Tom Swift Writer’s Notebook

Writing Charles Bender’s story forced me to learn — with a level of understanding I did not acquire as a student; probably my fault more than my teachers’ — how important it is to recognize the cruel manner in which native peoples were treated over a period of time longer than this country has been a country. My understanding has limits, of course, but I can, I must, try to see from a perspective different than the one I acquired as a white kid in the suburbs.

In studying Bender’s life, I especially needed to wrap my mind around the harshness of the boarding school experience — how generations of children were stripped from their homes by the government and sent to schools designed to teach them, in no subtle way, that their race was inferior. The schools were a mental and physical grind — and I don’t know how kids such as Charley survived, much less thrived. I wouldn’t have lasted a week.

On this day 150 years ago Minnesota, where I was born and where Charles Bender was born, became the 32nd state in the United States of America. Mercifully, the state’s sesquicentennial commission is recognizing that many indigenous people considered the state their homeland for hundreds of years before the official papers were signed.

Thanks to those who are raising awareness and understanding about the underside of statehood. Griff Wigley is one; he started a constructive conversation that welcomes additional voices.

This post was added on Sunday, May 11, 2008 by Tom Swift at 01:09 and is filed under Albert, Reading Material.