Native veterans blast Blumenthal’s Vietnam lie

Source: Indian Country Today

Native veterans blast Blumenthal’s Vietnam lie
By Gale Courey Toensing

HARTFORD, Conn.

When Jim Overman watched a TV news report of Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal saying he regretted “misstating” his military service during the Vietnam War, he got mad. “We call them three dollar bills and we have them in our society for all wars, but the one I concentrate on is the Vietnam War, because I am directly involved. I have three combat tours in North Vietnam and when I see somebody imitating what I did, somebody who deliberately had a stay-away package from his society of handshakes, I get very upset,” Overman said.

“He was lying,” said Overman, a citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and a Vietnam veteran. Overman, 77, spent 20 years in the U.S. Air Force and retired in 1972 as a major. He remains the highest decorated Native American fighter pilot in the Air Force, having received three Distinguished Flying Crosses and 18 Air Medals.

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Blumenthal is notorious in Indian country as an enemy of federal recognition and tribal sovereignty. He is particularly unloved for his efforts at the center of a successful campaign of political influence that overturned the BIA’s federal acknowledgments of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation and the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation.

...

“What really gets me about this is that more Native Americans serve in the military than any other demographic group. We Native people have given our lives disproportionately in the military to protect the rights of people of this country. And here this guy is fighting as hard as he can to take away our land and our rights, and then he lies about serving his country. That is so dishonest and so dishonorable.” “It’s no surprise to us at all that he’s a liar. He certainly lied about the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, and those lies were an attempt at cultural genocide,” said STN Chief Richard Velky.

Read more: http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/94579904.html

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I sure as hell hope that Merrick Alpert gets the delegates for a Primary against this a-hole at the Dem convention in CT this weekend. Alpert worked for Gore and is against the Afghanistan war and he could use some DU Love: www.merrickforachange.com

Genocide on behalf of Bush, Romney, Trump and crooked gaming interests. Blumenthal led that charge at their behest and for their benefit.

Glad the Bloods are speaking up. I worked with these tribes ans what Blumehthal did was the epitome of genocide: the extermination of a people as a people and denial of their rights as indigenous sovereign entities: but moreover it denies tham all rights to Native Health Services, housing, economic development and even their IDENTITY as people which had been recognized BY LAW in Connecticut for over 300 years. (These tribes were among the first to resist the Puritans anc colonialization and subjugation and enslavement of their people: hence they were among the very first to be forced onto tiny "reservations" or be annihilated in the 1800's. These reservations have continued to hold these Native folks for 300+ years since that time and Blumenthal says they do not "exist". Shame.

If he is nominated I will vote 3rd party. i cannopt vote for a Custer or a Leiberman clone.

That said it will take a bunch more than this post to convince me that the primary source, Jim Overman, has the credentials listed. No sane person I've ever met claimed 3 combat tours "in" NORTH Vietnam. Over at times, perhaps. Neither does google give any info on "Major Overman" other than this article after multiple searches. Something to me rings of $3 bills...

http://www.virtualarchive.vietnam.ttu.edu/starweb/virtual/virtual/servlet.starweb?path=virtual/virtual/materials_new.web&search1=ONUMN%3DOH0364 http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=161013213988

He spend much of his time over North Vietnam. He was probably based in South Vietnam or Thailand.

war when he did not. A straight up lying wannabe who will say anything to get elected.

Rec.

Genocide is even more reprehensible than being a fake war hero.

His hypocrisy is why I hope he loses.

That and the genocide thing.

Friends of mine have died in part due to his efforts to deny Native people things like the Indian Health Service and Housing and any economic development and self-sufficiency.

Blum is an asshole but come on.

Blumenthal's actions are part of a systematic genocide of Native peoples.

But I invite you to explore the Wikipedia discussion of genocide.

But it is my belief that TERMINATING the existence of a tribe is a form of genocide, especially when it results in the harm and death of members of that ethnic group or indigenous tribe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide

CERTAINLY it is cultural genocide.

But the fact is that termination of a tribal nation as a tribe is a form of extermination of an ethnic group which meets the definition of a form of genocide.

This is not a meaningless use of the word genocide. It is a realistic one. If you were a Native person, one of the first peoples here on this Continent, and an asshole like Blumenthal spent YEARS trying to destroy your rights and terminate your tribe at the behest of fascist elements and racists- you might understand why it is considered genocide by those whom Blumenthal has tried to destroy.

The destruction of a people (an ethnic group or tribe) A a people is one of the definitions of genocide.

This is part of that effort to commit genocide on the First Peoples of North America.