Evening all, here is one the rare the posts that I may occassionally write that has nothing to do with cycling, I know, a massive shock and because people seemingly only view this blog when something big on my own cycling front do I get a great fat viewing figure. However I am going against this grain simply to raise awareness of one of the greatest documentaries of the past few years and I am so enthralled by it that I am actually tempted to send the BBC an e-mail congratulating them on it and the topic is thus...
The treatment of Native Americans in society and popular culture, as well as throughout history.
To say that it is merely thought-provoking is an understatement hence why I have felt compelled since watching it yesterday to actually dedicate a blog post to the programme and the issues raised in the documentary. The treatment by not only the U.S. government of Native Ameircans, but us also is nothing short of appalling and the fact that very little is being done to highlight this or help mend the wounds of old is shocking. This is because official U.S. governement policies during the 1800s of the formal re-settlement of native peoples involved socrhed earth policies and what can only be described and compared to as death marches, akin to the ones untermenschen suffered at the hands of the Nazis towards the end of the Second World War and during Stalin's expansion of the Gulags. Native Americans, some what ironically, call these 'long walks' or if they are talking about their own persoanl tribe, 'the long walk', especially when referring to native peoples being herded from lands on the Eastern Seaboard towards lands in the Mid-west.
The difference between these death marches is the fact that formal apologies have been issued by the respective governments about what occured other such related policies, but not in the case of the what happened to Native Americans, nor has it has sought to correct the constitution that describes Native Americans as Indian savages.
Nor has the British government, U.S. government and many other European governements besdies apologised for the systematic genocide of a people and culture, yet they have for slavery. During the Twentieth Century we saw a huge theortical question posed by humanity and subsequently answered, are we all equal? The answer was yes (not without struggle though), hence the evetual destruction of apartheid, equal rights to all in most countries throughout the globe and with this came the repsect for other peoples' cultures and history and what we may have done to harm these. Israel was created as a direct result of the Second World War, there are now positive discrimination laws in South Afirca and Britian (though obviously not to the same degree) and self-determination by a native people is seen as a unalienable right, ever since President Wilson's 14 points.
Now, has this sort of revisionim, respect and rights ever been given to Native Americans? The simple answer is no, not when Indian reservations only make up 2% of the U.S.A.'s total land mass and so happens to be on the some of the most unhabitable pieces of land in America.
Anyway, enough of me rabbitting on about an issue that I know very little about so here's the experts and the link http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01nqbqk/Rich_Halls_Inventing_the_Indian/
Hope you enjoy and by the way, the post title was meant to be headline grabbing and ironic!
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