A century ago, Zitkála-Šá exposed a litany of atrocities against Native Americans. In 1923, a Dakota-born writer-activist traveled through Oklahoma as a research agent of the Indian Rights Association to investigate abuses against the Choctaw, Creek, and other tribes. What she found and documented was an appalling rampage of fraud, larceny, racial intimidation, and murder. Bearing witness to the atrocities, Zitkála-Šá lent her name and her fury to a 39-page report under the title Oklahoma’s Poor Rich Indians: An Orgy of Graft and Exploitation of the Five Civilized Tribes—Legalized Robbery. This brave exposé, calling for “radical and immediate change,” deserves to be memorialized as a crucial step forward in the Native American struggle. Zitkála-Šá’s report, was compiled in December 1923 and described “a situation that is almost unbelievable in a civilized country”.
Unilever, the parent company of Ben & Jerry’s, has not said if it will return land to Native American tribes after the ice cream brand suggested we commit to doing so on the 4th of July. Unilever has not responded to multiple inquiries about Ben & Jerry’s tweet and whether it will give its land back to Native American tribes. “This 4th of July, it’s high time we recognize that the US exists on stolen Indigenous land and commit to returning it. Learn more and take action now,” the ice cream brand tweeted. The tweet linked to a petition on the Ben & Jerry’s website calling for Mount Rushmore to be returned to the Lakota people.
Those are your headlines at this hour. I’m Colette Keith in the KIPI News center.
