“Whereas”
The title of the volume derives from a word common in the legalese of contractual composition. In such legal documents, “whereas” is essentially a synonym for concepts like “because something happened” or “in consideration of” certain tangential facts. “Whereas” may well be the single most oft-occurring word in the text (aside from article and be-verbs, of course) and its predominance in the text is a constant symbolic reminder of how legal jargon is either used for the purpose of deception or is eventually ignored completely without any repercussions, especially in relation to treaties between the U.S. and Native American tribes.
Congressional Resolution of Apology to Native Americans
This resolution was signed into law by Pres. Barack Obama in December 2009. It is another symbol of how utterly meaningless official legal actions by the U.S. government has been to native tribes. Although well-intentioned, the official governmental apology to was not made public and no native leaders were even invited to the ceremony at which Pres. Obama signed it into law.
2010 Defense Appropriations Act
The resolution of apology to Native Americans was only passed as a result of inclusion in a broad-based defense appropriations bill. That an apology to the surviving members of Native American tribes for genocidal history in which so many of their ancestor were slaughtered by soldiers in the United State Cavalry became one tiny and utterly inappropriate addition to a bill of appropriations for the modern United States military is the literally the zenith of ironic symbolism possible.
Dakota 38/Emancipation Proclamation
However, another almost fantastical work of ironic symbolism can be found in the duality of the Dakota 38 mass execution taking place in the same week the Pres. Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Further irony is added to the hanging of 38 Native Americans who were hanged for rebelling against what might well be termed the same sort of colonial breach of their human rights that the Union was fighting the Confederacy over regarding the issue of enslavement of Africans. And still further irony is added by the date that that this mass execution took place: the day after Christmas. The whole sorry incident of the Dakota 38, especially relative to taking place the same week that Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, transforms the two separate events into two sides of a dual symbol of American hypocrisy.
Fourteen-Year-Old-Girl Comment
The author reprints a comment left by a fourteen-year-old girl in response to an article on the New York Times website. In the comment, the young girl mentions that she recently visited a Native American reservation and was appalled by the conditions. She goes to ask for apology from the U.S. government as well as reparations without realizing and apology had already been given in conjunction with budget sequestration. The young girl’s ignorance of not just conditions which have existed on reservations for more than a century, but also of the recent official public apology serves to make her a symbol for all the Americans who have lived in complete ignorance of the relationship between Native Americans and their own government.
