Johnny Depp Intends To Buy Site Of Wounded Knee Massacre, Gift It Back To The Native American People

[Miles Archer]

http://www.ewao.com/a/johnny-depp-intends-to-buy-site-of-wounded-knee-massacre-and-gift-it-back-to-the-native-american-people/

In an interview by The Daily mail on Sunday, actor Johnny Depp disclosed his mission and intention to purchase the historical site Wounded Knee, and then give it back to the native Indian people. He continued on sharing that he is prepared to spend millions if it is necessary to ensure control of the land is returned to those that have inherited it, and right a wrong that occurred back in 1890. “It’s very sacred ground and many atrocities were committed against the Sioux there,” he said. “And in the 1970s there was a stand-off between the Feds (Federal government) and the people who should own that land. This historical land is so important to the Sioux culture and all I want to do is buy it and give it back. Why doesn’t the government do that?”

Maybe it was the fact that Johnny played the role of Tonto in the movie The Lone Ranger that helped him see the native Indian people in a new light that inspired him to pursue such a mission. The actions of Johnny Depp will be felt and appreciated by many people. Depp has spent the majority of his time by surrounding himself with research about the many different Indian tribes and was able to receive their approval before the filming of the Lone Ranger even began. The respect that Johnny Depp holds for the Native American culture and people run extremely deep, and during the filming of the movie he ensured that the people involved did right by “the Indian” in the way that the various tribes were portrayed.
In a lengthy interview, that was conducted Johnny Depp stated, “The idea was to give back to them and to make sure that we got it right.”

“This picture of the Miniconjou Sioux band was taken near the site of the Wounded Knee massacre one month before the December 1890 massacre where hundreds of Indians were killed.”

According to the sources of the news, Johnny Depp is hyper-focused on ensuring that he follows through with his plan. Sources are asking $3.9 million for the purchase of Wounded Knee, which tends to be but a fraction of what Depp makes from just one production. That being said, there is little to nothing that stands in his way of keeping true to his promise to the native Americans.

[Egnever]

1. 3.9 mil sounds like a bargain.

Good for Mr.Depp my respect for him grows despite 21 jump street

[Brickbat]

2. Probably not. This has been floating around for awhile and nothing has come of it.

That "The Daily mail (sic) on Sunday" story is from 2013, after all.

[spanone]

3. K&R...

[Number23]

4. I think his admiration is so "deep" because he's Native American

Or has ALWAYS looked to me.

[rjsquirrel]

5. That's not how that works

http://newamericamedia.org/2013/06/johnny-depp-the-indian-is-he-or-isnt-he.php

But yay for Johnny Depp.

[appalachiablue]

8. Decades ago Jim Thorpe worked to get native Americans better pay in the

crummy westerns movie industry where they worked mostly as extras. And big Jim busted loud mouth Errol Flynn at a bar while filming that Custer film, if anything's true in entertainment media.

Good on Johnny regardless of whether his grandmother was an elderly Cherokee with toes like cashews as he said.

[Number23]

9. Thanks for that incredibly important update.

[liberal_at_heart]

6. That's awesome!

[Snobblevitch]

7. Did this transaction ever actually occur?

[treestar]

10. who are what entity

would the 3.9 mil be paid? Who has title to the land now?

[CTyankee]

11. I don't understand. Isn't this the property of the U. S. government?

I'm sorry, what part of this this did I miss?

[hatrack]

12. Lots of private inholdings on reservations . . . .

And if they're not out-and-out owned by non-Natives, much of the land is tied up in long-term leases, typically for grazing.

This goes back many decades - one of the many aftershocks of making "landowners" of people who'd never even conceived of the idea that anyone could own land, let alone had their own tradition of title, ownership, property taxes and all the rest.

[CTyankee]

13. that's interesting. Oh, man, how effed up this all is...so sad it happened to so many American

native people. What a shame...

[Nevernose]

23. It's more complicated - and worse - than Hatrack mentioned

The US government gave the land to AI tribes, but then walked that back and forced private American Indians to take portions of the land into private ownership, then watched while people who didn't even understand the concept of real estate sold their land to pay for "luxuries" like food, clothing, and shelter.

Then, in the 1950s, the US Government did it again, coming up with all new ways to fuck the natives out of their land.

An excellent primer on this -- and the many ways America has fucked up minority economics -- can be found in an excellent primer called The Color of Wealth. It's a tad dated -- it was written the year before the economic crash -- but goes far deeper into racism than simply Jim Crow or smallpox blankets or Operation Wetback that it will make your head spin, and for anyone interested in social or economic justice I can't recommend the book more highly. I'm pretty up on this stuff, but even I learned an amazing amount of new material.

[CTyankee]

39. sad, and infuriating...it makes me sick...

[treestar]

40. that's what I would have thought

seems unlikely the government is willing to sell.

[Snobblevitch]

14. A ranching family owns it.

It's been in their family for decades. I don't know how they came to own it. They have always let the local natives use the site for their ceremonies. I guess the family is willing and eager to sell the acreage.

[niyad]

29. to the owner

Jim Czywczynski, the owner of the Wounded Knee parcel, also said that he was never contacted by Depp or his representatives:

[treestar]

42. Oh I see. I think the article should have had that

fact mentioned much sooner.

[leveymg]

51. The sales price just doubled.

Depp should have given the money to a nondescript sounding non-profit to buy it, and stayed out of sight until the sale. They might even have negotiated the price downward. Not now.

[niyad]

59. see post 30. this has been debunked by snopes.

[pinboy3niner]

60. Post 30? See Post 22.

[niyad]

61. several of us pointed out that this was not accurate.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. Reading about how the massacre went down easily changes minds.

[LittleBlue]

16. Doesn't he have NA ancestry?

Always heard he was.

[alphafemale]

17. I think many US citizens have some indigenous blood.

My great grandmother was from the nation of Mingo.

[LittleBlue]

25. Yeah. Many of the First Families of Virginia were descended from Pocahontas

Pretty common in the Midwest too, isn't it?

[alphafemale]

35. i am not claiming I am a Cherokee princess

My Great grand mother was a Mingo.

I know this for a fact.

Back the fuck off.

[LittleBlue]

38. I wasn't trying to say anything against you

I believe you! You're one of my favorite posters. We're cool.

[alphafemale]

56. lol. Fair enough.

[treestar]

41. what an OTT defensive reaction

to a very innocuous post.

[yellowcanine]

53. I would say understandable reaction.

Mentioning a Mingo g grandmother is hardly in the same league as claiming to be descended from Pocahontas.

[hfojvt]

55. there are reputed to be hundreds of thousands of descendants

from Pocahontas, maybe more.

[yellowcanine]

58. There no doubt are a lot but how many can actually prove it?

I would wager not many.

[hfojvt]

62. I would bet that many can

and more probably could if they wanted to.

For example, I have 1,218 people in my database who are in my generation of descent from Joseph Loomis and 529 who are in my nieces' generation. That's over 1,700 people who can trace themselves back to Joseph Loomis. A person born about the same time as Pocahontas.

Further, I have 73,005 of his descendants in my database. So presumably tens of thousands of people could do a little bit of genealogy, trace back three or four generations find an ancestor who is in my database and boom! There they are back to Joseph Loomis.

That, after all is how I, myself, got back to Joseph Loomis. The information is often there, if people wanted to go look for it. Most people don't care to (I say that anecdotally because I have like 40 first cousins and their grown kids are perhaps 50 more, and none of them has shown any interest in my work even though it could be obtained with almost no effort) but that does not mean it cannot be done.

[xmas74]

57. I wouldn't be surprised at the large numbers, though most

would be very diluted at this stage. I'm part Potawatomi, part Menominee and part Crow. I'm proud of it as I would be of any other part of my heritage. Is it enough to "pass" as NA? Of course not, but I'm also not enough French to pass as that either. Honestly, I'm not enough anything to pass as anything but American.

I would love to find out exactly what all I really am. Nothing would surprise me and at this stage anything new would probably delight me.

[vaberella]

21. I think it was Indian, from India. Hence the Depp. n/t

[Omaha Steve]

18. PLEASE x post in First Americans

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1191

[Miles Archer]

20. Done

[niyad]

30. sorry, steve, this is an old, and inaccurate story:

http://www.snopes.com/2015/10/27/depp-to-buy-wounded-knee/

[Omaha Steve]

32. Damn

Thanks for the head up.

OS

[niyad]

33. wish it were true, especially since tomorrow is the anniversary.

[MADem]

52. It was probably invented to deflect from that "Tonto" disaster in that Lone Ranger movie.

Given that "Tonto" is not complimentary in Spanish, I always had trouble with that whole relationship. I couldn't understand why "Tonto" would permit himself to be called such an insulting term.

And what the hell did "Kemo Sabe" mean, anyway? I wondered if it was a mangling of "Que no sabe" -- (he) who doesn't know -- which would make sense, I suppose, if they had one of those cheery, name-calling, insult-trading relationships! Hey, Fool! What's up, Clueless?

Of course, they never played that up in the series...and I didn't see the film.

[Tanuki]

63. GaryLarson nailed it, as usual:

[img][/img]

[vaberella]

19. Isn't Johnny Depp of Indigenous American or was it Indian descent.

Wait I think it was Indian. At first I thought it was Indigenous American. Well this is good.

[rjsquirrel]

26. He is not

an enrolled member of any tribe.

That's what makes someone an Indian, not maybe having a Cherokee ancestor somewhere back there.

This is no longer a subject of debate among progressives. I don't believe Depp claims any tribal enrollment.

[pinboy3niner]

22. It doesn't look like anything's actually happening on this:

InDepted

An old news item about actor Johnny Depp's intention to buy Wounded Knee began recirculating in October 2015. There appears to be little to the report.

Dan Evon
Oct 27, 2015

...

While sites such as True Activist, Countercurrent, and Mintpress News reported the story as if it were current in 2015, the information contained within those articles was sourced from a 2013 story published by the Daily Mail....

...


Jim Czywczynski, the owner of the Wounded Knee parcel, also said that he was never contacted by Depp or his representatives:

Jim Czywczynski, 76, (said) that he hasn't had any contact with Depp or his representatives.

Asked whether he believed Depp's offer was legitimate, Czywczynski said he was unsure.

"People from France to Germany to Australia have called me and asked the same question you have," he said. "The Denver Post and the New York Times. Everybody."

The most recent update we could find regarding the sale of Wounded Knee was published by The Indian Country Today Media Network in October 2014. That article, which stated that Jim Czywczynski was still looking for a buyer, made no mention of Johnny Depp.

http://www.snopes.com/2015/10/27/depp-to-buy-wounded-knee/

[Snobblevitch]

24. I looked this up.

(I forgot to copy the link.)

There are two 40 acre parcels. One is the actual site of the massacre. The other site had a house, museum, trading post (general store) and four cabins. The family bought the property in 1968. They ran the store, museum, and the tourist cabins until 1973. In February of 1973 AIM took over and occupied the site for 71 days. When the family was finally able to return, everything was burned to the ground. They have never been compensated for their loss, or so they say. I wonder if insurance covers intentional, criminal acts?

It may have. been bad policy to give land to individual tribal members, only to have them sell portions of their land to non-native people, but I believe this family should be able to sell their property. It seems they've trying to sell to Pine Ridge for decades.

I wish Depp would follow through with what he said he was going to do.

[FSogol]

36. Most insurance includes a provision for civil unrest, riots, or acts of war.

Doubtful they were covered.

[Snobblevitch]

37. Yeah, that's what I gathered from the story.

I would like the family to be able to sell the land and it goes back to Pine Ridge.

Although I was just a kid when this happened, I saw it all because we got Sioux Falls television stations.

[jberryhill]

27. Wealthy person announces intention to buy unique property

I'm not so sure that's a good strategy for getting the best price, as a buyer.

[niyad]

28. sorry, old story, debunked by snopes

http://www.snopes.com/2015/10/27/depp-to-buy-wounded-knee/

[niyad]

31. wounded knee massacre--29 december 1890-- tomorrow is the anniversary.

[Inkfreak]

34. Maybe he could auction off all those scarves he wears, too.

He'd make fair amount selling the thousands he must have.

[Bluenorthwest]

43. Except it is not an accurate story. I ask you OP, if you were famous and famously rich and you

wanted to purchase a piece of land for reasons of righteous principle do you think you would announce that in advance to the press? Or would you first purchase the land, perhaps using intermediary persons who are not well known for having lots of cash, easy earnings and an artist's heart?

[niyad]

44. see post 28--debunked by snopes.

[restorefreedom]

45. the wounded knee should be a protected historical site

don't even know why it would be for sale

[Snobblevitch]

46. It's for sale because the man that owns it wants to sell it,

his first preference is to Pine Ridge.

The natives that owned the property sold it in the 30s.

[restorefreedom]

48. thats a shame imo. nt

[jwirr]

49. If I am not mistaken it is a registered historical site which is

why I did not believe this op.

[restorefreedom]

50. why yes it is

wikipedia says it is a national historic landmark.

thx for the nudge to go find out for sure, jwirr!

[Tipperary]

47. Little or no truth to this according to Snopes.

An recycled old rumor is what this is.

[valerief]

54. Who owns it now, the Saudis? nt