Happy U.S. "Native American Day" (9/22)

NationalToday.com, 9/22/23; Xochitl, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

This is not the only day honoring the First Nations peoples, the American Indians

Why are Indians always looking so grim and drab, not smiling? Artifacts of the technology

Want just one book? This is it

Native American Day is celebrated on the fourth Friday of September every year, falling on Sept. 22 this year, as a way of honoring those who have been a part of the American tradition even before the nation of the U.S.A. came into being.

However, the history of the Native Americans is written in blood and violence. After centuries of persecution, not much is left of the tribes, and many have been forced to integrate into modern [White Man's] society.

We saved those d*mn savages

Those still in touch with their roots will remember these events and honor their ancestor’s sacrifices [on this land for thousands if not tens of thousands of years].

Native American Day is a holiday that hopes to change the way non-Native people view Native Americans and their culture(s).

Source: NATIVE AMERICAN DAY - September 22, 2023 - National Today

What is real American history?

Indians are a busy and industrious segment of US society, but the mainstream media doesn't tell us that. Here Natives at the Full Circle Planning + Design are seen working (ABC News/MSN)

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(Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz)

Historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz debunks the pervasive and self-congratulatory American myth that our country is proudly founded "by and for immigrants."

She urges readers to embrace a more complex and honest history of the United States of America.

Many Americans, regardless of party affiliation, proudly say that we are "a nation of immigrants."

This bold book asserts this ideology is harmful and dishonest because it serves to mask and diminish our history of

• settler colonialism
• genocide
• white supremacy
• slavery
•  structural inequality.

We still grapple with all of these today. The idea that we are living in a land of opportunity — founded and built by immigrants — was a convenient response by the ruling class and its brain trust to the 1960s' demands for

• decolonialization
• social justice
• implicit bias and discrimination
• reparations
• balancing social inequalities.

This feel good but inaccurate story promotes a benign narrative of constant "progress," obscuring that the country was founded on violence, as a settler state, and imperialism.

Do you think Quetzalcoatl will be much longer, Brother? - I'm pretty sure he's not coming

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Some of us are immigrants or descendants of immigrants. Others are descendants of white settlers who arrived as COLONIZERS to displace those here since time immemorial.

Still others are descendants of those who were kidnapped and forced here against their will. This paradigm-shifting book is from the highly-acclaimed author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States.

The point? We need to stop believing and perpetuating this simplistic and ahistorical lies and embrace the real (though often horrific) history of the United States.