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America’s Existential Crisis: Our Inherited Obligation to Native Nations by [Jeff Rasley]

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Jeff Rasley

America’s Existential Crisis: Our Inherited Obligation to Native Nations Kindle Edition

by Jeff Rasley (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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America's Existential Crisis is a historical journey and a road trip. It starts with the personal histories of two ancestors of the author. One was a lieutenant in the 7th Cavalry at the Wounded Knee massacre and died from a wound in a related action. The other was honored with a "friendship gift" from the Potawatomi, which Jeff Rasley inherited. Their stories lead into the history of the Plains Indian Wars, the 1830 Indian Removal Act, and the confinement of Native Americans on reservations. Witness accounts from participants explain how the inhumane treatment of Sioux tribes on reservations in the Badlands, and an accidental shot, turned Wounded Knee Creek into a killing field on December 29, 1890.

The historical narrative loops back from Wounded Knee to the theft of the Black Hills from the Sioux Nation and the Potawatomi Trail of Death. The road trip proceeds through the Badlands to Devils Tower, Mt. Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial, and ends at Wounded Knee, South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The historical narrative fast-forwards to the 1970s, when pop culture transformed “bad Injuns” into cool, stoic, and wise Native Americans. Incidents, like the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee and protests over the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock Reservation, are described. Land use disputes among the US government, commercial interests, Native tribes, environmentalists, and outdoors enthusiasts over Bears Ears National Monument and Oak Flats are explained. Major historical actors make appearances in the book, including George Armstrong Custer, Sitting Bull, and Crazy Horse, as well as militant members of the American Indian Movement, the founders of the Crazy Horse Memorial, peaceful and angry protesters against oil pipelines, Deb Haaland, the current Secretary of the Interior, and, of course, Donald Trump.

The historical journey leads into an argument that all non-Native Americans have benefited from the genocidal subjugation of Native American nations by our national ancestors. And so, we have inherited an obligation to our fellow Americans, whose ancestors were massacred and forced off their traditional lands onto reservations. The journey ends with a proposed plan to fulfill that obligation through culturally sensitive development of Native communities.

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105 pages
Language

English
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Publication date

May 14, 2021
File size

17379 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Jeff Rasley is a committed philanthropist and social activist. His new book is America's Existential Crisis: Our Inherited Obligation to Native Nations. Mr. Rasley, the author of 11 books, describes how he was drawn to examine the plight of Native Americans through two unique family ties as well as a visit to the Black Hills. What makes his book special is that Mr. Rasley doesn't just summarize what Native Americans have suffered, he offers solutions. He believes empathy isn't enough and that a better approach might be "gratitude tinged with regret" to acknowledge and address how we all have benefitted at the expense of Native Americans. T. J. O'Hara, host of Deconstructed onIVN Network

We found in "America's Existential Crisis" a truly different point of view and food for thought on whether U.S. citizens have an inherited obligation to Native nations stemming from the acts of our ancestors. The author encourages solutions, such as cultural sensitivity, equal opportunity and enforcing broken treaties that led to unjust enrichment and asks us to support economic development (infrastructure, economy and education). It's a good read for governments, philanthropists and citizens interested in healing and social equity. Helen Oliff, Director of Communications, Partnership With Native Americans

Jeff Rasley recalls an unsettling visit to Wounded Knee, where soldiers in the U.S. Cavalry's 7th Regiment (including one of Jeff's ancestors) massacred more than 200 Lakota men, women, and children in December 1890. Friends Journal, October 8, 2021.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0951DF2HZ
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Midsummer Books (May 14, 2021)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 14, 2021
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 17379 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 105 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ B094Z6Z8BY

Best Sellers Rank: #1,994,257 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #490 in Cultural Policy
- #1,909 in Native American History (Kindle Store)
- #11,711 in Native American History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
3.9 11 ratings

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Jeff Rasley

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Jeff Rasley lives on the White River in Indianapolis with Alicia and Poppy. His first published writing was poetry in the Hanover College Fine Arts Journal. Over 80 feature articles on law, travel, spirituality, politics, and human interest followed in Newsweek, Chicago Magazine, ABA Journal, and other periodicals. Jeff is the author of 14 books.

Jeff dropped out of college, saved money from factory work, then hitch-hiked across the USA. Money earned on a road crew financed travels in Europe and motorcycling from Indiana to Mexico City. Marriage and 2 children reduced his travels for a time, but since 1995 he has led treks and mountaineering expeditions in the India-Nepal Himalayas, and he has scuba dived throughout the Caribbean, and sea-kayaked in Palau, Tonga, and the Greek Isles.

Jeff's commitment to social activism and philanthropy began in high school when he co-founded the Goshen Walk for Hunger. In law school he fought for renters' rights and organized the first rent strike in Indiana as president of the Indianapolis Tenants Association. As a young lawyer Jeff founded free legal clinics at two inner-city churches in Indianapolis. He was lead counsel on class action suits for prisoners which resulted in the construction of two new jails in Central Indiana. Jeff was the lead plaintiff in a class action requiring clean-up of the White River after it was polluted by an industrial chemical spill. He spent 5 days working for NOLA Habitat for Humanity after Katrina, and funded the Jeff & Alicia Rasley Internship Program for the ACLU of Indiana.

Jeff is the founder and president of the Basa Village Foundation, which funds culturally sensitive development in Nepal. He is the president of the Indiana Scientech Foundation, which financially supports STEAM education in Indiana. Jeff has served or is serving as a director of many other nonprofit organizations, including the Indianapolis Peace & Justice Center, University of Chicago Alumni Club, Phi Beta Kappa of Indiana, and Earlham College. He is U.S. liaison for the Himalayan expedition company Adventure GeoTreks Ltd. He has taught courses on "culturally sensitive development" and philanthropy at Butler and Marian Universities and memoir writing at the Indiana Writing Center.

Jeff's BA is from U of Chicago magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, All-Academic All-State Football, letter winner in swimming and football; JD Indiana University Law School cum laude, Moot Court, Indiana Law Review; MDiv Christian Theological Seminary magna cum laude, co-valedictorian and Faculty Award Scholar. He was admitted to the Indiana, US District, and US Supreme Court Bars.

Jeff describes reading Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past as great an adventure as climbing Himalayan peaks.

Contact through: http://www.jeffreyrasley.com

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5

11 global ratings

5 star		63%
4 star		14%
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1 star		23%

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California Dreamer

This is how history should be explored.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 18, 2021

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I’ve often said that if I ever taught an American history course, I would commence the first class by requiring students to bring in stories of their ancestors and exploring events through their diaries and letters. Jeff Rasley has done exactly that in this fascinating and thoroughly readable memoir that is equal parts travelogue, meditation on the responsibility of passing generations, and a history of the treatment of Native Americans.

Do the sins of the fathers pass to the sons? If so, are those sins redeemed in whole or part by the good deeds of other ancestors? How are they to be weighed on the scales of justice? Rasley explores these issues as he visits the sites associated with the brutal onslaught of Manifest Destiny--Wounded Knee, Standing Rock, Mount Rushmore, and the Crazy Horse monument, among others. I was particularly intrigued by his distant cousin, Lt. James DeFrees Mann, who fought with the 7th U.S. Cavalry at Wounded Knee and was mortally wounded the next day after that massacre. Mann was influenced into becoming a soldier by the sacrifice of his father, Richard Fleury Mann, who died during the Civil War of typhoid fever. I did some research into Richard’s regiment, the 48th Indiana, and discovered that, had he lived, he would have fought alongside my own great-great-grandfather in the Vicksburg campaign.

Do these connections even matter? Do we carry some responsibility in the bloodlines that are passed down to us? The reader will come away much richer from his pondering of these questions after reading this superb book.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Admirable, Constructive, Original

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 27, 2021

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All credit to Mr. Rasley for putting a large ‘H’ back into humanism. For too long I have looked at leading examples of humanism and wondered…Was Lennon really working for humanity or himself? Was my ex-Communist father really thinking clearly about himself and the Soviet Union (then)? Are the university profs really believers in humanity or just in their own acute egos? However, Rasley seems right there in his wish for America (and its supporters) to turn an inner eye on genocide and address and redress the issues. His parallel thinking, “backwards” to Asia (Nepal) and forwards to Contemporary America, really works for the reader. The autobiographical information is also touching, tracing his family’s relationship with native American Indians, highlighting travesties and friendships. At one point, in a revealing comparison between a forefather who was kind, lived a long life, and ran a successful business, and a forefather-soldier who killed “regrettably” and “honourably”, died fast, and unfulfilled, the waste and folly of murder, in this instance, military murder, are evidenced – excellently.
Mr. Rasley has written a book worthy of a “personal” historian, a political tract to set history less wrong, and a book full of realistic policies to help America have a future far from violence, conspiracy theories, blindness, and lust-filled force. It is also typo-less!
Congratulations!

One person found this helpful

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suz

Our Chosen Part

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 22, 2021

Verified Purchase

I chose 5 stars for the way this book was written. My knowledge about the subject is clearly lacking and what was written is so clear to me. Yes, let's get the ball rolling and keep the government out of it. We are complacent because the status of Native Americans is not in our back yard. All of us need to become more aware of our fellow man and offer help in a crumbling society. I am grateful to be on my piece of the pie. When will Natives be able to say this?

One person found this helpful

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ChrisEdwards

An ethical reckoning with history

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 25, 2021

In "America's Existential Crisis: Our Inherited Obligation to Native Nations" Jeff Rasley seamlessly combines the history of the U.S. Government’s mistreatment of Native nations with his own personal connections to that history. (The source of the enigmatic vest on the cover is too good of a story to be revealed in a review.) Like almost all of us, Rasley can see how he personally has benefited from crimes committed long before he was born. How do we, in the modern era, have an ethical reckoning with the way in which Native peoples were systematically and deliberately removed from their lands by government policy? Good books leave room for the readers to think, and many readers will see that the ethical questions that Rasley raises can be applied to other groups that have been historically wronged. How do we, as modern Americans, feel about a country so great and powerful that was largely created through means that were so lowly and brutal? That is the question that Rasley raises and his personal response to that provides a way that all of us might try to make a reconciliation. As Rasley suggest, we can’t really move on from the horrors of history or live up to the promises of it until we answer these existential questions.

One person found this helpful

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J. Paul

An Informative and insightful read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 3, 2021

I had many relatives in South Dakota and visited Sioux Falls, Bel Fourche, the Black Hills, Badlands, Miller, Mt Rushmore, Devils Tower, etc. on family trips. I learned from my maternal Grandparents how badly the Sioux people were treated, my Grandpa hired some members of the Sioux tribe to help on his farm in Miller while my Grandmother prepared a meal for them to share with the family at the same table. I was very happy to see Biden pass the the ARPA to help all Native American tribes. I went to high school with the author, Jeff, and enjoyed reading about his personal family history, research and insight into this book.

JP

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

History and analysis of historic and current treatment of Original People in the USA

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 14, 2021

Using 19th century family members as examples, the author explores oppression of Native People in the USA. Much more than a dry recitation of history, Eurocentric / and Native interrelationships are examined with a “what if” question in mind. Could “development” of the USA have been conducted in a manner that respected human, traditional and legal rights of peoples who lived here well before Europeans arrived?
Thought provoking and encouraging in the sense that it is not to late for remedial action.
Photo is on the site of the Oak Flat protest near Superior, AZ.

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