Thank you for replying to my response. I am writing again not to harass or
harangue you, but to share my own thinking with you as I've tried to engage
in appropriate activities that may be of help to American Indian people. I
understand that you have six Lakota women on your Board of Directors. I hope
that they are allowed by the whites on the Board to make the final decisions
of what will happen within the organization -- after all, it is their people
that the program attempts to serve. I just want to make three points based
on your response to me. I offer these points only to prompt some sincere
reflection on your part about the work you are engaged in. It seems that
sharing such thoughts is one task for non-Indians to engage in as we assess
our work with Indian people.
1) You say that the goal of the program is to enrich the lives of the Lakota
children through an interpersonal relationship, and they then have a "pal" to
write to them. Are you implicitly assuming that the Lakota community cannot
sufficiently enrich the lives of their own children? Doesn't the Lakota
community engage in interpersonal relationships with their own children? Why
does it take non-Indians to fulfill this need? Can't Lakota people be "pals"
to their own children?
2) You say that the strategy is to create a relationship with the children
and to be there to support them. Isn't this the same pattern that has
existed for five hundred years -- whites "creating" relationships with Indian
people. Maybe the better thing to do in this quincentenary year is to mind
our own business and pay attention to white children rather than creating
relationships with people who are very capable of enriching their own
children's lives. No matter how good are the intentions of non-Indians, they
have inevitably caused more harm than good when they've gone around "creating"
relationships with Indian people, taking care of Indian children (remember the
boarding schools?), and enriching the lives of Indian people.
3) This is not to advocate an attitude of pretending Indian people don't
exist. There are more appropriate, effective, and helpful activities for
non-Indian people to engage in if they want a relationship with Indian
communities. For example, non-Indians could lobby Congress to return the
Black Hills to the Sioux people. A current message on NativeNet is asking
for all people to help the Abenaki community in its current struggle. Maybe
political activity is the more appropriate action. Non-Indian people could
be pressuring our non-Indian government to respect the rights and self-
determination of Indian communities.