L. Frank Baum "He twice wrote editorials calling for the extermination of the entire Sioux Nation. Many historians believe that it was newspaper-induced hysteria that led to the Wounded Knee massacre."

The Baum Festival went on as planned in the summer of 1998. And, because of conflicting opinions, the Apology and Pledge were, in the end, not part of the program that took place in the town of Aberdeen, South Dakota. It is the intent of Baum Promoters to continue this celebration of a man who has called for the annihilation of members of the First Nations

Despite continuing and specific assertion that, for members of the First Nations, the only Issue of Consequence with regard to Baum is a firm and specific acknowledgement of his racist declarations, the Festival continues:

"The proud spirit of the original owners of these vast prairies inherited through centuries of fierce and bloody wars for their possession, lingered last in the bosom of Sitting Bull. With his fall the nobility of the Redskin is extinguished, and what few are left are a pack of whining curs who lick the hand that smites them. The Whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians. Why not annihilation? Their glory has fled, their spirit broken, their manhood effaced; better that they die than live the miserable wretches that they are. History would forget these latter despicable beings, and speak, in later ages of the glory of these grand Kings of forest and plain that Cooper loved to heroism.

"We cannot honestly regret their extermination, but we at least do justice to the manly characteristics possessed, according to their lights and education, by the early Redskins of America."      ...L. Frank Baum

Because so much has already been said in this regard, this page is simple. It asks for support in "our" effort to insure that Baum is held accountable.

Should members of the L. Frank Baum Festival planners NOT agree to address this RACIST, we ask for your support in a BOYCOTT of the Festival planned for 1999 in Aberdeen, South Dakota.