FW: [BRC-NEWS] 'Oz' Author Sought Indian Holocaust

["Craven, Jim" <jcraven@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Subject: Fw: [BRC-NEWS] 'Oz' Author Sought Indian Holocaust



>>http://www.ljworld.com/section/frontpage/story/29224
>>
>>Lawrence Journal-World (Lawrence, KS)
>>
>>October 9, 2000
>>
>>'Oz' Author Sought Indian Holocaust
>>
>>Baum penned 'wonderful' books, plus editorials
>>advocating genocide
>>
>>By Tim Carpenter <tcarpenter@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>>
>>L. Frank Baum's fairy tale about a Kansas girl swept by a
>>tornado to a magical world of munchkins and witches made
>>both author and state synonymous with Oz.
>>
>>So deeply is "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" ingrained in
>>American popular culture that a development company is
>>poised to build an $861 million Wonderful World of Oz theme
>>park and resort near DeSoto to capitalize on the tale's
>>popularity. If built, the Oz development would stand as
>>a tribute to a genius storyteller whose essential work
>>spawned the most-watched film ever, "The Wizard of Oz."
>>
>>But one slice of the story is largely ignored.
>>
>>It is the piece of Baum's legacy that belies his place as
>>the man who captured the imagination of children with a book
>>about the adventures of Dorothy, Toto, Tin Man, Scarecrow and
>>the Cowardly Lion. And it's contrary to a notion expressed
>>in "The Wizard of Oz" that creatures of great diversity can
>>put differences aside and work together in respect and harmony.
>>
>>Step back in time to Aberdeen, S.D., in late 1890. Conflict
>>among white settlers and American Indians was intense.
>>
>>It was a decade before "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" became a
>>bestseller.
>>
>>
>>Genocidal editorial
>>
>>Salesman, typesetter, press operator and editor L. Frank
>>Baum was the publisher of The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer. It
>>was in the pages of his weekly newspaper that Baum left his
>>mark as a racist who repeatedly called for the mass murder
>>of American Indians.
>>
>>Baum's first appeal for genocide was printed immediately
>>after the slaying of Sitting Bull and 10 days before U.S.
>>Army troops, supported by Indian mercenaries, killed about
>>300 Lakota men, women and children at Wounded Knee Creek, S.D.
>>
>>Here is what Baum wrote:
>>
>>"The proud spirit of the original owners of these vast
>>prairies, inherited through centuries of fierce and bloody
>>wars for their possession, lingered last in the bosom of
>>Sitting Bull. With this fall the nobility of the redskin is
>>extinguished, and what few are left are a pack of whining
>>curs.
>>
>>"The whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization,
>>are masters of the American continent, and the best safety
>>of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total
>>annihilation of the few remaining Indians.
>>
>>"Why not annihilation? Their glory has fled, their spirit
>>broken, their manhood effaced; better that they die than
>>live the miserable wretches that they are. We cannot
>>honestly regret their extermination."
>>
>>
>>Theme park hurdle
>>
>>On Jan. 3, 1891, after Wounded Knee, Baum published an
>>editorial suggesting that the remnants of a dying culture
>>should be eradicated to make safe the ascendancy of another.
>>
>>"The Pioneer has before declared that our only safety
>>depends upon the total extermination of the Indians," he
>>wrote. "Having wronged them for centuries we had better, in
>>order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more
>>wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from
>>the face of the earth."
>>
>>Jimmie Oyler, a resident of DeSoto and self-described
>>principal chief of United Tribe of Shawnee Indians, said an
>>Oz theme park on former Shawnee lands near DeSoto would be
>>offensive.
>>
>>"He more or less said kill them all," he said. "If it has
>>anything to do with Baum ... it's never going to be on
>>Shawnee land."
>>
>>Joe Reitz, a business professor and director of the
>>International Center for Ethics at Kansas University, said
>>the Baum editorials were sufficient reason to rethink the
>>Oz project.
>>
>>"To build a monument to a man who advocated genocide among
>>Native Americans in this part of the country seems to be
>>financially suicidal," he said. "If you give people a reason
>>not to spend money, they probably won't do it."
>>
>>
>>Other hurdles
>>
>>But Kristin McCallum, a spokesperson for Oz Entertainment
>>Co. in Los Angeles, said Baum's 110-year-old editorials
>>weren't relevant.
>>
>>"I don't see the relation," she said.
>>
>>Oz Entertainment has negotiated draft agreements with state
>>and federal agencies to transfer 9,000 acres to the company
>>in exchange for the firm's commitment to spent an estimated
>>$45 million to clean up industrial contamination at the
>>former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant.
>>
>>Before the transfer can occur, the Johnson County Commission
>>and the Kansas Development Finance Authority must approve
>>Oz's redevelopment plan.
>>
>>McCallum called immaterial the fact that American Indians
>>were once occupants of land where World of Oz would be
>>located. She said there were many regrettable episodes in
>>U.S. history that shouldn't have a bearing on World of Oz.
>>
>>
>>What about the writing?
>>
>>Sally Roesch Wagner said Baum's writings - all of them - are
>>worth exploring. Every element of his character should be
>>open for discussion, she said.
>>
>>Wagner was raised in Aberdeen and now lives in the former
>>Fayetteville, N.Y., home of Baum's mother-in-law, feminist
>>Matilda Joslyn Gage. Wagner is executive director of the
>>Gage Foundation and plans to turn the house into a museum
>>that interprets Baum's life.
>>
>>She said there was benefit to studying both laudatory and
>>loathsome aspects of his personage.
>>
>>"I think we need to understand him as both," Wagner said.
>>"He was both a man who wrote these (Oz) books and a man who
>>called for the extermination of the entire Sioux nation."
>>
>>It's useful to put Baum's unfortunate editorials in the
>>context of the times, said Nancy Koupal, director of
>>research and publishing at the South Dakota State
>>Historical Society in Pierre, S.D.
>>
>>The society recently published a book, "Baum's Road to Oz:
>>The Dakota Years."
>>
>>Baum was concerned for his safety and that of other
>>settlers, she said. But the genocide of Native Americans
>>wasn't a common theme in his later writing and novels.
>>
>>"He didn't spend much ink on the subject," Koupal said. "It
>>was not a deeply felt conviction. I don't think this was a
>>big side of Baum. You scratch any of your heroes, you're not
>>going to like what you find in the closet. There is no
>>perfect man."
>>
>>
>>Intellectual freedom
>>
>>Leonard Bruguier, a Yankton Sioux and director of the
>>Institute of American Indian Studies at University of South
>>Dakota in Vermillion, S.D., said Baum's views were repugnant.
>>But, he said, the author had the right to express his opinion
>>in 1890. That same intellectual freedom should be granted
>>citizens today, he said.
>>
>>"There are skinheads, neo-Nazis saying 'Do away with people
>>of color.' I have to tolerate their opinion," Bruguier said.
>>
>>Donald Fixico, director of KU's indigenous studies program,
>>said the editorials shouldn't necessarily doom the Oz project.
>>He said Baum's commentary should stand as a cautionary lesson
>>to young writers.
>>
>>"You never know when you're going to write something
>>influential like the Wizard of Oz," Fixico said. "Some
>>things may come back to haunt you."
>>
>>Perhaps, Bruguier said, it's fitting irony that World of Oz
>>developers want to build a memorial to "The Wizard of Oz" on
>>land ravaged by pollutants from the manufacture of munitions.
>>
>>"Maybe they deserve each other," he said.
>>
>>Copyright (c) 2000 Lawrence Journal-World. All rights reserved.
>>
>>
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