Whereas

You may have noticed on your social media feed that May 5 is National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. While looking into the history of this, I discovered another news item I missed from April. A unit within the Bureau of Indian Affairs has been created to investigate murdered and missing Native Americans. The unit was recently announced by the first Native American cabinet secretary, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. On a related note, you might listen to this 2020 episode of TAL, featuring a story about Lissa Yellow Bird, who has been investigating missing persons from her community since 2016.

Violence against native American peoples is nothing new in our history. But whether it's taught in our history classes is another matter. One text we might turn to is Whereas by Layli Long Soldier. Through poetry and prose, she offers her lament for 38 Dakota men who were ordered to execution by hanging by President Lincoln. She also responds to a 2009 apology offered by the US government which was buried in the 2010 Defense Appropriations Act. She discusses her response and other reflections on mothering, trusting, and writing in an especially gripping episode of On Being.

"I’m certain
that certain kinds of talk only = pain
excusing myself I paddle deep
in high grass waves I’m safer
outdoors than in /
in those heady grasses the mouth loosens confesses:
I don’t trust nobody but the land I said”
―Layli Long Soldier, Whereas