Why hasn't the US made a formal apology to the Native Americans?

...why would anyone want an apology from pathological liars?...

Originally posted by TheForgottenOnes
and in my oppinion... the US should pay back real estate costs of all the US just to be fair, and then they're even lol

...lol?...

...would money make you feel better if your ancestors had been slaughtered or forced into concentration camps, treated as less than human?... if so, you've got bigger problems than believing that an apology from liars is worth something...

There is a lot of ignorance on this thread.

For starters, while the US government as a whole refuses, the BIA apologized, sort of, for what little it was worth on September 8, 2000:

Remarks of Kevin Gover,
Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs
Department of the Interior at the
Ceremony Acknowledging the 175th Anniversary
of the Establishment of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs
September 8, 2000

In March of 1824, President James Monroe established the Office of Indian Affairs in the Department of War. Its mission was to conduct the nation's business with regard to Indian affairs. We have come together today to mark the first 175 years of the institution now known as the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

It is appropriate that we do so in the first year of a new century and a new millennium, a time when our leaders are reflecting on what lies ahead and preparing for those challenges. Before looking ahead, though, this institution must first look back and reflect on what it has wrought and, by doing so, come to know that this is no occasion for celebration; rather it is time for reflection and contemplation, a time for sorrowful truths to be spoken, a time for contrition.

We must first reconcile ourselves to the fact that the works of this agency have at various times profoundly harmed the communities it was meant to serve. From the very beginning, the Office of Indian Affairs was an instrument by which the United States enforced its ambition against the Indian nations and Indian people who stood in its path. And so, the first mission of this institution was to execute the removal of the southeastern tribal nations. By threat, deceit, and force, these great tribal nations were made to march 1,000 miles to the west, leaving thousands of their old, their young and their infirm in hasty graves along the Trail of Tears.

As the nation looked to the West for more land, this agency participated in the ethnic cleansing that befell the western tribes. War necessarily begets tragedy; the war for the West was no exception. Yet in these more enlightened times, it must be acknowledged that the deliberate spread of disease, the decimation of the mighty bison herds, the use of the poison alcohol to destroy mind and body, and the cowardly killing of women and children made for tragedy on a scale so ghastly that it cannot be dismissed as merely the inevitable consequence of the clash of competing ways of life. This agency and the good people in it failed in the mission to prevent the devastation. And so great nations of patriot warriors fell. We will never push aside the memory of unnecessary and violent death at places such as Sand Creek, the banks of the Wa#a River, and Wounded Knee.

Nor did the consequences of war have to include the futile and destructive efforts to annihilate Indian cultures. After the devastation of tribal economies and the deliberate creation of tribal dependence on the services provided by this agency, this agency set out to destroy all things Indian.

This agency forbade the speaking of Indian languages, prohibited the conduct of traditional religious activities, outlawed traditional government, and made Indian people ashamed of who they were. Worst of all, the Bureau of Indian Affairs committed these acts against the children entrusted to its boarding schools, brutalizing them emotionally, psychologically, physically, and spiritually. Even in this era of self -determination, when the Bureau of Indian Affairs is at long last serving as an advocate for Indian people in an atmosphere of mutual respect, the legacy of these misdeeds haunts us. The trauma of shame, fear and anger has passed from one generation to the next, and manifests itself in the rampant alcoholism, drug abuse, and domestic violence that plague Indian country .Many of our people live lives of unrelenting tragedy as Indian families suffer the ruin of lives by alcoholism, suicides made of shame and despair, and violent death at the hands of one another. So many of the maladies suffered today in Indian country result from the failures of this agency. Poverty, ignorance, and disease have been the product of this agency's work.

And so today I stand before you as the leader of an institution that in the past has committed acts so terrible that they infect, diminish, and destroy the lives of Indian people decades later, generations later. These things occurred despite the efforts of many good people with good hearts who sought to prevent them. These wrongs must be acknowledged if the healing is to begin.

I do not speak today for the United States. That is the province of the nation's elected leaders, and I would not presume to speak on their behalf. I am empowered, however, to speak on behalf of this agency, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and I am quite certain that the words that follow reflect the hearts of its 10,000 employees.

Let us begin by expressing our profound sorrow for what this agency has done in the past. Just like you, when we think of these misdeeds and their tragic consequences, our hearts break and our grief is as pure and complete as yours. We desperately wish that we could change this history, but of course we cannot. On behalf of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, I extend this formal apology to Indian people for the historical conduct of this agency.

And while the BIA employees of today did not commit these wrongs, we acknowledge that the institution we serve did. We accept this inheritance, this legacy of racism and inhumanity. And by accepting this legacy, we accept also the moral responsibility of putting things right.

We therefore begin this important work anew, and make a new commitment to the people and communities that we serve, a commitment born of the dedication we share with you to the cause of renewed hope and prosperity for Indian country. Never again will this agency stand silent when hate and violence are committed against Indians. Never again will we allow policy to proceed from the assumption that Indians possess less human genius than the other races. Never again will we be complicit in the theft of Indian property. Never again will we appoint false leaders who serve purposes other than those of the tribes. Never again will we allow unflattering and stereotypical images of Indian people to deface the halls of government or lead the American people to shallow and ignorant beliefs about Indians. Never again will we attack your religions, your languages, your rituals, or any of your tribal ways. Never again will we seize your children, nor teach them to be ashamed of who they are. Never again.

We cannot yet ask your forgiveness, not while the burdens of this agency's history weigh so heavily on tribal communities. What we do ask is that, together, we allow the healing to begin: As you return to your homes, and as you talk with your people, please tell them that time of dying is at its end. Tell your children that the time of shame and fear is over. Tell your young men and women to replace their anger with hope and love for their people. Together, we must wipe the tears of seven generations. Together, we must allow our broken hearts to mend. Together, we will face a challenging world with confidence and trust. Together, let us resolve that when our future leaders gather to discuss the history of this institution, it will be time to celebrate the rebirth of joy, freedom, and progress for the Indian Nations. The Bureau of Indian Affairs was born in 1824 in a time of war on Indian people. May it live in the year 2000 and beyond as an instrument of their prosperity.

www.tahtonka.com...

For those who think the active policy of genocide against Native Americans by the US is a thing of the far past:

During the late 1960s and the early 1970s, a policy of involuntary surgical sterilization was imposed upon Native American women in the United States, usually without their knowledge or consent, by the federally funded Indian Health Service (IHS), then run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). It is alleged that the existence of the sterilization program was discovered by members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) during its occupation of the BIA headquarters in 1972. A 1974 study by Women of All Red Nations (WARN), concluded that as many as 42 percent of all American Indian women of childbearing age had, by that point, been sterilized without their consent. A subsequent investigation was conducted by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), though it was restricted to only four of the many IHS facilities nationwide and examined only the years 1973 to 1976. The GAO study showed that 3,406 involuntary sterilizations were performed in these four IHS hospitals during this three-year period. Consequently, the IHS was transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services in 1978.

encyclopedia.jrank.org... /Forced-Sterilization-of-Native-Americans.html

Termination Era 1950s, Public Law 280 Juneau in late 1940s

The 1950s are called the ‘termination era’ in federal Indian policy because Congress adopted policies aimed at terminating federal obligations to tribes. The three main tools the federal government used to accomplish this were the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) relocation program, actual termination of some tribes, and by extending state jurisdiction into Indian country through Public Law 280.

Relocation Programs: Relocating people from reservations and Alaska Native villages into the big U.S. cities for training and employment became a general trend after World War II. Indian Commissioner Glen Emmons started the BIA Relocation Program in 1948. By 1953 placements had reached 2,600, and they peaked in 1957 with some 7,000. By 1960 a total of 33,466 American Indian and Alaska Native people had been relocated.

Terminating Tribal Status: Congress passed House Concurrent Resolution 108 (HCR 108) in 1953 which called for ending the special federal relationship with tribes and terminating their status as tribes as rapidly as possible. Over 100 tribes were terminated under this policy, and over a million acres of land were removed from trust status. Some tribes later regained their tribal status such as the Menominee Tribe in Wisconsin. No tribes in Alaska were terminated under this policy, likely because Alaska did not become a State until the late 1950s when the federal policy of terminating tribal status was beginning to decline.

Public Law 280: Public Law 280 (P.L. 280) was an Act passed by Congress in 1953 which extended state criminal and some civil jurisdiction into Indian country in certain named states. In those states, P.L. 280 transferred federal law enforcement authority to state authority in Indian country. Without P.L. 280, these matters were dealt with by either tribal and/or federal law enforcement. Basically, P.L. 280 was an attempt by the federal government to reduce its role in Indian affairs. State dissatisfaction with the law was focused on the failure of the Act to provide funding for their new authority to enforce criminal law in Indian country. Tribes affected by P.L. 280 saw it as undermining tribal sovereignty because it was imposed on them without tribal consent, or even consultation. Public Law 280 has caused a great deal of confusion over jurisdiction in the states where it applies.

Public Law 280 was applied to Alaska upon Statehood in 1959, with the exception of the Metlakatla Indian Reservation. This law has been the subject of extensive debate and litigation in terms of what it means in Alaska, and will likely continue to confuse the picture of tribal and state jurisdiction for some years to come. The State of Alaska argued for many years that P.L. 280 terminated tribal jurisdiction, but court decisions have consistently ruled that it did not. Public Law 280 did not limit or diminish any tribal jurisdiction in the states where it applies. However, much tribal jurisdiction runs concurrently with the state, meaning both states and tribes share jurisdiction over many matters.

tm112.community.uaf.edu... w-280/

1. What is ICWA, and why was it passed?

"ICWA" stands for the Indian Child Welfare Act, which is a federal law passed in 1978. ICWA was passed in response to the alarmingly high number of Indian children being removed from their homes by both public and private agencies. The intent of Congress under ICWA was to "protect the best interests of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families" (25 U.S.C. § 1902). ICWA sets federal requirements that apply to state child custody proceedings involving an Indian child who is a member of or eligible for membership in a federally recognized tribe.

www.nicwa.org...

1974 Relocation Act

Boyden requested Congress to partition the Joint-Use area into separate Dineh and Hopi areas, so that the Hopi could obtain better access to the land traditionally inhabited by the Dineh. The 1974 Navajo-Hopi Settlement Act was pushed through Congress by a group representing the coal-fired power industry, which believed their industry would benefit by having the U.S. government finance the eviction of all the people living in an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. In their rush to promote national energy self-sufficiency, Congress never considered where the people would go or how relocation would affect their lives. Nor did they consider the wishes of the people they planned to relocate. John McCain authored this "relocation" bill.

1980 A Site for Relocation Purchased
The U.S. government purchases a uranium-contaminated site near Chambers, AZ as the "New Lands" for the evicted Dineh. This site qualified as a candidate for the Superfund cleanup after the worst RADIOACTIVE SPILL the world has ever known!
Instead of spending money for a cleanup, they thought it could be purchased for a very few dollars, and used for the "New Lands" for the evicted People!
The spill figures;
When = 1979, Jul. 16
Place = Church Rock, New Mexico
Parent company = United Nuclear
Cause = dam wall breach, due to differential foundation settlement
Released = 370,000 cubic METERS of radioactive water,
(that's 94 million gallons!)
PLUS 1,100 TONS of solids from a uranium mine tailing pond
Contaminated = Contamination of land area as well as Rio Puerco river sediments up to
110 km downstream
And - a prior spill from the same source - and contaminating the same land - but
to a lesser extent than the one later. Note: the term "Lesser extent" is used only
in comparing these two spills to each other - both spilled deadly radiation onto
the lands that the BIA has choosen for the relocation site!!!!
1976, Apr. 1
Place = Church Rock, New Mexico
Company = Kerr-McGee
Cause = dam failure, due to differntial settlement of foundation soils
Released = "minor quantity"
Contaminated = ???????
www.ratical.org... Excellent, but long
description of the spill

www.applicom.com... - An interview with Lisa Tso in her home

"According to the Southwest Research and Information Center Report entitled "Progress Report of the Puerco River Education Project, April 24, 1986, revised and updated May 8, 1986, it states: "The water quality of the Rio Puerco is characterized by concentrations of radioactive materials and heavy metals that exceed federal and state drinking water standards up to 100 times higher than Arizona maximum limits. 1.5 million tons of uranium ore that was processed and left in contaminated waste piles covering 72 acres next to the San Juan River near Shiprock, New Mexico. Both the Little Colorado and the Puerco are carrying radioactive contamination into the Colorado River and Grand Canyon."

Legal documents Navajo vs Kerr-McGee

1996 The Final Solution

Congress passed the 1996 Navajo-Hopi Settlement Act, which required all Dineh remaining on the land in defiance of the 1974 law either to sign leases with the Hopi government ceding all of their property and civil rights, or to be forcibly evicted by the year 2000. Congress offered the Hopi government $25 million if it could get 95 families to sign these unfair leases, unleashing a campaign of coercion, fraud, and forgery. With their remedies in U.S. courts seemingly exhausted, the people turned to the UN for help, resulting in investigation in 1998 by a representative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Letter from Thayer Scudder renowned Anthropologist to Mr. Abdelfattah Amor Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights

This final solution - the Navajo-Hopi Settlement Act, was sponsored by Senator John McCain. Senator McCain comes from a very wealthy family, and has some very close personal and political ties to; the mining industry (coal, uranium, etc.), the power generating industry, and at the time he sponsored this genocidal bill - he was Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs! To state the facts in plain blunt english, he sold out the lives of these Indian people, relocating them to radioactive contaminated lands, so that his "friends" in the mining and power generating industries would profit. Genocide for profit.

www.aics.org...

For info on ongoing struggles go here:

bsnorrell.blogspot.com...

Lest we forget what genocide is here is how it is legally defined by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948:

Article 1

The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.

Article 2

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Article 3

The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide.

Article 4

Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.

Article 5

The Contracting Parties undertake to enact, in accordance with their respective Constitutions, the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the present Convention and, in particular, to provide effective penalties for persons guilty of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3.

Article 6

Persons charged with genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall be tried by a competent tribunal of the State in the territory of which the act was committed, or by such international penal tribunal as may have jurisdiction with respect to those Contracting Parties which shall have accepted its jurisdiction.

Article 7

Genocide and the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall not be considered as political crimes for the purpose of extradition.

The Contracting Parties pledge themselves in such cases to grant extradition in accordance with their laws and treaties in force.

Article 8

Any Contracting Party may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3.

Article 9

Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfilment of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a State for genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3, shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute.

Article 10

The present Convention, of which the Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall bear the date of 9 December 1948.

Article 11

The present Convention shall be open until 31 December 1949 for signature on behalf of any Member of the United Nations and of any non-member State to which an invitation to sign has been addressed by the General Assembly.

The present Convention shall be ratified, and the instruments of ratification shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

After 1 January 1950, the present Convention may be acceded to on behalf of any Member of the United Nations and of any non-member State which has received an invitation as aforesaid.

Instruments of accession shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Article 12

Any Contracting Party may at any time, by notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, extend the application of the present Convention to all or any of the territories for the conduct of whose foreign relations that Contracting Party is responsible.

Article 13

On the day when the first twenty instruments of ratification or accession have been deposited, the Secretary-General shall draw up a proces-verbal and transmit a copy of it to each Member of the United Nations and to each of the non-member States contemplated in Article 11.

The present Convention shall come into force on the ninetieth day following the date of deposit of the twentieth instrument of ratification or accession.

Any ratification or accession effected subsequent to the latter date shall become effective on the ninetieth day following the deposit of the instrument of ratification or accession.

Article 14

The present Convention shall remain in effect for a period of ten years as from the date of its coming into force.

It shall thereafter remain in force for successive periods of five years for such Contracting Parties as have not denounced it at least six months before the expiration of the current period.

Denunciation shall be effected by a written notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Article 15

If, as a result of denunciations, the number of Parties to the present Convention should become less than sixteen, the Convention shall cease to be in force as from the date on which the last of these denunciations shall become effective.

Article 16

A request for the revision of the present Convention may be made at any time by any Contracting Party by means of a notification in writing addressed to the Secretary-General.

The General Assembly shall decide upon the steps, if any, to be taken in respect of such request.

Article 17

The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall notify all Members of the United Nations and the non-member States contemplated in Article 11 of the following:

(a) Signatures, ratifications and accessions received in accordance with Article 11;
(b) Notifications received in accordance with Article 12;
(c) The date upon which the present Convention comes into force in accordance with Article 13;
(d) Denunciations received in accordance with Article 14;
(e) The abrogation of the Convention in accordance with Article 15;
(f) Notifications received in accordance with Article 16.

Article 18

The original of the present Convention shall be deposited in the archives of the United Nations.

A certified copy of the Convention shall be transmitted to all Members of the United Nations and to the non-member States contemplated in Article 11.

Article 19

The present Convention shall be registered by the Secretary-General of the United Nations on the date of its coming into force.

www.hrweb.org...


So by the treaty signed in 1948, the US has been and is guilty of ongoing genocide against Native American people with every means at its disposal including forced sterilization and forced relocation; environmental, economic and cultural war is practiced as official US policy to this day.

The reason the US will never apologize and most patriotic "proud to be an American" is because it strikes at the legitimacy of both the US and its creation myth.

Americans need to believe they had a right to take the continent by force and terror. They fear at government levels, of being fored to honor the treaties that were signed promising true soveriegnty when we were "ready". They don't want to pay for what they promised when they took our lands.

America is the land where the sanctity of a contract is absolute until it is unprofitable, a nation built mostly on lies and genocide, with a bloody, racist history. To apologize for what they did requires first to know and ackonowledge what they did, then admit to what they are doing. That is simply unbearable for most: the myth is tastier than the reality.

To understand true terrorism try this:

On Friday, August 10th 1810, the Great Cherokee Children Massacre took place at Ywahoo Falls in southeast Kentucky ...... the Cherokee village leaders of the Cumberland Plateau territory from Knoxville Tennessee to the Cumberland River in Kentucky were led by the northern provisional Thunderbolt District Chief, Beloved Woman/War Woman "Cornblossom", the highly honored daughter of the famous Thunderbolt War Chief Doublehead. Several months before this date, Beloved Woman/War Woman Cornblossom, was preparing the people in all the Cherokee villages of southeast Kentucky and northern Tennessee to bring all their children to the sacred Ywahoo Falls area of refuge and safety.

Once all the Cherokee children were gathered, they were to make a journey to Reverend Gideon Blackburns' Presbyterian Indian School at Sequatchie Valley outside of Chattanooga Tennessee in order to save the children of the Cherokee Nation remaining in Kentucky and northern Tennessee on the Cumberland Plateau.

This area of Sequatchie Valley was very near to Lookout Mountain at Chattanooga, the once long held Chickamauga National capital of the Thunderbolts. Near Lookout Mountain, just on the other side in northeast Alabama, was the rendezvous point for the Chickamaugan Cherokees and their allies the Creek Nation. For by this time, many Creek and Chickamaugan Thunderbolt Cherokee were defending the rest of the Indian Nations there as well. The arrangements to save the Cherokee children through Gideon Blackburns' white protection Christian Indian Schools, had been made earlier by Cornblossoms father War Chief Doublehead, who had also several years earlier been assassinated by non-traditionalist of the southern Cherokee Nation of the Carolinas and far eastern Tennessee.

A huge gathering area underneath Ywahoo Falls itself was to be the central meeting place for these women and children to gather and wait. Then all the children of all ages would go as one group southward to the school to safety from the many Indian fighters gathering in the neighboring counties of Wayne and Pulaski in Kentucky. These Indian fighters were led by an old Franklinite militiaman from Tennessee named Hiram "Big Tooth" Gregory who came from Sullivan County Tennessee at the settlement of Franklin and had fought many Franklinite campaigns under John Sevier to eliminate all the traditional Thunderbolt Cherokees totally and without mercy. Big Tooth Gregory, sanctioned by the United States government, War Department, and Governor of the territory, carried on the ill famous Indian hating battle cry of John Seveir that "nits make lice". Orders were understood by these Cherokee haters that nits (baby lice) would grow up to be adults and especially targeted in all the campaigns of John Seveir Franklinites were the Cherokees women, pregnant women, and children of all ages. John Seveir, Big Tooth Gregory, and all the rest of the Franklinites philosophy was that if they could destroy the children of the Cherokee, there would be no Cherokees and no Cherokee Nation to contend with in their expansion of white settlements, the white churches, and the claiming of territory for the United States. Orders were issued to the Franklinites to split open the belly of any pregnant Cherokee woman, remove the baby inside her, and slice it as well. To the Franklinites, the Cherokee baby inside the mother was the nit that would eventually make lice....

...Runners brought word to Standing Fern at the falls that her husband War Chief Peter Troxell and Cornblossom were on their way to Ywahoo Falls with the last of the children. Traveling with Cornblossom and War Chief Peter Troxell were Chief Red Bird of the Cumberland Falls area and their children, the youngest children of Cornblossom, and all the children of War Chief Peter Troxell. When they arrived at Ywahoo Falls the journey southward would begin. But before Cornblossom, Red Bird, War Chief Peter Troxell, and the children with them arrived, the old Franklinite "Indian fighter" by the name of Hiram "Big Tooth" Gregory had heard of the planned trip several days prior and headed immediately for the falls area to kill them all with all he could muster to kill the Cherokee.

Breaking the 1807 peace treaty between War Chief Peter Troxell and the Governor of Kentucky, Big Tooth Gregorys band of Indian fighters crossed into Cherokee territory and came in two directions, one group from Wayne County, the other from neighboring Pulaski county in southeast Kentucky. The Indian fighters on horseback joined together at what is now called Flat Rock Kentucky and headed into the Ywahoo Falls area with fiery hatred. Big Tooth Gregory and his Indian fighters could not allow these children (nits) to escape. Being only 1 good accessible way in by land and 1 way in by water, Gregorys band of Indian fighters chose the quick way by land, sending a few side skirmishers by way to block anyone trying to escape. Before they reached the falls, at todays entrance to Ywahoo Falls, the Indian fighters encountered a front Cherokee guard consisting of "Big Jake" Jacob Troxell (husband to Cornblossom), a few long hunters friendly to the Cherokee mainly through intermarriage and some remaining Thunderbolt warriors, all who were guarding the entrance to the falls. This occurred shortly after midnight in the early morning hours of darkness before the rising of the sun. This will be the night morning of screams. This will be the last day of many children. This will be the day that will forever mark the Troxell Cherokee heritage in history.

Jacob Troxell, the long hunters, and warriors instantly sense the trouble, a Cherokee runner takes off in flight to attempt to warn Standing Fern at the falls but is cut down by 2 side skirmishers on the way. At the same time Jacob Troxell and the front guards lock in a fierce battle of flintlock against flintlock and hand to hand fighting, trying to keep Gregory and his band out, but are overcome in a short time by the numbers of the Indian fighters. All the front guard is killed at this entrance to Ywahoo Falls. It was said through the memories of the Cherokee people of southeast Kentucky that Jacob Troxell and 1 renowned great warrior were the last to fall of the front guards. Jacob, now swinging a half broken highly decorated war club in one hand and a large skinning knife in the other, stood fighting hand to hand with blood coming out of his mouth from several bodily wounds and was said to have kept screaming to the end in a loud voice over and over, "The Children!". The Great Warrior witnessed the fall of Jacob as the Indian fighters took sharp aim and fired a whole volley of lead into Jacobs body finally downing and scalping him. Jacob will survive this attack but is mortally wounded and will live 2 months before he dies as a result from this massacre. So some say that Jacob died at this massacre to denote his final breath to save the children because that was where his heart was - defending the children of a now forgotten people lost within the hills and valleys of southeast Kentucky waiting for remembrance of their families. The Great Warrior, who was still standing and the last to fall, was jumped by several Indian fighters and downed to the ground. Breaking his arms the Indian fighters then cut his throat and scalped him.

This had all been witnessed and watched by a hidden son of one of the front Cherokee guards who was given orders to flee into the woods upon the Indian fighters approach. This hidden Cherokee son would carry down this memory for generations (today at this entrance to Ywahoo Falls there is only one lonely memorial grave marker with the name "Jacob Troxell" only, to mark remembrance of this incident, the Ywahoo Falls area is part of the Big South Fork River and Recreation Area of the National Park Service and is the tallest waterfall in Kentucky which drops 113 feet, underneath and behind the falls is an open huge gigantic rock shelter where the children and Standing Fern had gathered).

Gregory with his Indian fighters after scalping all the front guards, then moved onward in a rush to the falls area. Lining themselves all along the top rim of the bluff surrounding the falls and large "rock house" below it, they began firing from all sides down on War Woman Standing Fern and over 100 children now trapped directly underneath them. The ones out from the falls ran, hid, and escaped. Trapping the 100 children with other old men, pregnant women, and mothers underneath the falls, Gregory and his men worked their way down into the gigantic area of the rock house on the 2 downward side paths while the ones on top kept them bottled in. As children and women fell all around her from the volley of lead above, War Woman Standing Fern and her few warriors now take to the two left and right inclining side paths that lead into the huge rock shelter hoping to meet and stop the Indian fighters. Looking outward from underneath the falls itself, Standing Fern and several warriors took the right hand path that would lead upward, the other few warriors took the left path. The trapped Cherokee people and the children old enough to hold a weapon grabbed what ever they could in their grasps to defend themselves. Some would have a knife or hatchet, while most would only have a rock or a clay cooking bowl to throw or nothing at all to use as a weapon. Some of the ones who escaped out from the falls, hid among the rocks, water, and trees and would watch in horror with tears to tell the story for generations so that we may remember what happened that day, Friday, August 10th, 1810.

Standing Fern and her warriors were very quickly overcome by the Indian fighters and brutally killed but not before Standing Fern fought with a passion of defense taking with her several of the Indian fighters in hand to hand combat along the right path while the other warriors fought with the ever fevered courage of a Thunderbolt as well. The fall of Standing Fern occurred at a narrow spot on the right path fighting several of the Indian fighters with the swinging of a hatchet in hand to hand combat. As she was fighting she was shot twice, once in the shoulder and once in the hip, and gutted in the belly with an unforeseen knife. As the knife entered her belly, at the same time she was shoved over the ravine by several Indian Fighters, but not before taking some with her.

With Standing Fern and all her warriors now defeated and murdered, the Indian fighters set upon the children and others that were trapped under the falls, rushing it with more volleys of lead and close attack. Using what useless weapons they had, the women, old men, and children fell prey to the evil dark designs of the attackers. They screamed an earthquake of death and tears. The water and ground ran red.

Hiram Big Tooth Gregory and all his Indian fighters raped the women and younger female children of all ages, pillaged, cut bellies open, murdered, and scalped over 100 Chickamaugan Cherokee women and children that had been trapped underneath Ywahoo Falls, killing most of them as they ran, begged, huddled together, and screamed and pleaded for life.

Meanwhile this same day the party of Cornblossom approached with her children. As her party came closer to the falls area, it is said a hawk flew above them and lit in a nearby tree and acted strange. Investigating this remarkable occurrence, it was found that the tree was bleeding blood out of its bark, the leaves trembled, and the sound of the hawk was as a cry and scream of a baby. Fearing something wrong, Cornblosom and her party pushed onward in a frantic pace to get her children to the falls and safety. When Cornblossom arrived at the falls entrance area, she found all of the front guards brutally scalped and killed with her husband "Big Jake" Jacob Troxell. Leaving the children with some women at the front guard entrance, Cornblossom, her son War Chief Peter Troxell, Red Bird, and their party of warriors and war women then rushed to the Falls itself, where they find some of Gregorys murderers who had remained behind still finishing their evil work of rape, torture, and scalping. Cornblossom screams for her warriors, Redbird, and her son Chief Peter Troxell to kill these remaining men with a blow of passion. Her famous cry was once again heard as she had always shouted in all her many campaigns: "Shoot Twice Not Once!". War Chief Peter Troxell, Chief Redbird, and the Thunderbolt Warriors, along with Beloved Woman / War Woman Cornblossom, charge the murderers with screaming Cherokee war hoops and passion of justice, a battle ensues with a short volley of rifle fire and close hand to hand combat with all its fierceness. All the remaining men of Gregorys Indian fighters are cut down to never more harm the Cherokee people.

From this last fight of Cornblossom, her son War Chief Peter Troxell was himself killed at the huge rock shelter underneath the falls and Cornblossom herself received an agonizing long rifle gunshot injury. Cornblossom will live 2 days before this wound takes its full toll on her life. Beloved Woman Cornblossom, wounded and in much pain from wound and sorrow, will sing and wail the "Death song of the Cherokees" underneath and atop the ancient sacred grounds of Ywahoo Falls over and over for 2 days and nights. Clinching her raised fists and raised open arms to the Great Spirit, day and night, she kept screaming the words of her father Doublehead, son War Chief Peter Troxell, and daughter-n-law War Woman Standing Fern: "WE ARE NOT CONQUERED YET!". And on the 3rd day, as the blazing eastern morning sun would rise over the mountains and valleys of Kentucky, Cornblossom passed on into Cherokee history as a great woman of her people and a great mother of future generations. May we not forget her or her childrens children. Remember her with a Cherokee tear and with honor.

From this massacre, Jacob Troxell (husband to Cornblossom), the Great Warrior, and all the front guards killed, War Woman Standing Fern (wife to War Chief Peter Troxell) and her elite Thunderbolt warriors all killed defending the children below the falls, War Chief Peter Troxell killed in the last fight, and over 100 women and children waiting to go south to safety in a children journey to a Christian mission school, all lay dead, massacred, raped, tortured, and scalped, by these "Indian fighters". It was said that "Bones and Blood ran so deep underneath Ywahoo Falls that the murdered dead were all put there together in a heap to be their grave". The place of innocence and the Ancient Ones now became a place of death of the innocent. The Falls ran red that day of darkness, Friday, August 10, 1810. No more will they witness the Blessed Moonbow at Cumberland Falls and receive its sacred Blessing, no more will they hear great orations spoken at Ywahoo Falls by not only the many Cherokee leaders of the Nation but other great orators from other tribal neighbors as well. No more will they roam and see the land of paradise and the geological wonders of the area. William Troxell the youngest son of Cornblossom will forever keep the fires of memory alive so all may know what happened on Friday August 10, 1810. These fires will be carried by William to Alabama were the stories are etched and burned into the generations to come of the Troxells and whoever may listen and remember.

They will now wait for remembrance of themselves, their land, their culture, and their hearts. They will wait for someone to say "I remember".

A relative Troxell and a Blevins man of the area reports this incident to the Sheriff of Wayne County but nothing is done, nor is Hiram Big Tooth Gregory brought to justice for many of the local non-Indians believed that "nits make lice".

happytrails..._2.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfile s/ywahoo.htm

If you want to know what a true minority is, look around you and count the Indians: most of my life I've been a minority of one, the only Apache in the joint unless my borther was with me, no matter how big the place is. All of my life I've dealt with both passive and overt racism, called "chief" by people who don't understand that Apaches don't have chiefs, only someone willing to talk to Americans...no Apache ever acknowledged anyone being more than a leading man for a given situation, not the same, who leads one time follows the next.

An apology?

It'd be nice, but will it give me my history back? The one I should have recieved from my lost grandfathers and grandmothers? Where is my friendly home to return to, teeming with my people, filled with the laughter of children teasing each other in Apache?

My home is empty of the Chiricauhua, filled only with their ghosts and raucous disrespect of their conquerors.

An apology?

Tell you what: you can skip the apology, and even the reparations if you'll do just one thing:

Get the bloody hell off my land and don't return unless invited!!



Sorry..reviewing the history and remembering my own grievances gets me a little heated.

reply to post by Analyze76

Thats kinda like asking Albion to apologize to the Angles for trying to stop the invasion Of Britain.....
I don't think its meant to work that way somehow.
But......Acknowledgment of this period needs to be noted and part of that acknoledgment should be a apology and then to be replaced with a National Day Of Unity...a day to share cultures. A solution isn't it but as I stated before your government is kinda busy in the grove...........oops did i say Grove slip of the Owl...oops i mean tongue....

Casino's
55 million acres of reservations. where local or state gov't cant intervene.
there is probably benefits for colleges and taxes.

just to name a few.

Go blame Britain,France,England, all of Europe if you want some sympathy they started it before it was America technically.

After a bit of research, in 2009 an formal apology was made to the Native Americans, from the federal government of the United States of America. This was not something new, rather it was done in 1993 to the native Hawaiians and in 1988 to the Japanese Americans. The apology made to the Native Americans, also had the backing of the US senate. In 2010, there was an act signed into law, that included, an apology to the Native peoples of the United States. So now there you have it, several times apologies have been made, the question is what else would there to be? Native Americans are granted more leeway, control their own lands, separate from the states that they live in, pay no taxes in the way of sales taxes, get money from the federal government of the United States of America. There is no more that can be done, and they hold 2.3% of the total land in the United States of America, comprising their own separate country. State laws do not apply to the Native Americans, as their own tribal laws superceed that authority, and any crime that is committed on said land, is considered a federal offense.

You realize that you are asking a country of people who mostly have atleast a little native blood coursing through their veins to apologize to you and themselves...?

I have creek blood in me... Also jewish, asian, african,
As well as english (southern wales), dutch, polish, swedish, etc...

How do I apologize to myself... Especially for something I haven't done?

reply to post by superman2012


In Canada, a portion of your taxes do NOT go to helping the Indians. lol, I have no doubts that you believe that but it's BS. The money the Indians get in Canada come from royalties, Canada is rich in resources, as far as I'm concerned, that is where the money that goes to the Indians comes from.

Your tax dollars go into the social system and to paying interest to the big banks, not to the Indians.

At the end of WWII our Navy JAG were crapping their pants because our US Marines were sending Japanese military members back to Japan without heads. Japan could have charged us with War Crimes. So to stop them from charging us with War Crimes America forgave Japan for the War Crimes they committed on the people of Guam....in exchange for Japan not charging America for War Crimes.

The people of Guam weren't Americans back then. They received no War Reparations after America and it's allies seized Japan's assets and sold them off...dividing the money up to people for War Crimes claims.

To this day Guam keeps submitting Bills to Congress trying to get compensated for War Crimes. America forgave Japan....therefor America owes Guam.

They were taken for 3 years by Japan in WWII. Deathmarches, people bayoneted, heads chopped off, forced to do slave labor for Japan, some were taken to Japan to work in slave camps there...some girls were put on Japanese Navy ships and forced to be sex slaves and gang raped until they died.


America just keeps on ignoring their claims for reparations. To make matters worse America's getting ready to launch a "Strike Forward" military operation at China from Guam then divert to Australia....they know China's 2nd Artillery Corps is going to nuke Guam after the strike is launched.....

And all those people again will be sacrificed by America. If there is a God he ain't got no heart. You all should be ashamed for what you've done to that place.

scroll down to where it says "Marbo Annex" in the link below:
yosemite.epa.gov...

Federal EPA just gave DOD a waiver for the TCE (trichloroethylend) in the bottom of the water table there. From back before Hazardous Material laws and thousands of barrels of industrial waste/degreaser/oil was dumped all over there. It's all pooled up in the bottom of the water table. Can't be cleaned up.

So the Federal EPA wrote a waiver for the water table being polluted.

The 3rd Marines and their kids going from Okinawa to Guam are going to be showering/drinking that. Have you no shame?

Originally posted by sdcigarpig
After a bit of research, in 2009 an formal apology was made to the Native Americans, from the federal government of the United States of America. This was not something new, rather it was done in 1993 to the native Hawaiians and in 1988 to the Japanese Americans. The apology made to the Native Americans, also had the backing of the US senate. In 2010, there was an act signed into law, that included, an apology to the Native peoples of the United States. So now there you have it, several times apologies have been made, the question is what else would there to be? Native Americans are granted more leeway, control their own lands, separate from the states that they live in, pay no taxes in the way of sales taxes, get money from the federal government of the United States of America. There is no more that can be done, and they hold 2.3% of the total land in the United States of America, comprising their own separate country. State laws do not apply to the Native Americans, as their own tribal laws superceed that authority, and any crime that is committed on said land, is considered a federal offense.

links? as far as I know, I heard that was in a bill that was passed into law but it was just added into another law

Originally posted by schawalski
what about casino's ? ain't that enough , nope it ain't they'll never apologize , the australian government apologized to it's stolen generation but words don't mean squat , try leaving the land you stole whitey .

WOW...I didn't steal anything. I was born here an am entitled to the same rights as every other Canadian. If you don't want to be a part of Canada...move. We don't want you either...not talking to you schawalski...just people that blame all of their life problems on an act that happened before any of them were a glimmer in their father's eyes.

I think people here probably didn't understand my last comment about getting off the land.

I'm quite serious about that.

I really don't need any more words from a people notorious for failing to keep them.

It is past time to release us: we don't belong to you.

The US is in the same place with us that Israel is with the Palestinians, with a century more practice. Our lands have been encroached on over the years, boundaries adjusted unilaterally, people removed. But the Israelis respect the Palestinians more and treat them far better poltically speaking.

Enough.

Give back the lands illegally taken, abiding by the last best treaty negotiated before the US started offering "take it or die" options.

Remove the Americans illegally on our lands. If they wish to return they may apply for a visa. Any compensation for their losses must come from the US government.

Screw the apology, just get off our lands!!

We'll bill you later for the damage you've done, once we've assessed the scope.

Originally posted by kreese
reply to post by superman2012

 

In Canada, a portion of your taxes do NOT go to helping the Indians. lol, I have no doubts that you believe that but it's BS. The money the Indians get in Canada come from royalties, Canada is rich in resources, as far as I'm concerned, that is where the money that goes to the Indians comes from.

Your tax dollars go into the social system and to paying interest to the big banks, not to the Indians.

I would like to know your source on that...as I have quoted many in my comments on this thread. My tax dollars go into the social system...and the biggest user of social services is....dumdumdumdumdum...Indians! That's right. Canada IS rich in resources, but, unfortunately, it doesn't matter where or what you are concerned about...or that you believe that corporations pay for this (? sorry not sure what you meant by that) but corporations pay taxes, gov't pays Indians...where do you think gov't revenue comes from? Lemonade stands?
I will post this link...AGAIN...for those of you that refuse to read earlier comments on threads...
64.26.129.156...

Originally posted by apacheman
I think people here probably didn't understand my last comment about getting off the land.

I'm quite serious about that.

I really don't need any more words from a people notorious for failing to keep them.

It is past time to release us: we don't belong to you.

The US is in the same place with us that Israel is with the Palestinians, with a century more practice. Our lands have been encroached on over the years, boundaries adjusted unilaterally, people removed. But the Israelis respect the Palestinians more and treat them far better poltically speaking.

Enough.

Give back the lands illegally taken, abiding by the last best treaty negotiated before the US started offering "take it or die" options.

Remove the Americans illegally on our lands. If they wish to return they may apply for a visa. Any compensation for their losses must come from the US government.

Screw the apology, just get off our lands!!

We'll bill you later for the damage you've done, once we've assessed the scope.

Can't speak for anyone other than my family....MAKE US. I was born here and am entitled to living here, being free here, and working here as much as you are. Weren't the Indians a nomadic tribe that would follow warmer temperatures? If that's the case you might want to look at claiming Mexico and further south as well...might as well claim Asia while you are at it as that is where your people originally came from and waaaay back your people most likely came from Africa...so if I am a descendant of early African man..doesn't that mean that I have the same rights? Quit being ridiculous. Everyone co-exist...everyone work..everyone be productive members of society, care about your family, your kids, your friends and most importantly, yourself.

Apology will achieve ?

What happened happened. The only thing to do is to move forward. Never forget, we do not want history to repeat, but to wallow in anger over acts that no one living committed is pointless and embittering.

The well of the past was poisoned, stop using it to poison the well of the future.

reply to post by apacheman


Brother they won't listen to you either way that's the problem it's been that way since the time of Goyahkla. My issues don't just go to the US but Mexico as well. It was not just US Calvary boots that bashed in our people's babies skulls to save ammo, or worse butchered our women for sport cutting off their privates and worse. Stay strong though but don't waste anger where it won't be heard.

Originally posted by apacheman
I think people here probably didn't understand my last comment about getting off the land.

I'm quite serious about that.

I really don't need any more words from a people notorious for failing to keep them.

It is past time to release us: we don't belong to you.

The US is in the same place with us that Israel is with the Palestinians, with a century more practice. Our lands have been encroached on over the years, boundaries adjusted unilaterally, people removed. But the Israelis respect the Palestinians more and treat them far better poltically speaking.

Enough.

Give back the lands illegally taken, abiding by the last best treaty negotiated before the US started offering "take it or die" options.

Remove the Americans illegally on our lands. If they wish to return they may apply for a visa. Any compensation for their losses must come from the US government.

Screw the apology, just get off our lands!!


We'll bill you later for the damage you've done, once we've assessed the scope.

I understand how you feel but I believe in what wise natives once said..
How can you take from us what is not ours to give?
Be careful to have pride for your people and yet forsake their wisdom.

Originally posted by stanats

hey it sucks the way your people were treated. The main thing is that now you get treated with respect and allowed to do whatever you want! My grandfather was forced to serve in the army. He never got a letter of apology from the Germans for taking that portion of his life away. Atrocities were committed in the past, and as long as we don't forget where we came from, we won't repeat this. I don't know what it is like in the US but in Canada a portion of my taxes go to helping Indians for the past. I don't mind. I wasn't a part of it, my parents were not, and my immigrant grandparents were not either. If that is what is needed to be done and to get over this PAST injustice, then so be it. Please answer me this though. How many more generations must my family help pay for when we weren't a part of it? Can I claim special exemption or just because I was born in a stolen country I have to pay the rest of my life? I didn't and would never condone what was done to your people, but, we must try to get past this horrible time in history, move on, and become a healthy member of society.

reply to post by superman2012

 

Given that whatever opportunities you have in Canada are as a result of your ancestors stealing from Indians or taking advantage of what other Europeans stole, go back to Germany and we'll get past it, move on and become a healthy member of German Society.

edit on 27-2-2011 by stanats because: (no reason given)

hahaha...I am not German...should I be? Like I said earlier...maybe you missed it in your zeal to get a comment on here...but I am 2nd generation born in Canada...my ancestors did nothing to yours. I moved here and worked hard for what I have...can your people say the same?

reply to post by superman2012


Sadly for you, history tells us the US will eventually fall, and by the looks of things, soon.

Remember the mighty USSR?

They went broke and are no more.

Once the US cracks, there are some tribes strong enough to take back or hold what they have: the Navaho, Mohawk, Sioux, the Cheyenne, the Cherokee, White Mountain Apache are a few who spring to mind. All the nations chafe for freedom and would prefer to re-enter the company of nations peacefully.

But freedom will not be denied.

If you truly want us to make you, all we have to do is grit our teeth and be you for as long as it takes to make you go away and leave us in peace: all we've ever wanted of you...

Freedom for us means being free of the US, and if you actually believed in the values you cliam to hold as a nation you would liberate us, but.....

I don't have any sympathy for the newer indian generation. If they are born in this country then they deserve just as much as I do... life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

When the Europeans came... they brought more than just disease. They brought law, they brought technology, and they brought ways abilities to advance the future generations. What ended up happening to THEM was pretty bad, which is an understatement. We all must realize though... we were not as mature or as bright then as we are now.

We now know that they weren't "savages", but just a polar opposite of the Euro culture at the time.

History is history... leave it at that because we are ALL equals now. It's now that should matter. I've seen the modern day indian segregate themselves from U.S. culture... that's fine if that's what they want to do. I enjoying learning and listening to the ways of old culture... but in my opinion, that culture is obsolete.

Wearing feathers and creating old potions out of herbs you find growing naturally may work... but I bet I can find a different way to accomplish the same task that works the same if not better.

reply to post by TheForgottenOnes

Here you go, the links to what was mentioned. Though it did not get the fan fare that many would expect, it was passed and acknowledged about such.
Links as follows:
www.businesswire.com...
www.azcentral.com...
www.nativevillage.org...
www.npr.org...