What can be done to heal the damage done to native communities by colonists, including Quakers? As Paula Palmer shares, it begins with telling the truth.
Resources:
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- Read Friends Journal to see how other Friends describe the substance of Quaker spirituality
- READ Paula’s Friends Journal article on Quaker Indian Boarding Schools.
Transcript:
Native people say that for healing to occur—and I think what Quakers are looking for when thinking about what the world needs is healing of many kinds… for healing to occur, the first thing that needs to happen is for us to acknowledge the harm that was done.
Seeking Right Relationship With Native Americans
My name is Paula Palmer. I live in Louisville, Colorado, which is the territory of the Arapaho people. They call themselves the Hinono’eino. My meeting is the Boulder Monthly Meeting and the Intermountain Yearly Meeting.
About 8 years ago, I experienced a leading to educate—myself first, and others—about the real history of what happened here in this country, the real history of the colonization of this country and the genocide of the indigenous peoples and the ongoing consequences for indigenous people here in this country and for all of us, really. For all of us as a nation and as communities.
Seeking the Truth
The first step toward reconciliation is truth telling. This is something that’s been important to Quakers since the beginning. We were called “seekers of the truth.” We need now to be seekers of the truth. I think one of the main problems is that we as a country are in such denial about the history of this land. We just so rarely mention genocide and colonization as foundational sins of our society, and—along with slavery—these are the foundational sins of our country and we continue to be wounded by these crimes against humanity.
Working Toward Right Relationship
I ended up creating a workshop, which we’ve now taken to almost 300 churches and colleges and universities, educating and motivating people to think about the land that we live on. Think about the peoples who lived on that land before European settlement. Think about those people and reach out to them.
We start with looking at what is the source of the injustices that have been committed and continue to be committed against indigenous peoples, and we find those roots essentially in a doctrine that’s called the doctrine of discovery, which is the justification that Europeans used to conquer and take the lands of indigenous peoples all over the world.
Facing the Quaker Legacy
For Quakers, one of the periods of this history that we have to look at ourselves is the era of the Indian Boarding Schools, because Quakers took a leadership role among the different churches in collaborating with the U.S. government in the forced assimilation of native children by means of the Indian Boarding Schools. We operated something like 30 day schools and boarding schools, most of them boarding schools for indigenous children, whose purpose was assimilation.
This is part of Quaker history that I’ve struggled to face and that I’ve tried to share, I am trying to share with Quakers around the country, and asking us to ask, “what are our responsibilities and what are our opportunities?”
An Opportunity for Healing
One thing that some Quaker meetings have started doing in Canada and in the United States is acknowledging the indigenous peoples on whose land we are living and worshiping. It’s a way to begin to ask the question, “what kind of relationship might we have with the native peoples who have lived here and who are living her now?”
A young Tohono Oʼodham man said in one of our workshops, “No one here today made these things happen, but we are the ones who are living now. And we’re all in this together.” And I think that’s what we need to hear. No one here today made all of these things happen, but we are the ones who are living now. So what are our opportunities to work with indigenous peoples, to engage them, to ask them, “What would right relationship look like?”
Discussion Questions:
- How much do you know about the history of the land where you live and worship? Who are the native peoples that previously lived there? How were they removed? Where are they now?
- Paula says that genocide and slavery are, “the foundational sins of our country and we continue to be wounded by these crimes against humanity.” Do you agree? How are we continuing to be wounded? What can we do to start to heal these wounds?
The views expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Friends Journal or its collaborators.
What was, is gone…it’s the What is …that now matters, lets make amends, shall we ?
I have been reading a very eye-opening book, Leilani Sabzalian’s Indigenous Children’s Survivance in Public Schools,about how and what schools teach about Native Americans(NA)and how that affects the Native American and dominant-culture American. I was shocked that even , today, with the best intentions, teachers act as if these students NAs were all one people rather than those of many separate nations , that they are to be studied for their past and that that past is represented by simplified representations of who they were and how, the implication is, they still, really are , eg. Drum playing, feather costumed, basket weaving simpler (more primitive) than us (European “white”) people. No context is given in most teachers’ lessons for the past or present of these various nations, nor information about certain American laws meant to protect ( as well, unfortunately, to limit) the N.A.s. For example, teachers are not allowed, legally, though they rarely know it, to even have students paint a mural whose subject is Native Americans, without permission of a NA nation. In one such classroom,where students were beginning to design an Indian-themed mural, the students got to interact with and personally know members of a nearby nation, which gave them more personal as well as complex knowledge, of real people. This exchange occurred only because the author of the book and an Indian educator in the community told the teacher of the law. The Native Americans actually told the class that they could not design the mural the way they had planned ( half naked Indians in a canoe….) and from then on , thought-provoking, sometimes uncomfortable, but ultimately awakening, discussions occurred.
I like your attempt to try to have more realistic, contemporary understanding of Native Americans, then and now. I would add questions to the ones you already generated that delve into, for example, why ( not just where ) are certain nations living where they now live? What treaties or treatments shaped their movements? What kinds of governments do they have now and how do they legally and politically interact with the dominant government? Who are some present day Native Americans we should know about in all the various fields of life? How, in general, do dominant powers insidiously steal from and undermine, people in the conquered nations, as Quakers did when they took NA children from their families into boarding schools, believing, that these Quakers, who knew nothing about the NA culture, would “civilize” these kids, thus maintaining the binary us-they simple paradigm which takes away the complex authenticity of the conquered people. Obviously, these past Quakers did not even make parallels with their own historical beginnings, when they were jailed in windowless cells and not fed, because they dressed differently from the mainstream and did not worship or think, religiously, in the ways of the dominant society, of which, they had so recently been a part. Perhaps another question could be something like “Why did we and why do many people, not learn from, so that we would recognize when it is happening again, in the present,in a different form. What are our prejudiced views of others now and where do they come from ? Who in our community do we not know or seek to know? Why?
PS .my third to last sentence should have had “learn from the past” and the second sentence in the first paragraph should end with “students”. I am sorry that I did not proof-read what I wrote more carefully.
Mary
I have been reading a very eye-opening book, Leilani Sabzalian’s “Indigenous Children’s Survivance in Public Schools, “about how and what schools teach about Native Americans (NA)and how that affects the Native American and dominant-culture American students. I was shocked that even , today, with the best intentions, teachers act as if these NAs were all one people rather than those of many separate nations , that they are to be studied for their past and that that past is represented by simplified representations of who they were and how, the implication is, they still, really are , e.g. Drum playing, feather costumed, basket weaving simpler (more primitive) than us (European “white”) people. No context is given in most teachers’ lessons for the past or present of these various nations, nor information about certain American laws meant to protect ( as well, unfortunately, to limit) the N.A.s. For example, teachers are not allowed, legally, though they rarely know it, to even have students paint a mural whose subject is Native Americans, without permission of a NA nation. In one such classroom, where students were beginning to design an Indian-themed mural, the students got to interact with and personally know members of a nearby nation, which gave them more personal as well as complex knowledge, of real people. This exchange occurred only because the author of the book and an Indian educator in the community told the teacher of the law. The Native Americans actually told the class that they could not design the mural the way they had planned ( half naked Indians in a canoe….) and from then on , thought-provoking, sometimes uncomfortable, but ultimately awakening, discussions occurred.
I like the beginning of what you have been attempting in trying to have more realistic, contemporary understanding of Native Americans, then and now. I would add questions that delve into, for example, why ( not just where ) are certain nations living where they now live? What treaties or treatments shaped their movements? What kinds of governments do they have now? Who are some present day Native Americans we should know about in all the various fields of life? How, in general, do dominant powers insidiously steal from and undermine, people in the conquered nations, as Quakers did when they took NA children from their families into boarding schools, believing, that these Quakers, who knew nothing about the NA culture, would “civilize” these kids, thus maintaining the binary us-they simple paradigm which takes away the complex authenticity of the conquered people. Obviously, these past Quakers did not even make parallels with their own historical beginnings, when they were jailed in windowless cells and not fed, because they dressed differently from the mainstream and did not worship or think, religiously, in the ways of the dominant society, of which, they had so recently been a part. Perhaps another question could be something like “Why did we and why do many people, not learn from, our past what, had we learned, we would recognize as happening now in a different form. What are our prejudiced views of others now and where do they come from? Who in our community do we not know or seek to know? Why?
When I was a child we played cowboys and Indians. Indians were the bad guys, the enemy and that was normal. Today we know better. Paula’s leading is a buried truth, the harm done to Native American populations was and is abhorrent. As Paula said, we are here to do the best we can to make amends.
We also know the truth about African Americans and atrocities committed by white people. They were taken from their land, chained in boats, viewed as inhuman, to become slaves for American prosperity. Families were separated, babies taken from mothers rings a familiar recent tone. Their homes in Africa are unknown, yet they live in a society today where hateful white hearts still surround them. Like Paula said, “No one here made these things happen, but we are the ones living here now”. Most of us know this history and living today as the privileged race, we need to open our hearts and take the long walk in government, in our thoughts, speech, and actions to work toward tolerance and equality for our people whose difference is only the color of their skin.
Karma, does and will correct all misdeeds”
“A Universal Justice System monitors our evil versus righteous behavior and implements corresponding retribution.”
(from Daheshism)
Speaking always in past tense negates what is still happening today. Minorities are still oppressed and still are suffering. Amends without changing the systems that oppress people of color is empty.
Please tell us which nations did you base the saying about what needs to happen for healing to occur?
Thanks — and one of the points the book I mentioned makes, repeatedly, is how “white” Americans act, however innocently, as if all Native Americans are the same. It’s as if we were to say that “South Americans say that for healing to occur….” , rather than Brazilians, Chileans etc.
Despite my squibbles, I am still very glad that you have followed your important leading; as you can see, what you wrote has inspired me to keep thinking about our relationship with Native Americans!
Wonderful! The workshop, a ceremony really, that Paula created with imput and permission of indigenous people is very powerfully educational and spiritual.
I want to commend this video and the workshop that Paula brought to our community “Roots of Injustice – Seeds of Change”.
The workshop, along with many other initiatives, helped our Meeting and our community explore the history of our relationship with native people. That experience has proven to be an impetus for lots of collaborative and healing work with local tribes.
We can’t move on until we take a hard look at the past and delve deeply into how we might be perpetuating the pain and inequity of the past. The work will never be done but we are excited to learn from our mutual history and experience how we can walk this path together. Please consider engaging in this topic with your Meeting and community. It is a rich experience.