WEBVTT

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I'm here today to show my photographs of the Lakota.

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Many of you may have heard of the Lakota,

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or at least the larger group of tribes

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called the Sioux.

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The Lakota are one of many tribes that were moved off their land

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to prisoner of war camps

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now called reservations.

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The Pine Ridge Reservation,

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the subject of today's slide show,

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is located about 75 miles southeast

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of the Black Hills in South Dakota.

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It is sometimes referred to

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as Prisoner of War Camp Number 334,

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and it is where the Lakota now live.

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Now, if any of you have ever heard of AIM,

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the American Indian Movement,

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or of Russell Means,

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or Leonard Peltier,

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or of the stand-off at Oglala,

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then you know that Pine Ridge is ground zero

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for Native issues in the U.S.

NOTE Paragraph

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So I've been asked to talk a little bit today

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about my relationship with the Lakota,

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and that's a very difficult one for me.

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Because, if you haven't noticed from my skin color,

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I'm white,

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and that is a huge barrier on a Native reservation.

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You'll see a lot of people in my photographs today,

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and I've become very close with them, and they've welcomed me like family.

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They've called me "brother" and "uncle"

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and invited me again and again over five years.

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But on Pine Ridge,

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I will always be what is called "wasichu,"

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and "wasichu" is a Lakota word

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that means "non-Indian,"

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but another version of this word

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means "the one who takes the best meat for himself."

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And that's what I want to focus on --

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the one who takes the best part of the meat.

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It means greedy.

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So take a look around this auditorium today.

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We are at a private school in the American West,

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sitting in red velvet chairs

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with money in our pockets.

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And if we look at our lives,

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we have indeed taken

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the best part of the meat.

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So let's look today at a set of photographs

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of a people who lost

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so that we could gain,

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and know that when you see these people's faces

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that these are not just images of the Lakota;

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they stand for all indigenous people.

NOTE Paragraph

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On this piece of paper

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is the history the way I learned it

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from my Lakota friends and family.

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The following is a time-line

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of treaties made, treaties broken

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and massacres disguised as battles.

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I'll begin in 1824.

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What is known as the Bureau of Indian Affairs

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was created within the War Department,

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setting an early tone of aggression

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in our dealings with the Native Americans.

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1851:

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The first treaty of Fort Laramie was made,

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clearly marking the boundaries of the Lakota Nation.

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According to the treaty,

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those lands are a sovereign nation.

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If the boundaries of this treaty had held --

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and there is a legal basis that they should --

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then this is what the U.S. would look like today.

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10 years later,

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the Homestead Act, signed by President Lincoln,

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unleashed a flood of white settlers into Native lands.

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1863:

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An uprising of Santee Sioux in Minnesota

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ends with the hanging of 38 Sioux men,

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the largest mass execution in U.S. history.

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The execution was ordered by President Lincoln

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only two days after

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he signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

NOTE Paragraph

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1866: the beginning of the transcontinental railroad --

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a new era.

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We appropriated land for trails and trains

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to shortcut through the heart of the Lakota Nation.

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The treaties were out the window.

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In response, three tribes led by the Lakota chief Red Cloud

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attacked and defeated the U.S. army many times over.

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I want to repeat that part.

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The Lakota defeat the U.S. army.

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1868: The second Fort Laramie Treaty

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clearly guarantees the sovereignty of the Great Sioux Nation

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and the Lakotas' ownership of the sacred Black Hills.

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The government also promises land and hunting rights

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in the surrounding states.

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We promise that the Powder River country

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will henceforth be closed to all whites.

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The treaty seemed to be a complete victory

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for Red Cloud and the Sioux.

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In fact, this is the only war in American history

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in which the government negotiated a peace

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by conceding everything demanded by the enemy.

NOTE Paragraph

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1869:

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The transcontinental railroad was completed.

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It began carrying, among other things, a large number of hunters

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who began the wholesale killing of buffalo,

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eliminating a source of food and clothing and shelter for the Sioux.

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1871:

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The Indian Appropriation Act

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makes all Indians wards of the federal government.

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In addition, the military issued orders

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forbidding western Indians from leaving reservations.

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All western Indians at that point in time

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were now prisoners of war.

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Also in 1871,

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we ended the time of treaty-making.

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The problem with treaties is they allow tribes to exist as sovereign nations,

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and we can't have that.

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We had plans.

NOTE Paragraph

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1874:

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General George Custer announced the discovery of gold in Lakota territory,

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specifically the Black Hills.

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The news of gold creates a massive influx of white settlers

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into Lakota Nation.

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Custer recommends that Congress find a way

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to end the treaties with the Lakota

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as soon as possible.

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1875: The Lakota war begins

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over the violation of the Fort Laramie Treaty.

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1876:

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On July 26th

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on its way to attack a Lakota village,

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Custer's 7th Cavalry was crushed

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at the battle of Little Big Horn.

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1877:

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The great Lakota warrior and chief named Crazy Horse

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surrendered at Fort Robinson.

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He was later killed while in custody.

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1877 is also the year we found a way

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to get around the Fort Laramie Treaties.

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A new agreement was presented to Sioux chiefs and their leading men

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under a campaign known as "sell or starve:"

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Sign the paper, or no food for your tribe.

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Only 10 percent of the adult male population signed.

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The Fort Laramie Treaty

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called for at least three-quarters of the tribe

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to sign away land.

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That clause was obviously ignored.

NOTE Paragraph

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1887: The Dawes Act.

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Communal ownership of reservation lands ends.

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Reservations are cut up into 160-acre sections

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and distributed to individual Indians

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with the surplus disposed of.

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Tribes lost millions of acres.

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The American dream of individual land ownership

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turned out to be a very clever way

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to divide the reservation until nothing was left.

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The move destroyed the reservations,

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making it easier to further subdivide and to sell

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with every passing generation.

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Most of the surplus land

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and many of the plots within reservation boundaries

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are now in the hands of white ranchers.

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Once again, the fat of the land goes to wasichu.

NOTE Paragraph

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1890, a date I believe to be

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the most important in this slide show.

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This is the year of the Wounded Knee Massacre.

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On December 29th,

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U.S. troops surrounded a Sioux encampment at Wounded Knee Creek

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and massacred Chief Big Foot

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and 300 prisoners of war,

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using a new rapid-fire weapon

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that fired exploding shells

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called a Hotchkiss gun.

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For this so-called "battle,"

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20 Congressional Medals of Honor for Valor

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were given to the 7th Cavalry.

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To this day,

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this is the most Medals of Honor

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ever awarded for a single battle.

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More Medals of Honor were given

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for the indiscriminate slaughter of women and children

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than for any battle in World War One,

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World War Two,

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Korea, Vietnam,

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Iraq or Afghanistan.

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The Wounded Knee massacre

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is considered the end of the Indian wars.

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Whenever I visit the site

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of the mass grave at Wounded Knee,

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I see it not just as a grave

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for the Lakota or for the Sioux,

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but as a grave for all indigenous peoples.

NOTE Paragraph

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The holy man, Black Elk, said,

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"I did not know then

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how much was ended.

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When I look back now

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from this high hill of my old age,

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I can still see the butchered women and children

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lying heaped and scattered

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all along the crooked gulch

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as plain as when I saw them

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with eyes still young.

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And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud

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and was buried in the blizzard:

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A people's dream died there,

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and it was a beautiful dream."

NOTE Paragraph

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With this event,

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a new era in Native American history began.

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Everything can be measured

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before Wounded Knee and after.

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Because it was in this moment

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with the fingers on the triggers of the Hotchkiss guns

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that the U.S. government openly declared its position on Native rights.

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They were tired of treaties.

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They were tired of sacred hills.

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They were tired of ghost dances.

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And they were tired of all the inconveniences of the Sioux.

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So they brought out their cannons.

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"You want to be an Indian now?" they said,

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finger on the trigger.

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1900:

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the U.S. Indian population reached its low point --

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less than 250,000,

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compared to an estimated eight million

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in 1492.

NOTE Paragraph

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Fast-forward.

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1980:

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The longest running court case in U.S. history,

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the Sioux Nation v. the United States,

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was ruled upon by the U.S. Supreme Court.

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The court determined that, when the Sioux were resettled onto reservations

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and seven million acres of their land

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were opened up to prospectors and homesteaders,

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the terms of the second Fort Laramie Treaty

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had been violated.

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The court stated

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that the Black Hills were illegally taken

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and that the initial offering price plus interest

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should be paid to the Sioux Nation.

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As payment for the Black Hills,

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the court awarded only 106 million dollars

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to the Sioux Nation.

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The Sioux refused the money with the rallying cry,

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"The Black Hills are not for sale."

NOTE Paragraph

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2010:

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Statistics about Native population today,

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more than a century after the massacre at Wounded Knee,

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reveal the legacy of colonization,

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forced migration

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and treaty violations.

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Unemployment on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

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fluctuates between 85 and 90 percent.

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The housing office is unable to build new structures,

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and existing structures are falling apart.

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Many are homeless,

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and those with homes are packed into rotting buildings

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with up to five families.

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39 percent of homes on Pine Ridge

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have no electricity.

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At least 60 percent of the homes on the reservation

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are infested with black mold.

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More than 90 percent of the population

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lives below the federal poverty line.

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The tuberculosis rate on Pine Ridge

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is approximately eight times higher than the U.S. national average.

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The infant mortality rate

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is the highest on this continent

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and is about three times higher than the U.S. national average.

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Cervical cancer is five times higher

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than the U.S. national average.

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School dropout rate is up to 70 percent.

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Teacher turnover

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is eight times higher than the U.S. national average.

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Frequently, grandparents are raising their grandchildren

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because parents, due to alcoholism,

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domestic violence and general apathy,

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cannot raise them.

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50 percent of the population over the age of 40

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suffers from diabetes.

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The life expectancy for men

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is between 46

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and 48 years old --

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roughly the same

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as in Afghanistan and Somalia.

NOTE Paragraph

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The last chapter in any successful genocide

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is the one in which the oppressor

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can remove their hands and say,

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"My God, what are these people doing to themselves?

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They're killing each other.

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They're killing themselves

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while we watch them die."

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This is how we came to own these United States.

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This is the legacy

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of manifest destiny.

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Prisoners are still born

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into prisoner-of-war camps

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long after the guards are gone.

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These are the bones left

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after the best meat has been taken.

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A long time ago,

00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:55.000
a series of events was set in motion

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by a people who look like me, by wasichu,

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eager to take the land and the water

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and the gold in the hills.

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Those events led to a domino effect

00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:07.000
that has yet to end.

NOTE Paragraph

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As removed as we the dominant society may feel

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from a massacre in 1890,

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or a series of broken treaties 150 years ago,

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I still have to ask you the question,

00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:24.000
how should you feel about the statistics of today?

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What is the connection

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between these images of suffering

00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:31.000
and the history that I just read to you?

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And how much of this history

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do you need to own, even?

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Is any of this your responsibility today?

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I have been told that there must be something we can do.

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There must be some call to action.

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Because for so long I've been standing on the sidelines

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content to be a witness,

00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:53.000
just taking photographs.

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Because the solution seems so far in the past,

00:13:56.000 --> 00:13:58.000
I needed nothing short of a time machine

00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:00.000
to access them.

NOTE Paragraph

00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:02.000
The suffering of indigenous peoples

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is not a simple issue to fix.

00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:08.000
It's not something everyone can get behind

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the way they get behind helping Haiti,

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or ending AIDS, or fighting a famine.

00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:15.000
The "fix," as it's called,

00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:18.000
may be much more difficult for the dominant society

00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:20.000
than, say, a $50 check

00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:22.000
or a church trip

00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:24.000
to paint some graffiti-covered houses,

00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:26.000
or a suburban family

00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:29.000
donating a box of clothes they don't even want anymore.

00:14:29.000 --> 00:14:31.000
So where does that leave us?

00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:34.000
Shrugging our shoulders in the dark?

NOTE Paragraph

00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:36.000
The United States

00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:38.000
continues on a daily basis

00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:40.000
to violate the terms

00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:42.000
of the 1851 and 1868

00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:45.000
Fort Laramie Treaties with the Lakota.

00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:47.000
The call to action I offer today --

00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:50.000
my TED wish -- is this:

00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:53.000
Honor the treaties.

00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:55.000
Give back the Black Hills.

00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:58.000
It's not your business what they do with them.

NOTE Paragraph

00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:06.000
(Applause)