Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto

Never has America lost a war ... But name, if you can, the last peace the United States won. Victory yes, but this country has never made a successful peace because peace requires exchanging ideas, concepts, thoughts, and recognizing the fact that two distinct systems of life can exist together without conflict. Consider how quickly America seems to be facing its allies of one war as new enemies.

Before the white man can relate to others he must forego the pleasure of defining them. The white man must learn to stop viewing history as a plot against himself.

Experts paint us as they would like us to be. Often we paint ourselves as we wish we were or as we might have been.

Because the Negro labored, he was considered a draft animal. Because the Indian occupied large areas of land, he was considered a wild animal.

I strongly doubt that American Christianity has the foresight or flexibility to embark on new paths of action. It has always been torn between being good and being real and generally chosen to be good.

There are a number of white organizations that attempt to help Indian people. Since we would be better off without them I will not mention them, except to comment that they do exist.

But the understanding of the racial question does not ulti­mately involve understanding by either blacks or Indians. It in­volves the white man himself. He must examine his past. He must face the problems he has created within himself and within others. The white man must no longer project his fears and in­ securities onto other groups, races, and countries. Before the white man can relate to others he must forego the pleasure of denying them. The white man must learn to stop viewing history as a plot against himself.

One of the finest things about being an Indian is that people are always interested in you and your "plight". Other groups have difficulties, predicaments, quandaries, problems, or troubles. Traditionally, we Indians have had a "plight".