Recognizing genocide denial against American Indians

[Louisiana1976]

The extent to which a Nation denies the genocide it has committed is a measure of that Nation's social conscience. The social conscience of the United States is infected with numerous rationalizations that keep the dark light from shining. Federal and state institutions are named after mass murderers, and the land tells a story of massacres and atrocities that occurred. But the truth is not forgotten, it is denied.

snip

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/10/812948/--Recognizing-Genocide-Denial-Against-American-Indians

[dana_b]

1. of course it is

but that might cost $$ and sounds icky. The guy on the $20 bill massacred plenty and started the removal but again, that sounds bad.

[intheflow]

2. I work in a library.

And it just kills me to see the hero-worshipping biographies we have in the children's section on Columbus. And the revisionist Thanksgiving picture books. And the myriad books glorifying the westward expansion at the expense of the Indians. Why are we still lying to our children about these atrocities? :banghead:

[Goldstein1984]

10. Howard Zinn has written...

two volumes of his "A People's History of the United States" for young readers. I just purchased both volumes yesterday. My grandchildren are only 3 and 4, but I want to make sure they have them. Some people are hoarding bullets, I'm hoarding books.

This is especially important to me because my grandchildren are Alaska Natives--Inuit--and Zinn does a great job of putting the "heroes" in proper perspective.

[asdjrocky]

11. Thanks for the heads up, I had no idea.

I'll be handing out those soon as well. Since I first read Zinn's wonderful book I've given out at least 20 copies of it.

I'm never surprised with someone comes back to me after reading it, and they have a whole different idea of what America means.

On another related note, Peoples History will be on the History channel this Sunday night!

[Goldstein1984]

13. I just stumbled onto them a few days ago, then I read

a negative review of the upcoming History Channel program, "The People Speak." The reviewer was complaining that the program was a Liberal plot to indoctrinate children in Marxism, and he mentioned the books in his review.

Of course, what do you do when a Right Winger condemns a book?--you buy and read it.

[era veteran]

3. A great book Charles Mann's 1491

Great insights. What it was like before Columbus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1491_(book)

[NNN0LHI]

4. In the fictional series The Lone Ranger was Tonto a good guy or a bad guy?

[marmar]

5. High school history books = one big whitewash

nt

[NightWatcher]

7. who controls the present now controls the past

Who controls the past now controls the future
Who controls the present now?

[dana_b]

9. Zack and RATM know

a helluva lot about it too.

[GeorgeGist]

6. Unlike Nazi Germany ...

America won it's holocaust.

[Dogtown]

12. Well said, GeorgeGist. n/t

[BeHereNow]

8. And it continues, genocide of NA peoples, to this day.

Newmont mining is committing it right now against the Shoshone.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/Mar/24/tribes-protest-nevada-mining-operations-today/

BHN