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Tim Giago: Calvary re-enactors should know better
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
"Every year when annual parades are held in Rapid City, SD, many Lakota people protest the appearance of the men dressed in the uniforms of the 7th Cavalry, but always to no avail. The Lakota suffered and died at the hands of the men and officers of the 7th Cavalry. To them, the men dressing up as the horsemen of the 7th are an insult to the Indian people. But no one except the Indians seems to give a damn.
Bear in mind that it was not a military battle at Wounded Knee. It was a scene of American soldiers firing point blank into the heads and bodies of babies and children. It was the slaughter of unarmed men and women, many of them elders of the tribe. The Lakota people of today are still angry that more than 20 soldiers of the 7th Cavalry were awarded this Nation’s highest honor, the Congressional Medal of Honor. It is tantamount to awarding the Iron Cross to the prison guards at Auschwitz.
And so we have one teenage prince donning the uniform of the German Army and he is lampooned worldwide for his childish insensitivity. Should he have known better? Of course, his royal upbringing makes it essential that he know better. Should the enactors of the 7th Cavalry know better? Shouldn’t they respect the feelings of the Lakota people who suffered and died at the hands of the soldiers they are reviving for a parade? One would think so."
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