So many people have already said this, but I agree that this week was really great in bringing Native American history full circle. One thing I really don't understand is the overshadowing (or lack of public knowledge) of the Red Movement. I mean, these people came together and stood up for their rights and beliefs just like people were doing during the women's and civil rights movements at the same time. Throughout this class I have continued to find myself asking the question "why was this not taught in history class?". This week continued this questioning.
Another deeply disturbing lecture was on the sterilization of women. Those numbers are unfathomable to me, and especially to think that it directly affects out generation and that of our parents. How can anyone allow them self to unethically and illegally sterilize women? It makes me wonder what they were receiving in return- some kind of outside payment or compensation? Its hard for me to believe that it was a coincidence for thousands of women all over the country being victimized by their physicians in the same way...
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I too can explain why anyone would overshadow the Red Movement. It does not seem as though covering it up would benefit anyone.
The article did not say anything about IHS physicians receiving compensation from the government or the HEW to sterilize women but it is an interesting point. The reasons physicians gave were interesting but they included lining their own pockets with government money for more expensive sterilization procedures rather than other methods of birth control, a rather misguided feeling that they were helping society and Native American families by reducing their financial burden, and, the reason they gave that disturbed me the most, which is that they were using these women as science experiments to gain experience in obstetrics and gynecology. We hear in history classes the sick experiments conducted by Dr. Mengele during the Holocaust and this seems very similar, to use patients in this way without their consent or gaining their consent in extremely unethical ways. I would love to know whether any of these physicians lost their medical license for unethical practices and where are all the lawsuits by these women that you would think would result from something like this? I have not heard of any class action lawsuits and I find that very strange since many sterilizations were documented as questionable and against the moratorium on underage girls being sterilized.
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