[EMAIL PROTECTED] This little-known and long-surpressed history reveals yet another example of US gov't. hypocricy - going counter to every ideal in the Constitution to subject Native peoples to genocide and/or near-genocidal treatment. I am not surprised - horrified and saddened - but not surprised. > - - - - - - - > http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051208/ap_on_re_us/aleut_story > WWII Internment of Alaska Aleuts Recounted > By JEANNETTE J. LEE, Associated Press Writer > Thu Dec 8, 3:50 AM ET > > ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Mary Bourdukofsky, an Alaska Native, was at home on > rugged St. Paul Island one Sunday in the summer of 1942 when her husband > rushed breathlessly through the door from his weekly baseball game. > > The federal government was in the process of forcing 881 Aleuts to move from > their homes on the Pribilof and Aleutian Islands in the Bering Sea to dank > wartime internment camps in the rain forest of Southeast Alaska 1,500 miles > away. > > "He came running in and said, 'They've stopped the ball game. They've come > to evacuate us,'" Bourdukofsky said. > > A new documentary film, "Aleut Story," recounts the little-known internment > of Aleuts during World War II. Many in the film speak publicly for the first > time about their experiences in the camps, where they were sent after troops > from Japan invaded Alaska's western outposts in June 1942. > > Aleuts were not suspected of spying or sabotage, as were tens of thousands > of Japanese-Americans interned after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December > 1941. > > However, they were not allowed to leave the camps unless they were drafted > into the military or coerced into working the Pribilof fur seal hunt, which > brought millions of dollars to the U.S. government. > > "My mother, when she was living, she used to start crying, so we wouldn't > talk about" the internment, Bourdukofsky told The Associated Press. > Bourdukofsky, now 82, was a young mother of two during the > evacuation. > > Many Aleuts were thankful to be ferried out of the war zone - until they > arrived at five overcrowded, disease-ridden sites scattered throughout damp > spruce rain forests. > > "There was a lot of sickness at the camp," said Jake Lestenkof, 73, who was > 11 years old when his mother died of pneumonia at a camp at Funter Bay. > "There was a lot of pneumonia and tuberculosis ... . There were certainly no > medical facilities or personnel." > > Sanitation and pipe systems were never installed. Residents drank water > tainted with sewage and - at one camp - runoff from the expanding cemetery. > One in 10 people died in the camps from 1942 to 1945, according to federal > estimates cited in the film. > > "It was terrible," said Maria Turnpaugh, 78. "We lived in little shacks full > of holes and no running water. People got sick all the time." > > The film includes letters from officials who thought internment would > protect Aleuts from the fighting in Alaska's distant western islands. > > "No one knew what to do with the Aleuts. They wanted to keep them under > control of government agents," said Dorothy Jones, who researched the Aleut > case for the Justice Department during lawsuits in the late 1970s. > > Families returned to the Aleutians and Pribilofs in 1944 and 1945 to find > their homes and Russian Orthodox churches looted by U.S. soldiers and > rotting from years of neglect in the wind, rain and salt air. > > "My grandmother's house, she had a lot of old things up in her attic, lots > of Russian antiques," said Turnpaugh of her family's return to Unalaska. > "There was nothing left." > > Aleuts joined Japanese-Americans in the 1950s through the 1980s in lawsuits > seeking federal restitution for loss of property and civil liberties during > internment. > > In 1987, Congress approved reparations of $12,000 each to interned > individuals who were still living; $1.4 million for damaged homes and > churches; a $5 million trust for evacuees and descendants and $15 million to > the Aleut Native corporation. > > Restitution money partially funded "Aleut Story," which was nominated for > best documentary honors this year at the American Indian Film Festival. The > film is airing on public television stations across the country and was > shown Dec. 4 at the Anchorage International Film Festival. > > Many internment survivors saw the film in screenings in Anghorage or at home > with younger family members. Turnpaugh watched "Aleut Story" on public TV by > herself at the Senior Center in Unalaska, about halfway down the Aleutian > chain. "I watched it alone and I'm glad I watched it alone," Turnpaugh said. > "I cried. To me, it was letting it all out." > > . . . . . > > On the Net: > http://www.aleutstory.tv/ > > >
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Know an art & music fan? Make a donation in their honor this holiday season! http://us.click.yahoo.com/.6dcNC/.VHMAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
