Ted Cruz, The Texas floods are caused by Native American rain dances

Ted Cruz stirs Indian ire – Texas senator thinks that the Texas floods are caused by Native American rain dances.

Preceded by more than a week of heavy rain, a slow-moving storm system dropped tremendous precipitation across much of Texas and Oklahoma during the nights of May 24–26, 2015, triggering record-breaking floods. 31 people were killed and 11 people remain missing. There has been great speculation as to the cause of these flash floods, climate change being the most prominent, but today, another was added to the bunch, and it was done so by none other than Senator Ted Cruz.

In a Texas radio interview this morning, when the topic turned to the recent, devastating floods and Senator Cruz was asked to speculate on their cause, this is what he had to say: - These things happen and people attribute it to God, but this is no work of God, this is something sinister and there are obviously other forces at work and they’ve put our great State in shambles in a very short space of time. And you know scientists will blame it on climate change or mumbo jumbo like that, but I know what’s really going on. The heavy rain is obviously caused by Native Americans doing their rain dances and what not, and if we don’t address the Native American issue better in this State, we’ll be seeing further flooding in years to come

The interviewer Hugh Myrone Gaines, quite startled at Cruz’s response, asked him to elaborate - Most people know I’m a very spiritual God-fearing man, and if you believe in the grace of God, you also have to believe in the other, what’s opposite, what’s against God’s word. Native Americans have been practicing black magic for centuries and this is no doubt their work. We need to think about the way we view Native Americans and their customs and then maybe we can prevent future floods. Unsurprisingly, these remarks have drawn ire from the Native American community, with organisations such as TNAC, Texas Native American Community, publically condemning the statement. White Feather, the chieftain of the organisation issued a press statement about the incident: - It is disgusting and laughable at the same time, that a US senator would come out and say that Native American customs are the cause of a disastrous flood. It is an insult to our heritage and an all-out loony thing to say. The Native American community has suffered enough and does not need fanciful persecution from people in power. Whether Cruz’s statement will have further political consequences remain to be seen, but one thing is for certain, the Democrats will not leave him alone about this one

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