I missed the cite for that quote from the documentary "Lost Bird of Wounded Knee" on PBS. It is American Indian Heritage Month. I, in theory, believe that all U.S. treaties with Native American nations, unless abrogated, are valid.
The injustices perpetrated against native nations, the broken treaties, the lies, the deception, the legal distortions, obliteration of cultures and societies, and outright military assaults, are what this country is founded upon.
In theory, if I owned land, and the U.S. government told me that my land, under whatever treaty from a hundred years ago, belonged to a native nation and I would have to leave (with federal compensation, because that's how it works), in the name of justice, I would.
The U.S. did it to them in spite of treaties. The U.S. should be able to do it to us to respect those treaties. It will never happen considering what our country and government are really about. It's just something to think about.
And the media has to stop portraying native societies and cultures as being dead, gone, and past. They're not.
I need to have this scowl bronzed:
November 9, 2002; 1:24 P.M. - That's my apartment building in the background. The maroon building. This is Hampshire Street @ 19th Street in the Mission.
