Taylor Sheridan, American Indians, European Christianity, and Genocide
As a fan of the hit television series Yellowstone and its two prequals, 1883, and 1923 I never expected to have it turn my life upside down. I have to say, “Thank You” to Mr. Taylor Sheridan for his portrayal of the genocide and ethnic cleansing committed against American Indians in the first few episodes of 1923.
I have awakened two nights in a row with horrible, life-like dreams of accounts of the genocide and ethnic cleansing I have read about while doing research for The Chickamauga Nation. What is written on the pages of the National Archives is heinous and deplorable but not as emoting to the psyche as the depiction of the events on the Crow Reservation in the 1920’s in the TV series 1923. I have to admit my research has led me down some horrifically deep, dark places as I try to take in the hatred of white, European Christians toward that which they do not understand.
The visualizations of the ethnic cleansing portrayed in 1923 has left me broken in a way I never expected. Growing up, I heard my great-grandmother talk about the life she lived in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Indian Territory. I heard the stories of “killing the Indian to save the soul.” I heard the stories of depravity committed against my extended family, their neighbors and friends. I heard stories I thought were just stories because I could never imagine the United States acting this way toward Indians. I especially could never imagine “Christians” acting this way toward other human beings.
After watching the last episode of 1923, I not only felt gut-punched, I felt the same way I felt when I left Washington DC in 2019 after meeting with the staffers from the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. It was the exact same disregard for Indians as I saw portrayed in the boarding school on the Crow Reservation in the TV show 1923. At first, I asked myself, “how?” but quickly remembered European Christian history is littered with the exact same accounts from the Jews by the early church, the Crusades against the Moors, the Church against the unwashed masses, the Kings of Europe against each other over religion, the Anabaptists, the puritans, the burning at the stake, genocide against the American Indians, genocide against the Jews, and ultimately banning the Christian religion from the town square.
While I proudly wear the label Thomas Jefferson gave my people, “merciless, savage, Indians” it was far from true when it was written in the Declaration of Independence. The actions openly committed against American Indians by white Christians would have justified retribution by my family years ago in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, Indian Territory, Oklahoma and California. It is amazing how far a family will go to protect itself when their land is stolen, their children are called the vilest of names, their religion is banned, their way of life is forbidden, their culture and language are violations of the law, and punishment is meted out by priests, pastors, nuns, the military, and the government.
In discussions with one of our other National Executive Chiefs, I was able to hear him discuss accounts of a city in the Southwest and children having to go to a Catholic School because their genitals were dark. In the 1970s in his Southwest city, Indians could not go to public school. They were forced to lower their pants and lift up their shirts to prove if they were white or Indian. The ethnicity was determined by color, by examining the genitals and nipples of children to determine if they were pink or brown. If they were pink, they could go to public school, if they were brown or dark, they had to go to the Catholic school where they were forbidden from speaking their traditional language, learning about their culture, and their hair must be cut to “Christian” standards.
One of our National Executive Chiefs travels almost every year to visit family and friends on the Crow Reservation. Our people have both family and friends which extends to numerous different Reservations around the country. What is terrifying is that we all can share the exact same stories since we all experienced White, American Christianity first had. The beatings, the starving, the solitary confinement, the breaking of our souls, the killing of the Indian to save his soul. We know what that means.
I am personally a survivor of one of the most brutal physical abuses a child could ever have committed against them. I spent over 70 days in a hospital to begin to recover from my injuries. I have to count myself lucky that I did not have to go to one of the American Christian indoctrination camps because I would have been killed for refusing to break. I would have been tortured much worse than I was when I was physically abused when I was 5. I thank God everyday I was physically abused as a child because I survived, this is not the story for hundreds of thousands of Indians who were sent to “reeducation camps” posing as Christian Schools to kill the Indian to save the soul.
I woke up again from a terrible dream and had to write what my feelings were like as I remembered the stories of my ancestors. I had to write about the stories of our Chiefs and our people. Mostly, I had to write so the United States will never forget what it did to my people and continues to do to us to this very day. We will not forget until our storied history is told for the world to hear.
Mr. Taylor Sheridan, thank you for sharing the spotlight on true American History. There is a dichotomy few dare take the time to examine, so I want to thank you for drawing attention to the plight of the American Indian in America. We would like to invite you to come and learn about our people and our story. We invite you to come, break bread, and hear the stories of a people who STAND.