For the past few weeks, I have been trying to focus on a specific genre when I work on articles. As a geek, I had decided to write articles about comic book movies and otaku culture because those are subjects that I know about and that I enjoy. That also means that there are a lot of issues that I have chosen to not talk about, but fortunately there are a lot of other writers talking about those issues, both here on the Odyssey Online and on other media outlets. However, I have hardly heard of anyone talking about the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Native American tribes protesting its construction. This is an environmental issue, a free speech issue, and a human rights issue, but almost no one is talking about it. And the worst part is that this is nothing new. Too often, Native Americans are ignored by the media and often have to suffer in silence. I am Native American and proud of my heritage, and I can no longer be silent about issues that impact Native Americans.
I mentioned that being ignored by the public is nothing new to Native people, and it is true. Pick up any high school history book and there is hardly any information about Native Americans and their history. There are still some people who think that the first Thanksgiving was a nice dinner between Pilgrims and Indians. No one wants to admit that thousands upon thousands of Native Americans were killed for their land and resources. It is sick to think that Adolf Hitler had based his Final Solution on the US's treatment of Native Americans. The history of Native Americans is often forgotten or ignored, and both are disturbing.
The Pulse Nightclub Shooting was a horrible atrocity, and should be remembered as an example of the cruel treatment of LGBT+ people in the United States. The media was quick to call it the "Deadliest Shooting in the United States." Calling it the "Deadliest Shooting," however, is ignoring the Wounded Knee massacre, where the United States government murdered about 150 Native Americans, and the Sand Creek Massacre, where over 400 Native Americans were murdered.
More recently, the Sioux Tribe in North Dakota are protesting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which will transport oil from North Dakota down to Illinois. The pipeline is intended to be built under land that is considered sacred to the Sioux tribe, and also poses a threat to the Missouri River. Since the Sioux began their protest, other Native tribes have traveled to North Dakota to show their support for their Native brothers and sisters, and to protect their land from the pipeline that would violate that which the people consider sacred and vital to the environment. Their protest is an attempt to defend themselves and their land. An interesting story, to say the very least, but no one is talking about it.
At first, I figured that maybe the story might not be something that the media finds interesting. Some Indians protesting a pipeline construction does not exactly sound like a big story... I guess? But thousands of people are joining the cause of the Sioux and protesting the pipeline, and still barely anyone is talking about it. Private security set attack dogs on the protesters, including a pregnant woman and children, and still no one is talking about it! People are having their rights and land threatened and the media is ignoring it! There are images of dogs with Native blood on their teeth and that’s not going viral! So I have to wonder, why don’t Native Americans matter in a country that was theirs to begin with?
Being ignored by the media when something urgent is happening is awful, but this is not the first time. Quick question: which racial group is killed at the highest rate by police officers in the United States? African Americans? Nope. Latinos and Hispanics? Nope. The answer is Native Americans. The officers are hardly ever charged with murder, these stories are not circulating in the mainstream media, and these stories do not trend on Twitter. If you think that’s bad, among young adults between the ages of 18-24, Native Americans commit suicide at a higher rate than any other racial group, and about 40 percent of Native American teenagers will commit suicide. Disturbing, but that’s not all! One out of three Native American women are raped, mostly by non-Native men, and most of those rapists get away with it, but no one really talks about this. Native Americans struggle every day of their lives, whether it be from depression, alcoholism, or rape and murder, and the media does not talk about it.
And that is still not the end of it! Reports claim that there are over 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, and about half of them are from Mexico, but no one mentions that the only thing wrong that many of those “illegal immigrants” did was come into the United States without documents. Many of those “illegal immigrants” are just looking for work to support their families. Many of those “illegal immigrants” are not involved in gangs and criminal activity. And many of those “illegal immigrants” are indigenous people who, in the past, could come and go on the land that is now the United States and Mexico whenever they wanted.
Seriously, why are Native Americans being ignored? Does talking about the treatment of Native Americans disturb the media and citizens so much that they would rather stifle it? Do people just hope that one day Native Americans will all die out and no one will have to deal with them ever again? Do people just not care either way? Whatever the answer is, it is sick and shameful, because people are dying and suffering and no one seems to care, and it is starting to look like no one will ever care. I am grateful that as time progresses, the public is slowly learning more and more about this entire situation. And fortunately, as I finish writing this article, President Obama has halted the construction of the pipeline and will hopefully side with those Natives who are being threatened and attacked. My only concern is that nothing will be done to help the Natives who are protecting their land, and that they will soon be ignored again.
