[progchat_action] Anti-Indian Racism, Skinheads and Ann Coulter
 
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 11:18:31 -0600 (CST)

 
OREAD DAILY Vol. 2005.15      March 8, 2005 Philosophers only
interpret the world, the thing, however, is to change it!

ANTI-INDIAN RACISM, SKINHEADS, AND ANN COULTER

We don't hear a whole lot about hate crimes and racism directed
against American Indians.  But we sure as hell know it goes on.

Owens Valley, north of Los Angeles is sparsely populated and dotted
with small towns nestled into the east side of the snow-capped
Sierra Nevada. And it's the traditional homeland of several tribes,
including the Paiute and Shoshone of Bishop, Big Pine, Lone Pine
and Fort Independence.

It is also the home of an estimated 400 white supremacists.  ''We
know they're here, but a lot of them keep a low profile because
they're involved in narco-trafficking to support themselves,'' said
one law enforcement officer. ''We keep a handle on the ones we know
about, but a lot of them stay under the radar and live in remote
areas. And some are just kids who identify with the racist agenda
of these organizations.''

Several Paiute families said they have been confronted or intimidated
at sports events in Lone Pine and Independence by skinheads throwing
racial slurs, but outbreaks of violence have been rare. Last month's
written threat to the Bishop Paiute tribe by someone claiming
affiliation with the KKK stirred fresh concern among community
members that overt racism and hate crimes against tribal members
and other minorities may be on the rise, with white supremacist
groups recruiting new members through leaflets, billboards, radio
commercials, record labels and Webcasts.

American Indians have long been victims of hate crimes in the United
States, dating back to the early genocide that accompanied Manifest
Destiny and the theft of millions of acres of Indian lands. In
California and South Dakota, thousands of Native people were
slaughtered when gold was discovered.

Today, many hate crimes are associated with land claims, water
rights and treaty-protected hunting and fishing rights for American
Indians. Many anti-Indian groups charge that they are only asking
for ''equality for all Americans,'' ignoring Indian nations' inherent
sovereign rights. But others are motivated solely by race.

Several Aryan Nation camps are near Indian reservations in northern
Idaho, Montana, Utah and California. White Aryan Resistance founder
Tom Metzger lives in Fallbrook, Calif., near Temecula.

Tension around Paiute-Shoshone reservation escalated dramatically
recently following the slaying of a white store clerk, allegedly
by an Indian man.

Four days after the shooting, an unsigned letter was discovered
alongside a road near the reservation day-care center. Written in
red-ink print and stapled to a cover sheet that said "KKK," the
words were terrifying: "Your half-witted bucks have taken another
white. From now on, your daughters will be targets. From the ages
of five to nine years of age, they will be taken from the reservation,
raped and beaten to death, and dismembered." Other copies of the
letter were found blowing around in the wind on a reservation ball
field and parking lot and were turned in to tribal Police Chief
Stafford.

Residents worried that unknown hate-mongers among them were using
the shooting as an excuse to stir up trouble against the reservation.
Some whites feared retaliatory attacks by Indian vigilantes.

On the reservation, Native Americans fortified their homes and kept
their children home from school. Some children wrongly came to
believe they had been targeted by name in the letter. Hundreds of
Latino renters on the reservation feared their children might be
mistaken for American Indians.

Worried parents followed school buses in family cars or walked home
with students. Others, armed with chain saws and clippers, cleared
forest paths of vegetation that could be used as hiding places for
snipers.

But a community with a history of racial animosity, tried to come
together.

"The threat went far beyond any implied or explicit racism that
some people may have experienced here in the past," said Bill
Michael, director of the Eastern California Museum in Independence.
"It was in a whole different league, and no one would tolerate it."

In an effort to stave off potentially dangerous misunderstandings,
Paiute Tribal Council Vice Chair Sandra Warlie initiated emotional
news conferences and town hall meetings to dispel rumors and urge
calm. "Rumors were flying faster than truth," Warlie said. "I wanted
to stop that."

One meeting drew more than 600 people and was highlighted by calls
for peace and unity by children of the slain store owner and relatives
of the man accused of the killing. It closed with an ancient Paiute
tradition: An Indian rug was spread on the ground to receive
contributions for the family of the deceased. "That blanket filled
up pretty fast," recalled Cindy Cox, a liaison between the reservation
and the county. "It was a time of coming together."

It is important to note, however, that dramatic incidents like the
one above are only the tip of a far larger iceberg.  It only takes
a look at the recent rhetoric of Ann Coulter to drive that home.

Cashing in on the Ward Churchill affair, Coulter whipped off a ditty
entitled, "The Little Injun That Could."

An article found on the Counterpunch web site about the Coulter
trash states, "the problem here is not her chiming in far too late,
probably to the disappointment of her insatiable readers, but rather
her obvious racism. It is the word she decided, obviously with
premeditated viciousness, to include in the title of her op/ed
piece: Injun."

The article continues, "the word "Injun" is apparently considered
useable because ... well, because the American Natives -- who once
numbered in the millions inside the borders of what eventually
became known as the United States and were methodically decimated
and reduced to less than 250,000 by the end of the 19th century,
thanks to white people with about as much sensitivity and compassion
as Ann Coulter -- are essentially invisible. The likelihood an
"injun" will sue Coulter for racist defamation is probably fairly
low."

"Native Americans are fair game, indicated by the fact there are
about 2,000 schools using Indian names for sports teams, to say
nothing of more than a few professional teams, such as the Washington
Red Skins. It wasn't so long ago Red Skins fans chanted, "Scalp
'em!" (Incidentally, scalping was introduced to the "New World" by
the Dutch, who learned the grisly practice from the Earl of Wessex.)"

"Instead of scorn, Ann Coulter receives royalties. Instead of being
written off and ignored as racist, essentially no different than a
Knight of the Ku Klux Klan, she appears on the idiot tube, making
repulsive comments about Muslims, Arabs, Asians, liberals, and now
Native Americans."

Coulter, of course, thinks she is funny, since the title is a
sarcastic take-off on Watty Piper's classic "The Little Engine That
Could," a popular children's book. Instead, this is a double-whammy,
since not only is Coulter expressing racism, something that apparently
comes easy to her, but is also engaging in a condescending attitude
toward American Indians, a habit with a long and injurious history.
For Ann Coulter, racism and hatred are simply the best way to make
a buck." Sources: Indian Country Today, Los Angeles Times, Counterpunch