Above photo: Mock-up of a wall installation using 24x 26″ posters, proposed Pine Ridge Billboard Project. Aaron Huey.
Biden Makes Me Laugh.
President Joe Biden makes me laugh. One would think at his age, he would know that you can’t heal a major illness, or wound, until you start at the source. I am referring to his continually saying, “We have to heal the soul of the United States (U.S.).”
That’s never going to happen until the powers-that-be, including President Biden, begin to heal the original illness, or wound, as you wish, which is the mistreatment and injustice they continue to give to the Original Nations, the American Indian Nations who are us. Some call it Karma. We call it the circle.
Whoa!! No one wants to think about that let alone verbalize such an idea. Yet, that is precisely what the 1894 Sioux Nation Treaty Council has been doing for the past few years through letters to President Biden. He has been given the opportunity to “heal” the U.S.
What is his response? The first year, there was NO response. So another letter was sent.
More than six months later, a small letter was sent from the White House listing the federal government’s programs to the “tribes.” These are the same “tribes” that were created by the federal government in the first place. That’s like saying, “I’ve given this to ‘our’ Indians so quit complaining.” Or as many of us say, “He threw a bone to the dogs, so the dogs should be quiet.”
Biden, who is a Catholic, forgets that the Creator (or God) and all of our ancestors, great-grandparents and grandparents, relatives and friends who are on the Spirit side can see and understand what he and all the powers-that-be are doing. Because Biden and the powers-that-be forget, or don’t know, or don’t want to know, they still must face the effects, or consequences. Just like a child that doesn’t know that a fire will burn you and reaches out to touch the fire will suffer the burn. So too, Biden and these powers-that-be will face the consequences, and that’s what we have today.
President Biden was given an opportunity no matter how small, to begin the healing of the United States by beginning with justice and enforcement of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. He disregarded it and cast it aside. However, this opportunity that he disdained is continually coming up at the United Nations (UN). The family of nations is being given the opportunity to consider the justice that is due to the Sioux Nation (not the tribes that were created by the U.S. federal government under the Wheeler-Howard Act.)
Already, twenty-seven (27) of the nations at the UN in the Human Rights Council (HRC), a majority led by China, have passed the test by approving HRC Resolution 48/7 last Oct. 8, 2021. That Resolution opened the door to Decolonization for Indigenous nations. That means us.
The UN Human Rights Council will be discussing Resolution 48/7, “Negative impact of the legacies of colonialism on the enjoyment of human rights” on Sept. 28, 2022. You can watch it on a computer on UN Live TV.
So, we’ll see if more of the family of nations will really look at liberation and healing for Indigenous nations all over the world. (It is more than us who have suffered at the hands of colonizing governments, although the U.S. has been the worst.) Or, will the colonizing governments, led by the biggest “forced assimilator” of them all, the USA, intimidate the smaller nations into continuing the illness, or wound, of colonization. They all would do best to consider not touching the fire of continuing colonization if they really believe that Indigenous Peoples are equal to all other Peoples as stated in the UN Charter.
Charmaine White Face, Zumila Wobaga, (75) is the Spokesperson for the 1894 Sioux Nation Treaty Council and has attended meetings at the United Nations for the past two decades. The website is www.siouxnationtreatycouncil.