Tribal members in Michigan held a protest on Monday and called on Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson to apologize for disparaging comments he made.
Patterson was quoted in an
New Yorker article that compared the blighted city of Detroit to a reservation.
"I made a prediction a long time ago, and it’s come to pass. I said, ‘What we’re going to do is turn Detroit into an Indian reservation, where we herd all the Indians into the city, build a fence around it, and then throw in the blankets and corn,'" Paterson told The New Yorker..
Paterson claims he made the comments 30 years ago. But tribal members and leaders said they were insensitive.
"I took it that he wanted to kill the whole city, anybody in Detroit, because he's modeling after what they did on Indian reservations when they threw those blankets and poisoned corn, did nothing but kill us," Andrea Pierce, a member of the
Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians who participated in the protest, told MLive. "We were hoping for an apology from L. Brooks but his refusal has proven that he meant what he said."
Get the Story:
Native Americans protest L. Brooks Patterson's comparison of Detroit to Indian reservation in New Yorker
(MLive 1/28)
Patterson Addresses ‘Detroit Reservation’ Comments Amidst Pressure
(Indian Country Today 1/28)
Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe speaks out against L. Brooks Patterson comments
(MLive 1/25)
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