I hesitate to write about political and religious topics on my blog because there will always be someone offended; but I cannot resist.
When I was in grade school around Thanksgiving time we would wear black and white pilgrim hats we made from construction paper. We wore them proudly as we sang in concert “This land is your land, this land is my land….” – And we had images of Indians sitting with the pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving enjoying each other’s company. The Indians helped the pilgrims to survive, which was a good thing since the European settlers were much more advanced in their culture. We know those settlers started colonies that would later overtake the primitive Indian culture, but that was the way it had to be since the Europeans had a more advanced culture and theology. The Pilgrims were able to save many of the Indians, which was a good thing since most of the Indians were doomed to hell for not being Christian. The Indians had spent thousands of years in America, but had done nothing with it. They had their time and squandered it. We made America into something the primitive Indians could not acheive, saved their souls and gave the tribes land to continue their culture if they wished – which would be a mistake, but if they want to continue being backward, then that’s their choice. We can’t help it they didn’t advance. Still to this day Indians cry in their beer over it. Oh well, maybe you should have advanced rather than building wigwams and shooting deer for two thousand years.
And THAT was my childhood understanding of the roots of American culture. How twisted and offensive is that?
The reason this all comes back to me is from a CNN article last week, where some teachers are teaching Thanksgiving to children in a different fashion. They are walking up to children’s desks and taking a pencil off it, then a book, then a child’s shoe, then a coat – when the children complain the teacher responds “But I discovered it.” The children cry, then the teacher explains early American history from a Native American perspective. This has drawn complaints from many, as well as praise. For my vote, I praise it.
History has shown us that when a more advance culture comes in contact with one that is less advanced; the more advanced culture will over-run the other culture. This might be a comment on the dark side of human nature. If you want to extrapolate that fact out, let’s hope that if an alien culture comes in contact with Earth at some point in the future they do not share this human characteristic.
The modern Native American nation as far as I can see is not bent on revenge, but they are finally in a position to stand up and claim their cultural homestead. The stereotype of Native Americans living on the dole while drunk on the reservation is giving way to organized groups of Native American attorneys and professionals guiding the funds of the “Indian Casinos” to reinstating their culture, what is left of it, for future generations.
Why didn’t they do this before? My understanding is that the Indian Nation was given sovreign rights under the Reagan administration, which allowed the building of casinos. This idea took a while to catch on – but the financial success of these spread like wildfire. I would be as you’re reading this, you know of an Indian Casino in your vicinity that has been build within the last 10 years. Yes? Ka-ching.
So what changed my perspective? I think I am just in the wave with everyone else, a slow change in social consciousness, a paradigm shift. What was once our pride and joy of an expanding nation, some of us now look on as the decimation of an entire culture. And yes, a culture that had a great deal to teach us about many things, but our forefathers were not in a place to listen.
Sometimes I think years of performing in bars and casinos impeded my sense of the world. But I DID get a chance to spend a lot of time on reservations. While playing in country bands I was in Flagstaff for several weeks and that was my first conversations directly with Native Americans. They gave me “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” to read – a horrific account of the destruction of the Native Americans, very different from How The West Was Won. I would suggest this book to anyone to read; if you are white I think it will break your heart, as it did mine. It might be the only book I’ve read that actually made me cry.
Then almost ten years playing with Freddy Fender we spent quite a bit of time playing in Indian casinos. Because Freddy was a name act, we were often treated to behind the scenes tours of the reservations and got the inside scoop from a Native American perspective. There was a comraderie I think because Freddy was Hispanic, and we weren’t vied as a “white” group.
I recount this just to let you know the deep, deep pain present in the Native American communities. Maybe I’m stating the obvious, but as a child I had the understanding these things were from a different age; all taken care of and done in the 1800’s – and we lived in a different world. No, we live in the same world, and the repercussions from those actions are still very present – albeit seemingly dormant.
So I’ve wandered from Pilgrims to the late 1800’s. What’s my point? My point is to be aware that our history is strewn with propoganda, and what we think may be true, may be quite a spin. I like very much the new attitude toward the teaching of history – I do not see the heavy propoganda with current school children like I experienced as a child. Thank God for the History Channel and the internet, which have both provided us with more information than the black and white History class films of our youth.
I don’t have any answers to what could have been done differently – for that I fall short. And I admit I like my Thanksgiving celebrations with family, and I like American culture, grassroots Christianity and our way of life. But I keep a thought at all times in the back of my mind – to realize that the world around me may not be how I see it, and that the glasses I wear give a different view than someone elses. I could very well be wearing the wrong glasses at any time.
And my note to missionaries, which I don’t pretend will be received with warmth: I think a world of good would be realized to immerse yourself in a foreign culture to understand and absorb that culture, without the predetermination that you are their to change and enlighten it.
I hope that’s a thought for all of us to consider.
MORE READING
Pilgrim Hall Museum
History Channel – First Thanksgiving
This is a great documentary if you can watch it
IMPACT OF BOOK – BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE
It is difficult to overstate the impact of the book. Prior to its publication in 1970, the dominant images of the period were of noble settlers threatened by savage Indians and defended by the 7th Cavalry. The book brought to the public’s attention the other side of the story: that the original owners of the land were systematically massacred, betrayed and forced onto only those scraps of land that the more numerous and technologically superior conquerors disdained.
One strength of the book is its strong documentation to original sources. Its message may not have been a welcome one, but it came loaded with facts. The other strength is that each chapter forms a story, compelling as any fiction and far more interesting than academic treatises.
THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT
Signed by Pilgrim Leaders
In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are under-written, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, etc.
Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine our selves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the eleventh of November [New Style, November 21], in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord, King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Dom. 1620.
