Now for something totally different...

The blog entry in which I consider instances of genocide in North America...

I watched The Last King of Scotland recently. I was struck by the drama of the story, but also deeply affected by consideration of Idi Amin's reputed acts of genocide, numbering around 300,000 people. I initially reacted with relief, "Well," I thought, "at least we haven't had that kind of genocide in the US."

Then, I gave the issue further consideration. The truth is that some of the acts of war and other conflict in the US and North America can probably be considered genocide: "deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group."

• Displacement of Native American people

There are many examples of this genocide. An early example is the Pequot War, which took place between 1634 and 1638. The Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies united with an alliance of Mohegan and Narragansett tribes. Their enemy was the Pequot Tribe, which is hard to say with certainty, since Pequot and Mohegans were related. However, by the end of the war, most of the Pequot people were killed. A smaller number were sold into slavery in Bermuda.

The destruction of the Pequot Tribe was nearly total. The terms of the peace treaty after the Pequot War took specific steps to dismember the remaining people so that they could not exist as a tribe. In 1856, the State of Connecticut sold off 600 acres of Pequot land without their permission, another deliberate step to destroy Pequot as a cultural group. A lawsuit in 1976 to recover the land resulted in a $700,000 settlement.

The Manshatucket Pequot claimed Federal recognition in 1983 and went on to open a casino and bingo operation in 1992. Gambling makes the House rich. It took the Pequot tribe approximately three and a half centuries to reestablish political and economic power, but they did it.

• Internment of Japanese-Americans

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt--the cool one in a wheelchair--signed Executive Order 9066. The Executive Order is one of the exciting things about being president. It's a type of rule that has the force of law most of the time. However, Congress doesn't have to approve it. The president sits in his office and writes it. Then, the country, usually a government department or agency, has to follow it. This one, 9066, was a bad one. It allowed for the establishment of military areas, "from which any or all persons may be excluded..."

The force of this order was used to move Americans of Japanese Ancestry (AJAs) to internment or prison camps. The general feeling as voiced by the Attorney General of California at the time was that when it came to Caucasian people, there were methods to test the loyalty of them, but, [W]hen we deal with the Japanese, we are on an entirely different field." It seems like a boneheaded, idiotic thing to say, but it made perfect sense to (Paranoid) People In Power at the time. At least 120,000 Japanese-Americans were relocated. 62% of these people were American-born, second and third-generation Japanese-Americans. They were Americans. Internment in this case can be viewed as an act of genocide because of the intent to subjugate or suppress a specific cultural group.

Acts leading up to the internment movement underscore the intent of the US government to destroy the Japanese as a people. Suspicion before the war in the early 1900s led to rules that prohibited the Japanese from buying land, marrying outside their race, or owning homes in certain areas. This property right can be easily compared to the control and dismemberment of Native American tribal groups. Owning land allows people to leverage their buying power into stability and putting down roots.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, people spread rumors about Japanese residents in Hawaii and on the West Coast, saying that they were involved with espionage or sabotage against the United States. Wow. More brilliance in the form of scapegoating. When I examine history, I always wish I could have confidence that people today would act smarter, but they probably wouldn't. The government eventually determined that the rumors were false, but never had the good grace to mention it to the American public. Also, when it comes to this, evidently I could devote an entire blog just to Japanese-American injustice; but I'm not.

At least in these two instances, the United States and Americans of their day were involved in acts that can be classified as genocide. It is a matter of definition because genocide is an abstract, like pride or empowerment. However, to the thinking person the process of identifying genocide is not an impossible one. The very concepts of family and human dignity are the framework that says when an action goes over the line and when it fits the definition of genocide. Knowing what it is and when it has happened it the past must inform our future need to protect Americans when the government takes steps against its own citizens.

Further Reading to Make You Smarter:

• Exploring the Japanese American Internment
• International Genocide Information here

Credits:

*That's not actually me considering, btw. Though that's cool, and maybe I should try making all the emotion photos myself. It's a photo by anitapatterson at morguefile.com

**Girl clip art from Clip Art ETC