A Personal Note to Andrew Sullivan

Dear Andrew,

Thank you, for in your ignorance, writing off the struggle that Native people, alongside other communities of color such as Black and Latino face with the battle with AIDS/HIV. Below, I've copied an excerpt written by yourself, in "When Plagues End," that helped me see my "place" as a Native person in a society dealing with AID/HIV.

“with inner-city black and Latino, with intravenous drug users, there was no similar cultural transformation, no acceleration of social change. And that was because with these groups, there had never been a myth of power. They had always been, in the majority psyche, a series of unknowable victims. AIDS merely perpetuated what was already understood and, in some ways, intensified it. With gay men, in contrast, a social revolution had been initiated. Once visible, they were now unavoidable; once powerful subversives, they were now dying sons.”

Sitting in the library, I read your article, initially amazed that with a few strokes of the keyboard, you have the power to write off an entire people’s struggle with a disease by not even mentioning it in the long list of victims. Then I realized, that’s just it, apparently, as Native people, we weren’t supposed to survive this long, and why mention us now? Alongside other people of color, our extinction, way of life, and culture is left to crumple, with the access to “added time” in the hands of the privilege few.

Thank you Andrew Sullivan, for making me realize that from “majority psyche,” I am just another helpless casualty.


Sincerely yours,



"Just another unmentionable casualty."

P.S. Above, I have attached shows for your viewing pleasure from youtube.com