Indigenous Peoples in the West and the West Bank.

At some point during the Great Sioux War in 1876–77, a bunch of Sioux chieftains, including Crazy Horse, sat down with representatives of the U.S. Army to discuss a treaty that would cede the Black Hills to the United States in return for lands surrounding the Hills to be controlled by the Sioux.

The meeting broke up without any agreement, and when Crazy Horse returned to his camp, some of his braves told him that they had heard he was willing to make a deal with the Army which wasn’t particularly good news.

Crazy Horse denied any such thoughts or behavior and went on to command his warrior band until he was captured on September 4, 1877, stuck into a cell, and killed while attempting to escape the next day.

Years later, when Sitting Bull was interviewed by a reporter while he was appearing in Bill Cody’s Wild West Show, he was asked whether Crazy Horse had really been opposed to making a deal over the Black Hills and here was his response: “Of course Crazy Horse was willing to give up the Black Hills! He’d do anything for a free meal!”

This is an entirely appropriate story to be told and considered on Indigenous Peoples Day. Because while the whole point of this holiday is to remember the non-white populations in North America and elsewhere whose land was taken away from them by…