I know it's a movie but this movie and this scene regarding the Lakota does an amazing job of showing the manipulative bureaucratic bullshit native american people have been forced to put up with under threat of genocide or extinction.
"they're the ones who signed the treaty" is wild. The fact none of our treaties are even being upheld is one of our biggest betrayals.
Our leaders did so much for us, just to survive. And for what? Broken promises over greed and man made currency.
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"And so, in the summer of 1885, Sitting Bull joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, traveling throughout the United States and into Canada. He drew tremendous crowds. Boos and catcalls sometimes sounded for the "Killer of Custer" but after each show these same people pressed coins upon him for copies of his signed photograph. Sitting Bull gave most of the money away to the band of ragged, hungry boys who seemed to surround him wherever he went. He once told Annie Oakley, another one of the Wild West Show's stars, that he could not understand how white men could be so unmindful of their own poor. 'The white man knows how to make everything,' he said, 'but he does not know how to distribute it.'
--Dee Brown, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
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A Native American sends smoke signals in Montana, June 1909. :: [Old Photos]
* * * * *
“Treat all men alike.... give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who is born a free man should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. We only ask an even chance to live as other men live. We ask to be recognized as men. Let me be a free man...free to travel... free to stop...free to work...free to choose my own teachers...free to follow the religion of my Fathers...free to think and talk and act for myself.”
― Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
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Dances With Wolves - „We‘ve come far, you and me. - I will not forget you.“
Comment: First Lieutenant John Dunbar is wounded in the American Civil War and wants to be transferred to the western frontier after his recovery. When he arrives at his new post he finds it abandoned. Over time he becomes friends with the Lakota (a Sioux tribe) who live there - and gradually adapts to their free and nature-bound way of life. By the mid-19th century, the territory of the different Sioux tribes covered large areas of the U.S. states of South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska - and some parts of Minnesota and Iowa. The Black Hills in South Dakota were the center of its territory and viewed by the Lakota as the seat of the spirits and therefore sacred. After the U.S. military considers him a traitor, Dunbar is forced to abandon his Native American friends so they don't face reprisals. The scene above shows the moving farewell to his friend “Stands With A Fist”. The movie „Dances With Wolves“ was a reason to visit the former western „frontierland” by myself one day (I knew it was filmed in the Badlands area). Sometimes you must see, smell, hear and feel by yourself to understand.
Another reason was the book „Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee“ from Dee Brown which I have read as a teenager. The book expresses details of the history of American expansionism and its harmful effects on the Native Americans. Brown describes Native Americans' displacement through forced relocations and years of warfare waged by the United States federal government. The government's dealings are portrayed as a continuing effort to destroy the culture, religion, and way of life of Native American peoples. On my trips through the U.S. I came across this history and the stories described in the book from time to time: be it by running accidentally into the escape route of the Nez Perces in Yellowstone National Park or into the former battlefield between Sioux and U.S. Cavalry at Little Bighorn - or be it by the planned visits of Fort Laramie and of course the Black Hills.
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Right now I’m readying Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, and whenever I read a nonfiction book I like to google each of the people mentioned to see what they looked like. Usually I do it with the good guys, but today I decided to look up James Henry Carleton, an absolute piece of human garbage who is rotting in hell, and what do I find?
Is that a fucking REVERSE BEARD??????? I have never seen a more horrendous facial hair in my life. Was this a common fashion at the time or was it just this guy???
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17/07/22
Books I’ve read this week!
I was in a bit of a reading rut and my tbr pile kept growing, so I decided to try and challenge myself to reading as many books as I could this week.
On top of that challenge I also ‘forced’ myself to write a review for every book that I read, so that I can actively interact with the book a bit more rather than read them and put them back on the shelf. It definitely helped to do this, because honestly at least three of these books were a bit disappointing and it was interesting to actually work out why I felt this way about the book.
Overall I read 2,163 pages which is absolutely mind blowing, and my tbr shelf is now begging to be filled back up with new books (but I must resist as I still have a few more left to read).
Unsure if I’ll be attempting this again this coming week but we shall see!
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seungmin thinks you’re the prettiest at your most ordinary. fluff and softness. pre-established relationship. (happy (very late) birthday to youuu my @starsandrqindrops i love u 💓)
there is an uncharacteristic tiredness that’s weighing on seungmin’s bones, making the mere act of moving his limbs draining. a faint headache pulsates from the base of his temple, and he shuts his eyes closed, forcing darkness to surround his senses, hoping that it’ll muffle the ache latching to his being.
but what soothes his senses is the sound of running water, more so the knowledge that you are near, just out of reach. you’ll come out soon of the shower and seungmin will be okay.
he doesn’t voice these thoughts to you as you come into the room, towel in hand as you dry your hair, clad in one of his old t-shirts. but his body seems to speak for him, eyes snapping open at the sound of you padding to the bed, spine readjusting so he’d sit against the headboard, eager to look at you more intently.
“tired?” you ask, planting a kiss on his temple before retrieving your hair bush from the bedside drawer. the pain in his head subsides, your existence the antidote for all his ailments.
“no, how was your day?” he asks softly, his warm palm resting on your bare knee. you quickly glance at him, at the way his eyebrows scrunch together ever so slightly, as if begging you to speak, to weave the dreadful silence with your sweet voice.
“it was good, i tried a new restaurant today,” you speak gently, combing slowly through your hair.
“yeah, what is it called?” he says, thumb circling your soft skin. he is no longer angry at the light, for it highlights every contour of your features. he no longer yearns for the dark, as in its absence he gets to see you. in all your ordinary glory.
and you look so beautiful.
“blossom, they have the cutest pastries. i think you’d really like their cheesecake. it’s decorated with edible flowers. and their coffee is to die for,” you recall excitedly, your eyes locking on his every now and then.
“mm,” he says absentmindedly, laying his head atop your lap. “what else did you do?”
“i had the most boring class today, you know the one with…” your voice fades into the background of seungmin’s mind, lingering like a sweet dream that doesn’t disappear even after you wake.
he’s focused on your bare face, and the way your lips move with each word you utter, he sees your gleaming eyes, radiant under the light, although unnecessary— the star you harbor for heart enough to lighten you up. he sees your hair settling into the curls he loves the most, wet droplets falling into your shirt—his. he sees the slate of your nose that he loves to peck and the cheeks he always cradles before sleeping. he sees you, at your most vulnerable state, at your most beautiful one, and he loves you. god, does he love you so much.
“are you even listening to me?” you giggle, running your hand through his black hair, the one you dyed between giddy kisses in the bathroom.
“you are so pretty,” he whispers, voice suddenly hoarse with emotion. he doesn’t know where this love tide came from, but he knows that the weariness is gone, that a warmth only you can produce has replaced it.
your cheeks are no longer devoid of color, a faint pink hue seeping through them. you smile, widely, with no hand before your mouth, no intent to hide from him. “i love you, you are the pretty one.”
“i know,” he smiles cheekily, further burying his head in your lap, arms wound around your legs. “keep talking.”
“what am i? your asmr podcast?” you chuckle, leaning down to press a kiss on the crown of his head. his headache is long gone.
“yes, you are mine. only mine, right?” he adds, a bit vulnerably, voice weaker.
“only yours.”
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