OKLAHOMA CITY -- Members of Oklahoma Indian tribes are observing Oklahoma's centennial with a protest march to the state Capitol.
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Dozens of Indians are demonstrating to raise awareness of the promises they say were broken when Indians were forced from their traditional lands and marched to what became Oklahoma in the 19th century.
Their protest is called "Why Celebrate 100 Years of Theft." Oklahoma became the nation's 46th state on Nov. 16, 1907, after unassigned lands set aside for Indian tribes were carved up for settlement in land runs that began in 1889.
Oklahoma is home to 39 Indian tribes. In 2005, about 290,000 Oklahomans, 8.1 percent of the population, identified themselves as American Indian.
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In response to all of you ignorant non-Natives, let me repeat what another individual said in reference to others telling us to "get over it." The individual suggested that you tell Americans to just get over 9-11 and see what kind of response you get. Why don't you tell the Japanese to get over Hiroshima or the Jewish people to get over the Holocaust? Not one of you would dream of suggesting such a thing but feel it acceptable to tell my people to just "get over it." All you non-Natives should be on your knees kissing this great land and thanking us for giving up our land so that this land could come to be known as America. Because of our ancestors and their sacrifices, you live in a part of the world where you have the right to go on-line and share your ignorant and racist ideas with the rest of the world. And some refer to Oklahoma as the Bible belt?!!
People don't seem to realize that Native Americans still feel the hurt of what happened to our people. My parents' parents were forced to go to boarding school. Several of my grandparents and great uncles & aunts had their mouths washed out with soap when they spoke their native tongue. They were forced to dress in "white man" clothes and forced to cut their hair. I have heard my grandparents and parents speak of these things. I'm sorry but how can people expect us to just "forget" about "this" past? Yes, it's in the past. Yes, it has happened and most of us has moved on. However, the past is still there. It lives in our souls. I have white friends, black friends, friends from all kinds of different cultures. I don't "hate" anyone. And although I did not walk in the protest at the state capitol, I also did not celebrate the centennial. There are great people in Oklahoma. I'm from a small town in Oklahoma. I grew up with racism. Racism from white people and racism from Native Americans. When I first moved to the city and worked downtown, I ran into racism quite often. You can tell by the way people look at you. I'm not like some Cherokees (lol). You take one look at me and know that I am from a southwestern tribe (lol) Not Comanche, though. Not that dark! (lol--Indian humour here). Anyway, racism still exists today. Although it has been a hundred years, the wounds are still there. Scabbed over--maybe; but they are still there. So don't tell us just to get over it. It may take another hundred years.
I've read all of the comments concerning the protest and was struck by the lack of recognition of blacks in Indian Territory and Oklahoma history.
The comments from posters who associate themselves with the so called Five Civilized Tribes are the comments I find particularly troubling.
The constant lament about the "Trail of Tears" and the "oppression" of these specific tribes omits the fact that when the Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole tribes were "forced" to migrate to Indian Territory with them were people of African and African-Native descent who were enslaved, in the thousands.
While people are protesting the centennial and its effects on tribal nations, no where in any of the posts is mention of the oppressive institution of slavery that was embraced by the Five Slave Holding Tribes, why?
It is fundamentally wrong to complain about the treatment of Natives and not recognize the oppression, disenfranchisement and violence the tribes inflicted on people of African and African-Native descent.
The comments by people who identify with the Chickasaw nation seem to totally ignore the vicious racism that this particular tribe held towards people of African and African-Chickasaw descent. As people complain about their ancestors being removed from their lands, there seems to be no connection to the efforts of this tribe to remove all blacks from their nation following the Civil War and the ending of slavery with the signing of the Treaty of 1866.
Apparently those who have posted in regards to this article have closed their eyes to their ancestors oppressive, racist and violent past regarding people of African and African-Native ancestry.
I would hope that if you are sincere about your concern for the rights of "Native Americans" and particularly those who are citizens of the Five Slave Holding Tribes you begin to reconsider your own history as it relates to the enslavement and disenfranchisement of the Indian Territory Freedmen and their descendants.
Chickasaws are white people posing as Indians...
Ed Lova, Oklahoma City - Nov 16, 2007 1:43 PM
I'm sorry Ed, but I work for the Chickasaw Nation and I can honestly tell you that you are so incredibly worng. They came here to Oklahoma along with many other tribes during the Trail of Tears. They are not white people posing as Indians as you say. These are good, hard working people who are striving to make a better life for themselves and their families and strive to maintain their heritage and language for generations to come. You think they are posers? How about you take a trip to Tishomingo sometime and see what the Chickasaw are about?
Troy, my grammar is flawless, so I suggest you take an English refresher course. But the larger point is I've found that people who complain on web forums about other people's spelling & grammar are usually posters who have nothing of any topical value to contribute, their own intellects usually scraping the bottom of the GED barrel.
A friend from Mississippi writes...Not to be unpatriotic, but God Bless America and the Trail of Tears do not go together. You can't put a square peg in a round hole unless it is smaller. The Government of the United States of America in 1830 Gathered together 28,000 Choctaw Indians Herded them together and shipped them to Oklahoma. Of that 28,000 between 6-8,000 made the journey. they figure 12% wandered off. The rest died along the Trail. This was just the Choctaws of Miss. The Choctaws that never left by the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek of 1830. They were given one full section of Land and 1/2 section for wife 1/2 to males children over 18 and 1/8 for males under 18 Ect...They would also be considered U.S. Citizens and not fall under the protection of the Federal Government. Not one single Indian possed that land after five years. The only way he could lose the land was to walk off from it. Well The Acting Indian Agent then was latter indicted, but not convicted of Fraud.He testified that from the Higher ups he was told that they did not want the Indians to keep their land, so with some help from some unsavory Characters. He devised a plan so if they would drive the Indians out they could take the Land., and they did. because of higher ups maybe convicted .No one was ever convicted and no Indian ever got his land back either. The Indians that did not leave did not get on any of the Indian Census Rolls thus could not live on the Reservations. Driven off their land, No home to live. Most did not make it. Society drove them out. Their own Brothers desserted them. Some of the Females married into White Families, because of available Females for wifes were in short supply."
Caelie wrote: "if you've ever studied anthropology, the socioeconomics of intertribal warfare in groups of people in band and clan typologies, especially on the Great Plains, was nothing compared to the wave of brutal genocide enacted by Europeans in America. THAT would make the Romans blush."___Caelie, that statement shows you understand little about either the history of the aboriginal tribes on the North American continent or the Romans. Tossing around cutsie Academia-speak like "socioeconomic" and "typologies" may impress those that don't no better, i.e., who haven't actually had an education, but it doesn't impress me. Please try again.
I truely hate everyone equally! Everyone whines about something. Sad thing is half of the people saying something are just speaking to be heard. They don't know what there talking about, just he said/she said.
Jason:
No one's denying that, but if you've ever studied anthropology, the socioeconomics of intertribal warfare in groups of people in band and clan typologies, especially on the Great Plains, was nothing compared to the wave of brutal genocide enacted by Europeans in America. THAT would make the Romans blush.
David, you would think being an Oklahoman and American citizen would afford us many "luxuries," but we weren't even citizens until 1924, thanks to the Dawes Act, which was still used as a tool of assimilation. The legalities of allotment (because there are no more reservations in Oklahoma) along with legal agreements not upheld by the state and federal governments with various tribes, and judicial jurisdictions need to be discussed. We aren't asking for any more money from the government than what is due to us. Here's a wiki of a current court case regarding misappropriated Indian monies by the federal government:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobell_v._Kempthorne
It's not like the government just gives Indians money for no good reason. Have you ever known the government to just give anything away? I don't. I don't get any money from the government for being Indian, nor have I met one. Some tribes that get money from the government do so because of legal agreements made from tribes being coerced into ceding their lands. A good book to read regarding this issue is How the Indians Lost Their Land by Stuart Banner. Interesting read.
I am Native American. Don't ask which tribe because I don't look at race, color, creed and I surely don't live in the past. My family is totally embarassed with the bigotry the American Indians are showing Oklahomans!
Mikel wrote: "The illegal European immigrants who invaded our lands brought disease, alcoholism, and war to our peaceful existence"___Piffle. Before the Europeans arrived there was no "peaceful existence" on the North American continent between the various aboriginal groups eking out a bare subsistence here. There was endless internecine warfare, human sacrifice as a religious imperative, and a form of vicious plunder economy so ruthless it would have made the ancient Romans blush. The absurd "Dances With Wolves" theory of history--that the aborigines we call the American Indians were all just a big happy tribe Mahatma Gandhi's & Mother Teresa's until the white man showed up and ruined paradise--is one of the more pitiful and intellectually shabby notions to ever have taken hold in popular culture.
what is there to discuss? from my understanding, Native Americans (regardless of their tribe) are all afforded all the luxuries and rights of American and Oklahoman Citizens. Additionally, many (if not all) are given ADDITIONAL rights, exemptions, and/or funding because of their status as Native Americans. So my question still stands: what more should the Oklahoma government do?
Enjoy WAS the wrong word to use. I have taken a friend to one of the clinics in the past and it's not something I would want for myself. I'm just here trying to learn a little more about what/where the injustices seem to lie.
Pi, ENJOY, the "free" medical care? Holy crap, if you have ever been to an IHS clinic, enjoy would be the last word you would choose. As for free, various tribes pay for that health care via casino money or other ways. The Tribe pays for it. Not the government, contrary to popular belief.
And urban Indians live alot differently than those who still live on their respective allotted lands. Those lands are in isolated areas where there is little to no development, little to no employment, and horrible poverty. Why do you think those natives who can afford to move to the city do? People seem to just focus on the past. There are contemporary issues that stem from the past that need to be dealt with. We aren't "whining" about what what happened to our grandparents, but crying out injustices still committed today.
David, Pell grants paid for my education. So did loans.
As to what we should do about it now? Communicate, first of all. Tribes all have their own issues and entanglements with the state and federal government, so one tribe's situation isn't the same as everyone else's. Issues regarding taxes, development, tobacco, casinos, state and federal jurisdiction on tribal lands, and the conditions of various legal documents, both past and present, need to be discussed and hashed out the best we can.
Sorry I started all this but everyone seems to have legit points, but all the whining about how bad it is being American Indian doesn't feel right to me. Maybe I don't know enough Indians. The ones I do know are just like me. They have gotten over their bigotry, live good lives, have good jobs, can, if they wanted to, enjoy the free medical care. And hey...don't say anything bad about the casinos. I enjoy them too. I enjoy all cultures and learn alot from them. I just don't understand why people still want to whine about what happened with their ancestors. I'm Scottish/Irish/German and I'm sure if I dug deep enough I could find someone to blame all my problems on. Hey....we all have problems and issues which are only brought on by our own choices.
I feel the protest is legit and I am proud that they took that step. Native Americans have that right. If we insist on bringing up the past we need to recognize the good and the bad if we ever want to learn and move forward.
Before you say anything else Rebecca about casinos, some tribes are better off than others. We're not a singular ethnic group, but many small nations. The Chickasaws don't share with the Seminoles, who don't share with the Cheyennes. You've probably never been to a reservation, or to at least federally allotted Indian land in Oklahoma. You have no idea what you're saying. Ignorance like yours is what makes it harder to deal with our "real" problems, because people like you assume everything is sunshine and lollipops. I'm through with this internet chatter. I have better things to do, like use my college education for the good of my people. What are you going to do, Rebecca?
I can understand the frustration felt by the American Indians when the promises made to them by the government were not fulfilled. I remember as a child when my great grandmother would tell me stories of how her mother, a full blood Cherokee, told her to never admit her heritage because they would be taken away and ridiculed. This part of Oklahoma history is not a good one, but how is it different from any other era in American history or the history of any other country in the world for that matter. All lands that exist today exist as the result of some war or conflict where land was taken from a group unfairly. We cannot change what happened in the past, all we can expect to do it accept it and learn from it. Oklahoma boasts the largest population of American Indians in the United States. Not on reservations like many other states, but integrated into our lives!!! I do not celebrate the Centennial as what we did wrong (or right) in our past I celebrate the Centennial as a show of who we are as Oklahoma -- a very proud people with a strong belief that tribulations can be overcome. We may make mistakes but that is part of making us who we become. The way in which Oklahoma took back lands promised to another may not have been right, but I am proud that it led me to where I am today. Which is living in a place with high moral values and respect for all things, alongside people who have those same values and respect. I personally hate to think what the State may have become if we had not integrated Oklahoma and the Indian Nations. That integration is what created the Oklahoma people. A history professor at college once said, "If you are not part American Indian and have relatives in California then you are not a Native Oklahoman". Personally I am proud to be a Native Oklahoman, even if that means I have to accept the wrongdoings of my forefathers.
Rebecca, what you wrote just proves the ignorance and intolerance Native peoples are struggling with. We do have contemporary problems. REAL problems, stemming from cultural trauma created by policies of EXTERMINATION, ASSIMILATION, and the near destruction of our ways of life by people who think like you. Is the systematic extermination of my ancestors a joke to you? Are the present conditions of poverty, lack of quality health care, and dehumanization stemming from racism, oppressive state and federal policies still in existence from the days of assimilation and extermination a JOKE to you? What backwoods yokel log cabin did you learn Oklahoma history? As for your assumption of Oklahoma "scientifically proven" to have been underwater, I dare you to cite your source, as Oklahoma as been above water since the Cretaceous period, 65 million years ago. And if for some reason, geological evidence suggests otherwise, you had better believe Oklahoma was above ground 100,000 years ago, where archaeologists have found evidence of inhabitants on this continent, with nothing lending credence to the Beringea theory or any other kind of mass Indian migration. What is proven is the colonial mindsets that made Europeans assume they had the divine right (Manifest Destiny, White Man's burden) to commit a 500 year long genocide, the stripping of various Native nations' cultures and languages, and the eradication of native ways of life, up until 1960's or 1970's at least, and the modern thought that it was all okay. That it was necessary. That mindset still exists. In people Like you. What God would think that's okay? How can you live with yourself, with no compassion, laughing (loling) at the struggle and suffering of others. You probably come from a good family, living comfortably,
Are you an indian spit u out? Is that how your tribe expresses intelligence? lol - you're a joke. I happen to have a very respected well paying job, but isn't it funny how you try to put somebody down if they fix hair or answer phones? It's an honest living which by the way - at least they are working for a living & earning their own way in life instead of wanting things handed to them & people feeling sorry for them - or their ancestors.
Clint, when I die - my house will not be mine anymore. That's what happens when time passes. Headlines like "Indian casinos pull in record $25 billion in 2006" somehow don't generate sympathy...idk, call me crazy but if it weren't statehood, there'd be some other excuse to whine & cry & put blame on anyone who will take it. Well, I won't take the blame for what happened a hundred years ago. Every single indian today has the SAME OPPORTUNITY OR BETTER as everyone else. What they choose to do with it is up to them. By the turnout at the protest, I'd say most consider themselves happy responsible OKLAHOMANS. Thankfully, you're self-serving, complaining type are in the minority!
Rebecca always trying to put her one cent in. Go back to fixing hair or answer the ringing phones and while your at learn some facts.....you just make yourself look stupid.
Rebecca, Has your house always been standing where it is today? Does that make it any less yours? Indian Territory was a written agreement, much like your land deed. Celebrating statehood is fine, but get the facts straight. The Native people were not bouncing hand-in-hand through the tall grass overwhelmed with joy on their arrival. The Natives had already been removed from their homelands, promised this land from the government, only to be removed again. Natives were not given reservations, they were confined to reservations. Rebecca I doubt you have one tenth the obstacles to navigate the Native Americans do. You are an icon of ignorance. Please read the truth before you tell this little fable to anymore people Rebecca.
When North America was colonized by the Europeans there were no written laws and no unified country. So they couldn't have been "illegal" immigrants. They were fleeing their native homelands in search of something better. They found it -- created the greatest nation in the world. Sure -- they didn't do everything right and a lot of things weren't fair for the people already living here. But their descendants are still here -- and many are thriving. Pay attention sometime to the TV commercials for the Chickasaw nation as an example. I have both bloods -- and I understand -- but who is to say that the native peoples would have been better off if the Europeans had never came. They weren't all that peaceful either -- lots of fighting between different tribes. America is GREAT -- lets just all be proud to be AMERICANS regardless of our color or ancestry.
Where is the panhandle? What are teepees? Does hunting for your food mean using a camo grocery cart at Walmart's? For those of us who live in Okalhoma now, instead of the long defunct and outdated desination as Indian Territory, we might want to check and see if England and Germany or wherever ranks better in education, poverty, health care, child abuse, spousal battering, workplace injuries and obesity. If these "regions" rank better, maybe we should move. Surely would raise the intelligence levels of both places. Pi has the solution to a lot of our problems. If you weren't born in the last 20 years, just go off and die, cause whatever happened before Pi was born just couldn't have been worth knowing or respecting or nothing. I'd vote for that except the right to vote didn't exist,Pi. Oh, I really got on here to ask what happens if we admit the promises weren't kept,thus the contract wasn't fulfilled, do our indians get to pack up and head back to georgia? How soon can we agree to that? Long as they leave the casinos and tobacco shops behind, and the oil and the property deeds, of course.
Doug your a tard too. Casinos give more back to schools and roads and whatever else needs fixed here and there. Learn your crap and then speak. And too those are on our lands that the whites so graciously set aside in bfe to do what we wanted. Still we dont have to give back, but what? The tribes do! We live here too, we go to the schools, we drive the roads and yeah its getting done with help from tribes.
"How many people are still alive when all that happened?" Well, it's still happening! The white people are still trying to take all they can from the Native peoples. Oklahoma recently passed a law on illegal immigration. This is totally laughable, since the people who passed this law are descendents of illegal immigrants. The illegal European immigrants who invaded our lands brought disease, alcoholism, and war to our peaceful existence. Many of you feel we should just forget this? Discrimination is alive and well in our Native lands. We were moved, over a span of 400 years, to Oklahoma and many other places deemed inhospitable and useless to the invading Europeans. But each time these inhospitable places became valuable to the Europeans, they were again stolen from us.
How about a protest march to the Tribe Casino to celebrate the next 100 years of theft? I doubt there are any people on this planet that haven't had an ancestor pushed off of their land or force to move.
I dont know how to feel about this. And Gary your in Indian Territory, if you don't like that go back to England, Germany or wherever your place of region is that they don't have whining Indians at.
To all my Indian brethren - for those who are unhappy with what the "imperialists" did to your culture - move to the panhandle, set up teepees, and hunt for your food. If that's what you want to go back to, quit whining and protesting and JUST DO IT!
45
The comments from posters who associate themselves with the so called Five Civilized Tribes are the comments I find particularly troubling.
The constant lament about the "Trail of Tears" and the "oppression" of these specific tribes omits the fact that when the Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole tribes were "forced" to migrate to Indian Territory with them were people of African and African-Native descent who were enslaved, in the thousands.
While people are protesting the centennial and its effects on tribal nations, no where in any of the posts is mention of the oppressive institution of slavery that was embraced by the Five Slave Holding Tribes, why?
It is fundamentally wrong to complain about the treatment of Natives and not recognize the oppression, disenfranchisement and violence the tribes inflicted on people of African and African-Native descent.
The comments by people who identify with the Chickasaw nation seem to totally ignore the vicious racism that this particular tribe held towards people of African and African-Chickasaw descent. As people complain about their ancestors being removed from their lands, there seems to be no connection to the efforts of this tribe to remove all blacks from their nation following the Civil War and the ending of slavery with the signing of the Treaty of 1866.
Apparently those who have posted in regards to this article have closed their eyes to their ancestors oppressive, racist and violent past regarding people of African and African-Native ancestry.
I would hope that if you are sincere about your concern for the rights of "Native Americans" and particularly those who are citizens of the Five Slave Holding Tribes you begin to reconsider your own history as it relates to the enslavement and disenfranchisement of the Indian Territory Freedmen and their descendants.
Ed Lova, Oklahoma City - Nov 16, 2007 1:43 PM
I'm sorry Ed, but I work for the Chickasaw Nation and I can honestly tell you that you are so incredibly worng. They came here to Oklahoma along with many other tribes during the Trail of Tears. They are not white people posing as Indians as you say. These are good, hard working people who are striving to make a better life for themselves and their families and strive to maintain their heritage and language for generations to come. You think they are posers? How about you take a trip to Tishomingo sometime and see what the Chickasaw are about?
I sugguest using correct spelling and proper grammar when belittling somebody about their assumed lack of knowledge.
"Sad thing is half of the people saying something are just speaking to be heard."
Ain't that the truth.
No one's denying that, but if you've ever studied anthropology, the socioeconomics of intertribal warfare in groups of people in band and clan typologies, especially on the Great Plains, was nothing compared to the wave of brutal genocide enacted by Europeans in America. THAT would make the Romans blush.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobell_v._Kempthorne
It's not like the government just gives Indians money for no good reason. Have you ever known the government to just give anything away? I don't. I don't get any money from the government for being Indian, nor have I met one. Some tribes that get money from the government do so because of legal agreements made from tribes being coerced into ceding their lands. A good book to read regarding this issue is How the Indians Lost Their Land by Stuart Banner. Interesting read.
And urban Indians live alot differently than those who still live on their respective allotted lands. Those lands are in isolated areas where there is little to no development, little to no employment, and horrible poverty. Why do you think those natives who can afford to move to the city do? People seem to just focus on the past. There are contemporary issues that stem from the past that need to be dealt with. We aren't "whining" about what what happened to our grandparents, but crying out injustices still committed today.
As to what we should do about it now? Communicate, first of all. Tribes all have their own issues and entanglements with the state and federal government, so one tribe's situation isn't the same as everyone else's. Issues regarding taxes, development, tobacco, casinos, state and federal jurisdiction on tribal lands, and the conditions of various legal documents, both past and present, need to be discussed and hashed out the best we can.