h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

> In Britain it's been customary to refer to indians as Red Indians.

You mean indigenous Americans in the land of immigrants?

No, I mean the indigenous people before the America, land of immigrants, the Americans think. Immigrants is sort of a euphemism, don't you think?

> No, I mean the indigenous people before the America, land of immigrants,

Yes, that's what I was referring to. The peoples who have lived there for centuries, if not longer.

> the Americans think. Immigrants is sort of a euphemism, don't you think?

Americans ALWAYS tell me their family connections with Europe, and are proud of them. In other words they know that they are second, third etc. generation immigrants living in another country. So it's a euphemism for what? Lack of identity? Superiority?

I think it might be a euphemism for invaders and from what you say, I think that might be confirmed now. You sort of wonder why they bothered. I wonder why they don't visit their relations in Europe more often then.

I'm sure we can manage without them somehow for a few centuries. I don't want them to feel like they have rush back to America or anything. We'll make sure the dogs are let out at least once a day, unless we get too hungry, then the dogs won't need to be let out. And we'll collect all the newspapers so burglars don't think they're gone vacation or something.

My people have lived in the Great Basin at least since Christ was a small child although, as the archeologists get a clue, that might be more like 14,000 years or more. What does that make me, 70th generation at least? The only problem is I have no idea who my relations are in Europe so I probably should feel inferior somehow.
What do you think?

I thought if I could ever figure out who those European relations were, I would visit them, just sort of move in for a few years maybe. I'm sure they wouldn't object to me eating their food or driving their cars or sleeping in their beds or drinking their wine. And I trust they wouldn't mind me selling their land for them so I can have some pocket money. I hear it's very expensive to live in Europe some places.

But I've also heard they're very hospitable people so I'd never anticipate any conflicts. And if anybody asks, I could just say I'm an immigrant with relations in Preamerica. That ought to work, don't you think?

One complement desrves another and just as you reposted for the benefit of all and sundry so do I for the benefit of these self same persons:

I wonder if they’ll ever learn the lessons properly.

No one must forget, ever, what you have suffered for your beliefs, the first and only ones worthy of consideration and continuation.

Your ‘voice’ rise’s high in indignant derision, yet you continue to accuse all for what you now do. No doubt, you think it better to scare or humiliate them away than to give pause to the flow of rhetoric that courses dulcet from your fingertips; nay you must not do that, not even for a moment, for, if you did, who knows what may then creep or crawl in. If, perchance, you actually unblocked your ‘ears’ or took your blinders off your eyes, a word or a phrase or, good grief, an entire sentence may find a passage to the untarnished sanctum sanctorum that is your cerebral cortex.

But, I forget myself, you're really here to give and take, to share, as it were ... not! You are here only to make a point, _the point; you are here to pour derision on the unwashed and ignorant, the (formerly) tired and the hungry from other shores that, every last one of them, have purposefully made you what they apparently used to be.

Who cares what it costs and be damned if all and sundry are alienated for yours is the power and the glory and you must be one with all that you survey – once these amoeba who crawl over it are neutralized, of course. Who needs such creatures anyway, push them into the sea, no, better yet, off the planet with them, the vermin, the filth, right?

It’s take from ‘others’ as ‘they’ have taken from you - personally, and then take some more. Turnabout, after all, is fair play and it’s only just to do as done onto and than - to make sure you've made your point -to do it some more, right? There is no more competent judge of that than one of those who have been injured, assaulted, raped, pillaged, _____, after all, is there.

Put the abhorred tactics and actions to work for us because our cause is just and right and there’s no one better, older, wiser, more informed, more in tune, than we who are of the present generation and are of those who are able to verify the absolute correctness of our genetic materials.

They just won’t understand! Oh the shame, the pity, the waste of it all. Dear Ana, you must feel so good to know that you have all the answers ... even before you ask any questions! But, I forget myself, you're a one-way street ... aren't you?

Oh and you're welcome, because you know my home is your home!

Okay, let's keep it going then, Uncle Kyaa.

All these reprehensible things I could do and not be reprehensible under certain standards of behavior widely admired if not openly respected. But I didn't and I don't.

What I've tried to do is turn the tables in the imagination of the reader so they get an inkling of what's been done, the nature of the injuries. It really surprised me to learn that many otherwise well-informed people in the international community think indian people have either been thoroughly assimilated into the dominant Anglo or Latin American cultures or have become extinct. That they might not understand the nature of the injuries is also pretty likely. That's the difference.

But instead of operating like an Anglo or Latin American, I stand on my legal rights. Any comments about that?

So far the only comment relating to the legal rights you've made that I can recall is to observe that I need assistance to enforce those rights, assistance you imply won't be forthcoming. This was a tremendous surprise given that failure to enforce treaty rights has been practiced in the United States at least since the administration of Andrew Jackson.

Just so you know. Look at my personal space for an explanation of my mission here. Then tell me what's reprehensible about it or in what way you think I'm so totally depraved that no one ought to pay any attention.

Because that seems to be the gist of much you've directed at me recently. I suppose you don't mean to get personal, but that's what you done. That's why I thought we ought to change the topic to something you could discuss with less personal acrimony.

Why is it so difficult apparently for you to understand why I'm not going to blowoff the land claims?

Also, I think I meant 'compliment'. Sometimes I don't spel so gud.

Dear Ana, I know you don't need any kind of validation, but I want to say that what you just posted is really outstanding. You've indulged me before, I thank you for doing that once more.

There is almost nothing in what you have just noted in your first paras that is in the least bit objectionable. There are ways and ways of getting to where we all want (or is it really need!) to go without having to or having to be excoriated. Do you agree?

Legal rights, that is the nexus, isn't it? A knotty, naughty item, to say the very least! Comments ... at this point, I think not. Suffice it to say that the quest for Justice, with all my heart I say to you and to anyone who sees this that it is something truly worthy.

I do not now nor have I ever wanted you to blow off your land claims.

You can not erase wholesale what is without yourself becoming what you loathe; yes, it is an opinion, mine. Act justly, with knowledge, with compassion, with mercy, without platitudes, perhaps that is where the acrimony has found root.

There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that you are an honorable person.

Thank you for your kind words, Uncle Kyaa.

I can say now that I think maybe there is a certain way of expression of yours which I have trouble understanding. I don't think you are deliberately trying to confuse me, but the thought had crossed my mind. I will presume you're acting honorably and work more diligently to learn how to comprehend you.

Have you decided merely to mock me by holding a mirror up to my posts?

Is your emphasis on acting or on honor?

Do you really care ... at all?

A farthing's worth?

Diligence!

(sigh)

That's it. Consider yourself mocked or whatever you like. I really don't give a s**t anymore. You're utterly impossible to converse with. Find somebody else to dump your garbage on, thank you very much.

Please give a s**t!

now that you have undergone that catharsis it's gonna be a-okay.

?
I have read your statements as well and fail to see your point. I don't think any Native American thinks that the Americas will suddenly be abandoned by all those of European descent. In my own home this would force my wife and I to live on seperate contintents. But at the same time you must understand that the native tribes have been lied to, abused, and encroached upon repeatedly with genocidal results, in the name of economic progress. Some hostility may result. But more importantly, it has resulted in a very small but loud activist population which is still being violently persecuted. I advise you to look up the murder just this week of an activist in Houston, Texas (Monday night Jan 20). The victim, Standing Deer, was an AIM member and prison rights activist who exposed a plot to murder another famous activist in the 1970's and paid the price by remaining incarcerated until 2000, when he was released on the condition that he remain silent in regard to political activity (he failed to obey that demand, and now he is dead). Or ask John Trudell, who was at Alcatraz and Wounded Knee, and later lost his family in a "mysterious fire." The list is too long to go case by case but I urge you to get informed. If you delve into this matter, you would see this is a deadly serious battle being fought on unequal terms by a virtually invisible minority group against the most powerful government on Earth. Educate yourself before you mock one of the bloodiest and longest running conflicts in North American history.

I appreciate your sentiments and the advice that you have so thoughtfully given to me. I know you mean it kindly. Thank you.

I would be the last to say that I do not need to learn far more than I now know.

It is distressful to note that you think I am so uninformed. The great pall that lies over this nation is the extermination of people - especially those who were here before the advent of Leon & Castille - and the continued denial of their grievances, their hurt, their very existence.

My point, if I am able to repeat it briefly and clearly at all, for those of us who identify with the people experiencing this ongoing heartless, merciless, unjust, ongoing extinction, is this: that whatever we do to save ourselves, we must not become those who have done this to us nor tar each and every one who does not meet certain, to me, arbitrary and exclusionary criteria.

There are ways and ways in which to survive.

By the way, when you have a chance, here's a web site to examine: http://www.collegefund.org

Two comments concerning Kyaa's post:

This quote comes from the National Geographic, the same issue I think from which he got his information regarding Sacajuwea, "You cannot reclaim what is lost so you just keep fighting for what little you have left," a Sudanese rebel commander says.

"... for those of us who identify with the people experiencing this ongoing heartless, merciless, unjust, ongoing extinction... " this is a typical attitude I think, nor do I think it's unreasonable in the least nor does it necessarily make us "... become those who have done this to us... ", do you?

Second, regarding the link to the college fund site, Ms. Begay's diabetes condition is rather typical of those of us who have assimilated the dominate cultures cuisine.

It turns out that this disease can be controlled by returning to good foods like corn, beans, squash, venison, and most importantly desert plant foods like cholla buds, chia seeds, tepary beans, the pads of prickly pears and flour made from mesquite pods. These foods break down into simple sugars very slowly because mucilages that inhibit the rate of digestion. This in turn maintains the body's sensitivity to insulin and prevents blood sugars from increasing sharply after meals.

The O'odham, both Akimal and Tohono, who have some of the highest rates of diabetes in the world, consume a fourth to a fifth the amount of these fibers that their ancestors did. When they start eating like their ancestors, their diabetes can be controlled often without insulin injections.

Consequently, many groups are advocating a return to traditional foods for these people whose current sedentary lifestyles coupled with high intake of junk foods has rendered them susceptable to diabetes. This thing is grounded in more than romantic nostalgia for the past. It may also be instructive for other indigenous people as well as members of the dominant culture susceptable to this disease.

Hi Ana! Very well done, I did, in fact, get the information from the National Geographic.

Lead me to your meaning in your next paragraph, please. What are you trying to tell me?

You are absolutely correct in your advocacy about food. I don't disagree with any of what you have said about putting our lives in harmony with nature. It is so hard to live urban and resist all the preprocessed material thrust at us from food on down to so called newscasts. I do so enjoy good chocolate and pastries and these aren't easy to find anyway. But there is nothing quite like a perfectly ripe mango or papaya or guava or passion fruit or carrots or cactus pear or roasted corn or garbanzo beans or onion seeds. Food glorious food!

I deeply believe that we cannot control nature let alone exist apart from her; we are one of her many component parts.

I do not understand the reference to arbitrary and exclusionary criteria. But I do think that you fail to realize just how vicious, insidious and base the powers that be are. The key is to win the battle for the hearts and minds of the ignorant who are wrapped up nightly by the warm glow of their television after being turned into drones in the workplace. If people can be awakened to the suffering that is promoted around the world for the creation of their comforts, and suffering that goes on within their own borders, then we can begin to address creating solutions.
The assumption that we can get to a point where the victim can become the persecutor is I think academic in our situation. I do not see Apache warriors on the horizon to come scalp in the forseeable future. In areas with less stability I think that it is obvious why even our own government ranks high on the offenders list in regard to torture and inhumane treatment as determined by international law, most recently with our conduct suspected Al Queda and Taliban captives (refer to The Washington Post circa December). So in effect, I am by my citizenship of this nation and good standing as a taxpayer already guilty of violating the Geneva Convention by endorsing the denial of the human rights of prisoners.
I personally believe violent solutions to problems are highly effective in the short term, but have many unfortunate and unintended long term consequences. So, I think the key is to educate the masses and hope that the species is as evolved as it purports to be, otherwise only the strong will survive. And that will make the indigenous populations on most continents extinct within a few more generations.
P.S. The highest incidence of juvenile type II diabetes in the world by population segment actually goes to the Pima (out in Az.) Apparently substituting a subsistance diet with Cheetos and Big Macs has not done wonders for their collective health. Credit for that tid bit goes to the wife, she claims it's true.

By the way, I didn't know people actually read National Geographic. And as far as Sudan goes, there has been war there for seven centuries, it is not like they just started getting brutal there all the sudden. First the Egyptians then Romans and then in the middle ages Ghana, Mali, and Songhay kingdoms. After that it was pretty mich all donwhill. Today they are possibly the largest slave trading nation on Earth (tough to get good census numbers), and I think we get most of our chocolate from that slave labor. So they've got their own problems, and I think if I was Sudanese I'd be ready to throw down at a moments notice as well.

For what little it may be worth to you, let me try to state it another way. Here I must say that I fear the flames this will surely ignite, but so be it.

In my opinion, the writing has been judgmental and dismissive; for example: Witness the dismissive miasma to which the accomplishments of Ms. Begay are treated.

I read the constructs in numerous messages as redolent of the deepest contempt and ready to discount anything dissenting that is stated by a correspondent to that correspondent being different - being merely human and caring is not sufficient qualification. On the other hand, words or statements that assent are seen as insights. However, even then, virtually nothing can be stated that is not in some way corrected, embellished or misinterpreted - each and every time.

How can learning and from there the ability to come up with a viable non-violent and lasting strategy for survival ever be formulated? To confuse assent with one's own opinion and convenience with wisdom and dissent with what is most base in nature and that too by people who one expects know better on the basis of collective, accumulated experience that is what begs rejoinder.

And yes, people read and view the Nat Geo, the Smithsonian, even the Wall Street Journal, the New Republic, Atlantic Monthly, etc., etc. Mustn't one know how those that in need of having their eyes open are thinking or being told to think?

How will we - even those of us of like persuasion - ever begin to act together towards a just world?

You speak with incredible ignorance, Kyaa. You don't know what you're talking about.

Ms. Begay's accomplishments are significant, but these are not the issues that need to be addressed. It might feel good for you to focus on her accomplishments at the expense of the challenges she's had to meet, challenges I might add that she should have never had to meet in the first place.

Consider this. Under treaty the American government promised to educate the children, yet this college fund had to be established because the government did not fulfill its obligations. The indian colleges were established because no support from the government was forthcoming for this sort of thing and for a long time indians weren't welcome in other American colleges, unless they so thoroughly assimilated as to be indistinguishable from whites.

So also consider, had Ms. Begay not found it necessary to assimilate so thoroughly, she would probably not be battling diabetes, yet she and others in order to obtain corporate support among others, must project this image of assimilation still. You will note maybe that nothing is said in the ads about the native language courses and other indian things. Sadly, that's how it must be to garner support.

May I suggest in the future you spend a few years among the people your books have apparently been remiss in educating you about so you have a better understanding of what the issues might be. Because you are the one being dismissive here, acting like there is no point to complaining. I think if you were put in our position you would complain very much. You're already complaining when your own culture is called into question.