And so, in the summer of 1885, Sitting Bull joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, traveling throughout the United States and into Canada. He drew tremendous crowds. Boos and catcalls sometimes sounded for the “Killer of Custer,” but after each show these same people pressed coins upon him for copies of his signed photograph. Sitting Bull gave most of the money away to the band of ragged, hungry boys who seemed to surround him wherever he went. He once told Annie Oakley, another one of the Wild West Show’s stars, that he could not understand how white men could be so unmindful of their own poor. “The white man knows how to make everything,” he said, “but he does not know how to distribute it.”
--Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Sitting Bull’s words ring true to this day. We can send human travellers into deep space and return them safely, but we are unable to house homeless people.
ReplyDeleteSitting Bull absolutely nailed it, David.
DeleteWell, it's great that things have changed so much over two centuries later, and via our governments, we look after the poor. We do, don't we?
ReplyDeleteThings change but then stay the same, Andrew.
DeleteEverything about this story makes my heart ache.
ReplyDeleteI know, Debra.
DeleteYou have indigenous peoples in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteIn Finland we have the Sámi people in Lapland.
Can't say I know much about any of that, but I suspect it's very difficult for them to maintain their independency and be accepted and get equal rights.
(I hope I spelt indigenous and indepency right 😛 🤔 😀
And then there are the immigrants . . .
Rita, I spend too much time obsessing over my own spelling to notice anybody else's.
DeleteHello Kirk, Annie Oakley was, of course, an Ohio native. Euell Gibbons grew up in rural Texas, where there were plenty of Natives. Gibbons befriended them and learned nature lore from them. His books are full of the highest respect for Native Americans, not just their specific advice, but their outlook and attitude towards nature from which the advice grew.
ReplyDelete--Jim
Ha, Jim, I haven't thought about Euell Gibbons in years! I remember him from the old Grape-Nut Flakes commercials.
DeleteThe Native American ways of doing things were just stomped on by the European "settlers", who didn't bother to ask themselves if those ways were any better. More and more we're finding out may of their ways were better. For instance, the Three Sisters planting method, a kind of Native American crop rotation which involved planting three corn, beans, and squash--that mutually supported each other, and kept the soil from being depleted. Had that been standard in the Midwest during the 1930s, those Dust Bowl dust storms could have been avoided.
Thank you so much for sharing this, Kirk!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Linda.
DeleteProfound. Not much has changed.
ReplyDeleteProfundity isn't always pretty, Mitchell.
DeleteThat last line really stayed with me. So much time has passed, yet it still feels true today.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately true, Liuba.
DeleteThank you for your comment on my blog, Kirk. I accidentally deleted it, but managed to retrieve it (phew) 😛 not very successfully, though. Have a pleasant weekend 🌺
ReplyDeleteThis was a fascinating collection of quotes and observations. I especially enjoyed the way the post encourages us to think about how different people experience the world depending on their circumstances and perspectives. A good quotation can be surprisingly powerful—it can make us smile, question an assumption, or look at an ordinary subject from a completely different angle. Thanks for sharing these thoughtful and entertaining selections! 📖💭
ReplyDeleteYour welcome, Sanovax.
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