I'm reading a gripping book by Rebecca Stott, a mystery, about a researcher at Cambridge who is writing a book about Newton and his connections to alchemy. I love this kind of read, where I learn about something historical, but painlessly. Actually, I'm pretty good at reading history anyway, and just finished a book about the killing of Crazy Horse. I've read other books on this subject, but this one looks at the situation surrounding Crazy Horse, and gives us a sense of tragedy and misunderstanding that has characterized white/Indian relations to this day. Maybe now the anger is directed at Indian casinos, whereas in the past it was how lazy Indians were, but the lack of accurate information and reporting is pretty much the same. Either we are noble savages or bums. Most of us are mixed blood, and struggle with the traditional Indian view that pure bloods and mixed bloods are different. We don't belong - or we do - and either way is a troubled path. Crazy Horse was perhaps mixed blood himself, no one knows for sure, but he was light skinned and reddish haired. Like African Americans, it was easier to label them one thing, not the complicated heritage that was the truth.
Many an Indian was killed because whites couldn't tell the difference between the peaceful Cherokee and the Comanche. And legions were forced to renounce their language, culture and religion. Tibet today is something Americans ought to understand, if they knew their own history in this country.
Anyway, knowledge maybe is not power, but despite complicating our ways of seeing, it leads to respectful caution when approaching others. We all have a long line of ancestors behind us, and histories that defy platitudes and snap judgments.
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