By The Editorial Board
Nov. 1 marked the first day of Native American Heritage Month. Since its official designation in 1990, the month has been a time to honor Native American culture, achievement, societal contributions and history.
Native American Heritage Month doesn’t always get the same attention other minority celebration months receive, namely Black History Month or LGBTQ+ Pride Month, but there are many reasons to recognize the influence native culture has in history.
Native American tribes have contributed much to our society today, including technology, political systems, art and music.
The Iroquois Great Law of Peace was a major influence on our own system of government. Many American cities are named after the tribes that once inhabited the land.
Baylor was built on lands originally occupied by Native American tribes, including “Waco and Tawakoni of the Wichita and Affiliate Tribes, the Tonkawa, the Nʉmʉnʉʉ (Comanche), Karankawa and Lipan Apache,” according to the land acknowledgement.
These peoples were dispossessed from their original lands. Because of that, Baylor now seeks to maintain good relationships with the tribes and recognize that long and painful history, which is a step in the right direction.
In recent years, there have been national conversations about historical guilt. How much do the descendants — or people who look like the descendants — of colonial settlers owe to the descendants of those they displaced and harmed? Typically, these conversations revolve around paying reparations for slavery, but, they also extend to the context of reparations for atrocities such as the Trail of Tears, assimilation boarding schools and other means of oppression levied against Native Americans.
While these conversations are worth having, Native American History Month is more than an apology for what those before us did wrong. It’s about acknowledging and celebrating a group of people who loved and cared for the lands that we now live on. How do we honor what came before while we look to become faithful stewards of the land moving forward?
One of the most powerful things we can do to celebrate Native peoples is talk about them. When it comes to historically marginalized groups, erasing their memory and history or ignoring their presence in the modern day only further harms those communities.
That means having hard conversations. We must acknowledge the wrongs that have been committed and make efforts to learn about the culture and heritage so often pushed aside.
Don’t stop there. Dive into our past by reading books such as “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” which sheds light on 19th-century America’s campaign of bloodshed against the tribes. Spread awareness about the ways in which the crippling of these communities continues to impact them today.
That’s a good place to start, but true celebration of Native American History takes action. To that end, Baylor is holding a plethora of events to honor the month. From concerts and luncheons to plays, November is chock-full of opportunities to not only welcome Native American History Month, but to learn more about the contributions of Natives and how they change our world today.
So, this November, pay attention to events. Attend, and come with humility and a willingness to learn. Come to find beauty in an unfamiliar culture. If we all commit to doing this, we can repair little by little a relationship fractured by the past.
