Author Phillip B Gottfredson
As someone who has lived among the Native people for decades, it has been a tremendous honor to witness firsthand what it means to be a Native American. We have been so sheltered from the harsh realities of settler colonialism, and the bullshit we have been handed about Indigenous peoples being savages, we don't have the faintest clue about the worldveiws of the Hopi, Dine', Yakama, Timpanogos, or any of the some 500 other Indigenous Nations on Turtle Island, the Mayan, Toltec, and Ecuadorian.
My ancestors were taught colonial logic. As members of the LDS Church, they believed in living the teachings of Jesus. And even though they didn't like the church's moral hypocrisy, they did nothing. They said nothing. They just bit their tongues, did their job, and paid tithing to the church, volunteering their labor and skills to the building of "God's kingdom." We believed that all living things, even Mother Earth, were a gift from the Creator to be used up to satisfy all our needs, because we are the "chosen people born with the divine right to subdue all things, even other human beings.
Some people say that the sufferings of Native people are 'their own damn fault.' But living decades among the Native people, I learned what it means to be human and free from the colonial mindset. Our enculturation blinds us, preventing us from seeing the harsh realities they confront every day due to our inherited racist and judgmental views.
How I ended up living with a Shoshoni family in Oregon, who were traditionalists, you can read in my book. Suffice it to say, it took a lot of personal commitment for me, in my late 50s, to sell everything I had and move to a strange land with strange people I had only learned about from watching Western movies. But I will be honest: I would do it all over again. It was the best years of my life.
It is difficult for Native people to talk about their painful past, especially to white Euro colonists. I can't blame them; they have been so demoralized and beaten down that it is tough to trust us. For many of us, it is difficult to face the truth that our ancestors did such horrible things to a kind and loving people, whose only crime was being "Indian."
There is much healing needed on both sides. Healing can only come from mutual respect, self-respect, and education. We need to find a common language that will bring us together as one people in a good way. Where we are free to live our lives without forcing individual beliefs upon one another, we should be able to walk our paths together with integrity, honesty, respect for each other, and being kind to each other.
Instead of arrogance, there should be humility, and instead of hate, there should be love. We should reach out to those suffering from the evils of the past. From our hearts, we should speak and listen. We need to talk, but we also need to listen, with our hearts.
It's crucial that we engage in mutual learning. We must grapple with the complexity of explaining to Indigenous people why our ancestors, who championed freedom and rebelled against aristocracy and supremacy, would come to America and strip the Native people of everything. Our ancestors arrived in America for a variety of reasons: some sought religious freedom, some were driven by the pursuit of wealth, and others were motivated by political reasons. But unlike our ancestors, Native Americans were already here, and free. They were free to be themselves, to live authentically, and to be deeply connected in spirit to the natural world.
Three hundred years have gone by, and to this day, Native Americans continue to struggle for justice for the devastation of colonialism. It is disturbing that so many of us cling to the old ways of thinking that one is inferior and the other superior.
Race and Manifest Destiny were only excuses for Europeans to justify their greed and superiority. Beliefs that had evolved long before they encountered indigenous people.
It is time that our schools adhere to federal mandates, and teach the truth about our history, and explain compassionately the dynamics of the time that led to such a horrific human tragedy. Explanations give us the tools to bring change. We need to recognize that there is still much work to be done before we can say with a clear conscience that we live in a country that guarantees liberty and justice for all, and not just for some.
The time has come for us to return to the sacred teachings that our Creator gave us. Forgive ourselves and each other for our petty ways, and reconcile the past with mutual respect and understanding. Yes, we can learn to forgive—but we will never forget.
Visit: The Silent Victims
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