Ten Overdue Headlines

Indian Country Today published an article about ten headlines they'd like to see. Many of them come true in the novel, The Rule of Equity. 

What do you think? Would you like to see these headlines?

Here they are:

1. President Obama Forces Government to Honor All Treaties

In a stunning move by the President Barack Obama has decided to honor all of those old Native American treaties created throughout history. President Obama also told all of those affected Native Americans, “to get ready to move back to your ancestral lands, get paid back for all of those resources used over the years and check all of your mailboxes tomorrow for a big, fat check.”

2. Snyder Agrees Redskins is Offensive

3. US Department of Education Agrees to Teach True History

4. Native American Stereotypes and Misappropriation Video Gets 7 billion Hits

5.  ‘Stop Trying to Be Native American’ Hipster Movement Takes Over 

6. Notorious Social Media Commenter Apologizes for Anti-Native Comments

7. Native American Heritage Month Will Be Honored on National TV and Popular Sites

8.  State Governors Agree to Stay Out of Tribal Affairs

9.  Columbus Day Cancelled—Now Native Americans Day

10.  Redskins, Chiefs and Braves to Participate in Change the Mascot Day

 

President Andrew Jackson

In 2012, Indian Country Today published an article on the five worst U.S. Presidents. Andrew Jackson topped the list. This is no surprise, given his reputation as a slave owner, Indian killer, and proponent of Indian removal. What is a surprise is that his statue continues to dominate Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House. From this perspective, you can see both the White House and the Washington Monument. Why not move this statue somewhere else? 

The novel The Rule of Equity features this incongruity and the message it continues to send to American Indians.


Here's an excerpt from the article:

Andrew Jackson:A man nicknamed “Indian killer” and “Sharp Knife” surely deserves the top spot on a list of worst U.S. Presidents. Andrew Jackson “was a forceful proponent of Indian removal,” according toPBS.Others have a less genteel way of describing the seventh president of the United States.

“Andrew Jackson was a wealthy slave owner and infamous Indian killer, gaining the nickname ‘Sharp Knife’ from the Cherokee,” writes Amargi on the website Unsettling America: Decolonization in Theory & Practice.

,,,

In 1830, a year after he became president, Jackson signed a law that he had proposed – the Indian Removal Act– which legalized ethnic cleansing. Within seven years 46,000 indigenous people were removed from their homelands east of the Mississippi. Their removal gave 25 million acres of land “to white settlement and to slavery,” according to PBS. The area was home to the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole nations. In the Trail of Tears alone,4,000 Cherokee people died of cold, hunger, and disease on their way to the western lands.

To add insult to injury, Jackson is featured prominently on the $20 bill. When the Treasury redesigned the bill for 2006, they made his image even bigger. My question: Why not remove Jackson from the $20 bill? 

2006 Series $20 bill

1995 Series $20 bill

1929 Series $20 bill