Saint Cloud Visitor/May 4, 2006
The Saint Cloud Visitor is a Minnesota Catholic diocesan newspaper.
By Thomas Dahlheimer
Wahkon, MN.
The leaders of the Mexica Movement are some of the main organizers of the current
national protests against proposed legislation to make
"illegal" immigrants felons. They claim there is no illegal immigration from Mexico
because the American continents actually belong to the
indigenous people.
I am spearheading a local, national and international movement to regain the Mdewakanton
Dakota indigenous people's sacred name for our
state's "Rum" River. And I am also trying to replace our state's
19 other white racist geographic place names.
I support some of our nation's Catholic bishop's protests against
current proposed legislation to make "illegal" immigrants felons. Our
white Euro-American culture does not belong here. I believe that, to some extent,
mixed-blooded indigenous peoples' cultures belong here,
and that only full-blooded indigenous peoples' traditional cultures fully belong
here; and that the only illegal immigrants are white
Euro-Americans and other foreigners living among the indigenous peoples of the
Americas' homelands.
Our bishops are finally starting to understand that 500-plus years ago our church
instigated an injustice (genocide) against the indigenous
peoples of the Western hemisphere. They need to apologize for what happened, work
toward stopping the ongoing injustice (genocide), and
offer restitution to the indigenous peoples of the Americas, which includes protesting
against the current proposed legislation to make
"illegal" immigrants felons. It's time to give the indigenous peoples'
homelands back to them and quit imposing our culture on them.
An article related to this letter to the editor can be found by clicking: related article
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In another Saint Cloud Visitior/May 4, 2006 letter to the editor, its author wrote:
"Maybe we could ask the Native Americans if they
found the immigrants assimilating into their culture when arriving in this
country."
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And in the May 4, 2006 edition of the Saint Cloud Visitor there is an article tilted:
"Welcome home" illegal immigrates, says head of
Catholic University. Evidently, Father David Connell, the head of this university
(The Catholic University of America) believes that
"our" nation, a part of the indigenous peoples of the Americas' stolen homelands,
also, to some extent, belongs to "Latin" America's "Hispanic"/"Latino"
mixed-blood indigenous peoples as well as to full-blooded indigenous peoples of "Latin"
America. And he expressed this belief of his in
a recent homily to eight U.S. Cardinals as well as to many other Catholics participating
in an April 28th Mass at the Basilica of the
National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.
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Saint Cloud Visitor/May 18, 2006
By Bob Montanez
Odessa., TX
Though I realize that the USA has a serious problem with illegal immigration, I
can't help but imagine that American Natives, deceases and alive,
are rolling over in laughter at the irony involved. The American Natives at one time
were also faced with the problems that illegal immigrants
bought to their borders. They feared the loss of their lives, livelihoods, and lands;
and, one can almost be sure that they too expressed negative
and unkind words and feelings about illegal, uninvited and trespassing palefaces who
brought with them misfortune, violence, death and outbreaks
of diseases and infections unheard of in the New World.
Today, United States citizens may worry that the same may happen to them especially
if they believe that "What goes around, comes around."
The matter is serious enough that everyone should reflect carefully so as to not
exacerbate the problem with racial slurs, unjust accusations
and judgments.
Everyone needs to remember that this nation was stared by immigrants who did not go
through any legal process of immigration. Unless
descendants of the European illegal immigrants are willing to accept that their
forefathers were criminals, they should not be so eager
today to make criminals of those crossing our borders illegally searching for a better
life and better opportunities.
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My new (unpublished) letter to the editor,
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, in search of new lands, gold and wealth. He
'discovered' and 'claimed' many islands throughout the
Caribbean. But, what right did he have to 'claim' these lands, when the Taino people had
been living there for thousands of years?
According to a World Conference On Racism document: "In the fifteenth century, two Papal
Bulls set the stage for European domination of the New
World and Africa. Romanus Pontifex, issued by Pope Nicholas V to King Alfonso V of
Portugal in 1452, declared war against all non-Christians
throughout the world, and specifically sanctioned and promoted the conquest, colonization,
and exploitation of non-Christian nations and their
territories." (Reference 1) In this Papal Bull Pope Nicholas V directed King Alfonso
to "capture, vanquish, and subdue the saracens, pagans,
and other enemies of Christ," to "put them into perpetual slavery," and "to take all
their possessions and property". (2.) And in Pope Alexander
VI�s papal bull of 1493 (Inter Caetera), he stated his desire that the
"discovered" people be "subjugated and brought to the faith itself." By
this means, said the pope, the "Christian Empire" would be propagated. (3) These Papal
Bulls, or "doctrines of discovery", sanctioned Christian
nations to claim "unoccupied lands", or lands belonging to "heathens" or "pagans".
(4)
Because of these Papal Bulls Columbus felt justified to write in his journal that the
Taino people were "very friendly", "an inoffensive people",
"they could be much more easily converted to our holy faith by gentle means than by
force", "weapons they have none", and that "with weapons and
50 men I could enslave the entire population". ( 5) He later wrote: "Let us in the
name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can
be sold." (6)
Bishop Bartolome de Las Casas was the first European historian in the Americas. He wrote,
when referring to the Europeans' first forty years of
genocidal behavior in the Americas: "...for they are still acting like ravening
beasts, killing, terrorizing, afflicting, torturing, and destroying
the native peoples, doing all this with the strangest and most varied new methods of
cruelty, never seen or heard of before, and to such a degree
that this Island of Hispaniola once so populous (having a population that I estimated
to be more than three million), has now a population of
barely two hundred persons." (7.)
He also wrote: "They made some low, wide gallows on which the hanged victim's feet
almost touched the ground, stringing up their victims, in lots
of thirteen, in memory of Our Redeemer and His twelve Apostles, then set burning wood
at their feet and thus burned them alive. (8.)
Although the truth is known about Columbus, our nation still honors him with a federal
holiday. And think about how extremely racist it is for our
Roman Catholic Church to still have a Knights of Columbus organization today. Columbus
Day is the a disputed holiday, with 17 states refusing too
celebrate Columbus Day, they refuse to honor this late 1400s - Roman Pope
guided - genocidal madman on Columbus Day, and two states (Alabama and
South Dakota) celebrate American Indian Heritage Day in its place. (9.) (10.)
(11.)
Thomas Dahalheimer
A member of Wahkon, MN's Sacred Heart Church
(1.) http://www.un.org/WCAR/e-kit/indigenous.htm
(2.) http://bullsburning.itgo.com/500Yrs.htm
(3.) http://bullsburning.itgo.com/500Yrs.htm
(4.) http://www.un.org/WCAR/e-kit/indigenous.htm
(5.) http://www.franciscan-archive.org/columbus/opera/excerpts.html
(6) http://www.google.com/search?q=Let+us+in+the+name+of+the+Holy+Trinity+go+on+
sending+all+the+slaves+that+can+be+sold
(7.) http://personal.pitnet.net/primarysources/casas.html
(8.) http://personal.pitnet.net/primarysources/casas.html
(9.) 17 states refusing two celebrate Columbus Day
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=with+17+
states+refusing+to+celebrate+Columbus+Day&spell=1
(10.) Alabama
http://www.transformcolumbusday.org/alabama.html
(11.) South Dakota
http://www.aktalakota.org/index.cfm?cat=54&artid=298
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