Satisfying the fears of ugly Americans
By Professor Elizabeth Cook-LynnNative Sun News Today Columnist
nativesunnews.today The use of the word “choice” is being used to describe what is going on now at the Mexican border when Indians fleeing the death scenes in their own countries are treated as criminals by the U.S. We all know it was not a “choice” when a little Indian girl was killed at the border a few days ago as she was taken into “custody” by Trumpian Republican officials, one of hundreds of Indians suffering this same fate. We know the word “choice” is being used for political reasons, to satisfy the unfounded fears of ugly Americans. This official “choice” policy has been put in place by white men and women who came here to the Americas from elsewhere generations ago and now claim to be in charge of the law. They are intent upon building a wall between Mexico and the U. S. to keep this little girl, whose name was Jakelin Caal Maquin out. She was seven years old and she was Mayan Indian, perhaps a speaker of the Quiche language, even Spanish, but hardly any English. Her death is a symbol of an ongoing criminal act by today’s American government against defenseless Indian people.
![](https://www.indianz.com/News/2011/11/22/nsn-cooklynn.jpg)
“INDIANS ARE TO GO UPON SAID RESERVATIONS….THEY HAVE NO ALTERNATIVE BUT TO CHOOSE BETWEEN THIS POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT AND EXTERMINATION.” (1868 (2nd session {1319}).The history which flows from that policy and the criminalizing of a human being’s right to exist in his or own land where indigenous people like the Mayans and the Ocheti and thousands of other tribal people have lived for centuries is at the heart of America’s continuing criminal behavior and immorality. America’s border policy today is not only a wrong, failed public policy, its history has made America one of the most dangerous nations on the entire globe. Palestinians know this policy in the Middle East as they climb the walls in Israel to pray in their holy places and thousands across the globe know it, too. In all of the Americas, and for all generations, our own Indigenous parents and grandparents (like the parents of Jakelin) have a history of trying to save ourselves and save our children. The U. S. federal government continues to take it upon itself to manage the desperate lives of Indians, installing more FBI Agents on reserved lands right here in South Dakota than ever before and making it comfortable for federal judges in the cities that surround us to give us “maximum” sentences for any and all wayward behaviors, putting every crime by Indian persons on the front page of local newspapers. We are displaced, defamed and dehumanized in so many ways until our children are beginning to see themselves in the ugly images of those who do not want us in their presence.
NATIVE SUN NEWS TODAY
Support Native media!
Read the rest of the story on Native Sun News Today: Satisfying the fears of ugly Americans
Join the Conversation