Today is November 26th, 2021 and it is Native American Heritage Day which has been an annual event since 2009 when Barack Obama signed it in. To the few who knew me, I was very behind this happening. I know not all presidents wanted to take that leap of recognition or were pressed not to. I’m glad it finally got done and we can now celebrate it! I say “now” because it is clear that all these hundreds of years we haven’t thanked the original owners of “the table” newcomers to the Americas were fed at. The Native American Indians were PROVIDERS to people in the early days. They gave advice in the new world. They were not as sophisticated and could not protect themselves from “old world criminals” and their peoples were cornered and pushed aside. And that is the nice way of putting it.
I grew up in the United States, in the Hawaiian Islands far from Washington D.C. but I was close to political students and teachers. Some professional politicians were in and out of our circles through the years. It just kept me aware and paying attention as I tried to get through the pains of childhood and teenage years. I DID NOT get formal U.S. studies in high school like I would have liked. I was moved around to different schools and my U.S. history may look weaker than some new U.S. citizens! I’ve studied it over the years though in spite of missing out on formal studies in school. The school of life is vibrant and interesting if you open yourself to it, and it allows you to learn more perspectives from the beginning instead of being programming in classes taught by a few teachers with strict curricula. I’ve tried to be opinionated only when I felt I had enough knowledge to make an opinion known. Otherwise I remained silent until I had time to review or think about it more. This has lead me to be specific in my writing, but also I too have become vibrant in thinking and writing. I am a product of the learning I gave myself. My words are not based on a single movie, narrative or documentary. It’s a culmination of decades of picking up pieces and analyzing them. Those pieces are everything from speaking with people in person, to films, text books, magazines, blogs, reading and watching the news and more. They are MY PIECES and MY OPINIONS that result.
Here is what I am thinking. Just an idea. I haven’t even researched if this would be popular or not.
How about two native nations in the United States?
Two? You may ask. Yes. Native American Indian and Hawaiian. Granted the Eskimos shouldn’t be forgotten either, perhaps they can join the Indian nation or be allowed to be the Eskimo Nation?
This is what comes to mind. The Hawaiians were in Hawaii before the old world explorers dropped in and changed things. The American Indians were there before the same. It is fair, very fair to call them the original and native peoples. I propose they each have their own nation within the U.S. borders and be better represented legally in Washington D.C. and in the media. I truly do not feel they are getting enough respect day to day. They should be better known to the mass audience, even global. I’m not saying these nations within a nation should be more powerful than the U.S. government, but I believe our country should know them better. If this means improving their lives so they look better, maybe we should be doing this. Otherwise the old world came to the lands of the Americas and terrorized what they found and that’s all it was. No, that was not meant to be a pleasant sentence and statement. It’s my sprung-finger-thwack on some heads of people reading this. I’m waking up to this too.
Two Native Nations (perhaps three)
This is based on geography and DNA pools.
Native American Indian Nation
Native Hawaiian Nation
Eskimo Nation