Can't Happen Here
(for Ward Churchill)

The poster announced a Conference on Genocide
at a Southern California university.
Represented were Jews, Armenians, Cambodians,
even Gypsies, but no American Indians.
I phoned the professor in charge,
who had "thought of including Indians,
but the students decided against it."
He explained: "Indians don't fall
within the dictionary
definition of Gen·o·cide,
namely 'the systematic,
planned extermination of a people.'"
"You don't think invasion, land theft,
chronic muder of civilians & the slaughter
of 50 million bison with the intention of starving
Indian people, wasn't planned?"
"No," he said, "we just went too far."

Maggie Jaffe

Essay: Remember Wounded Knee Poem: Can't Happen Here Film: The Peace Pipe in Powwow Highway News: Did the Makah Kill JJ? Song: Coyote A Lakota Prayer:We Are All Related If They Were Going to Kill My Brother