As Long as the Grass Grows · Episode 13 of 15 · 34 min
Was It Genocide? Putting the American Record on Trial
The architects of Indian policy were never charged, because crimes against humanity and genocide did not yet exist in law. The episode runs the record against Nuremberg, the 1948 Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute, element by element, hearing the defense first. It examines Removal, Sand Creek, the Dakota executions, California's killings and the boarding schools, without delivering a verdict.
Who's who
- Raphael Lemkin+2 more episodesJurist who coined the word genocide and campaigned for the 1948 Convention
- Benjamin Madley+1 more episodeHistorian who documented the California killings as genocide
- Deb Haaland+1 more episodeInterior Secretary who launched the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative
- Gavin Newsom+11 more episodesCalifornia governor who apologized in 2019 and used the word genocide
- Joe Biden+4 more episodesPresident who issued the 2024 boarding school apology
- Andrew Jackson+7 more episodesPresident of Removal
- Martin Van Buren+2 more episodesPresident of the Trail of Tears
- John Chivington+1 more episodeColonel who led the Sand Creek massacre
Where it happens
- Sand Creek, Colorado+1 more episode1864 massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho
- Wounded Knee, South Dakota+1 more episode1890 massacre by the 7th Cavalry
- California+30 more episodesNative population fell from perhaps 150,000 to about 30,000, 1846 to 1873
- Mankato, Minnesota+2 more episodesSite of the 1862 Dakota hangings
Timeline
- 1846-1873The California genocide, with as many as 16,000 killed outright by one estimate
- December 9, 1948The Genocide Convention is adopted; the U.S. ratifies it in 1988
- June 18, 2019Newsom apologizes to California Native Americans and calls the history genocide
- July 30, 2024The second boarding school report documents at least 973 child deaths across 417 schools
- October 25, 2024Biden issues a formal federal apology for the boarding schools
Still debated
Scholars debate whether genocide, ethnic cleansing or settler colonialism best describes the record, and the retroactivity objection is a genuine principle. Most deaths came from disease, which is not a crime, and boarding school and California figures are documented minimums or estimates.
← PreviousWhat Native Leaders Said When the Treaties Were BrokenNext →The "Lost Tribe" the Treaties Forgot Entirely
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