Trump-led ethnic cleansing continues toll on Indigenous Americans

Attorneys are gathering even more evidence that the Trump Organization committed crimes against humanity throughout Indian Country not only by slow-walking resources to reservations during a pandemic but by undercounting Indigenous populations during the 2020 Census. Trump even killed the White House Tribal Nations Summit because he loathes Native Americans. 

That "Pocahontas" thing Trump does to Senator Elizabeth Warren doesn't just betray his hatred for women; it's a tell that he detests American Indians no matter how much or how little Native blood a person has. That Republicans continue to prop up his assault on the courts and stoke his criminal race baiting are the most telling aspects of this march toward the abyss. Trump’s erasure of protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments was cruel retribution targeting Indigenous peoples. 

Make no mistake. Starting in New York Donald Trump targeted Indian Country for annihilation. His Tulsa trip and his campaign rally in occupied South Dakota spread disease throughout Native America. It’s called ethnic cleansing even genocide elsewhere but in Trump’s America it’s called MAGA. 

Why? In past years the Trump Organization has used the federal courts to punish tribal nations who built casinos Trump said were competition then deployed COVID-19 as a biological weapon in Indian Country.

“2020 was just a horrific year in terms of excess mortality, and it was disproportionately concentrated among marginalized, racialized, populations,” said Ryan Masters, an associate professor of sociology at University of Colorado, Boulder. For Native American men, he estimated they lost about 4.75 years of life expectancy, “which are numbers you just don't hear of in modern day society.” [Life expectancy drops more in the U.S. than other wealthy nations, especially among Native Americans]

There is a growing movement among Democrats and others to fund Medicare for all but I like the idea of rolling the funding for Obamacare, TRICARE, Medicare, the Indian Health Service and the Veterans Health Administration together then offering Medicaid for all by increasing the estate tax, raising taxes on tobacco and adopting a carbon tax. 

Learn more at NPR. 

Artwork: Angela Babby.

Trump’s congressional testimony in 1993 was a blueprint for how he would twist facts, outright lie and aim at select targets in order to dupe millions of people into giving him money, ignoring the truth, and blindly following his dark and diabolical path. https://t.co/M58VVWIgDe

— Native American Vote (@NatAmericanVote) June 14, 2022

Native American voting rights advocate Tom Rodgers, an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Nation, issued this statement after testimony today in Jan. 6 insurrection hearings revealed Trump made false and damaging claims Native Americans were paid to vote in 2020 (thread):

— Native American Vote (@NatAmericanVote) June 13, 2022