The Invisible People

I have a culture and country that I can look back to for my identity. The Native American has no country or land that he can call his own. I have gone to Scotland and went through some of the castles my clan built. The Scots were conquered by the English but the Scots now have control of their own destiny and have their own identity.

The Native Americans are a conquered people who will never be a major player again in this country. All they want is to preserve their identity. In the first part of the twentieth century, the Indian children were taken from the tribes and put into government boarding schools. They had to dress like the white man. They were not allowed to speak their native tongue. They were stripped of their identity, dignity, cultures, and lands. How would that be any different than if after World War II if we had forced the Japanese people to give up their culture, their language and religion, to have colonized Japan (displaced them with Europeans). Remember Japan invaded the USA (Hawaii).

The Native American was vanquished by our forefathers because they thought that the Red Man was subhuman, a savage. The land was for the taking, the European was superior, we had firearms and we didn’t care how many Indians died. Colonization, slavery, disease, displacement and the gun took its toll on the Native American.

Throughout history, many cultures and races have been subjected to slavery, conquest and displacement but in addition, the original peoples of the Americas were nearly eradicated. Today they are the invisible people, a conquered people, subjected to unemployment, poverty, suicide, and alcoholism.

Take the time to look at the wind blown prairies, the mountains, the forests and wetlands; you just might see the spirit of a once proud people. I read in an article that in the near future the full-blooded Native American (in this country), will fade into history.