The support march for the occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973. “According to the traditional medicine men of the Oglala Sioux, it fulfills the prophecy that when the four races get together, they will purify the land” (press release for march). This iconic photo shows representatives of the four races leading the march, with Tatsuo Hirano representing “Asians for Solidarity with Wounded Knee.”
By Mary Uyematsu Kao
As the world keeps turning, heads are spinning from the recent election results. Trump’s clean sweep acknowledges the Democratic Party’s deep deficiencies. So on this last Thanksgiving before Trump takes office, what can we be thankful for?
I can only speak for myself, but for the sake of the Japanese American community, we ought to be thankful for whistle-blowers who have stopped the destruction of our community institutions.
Today the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC) stands seemingly unscathed from their near death just 12 years ago. We should be giving thanks to Marlene Murakami Lee for blowing the whistle on Greg Willis, the CEO who was instituting many alarming “changes” and layoffs in 2012. It was discovered that he was an international criminal who profited from closing down failing corporations in Mexico, Canada, and France.
Two years after Willis “walked,” Keiro was put on the auction block in 2014, under the same overlapping leadership on the boards of the JACCC and Keiro.
Marlene was never given the proper recognition as the whistle-blower. While the dust was still settling from the Greg Willis disaster, the JACCC board tried to lay off Marlene. A community petition put a stop to this. But come the pandemic, Marlene was terminated in July of 2020.
Without any public thanks for almost 38 years of service and the longest-serving employee of the JACCC, Marlene received a pittance for her severance. Marlene’s many connections with community people were not valued because they were not the “big bucks” that the JACCC board caters to. This is the sad plight of a whistle-blower. Not only should the JACCC be thankful to Marlene, they should honor and support her in her retirement.
While we were taught in grade school that Thanksgiving was the beginning of a friendship between the Mayflower Pilgrims and Native Americans, there has been a long history of Native American people’s disappearance from the American stage. On Oct. 25 at the Gila River Indian Community, President Biden offered an apology to Native Americans for the U.S. government’s role in imprisoning tens of thousands of children in government-funded boarding schools.
This historic apology took place near where thousands of JAs were incarcerated in the Gila concentration camp. The timing was unmistakable for hustling votes in the Arizona swing state just days before Election Day.
Deb Haaland stood at Biden’s side, to her credit for making this apology possible. A Biden appointee, Haaland is the first Native American ever appointed as a Cabinet member — secretary of the interior. Haaland led the department’s investigation that found evidence of close to a thousand children’s remains, buried at these schools. Activists and researchers say “tens of thousands were never heard from again.” (Reuters, 5/11/2022)
Between 1869 and 1969, hundreds of thousands of Native American children were taken from their homes and families. The government’s Indian boarding school policy stated: “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” By 1926, nearly 83% of Indian school-age children were in boarding schools. (boardingschoolhealing.org)
Biden was barely into his apology when a protester interrupted him: “How can you apologize for a genocide while committing a genocide in Palestine? Free Palestine! Free Palestine!” (democracynow.org, 10/28/24)
The day before the apology, the NDN Collective acknowledged that it was the first U.S. government admission to its role in “the generations of harm caused by abusive and deadly mandatory residential schools” cutting off generations of children from their language, culture, family, and community. “Apologies must include meaningful action to repair the harm done — otherwise, they are just manipulative tools giving the semblance of care to distract from continued wrongdoing.” (ndncollective.org)
The NDN Collective called for several reparations for the damage that’s been done, but the most expedient and easily realizable reparation is for Biden to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier, a boarding school survivor, and a political prisoner for over 50 years.
Nick Tilsen, head of NDN Collective, added: “If the Democrats want the Indian people’s vote, they must stand with us in deep solidarity with the Palestinian people for freedom and for justice and for liberation … and we call for a ceasefire.” (Interview on “Democracy Now,” 10/28/2024)
Over 50 years ago, Asians for Solidarity with Wounded Knee embarked on a 100-mile march with other people of color and progressive forces, in support of the occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973.
The occupation was a 71-day armed standoff between federal military forces and Oglala Lakota tribal members and the American Indian Movement (AIM). In protest against corrupt tribal chairman Richard A. Wilson and broken treaties made by the U.S. government, the occupation was inspirational and symbolic to Native Americans nationally because of the 1890 U.S. military massacre of 300 Lakota people at Wounded Knee.
The support march started on Easter Sunday, April 22. By April 25, the march ended when they were met with a roadblock with 75 armed BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs), FBI agents, and white vigilantes. “They almost outnumbered the marchers, who were unarmed and on a non-violent march.” (Asians for Solidarity with Wounded Knee, Gidra, June 1973)
The occupation ended on May 8, 1973, after Frank Clearwater and Lawrence “Buddy” Lamont had been killed. The U.S. government employed 300-500 U.S. marshals, FBI, BIA police and National Guard, 50 armored personnel carriers, M-16s, military helicopters, grenade launchers, and more. (Gidra, June 1973)
In the following three years, the corrupt tribal chair Wilson had his private militia murder over 60 tribal and AIM members at the Pine Ridge Reservation, under watch of the FBI. AIM leader Peltier was asked by Pine Ridge’s traditional people to help protect them from Wilson’s violence. Peltier was framed for the murder of two FBI agents in 1975 with false evidence coerced from FBI victims.
Peltier was denied clemency from Presidents Clinton and Obama, while those who have supported clemency included Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mother Theresa, Tenzin Gyatso (the 14th Dalai Lama), Pope Francis, Amnesty International, Committee of Concerned Scientists — just to name a few. Peltier is now 80 years old.
Thanksgiving has many different meanings for all of our differences, but is there something to be thankful for by the majority who suffer under the war — and profit-mongering rule of the 0.1%?
For Rafu readers, we can all thank Gwen Muranaka for all her years of tremendous editorship. The Rafu Shimpo team got through many rough times under her leadership. And as a second Trump presidency forebodes rougher times ahead, I give thanks to the undying spirit of resistance …
Mary Uyematsu Kao was the publications coordinator for the UCLA Asian American Studies Center for 30 years. She received her MA from UCLA Asian American Studies in 2007. She published a photo/journal book, “Rockin’ the Boat: Flashbacks of the 1970s Asian Movement,” in 2020. She can be reached for comments, questions, and/or criticisms at uyematsu72@gmail.com. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of The Rafu Shimpo.