Thursday, June 24, 2004

I went to Little Big Horn, site of the 7th Cavalry's defeat, because I grew up with the popular "white" view of the event -- a terrible tragedy, a massacre -- and I wanted to see whether there was a balanced presentation that reflected not just the "how" but the "why", the provocations and betrayals by the government. While there is now a memorial -- off to the side -- to "explain" the Indian side, I was disheartened by two things: the tone of the Ranger's talk NOT being balanced and still conveying the soldiers-as-heros without taking the "teachable moment" to educate about treaty-breaking and outright theft of land by our government AND the fact that the audience/visitors I saw were disinterested in that part, as evidenced by how few went over to the Indian memorial.

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