Immigrants Calling Other Immigrants Illegal

America is a land of immigrants. Immigrants who conquered the North American Continent in order for other immigrants to settle and freely practice their religion – much to the chagrin of this country’s original people. To be politically correct, amend that last sentence to read – conquered at the expense of people who settled here 300 – 400 hundred years prior.

In the new millennium, there’s much speculation on how the “Original People” of America came to be here. In the world of History academia, heated debate regarding what’s true history and what isn’t continues. The Indigenous, or Original People, had no written language documenting their travels to America, and passed their history down generation to generation in tribal stories. The Cherokee Nation was the first Nation to have a written language. This didn’t happen until 1821 when Sequoyah, grandson of a Cherokee Chief, realized the importance of written language in the validation of the Cherokee Nation to the American Government and began developing an alphabet.

Most people remember the infamous Trail of Tears in the winter of 1838-1839, which, the Cherokees know as “the time when they cried”. What is not remembered; in 1832, Andrew Jackson started removal of the Creeks, Chickasaw, and Choctaw Nations. The Seminole Nation was snug down in the Florida Everglades; that aspect of the American Indian war was never won by America. Actually, to many the America Indian war has never truly been settled, it’s still fought in courtrooms.

My great-great-grandmother’s people were in America a good 300 – 400 years before the Europeans.
Caroline, her white-man name lived 104 years. She was born to Sallis Kayto in 1830 in or around the current Wetumpka Alabama area. She died in 1934 in Birmingham Alabama in the house still owned by members of our family.
The day Granny left us, she wrapped herself in a blanket, sat Indian style in a corner, closed her eyes and went to be with our ancestors. She died a foreigner in her own land.

Why did she die a foreigner? The United States hadn’t passed the Social Security Bill (H.R. 7260) until April 19, 1935 a year after she died therefore; she didn’t have a social security number (and would have refused to apply for one if she had lived) and was not an American.

Now, we have the current situation of bills passed to either legalize illegal immigrants or deport them. What makes America think that the first inhabitants of this land wouldn’t like everyone deported? Indians of this country say that this is the “Land of Broken Treaties” and many believe that the current government is illegal and should vacate the premises.

Of course, this is an outrageous thought; remember what happened in 1974 with the uprising at Wounded Knee. The Sioux Nation demanded annexation, which brought the Feds in to control the situation. The Oglala Sioux didn’t actually want annexation; they wanted their treatment by the American government exposed to the rest of the American society.

Within three years of the siege and the ensuing court trials, AIM (American Indian Movement) and their Chicano support organizations suffered from dozens and dozens of assassinations, with 63 deaths on Pine Ridge Reservation alone. (http://www.russellmeans.com)

There’s still a prisoner, of what many term an unofficial war, held this very day, Leonard Peltier. Not one President, neither Democrat nor Republican will declare him amnesty. (http://www.freepeltier.org)

Irony has this country gripped tight in a proverbial fist. We sit on the slippery palm of an oxymoronic hand: immigrants declaring other immigrants illegal. While many of the true Natives of this continent live on reservations, mainly by choice, due to non recognition of the presiding government. Never the less, the gust rolled pages of American history documents the tragedies befallen its Native sons and daughters, which many have referred to as attempted genocide, and should tread lightly and think twice before labeling another group illegal immigrants.

Readings of interest:
The Spirit of Wounded Knee
THE LESSON OF THE
LAKOTA NATION
http://www.worldfreeinternet.net/news/nws98.htm

Killing the White Man’s Indian
Reinvention of Native Americans at the End of the 20th Century
By Fergus M. Bordewhich.

Quote:
“Like the miner’s canary, the Indian marks the shift from fresh air to poison gas in our political atmosphere; and our treatment of Indians, even more than our treatment of other minorities, reflects the rise and fall in our democratic faith.” – Felix S. Cohen, 1953