Bad Eagle Foundation

In today's FrontPageMag, Jamie Glazov interviews Dr. David Yeagley, the founder and President of The Bad Eagle Foundation, an American Indian group dedicated to the promotion of conservative American values through media.

Glazov: How do you reconcile the fact that the Europeans (later Americans) destroyed so much of Indian country, with the idea that Indians should love America?

Yeagley: Through an objective view. The Americans built a fabulous nation! It took tremendous drive and strength. A warrior always honors strength. Great defeats are still great. Americans have their Alamo, their Gettysburg, and even their Little Big Horn. What happened to Indians should never be thought of as the end of the story. Indians are still here, by treaty in fact. Our fathers earned that with their blood. So why pout now? Or why Ghost Dance? The past is past.

Indians must develop our role as the keeper of the American identity. The encounter of America with the Indians is what shaped and defined America, at the core, from the start. Indians should assume the responsibility of reminding America of what the nation is. This is patriotism, in my view.

American Indians have a special role to play in American patriotism. We are the link to the land. This is vital to the meaning of any nation.

Dr. Yeagley's story is also interesting because it offers real life comparisons of how American Indians on the liberal side of the issues are treated versus those with conservative leanings.

Glazov: You were dismissed from college teaching because of your open stance advocating patriotism. Ward Churchill, a non-Indian fake, gets tenure and 100K for hating America. Tell us your story and why you think this situation exists.

Yeagley: I thought Oklahoma would be the perfect place to openly advocate patriotism. I was born in Oklahoma. Little did I realize, at the time, that the university campuses in the state were averse to such publicity as I was bringing. OSU-OKC seemed gravely concerned about it, and dismissed me. I had Governor Frank Keating's personal endorsement in writing, and tried to push legislation to teach patriotism in Oklahoma public schools. That a university would be ashamed or fearful of such a campaign came to me as complete surprise. This all happened in 2001.

It shows that David Horowtiz and his Academic Freedom campaign is critically important. A professor is simply not allowed to give both sides of the story in the college classroom. The most successful teachers in politics, journalism, media, social sciences, communications, etc., are the ones who preach hatred of America, and denounce everything America stands for. This is just the way it is.

I found the entire interview refreshing.