Cartoon by Ricardo Cate / Without Reservations
Delphine Red Shirt connects youth suicide and the attack on Indian children in Rapid City, South Dakota, to larger issues:
In the wake of the disturbing Jan. 24 events at the Rapid City hockey game, people on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation were further stunned by a series of suicides by very young and beautiful children. The suicides seem to have gone unnoticed and seem unrelated to the event. But, questions remain amid the sorrow over so many young lives taken by suicide — by self-inflicted hangings — in a short period of time after a terrible event. It seems too coincidental. In assessing the Jan. 24 event in Rapid City, one could say at the least that it is a "Tale of Two Cities," one of "haves" and "have-nots." Or, one could compare it to the pre-civil rights era South, where another type of racism against the descendants of slavery existed. The comparison that seems to make the most sense is what American Indian/Native American scholars today are writing about: Colonialism. One scholar, Gerald Taiaiake Alfred, a Mohawk author and educator calls it the "culture of fear," created by colonialism. A culture of fear that came out of a shameful past where land is taken: whether by force or treaty. Where, according to Taiaiake Alfred, the perpetrators know it is wrong to steal a country and further, to deny that it is a crime. But also, one of the dangers of this is the American Indian/Native American complacency, i.e. Lakota peoples not having access at all to their sacred He Sapas, the Black Hills. According to Taiaiake Alfred, what this creates is a victim mentality.Get the Story:
Delphine Red Shirt: Suicides in Pine Ridge and culture of fear (Indian Country Today 2/20)
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