Happy Natie American Heritage Month Poem by Jim Yerman

Today begins a month-long celebration of Native American heritage and history…unfortunately it's a story that's mixed with inhumanity…with sorrow and brutality.

It's a story of people who didn't look or act like us…who could not understand….why we would want them to go away…why we wouldn't want them on ‘our' land.

How we were willing to push them aside…to our human honor and dignity betray…how we were willing to do anything…to make them go away.

And if that, in itself, wasn't enough of an insult…a disgrace…a slur…we stripped their children from their parent's arms and tried to wipe out every vestige of who they were.

Ah…but all that happened long ago you say…give America a break! We are a different country now…we have learned from our mistakes.

That was a less civilized…less enlightened America…from a different time…a different when…we have come such a long way…and we've changed a lot since then.

But we cannot celebrate Native American heritage…their customs…their symbols…their histories…without also studying and lamenting the actions of our ancestors…and the enormity of their atrocities.

Because one of the reasons we study history is to look at all the good and bad…to come face-to-face…to meet them…so the good can continue on…and so our mistakes…we won't repeat them.

So as we celebrate Native American heritage and history…we must look back at the horrors…and we must not forget…then we must look around today and ask ourselves if we have learned from our past mistakes…or if that hasn't happened yet.