Steve Russell: Raising hell for fun and freedom in Indian Country

I suffer what may be a delusive hope that Indians want changes in how they are treated by the US government, state governments, and tribal governments. Like the African-Americans who Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. mobilized and the farm workers who César Chávez mobilized, Indians lack education and money. More critically, they also lack unity.

Over 50 years since the powerless in the US forced the powerful to pay attention, Indian country is still in a state of social change whack-a-mole. At any given moment, there is somebody raising hell somewhere about something, but we pay little attention to “other tribes’ business,” so we each get whacked in our turn while tribal crooks hide behind the bloody red shirt of sovereignty.

Other tribes, other nations, other peoples who stand up for self-determination should be our natural allies and our teachers. Not that their struggles can be precisely replicated, but I support the pithy observation misattributed to Mark Twain that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.