The more we walk in unspoiled nature…the more we hear her sounds and see her sights…the more and more we realize the Native American’s had it right…
On our walk the other day…once again we were in awe…
let me share with you to some of the sights and sounds…some of the wonders that we heard and saw.
We heard many different birds singing…with various musical abilities
We heard the sound of water meeting the land and the wind whispering to the trees.
We saw the delicate intricacies of the spiders and the webs they all had spun.
We saw the beauty of the lake as its water glimmered in the sun.
We saw the bright yellows of the smooth beggarticks that all around us grew…the purples of the climbing asters and mist flowers painted blue
We saw the vibrant colors of the butterflies…Yellow, pink and white…
and herons everywhere we looked…in colors blue and white.
We saw alligators lurking in the marsh…moss filled trees alive and dead…we saw moorhens swimming with the alligators with eagles flying overhead.
So you can see how, with every walk we take in nature…the more we hear her sounds and see her sights…the more and more convinced we are…the Native American’s had it right…
It’s also way we try to walk in the footprints of their ancestors as often as we can…
so we can feel the same wonders they felt
walking in spaces
that have not been rearranged by man.
Today begins a month-long celebration of Native American heritage and history…unfortunately it’s a story that’s mixed with inhumanity…with sorrow and brutality.
It’s a story of people who didn’t look or act like us…who could not understand….why we would want them to go away…why we wouldn’t want them on ‘our’ land.
How we were willing to push them aside…to our human honor and dignity betray…how we were willing to do anything…to make them go away.
And if that, in itself, wasn’t enough of an insult…a disgrace…a slur…we stripped their children from their parent’s arms and tried to wipe out every vestige of who they were.
Ah…but all that happened long ago you say…give America a break! We are a different country now…we have learned from our mistakes.
That was a less civilized…less enlightened America…from a different time…a different when…we have come such a long way…and we’ve changed a lot since then.
But we cannot celebrate Native American heritage…their customs…their symbols…their histories…without also studying and lamenting the actions of our ancestors…and the enormity of their atrocities.
Because one of the reasons we study history is to look at all the good and bad…to come face-to-face…to meet them…so the good can continue on…and so our mistakes…we won’t repeat them.
So as we celebrate Native American heritage and history…we must look back at the horrors…and we must not forget…then we must look around today and ask ourselves if we have learned from our past mistakes…or if that hasn’t happened yet.
There are many of us who say we had nothing to do with the theft of land out from under the Natives who were here before us…that we didn’t break any promises, we didn’t lie or steal or kill in a massive land-takeover bid….
There are many of us who say we feel no shame, we take no responsibility for those actions…that was something our ancestors did.
There are many of us who say we’ve never enslaved another person…we’ve never mistreated, abused or caused another person woe…
There are many of us who say we feel no shame, we take no responsibility…that was our ancestors…and that was a long, long time ago.
But there are some of us who still see the impact of our ancestors…who see the destruction and devastation that has lingered long after the flood…
who know as long as there is still one person feeling their effects…
there will be a heaviness in our heart
and shame running through our blood.
When I was young I couldn’t wait to go outside and play
when school was not in session on Christopher Columbus Day.
We were taught all the stories…how he sailed the ocean blue
with the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria…in 1492.
We were taught he was a great explorer, across the oceans his boats swirled.
We were taught this Italian man who sailed for Spain discovered our new world.
He’s such a navigation hero our history books proclaim
that cities across this nation are christened in his name.
He’s been given the ultimate accolade…banks are closed and children play
as we commemorate Christopher Columbus with his very own holiday...
But then a strange thing happened, we found the history books were skewed
and we weren’t ready for the things we read or the feelings that ensued.
It seems this new world theory comes with a little hitch
Columbus wasn’t looking for America he just wanted to get rich.
He thought he’d sail to Asia when he left Spain that fateful day
but he was wrong about the route and America got in the way.
It was in the Caribbean not America where Columbus made landfall.
The fact is…he never landed on or visited America at all.
About his claim of discovering a new world…it’s a very misleading stat
I think the Native Americans might have something to say about that.
Because if I’m not mistaken they were here many years before
Christopher Columbus accidentally bumped into their shore.
And would a man who we’ve been taught was courageous, great and brave
kill the people who were already here or turn them into slaves?
Would we still look at Columbus Day with as much innocence and pride
If we knew how he decimated a people and committed genocide?
No, I think it’s time we stop giving Columbus so much dignity and glory
and teach our children while they’re in school…both sides of the story.
Perhaps then all of America will commemorate and cheer
those who really discovered our country…
you know, the ones who were already here.
So the next generation of children will be excited to go outside and play
when their school is not in session on Indigenous People’s Day.
A young Native American boy was interested in his heritage
like many of us he wanted to know where he haled from
for he knew who he was and who he is…determines who he’ll become.
His father took him to an old cemetery…without any fanfare…without any frills
It was an unmarked private resting place…high up in the hills.
They sat silently for a moment…to allow old memories to amass
and so the spirits of their ancestors could join them in the grass…
He wanted his son to see for himself…he wanted him to understand
where so many of his ancestors were killed…by settlers who wanted their land.
He said this grass where we are sitting on…has grown here all these years…
nurtured by the sunlight…and a hundred years of tears…
But he also wanted his son to know…to make him understand
how his ancestors loved the beauty of the air…the trees, the sky…the land…
How they would talk to the animals…how they could walk without making a sound…
how the ground where they were sitting…is considered sacred ground…
“This cemetery is a reminder," he said, “of how nothing on Earth will last.
A place to look to the future with joy…while we grieve the sufferings of the past."
As his father retold old stories…his son felt connected…he felt proud
and on that hill-top cemetery…he made a solemn vow…
to carry on his culture…his traditions
to remember his history…
to ride on the back of his ancestors and be the best person he could be….
And he still remembers that day in the cemetery
listening to stories of hope and love and fear….
Sitting with eyes focused on the future
In grass softened by a hundred years of tears..