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Friday, October 06, 2006
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Regarding the yellow ribbons - from the transcript:
AMY GOODMAN: Glenn Morris, we only have two more minutes, but when you came into the studio here today at Rocky Mountain PBS, you brought a large photograph of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld speaking in Fort Carson several years ago. Why?
GLENN MORRIS: To us, that represents this continuing ideology, this hegemony that Chomsky talks about. And it is confirmation that Rumsfeld and Cheney and the Rumsfeld-Cheney doctrine around the world is an expression that began -- an expression of policy that began with Columbus, continued through the entire Indian war period of the United States and continues today. If you look at this picture, you'll see that Rumsfeld is giving a speech, sending off U.S. soldiers from Fort Carson, which is itself, a semiotic -- you know, this symbolism of colonialism. Kit Carson was not a hero to native people. Kit Carson was an Indian killer. He caused the relocation of Diné people to Bosque Redondo. He engaged in the Sacramento River Massacre in the 1840s. So Kit Carson was not a heroic figure either.
AMY GOODMAN: How was Kit Carson connected to Fort Carson?
GLENN MORRIS: It's named after Kit Carson. Fort Carson is named after Kit Carson. So Rumsfeld is giving this speech at Fort Carson, about to send off these soldiers immediately behind him to Iraq, but behind those soldiers is the color guard for Fort Carson. And you'll notice that they're in different uniforms. They're in the uniforms of the Indian wars, of the 1870s, ’80s and ’90s. And those soldiers represent the continuity, the soldiers immediately behind Rumsfeld represent the continuity of the Indian wars. That is expressed by the color guard, still dressed in the uniform of Custer, of Sheridan, of Crook, of the other Indian killers of the 19th century.
And if you look at the picture, you'll see that those soldiers have yellow kerchiefs around their neck. So all of these people that have the support the troops magnets on their car that are yellow ribbons? That's the genesis of that, that they even made -- I believe it was 1949 -- John Wayne made a movie with John Ford called She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and the tradition of those yellow ribbons is that the cavalry that would go out to kill Indians, before they left, they would take that yellow kerchief off, tie it in their wife or their girlfriend's hair, and say, "You wear this until I come back safely from killing Indians." So the Indian wars continue even in these little icons. That's hegemony. It's so impervious -- I mean, it's so pervasive in this society that we don't even recognize it.
For more information on the movement to transform the Columbus Day parade in Denver, go to TransformColumbusDay.composted by Carol at 4:11 PM
2 Comments:
Carol:
Photos of the Four Directions March, the Convoy of Conquest and confronation are at this link:
www.firewitchrising.blogspot.com
Thanks for the photos! I was at the 4 directions march 3 years ago, but missed it the last two years, because I was on Vision Quest. This year... well, I'm not going to make excuses.
I am absolutely blown away that at a COLUMBUS DAY PARADE, they had anti-abortion and anti-gay floats/trucks. Yes, it seems to follow the same theme, but I thought that this was supposed to be about Columbus.
Thanks again and thanks for standing for justice.
I know that there will be no vision quest scheduled next October. I want to be at the 4 directions march and the parade - next year will be the 100th anniversary of this celebration of hate in Colorado.
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