WASHINGTON (WKZO AM/FM) — Sometimes even the non-political events at the White House become public relations disasters because of off-hand remarks by the President.
Donald Trump was honoring the code-talkers, the war-time Native–American communications specialists who baffled the enemy by relaying messages in their own languages, when for some reason he revisited his attacks on Rep. Elizabeth Warren, once again calling her “Pocahontas”.
Nottawaseppi Tribal Chair Jamie Stuck tells Michigan’s Big Show that Pocahontas is a revered figure among Native-Americans and anything that would turn the positive into a negative reference is being culturally insensitive.
Especially under a portrait of President Andrew Jackson who presided over the “Trail of Tears” and the “Trail of Death” dislocations of native tribes, including the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi that cost many lives.
Sensitivities about the issue of Native American history have become heightened locally because of the community debate in Kalamazoo over the “Fountain of the Pioneers”.
