I suggest reading
Loaded: a disarming history of the second amendment, by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, which i recently borrowed from the library of the
Whatcom Peace and Justice Center.
It includes the following two quotations:
So if ever built, what will the United States Native American Genocide Memorial Museum contain: What will it exhibit?
It will be one room, a fifty-foot square with the same large photo filling the walls, ceiling and floor.
There will be only one visitor allowed at any one time.
There will be no furniture.
The one visitor will have to stand or sit on the floor.
Or lie on the floor if they feel the need.
That visitor must remain in that room for one hour.
There will be no music.
The only soundtrack will be random gunshots from rifles used throughout American history.
Reverberation.
What will the photo be?
It will be an Indian baby, shredded by a Gatling gun, lying dead and bloody in the snow.
Sherman Alexie, from You don't have to say you love me
In 1818, President James Monroe ordered Andrew Jackson, by then a major general in the U.S. Army, to lead three thousand soldiers into Florida, at the time part of the Spanish empire, to crush the Muskogee-led Indigenous Seminole guerrilla resistance. The Seminoles did not agree to hand over any Africans who had escaped from their enslavers.
As we reflect on this history of colonial violence, which is a part of learning Capoeira, we are also called to action. Indigenous writer
Rebecca Nagle wrote a piece in
Indian Country Today urging us to demand that the clothing company Yandy cancel its line of 'sexy' 'native' costumes.
Similarly, there is a small campaign here in Bellingham to ask that WECU reconsider officially recognizing Columbus Day in its mailings, calendars, and general communications with the public, and instead identify it as Indigenous People's Day.
WECU's contacts are:
Contact Center Hours: Monday-Friday, 8:00am – 6:00pm
Local: 360-676-1168
Toll Free: 800-525-8703
Fax: 360-756-7800
TTY: 800-833-6388
