As a scientist I’m not too much for supernatural stories, but lately there have been some interesting things going on leading up to the year 2012 that I have to wonder if our ancestors were on to something.

Here is the latest very interesting thing, to me at least.

Some of you may have heard of “Custer’s last stand” or the “Battle of Little Bighorn.” The story has been told a million times so I won’t retell the long version here, but in short this was a huge victory for the Lakota against the US army, led by General Custer.

MLK and Sitting Bull both had powerful dreams...

Sitting Bull was known as a great leader and one of the most famous Native American chiefs. At that time the white men were rounding up the indians and putting them on reservations, making them dependent on the government for rations (so that generations later the TEA Party can hate on them).

Some leaders such as Sitting Bull refused, and went to live “off the grid” even if that meant barely surviving at times.

The great United States of America would have none of this. It sent the US Army out to exterminate all indians living off of the reservation, because now that land belonged to the white man.

As the oppression by the government grew, more people would join Sitting Bull’s camp. Then on June 25th, 1876, a week or two before the first 100th birthday of the United States, the US Army came into exterminate the indians.

That night, Sitting Bull had a dream, a dream of victory, and when the army came in, the united tribes defeated the US Army in one of the most famous battles of its time. General Custer was also killed on that fateful day.

Here we are in Tucson, about to celebrate the 100th birthday of our own state, and the attack on indigenous people’s has begun. If you read Tom Horne’s official statement finding TUSD Mexican-American studies unlawful, he refers repeatedly to the indigenous aspect of the studies.

The state is coming to kill the Native American part of our history. That’s the big secret about Mexican-American studies. It’s not about the country of Mexico. It’s about the Mexica people, the indigenous peoples. The country of Mexico is just another European form of oppression also, which is why all this right-wing talk about Mexico’s immigration policies and what not is ridiculous.

It’s about the people, not the country.

It’s about the land on which we grow our food and have life, not the country that “owns” that land.

As the battle for Ethnic Studies and for a preservation of our indigenous history escalates, it just so happens that Tucson will be the home of artifacts from Little Bighorn for the summer. Their museum has run out of room, so the artifacts have been sent to the Old Pueblo in the meantime.

I wonder if Sitting Bull is watching us now, or if he is amongst us now, dreaming…

NO COMPROMISE is exactly the position the Tucson 11, the Ethnic Studies teachers, want.
Looks like the Democratic Party will stand up against the Republican attack on Tucson’s schoolchildren!

-Three Sonorans

TUSD Ethnic Studies: Now is Not the Time for Capitulation or Compromise

The Pima County Democratic Party today reiterated its support for the TUSD Mexican American Studies curriculum and condemned Tom Horne and John Huppenthal’s continuing attacks on TUSD’s Ethnic Studies program.

Jeff Rogers, Chair of the Pima County Democratic Party said:

“Now is not the time for capitulation or compromise. We remain confident that the courses are completely legal. Further, we remain confident that TUSD will prevail in all challenges to the courses if they just stand tall and fight for this curriculum. Our party’s full committee of over two hundred precinct committee persons met on January 8th of this year and, despite the tragedy that was unfolding, unanimously passed a resolution in support of the Ethnic Studies Program and opposing HB 2281. We said that these programs should ‘not only be left as-is but should be expanded to include more ethnicities and cultures in every school throughout Arizona who want to enhance the academic, personal and social development of their students.’

Capitulation and compromise will not deter Horne and Huppenthal’s thinly disguised racist attacks on minorities just like Russell Pearce cannot be dissuaded from his attempts to marginalize immigrants and minorities. The only way to defeat bullies is to stand up against them. We are prepared to do so and hope all Arizonans will stand with us in this fight.”

Resolution passed unanimously by the over 200 attendees at the 2011 Pima County Democratic Party’s Biennial Reorganization Meeting held January 8, 2011:

Be it resolved that the Pima County Democratic Party opposes House Bill 2281. Programs that keep students in school, prepare them for higher education and develop well-rounded thoughtful, productive members of society should be praised, replicated and expanded, rather than criminalized.

We agree with Senator Paula Aboud that, “What we are seeing here is political bullying by elected officials holding schoolchildren and a Tucson school district hostage by withholding education dollars as ransom.”

Research shows that ethnic studies curriculum such as TUSD’s Raza Studies contribute significantly to student achievement. The graduation rate among students who have participated in the Raza Studies curriculum is 97%, compared to the national average of about 40% for all Latino students. And approximately 85% of Raza Studies graduates go on to college.

African-American, Native American, Pan-Asian and Raza Studies should not only be left as-is but should be expanded to include more ethnicities and cultures in every school throughout Arizona who want to enhance the academic, personal and social development of their students.

We are proud to stand with the 11 educators opposing House Bill 2281 and we encourage all Arizonans who value innovative, successful programs in the realm of public education to join us.

Today is the 80th anniversary of the first school desegregation case in the United States.

What? You might say that Brown vs. Board was in 1954. That’s what they teach you in traditional American history classes.

In Mexican-American history you will learn about Brown vs. Board, but you will also learn about the Lemon Grove incident and that:

On March 30, 1931 a judgement was passed in favor of the Mexican community. The conclusion of law refuted each claim made by the school board and the court demanded an immediate reinstatement of the children. The separation was indeed deemed a segregation and the court ruled that the school board had no legal basis on which to segregate the children. California law did not authorize or permit the maintenance of separate schools for the instruction of pupils of Mexican parentage, nationality and or descent. The children were legally entitled to enter the regular school building and receive instruction on the basis of equality with all other children.

That’s 23 years before Brown vs. Board and Mexican-Americans were already fighting to desegregate schools. Many of you educated people might not even know about it. I wonder why?

Also before 1954 was the historic case of Mendez vs. Westminster which took place in the 1940s (also features a Mexican-American hero).

Below is the introduction to an article about this historic event. It is interesting to read the history in light of what is going on today, especially with immigration and Ethnic Studies about to be banned in TUSD, or rather returning to second-class status once again.

History does indeed repeat itself. Anti-immigrant fervor in the 1930′s led to internment camps (reminiscent of how CCA private prisons will be filled with Operation Streamline) and Mexican Repatriation which deported even those born in the US.

In memory of the Lemon Grove Incident and the win for justice that occurred exactly 80 years ago today, you can follow the link below to learn more about the event.

Lemon Grove picture.

THE history of school desegregation legislation in the United States is not often associated with the Mexican Community in Southern California and is usually thought to have begun with the 1954 landmark Supreme Court case of Brown vs. the Topeka schoolboard.

It has recently come to light that the earliest court cases concerning school desegregation occurred in the Southwest and California in the 1930s.

In these cases Mexican immigrants and their communities were the targeted groups of segregation by school officials. A case of particular importance, which has begun to take its place in the social history of civil rights, occurred in San Diego County during the 1930s, in the then rural community of Lemon Grove.

This case: Roberto Alvarez vs. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District, was the first successful school desegregation court decision in the history of the United States. It is important in San Diego and U.S. history, not solely because it occurred but because the community took court action and won the case they established the rights of their children to equal education, despite local, regional and national sentiment that favored not only segregation, but the actual deportation of the Mexican population in the United States.

The case is a testimony of the San Diego Mexican community’s rights and their actions towards equality in education not only for their own children, but for the Mexican population in California and the United States.

via The Lemon Grove Incident | San Diego History Center.