Good Indian; Dead Indian
Remember, US Army General Phillip Sheridan said, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.”
This, however, wasn’t only Sheridan’s philosophy.
It was also the military strategy of the United States government, in which Thomas Jefferson was also an advocate of and openly admitted with his own words.
“They [Europeans] are nations of eternal war. All their energies are expended in the destruction of labor, property and lives of their people.”
Some people, however, might not see it that way.
But the truth, is the truth.
According to Dr.Tinga Apidta’s book The Hidden History of Massachusetts: A Guide for Black Folks,
Governor Joseph Dudley declared in 1704 a “General Thanksgiving”-not in celebration of the brotherhood of man-but for [God's] infinite Goodness to extend His Favors…In defeating and disappointing… the Expeditions of the Enemy [Indians] against us, And the good Success given us against them, by delivering so many of them into our hands… Old-fashioned fable
Comedian Jon Stewart of the Daily Show, tried to make lite of the Day of Mourning for the Ingenious people by joking, “I celebrate Thanksgiving an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land.” Unfortunately, despite Stewart’s attempt to be funny, this was the real history of Thanksgiving, even though we continue believing in the fairy tale rendition of Pilgrims and Indians holding hands and praying together. Why? Because, there is nothing hilarious about the Holocaust involving the death of 19 million First Nation people, through the methods of constant warfare, chemical warfare through smallpox filled blankets, disease, sterilization, the 1830 Indian Removal, assimilation through education, the slaughter of the Buffalo, colonization, starvation, and reservation.
The myth and the massacreDespite all of this, every year through out America, elementary school teachers continue to dress up little children in these stupid black Pilgrims costumes with those big buckled shoes and place feathers on their innocent little heads as if it was a made for Disney movie version of Pocahontas and John Smith, while sitting down for a big dinner, singing “One Little, Two Little Indians” with a table filled with pumpkin pies and cranberry. Glen Ford, the Executive editor of Black Agenda Report, wrote an excellent article entitled The end of Thanksgiving: A Cause for Universal Rejoicing which brilliantly dissembled this myth, which has become apart of the so-called American dream and lexicon. The fable (of Thanksgiving) attempts to glorify the indefensible, to enshrine an era and mission that represent the nation’s lowest moral denominators. Thanksgiving as framed in the mythology is, consequently, a drag on that which is potentially civilizing in the national character, a crippling, atavistic deformity. Defenders of the holiday will claim that the politically-corrected children’s version promotes brotherhood, but that is an impossibility – a bald excuse to prolong the worship of colonial “forefathers” and to erase the crimes they committed. Those bastards burned the Pequot women and children, and ushered in the multinational business of slavery. These are facts. The myth is an insidious diversion – and worse.
Ford was correct with assessment of this holiday which we shamefully celebrate as a day of thanks.
Why? Because there were no turkey, cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie served on that day but there were about 700 Pequot Indians slaughtered and killed by a savage group of
Pilgrims.
William Bradford, who was the former Governor of Plymouth at that time, chronicled the event by giving his first hand account of the great massacre of 1637 that marked the beginning of what we know as Thanksgiving today:
Those that escaped the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed to pieces, others run through with their rapiers, so that they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire…horrible was the stink and scent thereof, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to enclose their enemies in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enemy.”
Shockingly, this day of mass murderer was proclaimed by Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts as a day of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving Day, as a national celebration, in fact, was originally called for by George Washington, who was a slave owner and made a regular holiday later by Abraham Lincoln, who some considered a white supremacist, right before he signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865, which did not free the slaves, when he assigned the fourth Thursday in November as the day of celebration. (Read my previous article on BASN entitled: The Political Football: Secession, Lincoln, and Obama)
The sacred made shameful
Unfortunately, we have forgotten the true history of this day, in order to applaud touchdowns, missed field goals, and bobbled snaps. We have, in fact, rejected the natural and embraced the unnatural. We have shamefully accepted the killing of beautiful people, the theft of beautiful lands, the contamination of beautiful oceans and the pollution of sacred skies in order to foolishly celebrate the festivities of a football game. Matter of fact, we have reduced a sacred people into a few racists mascots and lousy logos like the Cleveland Indians’Chief Wahoo and the Washington Redskins. We sadly mock them by participation in Towahawk chops and chants during Atlanta Braves baseball games and Florida Seminoles football games, while some insensitive sports reporters write headlines like the Seminoles massacred the Gators. This is, however shear insanity being paraded in front of the world to see.
Seriously, celebrating Thanksgiving is like Germany having a day of celebration for the Holocaust. Let’s
not forget that according to author John Toland’s The Autobiography of Adolph Hitler, Hitler’s concept of concentration camps as well as the practicality of genocide owed much, so he claimed, to his studies of English and United States history. The North American Indian holocaust was also studied by South Africa for their apartheid program.
1492
And even though, we would like to cover our eyes to this bloody truth, and live in denial, we must as Princeton professor Dr Cornel West stated ” must always view the world through the lens of what took place on 1492….”
And if 1492 is our historical reference point, …”when Columbus sailed the ocean blue” in the NiZa, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, which would eventually be utilized as slave ships, we can’t forget the genocide of the Ingenious people, with eventually led to the African slave trade.
Therefore, in dispelling the myth of Thanksgiving, we also must shatter the myth of Christopher Columbus as well.
First of all, we must realize that Christopher Columbus never set foot in what is North America, or the United States. Matter of fact, Norwegian settlers preceded his arrival in America by some five hundred years. Second, instead of referring to him as an explorer, we should call him an exploiter, a gold digger, a mass murderous missionary, and a slave trader. Honestly, in his quest to find India in the Caribbean, he mistaken called the inhabitants of Hispanola, now modern day Haiti, Indians, while thinking Cuba was Japan.
Christopher Columbus
Historian Dr.John Henrik Clark remained us that when Christopher Colon set foot on Samana Cay, in the Bahamian Islands, he, in fact, set in motion western racism, colonization, mis-education, distorted history, and the bogus concept of the chosen people through a Manifest Destiny philosophy, which promoted the divine white right to conquer, kill, and Christianized another people . “In his mind, it was enslavement from the very beginning.” Clarke said.” His intention were not good. Evidence of Columbus’s evil intentions were written in a letter to Spain’s Queen Isabella, when he wrote: We can send from here, in the name of the Holy Trinity, all the slaves and Brazil wood which could be sold.” Plus, he added these words, to remove all doubt about his intentions. “We shall take you and your wives, and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and we shall take away your goods, and shall do you all the mischief and damage that we can, and we protest that the deaths and losses which shall accrue from this are your fault .” With that in mind, consider the fact that with Columbus’ arrival to the New World, who himself, was a professional slave trader,he along with his Spanish conquistadors killed up 5 million Tainos, whom were mis-named “Indians” in the Caribbean, within three years, according to primary historian of the Colombian era and Catholic priest Father Bartolome’de las Casas, who was an eye-witness to the destruction. De las Casas, in fact, wrote about it in his multi-volume “History of the Indies,” which was published in 1875. (The Spaniards) “thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades. They forced their way into native settlements, slaughtering everyone they found there, including small children, old men, pregnant women, and even women who had just given birth. They hacked them to pieces, slicing open their bellies with their swords as though they were sheep herded into a pen. They even laid wagers on whether they could manage to slice a man in two at a stroke, or cut an individual’s head from his body, or disembowel him with a single blow of their axes. They grabbed suckling infants by the feet and, ripping them from their mothers’ breasts, dashed them headlong against the rocks. Others, laughing and joking all the while, threw them over their shoulders into a river, shouting: ‘Wriggle, you little perisher.’ They slaughtered anyone on their path …”
Nothing worth celebrating
Despite these horrible facts, the United States of America still considers him to be a American hero worthy of celebration and praise.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, however, doesn’t think so.
There’s nothing to celebrate,” said the Venezuelan president, who in 2002 signed a decree to change the name of its Oct.12 Columbus Day to the Day of Indigenous Resistance.
“They executed an aboriginal every 10 minutes – the biggest genocide registered in history”
Columbus Day, which was made a federal holiday in 1971, in fact, is one of only two holidays to honor a person by name, the other of course is Martin Luther King Jr.
Not surprisingly, in a speech in 1989, President George Bush proclaimed:
“Christopher Columbus not only opened the door to a New World, but also set an example for us all by showing what monumental feats can be accomplished through perseverance and faith.”
These words alone from the former President of the United States should put to rest all of this “New World Order” talk, because it is actually an Old World Order, which the West have been practicing since they came in contact with the First Nation People of the earth.
Records and recorded history
So, regardless, of how much we celebrate the laser precision passes thrown by the Cowboy’s QB Dak Prescot, or how tender the turkey was, or how many times Tony Romo prays to get his starting position, we must keep the true meaning of this day always on our mine. (Read my previous article Testing the Testimony of Tebowism on BASN) Why? Because, originally, football wasn’t America’s favorite sport. It was the hunting and killing of “Indians” And as a famous football coach once said, “You are, what your record says you are."
Eric D.Graham, a graduate of Winston-Salem State University, where he received a B.A. in Mass Communication with a concentration in Radio and Television, with a minor in History, with an emphasis in African-American Studies, is currently the Managing Editor of Black Athlete Sports Network, where his articles appear daily along with his controversial cartoon character Bobbee Bee “The Hater.” Graham can be reached at lbiass34@yahoo.com or go to www.bobbeethehater.blogspot.com
