Our Fellow Americans

As someone who grew up on reservations and has served as a pro bono consultant to many tribes for twenty years, I felt Mark Leviton’s interview with Paul Chaat Smith [“Our Fellow Americans,” August 2019] was one of the best I’ve seen on the state of Native Americans. And now you’ve done it again with Tracy Frisch’s interview with Nick Estes. Estes touches all the bases on the mistreatment of Native Americans: the taking of land, the boarding schools, the prohibitions on speaking their language or practicing their native religions.

One thing that prompted the Standing Rock protest that Estes discusses was the original plan to have the oil pipeline cross the Missouri River upstream from Bismarck, North Dakota. It was moved largely because of concern about the impact of a possible leak on Bismarck’s water supply. But moving the pipeline meant the risk was just kicked down the road to where there were fewer people. Why the people in Pierre, South Dakota, didn’t join the Standing Rock protest is beyond me, as their water supply is at risk with the new crossing.

The Standing Rock protest should have focused on the larger issue: ending our dependence on fossil fuels. If we succeed in this effort, there will be no need for pipelines or oil wells. We need only to look to Sweden for an example of how to increase our reliance on hydropower, solar energy, and the like.

Rather than just protesting things like a pipeline location, we need to protest that we are not making enough progress on climate change.

Jim Murray Green Valley, Arizona

Having lived among American Indians on three reservations, where my father was a teacher, and having served as a consultant to many tribes while working as a professor of economics, I read with interest Mark Leviton’s interview with Paul Chaat Smith [“Our Fellow Americans,” August 2019]. This interview, and Smith’s essay “Geronimo’s Cadillac” in the same issue, are two of the most accurate descriptions of the Indian experience that I have read — and I have read many.

When I was growing up, all my neighbors and classmates were Ojibwas. Mine was the only white family within miles of the school where my father taught. I envied my Indian friends, who, it seemed, all had a pony, and who were better than I was at the things I considered important, like horsemanship, hunting, fishing, and so on. It was only after we moved that I understood Indians were a minority.

When I became a professor, I had an anthropologist colleague who thought the stereotype of the “noble savage” was bogus. He was a brilliant scholar but opinionated and undiplomatic, and when he shared his views, many Indians told him he was not welcome on their reservations.

I understand why Indians question the credibility of white academics who have distorted their past and present, but I think sometimes, as is true of all of us, they would rather live with the myth than with the truth. (Some historians, like Howard Zinn for instance, would say the same about the authors of widely read U.S. history textbooks.)

James M. Murray Green Valley, Arizona

I have been enamored with Native Americans since I was a child, and I found many new insights in Mark Leviton’s interview with Paul Chaat Smith [“Our Fellow Americans,” August 2019]. The first was about the decentralized leadership of the American Indian Movement [AIM], which reminded me of Occupy Wall Street, another movement that has disappointingly faded in importance. The second was the too-common practice in the United States — and in the media, in particular — of focusing on extremes rather than nuances. We — and I say this as an American who lives overseas — should not allow the sensational to cloud our headlines and our minds.

I look forward to viewing Smith’s Americans exhibit in Washington, D.C., and to reading more of his work.

Heather Skinner Mainz
Germany

“Our Fellow Americans” should be required reading for students and members of Congress. I have long read of the plight of American Indians and our betrayal of them, but I now have a lot more history and insight.

John Shine Urbandale, Iowa

I’ve always been interested in local history here in south Alabama, but I attended Alabama public schools and was taught the white man’s version of the Trail of Tears. I found Paul Chaat Smith’s insight into American Indian issues [“Our Fellow Americans,” interview by Mark Leviton, August 2019] thought provoking and, above all, human.

Charles W. Bryant Stockton, Alabama

Mark Leviton’s interview with Paul Chaat Smith has restored my faith in The Sun as a leading purveyor of our shared humanity. I’m thankful to Smith for telling the truth, brutal or otherwise. Maybe the truth will free us from imagining we’re so different — inferior or superior — from one another.

C.G. Armesto Buffalo, New York