JD Vance called Native Americans the 'enemy' and Indigenous Peoples Day a 'fake holiday'

[Bundbuster]

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported Tuesday that when Vance argued last year against renaming the Wayne National Forest in Ohio, he referred to Native Americans as the "enemy." On another occasion, the GOP's 2024 vice presidential nominee called Indigenous People's Day — which some cities celebrate instead of Columbus Day — a "fake holiday."

Wayne National forest is named for Major General Anthony Wayne, who massacred Indigenous people during the Northwest Indian War, most notably during the Battle of Fallen Timbers in present-day Maumee, Ohio. When making his case against changing the name of the forest in spite of requests from Indigenous tribes, Vance wrote that "[Wayne] fought wars and won peace for our government, the government you now serve, and hewed Ohio out of rugged wilderness and occupied enemy territory."

Vance's disparaging comments about a holiday celebrating Indigenous culture in 2021 are also being scrutinized in the wake of the Ohio senator's selection as Trump's running mate. ICT Journalist Mary Annette Pember of the Red Cliff Ojibwe Tribal Nation in Wisconsin dug up a tweet from Vance during President Joe Biden's first year in office in which the eventual Ohio seantor wrote: “Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a fake holiday created to sow division. Of course Joe Biden is the first president to pay it any attention."

"A half a millennium ago Columbus used technology developed in Europe to sail across a giant ocean and discover a new continent. Today we celebrate that daring and ingenuity," he wrote in a follow-up tweet. "Happy Columbus Day!"

https://www.alternet.org/vance-native-americans/

tRump now has a twin pig to run with.