Red Power theory

You do not even have to be a serious student of recent Native American affairs to know the name Vine Deloria Jr. His legendary book Custer Died for Your Sins is still virtually required reading for anyone who wants to know the genesis of the Red Power movement.

I personally find the Civil Rights Movements of the mid to late 60s and early 70s fascinating. Not one of them was unique in U.S. history, yet they were vastly more successful. I have a theory it has to do with timing.

Womens rights were a VERY hot topic in the early 20th century...actually, that is a misnomer as it was carryover from the hotness of the tail end of the 19th century. Most people still recognize names like Virginia Woolf and Susan B. Anthony, but naturally they were simply the best known activists.

Black civil rights were a hot topic in the mid to late 1800s one could be led to believe...especially as, while you might debate the single cause of the Civil War, no intelligent, educated person could dispute the fight over slavery was one of the primary causes.

The hippie intellectuals were nothing new either...study the lives of Thoroeu (sic), Walden, etc...New Harmony, the free love movement...again, late 19th century, squeezed in between the black rights and womens rights movements.

Native American rights movements were sporadically important. When Ely Parkman was in power they were a hot topic...in the 30s they were a hot topic...

In other words, the 60s were unique because all of these movements were in effect...at the same time. Additionally, there were some very special leaders. Martin Luther King Jr., Dennis Banks, Russell Means, Clyde Warrior, Malcolm X...names that live on today. Sure, Means has made some curious choices (although the debate over Pocahontas is for another time...Disney is kind of its own world) but what he did cannot be overlooked.

How I got there from talking about Deloria Jr. is beyond me. Another tangent successfully run. Anyhow, I have been familiar with Ella and Phillip Deloria, Vine Deloria Sr. , and Vine Deloria Jr. for quite some time.

Indians of the Pacific Northwest is the first of their books I have actually been privileged to read. Deloria Jr. is an excellent writer. He draws you in, tells his story without becoming boring, mixes the high points with details that might seem rather mundane in another setting, and provides a concise account of white-Indian relations in the northwest.The chapter on the fish-ins and battle over fishing rights deserves its own space but tonight the point is a little different.

Deloria is a Pine Ridge Sioux. The history of the Sioux is a bloody one, both before the Plains Wars and during them. The Sioux were the driving force in Red Cloud's War (one of the few won by the Native Americans, by the way), in the Battle of Greasy Grass (you might know it as Little Big Horn or Custer's Last Stand...a better title would be The Hubris of an Egomaniac that led to the greatest Native American Victory in battle that caused their defeat in the war), were the victims at Wounded Knee...Leonard Peltier was an Oglalla Sioux...

Meanwhile, he writes of the Pacific Northwest Indians where the wars were primarily fought in court over fish. It brings up an interesting point to me. What is more tragic; the mass murder by US Soldiers of Native Americans at Sand Creek, the Washita River (Custer again, by the way), the Apache Reservations, and so forth, by soldiers and militia engaged in (frequently illegal) warfare, albeit more often than not against non-hostile Indians....OR the betrayal of peacable, productive in the white fashion tribes by the very men and government sworn to protect them?

The Nisquallies, Lummis, Yakimas, Chehalis, and so forth were sold out behind the scenes by the BIA. Repeatedly. For nearly a hundred years. Sure, Custer was a murderer, Chivington a heartless, lying, murdering, immoral piece of trash, but they were at least open about their wish to kill or destroy every Indian. I tend to think it is even worse to extend the hand of peace, friendship and protection with one hand while signing away everything of value with the other. As you can tell by the title, this started out to be about one of the greatest scholars of our time, but it ended in a rant about the depravity of powerful people. I think it is time for bed.