I’m not sure how often military helicopters land at Wounded Knee nowadays, but Native American protesters are saying that a recent landing there, plus more overhead flights, represented an injustice to the sacred site and their buried ancestors.

The video, timestamped May 1, shows several tribal citizens watching and protesting the landing. Many are now asking why the helicopters were there, but few solid answers have come yet. Will update as they become available.

A big reason the development is significant is because the Battle of Wounded Knee is one of the most well-known armed conflicts between the Sioux Nation and the United States. In the resulting massacre, approximately 150 tribal citizens were killed, as were some U.S. forces, according to historical records.

It happened in 1890. The scars live on to this day.

An update from the Argus Leader:

Colorado Army National Guardsmen attempting to land helicopters at the Wounded Knee memorial site Saturday were rebuffed by protesters who considered their presence insulting.

Oglala Sioux tribal officials had agreed to allow the guardsmen to land at Wounded Knee site to hear an educational and historical presentation on the massacre.

Marie Fox Belly, great-granddaughter of Wounded Knee massacre survivor Dewey Beard, said the presentation she was going to make to the guardsmen was meant to help them learn about the massacre and ensure such things never happened again.

But about 16 protesters drove the three helicopters away after one had touched down for a minute or two in a flat just southeast of the mass grave, Fox Belly said.

“It was meant for a healing process,” she said.

But Belva Hollow Horn, a member of the Descendants of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre organization, said she considered the helicopters’ presence at the memorial site “outrageous.”

“Why would you want helicopters landing at the Wounded Knee massacre site,” Hollow Horn said. “That is totally insulting.”

Did you know that President Barack Obama signed a historic apology resolution addressed to American Indians in December, but he hasn’t drawn any attention to it?

As I reported in January, no press releases went out; the White House didn’t make any announcements; and the president didn’t tell any tribal citizens or leaders about the apology he had signed.

The question from several Indians I interviewed at the time centered on whether this was a real apology. After all, is an apology not said out loud, and not drawn attention to, really an apology? I titled the piece, “A sorry saga.” continue »

Stephen Hawking says humanity should beware of space aliens because they could be just as dangerous as colonists were to American Indians.

“If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans,” the leading scientist said in a recent interview promoting a new Discovery documentary.

The danger appears all the more real, since Hawking believes the odds of aliens existing are mathematically pretty good.

Most of those aliens would probably be simple creatures, he said, but some could come ready to raid, plunder, and destroy Earth.

So we should just be quiet, and not try to attract them, the scientist believes.

A problem with that plan: continue »

Something happened today that I’m not used to seeing: a substantial mainstream media outlet covered a big American Indian tribal issue in a top slot position.

CNN and reporter Patrick Oppmann deserve kudos for featuring an article about devastating flooding on the Hoh Reservation in Washington state as its top news item this morning. The story was reported from the tribe, and compelling video and pictures were used to illustrate the piece. It also contains notes on the tribe’s unique history, its cultural traditions, and highlights the voices of tribal citizens.

From reading the front pages of American newspapers today (even the back pages), it would be next to impossible to know that tribes face some of the worst economic, poverty, and health issues of our time. Their stories are sometimes just as horrid as situations reported from Third World countries — despite being a part of America. continue »

All’s fair in blog and war.

A Native-focused blog I like to check out from time to time, Newspaper Rock, has started a battle with an editorial posted on the South Dakota Mitchell Daily Republic’s Web site.

The editorial wrongly claims that American Indians haven’t protested offensive mascots consistently.

Rob Schmidt, writer of the Indian-focused blog, did the research to show that Seth Tupper, the writer of the editorial in question, was mistaken.

“To recap, in 15 seconds I found evidence of four decades of opposition: newspaper articles, protest videos, and a case that almost reached the US Supreme Court,” the blogger wrote. “That’s the proverbial tip of the iceberg. In 15 minutes I could’ve found 60 times as much evidence: marches and demonstrations, editorials and op/ed pieces, condemnations by Native and civil rights organizations, documentaries and videos, books and websites, and lawsuits and court rulings.”

Tupper got a little feisty after Schmidt e-mailed him his research. So he did what any respectable editorial writer would do: debase the platform on which Schmidt runs his blog.

“The fact that you’re backing up your claim with a zero-comment post on an obscure Google Blogger site only serves to underscore my point that, though there have been protests, none have risen to the level of a ’sustained, popular effort,’” Tupper wrote to Schmidt.

Oh my. First, Tupper’s claim is 100% wrong, easily verified. Next, Schmidt tore him — and his small town newspaper — a new one: continue »