Opinion
Tim Giago: Brainwashing on Pine Ridge Reservation


"The first time I heard the word “brainwashing,” was during the Korean Conflict. Back then several GI’s underwent this procedure while prisoners of war. Afterwards, they shifted their allegiance to the North Koreans and Chinese.

The analogy would be like removing someone’s brain, washing it clean of all it contained and then re-programming it with a different set of values, philosophy, religion, and political beliefs. This happened to many Native Americans. It happened in the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian mission boarding schools.

It is happening again today on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

The president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Cecelia Fire Thunder, proposed building a Planned Parenthood Clinic on the reservation after the nearly all-white legislative body of South Dakota passed HB1215 banning all abortions in the state and made no exceptions for rape or incest. Fire Thunder immediately became a target of the anti-abortion movement and worse yet, a target of some of her own people."

Get the Story:
Tim Giago: Saving the Indian children in the here and now (The Native American Times 4/17)

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