Recalling Vacation
Posted by jen May 31st, 2007 in Jeneral.I realized I had posted links to the pics of the time we spent in Cheyenne, but not thoughts about it.
We ended up having quite a educational tour of the reservation/town. We did the extremely excellent Musuem of the Cherokee Indian and the very nice Oconaluftee Indian Village and both were really great to learn more about the people and their plight. White guilt ruled in the end so we went and promptly donated $200 to the tribe via the worst casino we’ve ever been to. (Almost NO table games!? WTF?)
But after going to those, the powwow was perhaps the most enlightening. We learned Powwows (which are just a dance contest with multiple categories and age groups) always start with a flag dance with the US, Tribal and POW flag. They are very very patriotic, and I was rather surprised by that. I kinda understand the POW flag, honoring fallen warriors and all that, but to us what seemed the strangest after all they’d been through they still proudly wave the flag of their oppressor who managed to steal everything they had, regarded them as little more than vermin, and killed about half thier population on a forced march… well it’s just not something I’d think of doing. I know it’s their country too, even more so than ours, but it was just thought provoking I guess.
2 Responses to “Recalling Vacation”
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That is surprising about the flags. Hm.
I found out recently that I’m part Cherokee, I have a relative that was relocated to Oklahoma. I’ve never heard of that museum, I’d like to check it out.
I’m part Navajo and have been around pow-wows and Indian gatherings all my life. WW2 especially had a lot to do with unifying native pride behind the US flag; the Cold War only cemented the sentiment. When you’ve got an enemy nation that wants to turn the entire continent into a reservation it creates a sense of ‘we’re all in this together’.