#native genocide

Palestine will be free.

The video linked has far more extensive information. Please spread this around.

Reflecting on binary oppositions in The Patriot, I'm surprised (and a little embarrassed) that I haven't discussed one of the more obvious ones: foreigner/native. Oh, this is a thorny one! For the sake of what I'm hoping and praying will be brevity, for once, I'm going to focus on how this distinction is portrayed through characters' accents. It turns out that accent choices do a lot of heavy lifting in this film to conceal historical truths, particularly those that paint South Carolina Patriots in an unflattering light.

The first accent to cover is the most often heard foreign one, and it is, almost, one accent. Although the 18th century British Army was full of men who joined to escape a life of poverty or at least found it be a better option for supporting their families than the professions available at home, we never hear them. There are no Cockney redcoats in this film. The accent we do hear often--from Cornwallis, O'Hara and Tavington--belongs to the landed gentry. The only British character who does not share it is the wounded private Tavington interviews after Martin's massacre in the woods, who is also the only speaking British soldier below the rank of captain. By comparison, the Americans have different accents and are represented by people of different classes, upholding a distinction between the oppressed, poor native-born population and an oppressive, wealthy foreign one that has little basis in historical reality.

While the difference in class and accent for Americans is more accurate, the accents themselves are not. The one belonging to Martin and his children, Charlotte Selton, the Howards, and James Wilkins is recognizably American but not distinctly Southern. More likely, Colonists would have had accents reminiscent of their, or their parents', country of origin (something AMC's Turn: Washington's Spies captures far more effectively than The Patriot). The development of distinct, regional accents takes generations. Interestingly, the more rustic characters, the ones we first meet when Martin and Villeneuve recruit at the rowdy tavern, do have clear, modern Southern accents. I'll return to this later, but for now I wonder why there has been time for some South Carolinians to develop a thick backwoods Southern accent but not for others to develop the kind of genteel Southern drawl spoken by such specimens as the Epps in Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave. In this respect, Charlotte and Tavington are near perfect opposites. He has lost the land and wealth that were his birthright but kept his accent; she lacks the accent but has the plantation full of inherited slaves.

It also bears mentioning that all the Black characters, enslaved and free, have American accents even though the transatlantic slave trade was still in full force and Charleston harbor was the busiest slave port in the colonies. Occam and Martin's workers could just as easily have had African accents, but perhaps that would too readily remind the audience that they did not simply co-exist with White South Carolinians but had, or been born to parents who had, been kidnapped from another continent and brought to the colony against their will.

Another accent The Patriot wholly silences is, of course, Cherokee. Indeed, no Cherokee person speaks in the film at all even though fighting them is a significant part of Martin and other characters' backstories. Part of the reason characters like Rollins and Billings do have recognizably Southern accents is likely deference to the stereotype that Southerners are more "rustic" than Americans from other regions, but there is something even darker at play. Since regional accents take so long to develop, that the characters Martin fought the Cherokees alongside have one indicates that their families have also inhabited this land for a very long time. The narrative presents them as South Carolina natives at the expense of the actual Native people they forced to give up land they'd inhabited for centuries even as they rebelled against oppression at the hands of British "foreigners."

So we know about the 215 at a Canadian Residential School

Then another 104 found

Now we're adding 750

There were reports of a number "500" going around, but the count never reached to 500. That 500 number was the number of students that attended one of the schools.

And no one is keeping track. It was a pain in the ass to find that 104 article again because all of the articles talking about the 750 only references the 215.

Plus no one is reporting on this. NY Times is the only credible source I can find that even reported on the 750 new bodies.

Please tag me or send an ask/ submission if you find any new articles. Since apparently EVERYONE forgot about the 104, it's up to me to keep track of how many bodies are found.

1069 and counting.

Also, when is America going to admit their part in this and start searching their schools?

In order to answer this question I must include some background

Many “two spirit” people, (also known as Winkte in the Lakota), a term that has been used for gay and trans Natives for hundreds of years but was officially adopted in 1990 at an Indigenous lesbian and gay international gathering, unfortunately were mostly never recorded, as in the words of George Catlin, a painter and traveler in the 1700s-1800s, that the Two Spirit tradition among Native Americans “Must be extinguished before it can be more fully recorded.”

This prejudice from the settlers and “missionaries” resulted in most record and oral tellings of this tradition being destroyed or lost, however a few remain. By the early 1900s, Most, if not all tribes had been influenced by European prejudices. That is, until movements began again in the 1990s. 

One infamous person perpetrating this, of course, was Christopher Columbus, as when he, and I quote, “encountered the Two Spirit people, he and his crew threw them into pits with their war dogs and were torn limb from limb. The inhuman treatment Christians offered was only the beginning of the Native American holocaust.” or in other terms, genocide. 

As for historically famous two-spirit couples, I cannot find any that were recorded, or that I know of, however there are a few famous Two-Spirited people, two of which I will list here. (will make a future post listing more.)

First, was We'wha, a Zuni  lhamana, a traditional Zuni gender role, now described as mixed-gender or Two-Spirit. She was dubbed as a “princess” by media in the late 1800s, and mingled with politicians and worked with anthropologists and charity. It was considered a “scandal” when she was “found out” to be a “man” as the media said, and made an uproar within D.C at the time. She was said to be “one of the tallest and, according to Stevenson, strongest members of her tribe.“ A true icon. 

Second, was Osh-Tisch, a Crow badé. Badé being “a male-bodied person in a Crow community who lives in the social role of woman in that culture.” Osch-Tisch lived in the late 1800s as well, fighting in the “1876 Battle of the Rosebud, as recounted by Pretty Shield.”, a famous native medicine woman. As for what they went through, I quote, “The elders also told the story of former B.I.A. agents who tried to repeatedly force him [Osh-Tisch] to wear men’s clothing, but the other Indians protested against this, saying it was against his nature. Joe Medicine Crow told Williams: “One agent in the late 1890’s…tried to interfere with Osh-Tisch, who was the most respected Badé. The agent incarcerated the Badés, cut off their hair, made them wear men’s clothing. He forced them to do manual labor, planting these trees that you see here on the B.I.A. grounds. The people were so upset with this that Chief Pretty Eagle came into Crow agency and told the agent to leave the reservation. It was a tragedy, trying to change them.”

I am aware these are trans historic icons, to put in laymans terms, (as there is more of a spiritual and ritualistic meaning to two-spirits than just LGBT, traditionally) but as for gay historic icons, there are none I can find. 

More modern-day icons, however, there is only one I know of and can find information about, one who a 2009 movie/documentary Two Spirits was centered around. Fred Martinez, a Navajo trans girl, who was murdered at the age of 16 for being so, by a man “who bragged to his friends that he ‘bug-smashed a fag’.  ”  This man was subsequently arrested of course, but still will not erase the tragedy he caused. 

So, in answering your question, no, there are no famous gay native couples I can find or know of, but there is quite a lot of history on the subject of LGBT natives from all tribes, and is definitely worth looking into and researching. If any of you know of any, feel free to let me know, but for now this is the best answer I can give!