What if the Holocaust had never ended?

By Chief Phil Lane Jr.

Beloved Friends and Relatives,

What if the Holocaust had never ended?

What if, no liberating armies invaded the territory stormed over by a draconian State? No compassionate throng broke down the doors to dungeons to free those imprisoned within? No collective outcry of humanity arose as stories of the State’s abuses were recounted? And no court of World Opinion seized the State’s leaders and held them in judgement as their misdeeds were chronicled? What if none of this happened?

What if, instead, with the passage of time the World came to accept the State's actions as the rightful and lawful policies of a sovereign nation having to deal with creatures that were less than fully human? And what if, curbing some of the more glaring malignancies of its genocidal excesses, the State increasingly became prominent as both a resource for industrial powers and as an industrial power in its own right? What if the State could rely upon the discretion of other nations, engaged in their own local outrages, to wink at its past, so that the lie told to and accepted by other nations was one the State could tell itself and its "real" citizens without fear of contradiction? What if the men who conceived, fashioned, implemented and operated the machinery of destruction grew old and were venerated and hailed as the "Fathers" of their country and as men of insight?

What if, the Holocaust had never stopped, so that, for the State's victims, there was no vindication, no validation, no justice, but instead the dawning realization that this was how things were going to be? What if those who resisted were crushed, so that others, tired of resisting, simply prayed that the "next" adjustment to what remained of their ways of life would be the one that, somehow, they would be able to learn to live with? What if some learned to hate who they were, or to deny it out of fear, while others embraced the State's image of them, emulating as far as possible the State's principles and accepting its judgment about their own families, friends, neighbors and joined the State as their own oppressors and abusers? And what if others could find no option other than to accept the slow, lingering death the State had mapped out for them, or even to speed themselves along to their State-desired end?

What if? Indian Residential School Overview

Then, you would have Canada's and the U.S.A’s treatment of the North American Aboriginal population in general, and the Indian Residential School Experience in particular.

For those beloved friends and relatives who would like to better understand this question that was first addressed in 1989 in the Video Healing the Hurts-Uncut and the 36 year process of healing and reconciliation process that resulted in a three billion dollar settlement for thousands of survivors of residential schools, a $500 Million Healing Fund, a full apology by Canada’s Prime Minister on the floor of Parliament, and a Canada wide Truth and Reconciliation Commission that presented its final report on June 6, 2015, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Overview and Canada's Cultural Genocide...

Please join brother Philip Hellmich and I in a special dialogue as part of the Summer of Peace on Tuesday, August 4. You can register free here: www.summerofpeace.net (If you cannot listen live, the recording of this dialogue will be made available free.)

Challenges Still Faced As Result of 523 Year Turtle Island Holocaust

With Warm and Loving Greetings,

Brother Phil
 

Hereditary Chief Phil Lane, Jr. is a member of the Hinhan Wicasa Oyate, Yankton Sioux Tribe and Chickasaw Nation. For more than 45 years Phil has been working with Indigenous peoples from across the Americas, South East Asia, India, Hawaii and Africa. In 1970‐1971 Phil worked with Indigenous peoples in Bolivia. It was here where he began his lifelong dedication, with other indigenous peoples, toward actualizing the Reunion of the Condor and the Eagle. Phil served 16 years as Associate Professor in Indigenous Education at the University of Lethbridge, where, in 1982, he co-founded, with elders from across North America, the Four Worlds International Institute (FWII). With the guidance of the Four Worlds Elders Council and Phil’s leadership and applied experience, FWII has become an internationally recognized leader in human, community and organizational development because of the institute’s unique focus on the importance of culture and spirituality in all dimensions of development.

To read more about Chief Phil Lane Jr., click here.