Navajo leaders release statement in
response to Trump’s racist remarks
A number of Native American activists and leaders condemned
President Donald Trump’s racist comment during a ceremony honoring
Navajo veterans of World War II on Monday.
Trump had, without saying her name, referred to Democratic Senator
Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas,” using the name as an insult in response to
Warren’s claims of Native American heritage.
Why he felt this was necessary to say while honoring Navajo “code
talkers” who served in the Marine Corps and are now in their 90s is anyone’s
guess.
That he did so in front of a portrait of President Andrew Jackson — who was
nicknamed “Indian Killer” and signed a law to forcibly relocate tens of
thousands of indigenous people from their homes — only added insult to injury.
“We have a representative in Congress who has been here for a long
time … longer than you. They call her Pocahontas!” Trump said to the veterans.
The Navajo Nation issued a statement in response to the
incident, which strongly condemned Trump’s comments.
“First and foremost, we appreciate the honor and recognition that
has been bestowed upon the Navajo Code Talkers, who truly are National
Treasures and protectors of freedom,” Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye
said.
“In this day and age, all tribal nations still battle insensitive
references to our people. The prejudice that Native American people face is an
unfortunate historical legacy.
“As Native Americans, we are proud people who have taken care of
this land long before there was the United States of America and we will
continue to fight for this Nation.
“It was our Code Talkers that ensured the freedom of the United
States and that’s what is important to remember here.”
Navajo Nation Council Delegate Amber Kanazbah Crotty called Trump’s “careless” comment the “latest
example of systemic, deep-seated ignorance of Native Americans and our
intrinsic right to exist and practice our ways of life.”
“The intentional disregard of the historical trauma of Pocahontas
as a sexual assault survivor directly resulting from colonization is
disturbing,” Crotty said.
“The reckless appropriation of this term is deeply offensive and
dangerous to the sovereignty of our identity of our peoples. Such rhetoric is
damaging, and it a serious infringement of our right to live as Native
Americans.”
The ceremony was intended to honor the indigenous “code talkers”
who used their native languages to encode American military communications during
World Wars I and II.
Crotty said in her statement that the code talkers were
not “pawns to advance a personal grudge, or promote false narratives.”
