Attempts at Extinguishing Native American Cultures Continues
I have watched two different things in the past month that have inspired me to write this post. The first one was a documentary, “Missing from Fire Trail Road,” (2024,) which focuses on one particular missing woman from the Tulalip Tribe, Mary Ellen Johnson-Davis. It covers not only the circumstances of Mary’s disappearance, but it talks about Mary’s childhood of being removed from her family by the State and placed in an extremely abusive foster home for years. In the documentary several residents of the area are interviewed and tell their own stories of abuse at the hands of non-natives who come into the area. Further they share stories of their loved ones who have been “disappeared” and never found. What is perhaps most shocking is that the Feds don’t even keep statistics on missing Tribal Women and Children where this is happening. I’m not sure if this lack of keeping stats is just for the State of Washington, where this takes place, or if it is a national standard.
Learn more about the documentary here. And here.
The other is a movie, “Wind River” (2017,) starring Jeremy Renner.
From wiki:
Wind River is a 2017 neo-Western crime film written and directed by Taylor Sheridan. The film stars Jeremy Renner as a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tracker and Elizabeth Olsen as an FBI agent who try to solve a murder on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. Gil Birmingham, Jon Bernthal, and Graham Greene also star. Sheridan has said that he wrote the film to raise awareness of the issue of the high number of Indigenous women who are raped and murdered, both on and off reservations.
As I watched Wind River, details from the documentary were brought back. How companies come onto Tribal Land and rent areas for harvesting natural resources like trees and oil. They set up “shanty towns” in the middle of nowhere, hire people, many whose resumes and references aren’t scrutinized, then trust them not to get into trouble. Add in alcohol, other drugs, an absence of sexual satisfaction, along with the knowledge nobody will do anything about it, and you’ve got a perfect setup for predation by those without morals, ethics, etc.
The disappearances of Tribal Women and Children seem to be a lasting trauma that the U.S. government seems to sanction by their inadequate action. I went looking for stats and found some general ones at U.S. Department of the Interior Indian Affairs
One thing I noticed in the doc was the differing responses between the actual victims and loved ones of harmed and missing victims and the official response by government officials. I also searched for Indigenous statistics and found it difficult to find any from directly affected sources. If anyone reading this knows of good links, please add them in the comments.
Tao Talk 
I hear more about it from Canada but it I think it is worse here. Reading that quick recap of Wind River I see that there is another important film that Graham Greene was in. He will be missed. (I heard of Wind River but didn’t see it, at least not yet…)
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You may be right it is worse here and that wouldn’t surprise me. Wind River is on netflix, so if you have it you can watch it there. I was surprised that Taylor Sheridan directed it but I shouldn’t have been. He has made it his mission to bring truth to light about way Indigenous persons injustice in his other works. I should have known it was him because a lot of the cast has either been in Yellowstone or its spinoffs or the Mayor of Kingstown. Renner is my hero wherever he goes. Yes, Graham Greene plays the Tribal Police Chief who is underfunded and understaffed. The FBI person in this is smart enough to let the locals totally lead.
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I’ve seen several articles about this ongoing issue as well as access to education and health care. I think one was even in the NY Times. There is no consistent treatment of either tribal lands or peoples and the treaties they signed have never been actually honored by the US government. They want to take but not give anything in return. We know our current administration has no interest in justice for anyone but themselves…(K)
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:(
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I don’t even know what to say, this is so horrible and there is no action being taken to stop it. Thank you for sharing.
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Bringing the info to light is a big step. You are welcome, Lisa.
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This is so important, and seems to be the case wherever colonialism inhabited,
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Paul, 100% in agreement. After watching the series of lectures on George Orwell and hearing about his time in “police service” in a colonial inhabited country, I can see it. It reminds me of Joseph Campbell talking about universal symbology across cultures. Is there a gene within us that urges such evil? And now that makes me think of some of the ideas presented in a doc I watched recently on the musical group, Devo. If you get a chance, please see it and let me know what you think?
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Yes, the gene thought is often swirling. The scientist Rupert Sheldrake has posited that we carry embodied markers of the past and if not acknowledged can drive us. Jung I think, would call it the shadow driven ego, so maybe it is something in us that we need to face. It’s interesting that when a corrupt politician or a dictator takes power those who ride along are proof of the shadow/ego – permission is perceived to do all things dark.
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Paul, thank you for sharing that. We are a species of contradiction and opportunists. An old judge from the courthouse put humans in 3 categories as far as the law, and it may apply generally to human nature: One third will always follow the law, one third will never follow the law, and one group needs to be convinced to follow it. Of course your perceptions of what it says about each group is open to interpretation.
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Ah, good analogy
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This is shocking and not shocking at the same time. The active genocide of First Nations people in North America is our shameful legacy. In Canada, very little attention has been paid to missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.
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I hear you. I’m sure a lot went on when Spaniards were south of the US border also. Colonialism is EVIL, wherever it happens. When leaders brag about doing their dirty deeds, we can see what a sick world we are trying to survive in.
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When taking a university English class in the 1980s, I recall reading the Peter Shaffer play ‘The Royal Hunt of the Sun,’ which chronicles a Spanish “explorer” raiding Inca gold in Peru in the 16th century. It was a powerful awareness-building piece, an example of what many other colonialist cultures have done and continue to do.
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