All Lives Matter: An American Holocaust

On May 25^th, 2020,  Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin crushed his knee on the neck of George Floyd killing him, as the public stood by filming.  9 minutes/ 29 seconds that encapsulated the violent threads that weave the social fabric of America.

9 minutes/29 seconds that set the stage for the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement. A soul-deep howl for social justice and equitable change. For Black Americans, their personal history of slavery, abuse, and racial discrimination was finally being heard. Activists like Nupol Kiazolu, Chi Osse, and Kwame Rose led an entire country to rise up and protest. It shredded the delicate threads that still bound us together as -Americans.

Black Lives Matter. Yes. Yes and, yes. For a brief, historical moment, a spark of unified sympathy blazed across the country. Cities burned. Anger blasted hotter than the fear of Covid.  Generational, racial violence unloosed in the name of social justice and change.  Equitable change in housing, education, and health care. The death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man almost changed our world.

Insidiously, a movement for inclusion became; exclusive and exclusionary. A brutal rejection of the layered, entwined pain that entangles this country and, the wider world. A rejection of the equally dark threads that weave the tapestry of the American experience. Chinese bones ground beneath our railroads. WWII Japanese concentration camps. Blood trails across our neighbouring borders. And, our indigenous peoples.  All lives matter.

To date, Native Americans continue to be one of the most marginalized and vulnerable groups in the United States. Statistics from the National Crime Information Center, (2021), count over 2,700 open cases of missing Native Americans in the country. A number believed to be significantly undercounted due to inaccurate reporting, inefficient data collection, jurisdictional issues and, racism.

From 1492-1880 in addition to imported Africans, over 4 million Native Americans were enslaved. In the original Constitution (Article I.-Section 2) Black American slaves were counted as 3/5% human. Native Americans, 0.  African slaves had a formula of value.  Native Americans had, none.

Seen as sub-human savages, their only value was in their death.  Bounty hunted for their scalps. Man, woman, and child.  In 1862, conflicts escalated between the U.S. government and bands of Dakota warriors in Minnesota. In response, the government authorized the formation of a band of bounty hunters. Volunteers who would be paid daily wages in return for hunting Dakota warriors. Additionally, every scalp submitted paid an extra bounty of 25 dollars. Other States soon followed suit using the bounty system as a way to eradicate “hostile” natives and clear lands for settlers. This was government-sanctioned genocide.

As the Civil War neared its end, Congress passed, the Thirteenth Amendment. Touted to abolish “slavery” and “involuntary servitude” while authorizing Congress to enact “appropriate legislation” to implement the abolition.  Additionally, the Amendment inferred that Blacks were citizens of the United States (overruling Dred Scott v Sandford 1857) including a 3/5 valuation to vote. Native Americans were not mentioned.

Less than a year after the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified, Congress implemented its power and passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This  gave Black citizens “the same right in every state…to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, …to inherit, purchase, sell, and convey real and personal property; and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property as is enjoyed by white citizens.”

None of these legal debates or proceedings referred to Native Americans or addressed their issues. As “savage animals” they weren’t even worth 3/5ths of consideration.

In fact, dating from their first arrival on American territory,  the US government authorized over 1,500 direct wars and attacks on native tribes. A systematic extermination. By the late 19^th century, less than 238,000 Native Americans remained, from an estimated population of over 10 million.

Say their names. The names of lost Tribes, families, languages, and histories. Men, women, children.  Unknown, unnameable. Wiped out. Literally from memory and traditional oral histories. Forever lost.  Genocide in the name of greed, religion, and yes, skin color.

The Gnadenhutten Massacre, the Battle of Tippecanoe, the Creek War, the Mankato Executions, the Sand Creek Massacre, Custer’s Campaigns, Wounded Knee, and the list goes on…

Say their names. Families massacred, generations lost.

Black Lives Matter. Native American Lives Matter. All Lives Matter.

In 1887 President Grover Cleveland passed the Dawes Act. It gave unlimited authorization for the US government to confiscate and redistribute Native American tribal lands. It was a targeted attempt to destroy tribal cultures and societies by tearing them away from their ancestral homelands. A directive to “civilize the savages”. Children were torn from their families to be trained as “good Christians” and mothers were beaten to death for hiding their babies.

In 1898 the Curtis Act accelerated the destruction of traditional tribal courts and native governments while confiscating an additional 90 million acres of tribal lands for re-sale to settlers.  By the time President Franklin Roosevelt legislated the US Indian Reorganization Act ( Wheeler-Howard Act) in 1934, seeking to restore status to the Native Americans, the damage done was irreparable.

Today, many factors continue to contribute to the high rates of both unaccounted-for “missing” and murdered Native Americans. Systemic racism, historical trauma, poverty, and inadequate law enforcement resources. Native American women are at especially high risk, with rates of violence and murder significantly higher than the national average.  In 2016, the National Crime Information Center reported over 5, 712 missing Native American women/girls. The US Department of Justice’s federal missing person database (NmeUs) only listed 116 cases. 5,596 lost in red tape and indifference.

We are left saying only some of their names:

Gabby Petito, Misty Upham, Kaysera Stops Pretty Places, Cecelia Barber Finona, Pepita Redhair, Ella Mae Bagay, Precious Noon, King Angle Laughing, Amaya Ghost, Lena Ann Tsosie, Esther Faith Larance, Sequoya Tsosie, Salacia Jewett, Maylena Paya…..

In 2020, as Black Lives Matter protests roiled across the US and the world, I wrote and dared to say “all lives matter”.

How can we deny this truth? When did the demand for justice become inclusive or, conveniently exclusive?  Humanity should not be defined or defiled by shades of black, brown, or red. All lives matter. I stand by these words.

Yes, efforts are slowly being made to address Native American issues. The creation of specialized criminal task forces. Passage of the Not Invisible Act in 2020, which aims to improve coordination and data collection related to missing and murdered Native Americans. It’s still not enough. The slaughter continues. “The scale of the issue is hard to quantify because there isn’t reliable, consistent data anywhere,” says Angel Charley, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women.

So much more needs to be done to address historical and systemic issues. Protections to ensure justice for those who continue to go missing and are violently victimized. A public acknowledgment of both past and continuing human rights violations against our First Peoples. Their lives matter, each and every one.

The US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey estimates the population of Native Americans and Alaska Natives in the United States (2020) to be approximately 6.9 million people. A mere 2.1% of the entire total US population and continuing to decline. Where are the mass protesters now?

As we face our national guilt and seek to qualify equity, all lives matter. Equity does not come as a single color or generalized brush stroke.  The Native American populations today, (like early Black American slaves), are a diverse quilt made of different tribal nations, each with its own unique cultures, languages, and histories. Pre-Columbus, pre-pilgrims, and pre-slavery, Native Americans are America’s foundational story and history. Their loss degrades our humanity on both a spiritual and historical scale.

As of 2021, there remain only 574 federally recognized tribes in the United States[1]. Additionally, there are several state-recognized tribes, as well as tribes that are not recognized by the government.  What arrogance do we continue to carry as a nation in our assumed “right” to “recognize” and define Native Americans, their tribes, and customs? They are fully capable of recognizing themselves.

“Recognized tribes” are implied to have a  government-to-government relationship with the United States.  They are considered sovereign nations with rights to self-governance and self-determination. The ability to actually practice these “rights” is much more complicated and muddied by jurisdictional issues.

Solutions for racial inequity cry out for direct and inclusive communications. A respectful acknowledgment of generational suffering. While some of the listed threats to Native Americans echo those of Black Americans, several Native American tribes are on the brink of extinction unless change comes -Now.

Historical Trauma: Native American communities have experienced generations of trauma from forced assimilation policies, genocide, and violent forms of colonialism. This trauma leads to a range of social, health, and economic issues directly impacting both the survival and well-being of many Native American communities.

Poverty: Native American communities face disproportionately high rates of poverty, unemployment, and under-employment.  This creates barriers to accessing basic necessities such as food, education, housing, and healthcare services.

Environmental Destruction: Many Native American communities now live in areas that are threatened by environmental destruction. Pollution, climate change, and resource extraction are growing concerns.[2] These have a devastating impact on health, and livelihoods and are contributing factors to the continued racial violence against them.

Lack of Political Power: Despite being sovereign nations, Native American tribes often have little or limited political power. They are not always included in decision-making processes that affect their lands and communities. As mega-corporations seek to mine tribal lands to support the green technology revolution, tensions and violence toward resisting Native Americans increases. History repeats.

In a recent quote from Jonathan Evans, CEO of Lithium Americas that is seeking to mine lithium in Thacker Pass, (adjacent to the Fort McDermmit Reservation), “These materials have to come from somewhere as you pivot from what we’ve been used to for the last 100 years to a new technology,” “Somewhere” being tribal lands. Evans may be calculating his profit margins but the Burns Paiute and Reno-Sparks Indian tribes will be the ones paying the cost. Again.

Violence and Discrimination: Native Americans continue to face high rates of violence and discrimination, particularly against women and girls. Additionally, it is difficult for individuals to access any services and support, due equally to cultural barriers and entrenched fear and mistrust of Federal “aid” in some communities.[3] Fear based on horrific reality. For example, the sterilization of Native American women without their permission. A report by Dr. Connie Pinkerton-Uri stated that the Indian Health Service had “singled out full-blooded Indian women for sterilization procedures” as late as 1976. In 1973, Indian Boarding School students were still being used as test subjects for drug trials by the Proctor Foundation.

Where are the protestors massed in the streets? Do their lives still matter, less?

Are equity and social justice a selective, exclusive drama stamped with an individual name; George Floyd?

Say their names. All of them. Say their names before they are forever gone and forgotten in the pitiless silence of time.

All lives matter.

*written by a human.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federally_recognized_tribes_in_the_contiguous_United_States *www.federalregister.gov “This site can’t be reached. DNS address could not be found”

[2]  https://hitchcockproject.org/stibnite-gold-project-sparks-outrage/

[3] https://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices/timeline/543.html