"Happy Thanksgiving"

It is amazing how the American Society portrays Thanksgiving as one happy reunion between the white man and the Native Man. It is very evident that the Native people are viewed as inferior because they are often sketched and seen away from the white man or portrayed in a disrespectful manner. Like the picture if the dog, this picture tells me that who ever did this has no sense of respect toward the native community or are naïve on what this photo implies. The picture with the little Native girl playing with the pilgrim child is something that is really not very credible to the educated American, some might think that it is true but were Europeans really going to let their kids play with someone who is “inferior” to them, someone who is thought as another being or creature. Thanksgiving is not what everyone wants us to think, it was not a big happy celebration and portraying it in a certain way in the media is not going to erase the fact that Natives were raped, tortured, enslaved and slaughtered as if they were some non-human being.

At What Cost? Digna Ochoa

Digna Ochoa was one to help Indigenous people keep the few human rights that were given to them, she was the protector of the indigenous community and fought against anyone for her people, nut at what cost? Why would someone want to keep fighting for the rights of other people at the cost of their life? It is very difficult imagine Digna Ochoa stay in the fight despite all her abductions and death threats. The first time Ochoa was abducted she was help captive and raped, she claimed it was police men themselves, but no serious investigation was ever conducted. Then in Aug, 1999 she was forced into a car in Mexico City where she was tortured and then released that same day, with the threat of if any one found out she would die. In September of that same year the Centro De Derechos Humanos “Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez” or the (PRODH) where Digna worked received three separate death threats. All these threats and Digna refused to stop fighting for her people. On October 1999 three men entered her home in masks and blind folded her, tied her down and interrogated her about other PRODH members and Guerilla leaders in Chiapas. She was left tied in a room to die with an open gas tank. Once again Digna was able to defy death, she managed to escape from the tie downs and save her life. After this incident the PRODH urged the Mexican government to issue some protection for Digna, they did but despite the protection Digna did not feel safe. In fear of her life she went to Washington DC in August of 200 hoping that everything will settle down. While in the states she was honored with the Enduring Spirit award and later that year she decided to travel back to Mexico on March of 2001. In August of 2001 court ordered that protection was no longer needed, Digna’s protection by the Mexican government was lifted. It didn’t take much time for her assassination to take place, two months after her protection was lifted she was murdered and threats to other PRODH workers were left at the scene. It is a s if the Mexican government did not want to take blame for her death and that’s why they lifted her protection. If she was murdered under the protection of the Mexican Government than that wouldn’t say much about the government and I don’t thin they wanted to take that risk, so they simply let Digna out to dry and she was murdered. President Vicente Fox was quickly urged to do something about it because the murderers were getting away with it, as if it were a reward he set Dignas defendants free at what cost though, it took Ochoa’s life for those prisoners to walk.