Native Americans’ Land

Utah

November 24, 2020

I am guessing most of us when we learned US history in school learned about the settlers moving westward. There was passing mention how they had to fight the “savage Indians” in order to live safely. No time was spent learning about how we stole the land from the Native Americans.

My daughter Courtney pointed this out to me when she commented on how the history of the places I am visiting begins with the settlers, not the Native Americans.

She made me aware of the website https://native-land.ca/. It shows you what Native American tribes/communities lived on the land before the settlers pushed them out.

It got me thinking about the Navajo Nation out here. From afar we can feel good that the Navajos have land to call their own. But close up when you are there, you see that the land is desert and that the folks live in slum-like conditions. Poverty everywhere. I know that is true at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

Hopefully kids today are learning the real story of what it meant to “conquer the West.” However, I doubt they are.