It was the 29th day of the Moon of Popping Trees (December) in 1890. Peace was sleeping within the warm winter wind under the murderous eyes of Gatling and Hotchkiss guns, dug into the ridges surrounding the Lakota encampment. Chief Spotted Elk ("Bigfoot" was the name soldiers gave him), flying the flag of truce within his encampment, was dying from pneumonia. <br><br>His people were dying from fear of the white soldiers who had come to take revenge for the defeat of their unit, the 7th Cavalry, at Little Bighorn in The Moon When the Chokecherries are Ripe (June) in 1876. All the soldiers needed was the smallest excuse to begin the massacre.<br><br>A single shot, according to a reporter on the scene, was fired from the soldiers, and with that, the smallest excuse was manufactured. When the rain of ammunition ceased, over 300 Lakota people lay dead from gunfire, cannon fire, or manual butchering within the encampment and within adjacent ravines up to two miles away. <br><br>The dead were Lakota men who had been disarmed before the weapons fire began, women, many with babes in arms or waiting to be born, and children The soldiers walked away from their crime against humanity and left the dead where they lay. That night, the sky cried snow and the warm winter wind of peace was supplanted by the cold winter wind of grief. For four days, the dead laid where they were, frozen into grotesque shapes of lifelessness. <br><br>Finally, the soldiers came and loaded the dead like cordwood in wagons, and hauled their loads to hastily dug mass graves, where the dead were thrown in - the bodies of men, women, and children whose spirits walked the encampment and ravines, wailing. <br><br>The mass graves were filled and the soldiers left. Twenty-seven Congressional Medals of Honor [sic] for "bravery" were awarded to the soldiers who participated in that heinous murder for their parts in fighting the allegedly hostile "war parties" attacking them that day.<br><br>The spirits of the slain continue their walking and wailing. Red Willow in great profusion, grown from the blood of all those who fell along the banks of the creek that day, still grows thickly along Wounded Knee Creek. Peace never again slept within the winds that blew along Wounded Knee Creek.<br><br><br>

And your point is?<br><br>I mean, I could post excerpts from the Diary of Anne Frank if you want. <br><br>

I think both of you would be doing a disservice to those who died in the American Indian genocide and the Holocaust, should you attempt to get into a contest to see who had it worse. The point of stories like that about Little Bighorn is to give another view (perhaps more accurate) than that given in grade school textbooks all around this country that rationalize and even worse moralize these shameful conflicts.<br><br>The lesson learned here is not necessarily that modern Americans, generations removed, are responsible or guilty for the slaughter of American Indians, it's that we can't ignore these attributes in our shared history. When we look the other way on any kind of abuse, during any period of time, we're making it okay to happen again.<br><br>...and it did happen when America turned away boatloads of Jewish refugees before World War II. It happened again in Rwanda. It's happening again in Darfur, Sudan. The point isn't that we feel bad or guilty about what happened before, it's that we do something about what's happening right now.<br><br>-- Charlie Alpha Roger Yankee Whiskey

Thank you, that is exactly the point. Education<br><br>No one can change the past but we can learn from it and maybe not<br>make the same mistakes again.<br><br><br><br>

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>The point isn't that we feel bad or guilty about what happened before,<p><hr></blockquote><p>That's exactly his point. Why else would he mention it? There's not a single person alive today responsible for or affected by the slaughter of Native Americans. It's an attention-getting ploy to transfer victim status from one generation to the next, and I called him out on it. <br><br>

Read CrazyEye's reply. Although the constant barrage can be annoying, the point is if we don't learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.<br><br>You are free to disagree, but then again, ask yourself, what's the point of posting anything in the political soapbox. Most of the time we don't know the people involved, so why bother?<br><br>

he says his point is education and he agrees with NK's point saying as much. why would you want to change his intent?<br><br>EDIT: i hadn't hit refresh since early this morning. i guess hayesk already said as much. <br><br>--<br>Straw-man rhetorical techniques are the practice of refuting weaker arguments than one's opponents offer. 2 "set up a straw man" or "set up a straw-man argument" is 2 create a position easily refuted, then attribute that position to your opponent.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by sean on 02/20/05 09:51 AM (server time).</EM></FONT></P>

With all due respect, if the purpose of these posts are to educate in the name of preventing future debacles, then a more balanced presentation of information is important. CE's posts are presented from one POV only — as if only his words have any relevance. We all know that every story has two sides, and the truth is usually somewhere in the middle. So post a link. Name a source. Point people toward additional resources. Not that it's that hard to do your own research, but it's a way of showing some confidence in your own information.<br><br>I don't think that's too much to ask. Jeez, even TGD does that much!<br><br>

I feel generous in blogging today...<br><br>http://www.google.com/search?q=american+indian+death+toll+1800<br><br>generation x generation<br>that's how this datamined game is played<br>read into Choicepoint and realize the plastic lie<br>the loophole and weak link<br><br>http://www.google.com/search?q=subcultures<br><br>No body seemed to have been warned properly during these past few decades...<br>of man's incompetence to coexist as kings shedding blood only on ball fields<br>no child's blood on their hands<br>female queens symbols of beauty and earth<br>suffer you evangelicals<br>the swords are raised <br>we are fire-proof now as you sink to your knees<br>up to your knees in lies and bills<br>yah heard <br>now come clean<br>stop disrespecting where you came from<br>her hand our food<br>Earth rights<br>her heart beats the loudest<br>hear it booming from above?<br><br>

Well, Crazy Eye is as free to post his drivel as we are ours. By taking issue with it I don't mean he should be silenced, I'm just forcefully disagreeing. <br><br>My point is this: no one should feel the least bit of guilt or shame toward anyone over the slaughter of Native Americans during the conquering of present-day America. We had nothing to do with it. So telling us to 'not let it happen again' is a waste of time, because we didn't let it happen the first time. <br><br>For months, people have ignored Crazy Eye's and The Great Divide's posts....time to jump in and let the fur fly!<br><br>