These Chiracahua Apache children were with Geronimo's band when he surrendered for the last time in 1886.
The same children four months after arriving at Carlisle.
On Sept. 4, 1886, Goyathlay, the leader of the Chiricahua band of Bedonkohe Apaches known as Geronimo, surrendered along with 37 men, women and children. Three weeks later, all the adults, plus the Chiricahua who had helped the Army track the band for more than a year were shipped to Florida, then Alabama, and ultimately Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where Geronimo died in 1909 without ever returning to his Arizona home. For the band's children, another fate awaited. They were shipped off to the U.S. Training and Industrial School at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. As you can see, their transformation was well underway.
Such was the fate of Indian children of many tribes right up through the 1970s. Some went to government-run boarding schools; others were taken in by church operations, Catholics and Mormons being among the prominent proponents of this approach to "civilizing" Indians.
In addition to being physically abused and treated as sexual prey in many cases, children in the boarding schools had their language, culture and religion yanked away. That wasn't collateral damage. It was the whole point. The concept behind the boarding schools, more than 150 of them by 1900, was "Kill the Indian … save the man," as noted in an 1892 Denver speech by Col. Richard H Pratt, founder of the the Carlisle school. In short, demolish Indians by literally stealing their children. Some never returned home. Many who did found themselves treated as outcasts by their own people and, of course, still inferiors in the dominant culture.
Dean Baker at Truthout writes The Good News and Bad News About 5.9 Percent Unemployment:
The jobs report on Friday showed the economy created 248,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate fell below 6.0 percent for the first time since the early days of the recession. This is good news for workers. While we are still far from anything resembling full employment, it is getting easier for people to find jobs.
If the economy keeps creating jobs at this pace, workers will finally have enough bargaining power to see some real wage gains, thereby getting their share of the benefits of economic growth. But this is also the bad news in the story. There are many powerful people who want to keep these wage gains from happening.
Immediately after the jobs report was released, James Bullard, the president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, was on television insisting that the Fed had to start raising interest rates. Bullard complained that the Fed was behind schedule and needed to slow the economy to prevent inflation.
There should be no ambiguity about what Bullard was saying. He knows that higher interests will keep people from getting jobs. If the Fed raises interest rates it will discourage people from buying homes and cars. Fewer people will refinance mortgages, which has been a way for tens of millions of people to free up money for other spending over the last few years. [...]
Bullard wants to see the economy slow because he doesn’t want to see more workers get jobs. This is because when more workers get jobs, it will increase their bargaining power and they will be in a position to demand higher wages. This is exactly the inflation that worries Bullard. If workers are getting higher wages then we will see more inflation than in a situation where wages are stagnant. Bullard wants the Fed to slow the economy so that wages remain stagnant. [...]
|
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2002—Nation reluctant to rush to war:
On the eve of Bush's Iraq speech to the country, a new CBS News/NYT poll finds the American public hesitant to starta a war against Iraq. Amongst the polls findings:
By a 2-to-1 margin, they said they would prefer to see U.N. weapons inspectors have more time to do their work before military action is taken.Public support for an Iraq war will undoubtedly rise after Bush's 20-minute speech tonight. The speech will be a rehash of his current stump speech—you know the one, Saddam's a "cold-blooded killer," WMD, etc., yet will offer no hard evidence of the alleged Iraq threat. […]
|
So, while Al Queda runs around—an enemy we know has the means and desire to strike US interests around the world and on US soil—Bush ignores the Bin Laden threat and focuses instead on a country that has been contained and rendered impotent for the past decade.
But, as the poll above suggests, people know Bush's war won't put food on our tables. It won't create jobs, or give the stock market a boost. It won't protect workers' 401(k)s, or pull the nation out of its Dubya recession. Thus, Bush focuses on Iraq to his and his party's peril.
|
Tweet of the Day
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show: who gives the most to charity? And BTW, what's charity?
Greg Dworkin brings us updates on polling & Ebola-ing, and intra-state GOP fights. Further examination on the nature of our "war on terror." More on Dems getting nothing for toeing the NRA line.
BuzzFeed discovers some creepy tracking devices in NYC phone booths, and gets them removed.
High Impact Posts. Top Comments