YFZ = NDN?
I initially resisted comparisons between what the YFZ families are going through and the Indian experience of the last two centuries. Tim Giago's column makes a good case, particularly in the context of Indian boarding schools, however I still think the comparison is a strained one. An argument can be made that both the FLDS and Indians were targeted by the government due to their religion and culture, true, but one raid, however mismanaged and ham-fisted, hardly compares to 200 years of cultural genocide. The FLDS lived on that ranch because they wanted to, not because the Federal government seized their homes and herded them there. The FLDS are considered human beings under the law, a distinction not bestowed on Indians until 1879. Family members who objected to the removal of their children were not indiscriminately mowed down by Army howitzers. So, while I continue to believe the FLDS families have been treated badly by the State of Texas, I cannot concede that their level of suffering has approached anything like that which Indians have endured since the founding of America.
Labels: Native American, Religion, YFZ Ranch case
posted by The Local Crank | 11:45 PM
6 Comments:
YFZ also had better representation in court than Indians, and last time I knew, Natives were not known for running rape cults.
Are yout being generous when referring to "the Indian experience of the last two centuries."? Didn't the Spanish begin making mischief in Texas before this time?
Five centuries is probably more accurate, if you take into account the Spanish conquest of the Americas.
Interestingly, it was tribes like the Apaches and the Comanches that checked Spanish expansion northward, and the reason the Mexicans didn't mind opening Texas to white settlers when it was still Mexican territory. Sadly, the whites were much more efficient Indian-killers than the Spaniards or Mexicans had ever been.
"Sadly, the whites were much more efficient Indian-killers than the Spaniards or Mexicans had ever been."
I'm not so sure about that. The huge numbers of Aztec (and nearbye tribes), Taino, and others killed by the Spanish are quite large.
Ah, true, but I was thinking specifically about Texas.
Crank...You don't seem to know much about Bruce Wisan - court appointed "special fidicuary" who has taken over/stolen ALL the FLDS's UEP property. In reference to your comment..."not because the Federal government seized their homes" Maybe the FLDS weren't herded to Texaas, but they sure were herded like animals after they got there.
I thought genocide was the intent/action to destroy a culture/religious group etc. For the FLDS that is what is happening - anti-FLDS want them destroyed!
And dmarks - obviously you haven't been keeping up with the truth - there have been no crimes proven against the YFZ FLDS except maybe the crime of loving their children and raising them in righteousness instead of the shit that you and others would call "mainstream morality".
Anon, my intent was not to minimize what the FLDS has been through. I've been very vocal on this blog in complaining about violations of the Constitutional rights of the children and mothers. Rather, my point was that comparisons between FLDS and the Indians are vastly overblown. The last time the Federal gov't decided it didn't like an Indian religion, at Wounded Knee in 1890, they sent in the Army to mow down women and children with howitzers and then left the survivors to freeze to death in the blizzard. Then they pinned Medals of Honor on the soldiers who perpetrated this atrocity. Yes, the FLDS families have suffered, but it's just not the same.
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