1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,000
I'm here today to show my photographs of the Lakota.

2
00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:06,000
Many of you may have heard of the Lakota,

3
00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:08,000
or at least the larger group of tribes

4
00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:10,000
called the Sioux.

5
00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:13,000
The Lakota are one of many tribes that were moved off their land

6
00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:15,000
to prisoner of war camps

7
00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:17,000
now called reservations.

8
00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:19,000
The Pine Ridge Reservation,

9
00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:21,000
the subject of today's slide show,

10
00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:23,000
is located about 75 miles southeast

11
00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:25,000
of the Black Hills in South Dakota.

12
00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:27,000
It is sometimes referred to

13
00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:30,000
as Prisoner of War Camp Number 334,

14
00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:33,000
and it is where the Lakota now live.

15
00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:35,000
Now, if any of you have ever heard of AIM,

16
00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:37,000
the American Indian Movement,

17
00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:39,000
or of Russell Means,

18
00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:41,000
or Leonard Peltier,

19
00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:43,000
or of the stand-off at Oglala,

20
00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:46,000
then you know that Pine Ridge is ground zero

21
00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:49,000
for Native issues in the U.S.

22
00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:51,000
So I've been asked to talk a little bit today

23
00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:53,000
about my relationship with the Lakota,

24
00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:55,000
and that's a very difficult one for me.

25
00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:57,000
Because, if you haven't noticed from my skin color,

26
00:00:57,000 --> 00:00:59,000
I'm white,

27
00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:02,000
and that is a huge barrier on a Native reservation.

28
00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:06,000
You'll see a lot of people in my photographs today,

29
00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:09,000
and I've become very close with them, and they've welcomed me like family.

30
00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:11,000
They've called me "brother" and "uncle"

31
00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:13,000
and invited me again and again over five years.

32
00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:15,000
But on Pine Ridge,

33
00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:18,000
I will always be what is called "wasichu,"

34
00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:21,000
and "wasichu" is a Lakota word

35
00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:23,000
that means "non-Indian,"

36
00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:25,000
but another version of this word

37
00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:29,000
means "the one who takes the best meat for himself."

38
00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:31,000
And that's what I want to focus on --

39
00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:33,000
the one who takes the best part of the meat.

40
00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,000
It means greedy.

41
00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:38,000
So take a look around this auditorium today.

42
00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:41,000
We are at a private school in the American West,

43
00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:44,000
sitting in red velvet chairs

44
00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:46,000
with money in our pockets.

45
00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:48,000
And if we look at our lives,

46
00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:50,000
we have indeed taken

47
00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:52,000
the best part of the meat.

48
00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:55,000
So let's look today at a set of photographs

49
00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:57,000
of a people who lost

50
00:01:57,000 --> 00:01:59,000
so that we could gain,

51
00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:02,000
and know that when you see these people's faces

52
00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:05,000
that these are not just images of the Lakota;

53
00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:08,000
they stand for all indigenous people.

54
00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:12,000
On this piece of paper

55
00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:14,000
is the history the way I learned it

56
00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:17,000
from my Lakota friends and family.

57
00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:19,000
The following is a time-line

58
00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:22,000
of treaties made, treaties broken

59
00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,000
and massacres disguised as battles.

60
00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:26,000
I'll begin in 1824.

61
00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:28,000
What is known as the Bureau of Indian Affairs

62
00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:30,000
was created within the War Department,

63
00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:32,000
setting an early tone of aggression

64
00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:34,000
in our dealings with the Native Americans.

65
00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:36,000
1851:

66
00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:38,000
The first treaty of Fort Laramie was made,

67
00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,000
clearly marking the boundaries of the Lakota Nation.

68
00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:43,000
According to the treaty,

69
00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:45,000
those lands are a sovereign nation.

70
00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:47,000
If the boundaries of this treaty had held --

71
00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:50,000
and there is a legal basis that they should --

72
00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:53,000
then this is what the U.S. would look like today.

73
00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:57,000
10 years later,

74
00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:00,000
the Homestead Act, signed by President Lincoln,

75
00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:03,000
unleashed a flood of white settlers into Native lands.

76
00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:05,000
1863:

77
00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:07,000
An uprising of Santee Sioux in Minnesota

78
00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:10,000
ends with the hanging of 38 Sioux men,

79
00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:13,000
the largest mass execution in U.S. history.

80
00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:16,000
The execution was ordered by President Lincoln

81
00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:18,000
only two days after

82
00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:21,000
he signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

83
00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:25,000
1866: the beginning of the transcontinental railroad --

84
00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:27,000
a new era.

85
00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:29,000
We appropriated land for trails and trains

86
00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:32,000
to shortcut through the heart of the Lakota Nation.

87
00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:34,000
The treaties were out the window.

88
00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:37,000
In response, three tribes led by the Lakota chief Red Cloud

89
00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:40,000
attacked and defeated the U.S. army many times over.

90
00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:42,000
I want to repeat that part.

91
00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:45,000
The Lakota defeat the U.S. army.

92
00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:48,000
1868: The second Fort Laramie Treaty

93
00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:51,000
clearly guarantees the sovereignty of the Great Sioux Nation

94
00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:54,000
and the Lakotas' ownership of the sacred Black Hills.

95
00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:56,000
The government also promises land and hunting rights

96
00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:58,000
in the surrounding states.

97
00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:00,000
We promise that the Powder River country

98
00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:03,000
will henceforth be closed to all whites.

99
00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:05,000
The treaty seemed to be a complete victory

100
00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:07,000
for Red Cloud and the Sioux.

101
00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:10,000
In fact, this is the only war in American history

102
00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:13,000
in which the government negotiated a peace

103
00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,000
by conceding everything demanded by the enemy.

104
00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:20,000
1869:

105
00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:22,000
The transcontinental railroad was completed.

106
00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:25,000
It began carrying, among other things, a large number of hunters

107
00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:28,000
who began the wholesale killing of buffalo,

108
00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:31,000
eliminating a source of food and clothing and shelter for the Sioux.

109
00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:33,000
1871:

110
00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:35,000
The Indian Appropriation Act

111
00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:38,000
makes all Indians wards of the federal government.

112
00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:41,000
In addition, the military issued orders

113
00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:44,000
forbidding western Indians from leaving reservations.

114
00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:46,000
All western Indians at that point in time

115
00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:48,000
were now prisoners of war.

116
00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:50,000
Also in 1871,

117
00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:52,000
we ended the time of treaty-making.

118
00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:55,000
The problem with treaties is they allow tribes to exist as sovereign nations,

119
00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:57,000
and we can't have that.

120
00:04:57,000 --> 00:04:59,000
We had plans.

121
00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:01,000
1874:

122
00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:04,000
General George Custer announced the discovery of gold in Lakota territory,

123
00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:06,000
specifically the Black Hills.

124
00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:08,000
The news of gold creates a massive influx of white settlers

125
00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:10,000
into Lakota Nation.

126
00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:12,000
Custer recommends that Congress find a way

127
00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:14,000
to end the treaties with the Lakota

128
00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:16,000
as soon as possible.

129
00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:19,000
1875: The Lakota war begins

130
00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:22,000
over the violation of the Fort Laramie Treaty.

131
00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:24,000
1876:

132
00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:26,000
On July 26th

133
00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:28,000
on its way to attack a Lakota village,

134
00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:30,000
Custer's 7th Cavalry was crushed

135
00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:32,000
at the battle of Little Big Horn.

136
00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:34,000
1877:

137
00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:37,000
The great Lakota warrior and chief named Crazy Horse

138
00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:39,000
surrendered at Fort Robinson.

139
00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:42,000
He was later killed while in custody.

140
00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:48,000
1877 is also the year we found a way

141
00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:50,000
to get around the Fort Laramie Treaties.

142
00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:53,000
A new agreement was presented to Sioux chiefs and their leading men

143
00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:56,000
under a campaign known as "sell or starve:"

144
00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:59,000
Sign the paper, or no food for your tribe.

145
00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:02,000
Only 10 percent of the adult male population signed.

146
00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:04,000
The Fort Laramie Treaty

147
00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:06,000
called for at least three-quarters of the tribe

148
00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:08,000
to sign away land.

149
00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:10,000
That clause was obviously ignored.

150
00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:13,000
1887: The Dawes Act.

151
00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:16,000
Communal ownership of reservation lands ends.

152
00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:19,000
Reservations are cut up into 160-acre sections

153
00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:21,000
and distributed to individual Indians

154
00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:23,000
with the surplus disposed of.

155
00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:26,000
Tribes lost millions of acres.

156
00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:28,000
The American dream of individual land ownership

157
00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:30,000
turned out to be a very clever way

158
00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:33,000
to divide the reservation until nothing was left.

159
00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:35,000
The move destroyed the reservations,

160
00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:38,000
making it easier to further subdivide and to sell

161
00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:41,000
with every passing generation.

162
00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:43,000
Most of the surplus land

163
00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:45,000
and many of the plots within reservation boundaries

164
00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:48,000
are now in the hands of white ranchers.

165
00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:51,000
Once again, the fat of the land goes to wasichu.

166
00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:54,000
1890, a date I believe to be

167
00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:57,000
the most important in this slide show.

168
00:06:57,000 --> 00:06:59,000
This is the year of the Wounded Knee Massacre.

169
00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:01,000
On December 29th,

170
00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:04,000
U.S. troops surrounded a Sioux encampment at Wounded Knee Creek

171
00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:06,000
and massacred Chief Big Foot

172
00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:08,000
and 300 prisoners of war,

173
00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:10,000
using a new rapid-fire weapon

174
00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:12,000
that fired exploding shells

175
00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:14,000
called a Hotchkiss gun.

176
00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:16,000
For this so-called "battle,"

177
00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:19,000
20 Congressional Medals of Honor for Valor

178
00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:22,000
were given to the 7th Cavalry.

179
00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:24,000
To this day,

180
00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:27,000
this is the most Medals of Honor

181
00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:30,000
ever awarded for a single battle.

182
00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:32,000
More Medals of Honor were given

183
00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:34,000
for the indiscriminate slaughter of women and children

184
00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:36,000
than for any battle in World War One,

185
00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:38,000
World War Two,

186
00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:40,000
Korea, Vietnam,

187
00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:43,000
Iraq or Afghanistan.

188
00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:46,000
The Wounded Knee massacre

189
00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:49,000
is considered the end of the Indian wars.

190
00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:51,000
Whenever I visit the site

191
00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:53,000
of the mass grave at Wounded Knee,

192
00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:55,000
I see it not just as a grave

193
00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:57,000
for the Lakota or for the Sioux,

194
00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:00,000
but as a grave for all indigenous peoples.

195
00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:05,000
The holy man, Black Elk, said,

196
00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:07,000
"I did not know then

197
00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:09,000
how much was ended.

198
00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:11,000
When I look back now

199
00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:13,000
from this high hill of my old age,

200
00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:15,000
I can still see the butchered women and children

201
00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:17,000
lying heaped and scattered

202
00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:20,000
all along the crooked gulch

203
00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:25,000
as plain as when I saw them

204
00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:28,000
with eyes still young.

205
00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:34,000
And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud

206
00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:38,000
and was buried in the blizzard:

207
00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:42,000
A people's dream died there,

208
00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:45,000
and it was a beautiful dream."

209
00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:48,000
With this event,

210
00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:51,000
a new era in Native American history began.

211
00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:54,000
Everything can be measured

212
00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:57,000
before Wounded Knee and after.

213
00:08:57,000 --> 00:08:59,000
Because it was in this moment

214
00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:02,000
with the fingers on the triggers of the Hotchkiss guns

215
00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:06,000
that the U.S. government openly declared its position on Native rights.

216
00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:08,000
They were tired of treaties.

217
00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:10,000
They were tired of sacred hills.

218
00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:13,000
They were tired of ghost dances.

219
00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:16,000
And they were tired of all the inconveniences of the Sioux.

220
00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:19,000
So they brought out their cannons.

221
00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:23,000
"You want to be an Indian now?" they said,

222
00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:25,000
finger on the trigger.

223
00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:32,000
1900:

224
00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:35,000
the U.S. Indian population reached its low point --

225
00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:38,000
less than 250,000,

226
00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:40,000
compared to an estimated eight million

227
00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:42,000
in 1492.

228
00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:46,000
Fast-forward.

229
00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:48,000
1980:

230
00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:50,000
The longest running court case in U.S. history,

231
00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:53,000
the Sioux Nation v. the United States,

232
00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:56,000
was ruled upon by the U.S. Supreme Court.

233
00:09:57,000 --> 00:10:00,000
The court determined that, when the Sioux were resettled onto reservations

234
00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:03,000
and seven million acres of their land

235
00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:06,000
were opened up to prospectors and homesteaders,

236
00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:08,000
the terms of the second Fort Laramie Treaty

237
00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:10,000
had been violated.

238
00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:12,000
The court stated

239
00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:14,000
that the Black Hills were illegally taken

240
00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:16,000
and that the initial offering price plus interest

241
00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:18,000
should be paid to the Sioux Nation.

242
00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:20,000
As payment for the Black Hills,

243
00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:23,000
the court awarded only 106 million dollars

244
00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:25,000
to the Sioux Nation.

245
00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:28,000
The Sioux refused the money with the rallying cry,

246
00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:31,000
"The Black Hills are not for sale."

247
00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:33,000
2010:

248
00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:36,000
Statistics about Native population today,

249
00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:39,000
more than a century after the massacre at Wounded Knee,

250
00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:41,000
reveal the legacy of colonization,

251
00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:43,000
forced migration

252
00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:45,000
and treaty violations.

253
00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:48,000
Unemployment on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

254
00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:51,000
fluctuates between 85 and 90 percent.

255
00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:54,000
The housing office is unable to build new structures,

256
00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:56,000
and existing structures are falling apart.

257
00:10:56,000 --> 00:10:58,000
Many are homeless,

258
00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:00,000
and those with homes are packed into rotting buildings

259
00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:02,000
with up to five families.

260
00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:04,000
39 percent of homes on Pine Ridge

261
00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:06,000
have no electricity.

262
00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:09,000
At least 60 percent of the homes on the reservation

263
00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:11,000
are infested with black mold.

264
00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:13,000
More than 90 percent of the population

265
00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:16,000
lives below the federal poverty line.

266
00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:19,000
The tuberculosis rate on Pine Ridge

267
00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:22,000
is approximately eight times higher than the U.S. national average.

268
00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:24,000
The infant mortality rate

269
00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:26,000
is the highest on this continent

270
00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:29,000
and is about three times higher than the U.S. national average.

271
00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:31,000
Cervical cancer is five times higher

272
00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:33,000
than the U.S. national average.

273
00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:36,000
School dropout rate is up to 70 percent.

274
00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:38,000
Teacher turnover

275
00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:41,000
is eight times higher than the U.S. national average.

276
00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:44,000
Frequently, grandparents are raising their grandchildren

277
00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:47,000
because parents, due to alcoholism,

278
00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:49,000
domestic violence and general apathy,

279
00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:51,000
cannot raise them.

280
00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:55,000
50 percent of the population over the age of 40

281
00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:57,000
suffers from diabetes.

282
00:11:57,000 --> 00:11:59,000
The life expectancy for men

283
00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:01,000
is between 46

284
00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:04,000
and 48 years old --

285
00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:06,000
roughly the same

286
00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:09,000
as in Afghanistan and Somalia.

287
00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:13,000
The last chapter in any successful genocide

288
00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:15,000
is the one in which the oppressor

289
00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:18,000
can remove their hands and say,

290
00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:21,000
"My God, what are these people doing to themselves?

291
00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:23,000
They're killing each other.

292
00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:25,000
They're killing themselves

293
00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:28,000
while we watch them die."

294
00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:31,000
This is how we came to own these United States.

295
00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:33,000
This is the legacy

296
00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:35,000
of manifest destiny.

297
00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:37,000
Prisoners are still born

298
00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:39,000
into prisoner-of-war camps

299
00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:42,000
long after the guards are gone.

300
00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:46,000
These are the bones left

301
00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:49,000
after the best meat has been taken.

302
00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:53,000
A long time ago,

303
00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:55,000
a series of events was set in motion

304
00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:58,000
by a people who look like me, by wasichu,

305
00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:00,000
eager to take the land and the water

306
00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:03,000
and the gold in the hills.

307
00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:05,000
Those events led to a domino effect

308
00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:07,000
that has yet to end.

309
00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:11,000
As removed as we the dominant society may feel

310
00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:15,000
from a massacre in 1890,

311
00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:18,000
or a series of broken treaties 150 years ago,

312
00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:21,000
I still have to ask you the question,

313
00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:24,000
how should you feel about the statistics of today?

314
00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:27,000
What is the connection

315
00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:29,000
between these images of suffering

316
00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:31,000
and the history that I just read to you?

317
00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:33,000
And how much of this history

318
00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:35,000
do you need to own, even?

319
00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:38,000
Is any of this your responsibility today?

320
00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:42,000
I have been told that there must be something we can do.

321
00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:45,000
There must be some call to action.

322
00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:48,000
Because for so long I've been standing on the sidelines

323
00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:50,000
content to be a witness,

324
00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:53,000
just taking photographs.

325
00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:56,000
Because the solution seems so far in the past,

326
00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:58,000
I needed nothing short of a time machine

327
00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:00,000
to access them.

328
00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:02,000
The suffering of indigenous peoples

329
00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:05,000
is not a simple issue to fix.

330
00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:08,000
It's not something everyone can get behind

331
00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:10,000
the way they get behind helping Haiti,

332
00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:13,000
or ending AIDS, or fighting a famine.

333
00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:15,000
The "fix," as it's called,

334
00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:18,000
may be much more difficult for the dominant society

335
00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:20,000
than, say, a $50 check

336
00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:22,000
or a church trip

337
00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:24,000
to paint some graffiti-covered houses,

338
00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:26,000
or a suburban family

339
00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:29,000
donating a box of clothes they don't even want anymore.

340
00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:31,000
So where does that leave us?

341
00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:34,000
Shrugging our shoulders in the dark?

342
00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:36,000
The United States

343
00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:38,000
continues on a daily basis

344
00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:40,000
to violate the terms

345
00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:42,000
of the 1851 and 1868

346
00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:45,000
Fort Laramie Treaties with the Lakota.

347
00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:47,000
The call to action I offer today --

348
00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:50,000
my TED wish -- is this:

349
00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:53,000
Honor the treaties.

350
00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:55,000
Give back the Black Hills.

351
00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:58,000
It's not your business what they do with them.

352
00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:06,000
(Applause)