John echo hawk biography of mahatma

“I have a dream for all God’s children,” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Those who celebrate the federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in January, and Black History Month in February, are largely unaware that Dr. King was a powerful and dedicated activist for Native American rights. He specifically advocated for the desegregation of Native Americans and inspired much of the modern-day movement for Native rights, including water rights and tribal sovereignty.

In his 1963 book, “Why We Can’t Wait,” King wrote:

“Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. Even before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shores, the scar of racial hatred had already disfigured colonial society. From the sixteenth century forward, blood flowed in battles of racial supremacy. We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its Indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade. Indeed, even today we have not permitted ourselves to reject or feel remorse for this shameful episode. Our literature, our films, our drama, our folklore all exalt it.”

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