THANK YOU FROM THE INDIAN CHILDREN

~ THANK YOU FROM THE INDIAN CHILDREN ~

By TLB Contributing Author: Luca Majno

Today, the 26th of December, I received one of the most beautiful and meaningful ‘Christmas’ gifts I have received in all of my life… and this is the story as it unfolded, but first, a little history and background is necessary that pertains to it…

The biggest genocide in history did not happen in Nazi Germany or anywhere else. It happened on American soil ~ where 100 million Native Americans were slaughtered and lost their homeland (since 1492) ~ and where most people doing the slaughtering were calling themselves ‘Christians’…


Did Canada really commit ‘cultural genocide’?: Gwyn

In Canada, the late first Prime Minister of Canada, John A. Macdonald put his policing organization in place, at that time, the ‘Northwest Mounted Police’, for two reasons:

One was for the ‘clearing of 50 miles’ on both sides of the railway that he wanted finished, cleared of Indians, and the other was to go and steal the children from their homes and villages, some as young as 4 years old, most often ripped from the arms of their parents, to be locked up in these ‘prisons of higher learning’ called ‘residential schools‘.

They would have everything resembling their Sacred Culture torn away from them ~ (hair cut off, their medicine bags their parents had given them ~ burned in front of them, their mouth washed out with soap or worse if they were caught speaking their language, basically abuses of any and every kind, etc.) ~ These ‘untamed savages’ were to be civilized and christianized in order “to make ‘good citizens’ out of them.” Also, these ‘police’ were to ‘hunt down’ those children that would escape from these ‘institutions’ and bring them back…


Whose Manifest Destiny? The Federal Government and the American Indians

These ‘United States’ had the same ball rolling, in which, for example, in the 1880s, the late Richard Pratt, founder and director of the infamous Carlisle Indian School would run his iron fist of rule, to attempt to “Kill the Indian, Save the man”…


US Army Pledges to Bear Full Cost of Returning Carlisle Remains

One of these Canadian residential schools, in the province of Ontario, is known to have had home-made electric chairs, in which the students were forced to sit, and were shocked repeatedly “as entertainment for passing dignitaries”…


Electric Chair Torture – Catholic School in Fort Albany, Ontario

The end result of these schools, the last one which closed its doors as late as 1996, was GENOCIDE: The devastating and irreplaceable loss of the Original People’s Sacred Culture, Teachings, Languages and Ceremonies, which represented a Balance with Mother Nature that existed for tens of thousands of years, one that sustained life in every way ~ a coexistence ~ a harmony between ‘All My Relations’, as they would say, signifying an on-going respect for all four-legged, two-legged, those that flew in the skies, those that came out of the waters, plant life, insects, and last but most importantly, a Culture in which they gave Thanks and Prayed whenever a life of any kind was taken, so that they could live and prosper. Nothing was wasted.

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Enter today’s world… One in which, to use only one small example of many, 40% food is wasted in these ‘United States’, a country that shows absolutely no remorse for what they have done to the Original People and continue to violate the rights of all its citizens to this day, simply a continuation of ‘yesterday’s genocide’, the same song played with different instruments, ‘soft genocide’, the eradication of all our rights and freedoms in this country, in other words, the polar opposite of how things were done in the time of the American Indian, the Original People of this land. And we wonder why we are suffering here…

I have sworn to speak of this genocide and to expose its proponents, until my last breath on this earth… But I feel as though it is never enough, that I am not doing enough to raise this awareness…

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When my friend and I were at the gas station today, the day after ‘Christmas’, I was waiting for him to return, as he was paying for the fill-up inside the store… and I was staring out the window of the truck, thinking of all the conversations I have had recently with all my friends in Indian Country, and all the support that I have in my posts on Indian Issues of Consequence, and I was struck with a wave of sadness…

So sad, I was, thinking, that (I felt like) I was not doing enough, and what I could do to make more of a difference in awaking people to the horrors that my government is guilty of, and why we are suffering so much as a People today, as a result of it …

I thought of my very own experiences in ‘private schools’, as the Indian had suffered in all the ‘residential schools’ that they were forced to attend, where I, myself, had gone through just about every abuse there is, except sexual abuse… and how I wanted to be more of service to the Survivors of these stories… I felt so inadequate in the work I was doing…

Suddenly, something told me to take Larry’s keys out of the ignition, and look at a medal that he had on his chain… and this is what I saw…

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About the author: Luca Majno is a TLB Staff  Author and Audio Visual Technical Director.  Luca is also an ardent Protester and Activist deeply involved in the plight of those who cannot speak for, or defend themselves. Luca is also a Radio Show Host and Producer, see more at LEARN 2 UNLEARN

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1 Comment on THANK YOU FROM THE INDIAN CHILDREN

  1. It disgusts me how the indigenous people who are native to this land are categorized as “American” Indian. What an insult to be called “American” and incorporated as a slave. Well we are all on the same reservation now and what was taken from the people of the great nations have been taken from the citizens. We are all the same now. With many thanks and blessings from your favorite loving corporation America.

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