On September 5, 2012 Indian Country Today Media Network (ICTMN), the world's largest Indian
news source, posted a comment of mine that included an article I wrote. The comment was in response
to Peter d'Errico's article The U.S. Has a Holocaust Museum,
But Why no American Indian Holocaust Museum?
My comment is the third comment. A ICTMN editor reads comments and
usually only posts a few comments in response to articles. A link to a Minnesota
Reconciliation Resolution that is made up of mostly wording from the draft resolution
that I submitted to Rep. Dean Urdahl is display at the end of my comment
or article.
My comment/article is displayed below.
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An article of mine about this topic was published in Indigenous Peoples Literature.
U.S. and States should establish Truth and Reconciliation Commissions
By Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer
On June 14, 2008, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave a speech to
Parliament in which he formally apologized for the Canadian government's
native residential school program. The apology begins a 5-year process
led by a Truth and Reconciliation Commission supported with a $60
million budget. Those involved in truth and reconciliation
commissions seek to uncover facts and distinguish truth from lies.
The process allows for acknowledgement, appropriate public mourning,
forgiveness and healing.
Senator Sam Brownback first introduced Native American Apology
Resolution in 2004. Brownback, in partnership with former Republican
Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell of the Northern Cheyenne Nation,
and Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI) first introduced the Native American
Apology Resolution on the evening of May 6, 2004, the National
Day of Prayer. The Senate finally passed a version of the
resolution in October 2009 and President Obama signed it
into law on Saturday, December 19, 2009.
This should be used to help launch a national Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
At the state level, Colorado Legislature passed a resolution in which it
compared the deaths of millions of American Indians to the Holocaust
and other acts of genocide around the world.
In May, 2010, the Minnesota Sesquicentennial Commission posted the
following statement on its web site:
"Yet we remain either unaware of or unable to look at our own history
and acknowledge the painful wounds of ethnocide and genocide right
here in Minnesota. We have a very hard time acknowledging that
the pain remains and that it has affected much of our history
thru to the present day."
The Minnesota Sesquicentennial Commission created a web site
to "bear witness to the tragic side of Minnesota Statehood in 1858
and acknowledge the pain, loss and suffering of the Native
American culture in Minnesota."
On June 15, 2010, Griff Wigley, Project Leader, Sesquicentennial
Advisory Committee for Native American Partnering,
posted the following statements on the MN Sesquicentennial Commission's Native American
Minnesota – A journey of learning and understanding web site:
"Last week, Thomas Dahlheimer (Rum River Name Change Movement) had a guest
column in the Winona Daily News titled State looks to settle
up with the past."
"And in December, Louis Stanley Schoen, a consultant and trainer on
racial justice in the Episcopal Church, authored a commentary in
the StarTribune titled We must talk about race, despite the difficult emotions it stirs.
(Thanks to Thomas Dahlheimer for alerting me to it) In it, Schoen suggests the formation
of a Commission:
"How might serious, healing racial dialogue occur? A series of thoughtful,
sensitive commentary in news media might be a starter. Sermons and study
groups on race in churches would help, as would discussions in all
kinds of community groups. Official public bodies must get engaged.
What if a public commission were to begin to examine the
American (and European) history of white supremacy — and,
here, how that doctrine shaped the formation of Minnesota and
its public and private institutions? What if such a commission
learned how to offer leadership and resources to dismantle this evil doctrine?"
"The results could be transforming for us and for all the world. What a magnificent
legacy this might be to our celebration of Minnesota's sesquicentennial."
Griff Wigley wrote: "It seems to me that it would be most meaningful for
each state to debate the need for its own Truth and Reconciliation Commission
and then to fund it."
In the (mentioned above) Winona Daily News guest column I wrote:
"When Minnesotans become aware of or able to look at their own history
and acknowledge the painful wounds of ethnocide and genocide right in their own state,
they will be inspired to go through a radical social, political and
religious transformation."
"A peaceful cultural revolution will occur, and Minnesotans will be changed for
the better. And this will help to heal the Dakota Oyate's painful wounds
caused by ethnocide and genocide."
"Leonard Wabasha, a hereditary chief of the Dakota and director of the
Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux (Dakota) Community Cultural Resource Department,
invited me to address the Dakota tribal leaders and government officials
during the May 16, 2010 reconciliatory ceremony in Winona, Minnesota."
"During the reconciliatory ceremony, I spoke about the 15th century papal
bull (Inter Caetera). A papal bull that was primarily responsible for Minnesota's
ethnocide and genocide against the Dakota Oyate."
"A movement to revoke the papal bull has been ongoing for a number of years.
It was initiated by the Indigenous Law Institute in 1992. At the Parliament
of World Religions in 1994 over 60 indigenous delegates drafted a
Declaration of Vision."
"It reads, in part: 'We call upon the people of conscience in the Roman Catholic hierarchy
to persuade Pope John II to formally revoke the Inter Caetera Bull of May 4, 1493,
which will restore our fundamental human rights. That papal document called for
our Nations and Peoples to be subjugated so the Christian Empire and its
doctrines would be propagated. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling Johnson vs. McIntosh (in 1823)
adopted the same principle of subjugation expressed in the Inter Caetera Bull. This
papal bull has been, and continues to be, devastating to our religions, our cultures,
and the survival of our populations.'"
Steve Newcomb and Tony Castanha, two internationally renowned leaders of the movement
to influence Pope Benedict XVI to formally revoke the Inter Caetera Bull,
have contacted me and told me that I am doing "good work". Newcomb supported my
draft reconciliation resolution that was introduced on March 17, 2010. This house
concurrent resolution expresses regret for conflicts between Native Americans
and European settlers. A section of it reads:
"WHEREAS, because of the United States of America's belief in the 'doctrines of discovery,'
collectively called the Doctrine of Discovery, Minnesota Dakota and Ojibwe tribes
were denied their fundamental human rights and denied their rights to be fully
independent sovereign nations and have absolute root ownership of land
within Minnesota; and..."
"Commend other state governments that have begun reconciliation efforts with
Indian tribes located in their boundaries and encourage all state
governments similarly to work toward reconciling relationships with
Indian tribes within their boundaries."
The Minnesota Reconciliation Resolution is located at:
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.
us/resolutions/ls86/0/HC0004.htm
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