A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas 1492 to the Present

556 Pages·2001·24.305 MB·English

by  Ward Churchill

A LIHLE MAHER OF GENOCIDE
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Holocaust and Denial in the Americas
1492 tO'the Present!*
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BY WARD CHURCHILL
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A LIHLE MAHER OF GENOCIDE
Holocaust and Denial in the Americas
1492 to the Present
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Other Books by Ward Churchill
Authored: Fantasies of the Master Race:
Literature, Cinema: and fie Colonization of
American Indians (1992)
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Struggle for the Land:
Indigenous Resistance to Genocide, Ecocide
and Expropriation in Contemporary North America (1993)
Indians Are Us?
Culture and Genocide in Native North America (1994)
Since Predator Came:
Notes from the Struggle for American Indian Liberation (1995)
From a Native Son:
Selected Essays in Indigenism, 1985—1995 (1996)
Pacifism as Pathology;
Observations on an American Pseudopraxis (1997)
Coauthored: Culture versus Economism:
Essays on Marxism in the Multicultural Arena
with Elisabeth R. Lloyd (1984)
Agents of Repression:
The FBI’s Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party
and the American Indian Movement
with Jim Vander Wall (1988)
The COINTELPRO Papers:
Documents from the FBI’s Secret Wars
Against Dissent in the United States
with Jim Vander Wall (1990)
Edited: Marxism and Native Americans (1983)
Critical Issues in Native North America (2 vols., 1989—90)
Coedited: Cages of Steel:
The Politics of Imprisonment in the United States
with JJ. Vander Wall (1992)
A LITTLE MATTER OF GENOCIDE
Holocaust and Denial in the Americas
1492 to the Present
BY WARD CHURCHILL
CITY LIGHTS BOOKS
SAN FRANCISCO
© 1997 by Ward Churchill
All Rights Reserved
Cover design by Rex Ray
Book design by Elaine Katzenberger
Typography by Harvest Graphics
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-PubUcation Data
ChurchiU, Ward.
A httle matter of genocide : holocaust and denial in the Americas, 1492 to the
present / by Ward Churchill,
p. cm.
Includes bibhographical references and index.
ISBN 0-87286-323-9
1. Indians, Treatment of—North America—History. 2. Indians of North
America—Government relations. 3. Indians of North America—Government pohcy.
4. Genocide—North America—History. 5. United States—Race relations. 6. North
America—Pohtics and government.
I. Title.
E91.C47 1997
970.004’97—dc20 96-9668
CIP
10 9 8 7 6
CITY LIGHTS BOOKS are edited by Lavvrrence Ferhnghetti and Nancy J. Peters and
pubhshed at the City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Although none^of them is responsible for any errors or biases appear¬
ing in my work, a number of people have been particularly constructive in
shaping my thinking on the matter of genocide. Aside from those whose
writings have been most influential—Rapha^ Lemkin,Jean Paul Sartre, Leo
Kuper, and Richard Drinnon — they include in a more direct and conversa¬
tional sense Milner Ball, David Barsamian, Jimmie Durham, Richard A. Falk,
T. Moana Jackson, Glenn T. Morris, David E. Stannard, George Tinker,
Haunani-Kay Trask, and Sharon H. Venne. By way of negative inspiration, I
suppose Yehuda Bauer, Steven T Katz, and their colleagues are also deserv¬
ing of special recognition in this regard.
Several others have been quite helpful in terms of preparing various por¬
tions of the manuscripts. These include Heather Davis, who chased down more
than a few cites, and Leah Kelly, who undertook the daunting task of compil¬
ing both the bibliography and the index. Elaine Katzenberger of City Lights
not only provided consistently superb editing of a project which mutated
steadily, as most of mine do, into something more than it started out to be, she
provided continuous encouragement during periods when it had begun to
seem endless. I would also like to thank Pam Colorado for the poem used as a
foreword, David Stannard for his preface, and Rex Ray for the fine cover.
A debt of gratitude is also owed to those who provided me with much
needed personal support during a time when my mind was too deeply mired
in the ugliest subject matter imaginable. At the head of the list is of course
my wife, Leah, and my wider family, both Allens and Kellys. Sustenance was
also gained from interactions with my people, the United Keetoowah Band
of Cherokees, with the members of the American Indian Movement of
Colorado, the Dark Night Collective, and my colleagues and students, most
especially Rick Butler, m the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University
of Colorado/Boulder.
Two essays—“Deconstructing the Columbus Myth” and “Genocide in
the Americas”—are borrowed from my 1995 Since Predator Came.
Appreciation is due to Aigis Publications for permission to reprint. Thanks
also to the various journals, especially Z Magazine and Peace Review, in which
earlier versions of some of these materials first appeared.
for Raphael Lemkin (1901—1959)
and for genocide’s many millions of victims
down through the ages
3 1223 06364 6732
All my life, I’ve had to listen to rhetoric about the United States being
a model of freedom and democracy, the most uniquely enlightened and
humanitarian country in history, a “nation of laws” which, unlike others, has
never pursued policies of conquest and aggression. I’m sure you’ve heard it
before. It’s official “truth” in the United States It’s what is taught to school
children, and it’s the line peddled to the general public. Well, I’ve got a hot
news flash for everybody here. It’s a lie. The whole thing’s a lie, and it always
has been. Leaving aside the obvious points which could be raised to disprove
it by Blacks and Chicanos and Asian immigrants right here in North
America — not to mention the Mexicans, the Nicaraguans, the Guatemalans,
the Puerto Ricans, the Hawaiians, the Filipinos, the Samoans, the Tamarros
of Guam, the Marshall Islanders, the Koreans, the Vietnamese, the Cubans,
the Dominicans, the Grenadans, the Libyans, the Panamanians, the Iraqis, and
a few dozen other peoples out there who’ve suffered American invasions and
occupations first hand—there’s a little matter of genocide that’s got to be taken
into account right here at home. I’m talking about the genocide which has
been perpetrated against American Indians, a genocide that began the instant
the first of Europe’s boat people washed up on the beach of Turtle Island, a
genocide that’s continuing right now, at this moment. Against Indians, there’s
not a law the United States hasn’t broken, not a Crime Against Humanity it
hasn’t committed, and it’s still going on.
— Russell Means
American Indian Movement
October 12, 1992
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