I was about to write the very same words that Bill Lindsay just sent. I use the case history of the Indians of the US in my classes to demonstrate all the factors normally associated with the White/Black conflict. I do this to focus my students on getting at objective and measurable facts with less emotion and prejudice and to understand that these concepts appy equally to all minority/dominant conflicts. The Indians (and this is now correct again) have been put conveniently in the reservations of our collective national memory, as well as physically on the reservations of our land.

>>> [log in to unmask] 02/01/01 05:02PM >>>
I believe that the point(s) you make are worth our reflection. The danger of
reshaping the historical truth is ever present whenever we choose to "focus" on
a particular topic.

I am writing because I would ask you to consider the Native people genocide of
equal importance when we begin to classify "most painful moments in American
history."

Needless to say, my ambivalence is equal to your own. As to the URR, it merits
our attention, if only because it demonstrates that in the darkest moments,
some people are guided by an "inner light" that supersedes the prevailing
politic/ethos.


Patrick McGreevy wrote:

> I have been hesitant to weigh in on the topic of the Undergroud Railroad
> because I feel so ambivalent.  At the NY State History Conference in
> Buffalo a few years ago there was a major emphasis on this topic, partly
> because the federal government had allocated a lot of money toward it.  I
> spent last year in Hungary where a great deal of attention is now being
> directed toward people who helped the Jews during the late 1930s and 1940s.
>  This makes Hungarians, Germans and Polish people feel good, but
> overstressing it amounts to historical distortion.  The fact is, most
> people did not help the Jews.  I would hate to have our whole national
> memory of the slavery period dominated by images of white people helping
> escaped slaves.  That is not the major story.  Yes a few did escape, most
> could not.  Yes there were whites willing to risk their necks, but hardly
> most whites.  Now the story of the URR can be told in a way that emphasizes
> the overwhelming reality rather than the cherry exceptions, but I fear that
> our enthusiasm for this topic may be another way of erasing the most
> painful and contradictory chapter in the story of American freedom.  What
> do you think?
>
> Patrick McGreevy
>
> Patrick McGreevy
> Department of Anthropology, Geography and Earth Science
> Clarion University
> Clarion, PA 16214
>
> 814-226-2649
> Fax 814-226-2004
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
> http://wwwalet.clarion.edu/mcgreevy/home.htm

--

All the best,

Bill Lindsay DDGM
Monroe District
(716) 621-3573