M3Blog - We're Still Here: Wounded Knee

I chose to write about the video “We’re Still Here:  Wounded Knee” written by Marcia Smith as I found this documentary to be incredibly insightful.  It can be found at the following link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DHFjB-A5Ho&feature=youtu.be&list=PLH9rWywwjjElbYILgixKwhLKOEphSAoT7 .   The significance of the location of Wounded Knee as the protest site is this is where the last massacre of the Native American Indians in their fight against the US government took place.  This location in South Dakota is considered sacred and hallowed ground by the Native Americans.  Russel Means of the Oglala Lakota tribe stated that they “were about to be obliterated culturally” and their “entire way of life culturally was about to be stamped out and this was a rebirth of our dignity and self-pride”.  These Latoka Indian protesters along with some members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) would hold off the Federal government for 71 days.  During this time more Native Americans joined the protest in what they hoped to be the reclamation of their cultural history.  Their first demand was the removal of the elected tribal chairman, Dick Wilson, who they felt was ruling with an iron fist and did not deal with those on the Pine Ridge reservation in a fair manner.  He brought all of his friends and family into tribal council positions; he was only interested in bettering himself and not the Native Americans.  He favored mixed-race Indians like himself and continued to help them over those who practiced their religion, spoke their native language, and remained loyal to their chiefs.  The governor came to wounded knee to try to shut down the protest, asked the hostages to leave but these hostages said they were staying out of a fear that the US government would kill the Native American protesters of they left.  He said they would convene hearings to discuss the plight of the Native Americans but these protesters had no tolerance for any additional hearings or agreements from the US government.

Interestingly, I was 10 years old in 1973 and I knew nothing about this protest, most likely due to the ability of the Federal government putting a media blackout on the protest which can be found around the 53 minute mark.  Statements such as “you have to walk the white man’s road” or “you have to learn English and not your own language” basically the continued governmental programs of forced assimilation and the removal of the Native American culture and the tribal members felt they were at the near extinction of their culture and history.  As with many, persecuted cultures, there comes a point in time when they will no longer be silent.

In 1980, the US Supreme court ruled that the Federal Government had taken Lakota land illegally and awarded $105 million in compensation.  Demanding their land back the Lakota refused the payment. The judgment has since grown to more than $830 million.  To me this shows these tribes are not interested in merely payment of money but the restoration of their culture and way of life.  My thoughts to date have been simply the assimilation and coexistence of both the Native American culture and the American culture today and I thought that would be the only thing that would make sense for a single country.  After watching some of these different videos in the We’re Still Here series, I’m beginning to see how important the Native American culture is to the descendants of the indigenous people.  I am uncertain how this will progress moving forward but I do think it is possible  I believe that the Native American people have continually tried to co-exist with the European settlers and I also believe that they are willing to do so even today.