The Great Dying, Recognizing Culture

The Great Dying continues to linger in mind. Why as a country have we not talked about this more? It’s really crazy when I think about how often we try and point the finger at other countries behaving badly but fail to acknowledge are success was built on some of the worst tragedies.

 Native Americans welcomed Europeans who came to America, but were then betrayed and viewed as savages by these newcomers. For that reason, their culture, their arts, their status as human beings was given no value. The consequences over time were literally crushing for American Indian civilizations.

In the 1800s, the government forced Native Americans from their lands onto barren reservations. These desolate places were never intended to be economically viable and became areas of intense poverty. Obviously and purposefully the white-controlled government wanted Indian cultures broken up. Breaking up the land base was one way of doing that, because of the spiritual attachment to the lands on which Indians lived.

The government required written permission for Native Americans to leave reservations and outlawed their religions. The government promised in treaties to protect the rights of Native Americans and provide them with food, health services and education, but these treaties were not honored.

Boarding schools were established as the government's attempt to civilize the Native American children according to Western culture. Children as young as four years old were taken away from their families and sent hundreds of miles away for months or years at a time.

In order for healing to occur, non-Native Americans need to acknowledge what has happened. Only in the past half- decade has the government made any effort to formally apologize. But what is most important is that people begin to know and understand more. We need to understand not only what happened, but the great contributions that Native Americans have made to everything we call civilization or culture in this country.