In our history textbooks, we learned that European settlers pushed westward, displacing Indigenous tribes until sadly they were no more. But this is wholly inaccurate.
The “Indians”—as Columbus infamously misnamed them—are still here in America. They number well over five million according to the 2020 census. And yet, as hard as it is to admit, a genocide of Indigenous people and cultures continues in this country even to this day, as Native children are removed from their families and tribes to live in primarily White, Christian homes.
That continuing assault is today’s subject in The Big Picture. Head over to #TBP to read now: https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/indigenous-genocide-foster-care-icwa
I didn't know that this is going on to this day. How can it be stopped?
@Simone21 @georgetakei make it a crime to cover it up
make parties that demonize immigrants, races, sexes religions or nationalities illegal
thats a start
@Simone21 @georgetakei if conservatives dont have someone to demonize they lose a lot of power
@Simone21 @georgetakei Become informed. Read up on and then call your representatives to oppose any and all bills to separate Native children from their families. Tell your representatives you expect them to draft legislation to strengthen family ties (I.e. if a child must be removed, that they go to a relative, not a stranger, or at the very least someone in the tribe). Talk to your friends about this and get then actively involved too. Democracy is a verb.
@georgetakei Imperialists, capitalists and fascists have no right to set the narrative and it is time we locked them from power forever
@rticks @georgetakei
We need to aim our protests at the owners of the news.
The industry is down to 6 main “non-profit ” news media companies who have been free to control the narrative.
I think it was Scripps that had a recent scandal for involvement/contributions to RWNJ.
https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/futureofmedia/index-us-mainstream-media-ownership
@RiaResists @georgetakei I am still trying to figure out how to get a koch style progressive journalist foundation set up but am neither a journalist nor wealthy nor an entrepreneur and the demand for it is huge
@georgetakei thank you so much for addressing this! The egregious treatment of our indigenous peoples is tragically underreported.
@georgetakei
“Manifest destiny”, not whitewashed was hard to comprehend in my undergrad studies.
Seems like it became more vicious as it moved west.
why were they removed? the something happens to many children of different cultures in this country. why is anyone more important than another?
@georgetakei This is really disgusting to hear about. I can’t believe we still have this stuff happening today. What is wrong with people that they think they can decide the fate of others. I am really sickened by this.
@EveyJo It is an incredibly disturbing issue.
@georgetakei Thanks for sharing this George regards Howard
@Howie You're welcome!
@georgetakei A representative of Amah Mutsun Tribal Band gave the keynote at San Jose's DOR last month. They're one of some 200 tribes who lost their tribal status after being declared extinct by the U.S. Government after the 1920 census. They've got a number of projects going you might be interested in, including the effort to regain tribal status and an educational monument in Hayward's Heritage Plaza.
@georgetakei There's a case that's been brought to the Supreme Court that challenges the Indian Child Welfare Act. This would further endanger Indigenous families and make it possible for the State to rip Native children from there families and their culture. The purpose is to eradicate them through assimilation. It's also a challenge to Native sovereignty, especially in Oklahoma, where large corporations are trying to steal Native land
@baguette @georgetakei Came here to say this. That case is going on right now. Check the #newyorktimes or the #washingtonpost which ran an article on it this week.
@LGmedia @georgetakei Are they hearing it now? I know it was scheduled to e heard last November, but I think it was postponed. I'm trying to keep up to date on what's happening with it, but it's been difficult
@georgetakei
To the best of my knowledge, Columbus did not "infamously misname" the natives he encountered as "Indians". He wrote in his diary that the people he encountered were "in Dios", meaning "in the image of God", i.e. human beings. For convenience sake and because they didn't know before 1500 about a continent between Europe and Asia going west, it was taken to mean "Indio" or "Indian". It was carried over into other languages and thus American natives are called "Indians" to this day.
@TSAguilar @georgetakei Yeah, none of that's actually true. It's just whitewashed "history".
@TSAguilar @georgetakei #ChristopherColumbus received funding from Spain on the promise that he would find a new, westward route to the Indies. Even after mutiny by his own staff, he continued to lobby, write publications, and insist the new lands and peoples he found were “Indios” or else he would lose his financial contracts. Columbus refused to acknowledge he found a new continent. That credit would later go to Amerigo Vespucci, hence “America.”
@LGmedia @georgetakei
You pursue a falsification of history. You should know the difference between "Indios" and "in Dios". What choice did Columbus have but to insist that he found a westward route to India? Nobody knew about the existence of that "new" continent. Giving a braggart and liar who never sat foot on a boat, Amerigo Vespucci, the credit of having found a new continent, is a joke. Cartographers in Strasbourg had not heard of Columbus and thus didn't name the continent "Columbia".
@TSAguilar @georgetakei Columbus’ assignment, funded by Spain, was to find a westward route to INDIA. The East Indies. After 4 trips that route was never found. That 4th trip was his last chance and he had to lobby for it. He did sail close to Panama, but did not explore further to find the Pacific. Amerigo Vespucci recognized the Brazil region as part of a new continent he called the “New World,” later noted by a mapmaker as “America.” The name stuck.
@georgetakei exactly this happened to me. And my family couldn’t get me back because a) they were native and b) they were native. Everyone felt it was best for me to be raised in an affluent white Christian family. Every time I did something wrong it was “the Indian in me”, not to mention the rampant C.S.A. And physical abuse because I was considered less than and not important… I could go on and on about this. It was like residential school 2.0.
@georgetakei
In addition to the 5 million, there are many more million half, quarter and even 8th 'breeds' such as me and family who are told by the MAGAts to 'go back to Mexico'!
@georgetakei A nation cannot survive on a foundation of cruelty and hate.
@georgetakei bout time someone else mentions this travesty. It's crazy how much people don't even know about this situation. I would like to also mention large companies are actually trying to purchase reservation land, for example the chunk of land my uncle used to own (and his cousin's for that matter) was sold off because he needed the cash.
@georgetakei The assault on indigenous people continues. The reservations we put them on, deemed of no value, are now the subject of lithium mining. https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/showdown-at-thacker-pass
@georgetakei @NilaJones I find it helpful to remember that the Native American population in the U.S. is about the same size as the Jewish population. And while both currently nasty discrimination and stereotypes, at least we don’t pretend the latter only existed in the past.
@georgetakei
Thanks for boosting this, George.
@georgetakei Interesting you would indicate the census pegs the Indigenous people at around 5 million in the U.S. Canada's Indigenous population according to our last census pegs Indigenous people at around 4.5 million. Seems odd the two countries have a similar population of indigeous people given location and size of our countries.
@georgetakei So true. Just started "O Pioneers" by Willa Cather and was struck by a sentence that characterized a hodgepodge of sod homes on the Nebraska prairie as the "little beginnings of human society that struggled in the sombre waste." Not European society, but human.
@georgetakei The exact thing happened in Canada. Only now are we recognizing our genocide
It's not only Native Americans from North America being affected by genocide. Central American Indigenous children taken from their families during Trump's family separation horror were placed in facilities owned/run by Betsy DeVoss' family, among others. These "Christian" facilities were geared for adoptions. These children, for the most part, did not speak Spanish, only their Indigenous languages, and interpreters are hard to come by for those languages.
@georgetakei
Oops, but Columbus never actually met 'Indians’.
Both statements are correct:
Between 50 to 55 million #NativeAmericans died because of diseases unknown to their #ImmuneSystem:
https://easyrelocated.com/what-percentage-of-native-american-were-killed-by-disease/
@georgetakei for more information on the attempt to dismantle ICWA and keep seizing native children listen to season 2 of the This Land podcast