Joe Medicine Crow, the Last Link to the Battle of Little Big Horn, Dies at 102
The quote in there from Chief Plenty Coup really resonates with me. I grew up in that part of the world, and attended high school with a member of the Crow tribe. He was the nicest, hardest working kid I knew. His parents drilled the idea into his head that he'd have to work twice as hard as the white kids to be half as successful.Even by the 90s, when I knew Crow kids, "second class" doesn't even begin to describe the discrimination they faced. "Prairie nigger" is a term that got thrown around--and wasn't objected to by a sitting US senator.As far as I can tell, things haven't improved. My nephews' dad is native by race, but was raised by adoptive white parents. Looking "half Indian" nets all kind of assumptions--some innocuous but cringeworthy, others pretty ugly.I don't know what the right answer is, but the US needs to figure out how to be less shitty to its indigenous peoples. New Zealand is far from perfect, but from my observations there, engagement with Māori is miles better than anything here.