12/9/2024

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            I am looking forward to seeing the portrait of the tribal leaders convening at the WH today. I noticed in the annual report for the event that you had a section “Healing from Destructive Past Policies” which included your apology about boarding schools & the Navy’s regrets for bombarding the Tlingit villages in AK. That’s a great start!

Please add to the list a major apology for building the transcontinental railroad on unceded lands & wreaking havoc on the Plains tribes. Yo-Yo Ma’s group, Silk Road, has just released a podcast to bring to light the “existential threat posed by the railroad … & acknowledge the enduring pain & resilience of Native communities.”

I may have to read Manu Karuka’s book, Empire’s Tracks: Indigenous Nations, Chinese Workers, & the Transcontinental Railroad, as a complement to my uncle’s (SEA) book on the topic. I’m troubled that SEA treats the Cheyenne & Lakota as impediments to be dispatched rather than aggrieved parties desperately trying to maintain their ways of life. I hope SEA would write his book differently today.

            Regarding Burma, please look into getting Pinnya Jawta released from the Insein prison in Yangon. You will recall he’s the Buddhist monk who was on a religious visit when arrested by the junta for “funding, organizing or participating in terrorism or harboring terrorists.” He has diabetes & I doubt he is receiving proper medical care. Please do what you can!

            Also please call Ahmed al-Sharaa in Syria & see what his plan is. I’m particularly concerned about how the soldiers from al-Assad’s army will be reintegrated back into society. As it always is with war, those who fought, especially those who killed someone, are left with battle scars that require careful attention, lest they fester & lead to self-destruction or harm to loved ones. WINTA!

            BYBS,