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Showing posts with the label Native Americans

A tinderbox waiting to be ignited, the world over!

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) Director: Martin Scorsese Based on David Grann's book (2017) Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI The narration is always the same. Again and again, history has repeatedly shown the same narration. The local population would live in harmony, in sync with their environment. The rambunctious mavericks from outside, with both eyes fixed on the wealth, would trickle in, peddle their snake oil elixirs and promise the moons and the stars. They would bulldoze their thinking into the local populace. The host would be cordial enough to accommodate the newcomers' wisdom, too. Once the shields are lowered, when the host treats the visitors as equals and gives them due recognition, they would zap.  The bottom line is all about wealth, money and control.  The Native Indians were nicely tugged into the New World, as 'discovered' by Europeans. The areas around Missouri and Kansas were occupied by a group that later be...

Life in the fringe!

Wind River (2017) Director: Taylor Sheridan We are all seekers. We want to understand things. Our brains have been wired to try to understand things around us. As children, we feel insecure with unfamiliar faces and environments. We wonder about the darkness that we see outside. We try to find out when exactly the light goes off when we shut a fridge door. We eavesdrop to find out where babies come from. We want to know what actually happens when we die. Looking at the stars, we wonder if they are any intelligent life forms there.   Did Santa Claus put those presents under the Christmas tree? Did God help himself to Prasadham that we offer? As we grow older, everything will fall into its place. We learn biology, geography, theology, astronomy, and so on.   Biology gives glorious explanations to all the burning questions we want to know but are too shy to ask. Geography demarcated the lines drawn between humans. Theology told us to limit our inquiries to things that our simple ...

Can't live on goodwill and sunshine!

The execution of 38 Sioux Indians by the U.S. Authorities at Mankato, Minnesota. December 26th, 1862. Heard about another forgotten wars of the bygone era. The state of Minnesota saw, in 1862, amidst the American Civil War, one of the biggest brutalities against the Native Americans. Mass hanging of 38 troublemaker Indians took place under the ambit of the law signed by decree of the President of the USA then, Abraham Lincoln. The story of Dakota Indians is the same story of any marginalised and economically deprived group anywhere in the world. The tribe of Dakota Indians occupied a large portion of land in the Midwest region of North America. The vast land base was necessary for their way of life; being hunters and wanderers. The whites from the East were expanding to the West. The sure way to get them to gain possession of the land, they thought, was to get the Indians to surrender was the legal way. Through lopsided deals, the white traders sold many unnecessary things to th...