THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2022 - HATE IS STRONG AND MOCKS THE SONG

 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2022 - HATE IS STRONG AND MOCKS THE SONG

This week in-between Christmas and New Year, I’ve been taking the “National Today” activity that appealed to me.  Monday was Boxing Day, Tuesday was Fruitcake, and Wednesday was Call a Friend. But, the “National Today” for December 29 includes National Irish Constitution Day, International Cello Day, Mongolia Independence Day, and others that just didn’t interest me.

So, I looked at “Today in History” and found that today (December 29) in 1890, the U.S. Army Massacred Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee South Dakota.  I’ve chosen that topic for today.

That plus the Longfellow poem made into a Christmas Hymn - I heard the Bells on Christmas Day.

“And in despair I bowed my head:

"There is no peace on earth," I said,

"For hate is strong, and mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Hate is strong.  Hate for the Indians.  Hate between the states that resulted in the Civil War.  Hate between Russia and Ukraine.  Hate between Republicans and Democrats.  Hate between <group A> and <group B>.  

The narrative for "Today in History" says this:

“On December 29, 1890, in one of the final chapters of America’s long Indian wars, the U.S. Cavalry kills 146 Sioux at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota.

“Throughout 1890, the U.S. government worried about the increasing influence at Pine Ridge of the Ghost Dance spiritual movement, which taught that Native Americans had been defeated and confined to reservations because they had angered the gods by abandoning their traditional customs. Many Sioux believed that if they practiced the Ghost Dance and rejected the ways of the white man, the gods would create the world anew and destroy all non-believers, including non-Indians. 

“On December 15, 1890, reservation police tried to arrest Sitting Bull, the famous Sioux leader, who they mistakenly believed was a Ghost Dancer, at the Standing Rock reservation and killed him in the process.

On December 29, the U.S. Army’s 7th cavalry surrounded a band of Ghost Dancers under the Sioux Chief Big Foot near Wounded Knee Creek and demanded they surrender their weapons. As that was happening, a fight broke out between an Indian and a U.S. soldier, and a shot was fired, although it’s unclear from which side. A brutal massacre followed, in which it’s estimated almost 150 Native Americans were killed (some historians put this number at twice as high), nearly half of them women and children. The cavalry lost 25 men.”

*****

So, in the name of the United States Government, “almost 150 Native Americans were killed, nearly half of them women and children.”

Why?  Fear?  Bad assumptions? Misunderstanding?  And, of course, HATE.

I remember hearing the expression “The only good injun is a dead injun”.  I was thumbing through television channels the other day and there was a western where the Native Americans were attacking a wagon train and the U.S. Army was coming in to solve the issue (that is - to kill the Indians).  It made for exciting movies.  As a kid we sometimes played “Cowboys and Indians” - and of course, the cowboys were always in the right when we played.  

We were learning to hate. I don’t remember learning hate against Blacks or Jews.  But, we did learn to hate the Russians, the Chinese, and the Japanese.  (We couldn’t ‘hate” the Germans - after all, there were millions of Americans with German ancestry, but we could hate Adolf Hitler and the Nazis).  

So, we hated the Indians - those Native Americans who were here first - who settled the land.  We hated the Native Americans/Sioux when gold was discovered in the Black Hills - a sacred land to the Sioux.  So, we moved the Natives out of their native lands and put them on land that is pretty worthless (lots of western South Dakota is pretty desolate).  And, when the “do-gooders” tried to help, some found ways of getting “fire-water” (aka - alcohol) onto the reservations.  No job, no income, but government money to buy booze.  (Not a very good, or a very successful plan).  

Hate is strong and mocks the song of Peace on Earth, Goodwill towards Men.

****

And, we hated the blacks - the slaves we brought to do our work; we hated people who talked in a different language; we hated those with different religious beliefs; we hated those who professed different gender and love attitudes, we hated people who didn’t look or act like us.

Have we learned?  I don’t know - but I think we are better than 1890 and the massacre at Wounded Knee.  

*****

And, the next to last verse of “I heard the bells on Christmas Day”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,

With peace on earth, good will to men."

*****

Karen’s thoughts.  Sometimes history shows us the negative side of ourselves.  Sometimes we lose sight of what it means to love.  May we be better people in 2023.

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, © DECEMBER 29, 2022