Shining A Light On The Dark Chapters Of Colonialism

by Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer

On October 31, 2014, Indian Country Today Media Network, the worlds largest Indian new source, published an article by Kevin Leecy, Chairman of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe and the Chair of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council. The articles' title is: The Truth About Our Origins Will Set Us All Free. The article has three selective comments. The third comment is my 430 word comment.

A few excepts from the article read: "In Germany, students in grades K-12 receive mandatory instruction about the Holocaust. In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission bore witness to the injustices of Apartheid. These countries took such public steps because they understand that casting light on the dark chapters of history is the only way to move beyond guilt and anger to real healing."

"When Europeans began their influx into this continent, there were tens of millions of Native people here with distinct cultures, communities and forms of governance. Europeans, and later Americans, who wanted the indigenous peoples’ lands and resources reacted in a variety of ways that included deception, outright lies and genocide."
"I am not saying this to make anyone feel bad. I am saying it because it is the truth – our truth as Americans – and until we acknowledge it and find a way to deal with it, we cannot move forward as a stronger, more united country. If we want it to be in the past, then we have to get past it."
My comment to the article reads: This Kevin Leecy's article is a sign among a number of other signs that indicate that Minnesota is coming into the forefront of the American and global movement that is shining a light on the dark chapters of colonialism, with the aim “to move beyond guilt and anger to real healing.” I [Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer] am an activist who has worked with the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council in the past. Rep. Dean Urdalh recently told me that he will soon honor my request to introduce a bill to change some of Minnesota’s derogatory geographic place names, including a lake named “Redskin Lake”. Several years ago, during a meeting with Minnesota Dakota tribal leaders and Rep. Dean Urdahl I was asked to write and present a draft Minnesota apology resolution to Urdahl. After he received my draft resolution he edited it and introduced it to the MN Legislature. It has the Doctrine of Discovery in it, mentioning the harm it has caused Indian people. Because of recent developments in MN, Urdahl informed me that we can go ahead now with more legislation to resolve these issues. After sending a link to a recent article of mine that has a statement in it about the Doctrine of Discovery to the Minnesota Council Of Churches I received a message from Kim Olstad, the Interfaith/Multi-faith Program Director at Minnesota Council of Churches. She informed me that she is involved with a Saint Paul, MN, Christian interfaith organization named SPIN and that it was going to have a fall series on the Doctrine of Discovery, called, "Disavowing the Doctrine of Discovery”. After corresponding with Kim Olstad I sent messages to, both, Archbishop John Nienstedt, the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, and Jason Adkins, the Executive Director of the Minnesota Catholic Council. In the messages I stated that I believed that Minnesota was coming into the forefront of this global movement and that the Church should participate in SPIN's fall series. It was not long after I sent this message that I received a reply message from Jason Adkins. We began to dialogue. I then received a message from Archbishop Nienstedt wherein he informed me that Father Erick Rutten, the Head of the Commission on Ecumenism and Interreligious Affairs would meet with me. We met and had a good dialogue session. We continue to correspond. I was told that the Archdiocese is honoring my request for it to get involved in SPIN’s fall series and to also connect with Rep. Urdahl, in order to help him get future legislation passed.

 

a future of ending the denial of real history, is one i always hope to be not distant. indiginous history, before the history of conquests, is always the real history, of any place.

too many people don't even know the cultures of where they are, many don't even know what the people who lived (and still live) where they are, called themselves.

to me that's just crazy, that people, who's ancestors may have come from someplace else, should not ever have been taught anything of substance,
about the only people who had been in that same place, less then a thousand years previously.

worse of course, is the denial of their own history, to people who are direct descendents of those who have always lived in that place.

fortunately there are language and culture restoration projects. unfortunately they are such an up hill battle, where they even exist.