On This Day (3/2/1889): In 1889 after years of trying to open Indian Territory, President Grover Cleveland signed the 1889 Indian Appropriations Act which officially opened all Native owned “Unassigned Lands” to white settlers via homestead. The initial land area amounted to 1,887,796.47 acres (2,949 miles² or 7,640 km²), however, soon other “unassigned lands” throughout the American West were opened to white settlers. These “unassigned lands” were considered as such because no Native person was directly living on them (i.e., had built a house, or had “improved” the land by constructing fences or planting crops). The U.S. government failed to consider that Native people regularly and cyclically used and resided on these lands when the appropriate season arrived and the resources were plentiful. This land rush has come to be known as the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 or the Sooner Rush.
—
We’ve all known that American Dream is someone else’s nightmare, we all saw Tom Cruise in Far and Away. The more of his movies I suffer through watching, the richer and more influential he becomes. The Indian Appropriate acts (of which there were a few,the 1889 was the last one) lead to the formation of the reservations.
Let Me Tell You About the reservations
About 40% of our country’s 4.9 million Native Americans live on reservations where the living conditions are “comparable to Third World.” 1 out 3 Native Women will be raped in her life of course there is the systematic failures of the judicial system both in and out the reservation.
Our Native people are in very very bad shape. Some psychologists and historians have said that: “the abuse of Indian women and children can be traced to the introduction of unnatural life ways into Native culture. Scholars support this idea and suggest that violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women directly relates to historical victimization. According to proponents of this idea, domination and oppression of native peoples increased both economic deprivation and dependency through retracting tribal rights and sovereignty. Consequently, American Indian and Alaska Natives today are believed to suffer from internalized oppression and the normalization of violence.”
Just something to think about next time you cheer the redskins on, or support the name of military weapons after a decimated people.
Reminiscingly
MrMary –
BTW have you seen this commericial ? And is anyone of native American Heritage a reader of this blog ?
ASpoonfulofSuga 