Thoughts on Native American Culture

What's past is past. We can't go back and undo our mistakes. I'm sorry to all of the blacks who were enslaved, but that has nothing to do with the present. It's time to drop the grudge and try to get along with the ancestors of those who oppressed your ancestors.

It's a similar situation with the Native Americans. I'm sorry we killed your ancestors and robbed you of the land that was rightfully yours. We can't undo the mistakes. You are not going to get all the people who invaded your territory to leave. You are going to have to deal with the reality that you have to share your land. It's best not to have neighbors despising their neighbors, so let's try to get along.


I want to point out one key difference between Native Americans and Blacks. Blacks were forced to leave their cultures in Africa. Native Americans had their cultures destroyed on their own land. I'm not saying that blacks should be forced to return to Africa, but their cultures are at least safe.

Native Americans are trying to maintain their culture, but there is no place where Native American culture is truly safe. While I'm not a big believer in the past, what we did to the Native Americans is no excuse to finish off their culture.

I don't like all of the racial barriers that currently exist in America. While it's easy to say that Native Americans should just give in to our demands, sacrifices can't be one way. This is especially true when you look at the reason we need to get along. We all have to make sacrifices to eliminate the barriers.

Although I'm no fan of Barack Obama, he just got something right. Okay, maybe it wasn't really him. He's just the one getting the credit. The Department of the Interior is restoring Denali's name. You can make arguments about how the executive branch handled this decision, but it was at least the right decision. Denali has always been the mountain's name, and the federal government is finally willing to officially acknowledge its name.

I should probably also point out the idea that a name forced on Alaskans by a political stunt could be maintained by the people of Ohio is ridiculous. Let me clarify something. This mountain was not named for a president nor a man who died serving his country. Mount McKinley was named by a prospector prior to McKinley's election.

Of course, this issue kind of hits home for me. We have a local mountain that I like to call Tahoma. Officially, it's Mt. Rainier. Tahoma (as well as Tacoma and Tacobet) is a native American name for the mountain. I prefer the local name to the federal name. By the way, Rainier fought against the United States during the Revolutionary War. That seems like kind of an odd choice for the American government to force on us.

Okay, I'm deviating a bit. Let me get back on point. Names are among the concessions that I'm talking about. Let's give up on the names we created to replace theirs. They discovered them, and we stole them. I think their names are more worthy.

I also want to mention the schools. Although I absolutely hate the schools, I acknowledge they are currently a part of modern-day society (that we need to get rid of). There should be classes for various forms of Native American studies. For example, we generally require both American and world history classes. A lot of schools have classes that specialize in Black history, even though blacks in American history already feature prominently in American history classes. Why are there no classes about the history of this continent prior to our arrival? Yes, American history acknowledges that the natives predate Europeans, but that's pretty much the extent of what we are told in school.

More obvious classes would be Native American culture classes. Why is it wrong to teach children the culture of the land where they live? We should do more to embrace their culture, and we currently refuse to inform future generation of that culture.

Related to culture, schools should offer classes in native languages. Personally, I would rather have kids learn the language of the land than to suck up to illegal aliens by learning Spanish.

We should take pride in our region's heritage, not just our ancestors'. I don't like divides such as special laws for Native Americans. If we really want Native Americans to embrace us as their neighbors and share our society, let's embrace their land and their culture.