When valuable natural resources are discovered on the lands of reservations, our government relocates it's citizens and begins extracting the resources. What is more, we are currently using the land in and around reservations as our personal atomic waste trash cans.