A Short, Important Story

Posted on by under education, Environmental Issues, History, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

I found this very short true story on the Jon S. Randal Peace Page.  It is a story that is well worth the retelling, for it is a story of immense importance and wisdom, one that should be remembered for all time, for in many ways, no matter how the world changes, some things never change.

He just wanted to dance one last time, he was old, and he wanted to celebrate the heritage that was being taken away from him. To many Native American tribes, the dance, known as the Ghost Dance, would allow Native people to return to the lands taken away from them and bring peace, prosperity, and unity to Indian peoples throughout the region.

But, the white man feared him, they feared his dance, they feared what they could not understand. So, on December 15, 1890, they came to arrest the 59-year-old chief, Sitting Bull . . . for wanting to dance.

Of course, Sitting Bull was not going anywhere without a fight. So, he fought one last time, fighting for the memory of his once proud people. He was shot and killed.

Two weeks later, the army brutally suppressed the Ghost Dance movement, massacring a band of Sioux at Wounded Knee. In one of his speeches in “Sitting Bull: The Collected Speeches”, p. 75, Sitting Bull had said:

“The love of possessions is a disease in them. These people have made many rules that the rich may break, but the poor may not! They have a religion in which the poor worship, but the rich will not! They even take tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich and those who rule. They claim this mother of ours, the earth, for their own use, and fence their neighbor away … If America had been twice the size it is, there still would not have been enough.”

42 thoughts on “A Short, Important Story”

  1. Sitting Bull, you were wise, and we we were not. We didn’t understand your words, your dance. We were scared of someone who was very different. Please know that we are learning, albeit slowly. Way too slowly. Many people are making a difference, and that will continue to grow.

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  2. Wise words and not enough listened because as we look around us there are still many atrocities being carried out around the world it seems certain sectors of societies still think that they have a right to suppress minorities…

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  7. Reblogged this on Wibble and commented:

    The more I learn about the original American peoples, the more I admire them. (No wonder those who usurped their land want to try to ensure that their children aren’t taught history.)

    Was there ever a wiser man than Sitting Bull?

    Never mind the thought of ‘an America twice the size it is’: here we are just over a century later, and we’ve discovered that one Earth is not enough to satisfy the greed of homo fatuus brutus :/

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    • Many, many thanks for the reblog, PeNdantry! There was much wisdom to be had among the tribal elders … sadly, white people seem to have failed to learn from them. And yes, today white people are trying to stop the teaching of how their ancestors committed genocide against the Indigenous People, want to stop teaching how white people turned generations of Black people into slaves. Still today, far too many white people see themselves as physically and intellectually “superior”. I just don’t get it. You’re right … perhaps that’s the only justification for the billions of dollars we spend on the space program … to find another planet where the bigots can go live. Thanks again for the reblog, my friend!

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  8. Pingback: A Short, Important Story — Filosofa’s Word | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

    • I hear you. Sigh. It seems the white people, at least here in the U.S., believe they must eradicate all who are different in any way. Lessons have been learned along the way, but far too many have not learned. In some states, they don’t even teach about what the white people did to the Indigenous People in the 17th & 18th centuries, just as they don’t teach about slavery. Sigh. When will we ever learn?

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      • Trust me, Australia is going through something similar with our Indigenous peoples. We /now/ know that whites didn’t just walk into an empty land and take over. We had frontier wars and massacres too, but NONE of us were ever taught about those in Australian History at school. The truth was deliberately kept out of all our official histories and is only now starting to filter through to main stream Australia. And you know where the data is coming from? Letters, diaries and paintings from individual settlers themselves. We have an ugly past too. 😦

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        • Really? I had no idea your history was similar in that way to our own. I imagine that every country has an ugly past in one way or another. Slavery, genocide, treatment of women … but to try to sweep it under the rug, to whitewash history, is to repeat the same or similar mistakes, for how can we learn from the past if we don’t KNOW the truth about our past? Sigh.

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          • Exactly. We are preparing for a referendum later this year that will, I hope, give our Indigenous Peoples a Voice in parliament, and recognition in our Constitution. Part of the process will require truth telling so that all Australians finally understand our history, our real history. As you say, there can be no moving on until there’s truth.

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            • I have never, and never will understand how anybody can believe in the superiority of one ethnicity over another. Good grief! We’re all humans, all have the same body parts, and most of us even have brains, though sometimes I wonder. Sigh. I do hope you guys are successful in righting some of the wrongs from the past. For ever success we’ve had, we’ve had at least one failure. Heck, we’re still trying to get the Equal Rights Amendment giving equal rights to women passed by Congress!!! It’s been in the works since 1923 … 100 years!!! And every time, it fails to pass.

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  14. I’d like to say I heard that from my grandfather, but I never met my indigenous grandfather — have no idea who he even is. But I have heard it from somewhere. The white men (also my ancestors) killed many wise Indigenous people, for they did not understand their wisdom. I am glad to know some of their descendents do!

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    • How very sad that you never met your indigenous grandfather, for I’m sure he would have had many stories to tell. Perhaps some have learned, and appreciate the wisdom of the real founders of this nation, but I fear that overall, as a people, the white people remain arrogant and bigoted. Sigh.

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  16. Pingback: Re-blog: A Short, Important Story

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