Page 5 - Florida Sentinel 11-5-21

Editorial/Column
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Black Native Americans?
ctober was National Na-
tive American Month, and we extend our congratula- tions to African Native Ameri- cans who are also called “Freedmen.” Today, there are at least 182,499 African Ameri- cans who claim Native Ameri-
can heritage.
Blacks have a history of in-
termingling and intermarriage with Native Americans since the arrival of the first colonists in Jamestown. Complex relation- ships formed as some tribes were more accepting of ethnic Africans than others and wel- comed them as full members of their respective cultures and communities.
A set of my cousins in Mary- land claim their Nanticoke In- dian heritage and participate in the Pow Wows held in Delaware, Berlin, Howard County and Baltimore each year. They say they have always been treated well.
However, this is not the ex- perience of some darker skinned African Native Ameri- cans in Pow Wows held in other parts of the U. S. by various tribes. (By the way, the word Pow Wow comes from the Nar- ragansett Eastern Algonquian language). Black members of the other tribes (Seminole, Choctaw, etc.), tell stories of how darker-skinned Blacks are asked for their tribal cards or other forms of proof of their Na- tive American heritage, while lighter skinned Blacks and
White Native Americans aren’t asked about their cards. Other tribes have made attempts to re- move African Native Americans from membership in their tribes.
Interestingly, the morphing of the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries’ amalgamation of Black Native Americans has reached a point of colonial-style racism among some tribes. Be- ginning with the Colonial period of Black Native American her- itage, Blacks escaped from White slave holders to live among Native Americans.
The first group of Black In- dians were those Africans who escaped from the colony of Santo Domino to join the Native Americans when slaves arrived in Hispaniola. The first recorded example of a slave es- caping from European colonists happened in 1526 at the mouth of the Pee Dee River in South Carolina where they were ab- sorbed by Native Americans.
While Native Americans took Africans as slaves when they raided European colonists, they did not mistreat the staves who could intermarry, work for their freedom, serve in tribal leadership and fight with the Native Americans against the United States expansion into the Native American territories. Europeans feared the coopera- tive relationship between Africans and Native Americans and passed laws and rumors de- signed to build animosity
among them. Rumors that Africans spread smallpox and other diseases, and laws that banned intermarriage with Africans, and prevented Native Americans holding slaves from taking the slaves to the frontier region.
In 1831, Blacks owned as slaves by the “five civilized tribes,” (Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminoles, Creeks (Muscogee), and Chickasaw, were taken west in “The Trail of Tears “removal of 60,000 members of these tribes from their ancestral lands. Of course, the African slaves lived near or with Indian slaveholders in numerous com- munities in Oklahoma.
During the Civil War, slave holding Native Americans sided with the Confederacy and were required to free their slaves and grant them full citizenship rights to their nations after the war ended. The Creeks, Chero- kees and Seminoles tightened their membership rules and ex- cluded Freedman who did not have at least one ancestor listed as Native American on the early 20th century Dawes Rolls. The Chickasaw nations never ex- tended citizenship to Chickasaw Freedman.
Imagine being Black and having to fight battles because you are Black and fight another battle to prove your Native American Ancestry. Some scholars blame the mistreat- ment of Freedmen on tribal at- tempts to reduce payments of benefits. Others claim racism. I believe both reasons play a role in the way African Native Amer- icans are treated. Having read “Pedagogy Of The Oppressed” decades ago, the treatment of Indigenous Native Americans is a classic example of the phe- nomenon. What do you think?
Harambe.
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Violence Pandemic
ccording to the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI), COVID-19 is not the only virus sweeping across the country, violence is also reaching pandemic proportions.
The FBI reported that homicides jumped 50% from 2019, “the largest increase ever.” Experts have blamed “COVID stress,” too much time in young people’s lives, and less opportunities. Indeed, media publications re- port on violent altercations that take place increas- ingly, evidence that clearly shows the inability of too many of us to handle conflicts and disagreements in a productive manner.
A 2018, FBI Crime in the United States Report shows that most Black homicide victims are killed by other Blacks. Of the 9,913 Blacks killed, 8,420 of them were killed by other Blacks. This means at least 27 Blacks are killed every day in the United States.
Obviously, Americans have a love affair with vio- lence. Other than football, the most watched television shows are the crime and violence shows, NCIS and the Equalizer. Perhaps America will evolve to the point where humans will resolve their differences in the box- ing ring, on a racetrack or in a quasi-Olympic event, in- stead of guns and knives.
Currently, the viciousness and brazenness of violent crimes are on the rise. Who could imagine that a day would come when a man would rape a woman on a commuter train with dozens of witnesses who did noth- ing except film the attack on their telephone cameras? The rapist didn’t even bother to cover his face. Such at- tacks contribute to the steady rise of the rate of aggra- vated assaults, forcible rapes and murders which stood at 279.7 cases per 100,000 of the population.
Certainly, we each must assume responsibility for the violence that takes place in our neighborhood. In fact, every neighborhood should have a Crime Watch organization, community cameras located at strategic neighborhood sites, personal reporting of criminal ac- tivity, porch/yard deflection visits, teach our children and young adults conflict resolution skills, anger man- agement training and neighborhood patrols.
If we don’t become part of the solution, then we be- come part of the problem.
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