Marcus wrote: ↑Tue Sep 16, 2025 5:21 am
the one who trolls wrote:
...I am interested in what sorts of things caused Tyler to go off the reservation...
Of course the troll used this phrase to try to provoke.
Still, it does make for an interesting 'teaching moment'...
‘Off the Reservation’ – A Teachable Moment
...Former State Senator Nina Turner (D-OH), said, “As a historian,
I would caution any of us in this country to talk about anybody being off the reservation. Let us not forget that the colonists of this country stole the land from our Native American brothers and sisters, and the government put them on reservations. So, we have to be careful with that type of language as well.”
...Whether the Native lands were negotiated in honorable nation-to-nation dealings or at bayonet point, they are our countries today. Insistence that we were forced onto reservations and need to be liberated has led to horrific policies and land loss in the distant and near past. This is one reason we take words and language so seriously, and suit up for teachable moments.
The term “off the reservation” arose in the late-1800s, when Native Peoples were confined to reservations and when the federal “Civilization Regulations” criminalized everything that made Native Peoples Native.
The “Civilization Regulations” were issued by the Interior Secretaries in 1880, 1884, 1894 and 1904 and were implemented by Bureau of Indian Affairs Commissioner Circulars until withdrawn in 1936. No other peoples in US society have been subjected to such systemic suppression of religions, religious freedom and cultural rights.
For more than a half-century, federal Indian Agents would decide what was a Civilization violation, which could be for such an “offense“ as conducting ceremonies, dancing, praying, going to a sacred place or “roaming away from the reservation.” The US Army would be called in, for example, because the Indians were “off the reservation” and given orders to get them back. Native leaders and religious practitioners were murdered and blamed for their own murders because they were “off the reservation.”
It used to be that the terms “wild Indians,” “hostiles,” “savages,” “ringleaders” and “fomenters of dissent” were not just epithets. They were charges that could and did get Native People arrested and killed. It is a miracle that any of our Native Peoples survived at all.
Use of these words and terms do more than make us bristle. The very sounds they make reverberate through time and ancestors, and make us concerned for our grandchildren.
https://ictnews.org/archive/off-the-res ... le-moment/
Yes. Make no mistake, MaGa’s comment is racism. It may not have been conscious, but it is still racism. Thoughtless.
To say these phrases and words are "just expressions" or to say the intent of using the word is "not meant to be racist" is not good enough,
Barg explained. "You have to consider how someone else feels when you use these terms," he said. Although not a comprehensive list, here is a list of some commonly used phrases and their origins as identified by experts who spoke to ABC News.
Off the reservation
Experts say this phrase, frequently used during the 19th and 20th centuries in American politics, refers to Native Americans who were forced into treaties that limited their mobility by placing them on reservations, so off the reservation would suggest they were placing themselves outside their allowed their legal, or social, parameters.
In its earliest evidence, experts explain that this phrase dealt with policing, killing and colonizing Native Americans and removing them from their native land.
"The phrase has very offensive roots as the Native American's who were found 'off the reservation' were killed," Kelly explained.
However, in modern politics there has been recognition that term is racially offensive.
For example, former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton netted backlash in 2016 for using the phrase in an interview with CNN when she said, "I have a lot of experience dealing with men who sometimes get off the reservation in the way they behave and how they speak." Shortly after, Clinton's campaign political director Amanda Renteria took to Twitter to walk back Clinton's statement, tweeting, "Divisive language has no place in our politics."
And I bristle when I hear the phrase because many of the people who use it nonchalantly have likely never thought about its origin, nor have they probably ever visited a reservation.
It’s not about political correctness, either. It’s about helping the majority realize that there is a minority point of view that holds weight that the majority is giving too little credence. To me, there are indeed many more offensive words involving American Indians than this phrase — including the name of the Washington football team. But I believe it is the common use of phrases like “off the reservation” that allows people to end up being comfortable going further — to the point of using a slur to name a football team that supposedly honors Indians, but not realizing that it is actually a slur.
Racism is so ingrained in the society and culture that MaGa 2.0 was born and raised in, that he likely didn’t realise he was being racist when he typed that. At least I hope he didn’t. Such divisive language should have no place on our board. He should apologise to the board for mistakenly using it, but maybe that's too much too hope for. At the very least we should expect MaGa 2.0 to correct himself next time, prior to posting a racist phrase on the board.
For all those lurkers and board members with Native American heritage, I’m sorry you had to read that from one of our posters. Please be assured that’s not something this board and the overwhelming majority of board members will tolerate.
