Where have the Native American peoples gone? Well, of course I know the answer to this question, too. They have died in large numbers, been moved off their land, and had their way of life forever altered by their interaction with European migrants. I have a passion for justice, and I find it pretty easy to stand at a distance from our national history and point out the wrongs that have been done. As if the story of Native Americans were somehow unrelated to my own life.
But what happens when I draw myself closer to the issue? What happens when things get personal? I discover that I am strangely ignorant of the historical events, the names, and the faces. I realize afresh that I have heard this story mainly from the white man’s point of view. And I begin to wonder what it means if the local lands where I live my life have been taken from the previous occupants against their will. This requires some deeper fact-finding and soul-searching, and there will be no easy answers.
Michelle Garred 