AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT GRAND GOVERNING COUNCIL
MINISTRY FOR INFORMATION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 21, 2004
National Museum of the American Indian
On this day, September 21, 2004 the National Museum of the American Indian will officially open its doors in Washington, D.C., the nation’s capitol.
This magnificent institution connected to the Smithsonian Institution will stand forever in displaying the beautiful culture of the Indigenous peoples of what is now called the Americas with special focus on the great cultures of the Indian people of North, Central and South America.
We congratulate A. Richard West of the Cheyenne/Arapahoe, the Museum’s founding Director and Dwight Gourneau, Ojibwe, the Museum’s Board Chairman, as well Senators, Ben Nighthorse Campbell-R, Colorado, Daniel Inouye D, Hawaii who authored the original legislation, and the many others who made the National Museum of the American Indian a reality.
The American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council, however, feels that the Museum falls short in that it does not characterize or does it display the sordid and tragic history of America’s holocaust against the Native Nations and peoples of the Americas.
S.J. Resolution 37, Resolution of Apology to Native people, initiated in the U.S. Senate by Senator Sam Brownback-R of Kansas and co-sponsored by Senators Daniel Inouye-D of Hawaii, and Ben Nighthorse Campbell-R of Colorado, and H.J. Res. 98 introduced in the House of Representatives by JoAnn Davis-R, Virginia clearly spells out in detail and admits to historical and continuing depredations, massacres, thefts of lands and resources, and the destruction of sacred shrines and burial sites.
It is estimated that as many as 15 million Native peoples in America alone fell victim to the American holocaust since the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. They were victims of biological warfare by way of smallpox infected blankets from Valley Forge, and distributed to the Native people by Lord Jeffrey Amherst and George Washington, and by military aggression, force, violence, and terrorism across the breath of our sacred lands.
While the Museum displays the beautiful culture of Native Peoples, it must also serve as an institution of education about America’s holocaust on the American Indian. The fact that the Smithsonian Institution still holds in its vaults thousands of skulls and skeletal remains and funerary objects of our ancestors, most victims of this holocaust could, as a beginning, be made a part of the memorial to this great crime against humanity.
This Museum must forever be named and referred to as the National Holocaust Museum of the American Indian.
Dennis J. Banks, Ojibwa Nation
Nee Gon Nway Wee Dung, aka, Clyde H. Bellecourt, Ojibwa Nation
Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Dakota Nation
WaBun-Inini, aka, Vernon Bellecourt, Ojibwa Nation
For full text and tracking of S.J. Res.37, Library of Congress go to: |