"In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue..." This catchy little saying is one most of us are familiar with and until a few years ago I didn't think much of it. It just helped me remember when Columbus had landed on the shores of what is now the United States of America. Now, in my adult years, the little saying is weighted with error, greed, racism, genocide, and an arrogant, imperialist caucasian people.
Much like the immigrants the Native Americans are another part of the American population that have been mistreated. But unlike the immigrants, the Native Americans were inhabiting this land long before any other culture set foot on it.
Let's cover the basic facts first. Columbus did not land on our shores, he landed on the shores of San Salvador. So the basic facts are this: Columbus did not discover America, in fact he didn't discover any new place. Wherever he landed was already occupied by an indigenous people. He discovered nothing but he introduced something. Columbus introduced many methods of genocide, including but not limited to: mass extermination, exposure to deadly disease, and slavery. Not only did he introduce a physical genocide of the indigenous people on islands as well as the Native American, he also led the way for a cultural genocide which has contributed to the physical as well.
A few years ago a news article caught my eye. The headline reported an Indian reservation that had a higher crime rate than that of the entire United States. Say what?! So I read the article and felt my heart sink. The pictures of various homes and the reservation made me sick with anger. I mean really. What the hell? How is it possible that we have allowed our indigenous people to live like third world citizens in this country that their ancestors occupied long before we ever did? How is this possible?
In short, it is possible because the white man sucks. If the shoe fits then sometimes we have to wear it and in this case we've got to wear it. But I think it's way past time we took it off. I have a friend who posted just this past columbus day "holiday" about the historical context of the actions of Columbus - citing also Pisarro, Cortez, Torquemada as participating in the same actions/behaviors. Does this mean it is right? So four or more people makes it an okay thing? He was challenged.
For too long we have allowed ourselves to label something as "good", "right", or "okay" just because it was a common practice or it was the unwritten way things were to be done. Just because something is practiced as acceptable doesn't mean that it actually is. And in the case of our Natives, what many pass off as acceptable or "that's just the way it is" is in reality something we should not accept. We have forgotten to step into the shoes of another for perspective. As a white people, we would not allow the kind of treatment the Natives have received and are receiving to be acceptable. In Philippians 2 treatment of others is addressed and we have fallen short my white friends. Way short. We have behaved out of self-interest, ignorance, pride, superiority, and disdain.
Despite the lovely meal the Natives and the Puritans shared that we now partially base our American Thanksgiving on, within one year of that meal and that time of the Natives educating the Puritans about the land and how to live with it, the head of the Chief's son was sitting atop a wooden spike in the middle of the village square. The early Puritans had defined Native Americans as savages, somehow inhuman and undeserving of the rights accorded white men. Yes, the Natives who showed them how to farm the land, fish, hunt for food, build shelter - such savages. What was their crime? They wouldn't give the white man all the land they were greedy for and demanding. So the white man went in and took it.
Between 1887 and 1933 the white man decided the Natives needed to become civilized. Of course the definition of civilization was the white man's definition and so the white people began to forcibly and systematically tear down the Native American culture - the way of life, making a living, the family structure, and their worldview. I can only surmise that at the root of the white man's dismantling of the Natives was fear. Fearful of someone and something different. White people don't seem to handle different cultures and ethnic groups very well, we always try to turn them into clones of ourselves.
We asserted our white man authority and required the Natives to learn English, dress as the white man and woman, and convert to Christianity. We cut out of their lives everything about them that made them valuable and contributing. We introduced foods to them that have wreaked havoc with their health through the generations, we introduced them to copious amounts of spirits (ahem, alcohol) that they discovered helped numb their depression over being separated from their very self. We introduced to them methods of warfare and fighting that earned them the nickname "savage" but since we introduced them to those methods then who is really the savage? We removed their children from them as young as three years old and raised them to be "white." By the time they returned to their families the fracture was irreparable. The principal of the best-known school for Indian children at Carlisle in Pennsylvania boasted that his aim for each child was to ‘kill the Indian in him and save the man'. Well, if that was the goal the white man has succeeded. The white man had this false idea that the Native Americans needed to be tamed and taught how to be self-sufficient. But weren't they living on the land and with the land for years before a white person stepped upon it? Hmmm. That sounds pretty self-sufficient to me. And weren't the Natives the ones to educate the first white people on the land how to be self-sufficient? Huh.
Assimilation wasn't going as planned (gee, what a shock) and in 1928 a report came out that showed the Natives were living in extreme poverty, suffering from a poor diet, inadequate housing and limited health care. Schools were overcrowded and badly resourced. The report rejected ‘the disastrous attempt to force individual Indians or groups of Indians to be what they do not want to be, to break their pride in themselves and their Indian race, or to deprive them of their Indian culture’ while accepting the government policy to assimilate the Native into the white man's world. In short, the report proved that attempts to turn the Native into the white man were failing miserably.
In 1933 John Collier, a white American, became the Commissioner for Indian Affairs. He had read the report of failure from a few years earlier and wholeheartedly believed that the 'Native American community life and respect for the environment had much to teach American materialism, and he was passionately determined to preserve as much of the traditional Indian way of life as possible. In particular, he wanted Native American reservations to be permanent, sovereign homelands.' But his enthusiasm didn't get him very far. Collier was well-intentioned but as usually happens, what is devised in theory rarely is executed well in reality. Most of his policies failed. Proof of that still lives today as the state of reservations are equal to and in some cases worse than third world nations.
We "relocated" (I believe that's the PC word for forced/threatened) them to land called reservations, oh so proud of ourselves for giving them what was already theirs. Except the reservations are the leftovers of the land, they hold the least amount of resources and if any are found the white man comes in and takes it away. Drive a reservation and you will forget you are in America, a developed nation. Instead you will feel like you are driving through a slum in a third world country. (May 5 2004, Gallup Independent)
Our Natives are in crisis.
Today our Natives are plagued by addiction, Type 2 Diabetes, depression, and even PTSD. Poverty is the way of life, hopelessness taints every interaction, The lifestyle of the modern Native American reflects the racist and elitist attitudes of the white man. Intergenerational trauma has been woven into the fabric of the Native American culture and people. Instead of passing down through the generations cultural pride, traditions that enrich and contribute to society, and sense of self what has been passed down instead is shame that the Native isn't the white man, apology for the culture of the Native, and no sense of who or what the Native American actually is. A whole entire people group has been whipped into white man submission.
White people have managed to twist history to make the Native feel responsible for their plight. What people group would not rise up to defend themselves in the midst of systematic removal of every part of what makes them a unique and valuable people group? White people have certainly defended their ways, did we expect others would just lie down and let us trample them? Of course the Native Americans fought back, of course they did. You would as well in the same situation and under the same kind of conditions. You would.
What does God have to do with any of this? Well, quite a bit actually. After all, the Native American is created by him same as any other people group. He created them to add value and worth to this world we all inhabit. He gave the Natives a unique skill set to compliment others. He allowed them a rich culture filled with stewardship of the Earth, acknowledgment of a power that supersedes humans, and an ability to keep our stories alive through narrative and word picture. God looks on this people group with fierce love, pride, and hope for what they can contribute to this world. How he looks at them is how he tells us to look on them as well.
So what kind of response is necessary in light of historical truth? We can't, as individuals, do much to move the Government to make restitution. But as individuals we can begin to reach out and extend help to this people group that, despite the abuse they have endured, has faithfully and sacrificially served this nation in wars and protecting its resources. We can step outside of our white bubbles and take a genuine interest in a culture that respects the things we don't. We can give them their land back and clean up the land we dumped them on. We can enter into their plight with them and help lift them up out of it. Let us help our Natives to be the like the phoenix rising from the ashes of injustice, cultural shame, ethnic dilution, and depression.
A starter list of ways to reach out and help:
Key Organizations Helping the Native American Communities
Native American Heritage Association
Rotten American Indian Charities - you need to know who to not associate with as well as who to align with
Resources that contributed to my written post:
Native Americans and the Federal Government
The Effect of the Homestead Act on Native Americans
Top 10 Historic Indian Battles
Indian-Killer Andrew Jackson Deserves Top Spot on List of Worst U.S. Presidents
Native American History
Native American Genocide Still Haunts United States
Historical Myth; Columbus Did Not 'Discover' America, He Made Slaves Of Native Population, Killed Most Of The Indian Inhabitants
Nice Day for a Genocide: Shocking Quotes on Indians By U.S. Leaders
Native American History
Trail of Tears: The Native American "Problem" in the New World
Native American Living Conditions
Were American Indians the Victims of Genocide? - While some interesting points are made I disagree with the overall conclusion.
Current Problems for American Indians Today
What Do We Owe the Indians?
Why Are Indian Reservations So Poor? A Look At The Bottom 1%
An Introduction to Indian Nations in the United States
13th Annual State Of Indian Nations
Anton Treuer's 'Atlas of Indian Nations' covers the past and present of 560 diverse tribes
Indian Child Welfare Act
Stealing Children: A Look at Indigenous Child Removal Policies
Indian Removal
Trauma May Be Woven Into DNA of Native Americans
**The Canary Effect - I highly recommend this short documentary
Native reserve system is Canada's disgrace
Native American Indians
New Discovery Confirms Native American Views on Their Ancestry
Maybe every time Columbus Day comes around, we should rethink who the real heroes are
Who Scalped Whom? Historians Suggest Indians Were As Much Victims As Perpetrators
Thanksgiving: What Our History Teacher Didn't Tell Us
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: The Washington Redskins
1 comment:
Thanks for this wealth of resources Beth!
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