The Inconvenient Memory of Wounded Kee

It has always struck me that one of the worst acts of genocide (if you can measure the quality of genocide) committed by human beings on other human beings has been committed by the people of European descent in North America upon the native people. It has been a long and inglorious history has America sought to fulfill what it described as its manifest destiny by murdering those who lived on the land for the use of the land. The native people knew, and were viciously taught to understand, that resisting the superior numbers and weaponry of a ruthless foe was useless; massacre, disease and a complete destruction of their genuine human rights was suffered by the red man at the hand of the white man, notwithstanding all the high flown words of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Today I read that the site of one of many massacres, Wounded Knee in South Dakota, is up for sale. The “owner” has been offered $3.9 for the 40 acres of undeveloped land by people who want to build some kind of theme park on it, displaying relics of the massacre. The Sioux say the land is worth $10,000 and cannot afford to pay more for a land which holds precious memories and a remembrance of suffering.

I wonder what would happen if Auschwitz would come on the open market? I am sure that it would be protected as a site of major historical significance and for the sake of the descendants of those you lost their lives there.

But native Americans are without power and influence; they are a reminder of things that America would like to forget about its history. It is not a question of burying a heart at Wounded Knee, but burying Wounded Knee itself, so there are no inconvenient memories.

Filed under: climate change Tagged: acts of genocide, Auschwitz, inglorious history, manifest destiny, massacres, native americans, Sioux, Wounded Knee