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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2001

"For a moment, let's turn the tables.

For a moment, let's seize the opportunity to try and relate the tragic deaths on the East Coast to the loss of lives suffered by millions of U.S. indigenous people since the arrival of Columbus, and the loss of indigenous lives that continued in this country throughout the 19th century.

Life for Native people forever changed.

Today, we represent a microcosm about what is good and bad in America.

We have some of the richest and most beautiful cultures, beliefs, languages and spiritual people in the world.

We also have some of the most abysmal statistics. Alcohol abuse, sexual abuse, child abuse, domestic abuse, suicides, accidental deaths, diabetes, smoking and unemployment rates are among the highest of all groups in the country.

What needs to be understood is that North American indigenous people are just now coming off the downside of 500 years of death, disease and destruction - the demise of a way of life. . ."

Get the Story:
JODI RAVE LEE: Attacks parallel Native tragedies (The Lincoln Journal Star 11/11)