Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

November 19, 2011

American Indian Genocide Museum: Confederate flag, slavery and genocide

Insensitivity abounds
By Steve Melendez
President, American Indian Genocide Museum, Houston
Comment to Houston Chronicle
Regarding "Museum's founder didn't like being buffaloed" (Page B1, Sunday), some people believe that the Confederate flag is just a symbol of their Southern heritage and that there is nothing wrong with being proud of it. http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Hart-Museum-s-founder-didn-t-like-being-buffaloed-2266103.php
What they don't realize is that other people see the Confederate flag as a symbol of the enslavement of their ancestors.
By the same token, some people see the U.S. Cavalry uniform as forever linked to the genocide and ethnic cleansing of their ancestors.
Paul Matthews with his Buffalo Soldiers Museum and Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, with his Confederate flag, are both guilty of being insensitive and ignorant to the reality of history.
- Steve Melendez, Pyramid Lake Paiute
President, American Indian Genocide Museum, Houston
Website: http://www.aigenom.com
Comment appears in:
In the Houston Chronicle paper today. 11/17/2011
http://www.chron.com/opinion/letters/article/Letters-Test-animals-India-Civil-War-2273155.php

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