CULTURE:

Consider these tough questions:

What if you were suddenly forced to abandon your own language and speak in a strange and unfamiliar language? 

What if every time you spoke your own language you were severely punished, beaten, terrified?

What if your food - the food for your family - was forcibly taken by the government and you were forbidden to do anything to get more food. Yet other people could easily take the same type of food; greedily taking and wasting it while your family starved?

These things have happened to the Native Americans, and other Aboriginal people of the world. This and other forms of caustic and horrific things are happening in the world even now, by people who consider themselves "superior" in some way.

THE CHILDREN...
What if the children in your home, family, and community were severely punished for speaking your native language? The language of the family. The language that they know.

And Worse, What if these children were torn from your arms, and sent far away to boarding schools, taught in ways totally different than your ways and values, and turned into someone completely different?

And can you imagine this ... When (and if) after many years, your children finally returned, they were virtual strangers to you, the family, the traditions, and the typical ways of life.

And yes, What about the many children who never returned. Where are they? What horrors did they suffer?

These are things that Native American people, and First Nations People of Canada, and Alaska Natives have suffered. Native peoples have endured these and other curel and devastating treatment  - much like the so-called "ethnic cleansing" carried out in other parts of the world.  

To have your language, your food source and your way of life stripped from you is demoralizing and dehumanizing. And to lose your children and have their heritage crushed out of them inflicted pain that words cannot describe. The Native people endured this and other cruel and devasating treatment for centuries.

NOW IS THE TIME FOR HEALING AND RESTORATION.  Let's all do our part in the healing process. Understanding is an important step in the process.

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Picture at top of page: Scene of Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal Community, west of Port Angeles WA, USA, with the "Sleeping Giants" of the Olympics in the background. Photo by Sue Charles / Native Media. Copyright 2000 All Rights Reserved
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