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["We tried to run, but they
shot us like we were buffalo"]
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I'm here today to show
my photographs of the Lakota.
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Many of you may have heard of the Lakota,
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or at least the larger group of tribes,
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called the Sioux.
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The Lakota are one of many tribes
that were moved off their land
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to prisoner-of-war camps,
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now called reservations.
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The Pine Ridge Reservation,
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the subject of today's slide show,
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is located about 75 miles southeast
of the Black Hills in South Dakota.
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It is sometimes referred to
as Prisoner of War Camp Number 334,
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and it is where the Lakota now live.
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Now, if any of you have ever heard of AIM,
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the American Indian Movement,
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or of Russell Means,
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or Leonard Peltier,
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or of the standoff at Oglala,
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then you know Pine Ridge is ground zero
for Native issues in the US.
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So I've been asked to talk
a little bit today
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about my relationship with the Lakota,
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and that's a very difficult one for me,
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because, if you haven't
noticed from my skin color,
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I'm white,
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and that is a huge barrier
on a Native reservation.
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You'll see a lot of people
in my photographs today.
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I've become very close with them,
and they've welcomed me like family.
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They've called me "brother" and "uncle,"
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and invited me again and again
over five years.
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But on Pine Ridge,
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I will always be what is called "wasichu."
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"Wasichu" is a Lakota word
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that means "non-Indian,"
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but another version of this word
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means "the one who takes
the best meat for himself."
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And that's what I want to focus on --
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the one who takes
the best part of the meat.
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It means "greedy."
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So take a look around
this auditorium today.
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We are at a private school
in the American West,
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sitting in red velvet chairs
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with money in our pockets.
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And if we look at our lives,
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we have indeed taken
the best part of the meat.
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So let's look today
at a set of photographs
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of a people who lost
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so that we could gain,
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and know that when you see
these people's faces,
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that these are not just
images of the Lakota;
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they stand for all indigenous people.
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On this piece of paper
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is the history the way I learned it
from my Lakota friends and family.
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The following is a time line
of treaties made, treaties broken
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and massacres disguised as battles.
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I'll begin in 1824.
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What is known as
the Bureau of Indian Affairs
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was created within the War Department,
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setting an early tone of aggression
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in our dealings with the Native Americans.
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1851:
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The first treaty of Fort Laramie was made,
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clearly marking the boundaries
of the Lakota Nation.
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According to the treaty,
those lands are a sovereign nation.
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If the boundaries
of this treaty had held --
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and there is a legal basis
that they should --
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then this is what the US
would look like today.
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Ten years later.
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The Homestead Act,
signed by President Lincoln,
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unleashed a flood of white settlers
into Native lands.
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1863:
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An uprising of Santee Sioux in Minnesota
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ends with the hanging of 38 Sioux men,
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the largest mass execution in US history.
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The execution was ordered
by President Lincoln,
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only two days after he signed
the Emancipation Proclamation.
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1866: The beginning
of the Transcontinental Railroad --
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a new era.
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We appropriated land for trails and trains
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to shortcut through the heart
of the Lakota Nation.
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The treaties were out the window.
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In response, three tribes led
by the Lakota chief Red Cloud
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attacked and defeated the US army,
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many times over.
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I want to repeat that part:
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The Lakota defeat the US army.
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1868: The second Fort Laramie Treaty
clearly guarantees
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the sovereignty of the Great Sioux Nation
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and the Lakotas' ownership
of the sacred Black Hills.
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The government also promises
land and hunting rights
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in the surrounding states.
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We promise that the Powder River country
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will henceforth be closed to all whites.
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The treaty seemed to be a complete victory
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for Red Cloud and the Sioux.
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In fact, this is the only war
in American history
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in which the government negotiated a peace
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by conceding everything
demanded by the enemy.
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1869: The Transcontinental
Railroad was completed.
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It began carrying, among other things,
large numbers of hunters,
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who began the wholesale
killing of buffalo,
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eliminating a source of food,
clothing and shelter for the Sioux.
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1871:
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The Indian Appropriation Act
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makes all Indians
wards of the federal government.
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In addition, the military issued orders
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forbidding western Indians
from leaving reservations.
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All western Indians at that point in time
were now prisoners of war.
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Also in 1871,
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we ended the time of treaty-making.
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The problem with treaties is they allow
tribes to exist as sovereign nations,
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and we can't have that.
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We had plans.
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1874:
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General George Custer announced
the discovery of gold in Lakota territory,
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specifically the Black Hills.
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The news of gold creates
a massive influx of white settlers
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into Lakota Nation.
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Custer recommends that Congress find a way
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to end the treaties with the Lakota
as soon as possible.
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1875: The Lakota war begins
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over the violation
of the Fort Laramie Treaty.
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1876:
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On July 26th,
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on its way to attack a Lakota village,
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Custer's 7th Cavalry was crushed
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at the battle of Little Big Horn.
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1877:
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The great Lakota warrior
and chief named Crazy Horse
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surrendered at Fort Robinson.
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He was later killed while in custody.
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1877 is also the year we found a way
to get around the Fort Laramie Treaties.
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A new agreement was presented
to Sioux chiefs and their leading men,
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under a campaign known
as "Sell or Starve" --
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sign the paper, or no food for your tribe.
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Only 10 percent of the adult
male population signed.
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The Fort Laramie Treaty called
for at least three-quarters of the tribe
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to sign away land.
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That clause was obviously ignored.
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1887: The Dawes Act.
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Communal ownership
of reservation lands ends.
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Reservations are cut up
into 160-acre sections,
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and distributed to individual Indians
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with the surplus disposed of.
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Tribes lost millions of acres.
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The American dream
of individual land ownership
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turned out to be a very clever way
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to divide the reservation
until nothing was left.
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The move destroyed the reservations,
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making it easier
to further subdivide and to sell
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with every passing generation.
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Most of the surplus land
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and many of the plots
within reservation boundaries
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are now in the hands of white ranchers.
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Once again, the fat of the land
goes to wasichu.
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1890: A date I believe to be
the most important in this slide show.
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This is the year
of the Wounded Knee Massacre.
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On December 29,
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US troops surrounded a Sioux
encampment at Wounded Knee Creek,
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and massacred Chief Big Foot
and 300 prisoners of war,
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using a new rapid-fire weapon
that fired exploding shells,
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called a Hotchkiss gun.
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For this so-called "battle,"
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20 Congressional Medals of Honor for Valor
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were given to the 7th Cavalry.
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To this day,
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this is the most Medals of Honor
ever awarded for a single battle.
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More Medals of Honor were given
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for the indiscriminate slaughter
of women and children
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than for any battle in World War One,
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World War Two,
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Korea, Vietnam,
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Iraq or Afghanistan.
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The Wounded Knee Massacre
is considered the end of the Indian wars.
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Whenever I visit the site
of the mass grave at Wounded Knee,
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I see it not just as a grave
for the Lakota or for the Sioux,
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but as a grave for all indigenous peoples.
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The holy man Black Elk, said,
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"I did not know then how much was ended.
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When I look back now
from this high hill of my old age,
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I can still see
the butchered women and children
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lying heaped and scattered
all along the crooked gulch,
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as plain as when I saw them
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with eyes still young.
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And I can see that something else
died there in the bloody mud
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and was buried in the blizzard.
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A people's dream died there.
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And it was a beautiful dream."
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With this event,
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a new era in Native American
history began.
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Everything can be measured
before Wounded Knee and after,
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because it was in this moment,
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with the fingers on the triggers
of the Hotchkiss guns,
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that the US government openly
declared its position on Native rights.
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They were tired of treaties.
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They were tired of sacred hills.
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They were tired of ghost dances.
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And they were tired of all
the inconveniences of the Sioux.
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So they brought out their cannons.
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"You want to be an Indian now?" they said,
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finger on the trigger.
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1900:
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the US Indian population
reached its low point --
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less than 250,000,
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compared to an estimated
eight million in 1492.
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Fast-forward.
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1980:
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The longest-running
court case in US history,
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the Sioux Nation versus the United States,
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was ruled upon by the US Supreme Court.
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The court determined that when the Sioux
were resettled onto reservations
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and seven million acres
of their land were opened up
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to prospectors and homesteaders,
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the terms of the second
Fort Laramie Treaty
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had been violated.
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The court stated that the Black Hills
were illegally taken,
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and that the initial
offering price, plus interest,
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should be paid to the Sioux Nation.
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As payment for the Black Hills,
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the court awarded only 106 million dollars
to the Sioux Nation.
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The Sioux refused the money
with the rallying cry,
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"The Black Hills are not for sale."
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2010:
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Statistics about Native population today,
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more than a century
after the massacre at Wounded Knee,
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reveal the legacy of colonization,
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forced migration
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and treaty violations.
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Unemployment on the Pine Ridge
Indian Reservation
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fluctuates between 85 and 90 percent.
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The housing office is unable
to build new structures,
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and existing structures are falling apart.
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Many are homeless,
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and those with homes
are packed into rotting buildings
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with up to five families.
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Thirty-nine percent of homes on Pine Ridge
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have no electricity.
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At least 60 percent
of the homes on the reservation
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are infested with black mold.
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More than 90 percent of the population
lives below the federal poverty line.
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The tuberculosis rate on Pine Ridge
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is approximately eight times higher
than the US national average.
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The infant mortality rate
is the highest on this continent,
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and is about three times higher
than the US national average.
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Cervical cancer is five times higher
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than the US national average.
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The school dropout rate
is up to 70 percent.
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Teacher turnover is eight times higher
than the US national average.
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Frequently, grandparents
are raising their grandchildren
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because parents, due to alcoholism,
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domestic violence and general apathy,
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cannot raise them.
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Fifty percent of the population
over the age of 40
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suffers from diabetes.
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The life expectancy for men
is between 46 and 48 years old --
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roughly the same
as in Afghanistan and Somalia.
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The last chapter
in any successful genocide
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is the one in which the oppressor
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can remove their hands and say,
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"My god -- what are these people
doing to themselves?
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They're killing each other.
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They're killing themselves
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while we watch them die."
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This is how we came to own
these United States.
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This is the legacy
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of Manifest Destiny.
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Prisoners are still born
into prisoner of war camps,
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long after the guards are gone.
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These are the bones
left after the best meat has been taken.
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A long time ago,
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a series of events was set in motion
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by a people who look like me, by wasichu,
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eager to take the land and the water
and the gold in the hills.
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Those events led to a domino effect
that has yet to end.
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As removed as we,
the dominant society, may feel
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from a massacre in 1890,
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or a series of broken
treaties 150 years ago,
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I still have to ask you the question:
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How should you feel
about the statistics of today?
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What is the connection
between these images of suffering
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and the history that I just read to you?
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And how much of this history
do you need to own, even?
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Is any of this your responsibility today?
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I have been told that there must be
something we can do.
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There must be some call to action.
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Because for so long,
I've been standing on the sidelines,
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content to be a witness,
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just taking photographs.
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Because the solutions
seem so far in the past,
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I needed nothing short
of a time machine to access them.
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The suffering of indigenous peoples
is not a simple issue to fix.
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It's not something everyone can get behind
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the way they get behind helping Haiti,
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or ending AIDS, or fighting a famine.
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The "fix," as it's called,
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may be much more difficult
for the dominant society
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than, say, a $50 check
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or a church trip to paint
some graffiti-covered houses,
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or a suburban family
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donating a box of clothes
they don't even want anymore.
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So where does that leave us?
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Shrugging our shoulders in the dark?
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The United States continues
on a daily basis to violate the terms
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of the 1851 and 1868
Fort Laramie Treaties with the Lakota.
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The call to action I offer today --
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my TED wish -- is this:
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Honor the treaties.
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Give back the Black Hills.
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It's not your business
what they do with them.
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(Applause)
