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- 125 years ago tomorrow, June 25, 1876,
was a battle that forever defined indigenous relations with the
white-dominated government. Known to non-natives as the Battle of
the Little Big Horn, and often viewed as a slaughter to a kill by
those ignorant of history, this remarkable show of unification,
strength, and passion for self-preservation on the part of the
Lakota stands as a testament to the abilities of Native people
everywhere.
- It's not taught in the schools that the
battle came about as a result of gold being found in the Black
Hills. It's not taught that it was started over a Mormon who was
angered by one of his cattle being killed for food by the starving
people. It's not taught that the battle came about as a result of
an attack by the military at Wolf Creek. It's not even taught that
the strategy used by the Lakota, as laid out by Gall and other
leaders, was emulated, and still is copied by the United States
Armored Cav even to this very day.
- Instead, the government chooses to
ignore those that suffered for so long under the hands of the
government that they were forced to fight or die.
- 10 years ago, the United States Congress voted to erect a
memorial to those warriors who gave their lives at the Greasy
Grass. Where is it? The park has increased entrance fees to pay
for the monument, but where is it?
- Instead, our children are taught to
honor George A. Custer, a man who was intent on wiping out all
Indian people in "one great Indian war." Though
Custer's family and selective historians attempt to paint Custer
as a fair and decent man, he was quoted in the Sioux Falls
Independent as saying . "It (the great Indian war)
would settle the Indian question beyond the tomfoolery of Quakers
and sentimentalists who don't seem to know that every Indian
everywhere is simply a brute. You can't civilize an Indian any
more than you can teach a rooster to lay goose eggs."
- Fair and honorable. Yet revered by
schoolteachers and school children the world over. Ironic that the
man newspapers in Europe 125 years ago is now one of the most
hated in those same countries. History told as selectively
as it might ever have been is finally meeting it's own.
- Over 100 people died fighting for their
lands, culture, and survival on that day in what became Montana.
Remembered only by their descendants, it's time for history to
reclaim them.
- In this year of the 125th anniversary
of the battle at Greasy Grass, and the 100th anniversary of the
year that the government took the Black Hills by legislation
rather than force from the Lakota, it's time for history to be
made right. Not with mere words, but with actions of honor.
- Place the monument promised by George Bush in 1991.
- Return the Black Hills to the Lakota.
- Free Leonard Peltier.
