[nativestudies-l] [Fwd: Colorado First To Admit Genocide Against Indigenous Red

[jkauanui at wesleyan.edu]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 09:41:15 -0400
From: scotttreaty at aol.com
Subject: Colorado First To Admit Genocide Against Indigenous Red Nations
    and Peoples

Colorado resolution compares Indians' deaths to Holocaust

By COLLEEN SLEVIN
The Associated Press
Wednesday, April 30, 2008; 6:08 PM

DENVER -- The Colorado Legislature passed a resolution Wednesday comparing
the deaths of millions of American Indians to the Holocaust and other acts
of genocide around the world.

The nonbinding measure passed 22-12 in the Senate and 59-4 in the House
after some lawmakers protested that it unfairly condemned all Europeans
for injustices against Indians.

The resolution says Europeans intentionally caused many American Indian
deaths and that early American settlers often treated Indians with
"cruelty and inhumanity."

It specifically mentions the forced removal of the Cherokee Nation in 1838
and the 1864 Sand Creek massacre in Colorado. It also refers to deaths due
to disease that were intensified by forced migrations, food deprivation
and enslavement by Europeans.

"Colleagues, this resolution is a recognition that up 120 million
indigenous people have died as a result of European migration to what is
now the United States of America," said sponsor Sen. Suzanne Williams,
D-Aurora, a Comanche Indian.

Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs, said the
resolution painted all Europeans with a broad brush.

Sen. Paula Sandoval, D-Denver, said the resolution wasn't meant to blame
all Europeans.

Members of a group of American Indians who came to the Capitol to watch
the vote said they wanted recognition of what happened to their ancestors.

"It's nothing personal to the people of today but we have to recognize the
past," said Theresa Gutierrez, who works with American Indian students at
the University of Colorado in Denver.

A resolution formally apologizing to American Indians for centuries of
government mistreatment was passed by the U.S. Senate in February but has
not cleared the House.

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