U.S. and states should establish Truth and Reconciliation Commissions
By Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer
On June 14, 2008 Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave a speech to
Parliament in which he formally apologized for the Canadian government's
native residential school program. The apology begins a five year process
led by a Truth and Reconciliation Commission supported with a $60 million
budget. Those involved in truth and reconciliation commissions seek to
uncover facts and distinguish truth from lies. The process allows for
acknowledgement, appropriate public mourning, forgiveness and healing.
U.S. Senator Sam Brownback’s sponsored resolution to acknowledge a long
history of official depredations and ill-conceived policies by the
United States Government regarding Indian tribes and offer an apology
to all Native Peoples on behalf of the United States is making its
way through Congress.
If the US House of Representatives passes their version of Brownback's
apology bill and President Bush signs it Congress should then be
pressed to launch a national Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
At the state level, Colorado Legislature passed a resolution in April
which compared the deaths of millions of American Indians to the
Holocaust and other acts of genocide around the world.
In May, the MN Sesquicentennial Commission posted the following
statement on its web site:
"Yet we remain either unaware of or unable to look at our own history
and acknowledge the painful wounds of ethnocide and genocide right
here in Minnesota. We have a very hard time acknowledging that the
pain remains and that it has affected much of our history thru to
the present day."
The Minnesota Sesquicentennial Commission has created a web site
to "bear witness to the tragic side of Minnesota Statehood in
1858 and acknowledge the pain, loss and suffering of the Native
American culture in Minnesota."
On June 15th Griff Wigley, Project Leader, Sesquicentennial
Advisory Committee for Native American Partnering, posted the
following statements on the MN Sesquicentennial Commission's
Native American Minnesota - A journey of learning and
understanding - web site:
"Last week, Thomas Dahlheimer (Rum River Name Change Movement) had a
guest column in the Winona Daily News titled State looks to settle
up with the past."
“And last December, Louis Stanley Schoen, a consultant and
trainer on racial justice in the Episcopal Church, authored a
commentary in the Star Tribune titled We must talk about race,
despite the difficult emotions it stirs. (Thanks to Thomas
Dahlheimer for alerting me to it) In it, Schoen suggests the
formation of a Commission:
"How might serious, healing racial dialogue occur? A series
of thoughtful, sensitive commentary in news media might be a starter.
Sermons and study groups on race in churches would help, as would
discussions in all kinds of community groups. Official public bodies
must get engaged. What if a public commission were to begin to
examine the American (and European) history of white supremacy —
and, here, how that doctrine shaped the formation of Minnesota
and its public and private institutions? What if such a commission
learned how to offer leadership and resources to dismantle this
evil doctrine?"
"The results could be transforming for us and for all the world. What
a magnificent legacy this might be to our celebration of Minnesota's
sesquicentennial."
Griff Wigley wrote: "It seems to me that it would be most
meaningful for each state to debate the need for its own Truth
and Reconciliation Commission and then to fund it."
In the (mentioned above) Winona Daily News guest column I wrote:
"When Minnesotans become aware of or able to look at their own history
and acknowledge the painful wounds of ethnocide and genocide right
in their own state, they will be inspired to go through a radical
social, political and religious transformation."
"A peaceful cultural revolution will occur, and Minnesotans will be
changed for the better. And this will help to heal the Dakota Oyate's painful
wounds caused by ethnocide and genocide."
"Leonard Wabasha, a hereditary chief of the Dakota and director of
the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux (Dakota) Community Cultural Resource
Department, invited me to address the Dakota tribal leaders and
government officials during the May 16 reconciliatory ceremony in Winona."
"During the reconciliatory ceremony, I spoke about the 15th century
papal bull (Inter Caetera). A papal bull that was primarily responsible
for Minnesota's ethnocide and genocide against the Dakota Oyate."
"A movement to revoke the papal bull has been ongoing for a number of years.
It was initiated by the Indigenous Law Institute in 1992. At the Parliament
of World Religions in 1994 over 60 indigenous delegates drafted a
Declaration of Vision."
"It reads, in part: 'We call upon the people of conscience in the
Roman Catholic hierarchy to persuade Pope John II to formally revoke
the Inter Caetera Bull of May 4, 1493, which will restore our
fundamental human rights. That papal document called for our Nations
and Peoples to be subjugated so the Christian Empire and its
doctrines would be propagated. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling
Johnson vs. McIntosh (in 1823) adopted the same principle of
subjugation expressed in the Inter Caetera Bull. This papal bull
has been, and continues to be, devastating to our religions,
our cultures, and the survival of our populations.'"
Tony Castanha and Steve Newcomb, two internationally renowned
leaders of the movement to influence Pope Benedict XVI to formally
revoke the Inter Caetera Bull, have contacted me and told me
that I am doing "good work".
The former Archbishop of Minneapolis and Saint Paul [Archbishop
Harry Flynn] wrote, in a response letter to me: "I greatly appreciate
your sending me the article that you wrote recently on returning
the fundamental human rights of indigenous peoples." The article is,
primarily, about my work to influence Pope Benedict XVI to
formally revoke Inter Caetera.
________________________________________________________________
The article that I sent Archbishop Harry Flynn can be viewed and
read at http://www.towahkon.org/Indigenousrights.html
The IPL posted article that Steve Newcomb commented on in an e-mail
to me, wherein he wrote "Thanks Thomas, Good work!", is located at
http://www.towahkon.org/proposals.html
The MN Sesquicentennial Commission's Native American Minnesota -
A journey of learning and understanding - web site is located
at: http://nativeamericanminn150.org/archives/260
