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["We tried to run, but they
shot us like we were buffalo"]

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I'm here today to show
my photographs of the Lakota.

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Many of you may have heard of the Lakota,

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or at least the larger group of tribes,

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called the Sioux.

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The Lakota are one of many tribes
that were moved off their land

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to prisoner-of-war camps,

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now called reservations.

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The Pine Ridge Reservation,

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the subject of today's slide show,

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is located about 75 miles southeast
of the Black Hills in South Dakota.

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It is sometimes referred to
as Prisoner of War Camp Number 334,

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and it is where the Lakota now live.

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Now, if any of you have ever heard of AIM,

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the American Indian Movement,

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or of Russell Means,

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or Leonard Peltier,

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or of the standoff at Oglala,

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then you know Pine Ridge is ground zero
for Native issues in the US.

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So I've been asked to talk
a little bit today

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about my relationship with the Lakota,

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and that's a very difficult one for me,

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because, if you haven't
noticed from my skin color,

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I'm white,

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and that is a huge barrier
on a Native reservation.

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You'll see a lot of people
in my photographs today.

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I've become very close with them,
and they've welcomed me like family.

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They've called me "brother" and "uncle,"

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and invited me again and again
over five years.

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But on Pine Ridge,

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I will always be what is called "wasichu."

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"Wasichu" is a Lakota word

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that means "non-Indian,"

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but another version of this word

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means "the one who takes
the best meat for himself."

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And that's what I want to focus on --

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the one who takes
the best part of the meat.

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It means "greedy."

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So take a look around
this auditorium today.

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We are at a private school
in the American West,

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sitting in red velvet chairs

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with money in our pockets.

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And if we look at our lives,

44
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we have indeed taken
the best part of the meat.

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So let's look today
at a set of photographs

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of a people who lost

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so that we could gain,

48
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and know that when you see
these people's faces,

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that these are not just
images of the Lakota;

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they stand for all indigenous people.

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On this piece of paper

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is the history the way I learned it
from my Lakota friends and family.

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The following is a time line
of treaties made, treaties broken

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and massacres disguised as battles.

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I'll begin in 1824.

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What is known as
the Bureau of Indian Affairs

57
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was created within the War Department,

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setting an early tone of aggression

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in our dealings with the Native Americans.

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1851:

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The first treaty of Fort Laramie was made,

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clearly marking the boundaries
of the Lakota Nation.

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According to the treaty,
those lands are a sovereign nation.

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If the boundaries
of this treaty had held --

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and there is a legal basis
that they should --

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then this is what the US
would look like today.

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Ten years later.

68
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The Homestead Act,
signed by President Lincoln,

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unleashed a flood of white settlers
into Native lands.

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1863:

71
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An uprising of Santee Sioux in Minnesota

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ends with the hanging of 38 Sioux men,

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the largest mass execution in US history.

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The execution was ordered
by President Lincoln,

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only two days after he signed
the Emancipation Proclamation.

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1866: The beginning
of the Transcontinental Railroad --

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a new era.

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We appropriated land for trails and trains

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to shortcut through the heart
of the Lakota Nation.

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The treaties were out the window.

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In response, three tribes led
by the Lakota chief Red Cloud

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attacked and defeated the US army,

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many times over.

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I want to repeat that part:

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The Lakota defeat the US army.

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1868: The second Fort Laramie Treaty
clearly guarantees

87
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the sovereignty of the Great Sioux Nation

88
00:04:04,583 --> 00:04:07,400
and the Lakotas' ownership
of the sacred Black Hills.

89
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The government also promises
land and hunting rights

90
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in the surrounding states.

91
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We promise that the Powder River country

92
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will henceforth be closed to all whites.

93
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The treaty seemed to be a complete victory

94
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for Red Cloud and the Sioux.

95
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In fact, this is the only war
in American history

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in which the government negotiated a peace

97
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by conceding everything
demanded by the enemy.

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1869: The Transcontinental
Railroad was completed.

99
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It began carrying, among other things,
large numbers of hunters,

100
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who began the wholesale
killing of buffalo,

101
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eliminating a source of food,
clothing and shelter for the Sioux.

102
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1871:

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The Indian Appropriation Act

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makes all Indians
wards of the federal government.

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In addition, the military issued orders

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forbidding western Indians
from leaving reservations.

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All western Indians at that point in time
were now prisoners of war.

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Also in 1871,

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we ended the time of treaty-making.

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The problem with treaties is they allow
tribes to exist as sovereign nations,

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and we can't have that.

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We had plans.

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1874:

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General George Custer announced
the discovery of gold in Lakota territory,

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specifically the Black Hills.

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The news of gold creates
a massive influx of white settlers

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into Lakota Nation.

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Custer recommends that Congress find a way

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to end the treaties with the Lakota
as soon as possible.

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1875: The Lakota war begins

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over the violation
of the Fort Laramie Treaty.

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1876:

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On July 26th,

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on its way to attack a Lakota village,

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Custer's 7th Cavalry was crushed

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at the battle of Little Big Horn.

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1877:

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The great Lakota warrior
and chief named Crazy Horse

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surrendered at Fort Robinson.

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He was later killed while in custody.

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1877 is also the year we found a way
to get around the Fort Laramie Treaties.

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A new agreement was presented
to Sioux chiefs and their leading men,

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under a campaign known
as "Sell or Starve" --

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sign the paper, or no food for your tribe.

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Only 10 percent of the adult
male population signed.

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The Fort Laramie Treaty called
for at least three-quarters of the tribe

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to sign away land.

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That clause was obviously ignored.

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1887: The Dawes Act.

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Communal ownership
of reservation lands ends.

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Reservations are cut up
into 160-acre sections,

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and distributed to individual Indians

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with the surplus disposed of.

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Tribes lost millions of acres.

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The American dream
of individual land ownership

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turned out to be a very clever way

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to divide the reservation
until nothing was left.

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The move destroyed the reservations,

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making it easier
to further subdivide and to sell

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with every passing generation.

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Most of the surplus land

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and many of the plots
within reservation boundaries

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are now in the hands of white ranchers.

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Once again, the fat of the land
goes to wasichu.

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1890: A date I believe to be
the most important in this slide show.

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This is the year
of the Wounded Knee Massacre.

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On December 29,

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US troops surrounded a Sioux
encampment at Wounded Knee Creek,

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and massacred Chief Big Foot
and 300 prisoners of war,

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using a new rapid-fire weapon
that fired exploding shells,

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called a Hotchkiss gun.

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For this so-called "battle,"

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20 Congressional Medals of Honor for Valor

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were given to the 7th Cavalry.

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To this day,

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this is the most Medals of Honor
ever awarded for a single battle.

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More Medals of Honor were given

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for the indiscriminate slaughter
of women and children

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than for any battle in World War One,

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World War Two,

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Korea, Vietnam,

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Iraq or Afghanistan.

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The Wounded Knee Massacre
is considered the end of the Indian wars.

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Whenever I visit the site
of the mass grave at Wounded Knee,

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I see it not just as a grave
for the Lakota or for the Sioux,

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but as a grave for all indigenous peoples.

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The holy man Black Elk, said,

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"I did not know then how much was ended.

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When I look back now
from this high hill of my old age,

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I can still see
the butchered women and children

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lying heaped and scattered
all along the crooked gulch,

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as plain as when I saw them

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with eyes still young.

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And I can see that something else
died there in the bloody mud

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and was buried in the blizzard.

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A people's dream died there.

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And it was a beautiful dream."

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With this event,

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a new era in Native American
history began.

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Everything can be measured
before Wounded Knee and after,

191
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because it was in this moment,

192
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with the fingers on the triggers
of the Hotchkiss guns,

193
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that the US government openly
declared its position on Native rights.

194
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They were tired of treaties.

195
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They were tired of sacred hills.

196
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They were tired of ghost dances.

197
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And they were tired of all
the inconveniences of the Sioux.

198
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So they brought out their cannons.

199
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"You want to be an Indian now?" they said,

200
00:09:34,864 --> 00:09:36,126
finger on the trigger.

201
00:09:40,656 --> 00:09:41,822
1900:

202
00:09:42,648 --> 00:09:46,118
the US Indian population
reached its low point --

203
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less than 250,000,

204
00:09:48,698 --> 00:09:52,500
compared to an estimated
eight million in 1492.

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Fast-forward.

206
00:09:55,900 --> 00:09:57,107
1980:

207
00:09:57,733 --> 00:10:00,432
The longest-running
court case in US history,

208
00:10:00,456 --> 00:10:03,037
the Sioux Nation versus the United States,

209
00:10:03,061 --> 00:10:05,727
was ruled upon by the US Supreme Court.

210
00:10:06,773 --> 00:10:10,296
The court determined that when the Sioux
were resettled onto reservations

211
00:10:10,320 --> 00:10:13,407
and seven million acres
of their land were opened up

212
00:10:13,431 --> 00:10:15,481
to prospectors and homesteaders,

213
00:10:15,505 --> 00:10:18,068
the terms of the second
Fort Laramie Treaty

214
00:10:18,092 --> 00:10:19,299
had been violated.

215
00:10:20,032 --> 00:10:23,772
The court stated that the Black Hills
were illegally taken,

216
00:10:23,796 --> 00:10:26,411
and that the initial
offering price, plus interest,

217
00:10:26,435 --> 00:10:28,229
should be paid to the Sioux Nation.

218
00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:30,352
As payment for the Black Hills,

219
00:10:30,376 --> 00:10:34,808
the court awarded only 106 million dollars
to the Sioux Nation.

220
00:10:34,832 --> 00:10:37,876
The Sioux refused the money
with the rallying cry,

221
00:10:37,900 --> 00:10:39,876
"The Black Hills are not for sale."

222
00:10:41,130 --> 00:10:42,289
2010:

223
00:10:42,829 --> 00:10:45,621
Statistics about Native population today,

224
00:10:45,645 --> 00:10:48,876
more than a century
after the massacre at Wounded Knee,

225
00:10:48,900 --> 00:10:51,485
reveal the legacy of colonization,

226
00:10:51,509 --> 00:10:52,777
forced migration

227
00:10:52,801 --> 00:10:54,244
and treaty violations.

228
00:10:55,395 --> 00:10:57,825
Unemployment on the Pine Ridge
Indian Reservation

229
00:10:57,849 --> 00:11:00,427
fluctuates between 85 and 90 percent.

230
00:11:01,189 --> 00:11:04,038
The housing office is unable
to build new structures,

231
00:11:04,062 --> 00:11:06,198
and existing structures are falling apart.

232
00:11:06,530 --> 00:11:07,699
Many are homeless,

233
00:11:07,723 --> 00:11:10,282
and those with homes
are packed into rotting buildings

234
00:11:10,306 --> 00:11:11,651
with up to five families.

235
00:11:12,098 --> 00:11:14,305
Thirty-nine percent of homes on Pine Ridge

236
00:11:14,329 --> 00:11:15,566
have no electricity.

237
00:11:16,024 --> 00:11:18,693
At least 60 percent
of the homes on the reservation

238
00:11:18,717 --> 00:11:20,534
are infested with black mold.

239
00:11:21,240 --> 00:11:25,505
More than 90 percent of the population
lives below the federal poverty line.

240
00:11:26,314 --> 00:11:28,474
The tuberculosis rate on Pine Ridge

241
00:11:28,498 --> 00:11:31,689
is approximately eight times higher
than the US national average.

242
00:11:32,115 --> 00:11:35,345
The infant mortality rate
is the highest on this continent,

243
00:11:35,369 --> 00:11:38,677
and is about three times higher
than the US national average.

244
00:11:38,701 --> 00:11:41,096
Cervical cancer is five times higher

245
00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:42,931
than the US national average.

246
00:11:42,955 --> 00:11:45,708
The school dropout rate
is up to 70 percent.

247
00:11:46,299 --> 00:11:50,404
Teacher turnover is eight times higher
than the US national average.

248
00:11:50,900 --> 00:11:54,269
Frequently, grandparents
are raising their grandchildren

249
00:11:54,293 --> 00:11:56,611
because parents, due to alcoholism,

250
00:11:56,635 --> 00:11:59,360
domestic violence and general apathy,

251
00:11:59,384 --> 00:12:00,582
cannot raise them.

252
00:12:01,582 --> 00:12:04,653
Fifty percent of the population
over the age of 40

253
00:12:04,677 --> 00:12:06,153
suffers from diabetes.

254
00:12:07,134 --> 00:12:13,003
The life expectancy for men
is between 46 and 48 years old --

255
00:12:13,765 --> 00:12:17,768
roughly the same
as in Afghanistan and Somalia.

256
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The last chapter
in any successful genocide

257
00:12:23,202 --> 00:12:25,179
is the one in which the oppressor

258
00:12:25,203 --> 00:12:27,743
can remove their hands and say,

259
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"My god -- what are these people
doing to themselves?

260
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They're killing each other.

261
00:12:32,973 --> 00:12:34,876
They're killing themselves

262
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while we watch them die."

263
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This is how we came to own
these United States.

264
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This is the legacy

265
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of Manifest Destiny.

266
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Prisoners are still born
into prisoner of war camps,

267
00:12:49,204 --> 00:12:51,166
long after the guards are gone.

268
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These are the bones
left after the best meat has been taken.

269
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A long time ago,

270
00:13:02,733 --> 00:13:04,710
a series of events was set in motion

271
00:13:04,734 --> 00:13:08,236
by a people who look like me, by wasichu,

272
00:13:08,260 --> 00:13:11,719
eager to take the land and the water
and the gold in the hills.

273
00:13:12,702 --> 00:13:15,786
Those events led to a domino effect
that has yet to end.

274
00:13:16,828 --> 00:13:20,267
As removed as we,
the dominant society, may feel

275
00:13:21,654 --> 00:13:24,247
from a massacre in 1890,

276
00:13:24,271 --> 00:13:27,997
or a series of broken
treaties 150 years ago,

277
00:13:28,471 --> 00:13:30,632
I still have to ask you the question:

278
00:13:31,584 --> 00:13:34,211
How should you feel
about the statistics of today?

279
00:13:35,378 --> 00:13:38,542
What is the connection
between these images of suffering

280
00:13:38,566 --> 00:13:40,542
and the history that I just read to you?

281
00:13:41,430 --> 00:13:44,280
And how much of this history
do you need to own, even?

282
00:13:44,479 --> 00:13:46,730
Is any of this your responsibility today?

283
00:13:48,273 --> 00:13:50,966
I have been told that there must be
something we can do.

284
00:13:50,990 --> 00:13:53,416
There must be some call to action.

285
00:13:54,697 --> 00:13:57,772
Because for so long,
I've been standing on the sidelines,

286
00:13:58,209 --> 00:13:59,835
content to be a witness,

287
00:13:59,859 --> 00:14:01,723
just taking photographs.

288
00:14:02,661 --> 00:14:05,260
Because the solutions
seem so far in the past,

289
00:14:05,284 --> 00:14:08,617
I needed nothing short
of a time machine to access them.

290
00:14:09,680 --> 00:14:14,788
The suffering of indigenous peoples
is not a simple issue to fix.

291
00:14:15,640 --> 00:14:17,656
It's not something everyone can get behind

292
00:14:17,680 --> 00:14:19,529
the way they get behind helping Haiti,

293
00:14:19,553 --> 00:14:21,956
or ending AIDS, or fighting a famine.

294
00:14:22,739 --> 00:14:24,705
The "fix," as it's called,

295
00:14:24,729 --> 00:14:27,376
may be much more difficult
for the dominant society

296
00:14:27,400 --> 00:14:29,697
than, say, a $50 check

297
00:14:29,721 --> 00:14:33,018
or a church trip to paint
some graffiti-covered houses,

298
00:14:33,042 --> 00:14:34,653
or a suburban family

299
00:14:34,677 --> 00:14:37,653
donating a box of clothes
they don't even want anymore.

300
00:14:38,296 --> 00:14:39,691
So where does that leave us?

301
00:14:40,176 --> 00:14:42,240
Shrugging our shoulders in the dark?

302
00:14:44,010 --> 00:14:48,690
The United States continues
on a daily basis to violate the terms

303
00:14:48,714 --> 00:14:53,163
of the 1851 and 1868
Fort Laramie Treaties with the Lakota.

304
00:14:53,723 --> 00:14:56,055
The call to action I offer today --

305
00:14:56,892 --> 00:14:58,941
my TED wish -- is this:

306
00:15:00,351 --> 00:15:01,632
Honor the treaties.

307
00:15:02,225 --> 00:15:03,922
Give back the Black Hills.

308
00:15:04,319 --> 00:15:06,561
It's not your business
what they do with them.

309
00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:14,879
(Applause)