Reflections on Thanksgiving

Posted on November 25, 2010 by Jan Tucker

American Indian Movement


 

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Every Thanksgiving I make a point of reflecting on the genocide that befell Native Americans when Europeans came to the Western Hemisphere. In Mexico alone, when Cortes arrived, it is estimated that there were approximately 25 million people already living there. Within 20 years, the indigenous population was down to 5 million; after another 20 years only 1 million were left. That ranks with the world’s greatest holocaust figures but is barely known and not regularly taught.

In what is now the United States, when small pox hit the Native American cities in the South as a result of the first Spanish expedition through the area, it is believed that millions died and the urbanized civilization wiped out.

Reflecting about this season, I give thanks that I had a father who taught me to respect Native American culture and to support the human rights of all peoples. Over the years, I’ve done a number of things with various Native American groups, especially with AIM (American Indian Movement) that I can look back and be proud of. Just to mention a few of them:

  • When Disney was rolling out the premiere of the animated Pocahontas, my NOW Chapter, San Fernando Valley/Northeast Los Angeles NOW, joined with AIM to picket the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. I was in charge of public relations for the protest and came up with the slogan (I’ve been known to come up with some really great slogans and sound bites over the years), “What Disney calls romance, we call kidnapping and child molestation.” That made it into print everywhere from Los Angeles to Tokyo.
  • On the 501st Anniversary of Columbus landing in the Western Hemisphere, my friend Laura Molina and I joined with AIM in downtown Los Angeles for miles and miles of marching to commemorate the slaughter of Native Americans that Columbus brought about.
  • I assisted protesters against the desecration of a Native burial ground in San Juan Capistrano.
  • I forced a hospital in Orange County to release the placenta from a birth to the Native American mother so that she could use it in a traditional ritual.

So this Thanksgiving, while others are celebrating the mainstream stories of the Pilgrims coming to America, I will commiserate in sympathy with my Native American friends and give thanks to Ometeotl, Ometecuhtli, Omecihuatl, Chalchiuhtlique, Tezcatlipoca, Tlaloc, Quetzalcoatl, Mictlan Tecuhtli, Mictlan Cihuatl, Huitzilopochtli (the Hummingbird god of war and ass-kicking) and several other deities that some Native Americans are still alive, even if they remain for the most part subjugated.

If you want to show real gratitude that you live in land stolen from Native Americans, contact AIM and find out what you can do to make a difference: http://www.aimovement.org

About Jan Tucker

The Detectives Diary is an innovative tool combining Private Investigation and Journalism. In 1984, Steve Harvey's Los Angeles Times "Around the Southland" Column entitled Jan Tucker's program of providing low-cost "Opposition Research" services to indigent and working class candidates for public office, "Take Cover: Hired Mudslinger Rides into Town." A 1996 Los Angeles Times article by Henry Chu carried a sub-headline identifying Tucker as a "P.R. Guru." In November 2012, Tucker became Criminal Justice Columnist for Counter Punch Magazine and a commentator for Black Talk Radio. As a private investigator since 1979 and a former First Vice President of Newspaper Guild Local 69, Tucker takes these skills to a new level in the pages of the Detectives Diary with insightful and unique exposures and analysis of history and current events. State Director--California League of Latin American Citizens, Former seven term Chairman of the Board of the California Association of Licensed Investigators, Co-President San Fernando Valley/Northeast Los Angeles Chapter-National Organization for Women, former National Commissioner for Civil Rights-League of United Latin American Citizens, former Second Vice President-Inglewood-South Bay Branch-National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, former founding Vice President-Armenian American Action Committee, former First Vice President, Newspaper Guild Local 69 (AFL-CIO, CLC, CWA), Board member, Alameda Corridor Jobs Coalition, Community Advisory Board member--USC-Keck School of Medicine Alzheimer's Disease Research Project
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