Saturday, July 05, 2008
Editorial: Short takes
Quick views on some of the week's news.
From the RoundTable blog
Read the latest entries
Uncle Sam to African tradesmen: We don't want you
Some 300 years ago Virginia couldn't get enough West African bushmen to our shores fast enough. That was then. Now, a museum can't even get three tradesmen here temporarily to build an authentic mud-hut village to illustrate how West Africans lived before they were brought here against their will.
The Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia in Staunton is bringing from West Africa the material needed to construct the village, according to The Associated Press. The museum had also recruited three bushmen to build the huts.
"They were denied [visas] because they were considered poor dirt farmers who lived in mud huts and can't speak English and supposedly have no business in America," said John Avoli, the museum's director.
A U.S. consular official said they could reapply, but they must make an appointment using the online appointment system.
The point of hiring the poor farmers -- who live in mud huts that they built -- is that they possess something unique: the skills to construct a real Igbo village.
It's doubtful the museum could find English-speaking dirt farmers hanging around a West African convenience store waiting for the day-labor truck to pull in.
Uncle Sam to native Virginians: Who are you?
For a brief time last year, when Virginia and the nation commemorated the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown settlement, it appeared Congress would finally right a wrong and recognize the commonwealth's native tribes.
The House in May 2007 agreed to grant federal recognition to the Eastern Chickahominy, Chickahominy, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock, Monacan and Nansemond. The Senate has yet to act. If it fails to do so soon, the effort will again die, as it has year after year since the 1990s.
Gov. Tim Kaine sent a letter to the heads of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs asking them to schedule the matter.
The process has been complicated because Virginia, in pursuit of racial purity, failed for many years to recognize people as anything other than white or black. This wiped out valuable records that prove the tribes' continued existence.
There is no good reason for the Senate to continue to deny the Native Americans' rights.
