Native Americans on warpath

Native Americans, naturally upset at the murder of nine of their own by one of their own, are lashing out at President Bush:

Three days after 16-year-old Jeff Weise killed nine members of his Red Lake tribe before taking his own life, grief-stricken American Indians complained that the White House has offered little in the way of sympathy for the tribe situated in the uppermost region of Minnesota.

Native Americans are also upset at the undue consideration given to one non-native American, Terri Schiavo:

The reaction to Bush's silence was particularly bitter given his high-profile, late-night intervention on behalf of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman caught in a legal battle over whether her feeding tube should be reinserted.

"The fact that Bush preempted his vacation to say something about Ms. Schiavo and here you have 10 native people gunned down and he can't take time to speak is very telling," said David Wilkins, interim chairman of the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota and a member of the North Carolina-based Lumbee tribe.

It's understandable Native Americans have been traumatized by the Jeffrey Weise murders but it isn't fair to compare their situation to that of Terri Schiavo. Bush and Congress became involved in an attempt to save Schiavo's life. They acted because it was felt – rightly it appears – that if they didn't act no-one would. On the other hand, there is nothing anyone can say or do to undo what Jeffrey Weise has done. Sure, it would mean something to Native Americans if Bush expressed his condolences but, any condolsences he might send would never mean as much to them as the condolences he didn't send.

One more thing, what's with the notion that a crime has been committed against Native Americans? I don't really understand the idea that a crime has been committed against Native Americans when a Native American committed the crime. There seems to be something vaguely reminiscent of Weise's racial raving at work in there somewhere.

Update: In a companion piece to the one above, it is revealed that Weise didn't enjoy life on the reservation and might not have cared all that much for things Native American:

He did not like being on the reservation, said his friend Grant, who had Weise at his home for sleepovers nearly once a week for seven years. He refused to participate in powwows and avoided all traditional Indian activities, Grant said.

If you want a better – but far from complete – understanding of the forces at work in the Weise school shootings, read the whole thing.