Native America's rich history

 

 

    By Reginald Johnson

 

  Lucianne Lavin, the author of  “Connecticut’s Indigenous Peoples,” was reading the paper one day when she was taken aback.

  A story covered a lecture she gave on her book and Connecticut Indians and one reader had left the following comment: “Why would anyone want to read a book on Native Americans?  They’ve contributed nothing to our society.”

Lavin said, “I was enraged about this. I really wanted to write something, but I didn’t. I went to bed and thought about it.”

 “I decided to come up with a list of all the things that Native Americans have contributed to the building of America.”

 It was substantial.

 “First of all, 90 percent of our food culture, was actually contributed by Native people,” she said. The list includes corn, which came from the teosinte plant is northern Mexico and was cultivated by Indians more than 8,000 years ago, but also beans and squash.

  “And tomatoes, tomatoes are actually Native American coming out of South America, well before the Italians got it,” Lavin said. Also developed first by Indians were potatoes, which also originated in South America and the Southwest US and then brought to Europe by the Spanish.

 “And chocolate,” Lavin said, “all kinds of things you wouldn’t think were Native American, were Native American”

 Indians also provided the basis for America’s transportation system, said Lavin, who has taught archaeology and anthropology at Connecticut College and other universities.

 “Our American highways system is based on Native American pathways that crisscross the continent,” Lavin said.

 Good examples of that are some of the first “federal roads,” like Routes 1 and 7.

 “Route 7 was part of the old Berkshire path that originally started in the coastal area of Stratford and went up through Western Connecticut going through Schaghticoke and up into Massachusetts, connecting coastal Connecticut communities with major Indian communities and Western Massachusetts," she said. “For example Stockbridge, which was a major Indian town --- it was actually called Indiantown before it was called Stockbridge.”

 Indian pathways were also the basis for much of the United States railroad network.

 Native Americans also had a major impact on the development of American democracy, with the Founders like Thomas Jefferson taking political ideas from Indian tribes.

 “Jefferson and (Benjamin) Franklin actually visited the Iroquois to learn more about their Confederation, which was a democracy. In fact, all of the Native political systems in North America were democracies. They ruled by consensus. Everybody had to agree. That’s why it took so long for Native people to make decisions,” Dr. Lavin said.

  “Our Bill of Rights as well as the Constitution was based on Native American democracies,” she said.

  Other areas where Indians have had a major impact are music, art, sports and medicine.

 “A lot of our herbal doctors are utilizing Native plants and using Native prescriptions on how to use them,” she said.

Finally, Lavin noted Indians have participated in large numbers in the nation’s military. She said that as a percentage of their population Native Americans have the highest participation rate in US military of any ethnic group.

 So the contributions by Native Americans to America have been many and varied.

“What it also shows is not only that Native American communities contributed to the building of America, but that Native history is very much intertwined with American history,” Lavin said.  “I mean Native histories are part of American history --- you can’t separate them. Before the Europeans came, American history was Native history because there were no Europeans here.”

 Dr. Lavin, the director of research and collections emeritus at the Institute for American Indian Studies in Washington, CT, made her comments in a presentation at the Bridgeport Public Library in November and then in a later interview. The talk in Bridgeport coincided with Native American Heritage Month and was entitled “Connecticut’s Indigenous Communities: An Introduction to their Histories and Cultures.”

 Lavin related that indigenous people have been on the North American continent a very long time, predating the arrival of Columbus and other Europeans in the 15^th and 16^th centuries by thousands of years.

 Archaeological discoveries show signs of human habitation in the southwestern United States going back 36,000 years.

In Connecticut, an archaeological discovery in Avon revealed the presence of a habitation site 12,000 years old.

          

The Pequonnock River Valley in Trumbull. Archaeologists found evidence in the valley of human habitation dating to 7,000 years ago. (Photo by Reginald Johnson)

 While Europeans arrived thinking that they were going to “tame a wild wilderness” only inhabited by “savages,” quite the opposite was true.

  Indigenous people lived in well-organized societies, with a “complicated and sophisticated culture,” Lavin said. People had adequate food and shelter and  health problems were minimal. Tribes were run democratically, and everyone, including women, had a voice in the conduct of tribal affairs.

  “Native women had it so much better than English women,” Lavin noted. “Native women could vote and they could hold office. A number of sachems (chiefs) were squaw sachems in certain Native communities.”

 Indians lived harmoniously with the environment, practicing “land stewardship” ----- long before present-day environmental agencies did.

  “A lot of this had a basis where obviously they knew that if they didn’t practice stewardship, there wouldn’t be any food, and people would die,” she said, adding, “ but there was also spiritual basis behind his stewardship. ‘The Creator’ gave the tribe their homeland and therefore it was their duty to oversee and protect everything on those homelands.”

Lavin estimated that indigenous people in Connecticut lived in a “Golden Age” of culture somewhere between 1000 and 1600.

 But the arrival of Europeans brought disaster for the Native community in New England.

 European traders, as well as the earliest English and Dutch settlers, brought with them diseases that had already hit Europe, such as the plague and smallpox. Indians had not been exposed to these diseases and had no immunity.

   Disease swept through Native communities in the early 17^th century, decimating their population. In some cases, tribes became extinct.

“They say anywhere from 70% to 90% of the Native Americans in New England were killed off by 1650,” Lavin said.

 Travelers found that “when they came upon an Indian town, everyone was ill. So many people were ill, they couldn’t help anybody and they just died. It was devastating.”

 Lavin went on, “This is the problem. After the Pequot War in 1637 the English began settling along the coast and the Indians couldn’t stop them because they were a crippled society. You know it’s not just the population, but it’s the leaders in those populations that are killed off.”

 “Think if Covid had killed 77% or 90% of our population?” Lavin asked. “During the pandemic, I think that people who died from Covid, the CDC came out with figures, it’s one third of 1% of our population died from Covid. Think if you had 77% of them dying?”

 Natives also began losing their land, as settlers made continual encroachments to expand farms and steal wood. In many cases Indian land was illegally sold off to other whites.

 Natives also lost land due to cultural differences. Indians had no concept of the word “selling” as it was done in Europe. In Native culture if one person from one tribe approached another Indian in another tribe and asked to use their land the first person would give it to them as a gift or as a temporary loan. The person using the land would later give it back.

 So when Indians were first approached by white settlers about selling their land they thought they were simply giving up their land temporarily. But that was not the case.

  Natives also suffered a disadvantage since they didn’t know English and didn’t know how to read contracts. Sale documents were in English and they were meaningless to them.

 In many cases Natives had their land taken through outright fraud and when they complained to local or state authorities the complaints went unanswered.

  Another factor that hurt Natives economically was the fur trade that developed after the Europeans arrived. While Natives acquired other valuables in return for the trade the number of animals that they needed for food drastically diminished.

  “The whites totally destroyed the Native American economy,” said Lavin. “By 1800, you know, the largest animal in Connecticut were woodchucks.”

  By the 19th century, indigenous people in Connecticut were vastly reduced in number, poor and suffered discrimination at all levels.

     

Native dancers. (Photo Wikimedia Commons)

  According to Lavin, Native leaders realized they had to begin adapting to the new world thrust upon them in order for their people to live.

  They came up with strategies to survive.  First, learn English. They began doing that, in part by joining Christian churches, where missionaries were teaching the Bible in English and helped Natives learn the language.

  Being a Christian also give the Indians some protection from discrimination, Natives believed.

 Another path followed was to join the Anglo-American market economy, Lavin said. Indians took jobs as laborers, farm hands, colliers (charcoal makers), silversmiths, basket weavers, dockworkers and sailors.

Another means of assimilating into society was to join the military. And Natives did that in large numbers, as noted above.

 Today, the number of tribes in Connecticut, officially recognized by the state, is 6. They are the Mohegans, Mashuntucket Pequots and Eastern Pequots in the southeast, the Golden Hill Paugussetts in the southwest and west; and the Schaghticokes (now in two branches) in the northwest.

  But Lavin says there are many more Natives living in Connecticut who are from other tribes, inexplicably not recognized by the state. Among those tribes are the Quinnipiacs in the New Haven-Branford area; the Nipmucks in the east and the Niantics in the southeast.

  In spite of ignorance by many non-Natives about Native-Americans and their history and contributions, as well as ongoing discrimination, inconsistent help from the government and in some cases poverty, indigenous people carry on, maintaining their culture and upholding their traditions.

  In the chapter entitled “A.D. 1633 into the Twenty-First Century” in her book, Dr. Lavin said: “Despite the efforts of archaeologists and social historians, the public tends to believe in inaccurate portrayals of Native histories. Few people have any conception of the continuity of local Native communities, Native preservation of cultural traditions and group identities and the longtime resistance of Native people to the intensive continuous discrimination and detribalization efforts of local and federal governments and non-Native individuals. This book aims to change all that. As Cree-Salish-Kootenai author D'Arcy McNickle wrote: “Only the Indians seemed unwilling to accept oblivion as an appropriate final act in the New World drama… They lost, but were never defeated.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Activists to protest visit by Israeli leader

 By Reginald Johnson

  

  The organization Jewish Voice for Peace will sponsor demonstrations in Connecticut this Sunday and Wednesday to protest the visit to Washington by Israel’s Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich.

 Shelly Altman of the New Haven chapter of JVP said the actions will take place Sunday at 10 am (DST) at the Federal Building, 150 Church Street, New Haven and Wednesday at 4 pm at the Connecticut State Treasurer’s office, 165 Capitol Avenue, Hartford.

   Jewish Voice for Peace opposes Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and supports the “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” movement against Israel due to repressive policies against the Palestinians.

 Henry Lowendorf, of the Greater New Haven Peace Council is urging people to take part in the protests.

   “The Apartheid state is becoming more and more open about its repression --- displacement, exile, ethnic cleansing, murder, theft --- of Palestinians with Pogroms by fanatic Jewish settlers that mimic those many of our Jewish ancestors fled a century ago,” said Lowendorf. “Dare we also imagine KrystalNacht?”

  “Only because the US subsidizes Israel financially, politically and militarily can it continue to exist and metasiasize as an Apartheid state,” he said. “So we must take a stand. Now is the time.”  

Protestors tell DeLauro: stop war in Ukraine

 

 By Reginald Johnson

  NEW HAVEN ---- For over a year, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, has been an ardent supporter of the United States’ military aid program for Ukraine, which has been at war with Russia.

The U.S. has provided over $100 billion in assistance to Ukraine --- much of that lethal aid --- and DeLauro has used her influence as a leader on the House Appropriations Committee to make sure the aid packages got approved.

 Last Friday marked the 1-year anniversary of the start of the war and a group of area residents gathered in chilly weather outside the congresswoman’s office at 59 Elm Street to say they don’t like DeLauro’s pro-war position and demand an end to the Ukraine conflict.

  “We’re here to stop this war. It’s killing thousands of people and destroying the infrastructure of Ukraine and Russia and is causing economic pain for all of Europe, Africa, Asia and the United States,” said Henry Lowendorf, a member of the Greater New Haven Peace Council, which organized the vigil.

   Lowendorf said they want DeLauro to get behind the idea of a cease-fire and negotiations to end the war.

  “What we want Rosa to do is to cut the silence of the Biden administration that there are alternatives to war and start promoting negotiations. It is absolutely regrettable that when someone from the Pentagon like Gen. Mark Milley says that we need to negotiate, he can be shut down by the Biden administration – ‘you can’t talk like that,’ said Lowendorf.  He added that when some congressional progressives suggested peace talks, they were also shut down.

  “So the result is, dissent is being crushed,” he said.

Members of the group carried signs that read “Don’t Escalate --- Negotiate,” and “Diplomacy Works --- No More Wars.” and handed out fliers to passersby.

 Several drivers honked their horn in approval at the sight of the protest.

     

 

Ukraine War protestors outside Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro's office in New Haven. (Henry Lowendorf photo)

   The flier warned that the longer the war goes on, the chances increase that nuclear weapons will be used. “Both the U.S. and Russia possess enormous arsenals of nuclear weapons. If used, they spell doom for civilization.”

  The protest also took aim at America’s bloated military budget, which siphons money away from addressing domestic needs such as housing, health care, education and the environment. The leaflets invoked the words of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, who criticized the U.S. for spending so much money on war. In his famous “Beyond Vietnam” speech in 1967, King said that “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

   Just a ten percent reduction in America’s $858 billion military budget by Congress, the flier suggested,  “would return billions of dollars back to cities like ours.”

 Lowendorf and others urged people to call their local congresspersons and the White House and ask that the military budget be cut and that diplomacy be used to end the war in Ukraine.

 The Congressional switchboard is 202-224-3121 or toll free at 800-826-3688. The White House number is 202-456-1111 to leave a message.

  The end of the flier read simply: “Remaining Silent Prolongs The Wars.”

 

 

 

Ukraine War: peace now --- or else

 

 By Reginald Johnson

      Commentary

 

     While the United States and NATO continue to fuel the Ukraine-Russia War by sending more lethal aid to Ukraine, former President Donald Trump warned last week that peace talks are needed immediately to avert disaster.

  “It’s far past the time for all parties involved to pursue a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine before this already horrific catastrophe spirals out of control and ends up leading indeed to World War III and this would be a war like no other war, because this would be a nuclear war,” he said on his social media platform, Truth Social.

   You can trash Trump all you want, but he’s right on this one. The war is threatening to spiral out of control and a nuclear confrontation with Russia is entirely possible.

 The implications of that are terrifying --- a nuclear clash would likely be a world-ending event.

 Just last week President Biden went ahead and approved the dispatch of M-I tanks to Ukraine, breaking a promise he made in March when he said he would never do that because it would mean “World War III.”

  Now there’s talk of sending fighter jets. The Russians have warned that such a step could have very serious repercussions. Again, Biden has said he won’t go that far. But will he keep his word?

  Sending the jets may be crossing the Rubicon for the United States.

  It’s a sad commentary on the state affairs in our country when the much-criticized Donald Trump is the only national political leader who’s making any sense on Ukraine.

  Are there any leading Democrats speaking out on the need for peace and urging that the administration change course to avoid disaster? The answer is, sadly, no. This is an utter disgrace. We have the prospect of nuclear war on the horizon and the Democrats say nothing; in fact they’re getting on board for sending more aid to Ukraine to “help Ukraine win.”  Win what? A radiated wasteland?

 Unfortunately, the Democrats today are not the party of George McGovern, Gene McCarthy, Wayne Morse and Al Gore Sr. --- courageous statesmen who spoke out generations ago against the terrible Vietnam War and urged peace. Far from it.

  But the Republicans are not much better on the war. Except for some libertarians in the House, there is little opposition from the GOP on Ukraine. And some Republicans, like Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, are goading Biden to ratchet up the war by sending the fighter jets.

  Already the Ukraine-Russia War has been disastrous. There’s been 200,000 casualties, including tens of thousands of deaths. More than 5 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine and the country’s infrastructure has been devastated.

     

The US is sending M-I battle tanks to Ukraine, in a major escalation of the war. (Photo, Wikimedia Commons)

  Right from the beginning the Biden administration has turned its back on tentative peace deals that could have settled the conflict and opted instead to provide an unending stream of military aid to the Eastern European country.

  Biden’s flip-flop on delivering tanks to Ukraine recalls the lying by another president in the lead-up to the Vietnam War. Lyndon Johnson had pledged during his 1964 campaign for president against the hawkish GOP candidate Barry Goldwater that he would never send American soldiers to Southeast Asia, where the US was supporting South Vietnam in its efforts to beat back a communist insurgency. America had limited its involvement to providing military advisors and equipment.

But within eight months of his victory in the ‘64 election, Johnson  went back on his word and dispatched 40,000 troops to Vietnam, and the United States became fully involved in a land war in Asia.

   After that, the US spent eight years trying to win in Vietnam with a seemingly unending series of troop deployments (the US troop total rose to over 500,000) and relentless bombing campaigns against North Vietnam and targets in South Vietnam. The US effort ultimately failed and America had to pull out of Vietnam in defeat.

  Some 54,000 Americans and 3 million Indochinese lost their lives during that war. The Vietnamese countryside was left poisoned by environmental toxins used by the US to defoliate the jungle during combat operations.

 Where is the Ukraine War headed? Nowhere good, in my view --- unless political leaders, the media and yes, the peace movement, wake up from their comatose state, realize the severity of the situation and demand an end to the fighting.

   Fortunately, there is some ray of hope that the peace movement may be finally expanding to stop the war. A rally called “Rage Against the War Machine” will take place February 19^th in Washington DC. What is noteworthy here is that several prominent activists associated with the left and people tied to the libertarian movement on the right are joining forces in the protest.

 Anti-war activists and left-leaning figures such as Jill Stein, Max Blumenthal, David Swanson, Chris Hedges and Ann Wright will be speaking out against the war along with libertarians like Ron Paul.

  The event is being sponsored by the Libertarian Party and the People’s Party. A statement by the People’s Party said “While the People’s Party and the Libertarian Party do not agree on a number of substantial issues, we agree that there is no “Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” in a world devastated by nuclear war. We agree that US resources should be used to improve the lives of Americans, not to prolong wars around the world that profit the war industry. We agree that diplomacy has not been given a chance in Ukraine and that the senseless deaths and destruction could have been avoided and needs to be stopped.”

  The statement added, “To make a difference in this country, we need to be able to come together with a diversity of voices and opinions.”

  Some people on the left may quibble with the idea of joining forces with libertarians on the right but this is no time to insist on ideological purity. This is a time when people of diverse views but who share a common desire for peace have to come together to stop the madness.

 

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World Disinformation Forum

 By Reginald Johnson

   I checked out a few bits of the "World Economic Forum" meeting in Davos, Switzerland and it is distressing. The WEF is supposedly this elite group that promotes all these advanced ideas that will save the world. Billionaires are in attendance so you can only imagine what those "advanced" ideas would be.

 In the morning on Euro News, I heard the Finnish President, I can't remember her name, say repeatedly how important it was to give Ukraine all the weapons it needs to win the war with Russia. Crucial for Europe, she said, without saying why. No mention of the need for negotiating a peace or of possible nuclear dangers if the war keeps going.

 Then later in the day, I saw former CNN pundit Brian Stelter interviewing Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times, in a discussion about controlling "disinformation." As they used to say back in the '60s, can you dig it? Here was Stelter, who promoted the totally wrong Trump-Russia collusion claims a few years ago talking with the head of the Times, which also backed the same bogus claims, over and over, in addition to censoring the explosive Hunter Biden laptop story prior to the 2020 election, blacking out the FBI's strongarming of social media in violation of the First Amendment and running one-sided stories about the Ukraine War.

Disinformation is right --- perpetrators are on full display in Davos. So much for the WEF.

 

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr: we must work for peace

 

  By Reginald Johnson

 

   

  The immortal words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were heard in New Haven City Hall Friday as people took part in a community reading of King’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech given in 1967.

 About 15 people read excerpts of the speech, in which the civil rights leader came out and condemned the Vietnam War and demanded that American leaders take steps to end the brutal conflict.

 “The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war,” he said.

 King also urged that America stop spending so much money on the military and invest more money at home to eliminate poverty, racism and improve peoples’ lives.

 “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death,” he said.

  King, who was attacked bitterly for his criticism of the war and America’s militaristic policy overseas, said it was crucial for people to take a stand, work for peace and turn away from violence.

  Giving his address before an audience at the Riverside Church in New York City, King said, “We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late…We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation.”

Community residents take part in a reading of Dr. Martin Luther King's "Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence" speech in New Haven City Hall. (Photo by Reginald Johnson)

 The community reading of King’s speech, the full title of which is “Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break Silence,” takes place every year in New Haven and is sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council. It coincides with the Martin Luther King’s birthday, which is Monday.

 Peace council members said the reading took on extra significance this year, as the United States is now heavily involved in another overseas conflict – the Ukraine War. Although there are no American boots on the ground --- yet --- the US and NATO countries have delivered more than $120 billion of lethal aid to Ukraine, to fight its war with Russia.

  The war began after Russia invaded Ukraine last February. US and Ukrainian leaders called the invasion “aggression” and totally unjustified. But Russian President Vladimir Putin said his nation acted only after a series of provocations by the West, including violations of the Minsk peace agreement covering eastern Ukraine, expansion of NATO to include countries close to Russia and a build-up of Ukrainian forces close to the Russian border.

  The war has taken 200,000 casualties so far and shows no sign of letting up. A number of observers have expressed the concern that the war could escalate into a nuclear conflict, which would be catastrophic.

 Peace groups are holding protests around the country this month demanding that the US stop fueling the war and take steps to bring about a ceasefire and ultimately a peace settlement. The Biden administration has so far refused to call for negotiations and in fact has scuttled tentative peace deals since the war began.

  Henry Lowendorf, the president of the Greater New Haven Peace Council said Dr. King’s Riverside Church speech still has so much relevance today. His call for an end to a brutal overseas conflict, stopping US militaristic policies in general and reducing military spending to free up money for domestic needs, all have application today.

 

  

   

Public reading of King's "Beyond Vietnam" speech

   

   By Reginald Johnson

 

   The Greater New Haven Peace Council will sponsor a community reading of the Rev. Martin Luther King’s famed “Beyond Vietnam" speech on Friday Jan. 13 at New Haven City Hall.

 King’s address on April, 4, 1967 at the Riverside Church in New York City was the moment when the civil rights leader decided to come out against the Vietnam War and condemn America’s militaristic policies abroad.

  “I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube,” King said.

  “So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.”

   King also said that “a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

   The community reading of King’s address comes just weeks after Congress and President Biden approved a record $858 billion for the military budget. Defense spending takes up well over half of the total federal discretionary budget.

 The New Haven event also takes place as the deadly and highly costly Ukraine-Russia war continues. There have been more than 200,000 casualties in that conflict which shows no signs of letting up. The United States has given more than $100 billion in military aid to Ukraine.

  Many observers have expressed the concern that the longer the war drags on without a diplomatic settlement, the chances grow that tactical nuclear weapons might be used on the battlefield by either Ukraine or Russia. Such an event could then escalate to a nuclear war between the United States and Russia.

  Rev. King’s opposition to the Vietnam War angered some people who thought that the civil rights leader had overstepped his bounds by speaking out about foreign affairs. King was assassinated in Memphis exactly one year to the day after his speech at the Riverside Church.

(The community reading of “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence” will take place at 12 noon on the second floor of New Haven City Hall at 165 Church Street.  More information can be obtained by contacting the peace council at grnhpeacecouncil@gmail.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  King said when he had counseled poor black youth in the cities against resorting to violence to achieve political change . he had been challenged.

  “”But they ask --- and rightly so