The hanging of the Dakota 38+2 and the unspoken history of the United States of America “I expect to travel directly to the house of the creator, and to be happy when I get there”____ Tazoo/ Red Ottter In the spring of 2005, Jim Miller, a Native spiritual leader and Vietnam veteran, found himself in a dream riding on horseback across the great plains of South Dakota. Just before he awoke, he arrived at a riverbank in Minnesota and saw 38 of his Dakota ancestors hanged. At the time, Jim knew nothing of the largest mass execution in United States history, ordered by Abraham Lincoln on December 26, 1862. Four years later, embracing the message of the dream, Jim and a group of riders retrace the 330-mile route of his dream on horseback from Lower Brule, South Dakota to Mankato, Minnesota to arrive at the hanging site on the anniversary of the execution. This is the story of their journey. “Maybe US white America will reach the point where they can start acknowledging what really happened in this country. They can acknowledge the massive land theft- 3 billion acres within the continental United States. Maybe they can acknowledge the broken treaties, over 400 of them broken and violated, by the United States government and their US/ Euro-American citizenry. Maybe they can acknowledge the genocide that occurred- 16 million native people- within the continental United States by 1500, and 4 centuries later- by 1900- the US census said there was 237 000 left. What happened?” ______________Chris Mato Nunpa, retired professor of Dakota Studies
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 21:43:58 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015