When I began this blog in 2001, I was appalled by President Bush's headlong rush to an illegal war (we were not in fact under attack). As time wore on and Bush began his assault on the Constitution and any people bold enough to criticize, I believed that "the republic is endangered more by actions of our own government than by those of any terrorist." With the election of a high-minded, compassionate, intelligent man like Barack Obama, my fears have ceased.
"Honor them with peace, not war"
United for Peace
Sunday, September 26, 2004
Instead of chasing an elusive goal in Iraq, the Us government should spend some ofthose millions satisfying an enormous debt owed to American Indians by the terms of treaties and confirmed in courts.
A New York Times editorial today notes that there have been decades of mismanagement and outright fraud by the Interior Department, which is charged with managing the Indian Trust fund.
Both Indians and black people have been treated shamefully in this country and the white majority, most white individuals, do not wish to admit the extent by which we have profited at the expense of these two groups. It's not just a question of whether I personally did evil (held slaves, killed Indians, stole land) or even whether my ancestors did that (to the best of my knowledge, mine did not); as members of the white majority, our ancestors and we received privleges not avilable to Indians and blacks. Although some of us may have been cheated along the way over the years, we were not systematically deprived of our family assets. Not even to mention being cast wrongfully in prison, injured, robbed, beaten and killed.
We cannot ever pay enough to make up for these wrongs; no apology can mitigate them. But we could in the case of the indian trust, provide a reasonable accounting and make payments accordingly. We might calculate today's value of 40 acres and a mule that were promised but never delivered to slaves and pay that to their anscestors.
We might begin today to act fairly.
Copyright © 2001-03 Pam Shorey
(except the specific sources credited in quotes)
For shame!
Instead of chasing an elusive goal in Iraq, the Us government should spend some ofthose millions satisfying an enormous debt owed to American Indians by the terms of treaties and confirmed in courts.
A New York Times editorial today notes that there have been decades of mismanagement and outright fraud by the Interior Department, which is charged with managing the Indian Trust fund.
... Many of the beneficiaries (of the trust fund) hold minutely fractionated interests in land that has been passed down from generation to generation. But no one really grasps the true dimensions of the trust because the value of those leases and royalties is unclear, and because there has never been a real accounting of the money paid into or out of it. What has become clear is that Indians were often paid far less for leases on their property than whites were for comparable property.
Those who examine the trust - including members of Congress - come away stunned by how badly and how fraudulently it has been handled. Records have been lost and purposely destroyed. Even a conservative guess of the amount owed to Indians from the trust runs as high as the tens of billions of dollars. Ineffectual plans to reform the trust have been drawn up by the Interior Department. But instead of working to provide a historical accounting of the trust, as required, Interior officials point to concern in Congress that the cost of an accounting is likely to reach $3 billion, with no guarantee that it will actually find anything. In other words, the department wants to conclude in advance that very little is likely to be owed to anyone.
The plaintiffs have won in court every step of the way. Interior officials have repeatedly been placed under sanctions for misconduct and malfeasance. So far Interior has worked as hard to discredit the judge in the case, Royce Lamberth, as it has to actually fix the problem. The department essentially argues that the judiciary has no business telling the executive branch how to do its business. But the department has had more than a century to get this right.
Both Indians and black people have been treated shamefully in this country and the white majority, most white individuals, do not wish to admit the extent by which we have profited at the expense of these two groups. It's not just a question of whether I personally did evil (held slaves, killed Indians, stole land) or even whether my ancestors did that (to the best of my knowledge, mine did not); as members of the white majority, our ancestors and we received privleges not avilable to Indians and blacks. Although some of us may have been cheated along the way over the years, we were not systematically deprived of our family assets. Not even to mention being cast wrongfully in prison, injured, robbed, beaten and killed.
We cannot ever pay enough to make up for these wrongs; no apology can mitigate them. But we could in the case of the indian trust, provide a reasonable accounting and make payments accordingly. We might calculate today's value of 40 acres and a mule that were promised but never delivered to slaves and pay that to their anscestors.
We might begin today to act fairly.
Palema
1:22 PM
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Copyright © 2001-03 Pam Shorey
(except the specific sources credited in quotes)
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