We demand that Fort Sill be stopped from continuing its tradition of being America's concentration camp

In June, it was announced that Fort Sill, a U.S. army base in Oklahoma, would be opening up an internment area for migrant children coming from the nation's southern border.

That announcement has caused much concern among Indigenous People and Japanese-Americans, as both groups have been targeted in the past to be interred there under brutal and deadly conditions.

Since the news came, actions from the descendants of those who were mistreated at Fort Sill have occurred.

The biggest action yet is set for Saturday, July 19th.

Fort Sill, Oklahoma has something unique about it. It has always been in the concentration camp business.

Obviously, it never held whites; just People of Color.

The original concentration camp there was built two years after the Civil War. They've imprisoned Indigenous People and later, during World War II, they imprisoned Japanese Americans.

Now it will be reopened to hold migrant children.

Apache leader Geronimo 

It must be understood that all of Indian Territory/Oklahoma was pretty much a concentration camp itself. Indians were relocated here, mostly by force. The Trail of Tears saw the Civilized tribes of the Southeastern Woodlands forced from their homelands to areas of what is now Oklahoma. Plains Indians tribes were rounded up by the cavalry and moved from their homes in the West and Southwest.  

Multiple forts were built in Indian Territory to control them and restrict them to assigned areas. Some Indians were put in actual concentration camps, such as at Fort Sill.

One of the better known examples of this was the capture of Geronimo from the Bedonkohe band of the Apache.

Geronimo and his people were interred at Fort Sill in 1894.

During the period, some were released and given small plots of land to farm in the immediate area - much of which would later be taken and given to whites.

Geronimo spent much time being paraded around by the United States. From Wild West shows to parades, Geronimo was a popular exhibit.

The Apache leader died in 1909 and is buried at Fort Sill. At the time of his death, many of his tribe were still being held in the actual concentration camp where conditions were absolutely miserable.

That's something they didn't bother mentioning to the white audiences, as they paraded their exhibit around prior to his death. 

Fort Sill Stockade was later made into a tourist attraction complete with gift shop.
Just imagine were Auschwitz to have a gift shop full of cheap trinkets for the tourists. 

The forts in the territory were also used as supply and gathering places for troops to wage war on various Indian tribes. Those soldiers, which included George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry, conducted numerous massacres burning down villages and killing women, children, and elderly, while the men were out hunting or scavenging for food.

Oklahoma's name comes from the Choctaw words okla and humma, meaning "red people". Prior to its statehood in 1907 it was known as Indian Territory and then Oklahoma Territory.

While the various tribes were limited to their lands and held to those lands by oftentimes cruel and murderous U.S. soldiers, the federal government decided to open up Indian Territory to white settlement.

1889 white invasion of  Indian Territory

So the Indigenous People, who had already lost their lands and been relocated, now saw another invasion by white men beginning with ranchers stealing Indian land for their cattle and railroad companies taking nearly half of the land given to the tribes in order to build tracks and erect towns where they sold surrounding land to white settlers.

Next came the biggest invasion of white settlers: The 1889 Land Rush where 50,000 lined up to capture two million acres of land. More land runs would follow.

Afterwards, there was little land left in Indian Territory for Indians, so it became the State of Oklahoma.     

Throughout all of these historical events Indians were being tortured inside the walls of the Fort Sill concentration camp. 

Indians didn't always stay on their assigned lands, which caused great tension with the white settlers and federal government.

Think of it as house arrest, but a lot more brutal. When Indians escaped confinement, the soldiers hunted them down.

What Indians they didn't kill they'd haul back to their concentration camp at Ft. Sill for punishment.

Mass graves, such as at Wounded Knee, and concentration camps, like 
Fort Sill, makes you wonder why the U.S. talks bad about Nazis. 
'Merica!

Life in Indian Territory was harsh. The Woodlands tribes, who farmed the Southeast, didn't know how to farm the land's arid red soil. The Plains tribes were used to following buffalo herds, which no longer existed. All were starving and the government's meager rations weren't nearly enough to sustain the tribes. 

During westward expansion, the railroad companies slaughtered buffalo herds and brought them to near extinction. Buffalo Bill was no hero. His job was to drive two species into extinction - buffaloes and Indians. Plains Indians were brought to Indian Territory where there was little to hunt, so they starved.

A mountain of buffalo skulls is evidence of America's first attempt at animal extermination.

The men would leave their reservations and assigned lands to find food to save their tribe. Fort soldiers would hunt them down, kill them, or put them in the stockades/concentration camps. All because they wanted to feed their children.

Eventually, the concentration camp at Fort Sill would become quiet for about twenty years after the release of the last Indian.

Then came World War II.

Japanese-Americans were rounded up with some being brought to the concentration camp at Fort Sill. 

Later, the army base would find another way to connect the Indians and Japanese. 

The old stockade that housed the Indian prisoners was for decades a popular tourist attraction. You could see the cells where the Indians lived, starved, died of disease, and froze to death. Afterwards, you could buy fake authentic Native American goods in the stockade's gift shop. 

Oddly, the Native American Indian souvenirs were Made in Japan.

I've been there many times. Having been born in Anadarko, Oklahoma I lived in the area. Fifteen miles from Apache, Oklahoma and thirty miles from the Fort Sill base. I've walked the concentration camp grounds and buildings many times, beginning in my childhood.

I grew up listening to the stories told by Mildred Cleghorn, who was born at the concentration camp in 1910.  She was born a Prisoner of War.

It's a haunted place. Misery and blood stains the iron bars and wooden floors.

This is not long forgotten history for the Indigenous and Japanese-Americans. This is part of our MODERN story.

Indigenous and Japanese-Americans protest Fort Sill concentration camp

Many of the Indigenous People in Oklahoma and Japanese Americans know the horrors of the camps. Some survived them or heard their parents and grandparents tell the stories of misery.

All that horrible history is being revisited as Fort Sill moves to reopen the concentration camp - this time for migrant children.

This is why we march. 

This is why we demand that Fort Sill be stopped from continuing its tradition of being America's Concentration Camp. 

150 years of this crap is more than enough.

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