American Comments Magazine,
Seven Creeds Society &
ICE WILLOW'S CHILDRENrespond to
Mr. John Hope Franklin, Chairman, ADVISORY BOARD of
PRESIDENT'S INITIATIVE ON RACE
March 26, 1998
Mr. John Hope Franklin, Chairman,
Advisory Board to the President's Initiative on Race
Duke University
Mr. Franklin,
We have received your letter on behalf of the Advisory Board requesting help to address Native American issues. We have published this in American Comments Magazine found at http://www.iwchildren.org/prescon.htm on the world wide web.
You have suggested to us some topics, "land and sovereignty disputes" but we see now that obviously you don't know the first step in addressing what is destroying Native Americans today, the religious oppression, racial hatred, and continuing acts of genocide committed against the Native American people. We are glad to have this opportunity to explain the first steps you must take to bring the Native American into modern day America and thank you for responding to our letter.
Sovereignty is already the letter of the law. All the power hungry have to do is follow it. We have talked and negotiated for 500 years about it and what has it gotten us? Our so called sovereignty is the laughing joke of the world and it serves as a warning signal to watch out for the vicious, hungry animal the United States government really is. We know who is the hater of Native Americans, why do you want us to talk to you some more of what you have no intention of honoring? This is an old tactic of the white supremacist to talk in circles while there are issues chewing off the faces of our children, destroying their futures and fueling the fires of anti-Indian hatred.
To have any progress on sovereignty issues the Native Americans must get out of the Mascot Era just as the African American has gotten out of the Black Face and Minstrel Show era. Then even adults would listen when children ask why Native Americans are not treated as human beings. If we were really a sovereign people the US would never make us into mascots because this is an act of war we and our allies would declare war on the United States. This is why you do not name the Kansas City Chiefs, the Zulu Chiefs, because this would be a declaration of war against Africans. Step one, get rid of the "Indian" mascots. Step two, put our true history in the text books. Tell of the genocidal acts of Andrew Jackson, the Spanish conquistadores, the so called Christian missionaries and the truth of what Columbus did.
Our first advice is to get out of the big boys league and address an issue you can with some form of dignity. If you can't address the mascot issue after what we have said in this letter you can't address one single item of racism in this country. Who is going to listen about a black man whining about race problems when he is contributing to that race problem? This applies to the Hispanic, Asian and so forth. Until you address the mascot issue you can never talk of equality of any race while denying it to another.
If the great White Father in Washington loved and respected his Red Children a Native American would be sitting on the council and the President would tell us all he is our servant speaking for the Veteran, the homeless and the down trodden as he is elected to be. Instead his hand picked fools have told all Native Americans, just like the ones who questioned them in Denver, that they don't intend to have an Indian on the counsel.
This was clearly shown by the Indian community in the Denver area when the President's panel started their Hollywood Town Council Show, March 23, 1998. The fool known as Energy Secretary Pena got the entertainment off to a bad start by insulting every working person in the country when he revealed a restaurant patron had once mistaken him for a waiter and asked him for a drink. While audience members of all races encouraged anyone with common sense to interrupt the staged Disneyesque rambling of government harlequins, Native Americans stepped to the microphone and simply exposed the panel for what they are, hand picked flunkies to flap their jaws on issues that don't even concern the American people.
The Presidents panel is not only without a Native American it is also without a clue on Native American issues. One simple issue sits before the progress of the Native American above all others, it blocks the understanding of us as human beings. Because of it our children are still moving in the wake of genocide with out human dignity. Because of this issue Native Americans are never understood, never taken seriously, have no voice, are openly ridiculed and denied civil rights. Because of it Native Americans are judged by a separate set of standards that are held up to no one else. We have become a non people considered extinct as greed drives the machines of hatred against us. We are still being stripped of the very resources which would bring us into the minds and hearts of everyday Americans who will help us fight for self dignity. We have yet to find a human being who hears our message that will turn his back on us.
Why does the President's panel want to step into the big boys league when everyone knows they can't answer the question, "Why are Native Americans treated as a sub human class of entertainers for the racial supremacists? How, after 500 years does the United States government still make the Native American into a mascot?" The answer is that no President does the dirty work of genocide when he can so easily purchase a band of glory seeking fools to gladly do it for him, on camera. What Bill Clinton has accomplished is one more hearty Southern "Sho Nuff", to answer the question, "Is the US Government. still the prime hater of Native Americans and what they stand for?"
We have asked questions like, "Why do you do to another race what you would never stand for against your own?" and others in detail for 16 months of the NAACP on the world wide web at http://www.iwchildren.org/naacp.htm and they have been unable to answer them.
Look at the entertainment sports arena. The black athlete is now paid handsomely to publicly ridicule Native American children and their families so he can live the white racial supremacist's dream. Why are these black athletes teaching children, to demoralize all other races and keeping racism alive by acts which mock another's culture and religious symbols? And who is he entertaining? Every politician in Washington and every American animal who trains their children in racial and religious supremacy.
You are asking, "What about the honor of being singled out as America's mascot?" Native Americans have enjoyed this special status as mascots since the 1910's. Before that the government only wanted to kill them. Now, American children are taught that the Indian is a mascot by ignorant public school teachers holding our children hostage. They tell us, "We are keeping alive your heritage! We are the fighting Redskins!!!" You can understand this because they teach out of history books that give the slave masters like, Washington and Jefferson, a pat on the back for conquering the burden of housing and feeding their Black and Indian slaves and ignore the effects of this racial hatred in our country today.
This is the 1990's, and it is time to have this honor shared with the all the races. Ask the white man on the President's panel when he will rise and speak to the equality of all races and religions? He can turn to the minority members seated in his presence and tell them, "The Indian has, so far, been the only one to enjoy the status known as mascot, now it is time to be fair and equal for all. I make the Hispanic, the Asian, the Black and the Jew into my sporty mascots too." Then he will understand why the Native American doesn't like to be a mascot.
He can tell the black panel members, "We are going to bring back the name Sambo to lump all Blacks together as this used to be the name of the black boys who entertained us." Then have the white man on the panel ask them how do you like to be called, Sambo? In this way the President's council will learn the reaction of what the mascot issue is all about and how Native Americans do not like this either.
We will show you why there is no Native American on the board, let us look at the Hispanic as the white board member calls him the new mascot, Bean Bandit. "You are my mascot, Frito Bandito!" You know I only let you swim that river to the USA because I want to watch you play baseball, just don't go speaking no Spanish around here, Wetback, this is America." What kind of reaction is that white panelist going to get after he has said this? Will he understand then that the same educational system that beat our children for speaking their native language now makes them into mascots?
Now have that white panelist turn to the Asians and say, "Not too long ago your people were abused and killed in this country. You were fit for nothing but cleaning houses and digging railroad beds. Civil rights came and you got your rights. Now you pay millions of dollars to sit and watch the athlete insult the Native American."
Have the Black and Hispanic panel members tell the Asian panel member of the thousands of veterans who died to protect the Asian people. "Here is where you insult the American Veteran, the one who has fought and died for your freedom to come here and practice your religious beliefs. You have forgotten what was given to you as many of these Veterans are Native Americans who died to protect the beliefs that you now enjoy while you are ridiculing them.".
Now, let the white panel member address the Asians on the President's council who have come over from Vietnam, Korea and all the Eastern nations suffering under communist rule. "Remember that the Native American has suffered under the communist since the forming of this country. After millions died, the United States has allowed their country to make the memory of those dead into mascots. So let's forget about all the dead bodies and all your relatives lost in the wars in Asia. Let's just go ahead and make your dead, all the millions of them, into mascots." Now the Asian can listen to the thousands of Americans telling them as we have been told, "Since your people are our mascots we don't hate you, we just see nothing and keep on playing. What is wrong with you?" Does the Asian in America understand what it is like to be treated like you, your family, your ancestors, your history, your religions and all that your people have suffered for are invisible?
Have the Asian panelist ask, "How many of you are Jewish? Too bad you don't remember how the Holocaust began. You would see that it was just like the Cleveland baseball mascot and started just about the same year. Just remember the United States had already killed millions and millions of Native Americans but Hitler was just getting ready to give you yours. In those years Hitler spoke of his admiration for the way the US exterminates Native Americas. He took children on campouts and treated them to sporting events training them with jokes, stereotypes and big nose drawings of your people and the children thought it was great fun. You can remember how German public school teachers started making sly remarks against your children making them into mascots for their entertainment, making the others turn against them, making them into animals to kick and spit on. Hitler did his laughing at you, then he did his killing. The US Government did the killing of Native Americans now they do their laughing while tomahawk chopping into the hearts and self esteem of Native American children. You saw this against your own people and know about it but you have sat silent, paying to see it done again to Native Americans. You show by supporting the mascot image of Native Americans you are only sponsoring the counselors of Hitler's youth camps."
What's the difference between the NAACP and the Ku Klux Klan to a Native American? Very little. We view the NAACP in the same light as we view the KKK. An organization built on denying the fabric of American belief, hiding behind the cross and racial supremacy to commit crimes of hatred. You may ask how? The KKK, while killing and destroying the African American everyone knows was evil, but they just did it for fun. Now the new age is here where racism is a profession. If you can commit a racist act you can get paid for it. Any black athlete out there who plays for an Indian mascot team is committing the racist act of a KKK member before the eyes of any child who looks to these people as heroes. Yet the NAACP is silent regarding the black professional athlete who plays for these mascot teams.
Yes, these words are harsh but we know the truth, you can't answer the simple question, "Why do you treat another race in a way you would never treat your own?" We know why, you do it because you are getting paid to do it. You are not just wasting the tax dollars, you are burying your own children. Every one of you on the Board has their hand in blood, every one of you is putting the knife into Native American children at the current suicide rate of five times the national average. Everyone of you is promoting racism against the Native American, training children of all races to do it and you know it, that is why there is no Native American on the panel. Simply for the reason that you are too racist to allow one to be there.
As you know this letter is on our web site http://www.iwchildren.org/prescon.htm all you have to do to gain dignity is to come out in a public statement that says mascots are no way to treat any living human being. Or else you can say the Jew, the Hispanic, the Black, the Vietnamese, the Koreans and all Asians should be mascots. It's that simple.
So get your mind out of the racial gutter of hatred and don't say this is an honor as we would love to give you honor and see the Kansas City Chiefs portrayed as the Zulu Chiefs. We know, as you know, this is not going to happen, so close up your side show and act with dignity. End the mascot issue once and for all or if you want to keep racism going, do not respond.
Sincerely,
Matthew Richter
Clem Iron Wing
PHOTO ESSAYS | "KILLING OF THE CHILDREN" | VETERANS | HISTORY | "INDIAN" MASCOT
by Matthew
Richter, Clem Ironwing, & Randy Jones, copyright
1997
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