KFAI's Indian Uprising, July 23, 2006

KFAI's Indian Uprising, July 23, 2006

WHY ARE INDIGENOUS (AMERICAN INDIAN) SOLDIERS SERVING IN IRAQ? by Dr. Michael Yellow Bird (Sahnish and Hidatsa First Nations citizen), Letters to the Editor, Dakota Lakota Journal, July 7-14, 2006.  Open Letter to all indigenous peoples:

As the United States prepares for its annual Independence Day celebrations, I strongly urge all of our nations to hold critical and independent discussions n why we are committing our young people to serve the U.S. military in its occupation of Iraq.

The recent reporting (including revelations of a cover-up) of the murders, executions, and massacres of innocent Iraqi citizens by United States troops prompts me to ask, "Why are Indigenous (American Indian) soldiers serving in Iraq?

I wonder why our tribal communities have not had critical debates on the immorality of this war, on the lies of the present Bush Administration that got us into this war, and on the spiritual, economic, social, and psychological costs that both our people and the Iraqi people will pay for this war.  It is clear from the history of many of our tribes that our people understood the grave costs of war and so took this act very seriously.  Before engaging in war, many of our tribes initiated peace councils and sent emissaries to negotiate goodwill and friendship with the "enemy" in order to avoid war.  As sovereign Indigenous nations, we did not to this before or during the invasion of Iraq.  We instead let the United States make the decision for us as to whether we should or should not enter into this war.  I wonder when was the last time that the United States asked our people for our opinion about war and its costs.  Our history tells us that because war was so...

Dr. Yellow Bird, Ph.D. is the Founder and Director, Center for Indigenous Peoples' Critical and Intuitive Thinking and Associate Professor, Indigenous Nations Studies Program, The University of Kansas, Lawrence.  E-mail mybird@ku.edu, http://www2.ku.edu/~insp/

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