75-16-B1
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Indian's Plight
TranscriptBefore we circle the wagons and send for John Wayne, we'd better pause to see if it's really us against the Indians again or has someone got us all shooting at each other. I'll be right back. Is there a "pale face" among us who doesn't feel the need to go back about three-quarters of a century and do a better job of ending the Indian wars? During these past four score and several years we've tried well-intentioned government paternalism but solved nothing and only proved that as a foster parent government is a colossal failure. The Bureau of Indian Affairs means well but it seems to be trying to outnumber the Indians it's supposed to be caring for. When a tragedy takes place such as the happening at Wounded Knee, it seems as if the players on both sides are good guys and we don't know who we're supposed to be for or against. Murder has been done. Good men, red and white have died, children have been orphaned and women widowed. It's time for someone to turn up the lights and say, "Don't anyone leave the room." I think maybe someone has. Unfortunately he had to do it in a letter to the editor and that isn't exactly the way to get national attention. The writer of the letter is the president of the Oglala-Sioux tribe in Pine Ridge, South Dakota where much of the trouble has taken place. Listen to what he has to say. I'm quoting once again. "Our Pine Ridge Reservation is in the news and once again there's a great deal of confusion about what it is that's going on here. Our reservation was invaded in 1973 at the time of the Wounded Knee occupation by a bunch of outsiders, both Indian and non-Indian and it's again being invaded by a bunch of outsiders. There's something very strange about these outsiders... They drive fancy cars-better cars than our people. They... seem to have money to spend on airplane trips... and... they carry powerful weapons which makes them able to out shoot the F.B.I. A lot of us... are asking... Where are they getting their money and their weapons?... Who are these people who invade our reservation? How are they getting by without holding down jobs? Who's paying them? Who's supplying them with their fancy weapons? And why do the newspapers and television stations fall for the false stories that are being put out by the group supporting these invaders? When an Indian got killed in the shootout with the F.B.I., the story that was put out by these outside groups was that his name was Joe Kills Right. This was to make it sound like he was a Sioux. His name was Joe Stuntz and he was from Idaho. The one person who has been arrested so far comes from Oklahoma, he's another outsider. What are all these people doing on our reservation? They're not brave enough to come into the towns where there are able-bodied people, they go into the country and terrorize some poor old folks and when they cause trouble that makes news. Some church organizations rush in to mediate. What is there to mediate? What we on this reservation want is a chance to live in peace and for our people to improve their lot. We don't want these outsiders to create trouble and give our reservation a bad name. There's a lot that has to be done to improve the life of our people. Our people need jobs, better educational opportunities. We have to end the misery and boredom which affects our young people. We have to give them a real chance in life. We want to build up our reservation communities and provide a decent life for everyone. For that we need help and support and the interest of a well-informed public, but to get a well-informed public we need newspapers that print the facts as they are." Unquote. Well you can't tell the players without a program. It's time for some good investigative reporting to properly identify the good guys and the bad guys. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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