Про 38 Дакотов на английском

the mass execution of 38 dakota patriots on dec. 26, 1862 criminalized indigenous resistance and was a definitive moment in us imperialism. most of those executed were dakota christians, who had taken up the plow, cut their hair, and re-settled onto reservations. their adoption of 'white ways' did not spare them the rope or knife. the indian problem has never been whether or not indians embraced western 'civilization'; indians are a problem precisely because they continue to exist on desired lands and resources. much like taoyateduta, he loves his red nation (aka little crow), who had also taken up the plow, some had chosen to struggle and die for their survival — because the us posed an existential threat to their nation — even though they knew the chances for freedom were slim. the executions and subsequent scalp and head bounties were all legal. federal and state law, in these instances, whether by military tribunal or state ordinance, imposed a legal order — literally forged in the flesh, bone, and scalp of our ancestors — that hid its own criminal behaviors: namely illegal occupation, theft, and plunder. it is no coincidence, the 'great emancipator,' abraham lincoln, signed the emancipation proclamation the same week he ordered the largest mass execution in us history, now known as the dakota 38+2.

federal troops had to be sent to crush the southern rebellion during the civil war to secure the emancipation of african slaves. national guards for frontier defense had to be organized to secure westward expansion and the possession of the indigenous lands by a white supremacist empire, as was the case of the minnesota national guards, an irregular settler militia. the dakotas were regarded as irredeemable enemies and were mercilessly hunted down in 1863-4 by gen. john pope's 'columns of vengeance' culminating in the massacre of 400 dakota men, women, and children at whitestone hill on sept. 3, 1863. in 1864, also during the civil war, that lincoln ordered kit carson to crush navajo and apache resistance. the result was hweeldi, or the long walk, that imprisoned navajos at bosque redondo killing more than 2000. meanwhile, confederate leaders, the white slave masters, enjoyed amnesty after the civil war, facing little retribution other than losing their property in the form of human beings and facing occupation by federal troops to oversee reconstruction in the south.

when northern support for reconstruction waned and federal troops were withdrawn in 1873, the army of the west, which headquartered out of fort leavenworth, formed to crush and eliminate indigenous resistance and drew from the ranks of union heroes such as gen. william tecumseh sherman and lt. col. george armstrong custer, two of the most notorious indian fighters. (the 'heroes' of the indian wars went on to lead invasions of the phillipines and cuba, having mastered 'total war' and counterinsurgency tactics against indigenous noncombatants.) having left the south, federal troops swelled the ranks of the army of the west to kill indians. in their absence, southern white elites used racial terror such as lynching to reclaim dominance against poor blacks — and whites, who benefited from the radical reforms of reconstruction, such as free primary education. meanwhile, dakota and lakota territory remained under military occupation (much as it does today) in the form of prisoner of war camps called reservations. from fort marion in florida, a prisoner of war camp, came the education system for indians, known as the boarding school, which taught military discipline, obedience, and settler patriotism but surely did not teach us to fight, especially for our freedom.

as we remember our ancestors who survived genocide (my dakota ancestor melissa dufonde's parents were killed during the us-dakota war and she was sent to the prisoner of war camp at crow creek), we should also reflect on us imperialism and the longest resistance movement in this hemisphere, the indigenous liberation movement, and its relation to other struggles, such as the black liberation movement and anti-imperialism, that are, by default, our struggles, too. hecetu welo.