I truly despise the American west. Well, not the actual American west… The fictional west. The west where
John Wayne defended settlers from savage Indians, and where Mormons proudly
conquered the un-tamable desert.
In fifth grade our school
trip was to visit the site of the Sand Creek Massacre. In case you’re not up on
this event, in 1864 a force of 700 Colorado militiamen attacked and slaughtered
150 Native Americans. Two-thirds of who were women and children. My fifth grade teacher quoted the
Colonel in command,
Damn
any man who sympathizes with Indians! …I have come to
kill Indians, and believe
it is right and honorable to use any means
under God’s heave to kill Indians.
If I knew the term “royal
ass-hat douche bag” I would of called my teacher this, with his prideful smirk,
after reading this quote to the class. This lesson of having a warmongering
lack of compassion for your fellow human, has stuck with me all my life.
Making me the bleeding heart liberal I am today. The story of taming the west
is actually a story of systematically destroying a part of the planet.
Systematically wiping a culture off the earth all for big business.
You may ask why am I going
off on this anti-west tirade today? Well, I’m taking an American History class
this semester. It is taught by a
tiny gay man that started last class on how the native peoples, who lived on
the land in the west for thousands of years, were hunted down and wiped out
like a ghetto in Poland. What? I was dumbstruck. A professor whose lector doesn’t sound like my Father’s view of
the world? Well… like my Dad always said; “Generally, you ain't learnin'
nothing when your mouth's a-jawin.”
Ironic that this is the picture hanging on the wall above my toilet? |
Favorite Cowboy book: The Man Who Fell in Love With the Moon Favorite Cowboy line: “I
speak horse. His name is Susan. And he wants you to respect his life choices.”
You might also like my classes on the Canadian West... No war against the First Nations here... just purposeful, slow genocide... which still goes on to this day.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah! And my partner is a Nakota Sioux.
And I love that you referenced the good Doctor. That line still make me laugh.
ReplyDelete