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[Ed note: In observance of the US federal holiday which is observed on Monday October 11, 2021, I am inviting the editorial staff to run stories on a weekend schedule tomorrow. Please join me in thanking them for all their hard work and for the sacrifice of their spare time and energy! --martyb.]
Biden becomes first president to issue proclamation marking Indigenous Peoples' Day:
President Joe Biden issued a proclamation commemorating Indigenous Peoples' Day on Friday, becoming the first US president to do so, the White House said.
"The contributions that Indigenous peoples have made throughout history — in public service, entrepreneurship, scholarship, the arts, and countless other fields — are integral to our Nation, our culture, and our society," Biden wrote in the proclamation Friday. "Today, we acknowledge the significant sacrifices made by Native peoples to this country — and recognize their many ongoing contributions to our Nation."
Biden also marked a change of course from previous administrations in his proclamation marking Columbus Day, which honors the explorer Christopher Columbus. In that proclamation, the President acknowledged the death and destruction wrought on native communities after Columbus journeyed to North America in the late 1500s, ushering in an age of European exploration of the Western Hemisphere.
"Today, we also acknowledge the painful history of wrongs and atrocities that many European explorers inflicted on Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities. It is a measure of our greatness as a Nation that we do not seek to bury these shameful episodes of our past — that we face them honestly, we bring them to the light, and we do all we can to address them," Biden wrote.
More than 100 cities -- including Seattle, Los Angeles, Denver, Phoenix, San Francisco -- and a number of states -- including Minnesota, Alaska, Vermont and Oregon -- have replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day, choosing instead to recognize the native populations that were displaced and decimated after Columbus and other European explorers reached the continent. Berkeley, California, was the first city to adopt Indigenous Peoples' Day, in 1992.
Also at Al Jazeera.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday October 11 2021, @02:34AM (3 children)
And before that, the natives ran entire herds off the buffalo jumps, wasting all the but very top layer of the crushed corpses (per archeological excavations of several sites). The usual method before whites generously brought 'em horses and rifles (because no one in their right mind hunts bison with a short bow on foot) was to set fires to drive the herd, which of course did what grassfires do.
Government hunters mostly shot from stands and railway cars, which was a pretty narrow swath. The natives had a much broader effect on the bison population.
This is an interesting read on the topic:
https://fee.org/articles/buffaloed-the-myth-and-reality-of-bison-in-america/ [fee.org]
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 11 2021, @02:59AM (1 child)
The truth of the matter is, the US government intentionally slaughtered the buffalo herds, primarily because the buffalo provided sustenance to the native people. The natives lived for tens of thousands of years with the buffalo, and the rest of nature, without destroying nature.
That link has some merit, but lets not get carried away with it. Sure, running a herd of animals off a cliff provides all the meat for your clan, that you can preserve. But it didn't happen 6 times every year, year after year. Burning off new farm land is something that man has done all around the world, since we first mastered fire. And, accidents happen. Again, that didn't happen year after year. When fires are permitted to happen naturally and/or with some intelligent oversight, the litter on the forest floor doesn't accumulate for 20 or 50 years. THAT is our primary problem with fires today.
I'm not one to make saints of the Indians - but it chafes my hide when I hear Europeans bragging that they brought enlightenment to the natives. That's a crock of shit - worse, a crock of shit that's been sitting in the sun for a week. White men came here for their own greedy purposes, and they intended to exterminate any who resisted them. If Indians aren't saints, then the white man sure as hell aren't saints.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday October 11 2021, @05:56PM
Some tribes depended on the buffalo. Most didn't. Many tribes cultivated the Three Sisters [wikipedia.org], which comprise everybody from the Algonquins of the NE to the Ojibwe in the Dakotas, to the Puebloan peoples of the Southwest. Some of those supplemented with wild edibles like ragweed and wild rice and smaller fauna like deer, ducks, elk, turkeys, etc.
It's also not clear how long those tribes were doing what they were doing. Archaeological estimates vary wildly. Some say 13,000 years ago, others push the arrival of humans in the Americas way back. Among them, some have been around a long time, others, like the Navaho and Apache, are quite recent arrivals (est. 1400 AD).
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday October 11 2021, @02:36PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_bison [wikipedia.org]
While Wikipedia isn't the be all end all, it's certainly a decent first stab at a topic.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"