Paul Chaat Smith On The Complex Truth Of Native American History
To see the full picture of Indians — as people who have had a continuing, complex relationship with all aspects of American culture — is just too much for some people. They want to put Indians in a box.
I suggest that a powerful antidote to the manufactured past now being created for us is the secret history of Indians in the twentieth century. Geronimo really did have a Cadillac and used to drive it to church, where he’d sign autographs.
Three months before his third birthday, his Italian grandfather (on his mother’s side) set him on a proper bicycle, pushed him forward, and shouted, “Spingi, spingi, spingi!” Just like that, he rode down the driveway.
Upon arriving at the bungalow, he learned something else about himself: if there was a 5 percent chance that fucking his ex-wife’s hairdresser might kill him, he was perfectly willing to take that risk.
I could never stay long enough on the shore; the tang of the untainted, fresh, and free sea air was like a cool, quieting thought.
Poems By Native American Writers
Flunking a driver’s test, frightening a bully, grown up at fourteen
Featuring Tim Wise, Vine Deloria Jr., Sun Bear, and more.
The whole world was a nest on its humble tilt, in the maze of the universe, holding us.
When questioned by an anthropologist on what the Indians called America before the white man came, an Indian said simply, “Ours.”
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