The Sioux in the U.S. and the Jews in Israel are both Indigenous peoples
The Sioux Nation stretched over much of the Great Plains before the westward push of settlers after the Civil War encroached on their lands. Given that history, it's natural enough for the Oglala Sioux Tribe to back the Indigenous people in the currently raging Gaza War.
But in the upside-down world where we live, the tribe declared its support for Palestinian Arabs, not the Israeli Jews who are the Indigenous people in the land known across the centuries as Canaan, Judea, Palestine and Israel.
Archaeological evidence shows the descendants of King David ruled over a Jewish state with its capital in Jerusalem 2,800 years ago. Led by the Maccabees, the Jews of Judea threw off the rule of the Seleucid Empire 2,200 years ago, an event commemorated by the annual Hanukkah holiday. In 131 C.E., the Roman Emperor Hadrian expelled Jews from Jerusalem and its environs and renamed the province of Judaea “Syria Palaestina,” which is where the name Palestine comes from.
In exile, Jews did not forget Jerusalem, also referred to as Zion. The 12th century poet Judah Halevi, living in Muslim Spain, wrote these lines to reflect his yearning for the Holy Land: “My heart is in the East and I am at the edge of the West.” The traditional Passover service ended with the words: “Next year in Jerusalem.”
Over the centuries, Jews trickled back into Jerusalem. By 1896, the Jewish population of Jerusalem had grown to over 28,000, more than the number of Muslims and Christians combined.
Modern Zionism, calling for a return to the Holy Land by all Jews, grew in response to late 19th and early 20th century antisemitism in Europe.
During World War I, the British government declared its support for the “establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” The declaration was supported by Arab leaders including Emir Faisal, later the first king of Iraq, who said, “No true Arab can be suspicious or afraid of Jewish nationalism.” In 1922, then-Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill explained that Jews were returning to Palestine “as of right and not by sufferance, and that this was based on their ancient historical connection.” He also noted, “The Jews had Palestine before (the Arabs) came in and inhabited it.”
The League of Nations entrusted rule over Palestine to the British. Despite Churchill's sympathy to Jewish return, just five years after the Balfour Declaration, he broke off over three-quarters of the Palestinian mandate to establish Arab-ruled Transjordan.
In 1947, the newly established United Nations voted to divide Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. The Jewish land would have included only 13% of the original mandate's territory. The Arab inhabitants of Palestine and the governments of the surrounding Arab countries nevertheless fought for the entire territory of the mandate. The Arabs lost the war, and the state of Israel was established on May 17, 1948.
If any Indigenous people should sympathize with the Jewish attachment to the land of Israel, it should be the Sioux. They entered into a treaty in 1868 where the United States designated a large swath of land including the Black Hills for their “absolute and undisturbed use and occupation.” When gold was discovered in the Black Hills, the U.S. reneged on the treaty. In the 1980 case United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, the U.S. Supreme Court awarded $600M in damages to the Sioux. They have refused to accept the money, demanding instead the return of the land including the Black Hills where the Mount Rushmore National Memorial stands.
The Sioux continue to demand their land back through governmental processes, not by the slaughter of non-Indigenous Americans. It is Hamas who has declared its aim to be genocide against the Indigenous people of Israel. The Hamas Covenant calls for Islam to “obliterate” Israel and to “vanquish” all Jews. As Biden said of Hamas, “Its stated purpose is the annihilation of the State of Israel and the murder of Jewish people.”
Why don't the Sioux then regard the establishment of the state of Israel as an inspiration? The Jews are the only Indigenous people in world history who maintained their ties to their ancient land while in exile and then returned to restore their language and religion there. No American Indigenous peoples have done so. Neither have the Maoris in New Zealand, nor the Aboriginal Australians, nor the Ainu in Japan.
One leader of an exiled people does find the story of the Jewish return inspiring. True settler colonials from China are today taking over the Dalai Lama's country of Tibet. The Chinese government has ignored then-President Barack Obama's plea “to take steps to preserve the unique cultural, religious and linguistic identity of the Tibetan people.”
In looking to the situation of the Tibetans in exile, the Dalai Lama, head of Tibet government-in-exile, has said, ''We have to learn from the experiences of our Jewish brothers and sisters.''
I'd recommend the Sioux do the same.
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