traditions of assimilation...

[MJ Hardman]

"Assimilation" is a mild way to say it.  And as to Republican candidates --
the drop-out -- that religion does indeed hold as a dogma that the US was
founded in order for the true church to be reestablished & thus, yes, the US
belongs to white people, who have come to bring the Native Americans back
into the fold, after they transgressed (explained in one of their sacred
books) and thus were made dark -- the fold of the white folks, of course.
The Native Americans aren't as dark as blacks, whose transgression was
worse, being descendants of Cain, though they have now been forgiven and can
be brought into the fold.  Since Native Americans are all from the lost
tribes of Israel, they have been rapidly welcomed into the fold, including
by adoptions whenever possible.

And if what I wrote above sounds psychotic -- well, Mia, it's what they do
indeed believe.  They soft-pedal a lot of it for outsiders, they are *very*
concerned about 'image' -- they are, after all, selling a religion.  It was
scary.  And what scares me now is the vice-presidency.

MJ

On 2/14/08 3:08 PM, "Mia Kalish" <MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US> wrote:

> There IS a tradition of "assimilation," usually no matter what it takes to
> get there. There was a story . . . Carolyn, Harrington's ex-wife, found
> papers in California that demonstrated the Indians were being "baptized" by
> 1st, clubbing them over the head until they were senseless and couldn't
> protest, and 2nd, being carried to the baptismal ceremony by their guards,
> who also functioned as the witnesses or whatever they call them.
> The whole purpose of the boarding schools was to take children away from the
> influence of their families and cultures so they would grow up "white."
> I think the fact that they wrote this is very Freudian: People are
> admitting, albeit subconsciously, that they are deliberately interfering
> with the lives of others.
> 
> I heard a speech the other day by one of those Republicans who dropped out
> of the presidential race, and he actually seemed to believe that this
> country "belongs" to white people. He had no understanding or recognition of
> the fact that colonizers engaged in active and sustained genocide to kill
> the people who were living here originally. And by the way, he had all these
> statistics of the number of "out of wedlock" births by people of color.
> Implicit in this is the cultural moré that womens' only function in life is
> to take care of men. (NOT.)
> 
> Mia  
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU]
> On Behalf Of Richard Smith
> Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 10:40 PM
> To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
> Subject: Re: [ILAT] traditions of assimilation...
> 
> yeah,
> did you catch that....?   "a Tradition of Assimilation"
> wow...amazing... we have traditionalists in office!
> By the way...who's "tradition of assimilation?"
> 
> richard zane smith
> Wyandotte, Oklahoma
> 
> 
> On 2/11/08 8:55 AM, "phil cash cash" <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU> wrote:
> 
>> Momentum Building for Oklahoma Official English Bill
>> 
> http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-11
> -2
>> 008/0004753576&EDATE=
>> 
>> ~~~
>> 
>> While there seems to be  respect for Native American languages, these are
> the
>> words of legislators behind the English-only bill in the Oklahoma state
>> legislature:
>> 
>> "...maintain a tradition of assimilation through our
>> common language of English."
>> 
>> It seems hard to reconcile this position with Native American language
>> preservation.  Though I imagine the architects of such legislation view NA
>> languages as "preservation at a distance".
>> 
>> l8ter,
>> 
>> Phil
>> UofA
>