“What they wrote down was a blueprint for the genocide of my people. You are re-enacting something ugly, evil and hateful,” Carter Camp, Ponca, told the Discovery Expedition camped on the Missouri River.
“You are re-enacting the coming of death to our people,” Camp told the expedition, while seated in a circle with Indian elders and Lewis and Clark re-enactors, on the banks of the Missouri River.
“We want you to turn around and go home,” Alex White Plume, Lakota from Pine Ridge, told the expedition. White Plume said Lakota are here on this land for a reason. “We were put here by the spirits.” He said the Lakota never lost their language or ceremonies and now they are making these requests: Lakota want their territory back, their treaties to be honored and to be able to continue their healing ways.
The Civil Rights movement is our most prominent example of a successful protest movement. It succeeded because tens of thousands of people spent decades organizing it, not because a handful of people performed a handful of colorful stunts.
For more on Lewis and Clark reenactors, see Missouri River Race in Chinook Canoe. For more on the the original expedition, see Jefferson Sought to Remove Indians and American Empire from the Beginning.
P.S. Whatever happened to Means's Republic of Lakotah? Is it safe to classify it as a failed and forgotten effort?
If you had read the entire article, you would know that the Lakota, Ponca and Kiowa, did make a difference that day. Their actions and words changed the life of the person posing as Meriwether Lewis.
ReplyDeleteThe sarcasm in your columns does not honor anyone, including yourself.
Also, you should know that you can not repost a photo without permission of the photographer.
Brenda Norrell brendanorrell@gmail.com
I read the whole article. Changing the life of one person doesn't qualify as "change" in any meaningful sense. I was talking about systemic cultural change, not any change whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteThe so-called sarcasm in this posting is almost nonexistent. If you want to see real sarcasm, read my other postings on the "Republic of Lakotah." And asking my boss Victor to censor my blog, as you did via e-mail, doesn't honor you or anyone.
Posting a photograph for the purpose of commentary and criticism is covered by the fair-use provision of the copyright law. But if you insist, I'll take it down. I wouldn't want to offend anyone.