Petition: Stop Land Run Re – Enactments (Edited)

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Stop Land Run Re – Enactments in Oklahoma Public Schools

WHEREAS, S.P.I.R.I.T is working for the rights of Oklahoma Indians, all American Indians, Indigenous people and the peaceful solution to all differences; and

WHEREAS, the Oklahoma History and US History does not provide the whole and true history of Oklahoma Indians or American Indians (Native Americans), and

WHEREAS, re-enacting the Land Run in public schools and in communities in Oklahoma is demeaning and humiliating to Oklahoma Indians, and

– snip –

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the undersigned and S.P.I.R.I.T, the group formed to help American Indians with matters such as these, formally requests the Oklahoma School Boards, Department of Education, Legislators and public officials to abolish the Land Run re-enactments held annually in this state.

http://www.ipetitions.com/peti…

Crossposted at Native American Netroots

Source

At the time the US government believed that Americans would never need the land of the Great Plains, and adopted a Permanent Indian Frontier policy, declaring the land to the west of the Mississippi as Indian Territory ‘forever’.

Colonial Education is the reason “Oklahoma History and US History does not provide the whole and true history of Oklahoma Indians or American Indians (Native Americans).” Colonial Education is defined as the following: “As a by-product of colonization, the colonizing nation implements its own form of schooling within their colonies.”

The concept of Colonial Education also involves the “idea of assimilation,” which

…is important when dealing with colonial education. Assimilation involves those who are colonized being forced to conform to the cultures and traditions of the colonizers. Gauri Viswanathan points out that “cultural assimilation (is)…the most effective form of political action” (Viswanthan 85). She continues with the argument that “cultural domination works by consent and often precedes conquest by force” (85). Colonizing governments realize that they gain strength not necessarily through physical control, but through mental control. This mental control is implemented through a central intellectual location, the school system.

Furthermore, Colonial Education very likely has been reinforced by the CIA.

Source

http://books.google.com/books?…

The CIA also developed remarkably close ties to journalism and, during the period 1947 – 1977, some 400 American journalists “secretly carried out assignments” for the agency, according to a classic investigative study by Carl Berstein…CIA influence extended to book publication…

The article states that it’s not specifically pertaining to “American Indian politics,” but does explore what it calls “close connections” with the CIA’s influence over some journalism and book publications in academia with the fact that the “victors have been writing the history.”

What pertinent historical facts that are left out in Colonial Education pertaining to stopping the Land Run Re -Enactments? Let’s answer that with another question. Where are the American Indians?  

Was there another forced location to “make room” for the settlers? One wonders what “means other than a run” relates to. Back to our initial question, “Where are the American Indians?” Let’s start by citing the fact that there were actually five Land Runs, not just one; consequently, at least one was “chaotic” and at times violent.

Source

Land Runs, Lotteries and Auction 1889 -1906


What is popularly known as the “Land Run”, was five land runs, a land lottery and finally a land auction. Prior to each Land Run the US government surveyed and platted 160 acres tracts for the first settler to reach to stake claim.

Below are the seven events

APR 22 1889
  Oklahoma Territory’s First Land Run.

SEP 22 1891
Iowa, Sac, Fox, Pottawatomie, and Shawnee Lands, opened by land run.

APR 19 1892
Cheyenne and Arapaho land opened by land run.

SEP 16 1893
Cherokee Outlet opened by land run.

MAY  3 1895
Kickapoo lands opened by land run.

AUG  1 1901
Wichita-Caddo and Comanche, Kiowa and Apache lands, opened by a “land lottery”

DEC 1906
Big Pasture lands opened by bids.

Source

The land run was chaotic, with people on foot, bicycles, horses, and wagons. Conflicts raged over who reached a plot of land first and were sometimes settled violently because of the lack of law and order in the West. Cheating also occurred – those who slipped through the US Army lines along the territory’s border to find the best plots before the race began were nicknamed ‘Sooners’.

One still wonders if there was another forced location to “make room” for the settlers. Furthermore, what does “any violent resistance with the allotment process” mean? For there was military action at notable times.

Source

In 1887 the Dawes Severalty Act called for an end to reservations. The act established the Dawes Commission (not created until 1893), which broke up the communal reservations and distributed individual land allotments. The measure created considerable distress, as it destroyed traditional Indian life and invited land fraud.

Called upon to deal with any violent resistance with the allotment process, the army also found itself in another law enforcement role as it attempted to capture David Payne’s   capture these armed parties of squatters and escort them back to Kansas. But the would-be settlers’ demand for free land finally succeeded. As a result, the army was in 1889 made responsible for regulating the Unassigned Lands land run in central Oklahoma. The army was again called upon to prevent fraud by “Sooners” and claim jumpers during the Cheyenne-Arapaho Reservation run of 1892 and the Cherokee Outlet land run of 1893. Overseeing the 1893 land run represented the last duty of the old frontier army.

1901:

In response to this appeal, a troop of United States Cavalry arrived from Ft. Reno in January, 1901, and the leaders of the movement were placed under arrest. Several of them including Crazy Snake were indicted in the United States court for seditious conspiracy, to which, pleas of guilty were made.

As per Colonial Education, the land theft resulting from the Boomer Movementis not generally taught, and neither is the fact that Indian Territory would have been a state all its own.  

So, I still wonder…

“Where are the American Indians in the Land Run Monument that cost approximately $5,000,000?” (Approximate quote before video below starts)

Hence, I’d really like you to sign this petition.

Stop Land Run Re – Enactments in Oklahoma Public Schools

WHEREAS, S.P.I.R.I.T is working for the rights of Oklahoma Indians, all American Indians, Indigenous people and the peaceful solution to all differences; and

WHEREAS, the Oklahoma History and US History does not provide the whole and true history of Oklahoma Indians or American Indians (Native Americans), and

WHEREAS, re-enacting the Land Run in public schools and in communities in Oklahoma is demeaning and humiliating to Oklahoma Indians, and

– snip –

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the undersigned and S.P.I.R.I.T, the group formed to help American Indians with matters such as these, formally requests the Oklahoma School Boards, Department of Education, Legislators and public officials to abolish the Land Run re-enactments held annually in this state.

http://www.ipetitions.com/peti…