tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35136026.post3128298865218514764..comments2023-10-24T05:05:24.143-07:00Comments on BULLET HOLES IN THE MAILBOX: PEOPLE DIE VERY MUCHBulletholeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09331404499950190378noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35136026.post-9646437516625606882007-04-29T08:41:00.000-07:002007-04-29T08:41:00.000-07:00First, let me say that what I am about to say in n...First, let me say that what I am about to say in no way undermines the horror or injustice of all that happened to the native peoples of this "Turtle Island," as some indigienous people refer to it, the United States of America.<BR/><BR/>Secondly, I have a documented Cherokee great-great grandmother, which makes me about a sixteenth tar brush, certainly enough in a system of apartheid to get me on the wrong side of the gates, or stuck in a boxcar to who knows where. I am also overwhelming white enough to "pass" without question. Nor was I raised with any real sense of indian cultural identity, though there were smatterings. On the other hand, many people visibly "Indian" enough to bear the onus of discrimination, have little sense of their culture either. It was washed away by the legacy of the Mission schools, a place my gg-grandmother almost certainly matriculated, branded as she was with a "Christian" name.<BR/><BR/>None of the above makes me an expert on native history, or my opinion worth anything more than your own. I would, however, like to point out a couple of things that are easily verified, one about the Cherokee and the <A HRED="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Civilized_Tribes">Five Civilized Tribes</A>, which is that they were slave owners. I also understand that they harbored and inter-married with fugitive slaves, but they were "Masters" nonetheless. The second is that the Cherokee Nation has recently decided to omit their black descendent bretheren from the ranks of membership. This discrimination is obviously a financial motive, and it is quite sickening to me. I see it along the same lines as the more extreme Israeli/PLO conflict. I have utmost compassion for oppressed peoples. But look how readily the victims become victimizers - it's human nature, I reckon. Again, the massacres of the Indian Wars and the TOT and the colonial slavery trade (you know that African Americans have been here since the 1660s - how many WASPs can link their "Heritage" back that far?), are nothing to be diminished, but it is easy to romanticize the sufferings of people, while forgetting their faults. I don't know what the answer is, and maybe all I've said is headed nowhere at all, but I don't think there is such a thing as too much compassion.kissyfacehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12880453131963836140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35136026.post-83709979747717221982007-04-29T07:13:00.000-07:002007-04-29T07:13:00.000-07:00Some of my relatives didn't do such good things.Some of my relatives didn't do such good things.Old Ladyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06333172930957879928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35136026.post-10152598037098730042007-04-29T05:54:00.000-07:002007-04-29T05:54:00.000-07:00http://www.buffalosoldier.net/is kind of interesti...http://www.buffalosoldier.net/<BR/>is kind of interesting about various peace-loving folks who kill one another for fun and profit. Indians fighting the War against the Confederacy, Black folks fighting the War against the Confederacy, Black folks fighting the Indians .... not too much about Indians fighting Indians or Black folks fighting Black folks. <BR/>They ALL killed ducks!!!!<BR/>The mile-wide swath, 100 miles long, that Sherman cut through Georgia will burn in the hearts of Confederate posterity. Yankees believe in the glory of divorce unless it is the Confederacy wanting the divorce. <BR/>I learned stone masonry from a Cherokee who was born in 1900 and had been a stone mason all his life. I learned to use a shovel to dig ditches from a black ditch digger who was born at or slightly before 1900. My Scottish ancestry arrived in North America as indentured servants. I think maybe life is hard for folks. I don't think it helps to cry for others anymore than it helps to sit around crying for oneself.<BR/>Quack, Quack!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35136026.post-83579047940823156052007-04-27T08:22:00.000-07:002007-04-27T08:22:00.000-07:00tHANKS FOR ALL OF YA'LLS (excuse me) comments. goo...tHANKS FOR ALL OF YA'LLS (excuse me) comments. good to know that i'm not the only one that gets a sense of incredulity concerning this topic.<BR/>When I was in School I didn't quite realize how much the past ties in to the present, and how much in common the civil war and the american Indian story have with the reasons for and against being in the War we find ourselves involved with now. i leave it to you to put the three issues together more coherently than I can try to explain at peresent. invoved with now.<BR/>Looli- I thought you would be able to get some mileage from the PBS link....if you havent seen the ken Burns "Civil War" and "The West "<BR/>series, you should; both are the best.bulletholeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13681107556161747976noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35136026.post-30746359310807805982007-04-27T06:59:00.000-07:002007-04-27T06:59:00.000-07:00My ancestors were diggin' spuds in Tralee when all...My ancestors were diggin' spuds in Tralee when all this stuff was going on so I have a hard time mustering any feeling of shame for it. Fortunately, I don't have to because we are doing plenty of things right now that we can all be ashamed about. I'll leave that to the million-or-so bloggers that are already tackling the subject. For now, I'll just be happy for my Cherokee friend who shoots deer off of the back porch of his 3,000 sq. ft. house in senic Pea Ridge, Arkansas.Dave Renfrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04298793531156100705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35136026.post-37015577413911972452007-04-27T06:41:00.000-07:002007-04-27T06:41:00.000-07:00Thanks for the history lesson. Loved the Teacher'...Thanks for the history lesson. Loved the Teacher's Aid link from pbs-- will put it in my favorites. When we do research-- great tool!! <BR/><BR/>I do hope that we learned as a nation-- I hope that wouldn't happen today, knowing that Indians are PEOPLE. I think the mindset of the people in the 19th cent. and earlier were that the Europeans were "civilized" and were treating Indians and blacks like "barbarians". <BR/>LollipopAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35136026.post-17210829544226004422007-04-26T10:19:00.000-07:002007-04-26T10:19:00.000-07:00i find our treatment of the American Indians to be...i find our treatment of the American Indians to be one of the things I am most ashamed about. From the time when I first read about the "Trail of tears" at the age of 6 or 7, I have regretted our treatment of these original occupants of our land. We succeeded in killing their spirit as we dispossessed them of their land and moved them westward. The sad truth is that it would be no different today if we had it to do all over again.Barbarahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18356998698106275372noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35136026.post-44605589788465658362007-04-26T09:17:00.000-07:002007-04-26T09:17:00.000-07:00We are now about to take our leave and kind farewe...We are now about to take our leave and kind farewell to <BR/>our native land, the country the Great Spirit gave our<BR/>Fathers, we are on the eve of leaving that country that<BR/>gave us birth, it is with sorrow we are forced by the<BR/>white man to quit the scenes of our childhood...we bid<BR/>farewell to it and all we hold dear. <BR/>Charles Hicks, Tsalagi (Cherokee) Vice Chief <BR/>speaking of The Trail of Tears, Nov. 4, 1838 <BR/><BR/>Have we not learned?GEWELShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15667187693235282985noreply@blogger.com