Gonna drive by a reservation on your way to tell folks how racist the Confederate flag is? [View all]

[jtuck004]

We stand atop the bones of 50-80 million people, whose property and lives were stolen by this people and government. The house you are in may well stand atop the farm that used to support a now murdered families village. You may be here because their bodies were dug up as our forefathers brought cannibalism to these shores.

Seriously going to pretend your flag is better than another?

Sure, the South needs to finally surrender, and that flag needs to come down. But perhaps you, dear reader, need to climb down off of your high horse of self-righteousness as well.

"Slaughter of horses leaves lasting mark"

What many people consider one of the most brutal, inexplicable and traumatic acts in the mid-1800s war between the U.S. government and Native Americans of the Inland Northwest wasn’t about the loss of human life. It had to do with horses.

On Sept. 8 and 9, 1858, approximately 800 horses belonging to tribes of the area were slaughtered by the soldiers of U.S. Army Col. George Wright along the banks of the Spokane River near what would become the border between Washington and Idaho
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Historians who argue that it was the cruelest and most needless of actions said that the horse slaughter was unnecessary because the end of the Indian wars was clearly in sight.
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Horse slaughter was an ugly business. According to an account of an officer present, the animals were taken to the banks of the river and shot one by one, young colts were knocked in the head and mares were heard crying for their foals. In addition, this: “On the following day, to avoid the slow process of killing them separately, the companies were ordered to fire volleys into the corral.”
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http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/oct/01/slaughter-of-horses-leaves-lasting-mark/

I know, I know, you can't hardly hear the kids and people crying as they died from the starvation this brought them. So much easier to sing the Star Spangled Banner when you can't hear the children you killed dying.

BUT - IF YOU ARE IN THE AREA IN JUNE...BIG ART PROJECT

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2015/jun/19/mural-project-honors-tribes-slaughtered-horses/

...The exact number varies. The monument erected at the site references 800 killed animals. Some believe the number was closer to 900. Regardless, it was a brutal act that devastated area tribes.

Beginning Saturday, artist Ryan Feddersen will lead the community in creating a temporary mural to honor the horses and acknowledge the slaughter’s impact on local Indians.

Feddersen, who identifies as being of mixed race, is descended from the Okanagan and Arrow Lakes Indian bands and is a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. Employing nine different horse stencils, public participation and liquid chalk paint (more durable than regular chalk, but still temporary), Feddersen aims to create an image of the horses galloping across the Spokane Tribal Gathering Place, the plaza at the top of Huntington Park next to Spokane City Hall.

“While this project has ties to my indigenous heritage, I don’t see that as a defining aspect of the piece,” Feddersen said in an email interview. “In this specific instance, the artwork is addressing an event that should impact people from all backgrounds, and it is equally valuable for any community member – regardless of their racial or cultural identity – to honor the horses in a way that pays respect to their life and to their role in the tribes’ livelihood.”
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Spaces for 900 horses, people will be given chalk to color them in as they hear the story of the cruelty that we all profit from.