Are we naive, or just afraid to go outside of the box?

In recent weeks, since I have not had to study, a friend of mine gave me a book entitled, "Where White Men Fear to Tread". It is the autobiography of Russell Means. What a very interesting read. First of all, we as Americans in our everyday lives, have no idea what goes on in other parts of the country unless the media prints or broadcasts something. So, we are therefore captives of the media in that they only print or broadcast what they want us to know. We do not know the other side of the story. That is disturbing. There are always 2 sides to every story. We get the side of the story that the media, and yes, the government, wants us to hear or see. So, when people like Russell Means publishes the other side of the story, we beat ourselves up, (or not), for being so naive and not thinking that there was more to the story. In June of 1999, 2 Lakota men, Wilson Black Elk and Ronald Hard Heart, were beaten and shot in the back of the head. The media ran up to Pine Ridge to get more information about the 2 men, and discovered that in Whiteclay, Nebraska, the population is 22, with 4 liquor stores, and the sales of 4 million cans of beer a year. I first saw the story in The Grand Island Independent. Thank God I could read between the lines of this "fine piece of journalism", and see that what the story was really about was 2 American Indian Lakota who were killed and no one cared who did it. I then wrote a Letter to the Editor of the Grand Island Independent calling them on the fact that what it was really about was racism. They rebutted by saying that the 4 million cans of beer were more important. Today, when I search the Independent's website archives, those articles are nowhere to be found. I would like to think that a news paper just a few miles down the road from me would not participate in a cover up. But, hey, they rebutted with 4 million cans of beer over human lives, so why am I surprised? Many, many cover ups have occurred over the years with American Indians since the American government has been organized. Our founding fathers were no angels. The faces on the sacred hill in the Black Hills are the very faces that made treaties, and broke them. The inexcusable treatment of American Indians is not new. It started when Columbus set foot here. It has continued to present day. And if you think it is not still going on then you are a prisoner in your own box. I have put my interest for American Indians on the back burner of my life in the last 6 years due to finding out who Jacy really is, my nephew, and my continuing education. But thanks to my good friend Nancy, I have moved from the back burner to the front. I hope that it can continue in that I am taking an American History class this fall. It will be interesting to know what the text book is leaving out. I am reading another book that has called out many cover ups. It is entitled, The Unquiet Grave by Steve Hendricks. Stay tuned...I will be commenting on this book also. In the meantime, Mitaku Oyasin, which means "all my Relatives". In the Great Spirits name, Jacy