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inventore-veritatis t1_jcv01kr wrote

Don’t worry, an obligatory “land acknowledgment” will make this all ok.

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ennuiacres t1_jcvcj8o wrote

That’s why Lummi Island is haunted.

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Strickdbs t1_jcvjis6 wrote

Portage island

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chiefswoneaglesloose OP t1_jcvjzmk wrote

Portage island was bought back from the government, and it is now reservation. I’ve toured the island and it’s a beautiful place with lots of history. You can find “way” trees, where they are pointed purposefully to show you the way. My friends family was one of the last families to live on portage island before being forcibly removed by the government.

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Strickdbs t1_jcvk7my wrote

My understanding is it’s a sacred place to the lummi, and there’s people buried out there.

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chiefswoneaglesloose OP t1_jcvkl4a wrote

Yeah, I was shown the burial site. It is a sacred place.

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Strickdbs t1_jcvm3zc wrote

I visited skull island once in massacre bay, out in west sound on Orcas. Then I read how it got the name. Very sombering of the brutality of life back then. A band of Haida warriors paddled down and decimated an entire lummi fishing camp, decapitating them and placing heads on spikes. It had an ominous feel and I didn’t stay long.

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chiefswoneaglesloose OP t1_jcvmbtx wrote

That’s brutal, but that’s how it used to be. People refer to the tribes nowadays as being slavers. And it’s true.

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Farmallenthusiast t1_jcwcn8l wrote

Wild. We grew up rowing to Skull from our grandparents place and playing there.

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Pristine_Read_7476 t1_jcytvm5 wrote

The whole history of European colonization of North America is filled with inhumanity, no argument there. Could you post some links to sources for this event?

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lurker-1969 t1_jcx1rpy wrote

Where are your rock solid sources? Better post some for this.

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Everyday_Amy t1_jcyw121 wrote

This happened throughout the U.S. and Canada well into the 80s. Just Google "American Indian boarding schools" or " residential schools". It's not hard to find.

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ElTardoDente t1_jcyyhez wrote

Damn it’s almost like we held a war over this and the Americans won. I’m not sure why you think Americans are supposed to be good people, it’s incredibly surprising they didn’t put natives in slave labor camps.

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ThurstonHowell3rd t1_jczc4gi wrote

> I’m not sure why you think Americans are supposed to be good people, ...

Because we don't fish with gill nets?

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[deleted] t1_jcvn41v wrote

[deleted]

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Rex_Beever t1_jcx3axc wrote

Where does it say that? Does history bother you, or you only like it whitewashed?

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[deleted] t1_jcuzdp9 wrote

[deleted]

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kk-kyung t1_jcv1foz wrote

Ok but how do you expect people to “start a super productive business, buy some land and beat the colonizers” when the colonizers have set up systems to oppress marginalized groups of people, and intentionally under resource communities of color? You seem to ignore the fact that buying land or launching a business requires capital and if you don’t have that it’s extremely difficult.

Being able to grow “somewhat cold” on these stories is a stance of privilege because you’re not affected daily by the injustice.

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not-picky t1_jcv1ses wrote

I am completely for actions that increase social mobility, education for children, and eliminate those gaps. I'm just challenged by stories about historical crimes.

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kk-kyung t1_jcv2ppf wrote

I get that. But history is important, and it’s important to gain an accurate portrayal of history. I mean. Even on an individual level, family history is important. If we forget or neglect to consider the history behind marginalization, then it allows us to forego changing systems or increase social mobility because we have no empathy for the struggle.

I appreciate you saying that you are for processes to eliminate those gaps though.

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not-picky t1_jcvs3pz wrote

I've deleted my comment - it's not helpful to a civil discussion and I don't want to encourage a certain type of person, but my unpopular opinion is that "white people live on the land of murdered orphans" might not be the helpful place to start either.

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chiefswoneaglesloose OP t1_jcvto9m wrote

That’s the truth, why is that so hurtful

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not-picky t1_jcvxfhn wrote

If it were non-white Americans, would the story be different? What do you think ought to be done?

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chiefswoneaglesloose OP t1_jcvxkny wrote

It doesn’t matter, I walked on the land and seen all of them are white. That’s what the truth is.

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Abitconfusde t1_jcv9mno wrote

> What is, I wonder, the purpose of recounting these crimes? Do modern-day people want to identify with these victims to get something out of it? It's tough hearing about crimes where neither victim nor perpetrator are around

Is your argument that we should forget all of the bad things that happened more than a lifetime ago?

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not-picky t1_jcw7jym wrote

No but in this case it's challenging to know what to do about it.

This story came up when the land became valuable to developers. It's important that the victims are orphans because there's conveniently, therefore no or vague records of the ownership claim. Lummi Nation then tried to cut off the water supply to the homes built there and it was later reversed by the government.

In the 1996 telling of it, the orphans sold the land after being tricked by doctors for bills? In this telling, they were straight-up murdered. The story gets worse every year!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/06/10/a-battle-of-rights-on-the-reservation/166b7f7e-e86f-4dcd-92e9-dc76b615757d/

I completely believe that Lummi Nation land was stolen. In fact all of America was stolen from native people. Even the Salish Coast tribes are fighting each other over land history, and the oral-tradition stories are hard to verify and bias towards a great injustice. I'm just not sure how to unwind all of that, or if it should be.

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chiefswoneaglesloose OP t1_jcv0shh wrote

You’re the problem

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naazzttyy t1_jcvamut wrote

Genghis Khan’s mongol horde enabled him to rape and pillage so successfully that 16 million living men, or 0.5% of all males alive on Earth today, can trace their genealogy directly back to Khan.

OP, in your view, does this also qualify Mongolia as the problem?

Should those 16 million living descendants of rape victims be holding out for reparations?

My genealogy is Scotch-Irish, and far back blood relatives were subject to the rite of prima nocta.

Would compensation for this past historical behavior be laid at the feet of the Scottish monarchy, or should it be the responsibility of Great Britain, given that the Kingdom of Scotland merged with the Kingdom of England via the Union of Treaty, formally ratified by both parliaments in 1707 to form one joint Kingdom of Great Britain? Or, should recompense instead be borne by the United Kingdom, which governs both islands today?

Is the recent request from Greece for additional WWII reparations from Germany for Nazi atrocities valid, despite the terms set forth in the Treaty of Versailles, especially in light of Germany’s payment of $62 million dollars to Greece in 1960? Would the confiscation of property in Greece that is owned in 2023 by German citizens or companies, persons whom were not alive during the time of war or in the case of business entities not even formed under articles of incorporation until the turn of the century, over 60 years later, be valid? Were this to go forward, would it be justifiable, or a miscarriage of justice? What about the obvious and uncomfortable parallels to Nazi Party confiscation of Jewish-owned businesses and properties leading up to the rise of the Reich?

At what point do historical actions that were undertaken by people long dead cease to be attributed to the living? Is acknowledgment that such things were horrific, that these terrible events must be included in the history lessons taught to subsequent generations, not only to prevent history from repeating itself, but rather to better ourselves, insufficient? Who but the living can decide when the past may be let go, provided the lessons it teaches us are retained?

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Alarmed-Grape t1_jcy5u0s wrote

I think a major distinction when it comes to historical atrocities is whether people living now are still affected by the fallout from said atrocities. Indigenous people in the US are absolutely still negatively affected to this day in myriad ways. Are you, as a living person with Scottish ancestry, experiencing a negative impact to your life due to the historical practice of prima nocte?

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chiefswoneaglesloose OP t1_jcvb1kd wrote

You’re really that butt hurt over facts. Where in my essay does it say anything about reparations. I just want people to know about this

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naazzttyy t1_jcvbfa1 wrote

Nah, my man… I think you are just a bit obtuse and missed the point of my comment entirely.

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naazzttyy t1_jcvbvvh wrote

And your essay is entirely valid and brings to light horrible things the US government did.

But your counter to u/not-picky is part of the problem. By dismissing the first part of what he answered with, and only replying the the second part, you missed an opportunity to engage with someone who was clearly interested enough to read what you wrote and engage with you on it.

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not-picky t1_jcwq541 wrote

Well here's an alternate version of the story:

The islands up to Orcas were disputed by French and Americans at the time when French Catholic Missionaries committed atrocities and forced assimilation religious schools, later Americans took the land, and created the reservation system. There were many injustices, but that history is older than this story.

In the last century, Washington land wasn't super valuable outside of logging, and some people of the Lummi nation are struggling and sell the title of some costal land for money, thinking little of it. In the 90s tech makes it big and there's a population boom, suddenly costal development of nice homes are incredibly valuable, and developers are putting in homes in Sandy Point - a strip adjacent to Lummi nation.

The tribe now feels like its unfair, they ought to be paid a lot more of this now-very-valuable land. They claim the sale was not valid, the land is still Lummi. Although there are records of the sale on the American side, the Lummi story is that the sellers were orphans, part of the tribe by heritage but without written records. They weren't authorized to make such a sale, and so it should still belong to the tribe, the sellers were coerced because of medical debt. Now it's a he-said-she-said story, not that the land was sold but about the unverifiable nature of the tribal status of who sold it, and if that was a valid transaction. Because these homes are a strip alongside the reservation, the tribe then moves to cut water to the disputed land in retaliation. Without access to the outside utilities, the hope is to makes the land worthless to the developer and they can then buy it back to develop themselves and profit, but the developers sue and win the case after many years in the WA courts.

"As Leroy Deardorff, a Lummi natural resources officer, puts it: 'There are big bucks to be made out here.'"

Lummi nation passes around the tale of these orphans. In today's telling, they were murdered by white people! It's suspect that this particular tale doesn't appear to be told until the development dispute happened. Now salty chiefs wander reddit to tell the tale of evil white people stealing land, which is somewhat true in the long run, but the specifics of it change over time and 'white' just means anyone non-native. At this point Lummi nation identifies as 40% white, but those clinging most strongly to that heritage see anyone outside of reservation land as an oppressor and to blame for the theft of native lands and their modern problems. But mostly money.

You can read a 20-year-old telling of it here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/06/10/a-battle-of-rights-on-the-reservation/166b7f7e-e86f-4dcd-92e9-dc76b615757d/

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not-picky t1_jcwti55 wrote

And while I'm talking to myself on a dead thread. The politics of the Salish Coast people gets even more interesting. A faction of people with tribal heritage left their tribes, but now wish to be recognized as a new tribe: the Duwamish. With the modern reparations movements, they believe anyone living in modern Seattle ought to be paying them rent: https://www.realrentduwamish.org So you can kind of see what the focus of this group is.

However the Muckleshoot, Puyallup, and Tulalip tribes already claim this land as their ancestral home. Coincidentally they each run profitable casinos and get special access to fishing rights. If another tribe was recognized, what would they give up? They took out https://www.therealduwamish.org to try to smear the former group.

So it's nuts out there with inter-tribe politics, but the common thread is that money and business come with ownership of tribal heritage and land. It all feels a little disingenuous - it's cultural panhandling.

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chiefswoneaglesloose OP t1_jcvdm8o wrote

This person doesn’t understand why history is important to remember. That’s a problem.

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shooketh_not_stireth t1_jcveb1b wrote

Ok, why is history important to remember. What do you expect people to actually do with the information you've provided?

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goldensavage1 t1_jcvfna9 wrote

So the only response to the murders and thefts is to wait for a couple of generations to pass and ignore them. And that will make it ok? Also ignore this type of thing that is happening now because you are not personally affected, or would be affected if it was stopped?

“Don’t hurt my feelings! I don’t want to know about slavery because I didn’t do. And if my family did, it makes me feel bad so no one can know!”

Yes, I know you don’t give a damn about the Lummi, because a cave man took the kill of another cave man way back when. But we’re supposed to be the exceptional nation (don’t make me laugh). We’re the most civilized, modern, moral society in the world if you took a survey of fellow Americans. How does ignoring what we did helpful to anyone except the white majority? I’m white. I have white privilege. But I’m willing to fight for others. How this gets fixed is above my pay grade, but I do want it fixed.

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Tsujimoto3 t1_jcvj0gz wrote

The vast majority of historical scholars believe that Prima Nocta was a myth. The only reason it’s in popular culture is because they used the myth for a scene in Braveheart. Your ancestors didn’t suffer that any more than mine did. Go read a book instead of getting your misinformation from fantasy movies.

Edit: Look it up instead of downvoting, people. You’re wrong here.

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