Back in August 2018 I wrote about more well-rounded, more objective, and more even-handed American history of the late 19th-century that often is overlooked, intentionally or not, by our modern media, 2-5 minute fast-paced journalism, and in our educational curriculums; curriculums from middle school up to private university standards. What history is that you ask?
It is the shared history, or lack of, our nation’s infancy, growth and expansion by Manifest Destiny and the Dawes Act of 1887, to name just two. It all but ignores a very human side of the cultures and Native American tribes which had already inhabited all of North America, including within the modern borders of the USA, for well over 15- to about 30-millennia before the white man of Europe arrived. Should this portion of authentic American history be stamped in glory and hubris or by some degrees shame and genocide? I know exactly what I label that time in American history. What, why, and how do you or will you label it?
I revisited my blog-post Authentic American History because of Netflix’s new release this past week entitled “Sitting Bull.” As I stated in the August 2018 post:
“I am a big enthusiast of history and personal stories of the past from various perspectives. Why you ask? Because they allow ME to choose where more of the truth and reality of events can be deciphered rather than hearing or reading only one version of those stories and events.”
Normally, I do not care for the History Channel’s overly hyped-up, overly dramatic cinema of actual historical events as they played out. The Channel and its parent corporation, A+E Global Media often go overboard and willingly admit that in order to capture younger audiences—with attention spans of maybe 10-minutes—executives, producers, directors, and actors must hype-up key points of the plot and narrative, sometimes sacrificing the context of historical events. The top corporate executives are fine with “some” cinematic license, or slack-on-facts, to juice-up, fancy-up, grab the younger modern audiences short attention with modern Euro-American music and graphic, bloody battle scenes and not let them rest. Whether it is all pristine, historical, verified facts doesn’t matter so much.
But this particular two-part series had Leonardo DiCaprio as executive director, an A+E Global choice that I would give a long, fair chance and consideration. I was pleasantly surprised.
On top of this fine docu-drama were acclaimed scholars of the American West Era such as Dr. Elizabeth Rule, PhD from Brown and Yale Universities, and none other than Guy Jones whose great-great-grandfather, Chief Gall, fought with Sitting Bull at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Guy Jones shared all of his vast knowledge about Chief Gall, and the Hunkpapa band of Lakota Indians who stood up to and fought against aggressive U.S. westward expansion and the U.S. Army’s atrocities and war-crimes against his ancestors and people.
The entire cast of Sitting Bull is packed with great contributing historians as well, such as Christy S. Coleman, MA – Hampton University, Dr. Douglas Brinkley, PhD – Georgetown University, and Dr. Edward T. O’Donnell, PhD – Columbia University, all providing perspectives surrounding Sitting Bull and the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota tribes. Also featured in the two-part series was Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, and others that played significant roles in the fate of the Sioux nations. I recommend watching this docu-drama series if for no other reason than it tells the true history of these chiefs and peoples of the Great Plains from their perspective and personal, firsthand accounts passed down from generation to generation. They still “live” today along with their traditional customs and beliefs.
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However, there was another recognition I gained from watching this excellent docudrama series. It was disturbing to me because the series showed how much appalling history we (white) Americans are repeating or allowing to repeat since the 1850’s and into the 21st-century today. What is it? Why haven’t we learned once and for all the worst times of human history, the clear behaviors of war-crimes, genocide, and atrocities on non-combatant civilians, even on children?
I hope you will watch the series Sitting Bull because in between the lines I couldn’t help but recognize the similarities, in some cases the identical behaviors, of crimes against humanity committed against the Native Americans. More poignantly I realized how indistinguishable our American white ancestors treated (removed, exterminated) those people they labelled as “savages” and “blood-thirsty barbarians” under the guise of “Divine Ordination” and those behaviors and treatment by the Nazis and SS under the Third Reich.
And now today, inside our own national borders and abroad, what is happening in Gaza, Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran, or what happened in the Caribbean Sea and Venezuela, or how I.C.E. and our current DHS is treating normal U.S. citizens as well as well-behaved legal immigrants in detention and in their court hearings! Are we going backwards toward the Wannsee Conference and A Final Solution, so to speak, of atrocities against humanity all the way back to Sitting Bull, the Sioux nations, and all other Native Americans wiped out? Are we back to that point or nearing it? …
So Americans… it must be asked, have we really evolved for the better after only 150-years and Sitting Bull? If you never learn the painful lessons of deep regret done in history, then how will you avoid repeating them in the future? Have we really progressed past those previous times and eras of sheer brutality, massacres, genocide, and depravation of societal values for other “different” peoples and cultures? I know what my answer is and has been for some time. What is your answer?
The Professor’s Convatorium © 2025 by Professor Taboo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
The Professor's Convatorium 