History

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Genocide and THE THANKSGIVING MYTH

 

By S. Brian Willson

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“Let us recognize that accounts of the first Thanksgiving are mythological, and that the holiday is actually a grotesque celebration of our arrogant ethnocentrism built on genocide.”

 

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After serving in the Vietnam War, S. Brian Willson became a radical, nonviolent peace activist and pacifist.

 

 

Community Village‘s insight:

 

This post has a number of drawings I hadn’t seen before and it covers the history of brutal U.S. oppression from the U.S. East coast, to West coast, then all the way to the Philippines.

 

I never knew about the “kill every one over ten” by General Jacob H. Smith in 1901.

 

@getgln

See on www.popularresistance.org

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Happy National Genocide (Thanksgiving) Day!

 

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“People always tell me to forget the past. I should just let it go and move on. Why do people of color always have to forget?! Would you tell a Jewish person to forget about the holocaust and just move on?! Would you tell the family of those who lost their lives on 9/11 to just forget about it?! So why are our tragedies forgettable and others are not?! I WILL NEVER forget! I will ALWAYS honor those who lost their lives unjustifiable.”

 

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See on www.huffingtonpost.com

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Why I’m Thankful for 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance & Why You Should Be To

 

“There is resistance: in Canada it’s coming from First Nations. But it’s worth remembering that that’s a world-wide phenomenon. Throughout the world, the indigenous populations are in the lead. They are actually taking the lead in trying to protect the earth….It’s pretty ironic that the so-called ‘least advanced’ people are the ones taking the lead in trying to protect all of us, while the richest and most powerful among us are the ones who are trying to drive the society to destruction.” ~ Noam Chomsky

 

“The goals of settler colonial state have always been the same, remove Indigenous populations whether through extermination, relocation or assimilation, appropriate lands and resources and expand the reaches of the settler state.” ~ Matt Remle, Last Real Indians

 

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See on unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com

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a complex and savage tale

IMAGE YOU WERE RELATED to one of the most notorious Indian killers in American history. Now, imagine you were also related to some of those Indians. You can now begin to understand the traumatic ba…

 

Community Village‘s insight:

 

Happy Thanks-Taking.

See on justinpetrone.wordpress.com

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Thanksgiving Conundrum

 

“Justin Petrone, like me, is a mixed race person with Native American ancestry, although unlike me, initially, he never thought of himself in those terms.  I’ve always known and since I was a child, self-identified myself in that way.  Like me, Justin has spent years searching for his elusive ancestors, more often than not, hidden in the mists of time with only suggestions of who their ancestors are by words on tax lists and census records like “free person of color.”

 

Most of the time, Native people were transparent, until they became at least “civilized” enough to be counted on the census, or taxed or they did something else to bring them into the white man’s realm.  More recently, Justin and others like us have been able to confirm, or deny, that heritage via DNA testing.  So even if we don’t know exactly who our ancestor is, we are positive THAT our Native heritage is real.  In some cases, through DNA testing we can learn which of our ancestral lines is Native.”

 

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See on nativeheritageproject.com

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Cooking the History Books: The Thanksgiving Massacre

 

By Laura Elliff, Vice President, Native American Student Association,
Republished from Republic of Lakotah

 

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“Was Thanksgiving really a massacre of 700 “Indians”? The present Thanksgiving may be a mixture of the 1621 three-day feast and the “Thanksgiving” proclaimed after the 1637 Pequot massacre. So next time you see the annual “Pilgrim and Indian display” in a shopping window or history about other massacres of Native Americans, think of the hurt and disrespect Native Americans feel. Thanksgiving is observed as a day of sorrow rather than a celebration. This year at Thanksgiving dinner, ponder why you are giving thanks.

 

William Bradford, in his famous History of the Plymouth Plantation, celebrated the Pequot massacre:

 

“Those that scraped the fire were slaine with the sword; some hewed to peeces, others rune throw with their rapiers, so as they were quickly dispatchte, and very few escapted. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fyer, and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stincke and sente there of, but the victory seemed a sweete sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to inclose their enemise in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enimie.”

 

The Pequot massacre came after the colonists, angry at the murder of an English trader suspected by the Pequots of kidnapping children, sought revenge. rather than fighting the dangerous Pequot warriors, John Mason and John Underhill led a group of colonists and Native allies to the Indian fort in Mystic, and killed the old men, women, and children who were there. Those who escaped were later hunted down. The Pequot tribe numbered 8,000 when the Pilgrims arrived, but disease had brought their numbers down to 1,500 by 1637. The Pequot “War” killed all but a handful of remaining members of the tribe.

 

An illustration from John Underhill’s News from America, depicting how the village was surrounded.

Proud of their accomplishments, Underhill wrote a book depicted the burning of the village, and even made an illustration showing how they surrounded the village to kill all within it.

 

Laura Elliff is Vice President of Native American Student Association.

 

Originally published November 22nd, 2009″
See on unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com

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The Scramble for Africa

 

“The Scramble for Africa (1876-1914) was when European powers took over most of Africa in the late 1800s. By 1914 all of Africa was under white rule except for Ethiopia and Liberia. White rule in most places lasted till the 1960s.

 

The European powers that took part:

  • Britain
  • France
  • Portugal
  • Germany
  • Belgium
  • Italy
  • Spain

See on abagond.wordpress.com

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demographically weighted world history

 

“A demographically weighted world history would cover times and places in proportion to the number of people who lived in them. The idea is that, as much as possible, every person who has ever lived would be equally represented in its pages.

 

For example, instead of spending 50% to 75% of its pages on the West, like most “world” histories written by Westerners seem to do, it would spend only 25%. The other 75% would be used to cover – the other 75% of the world. Western colonialism would be told from both sides.

 

“How many people did it affect?” would determine what got covered and what did not.”
See on abagond.wordpress.com

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Solomon Northup

Solomon Northup (1808-1857?) was an American farmer, carpenter and canal worker from New York state. He was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841 – not an uncommon thing for free blacks in those …

 

Community Village‘s insight:

 

Between this history made real on the big screen, and racist laws explained in crystal clarity in Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow – the U.S. has serious soul searching to do – especially European Americans (aka whites).

 

@getgln

See on abagond.wordpress.com