As one who grew up near the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation,
I’ve been in proximity of both the racism and victimization that seems to
remain festering in the hearts of some Native Americans and Anglos even into
the 21st Century.
Since these are hot button issues that can consume those who
elect to enter in to dialogues about them, I’ve declined to offer any
observations or opinions about them on Black Hills Monitor.
However, after just posting a story and photograph on
another website about
Joe American Horse, a superb athlete from yesteryear,
something interesting happened.
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| Mount Rushmore - 1929 |
A Google “Alert” notification arrived in my Inbox for another “Black Hills history” story.
It was a story about Mount Rushmore posted on a site named
Indian Country Today Media Network. I
don’t recall having visited this website before. However, rummaging through its many
topics and pages was fascinating – if a bit disappointing – so I’ve decided to
offer those long-delayed “observations” …..and an opinion or two. Nonetheless, Indian Country Today is worth visiting. There's lots of good stuff there. But...
I’m a white guy.
My interest in things relating to American Indians, however, is more
than just passing. I’ve dabbled in
genealogy for decades and remember vividly some of the stories my mother used
to tell about her childhood – and her Indian playmates. My great-grandfather’s homestead was
“in the gumbo” about 14 miles northeast of Chadron, Nebraska, adjacent to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
“If it hadn’t been for the Indian kids, I often wouldn’t
have had anyone to play with,” I recall her telling me over the years. And my grandfather did business with tribal members.
As a kid growing up in Chadron, I don’t think I ever stopped
to consider the plight of the Indians.
Usually, their circumstances were perceived through a local prism of strong cultural snobbery. You might call
it racism. Like Gordon and
Rushville, towns not far from Pine Ridge, Chadron was a favorite trade center
for reservation residents.
That also meant it was a favorite watering hole not just for
area farmers and ranchers – but Indians from Pine Ridge, too. And while I’m not a scientist or
sociologist, I do believe that there was/is a propensity for alcoholism among our
neighbors from Pine Ridge. Coupled with a mutual lack of understanding about cultural
differences and a widespread abuse of the U.S. government’s food commodity
program, it seems that almost everything I learned about relationships between our races was
tinged with abuse, indifference, and illegalities.
There were many exceptions, of course. One American Indian classmate was an exceptional
artist. He later served in the Army and then worked with computers for many years. I had looked forward to seeing him at our 50th high school class reunion a few years ago, but he didn’t make it.
I later saw his obituary.
Another Indian friend was a fine athlete and is a good friend. He went on to graduate from the University
of Nebraska and years later would return to the Pine Ridge area and work to
improve the health of reservation residents.
Having lived eight years in Mississippi later in life, I
learned much about southern racism – although I think Mississippi often gets a bum wrap,
when one considers rampant racism that has afflicted Detroit, Los Angeles and
other areas of the country. Author
Shelby Foote put it well when he once talked about confronting racism in
Mississippi: “We aren’t where we
want to be……we’re not where we should be…..but we sure aren’t where we used to
be!”
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| Newspaperman Bob Gordon |
Many of my best friends in Mississippi grew up around the
racism that seemed to inundate Mississippi back in the 1950s and '60s. One of them was a man named Bob
Gordon, one of the finest men I’ve ever known. I’ll not recount his story, but if you want to know more,
visit
Saying Goodbye to a Friend. And
another good friend, a Jackson attorney, grew up in the thick of racism. He and I visited about that occasionally, and I often wondered why he -- a very liberal and caring fellow -- wasn’t even more outspoken in his position against
racism.
Then, at some point, I stopped to reflect on my own upbringing,
remembering the things I experienced as a youth. As children, I suspect all of us grow up adapting to the culture
we’re dealt. As a teenager, I
couldn’t understand how “whites in the south could be so racist against
negroes.” I never seriously
reflected on the plight of Indians and their relationship with whites in my own community. Partly, as a teen, I
was too involved with sports, girls, and my own circumstances. In Mississippi, I finally confronted
that inconsistency.
All of this to offer up this:
As thought-provoking and well done as it is, Indian Country
Today provides for its readers much the same fodder as Fox News offers its
viewers. And as MSNBC feeds its
audience. Especially, it seems,
during these confrontational days inside the Washington, D.C. beltway: "I’m right.
You’re wrong. Now I'm going to tell you who's to blame."
That seems to be the mantra.
Whatever our plight; whatever our woes; we’ve got to blame someone, so
let’s focus on the other guy!
Indian Country News is well done, but there is, not
surprisingly -- but disappointingly, an undercurrent that seems to focus more on
blaming whites rather than seeking solutions to the problems that face Native
Americans – and our country.
All of us, at one time or another, have viewed ourselves as
victims. And few in our society have
as much justification for that posture as Native Americans. But until the crutch of justification and blame is put in the closet, it’s difficult to see meaningful improvements in the
lives of our Native American brethren.
But the purveyors of blame at Fox, MSNBC, and others, know that controversy can lure more eyeballs and, thus, more advertising revenue. And the good folks at Indian Country News probably believe, too, that a little invective and controversy can't help but strengthen readership.
And all of society is the worse for it.
