James Giago Davies. Photo courtesy Native Sun News Today
Lakota have a hitch in their giddyup
No amount of magic can turn X into Y
By James Giago Davies
Native Sun News Today Columnist
nativesunnews.today At some point in the reservation past Lakota started settling for less, probably starting with T’shunka Witco having to settle for a bayonet in the back, before they even got to their reservations. That set the tone for some tough times, and during those tough times, the Office of Indian Affairs, and later, the BIA, had a very simplistic formula: “That one is compliant and cooperative, he is smart and good. That one is angry and uncooperative, he is dumb and bad.” Over time, reservation clans were life-alteringly rewarded or punished depending on what side of that determination their collective behavior reflected. By the time the Indian Reorganization Act was put into place in 1934 giving tribes the ability to govern their own agencies those Lakota who were able to assume that new role were mostly the compliant and cooperative kind. They more readily internalized the hypocrisy and greed of their BIA masters. The best and the brightest were never considered for roles of leadership, and if they were, they were soon horrified by the rampant corruption, nepotism and cronyism, and so they bailed out, and left tribal government to the types that preferred Tony Lama boots and Stetson hats. Yee-hah.
Read the rest of the story on the Native Sun News Today website: Lakota have a hitch in their giddyup (Contact James Giago Davies at skindiesel@msn.com) Copyright permission Native Sun News
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