Native Lands - Aaron Rendon

There were certain aspects of these readings that I liked and did not like. Do not get me wrong here, because I certainly enjoyed reading them. Unfortunately there were certain parts that made me feel a bit sadder than others. Safe to say it is no secret as to why that is. I have always found it difficult for one to study or read upon histories of Native Americans without running into some sort of hardship or turmoil that they had to go through. So much in fact, that when it comes to Native American history, I am usually surprised when something did not go wrong. On the one hand, you might be able to argue that that way of thinking comes as a result of the public education system. To be quite honest, I barely learned at all about the Native Americans until college. When they did skim through it in my American History class, we mostly learned about how much damage the American government caused to Native people, land and culture. Though, I suppose that is better than in 4th grade when they taught us that Americans and "Indians" were the best of friends. It is important to learn about these things so that history is not repeated. And yet it still makes me upset to read about things like the Paiute people, who tried to fight back against their colonizers and failed like so many of their Native brothers and sisters. Having said all that, the readings were not without hope. It feels good to learn about things like the tribal EPA. I think the fact that these people have an opportunity to mix science and culture for the betterment of the environment is a wonderful thing. It's definitely much better than the ever so tastefully titled "Indian Camp" they took my class to in fourth grade where caucasian college students dressed in feathers and face paint gave us cactus fruit. 

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