Lessons Not Learned

 

When I was in high school (more years ago than I care to admit), I had some wonderful teachers.  Some of which I have talked about and rightfully thanked.  Some of which I have not.

One of those was Mrs. R who taught history. I had two classes with her my senior year, US History II and Foreign Policy.  I didn't really want to take the latter, but am glad I did as I learned so much from Mrs. R; more than I thought was possible.  She was quick on her feet; she was set to debate a fellow student on the Vietnam war and at the last minute the student decided he would be a Dove instead of a Hawk (I think he always intended to do that, he wanted to rattle her) and she effortlessly switched her focus and became a fierce hawk.  (A side I know she would have opposed.) It was impressive.

Mrs. R was a small woman, but was larger than life when it came to history and justice. One of the things I (we?) learned about from her was the plight of the Native Americans.  What we saw in movies and tv shows was not true history.  I was appalled at we learned and I remember her mentioning the book, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee.

Now my senior year in high school was a LONG time ago, but still Mrs. R and her teachings have stayed with me.  I try to look at things with a critical eye and not just "choose" a side, but to be well rounded and research.

This year I decided to take on another book challenge.  (If you've been reading my blog for a while you may recall that in 2015-2016 I attempted to read as many of the Pulitzer Prize winners for Fiction as I could.  For reference:  https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/its-finished-pulitzer-project.html) A friend of mine had read a book for every year of her life.  (Example:  if you were born in 2000 you'd read 26 books, each one published in one of the years you've been alive.)  I'm not saying how old I am (or will be this year), but it's easy enough for someone to figure out and I have a LOT of books to read.  The real challenge is finding books published in certain years that I haven't already read.  (For example:  1985; I've already read The Handmaid's Tale, Less Than Zero, The Cider House Rules, Skeleton Crew, Lonesome Dove...)  But I'm working on it and hope that I will successfully find one book to read for every year of my life that seems interesting.  (Sometimes books that you think you'll love turn out to be duds.)

But what does this have to do with Mrs. R?  I'm sure you've figured it out.  For 1970, I decided to read Dee Brown's Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. Considering the times we are living in now this was either the best choice or the worst.  

It was the best to further my education.  I knew of the atrocities that had been forced upon the natives by "white men." I did not know how harrowing it all was and Dee Brown lays it all out in 19 heart breaking chapters as time and time again, Native Americans who had lived on and cared for the land (“To the Indians it seemed that these Europeans hated everything in nature - the living forests and their birds and beasts, the grassy grades, the water, the soil, the air itself.”), were lied to (I can't even count how many treaties the government broke, “They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they never kept but one; they promised to take our land, and they took it.” ), violently forced to move and bend to the will of the "white man," imprisoned (“I was born upon the prairie, where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there are no enclosures and where everything drew a free breath. I want to die there and not within walls.") and slaughtered (including women, children and babies) in ways that will haunt me forever. 

The ignorance and lack of humanity on the part of the "educated" and those in government is astounding.  I had NO idea that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Elk v. Wilkins (1884) that Native Americans were not automatically U.S. citizens under the 14th Amendment (WHAT?), treating them as "aliens."  This was not rectified until 1924!

Which is also why this book was the worst choice for my spirit and mental health.  How Native Americans were treated as less than human.   Their wisdom, which to me seems obvious, ignored.  This book made me ashamed.  And made me wonder WHY we have not learned from history?  (Perhaps because so many have chosen to ignore it and erase it.   If we forget about the genocide of the Native Americans, the enslavement of African Americans and the holocaust, they never really happened, right?) Cruelty has existed since the dawn of time, but why have so many chose to embrace it?  (And continue to do so?)

I chose not to.  I have always tried not to.  Reading Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee has made me redouble those efforts and to do whatever I can to educate people (including myself because education should never end) about what "we" (non-Native Americans) did to our fellow man.  While I cannot go back and change the past, it is within my power to try and stop such cruelty to any group of people from happening again.

I may not have realized it at the time, but Mrs. R changed my life.  This book changed my life.  If you are strong enough to stomach the truth, it just might change yours as well.