Enmity or hatred of other people is the greatest enemy we will ever face. If we look at what is happening around the world and at our own violence-filled history, this fact becomes apparent. Right now there is a high level of interest in research focused on the intractable conflict in the Middle East. The ongoing killing and civil unrest is incomprehensible to many of us who haven’t encountered enmity descending to this level.
Even in Big Horn County we don’t ignore this. Many of us are veterans having seen action in that theater. Now here’s another land invasion into the Gaza Strip, another ceasefire ended, and more inconclusive negotiations leading to more thoroughly justified killing. It is hard to comprehend how Israel’s attacks within its own boundaries continue decade after decade. It is also hard to fathom the ongoing level of enmity expressed toward Israel by other nations.
I’m wondering whether our own history of ethnic conflict here in Big Horn County could shed light on the current Gaza conflict. Is there anything we learned in our struggles evidenced by battle sites right here that could be enlightening?
White enmity toward American Indians was strong following Custer’s defeat on Last Stand Hill that hot June day in 1876. Two years later, a small band of Cheyennes, under Dull Knife, wanted to come back home here to the Little Horn and Rosebud. They were stopped by a January blizzard in 1879 and were found holed up in a hollow in the Nebraska Sand Hills. This band was escorted to Fort Robinson, where they were to be kept safe. I remember this beginning of the story I heard from a Ft Robinson military historian in 1976, as my family was camping in the area.
Our narrator went and on about fascinating military trivia, not mentioning the human connections that had been broken between the Cheyenne nation and their land. He didn’t mention the loss of the buffalo, their means of providing food and shelter, except as a military strategy; or how on that day they found themselves and their children cold, hungry, tired, and without any means of self-defense.
I heard a different version of the story shortly after I first moved to Busby to teach English and music. Friends like Teddy Risingsun and Austin Two Moons made sure I knew the real story, and warned me when I told them of my plans to take my family to Ft. Robinson. Teddy came back from the Korean War certain of his vision that the America he fought for needs to see the light. The central reason for the long and difficult Indian wars of the Americas from 1492 was not intransigent savages. It was the breaking of native nations’ connections to land and all its provisions. It was ongoing theft and occupation of Indian land. It started with slavery, led on to mass murder, sexual abuse, starvation, imprisonment, forced removal, torture and genocide. At that time I didn’t recognize the real enemy enmity, initially against Indians by Whites. I was only shocked with Teddy’s graphic litany of reasons for anger against Whites.
Of course we all know that the real savagery began with European gold-lust in Hispaniola. In a few short decades the West Indies islands were depopulated of millions of inhabitants in the New World’s first genocides. It continued the next centuries with atrocities on both sides up the East Coast of the thirteen colonies, into the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys with the Revolutionary War, and across the plains to Montana by the end of the Civil War.
This carnage on the plains of Montana has been ending over recent decades because of courageous people cutting enmity and cultivating peace. This trend culminated in a successful installation of an Indian memorial alongside the Custer memorial at the Little Big Horn Battle site near Crow Agency. The history of this monument alongside that of the 7th Cavalry is traced in a 2005 thesis by Megan Reece, “The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument and an Indian Memorial After 1988.”
In the words of Susan Harjo at one of the hearings in preparation for the change, “It is because of the valor and sacrifice of the past generations of all Indian nations in defense of treaty, sovereignty and human rights that there are any Indian people alive today. The heroism of our relatives at the Battle of the Little Bighorn has become the symbol for Indian people generally of the just and provident actions of all our ancestors to protect family and home.”
Some Palestinian and Israeli leaders are recognizing the need to address enmity as the enemy. Their writings, the science they access, and the religious inspiration for their courage is almost unknown in Big Horn County and in most of our nation. Look on my blog for links to their organizations, and find the remarkable stories of true courage that will eventually win the peace in Palestine and Israel. They remind me of the stories I heard from Cheyenne descendants of that battle after we arrived here in 1973, and Austin Two Moons’ speech and prayer at the dedication of the memorial. We have right here on Last Stand Hill a history lesson on how enmity is defeated. It’s worth sharing that with Israelis, Palestinians, the nation and the world.
The following is not included in the Big Horn County News edition:
Both the United States in the 1870's and Israel in modern times can be characterized as "... a bully sitting on a smaller child, and every time someone objects to the fact that the bully is beating the smaller child with an iron rod, the bully exclaims, “Well, he tried to slap me, so I was forced to defend myself.” No, you can’t claim that you’re beating the smaller child with an iron rod in self-defense, especially when you can end the entire confrontation simply by getting off him. Back to the political reality, Norman Finkelstein put it best: “The refrain that Israel has the right to self-defense is a red herring: the real question is, does Israel have the right to use force to maintain an illegal occupation? The answer is no.”
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/28/debunking_the_myths_about_gaza_the_truth_behind_israeli_and_palestinian_talking_points/
Suzan Harjo, a Cheyenne and Arapaho tribal representative, prepared a statement in support of the Indian Memorial, delivered at the hearing on the memorial in September 1990:
“…The battlefield was becoming a park for the American Indians as well.
There were feelings of relief and of victory in the cold November air. The battlefield name change was one more step toward an actual memorial. American Indians visited for the first time after the bill’s initial passing, and instead of feeling as if they were visitors on an unknown land, acceptance and justice welcomed them. This dramatic change, courtesy of the American government, set the battlefield down a brand new path, because the same legislation approved an Indian memorial at the site. Soon, not only would the battlefield’s name welcome both American Indians and white Americans, it would also offer a sacred space.”
That sacred space was opened by the renaming of the Battlefield, “Little Big Horn Battlefield,” implicitly declaring that Custer, instead of being the sole hero of the battle, gives legitimacy and equal hero status to both sides.
It took more than a century for official acknowledgement both sides need to be welcome who claim ancestry on both sides in the Battle of the Little Big Horn. It was a real struggle for life and liberty at our tourist-worn site on Last Stand Hill just south of Crow Agency. So now, two memorials are located just up the hill from the museum. They brins balance to the tragedy of both sides in a struggle for land, safety from harm, and provisions for life. It’s basic to human existence.
The Little Big Horn Battle was simply one example of many from back then with striking similarities with the Israel and Palestine disasters over the last decades. We learned that stealing other nations’ and people’s land and calling it one’s own is just wrong. Destroying and wasting the vast herds of buffalo, the primary source of a several nations’ means to work and provide life for themselves and their families was wrong. The disdain for language, culture, life style and despising the very existence of other peoples is now understood as simply wrong. We learned that. We in Big Horn County, with our wealth of differences in heritage, religion and language, know this.
But it was not an easy struggle. The focus on the memorial at Crow Agency was symbolic of the enmity pervading both sides since Columbus first set foot on the Americas. It looked impossible. It took honest application of moral principles espoused by the powerful side. Highly significant was the national policy of welcoming anyone to our national memorial parks regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or economic status. The ancestors of those who fought and defeated General Custer felt distinctly unwelcome simply because there was no acknowledgement nor legitimization of their motives in defending themselves from General Custer’s attack on that June day in 1876. People across the country and around the world attended hearings that were not suppressed. Those organized against a memorial for each of the two sides had to stand down, and truth won out. The story is admirably recounted in detail by Megan Reece in her thesis of 2005: "The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument and an Indian Memorial After 1988.”
Now it’s time to tell our president, our government, and this nation that just like then in Big Horn County, today neither side has a monopoly on enmity. But enmity is only exacerbated when one side is significantly more powerful than the other. It takes backing off to look at the obvious. One side uses the worlds largest bulldozers to destroy the other side’s homes, the other side has none. One side has F16 fighter bombers, helicopters, and command of the air space and uses it effectively to kill suspects, the other side has none. Was side has repeatedly killed or driven off livestock and otherwise destroyed agriculture production of the other side’s means to access food and a living. One side has been incarcerating children and killing children at a rate many times that of the other. One side has been crowding the other side into smaller and smaller areas, surrounding them with walls and impenetrable barriers to freedom of movement, making them virtual prisoners in what’s left of their own dwellings. One side’s children grow up witnessing death and destruction, experiencing the trauma of being present when family members are harmed, forceably subdued in their homes, or even killed. One side has all the weapons and technology of the US government to mount a successful self defense, yet frequently claims its right of self defense is under attack. The other side has neither effective self defense weapons nor rights to them, and now finds its tunnels, the only access to weapons for defense, destroyed again. One side has almost unanimous support from Christians in the United States.
But, a growing minority of American, Palestinian, and Israeli Christians, Jews and Muslims are working together against enmity in many worthy organizations cited below, even though they are opposed by the enmity of both sides.
A half-century ago, decades after Custer’s defeat, the protagonists met at Crow Agency and “buried the hatchet” in order to call off the hatreds and distrust that had tainted relationships between the factions here. We may be coming nationally to that point in our relationship with the lopsided “battle” in Gaza. We know it’s gotten ugly. Many liberal and conservative Jewish people in America and in the Middle East are waking up to the reality of the horrific imbalance. There are now over twenty active Israeli human rights organization working frantically to educate Israelis and, ostensibly, citizens in the United States, even in Big Horn County, about the plight of Palestinian people under Israeli military occupation. Ultimately, Israel’s security will rest in its recognition of the right of Palestinians to self defense of their homes, land, resources, and their families. The opposite is not an issue.
Following are a series of human rights organizations based in Israel, representing the voices of a strong minority of Israeli citizens deeply opposed and concerned about the direction of their nation. Unfortunately, none of these voices, though often having media access in Israel, has almost none here in the United States.
B’Tselem (in the image of God) is one of the oldest human rights organizations in Israel. It’s stated focus: "acts primarily to change Israeli policy in the Occupied Territories and ensure that its government, which rules the Occupied Territories, protects the human rights of residents there and complies with its obligations under international law’ It’s web site is often inaccessible or difficult to load. Look it up on Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B'Tselem
Adalah
The first Arab-run nonprofit legal center in Israel. The organization was established in November 1996 and its main goal is to achieve equal rights and minority rights protection for Arab citizens of Israel.
The first Arab-run nonprofit legal center in Israel. The organization was established in November 1996 and its main goal is to achieve equal rights and minority rights protection for Arab citizens of Israel.
The Israel section of Amnesty International participates in the organization's campaigns to prevent human rights violations in Israel and around the world.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel was established in 1972. ACRI is a non-partisan, independent organisation that works for the protection of human and civil rights in Israel and in the territories under its control.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel was established in 1972. ACRI is a non-partisan, independent organisation that works for the protection of human and civil rights in Israel and in the territories under its control.
The Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA)
Founded in 1988, HRA works to promote and protect the political, civil, economic, and cultural rights of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel and to further the domestic implementation of international human rights principles.
Founded in 1988, HRA works to promote and protect the political, civil, economic, and cultural rights of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel and to further the domestic implementation of international human rights principles.
The Association of Forty
Formed in December 1988, the association represents the residents of so-called unrecognized villages and their problems and works to promote support locally and internationally.
Formed in December 1988, the association represents the residents of so-called unrecognized villages and their problems and works to promote support locally and internationally.
Bizchut Israeli nonprofit organization working to advance the rights of people with physical and mental disabilities as well as the mentally ill and to achieve their full integration in Israeli society.
Bimkom - Planners for Planning Rights
The organization was established in May 1999 by planners and architects with the goal of strengthening the connection between human rights and spatial planning in Israel. As a professional organization, Bimkom strives to achieve the right to equality and social justice in matters of planning, development, and the allocation of land resources, and assists communities and minorities affected by social and economic disadvantage and by civil rights' discriminations to exercise their rights in this area.
The organization was established in May 1999 by planners and architects with the goal of strengthening the connection between human rights and spatial planning in Israel. As a professional organization, Bimkom strives to achieve the right to equality and social justice in matters of planning, development, and the allocation of land resources, and assists communities and minorities affected by social and economic disadvantage and by civil rights' discriminations to exercise their rights in this area.
Gisha: Center for the Legal Protection of Freedom of Movement
An Israeli not-for-profit organization that seeks to protect the fundamental rights of Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories by imposing human rights law as a limitation on the behavior of Israel's military.
An Israeli not-for-profit organization that seeks to protect the fundamental rights of Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories by imposing human rights law as a limitation on the behavior of Israel's military.
Kav La'Oved
Non-profit organization established by a group of volunteers in 1990 dedicated to protecting the rights of disadvantaged workers in Israel.
Non-profit organization established by a group of volunteers in 1990 dedicated to protecting the rights of disadvantaged workers in Israel.
Machsom Watch - Women for Human Rights Founded in 2001 by a group of Israeli women in response to reports on violations of the Human Rights of Palestinian civilians at military and police checkpoints. The group conducts daily surveillances at various checkpoints, observes the procedures at the checkpoints, challenges wrongdoings, assists the local population and provide updated web reports.
Meezaan Center for Human Rights
Meezaan Association for Human Rights focuses on maintaining adequate and professional legal representation of the Arab minority in all that concerns it as a native minority on its land; as well as raising awareness amongst the public and the non-profit organizations, throughout giving legal advisory and support as needed. We also concentrate on documenting transgressions and discrimination in every aspect of the Arab minority's existence, through authentic reports and publications that highlight and affirm these violations
Meezaan Association for Human Rights focuses on maintaining adequate and professional legal representation of the Arab minority in all that concerns it as a native minority on its land; as well as raising awareness amongst the public and the non-profit organizations, throughout giving legal advisory and support as needed. We also concentrate on documenting transgressions and discrimination in every aspect of the Arab minority's existence, through authentic reports and publications that highlight and affirm these violations
HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual
An Israeli human rights organization whose main objective is to offer legal and administrative assistance and advocacy to Palestinians of the Occupied Territories whose rights are violated due to Israel's policies. These include Detainee Rights; Residency Rights and Family Unification; Freedom of Movement; Violence by security forces and settlers; House Demolitions and Deportations. HaMoked's site contains information relating to these human rights violations: Israeli laws and regulations; international conventions; petitions to the Israeli High Court of Justice; claims for compensation for damages; decisions by Israeli and other courts; and other official documents and reports.
An Israeli human rights organization whose main objective is to offer legal and administrative assistance and advocacy to Palestinians of the Occupied Territories whose rights are violated due to Israel's policies. These include Detainee Rights; Residency Rights and Family Unification; Freedom of Movement; Violence by security forces and settlers; House Demolitions and Deportations. HaMoked's site contains information relating to these human rights violations: Israeli laws and regulations; international conventions; petitions to the Israeli High Court of Justice; claims for compensation for damages; decisions by Israeli and other courts; and other official documents and reports.
Mossawa - The Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens of Israel
The organization was established in October of 1997 as a Non Governmental Organization. Mossawa works to promote equality for Arab\Palestinians within the borders of Israel. Mossawa utilizes advocacy methods to change the social and political status of Arab/Palestinians in Israel in an attempt to gain minority recognition and rights, without sacrificing their national and cultural rights as Palestinians.
The organization was established in October of 1997 as a Non Governmental Organization. Mossawa works to promote equality for Arab\Palestinians within the borders of Israel. Mossawa utilizes advocacy methods to change the social and political status of Arab/Palestinians in Israel in an attempt to gain minority recognition and rights, without sacrificing their national and cultural rights as Palestinians.
Physicians for Human Rights - Israel
PHR-Israel, established in 1988, is dedicated to promoting and protecting the medical human rights of residents of Israel and the Occupied Territories. PHR-Israel opposes the subjugation of medical care to political considerations and fights against breaches of medical human rights by the Israeli authorities. PHR-Israel also works to rectify and prevent breakdowns in health care delivery in the West Bank.
PHR-Israel, established in 1988, is dedicated to promoting and protecting the medical human rights of residents of Israel and the Occupied Territories. PHR-Israel opposes the subjugation of medical care to political considerations and fights against breaches of medical human rights by the Israeli authorities. PHR-Israel also works to rectify and prevent breakdowns in health care delivery in the West Bank.
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI)
An apolitical organization dedicated to the elimination of torture as a means of interrogation by Israel's security forces. PCATI is the only organization in Israel exclusively devoted to the issue of illegal interrogation. PCATI documents, monitors and responds to cases of illegal interrogation, ill-treatment and police brutality within Israel, the Occupied Territories and the Palestinian National Authority.
An apolitical organization dedicated to the elimination of torture as a means of interrogation by Israel's security forces. PCATI is the only organization in Israel exclusively devoted to the issue of illegal interrogation. PCATI documents, monitors and responds to cases of illegal interrogation, ill-treatment and police brutality within Israel, the Occupied Territories and the Palestinian National Authority.
Rabbis for Human Rights
The only organization in Israel today concerned specifically with giving voice to the Jewish tradition of human rights. RHR has helped numerous individuals, publicized causes, engaged in civil disobedience, lobbied the Knesset and participated in a landmark high court case limiting the scope of the army to abuse human rights under the guise of security.
The only organization in Israel today concerned specifically with giving voice to the Jewish tradition of human rights. RHR has helped numerous individuals, publicized causes, engaged in civil disobedience, lobbied the Knesset and participated in a landmark high court case limiting the scope of the army to abuse human rights under the guise of security.
Yesh Din - Volunteers for Human Rights
An Israeli not-for-profit organization comprised of women and men who have come together to take concrete action against the constant human rights abuses inflicted on the Palestinian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The members of the organization come from diverse personal, professional and political backgrounds, but share a deep concern for the significant damage these abuses are causing Palestinian and Israeli societies. To ensure the effectiveness of its action, Yesh Din is assisted by legal, human rights and media professionals.
An Israeli not-for-profit organization comprised of women and men who have come together to take concrete action against the constant human rights abuses inflicted on the Palestinian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The members of the organization come from diverse personal, professional and political backgrounds, but share a deep concern for the significant damage these abuses are causing Palestinian and Israeli societies. To ensure the effectiveness of its action, Yesh Din is assisted by legal, human rights and media professionals.
“Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”by Dee Brown, 1979. It tells the broader story of our Indian wars in the American West, piercing through the clouds of the conquering power’s stories. The book expresses a Native American perspective on the injustices and betrayals committed by the US government. Brown describes Native Americans' displacement through forced relocations and years of warfare waged by the United States federal government. The government's dealings are portrayed as a continuing effort to destroy the culture, religion, and way of life of Native American peoples.[2]Helen Hunt Jackson's A Century of Dishonor is often considered a 19th-century precursor to Dee Brown's writing.[3] (From Wikipedia)
From Ha’aretz, Israel’s largest news outlet, English version: Israel's moral defeat will haunt us for years
We have passed 1,000 dead Palestinians. How many more?
If victory is measured in the number of dead, then Israel and its army are big winners. From the time I wrote these words on Saturday, and by the time you read them on Sunday, the number will no longer be 1,000 (70-80 percent civilians) but even more.
An unholy war that spells disaster for democracy
Every day Israel's misguided Gaza operation continues, it threatens to overturn and decimate our nation's humane foundation.
Five Israeli Talking Points on Gaza Debunked
Why does the mainstream media keep repeating these false claims?
http://www.friendslittlebighorn.com/meganreecethesis.htm quotes this book: 22 FitzGerald, Frances. America Revised: History Schoolbooks in the Twentieth Century. New York: Vintage Books, 1980, 58. 5
“a high percentage – perhaps even a majority - of American schoolchildren learned American history from a single book: David Saville Muzzey’s American History.
Indians ‘had some noble qualities…but at bottom they were a treacherous, cruel people.’ By the 1890s – the decades following the end of the Indian Wars – white
American portrayals of American Indians declined even more. Words added to the
repertoire of American Indian descriptions included: “treacherous, cruel, tyrannical to
women, idolatrous, lazy, vengeful, and given to torture.”
July 9, 2014, David Harris-Gershon has an article in Alternet, Posted by Tikkun Daily, “As a Jew living in America, the past week has changed me forever.”
David Graber
Greenwoodfarmmt.org
Hardin, MT
