Strawberryfields4ever

This picture is very telling to me...the juxtaposition of the old with the new...

Recently I have been reading a book entitled, Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement. It is an autobiography of Dennis Banks.

I have always been interested in the American West…since I was a little girl, so news or current events that relate are of interest to me. About a year ago, maybe eighteen months, I saw a news article on one of the major networks website about the Lakotah and the lawsuit that is still in litigation regarding the broken treaty of 1868 (succinct description here). That’s a long story, but as a result of reading about that lawsuit, I read the autobiography of Russell Means, Where White Men Fear to Tread. I enjoyed this book very much. It was quite an eye opener for me. He was a part of the American Indian Movement which came to prominence in the 70’s for its stand at Wounded Knee and in Washington, D. C. as well as other places. He, along with Dennis Banks, was part of the leadership of this group of people. So after reading the autobiography of Means, I felt that I wanted to read the autobiography of Banks as well to learn more information.

Now, I was raised on the Eastern seaboard. I have lived about five miles from the ocean for the vast majority of my life, so events that occurred “in the West” were practically fiction for me. When I was younger I learned in school about the atrocities that occurred to the American Indians such as Wounded Knee or Custer’s Last Stand. All of these things seemed very distant. As I became interested in reading more about AIM, I began to realize that the effects of these events are very much still in play. It is shocking what the United States government did to the indigenous people. It is a wonder that they have any cultural or language heritage left at all. Where was I when all of this was happening?!? I am relatively young, so much of it occurred when I was too young to remember, but as an adult I was totally ignorant about this organized cultural genocide of the American Indians (and arguably physical genocide)…tragedies that occurred during my lifetime, not one hundred years ago.

Truly, the stories of these two men, both of which are very politically charged, have made me stop and think about how sheltered I am even as an adult. We all tend to live our own lives and stay busy with what matters only to us or our families. There is so much injustice and dissent right in our own backyard. How thankful I am for my life, my loved ones, my job, and my faith. I pray that our country’s leaders will make wise decisions for our future, and hopefully move us in a positive direction.

(I know this is a heavy post... I will try to be funny tomorrow...)