Alternative Radio - Episode October 9, 2024

Welcome to the Reservation


Indigenous communities are among the poorest in the U.S. This is one of many persistent symptoms of the colonial relationship imposed by force upon Indigenous peoples. As famed historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz says, “Neither arcane colonial laws nor the historical trauma of genocide simply disappear with time and certainly not when conditions of life and consciousness perpetuate them.” From the earliest days of colonial settlement, a theme of eliminating Indians in the name of expansion and settler opportunity became embedded into the U.S. political system and culture. The violence unleashed on the largely defenseless Indian nations had few parallels in history. Treaties and policies involving Indigenous peoples have consistently been designed to disadvantage them, locking them into suppressed social status and codifying their dependence on the U.S. government.

Recorded at Bowdoin College.


Speaker: Russell Means


Russell Means was a renowned activist for Indian Rights. An Oglala Lakota, he was born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He was a founding member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and its first national director. His autobiography is Where White Men Fear to Tread. He passed away in 2012.


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