MORE NONSENSE FROM YEAGLEYfrom the Bad Eagle journal (
http://www.badeagle.org)
David A. Yeagley appears twice in the propaganda video,
Historiens Fångar ("prisoners of the past"), on Danish TV1* (2-4-08), with distortions and falsehoods videotaped in his mother’s old living room.
The video points out that indigenous people are suffering, but not from the net results of continuing racism and discrimination,
oh no. The video falsely heaps that undeserved suffering on the indigenous people themselves and their leaders; it is all their own fault according to the video. It is a classic case of indigenous holocaust denial, denial of the continued harm that non-Indian discrimination causes, and another instance of a blatant
blame-the-victim rationale.
The video confuses indigenous culture as a past reality that is no longer present today, versus the modern material life of non-Indians. On the one hand, the video champions the contemporary
material life of “modern convenience,??? of which indigenous people
are culturally accepting, of course, because indigenous people also
are modern people. But the video falsely equates ‘material life’ with the requisite abandonment of modern indigenous culture in order for indigenous people to make use of those modern conveniences.
The video uses a
straw man argument, by first relegating modern indigenous culture
into the past, and then shooting down that hypothesis because indigenous people are
not living in the past anymore. It’s a false argument to say indigenous people are culturally responsible for their own impoverishment, as — even today — indigenous people are still denied equal access to the same resources and opportunities readily available to non-indigenous people.
In other words, the video compares apples and oranges, in a double-standard, by falsely placing traditional indigenous life in the past and then denying the value of indigenous culture in the present day, completely forgetting that indigenous cultures are
also a present-day reality.
Today’s indigenous people remain poor due to contemporary racism and predatory poverty, and it is to their credit that indigenous people have been able to maintain their cultural roots while facing the American holocaust, and ongoing oppression that still occurs from the aggressive colonizing powers.
The main reason indigenous people suffer today, of course, is from continued discrimination by non-Indians, massive abuse of indigenous rights and treaties, endemic theft of land and resources by the United States of America, and population control through imposed poverty.
Historiens Fångar is a propaganda video that uses a straw man argument against contemporary indigenous people, and David Yeagley has happily contributed his own racist and misogynist voice to aid the film’s mischaracterizations and falsehoods.
There should be no remaining doubt why the Comanche people shun David Yeagley, not after his latest “Comanche??? impersonation in this latest attack of holocaust-denial propaganda. The script of Yeagley’s two appearances in the propaganda video, with screen shots, is below (to see more screen shots, see original link to this article). Try not to puke.
_________________________________
YEAGLEY’S FIRST APPEARANCEKEITH WINDSCHUTTLE
“Traditional Aboriginal culture
is gone. It’s a museum piece.
Most people don’t want to live
in a museum.???
[images of an Indian, chains,
and caged monkey behind bars]
NARRATOR
“Across the globe, we admire
indigenous peoples and their
pasts. But how do they and
their children live, once the
coach loads of tourist leave
their reservations????
DAVID YEAGLEY
“When the warrior was finally
defeated, he became the
reservation Indian??? (leaning
forehead toward camera for
added emphasis).
“Th, the loser. The alcoholic.
The depressed, keep-away-from-me,
leave-me-alone??? (swipes hand in
air for added emphasis).
[video of someone getting arrested]
NARRATOR
“In reality have the young
decedents of the proud warriors
and hunters of Greenland,
Australia and the U.S., been
trapped in all this by their
very own leaders????
[nebulous, unidentified,
intended-to-scare image]
WOMAN
“It’s quite obvious we’ve
marched a lot of years, and
nothing’s changed. So there’s
got to be another approach.???
[children playing in muddy water]
NARRATOR
“Does what-once-was really
hold the answers to their
deprivation????
“Or have the leaders trapped
their people and hobbled them
to the past????
[Title Screen: “Historiens
Fångar,??? with feathered
mask image intended to
mischaracterize Indians as
“primitive’]
_________________________________
YEAGLEY’S SECOND APPEARANCE[video of police
detaining someone]
NARRATOR
“As the police take the little
girl away, we ask if there’s a
magic wand that could save the
Indian peoples. Would loads of
money prevent this human and
social deprivation at a stroke????
[images of slave chains, and the
stereotyped ‘feathered warrior’
Indian on horseback]
NARRATOR
“This is the way the proud Indians
were to be saved. It would bring
welfare to the poorest minority in
the country, the American Indians.???
[various generic 'B-roll' video
images from inside a casino]
DAVID YEAGLEY
“They have enriched a few. A few
families. Generally speaking, they
have not enriched Indian people
across the country.???_________________________________
One of the more disgusting features of this propaganda film, is race-baiting one indigenous people against the others. None of the dark-skinned indigenous peoples were presented anywhere in this film as anything other than populations of primitive “problem??? people around the world.
However, when the video starts to posit hope for indigenous people, such as building colleges, creating chances for self-determination, employment and education opportunities, the producers sought out a white-skinned, blonde-haired young woman, Marit Anne Sara, from the Sami reindeer-herder tribe in northern Norway. The narrator described the Sami people as, literally, “the shining example??? for the rest of the world’s indigenous peoples, without mentioning any other indigenous college whatsoever from anywhere else on the planet.
So, rather than use footage they shot while at the Comanche Nation College in Lawton, Oklahoma, while they were there — to show
an exemplary modern educational system by indigenous people — the propaganda producers utilized the light-complexioned Sami people as their uplifting example of indigenous empowerment, ignoring over 550 tribes in the mainland U.S. who also achieve professional success beyond the university and postdoctorate level. It was a disgusting thing to witness, the video actively trying to pit one indigenous people against all the other indigenous peoples; the basic plot of the entire propaganda video is
one giant act of cinematic race-baiting.
For more of the back-story on the video's so-called "historian" and other white supremacist commentators used in this propaganda video, be sure to read the latest article over at
http://www.DavidYeagley.org:
Yeagley With Other White Supremacists in Racist Film Prisoners of the Past, as well. It is excellent.
Of course it must be pointed out, regarding Yeagley’s two appearances (above), that Indian “leaders??? are actually Indians too, chosen by the tribes themselves — born citizens of indigenous communities with whom they serve — and therefore a democratic part of the vital tribal communities from which they come. The idea of indigenous ‘leaders’ cannot to be twisted into some foreign
monarchy ideology of enslaving the indigenous masses.
The Indian people are the ones who decide who and what they are by inherent sovereign initiative, not by decree of the United States of America. Yeagley simply plays along with the slipshod propaganda, as an unquestioning and unreasoning enabler. Yeagley’s lack of honest intellectual curiosity is obviously one of the reasons he was fired from a briefly-held instructor position, and why the Comanche Nation College has never taken seriously his application to teach inside the Comanche community.
It should be noted, too, that many tribal businesses — including casinos — greatly enrich not only the casino-owning tribes, but through tribe-to-tribe agreements, the other non-casino tribes as well. In Minnesota, in fact, there are revenue-sharing agreements in place between casino-tribes and non-casino tribes, and even a sharing agreement with the State of Minnesota.
The indigenous people recognize the need to share, and to lift all people up together. It’s this indigenous foundation of
sharing and reciprocity, that permeates all Indian cultures, from the potlatch ceremonies of the northwest, to the stick ball and stomp dance gatherings of the southeast. From an indigenous point-of-view, we are all-in-this-together, in other words, a concept that eludes David Yeagley’s individualistic, and rather selfish, ideology.
On a more direct note, Yeagley claims citizenship in the Comanche Nation, who themselves own and manage at least three casino businesses:
Comanche Nation Casino
402 Southeast Interstate Drive
Lawton, Oklahoma 73501
Comanche Nation Star Casino
Route 3 Post Office Box 82A
Walters, Oklahoma 73572
Comanche Spur Casino
9047 US Hwy 62
Elgin, Oklahoma 73538-2922
More importantly, it is confirmed from the tribal office, that Yeagley receives the same ‘per capita’ checks that all other tribal enrollees receive, an income generated directly from the Comanche casino profits. Yet, instead of giving back the tribal “handout??? in protest, Yeagley keeps it for himself — every single time!
How do you say:
"I'm living off indigenous casino money, and could not hold onto a real paying job my entire life," in Danish or Comanche?
So, for all his backwards propaganda, enabling ideologies, misogyny blogging, self-loathing rants, and pseudo-intellectualism laced with denial, we can simply regard “David A. Yeagley??? as nothing more than a common hypocrite after all.
