hostile [hos -tahyl] - Latin hostīlis, from hostis, enemy - being a native person living in your native land, minding your own business, maintaining your own way of life, customs, culture, language, religion and economy and refusing to disappear in thin air upon foreign invasion. ______________________________ Euro-Americans used to categorize Indians as either "friendly/being friendlies" or "hostile/being hostiles". Whenever Whites encroached upon Indian lands, ravaged the resources the Indians depended upon and soon demanded that the Indians abandon their land altogether for the benefit of white settlers, those who appeased the whites were labeled "friendly" and all the others "hostile" - which usually resulted in military expeditions against said Indians. Strangely, the whites who invaded Indian lands, destroying the livelihoods of Indians and engaging in strategies of expulsion or extermination of Indians never called themselves hostile... _______________________________ The whites in this illustration proceed with a marching order which was used during the Yellowstone expedition of 1873 (surveying a possible train route cutting through native land) and again during the Black Hills expedition of 1874 (triggering a gold rush invasion). Hundreds of wagons are divided into two parallel columns. Protected between these columns hundreds of pack mules and troops are trotting forward. Troops of twenty riders each function as flankers and forward- and rear guard. On the hill in the foreground from where our tribal heroines are watching with concern, camping troops have already left their marks. Trees have been chopped down and litter covers the slope. While this armed expedition is moving on now, others are certain to follow. Among the expedition are mappers who will put this native region literally on the map for land-hungry whites. Embedded journalists are eagerly writing reports of the splendid beauty of the land, it's healthy climate and it's boundless resources which, if exploited, promise great individual wealth by the standards of the white man. Prospectors pan for gold and other metals and are certain to paint even the most modest findings in glittering colors. And at the head of the troops rides Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. Soon the invasion force will be met by the first probing resistance of the people of this land. Both sides will meet again in the near future for an ultimate showdown at a stream called Greasy Grass River, also known as the Little Bighorn River...