It appears the United States has itself in quite a
kerfuffle with racist Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy. Seems Bundy, who by the way believes
Negroes should never have been emancipated, has ignored his responsibility to
pay grazing fees on federal land where his cattle have roamed for more than 20
years.
We Mashpee Wampanoag can relate to this story having set
precedent in 1833 and perhaps can provide some guidance to the government. You
see the tribe was in possession of hundreds of acres of well-stocked woodlands
that were pretty attractive to our neighbors in Cotuit. Those white neighbors cut
a deal with a white minister to harvest Mashpee trees for fuel over the
objections of the tribe which got nothing out of the deal.
The tribe made several polite requests to the Cotuit
interlopers, namely Will and Joe Sampson, to get out of Mashpee and go cut
their own trees but the brothers were persistent and ignored the ultimatum to
cease and desist as of July 1, 1833. On that day a group of Wampanoag men
confronted the Sampsons, tipped their carts of timber over and ran them out of
town.
So here is what I recommend the government do, engage in a
bit of sophomoric cow tipping. That will teach him right?
But no, hold your horses. True to form far to the rightteabaggers have jumped on Bundy’s flag waving bandwagon upholding his right to
do what ever the hell he wants on federal land.
Oh, did I mention we had that problem here in Mashpee back in
1833?
Those fine upstanding citizens of Cotuit, the Sampson
brothers, and Reverend Phineas Fish, paid by Harvard University to minister the
gospel to the Indians all assumed they had the right to overrule the tribe’s
wishes because the Plantation of Mashpee was essentially federal land.
Ironically Bundy also argues his constitutional right to
federal land even while the flag waving bigoted moron also proclaims the US
government does not exist.
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| Especially when it really is hate speech. |
And while defending his right to be lawless on land he
claims as his personal manifest destiny, Bundy has reintroduced the concept of
slavery as a modern day solution to the social ills that apparently only plague
“negroes.”
Really?! When all else fails, apply the rule of racism and
oppression to somehow elevate your integrity? What an interesting albeit
revealing non sequitur that has many of Bundy’s conservative confederates now
running for the hills.
(Cant you just see Senator Dean Heller’s press secretary
now, pointing fingers and asking who didn’t check Bundy’s background for
obvious Klan connections or possible kinship to Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson?)
But as they scramble to deflect any association with this
imbecile, they hold tight to the ideal that somehow patriotism is linked to a
God given right to take land by adverse possession. A concept characterized in
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot’s statement about Bundy’s stand.
"I am deeply
concerned about the notion that the Bureau of Land Management believes the
federal government has the authority to swoop in and take land that has been
owned and cultivated by Texas landowners for generations,"
Hmmm, did he really
suggest that the government has no right to take land owned and cultivated by indigenous
landowners? What a novel interpretation of the law.
Oh, by the way, the Indians involved in the 1833 revolt were
thrown in jail. Cow tipping might not be a good idea.
nice post
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