this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2026

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121

The People the Declaration Called ‘Savages’ Were Mostly Ignored in the Celebration 250 Years Later (fair.org)

submitted 5 days ago by technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/news@lemmy.world

24 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The Declaration of Independence announced not just freedom from Britain, but freedom to advance further upon Native land and continue to kill and otherwise remove its longtime inhabitants.

The founding of the country, and its Declaration of Independence, cannot then be separated from the 96% decrease in the Native American population, from 5 million people in 1492 to 237,000 in 1900. Nor can its conceptions of liberty and rights be separated from the freedoms stolen from Native Americans, first in their right to their lives and their land, and later in their right to their culture and religion.

In 1887, the US government divided tribal land into privately owned plots and auctioned off the remaining land to non-Indigenous US citizens, which resulted in the seizure of more than 90 million acres of Native American land.

The US government forcibly abducted Native American children and sent them to boarding schools hundreds of miles away, where they were starved and beaten when they spoke their Native languages. From the 1940s through the late 1960s, the US government enacted Indian termination policies that were intended to force Native Americans to assimilate into US society.

And yet Native Americans were largely absent from US corporate media opinion pieces about America’s semiquincentennial.

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[–] magnetosphere@fedia.io -4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Virtually all societies, past and present, have some form of genocide/slavery/discrimination in their past (or present). Humans can be nightmarishly terrible to one another. To me, it seems like the best we can do with such a bloody legacy is to acknowledge it, accept it, make a sincere apology to any survivors (or their descendants), and learn not to let it happen again.

We can’t even get the “acknowledge” part right, so this is gonna take a while.

Edit: I try to be a reasonable, just, and empathetic person, but I do make mistakes. I’m open to discussion. If someone could explain the downvotes, I’d appreciate it.

[–] Ferrous@lemmy.ml 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

What about reparations? Land back? Apologies don't mean much when the victims are still subjugated and the perpetrators still benefit.

[+] darkwing_duck@sh.itjust.works -6 points 5 days ago (4 children)

The perpetrators are long dead.

You want to punish the grandson for granddaddy's sins?

[–] pigup@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

grandson inherited grand daddys plunderings. He should give them back.

[–] Anti_Iridium@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

You say that, but my guy, some of the most abhorrent shit we did is less than the age of my grandpa.

Edit: fuck now that I think about it, it happened more recently than the birth of my parents.

[–] darkwing_duck@sh.itjust.works -2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I keep forgetting this is a Canadian instance.

Edit: Oh wait this is on lemmy.dbzer0. I dunno man, recent wrongdoings (within living memory with alive perps) are probably worth correcting and punishing.

[–] Ferrous@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Some 5500 Native American and Indigenous women go missing every year. The perpetrators, the subjugation, and the brutality absolutely persist today.

[–] darkwing_duck@sh.itjust.works -3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

You said "land back".

Meaning you want to give them the entirety of both Americas back, giving the boot to everyone else currently living there, did I misinterpret?

As for the latest twist, how many non-native women go missing every year? Are natives going missing even disproportional per capita? How do you know who the perps are?

[–] Ferrous@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

https://www.humanrightsresearch.org/post/the-disappearance-of-native-american-women-in-the-u-s

Despite Native Americans constituting a small percentage of the U.S. population, rates of murder, rape, and violent crime committed against Native Americans are all higher than the national averages. In 2022, the National Crime Information Center reported 5,487 cases of missing Native American women and girls in the United States, where the majority of missing persons cases involved girls aged 0-17 years old

[–] darkwing_duck@sh.itjust.works -2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Committed by whom?

[–] Ferrous@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Why does it matter? You're not trying to slyly pin these murders on Native Americans and Indigenous people, are you? Just make your point and don't be chickenshit.

[–] darkwing_duck@sh.itjust.works -3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Why don't you show, not tell.

Easy answer: find those responsible (whoever they are) and punish them justly.

[–] Ferrous@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Soo... Your answer for the Native American women being murdered is just to sit by and wait for a justice system that is emphatic about refusing to investigate these crimes? You're essentially telling these people to have complete faith in a system that has shown great interest in letting them die.

https://northernkentuckylawreview.com/blog/the-legal-loophole-affecting-native-nationsnbsp

There are approximately 326 federal Indian reservations located in the United States. [i] The violence on these reservations is estimated to be up to ten times higher than national averages. [ii] Specifically, the violence against women and children is astounding. A study completed by the National Institute of Justice found eighty-four percent of native women have experienced some type of violence within their lifetime, with fifty-six percent having suffered sexual violence. [iii] Nevertheless, the prosecution statistics for these crimes do not even begin to measure up.

Confusion in jurisdiction, lack of funds, and overall disinterest in the pursuit of the crimes and seeking justice for native victims produced an epidemic of violence on reservations. [viii] In Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, the United States Supreme Court concluded that the federal government and the state in which a crime is committed have concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed by non-Indians against Indians on Indian land. [ix] The state and federal departments tasked with prosecuting these crimes are funded by tax dollars, which Indians do not pay. [x]

A landmark case in this discussion is Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, because the U.S. Supreme Court held that non-Indians, even if residents of a reservation, could not be prosecuted by tribal courts for criminal conduct. [xi] Essentially, tribal councils only maintain jurisdiction over Indians whom commit a crime on reservation land. [xii] This allows for non-Indians to commit crimes on reservations with little fear of repercussions. [xiii]

Non-Indians have exploited this legal loophole because they are aware of the unlikelihood of prosecution by the federal government. In 2011, only one year after the Tribal Law and Order Act was signed into law, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University recovered data that revealed federal prosecutors declined to file charges in fifty-two percent of cases involving serious crimes on Native American reservations. [xiv]

[–] darkwing_duck@sh.itjust.works -2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

How did you get this

Your answer for the Native American women being murdered is just to sit by and wait for a justice system that is emphatic about refusing to investigate these crimes?

out of this

find those responsible (whoever they are) and punish them justly

[–] Ferrous@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Who do you expect to be the ones investigating? Who do you expect to be the ones doling out punishment?

[–] binux@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Not to impose but I wouldn't bother continuing to try and reason with this person. They're clearly more interested in pushing an a priori argument riddled with presumptions and bias instead of actually acting in good faith.

[–] Ferrous@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 days ago

Wise words. Thanks.

[–] darkwing_duck@sh.itjust.works -1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I am curious what you think my argument is, because I actually have none, I am just questioning assumptions/presumptions xD

[–] darkwing_duck@sh.itjust.works -1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Someone impartial. Perhaps a team comprised of natives and non-natives together. Who doles out the punishment should be irrevelant, the perpetrators should be punished in full accordance with law, unbiased.

[–] binux@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

And yet Indigenous populations still suffer needlessly, all it takes is a simple online search to see that this is the case across both the US and Canada. Additionally if by “long dead” you mean “barely a lifetime ago” then sure I suppose you’re right.

This isn’t ancient history. At best it’s maybe a century in the past. And this deterministic mindset of “it’s too late to do anything, so oh, well” is almost exactly what caused this genocide in the first place. It’s frankly pathetic if not downright deplorable.

[–] darkwing_duck@sh.itjust.works -3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Why do you avoid a straight answer?

[–] Ferrous@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Because you're not engaging faithfully.

[–] darkwing_duck@sh.itjust.works -4 points 4 days ago

🤦🏻‍♂️