Four Centuries is a long time to wait for an apology. And when it finally comes, it shouldn’t add insult to injury.
But the government’s 2010 apology “to all Native peoples," added to the defense appropriations bill, was neither publicized by President Obama nor the White House.
Now members of Minnesota’s Ojibwe and Dakota tribes, along with others, including students at University of MN are asking their state to issue a formal, public apology.
In a film they created documenting atrocities committed against the Ojibwe and Dakota - including broken treaties, stolen land and cultural genocide - students present these crimes as part of colonialist ideas that should be recognized and renounced.
The film aims to create what Dakota writer Waziyatawin calls an “Awareness of truth” that “compels some kind of action,“ and says an apology would create a “foundation for reparation” and healing.
Join them in asking Minnesota to issue a formal, public apology to the state’s native peoples.
We, the undersigned, believe it is past time for all states to acknowledge and apologize publicly for wrongs committed against American Indians.
Not only were these wrongs committed, but for centuries they have been omitted - from history books and classroom discussions, as evidenced, for example, by interviews in the film made by University of Minnesota students.
As Waziyatawin said in the film: Until people are made aware of these injustices, there will be no motivation to correct them. Therefore, it is of particular significance that the US apology to Native peoples was not publicized, and, as has been the policy for past centuries, the wrongs and reason for the apology were not openly discussed.
As it was, that apology, indeed added insult to injury.
We join with the Ojibwe and Dakata tribes and the students at the University of Minnesota in asking the state of Minnesota to do better than this. They and we are calling for the state to issue a formal apology, publicly acknowledging the atrocities committed against the state’s native peoples.
If nothing else, the statement by Governor Alexander Ramsay, that the “Sioux Indians of Minnesota must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the state,” warrants this action.
Thank you for your attention to this request.
