Unquiet Grave: The FBI And The Struggle For The Soul Of Indian Country by Steven Hendricks should cause outrage and shock because of its revelations about the FBI and the BIA, but it will be lucky to attract any attention at all. We continue to wash our hands of any responsibility for the "Indian problem" or claim it doesn't exist. Hendricks answers those who would argue that it's not our responsibility what happened hundreds of year ago with these words about the land stolen from the Lakota: "If we know of the theft, as we do, yet do not right it, we are as guilty as our forebears."
The same can be said about the FBI and the BIA; if, as according to this book they are, they are aware of the guilt of previous agents and agency heads, and do nothing to rectify it, they are just as guilty as those who committed those acts. It's high time that those two bureaus were held accountable for their crimes against the American people, and Steven Hendricks has provided sufficient evidence to justify just such an investigation.
Unquiet Grave is an unusual history book in that it attempts to tell the truth without favouring one side over another. It also lays out the story of the American Indian in language that anybody can understand without ever oversimplifying or assuming the reader already knows anything. This important book should be included on every high school's history curriculum in Canada and the United States as an example of what the truth looks like. It's not necessarily pretty, nor is it necessarily nice, but it's reality and it's about time eyes were opened to it. Only then can the long overdue process of redressing wrongs begin.
Article comments
1 - Old Sage
There was a woman FBI Agent in North Dakota who tried to bring accountability for the way the FBI was handling sexual assaults against Indian children. She had proven that sexual abuse cases were being covered up, and in fact, showed that one horrific sex crime against a little boy had been closed as a car accident. There were other child abuse cases that the FBI screwed up. I believe her bosses ran her out of North Dakota, and ended up firing her. It was in the newspapers in the Midwest, and her name was Jane Turner. Look it up, it was not that long ago.