I grew up in Iroquois country. In the 1950s we began learning about "the Indians" in kindergarten and we learned about them every year after that. Funny thing, though: we were never taught what happened to Native Americans. There was only one Native American family in my town. What happened to the rest? By the end of high school we still didn't know the answer to that. Even stranger, it never occurred to us to ask what happened to them. They were "just gone," an ancient people that disappeared.
In those same years, a close friend was growing up in Germany in the 1950s. At that time, the teaching of the history of the Holocaust was forbidden in German schools. My friend grew up knowing very little about the Holocaust. What had happened to the Jews in her town? They had "just disappeared."
These are not events to celebrate. October 11 should be a day of remembrance, learning about the fate of Native Americans, and reflection on what that fate says about our founding values. Are they still our values today? Do we still believe it's OK to rob people of their land, force them out of their home territory, and enslave and kill them? If we don't believe that, what are we doing to eradicate such ideas? What should we be doing about the impacts of our past actions, that endure to the present day?
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