“You came to this country because you really wanted to be like us. But when you got here you got scared and tried to build the same cages you had run away from.”
Dan accentuates how the white settlers came to America to seek a new way of life away from European civilization. Initially the white settlers embraced the Native Americans and even assimilated into their culture. However, Dan further asserts how quickly the settlers reverted back to their cultural background and sought to impose their European ways. Thus, they created the same civilization in America they escaped initially when seeking a new settlement, moreover, enforcing oppression upon the Natives.
“If at times my words seem angry, you must forgive me. In my mind, there is great anger. No one who has seen the suffering of our children and the tears of our grandmothers cannot be angry. But in my heart, I struggle to forgive, because the land is my teacher, and the land says to forgive.”
In this assertion, Dan explains why his people harbor so much anger towards the outcome of their civilization. The birth of America came at a price that was primarily paid by the lives and suffering of the Native Americans. This perceptive is one that is rarely emphasized in the historical accounts. Hence Dan offers this authentic perspective but expresses it with so much anger because he still struggles with reconciling the past.
“If I lived in a big house and had rooms full of different things, if I had big cars and a library full of books, if I had pulled out all the flowers and medicine plants and made a lawn that looked like a rug, people would come to me and ask me about everything because they would say I am a ‘good’ Indian.”
This statement encompasses the notion that white people view the Native American culture as primitive and has no place in modern society. In that, for a Native American to be viewed as a ‘good’ member of society, he has to assimilate into the white culture through abandoning his own. Only when a Native American owns certain possessions as a white man can he or she be viewed as important by society. Dan points out this fact and how it is the reason why his culture is gradually dying and hopes to save it through his accounts.
“You took the places where the spirits talked to us and you gave us bags of flour.”
Dan stresses how the sacred lands of the Native Americans were unwillingly bought from their ancestors with worthless commodities. He highlights how modern capitalism was created and flourished on these lands. The places which were rendered as properties were significant parts in the deity of the Native people. This is the reason why Dan akin to his people hold anger toward the commodification of their sacred lands.
