Back in August, I got a tattoo on my forearm. It was something I’ve wanted for close to 10 years, and finally, just before turning 32 years old, I decided to go for it.
The tattoo is of an arrow with the word, “nchitanisi” in it. A Lenape word, it means “I am strong.” It was my way of paying homage to my Native American ancestry.
My Ancestors
I am a proud member of the Eastern Delaware Tribe and the Cherokee Nation. My ancestors originated in present-day New York along the Delaware River. Originally known as the Lenape, they were the “grandfather tribe” of the Algonquin-speaking tribes of the Northeast. They were known for their peace-keeping efforts among warring nations. When the English came, they were one of the first tribes to negotiate a treaty.
As the colonies became the United States, my ancestors were forced into the Northwest Territory, into what is now present-day Ohio. It was there, on an Indian Reservation, that my great-great-great-great grandfather, Lewis Ketchum, was born. He would be forced to relocate to Kansas, and at the end of the 19th century, he would acquire land in Indian Territory, or what is now Oklahoma. The Delaware Tribe, however, was not federally recognized. Therefore, Lewis Ketchum signed the Dawes Rolls, officially becoming member of the Cherokee Nation, in order to receive his homestead.
My ancestor was not considered an American citizen. According to the United States government, his tribe had no sovereignty. He was an “intruder” on American lands. Because he was American Indian. Because of the color of his skin and because of his heritage.
My family has always been proud of our ancestry. While we have other ancestors of Irish, German, English, and even Spanish descent, I take pride in the fact that I also carry with me the legacy of my Native ancestors. I chose the words, “I am strong,” for two reasons. The first is, it is a gentle reminder to myself everyday that I am strong and capable. I can do anything. I will make it one more day.
But the second message is a reminder to me of where, and who, I come from. I come from a long line of people who had to fight and struggle every day to stay alive. They persisted in doing all they could to protect their lands. And when they could no longer, they still fought for a way to be recognized in this country that seemed to want to deny them their right to life and property. They struggled, they fought, and they held on. They held on so I could stand here today and claim both my Native ancestry and my American citizenship. I was lucky enough to be born in a country that accepts me outright by birth, but only because my ancestors persevered long enough to ensure it.
To me, those who came before me deserve so much more honor, dignity, and recognition than the man who “sailed the ocean blue in 1492.”
The President’s Proclamation
Earlier today, the President issued the yearly Proclamation that every President has signed since 1968. But what struck me this time were the harsh words of condemnation to anyone who questions our history and how we got from then to now.
The President stated in his Proclamation,
“Sadly, in recent years, radical activists have sought to undermine Christopher Columbus’s legacy. These extremists seek to replace discussion of his vast contributions with talk of failings, his discoveries with atrocities, and his achievements with transgressions. Rather than learn from our history, this radical ideology and its adherents seek to revise it, deprive it of any splendor, and mark it as inherently sinister. They seek to squash any dissent from their orthodoxy. We must not give in to these tactics or consent to such a bleak view of our history.”
These are troubling words. Troubling for anyone who has ever studied our nation’s history and knows that to question a nation’s past and to challenge the status quo are the true testaments to the foundations of democracy.
Let me be clear – I am proud to be an American, just as I am proud to be American Indian. I cry when I read the Constitution and I pore over the quotes of our Founding Fathers when I’m feeling particularly down. I find inspiration in the words of our Declaration of Independence and I read The Federalist Papers for fun. Washington, D.C. is my favorite city and I have been to almost every major Civil War battlefield. I memorized the Gettysburg Address and stayed in the room where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his “I Have a Dream…” speech.
I have witnessed this country’s transformation in recent decades to one of more inclusion with the passage of Marriage Equality and the election of our first Black president. I have friends of all different backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, and orientations. And I am proud to know each and every one of them. I teach my students that they should be proud of who they are as Americans, and be proud to have the right to have different opinions and the right to vote. My students learn to show kindness and acceptance, regardless of a person’s political affiliation or who they voted for in the last election. I love this nation. Have no doubts about that.
But I also recognize every aspect of our nation’s past. Not just the glory days or the triumphant moments, but the times we as a nation did not get it right. I recognize we were not a nation for all people when the Founders signed our Declaration of Independence. I can recognize the agony, the struggle, the violence, the unrest that has brewed underneath Lady Liberty’s surface.
Our history cannot be a history of successes without its failures. The failures of our Founding Fathers to address the atrocity of slavery. The failure of the Supreme Court’s decision in “separate but equal” under Plessy v. Ferguson. The failure of Martin Van Buren in carrying out the Indian Removal Act and initiating the Trail of Tears that would result in the deaths of over 5,000 Cherokees. The failures of the Wilson administration to deny the admittance European immigrants, or of the Roosevelt administration in locking up our Japanese-American population in internment camps.
No, with every success we must also recognize the failures that have plagued our nation’s history. We must recognize them so as not to repeat them in the future. There is not a single nation on earth that gets it right every time. But what makes America so beautiful to me is our ability to admit our faults and strive to be better because of them.
For the President of the United States to not only fail to see how far we’ve come as a nation, but to outright deny it, is a startling act of ignorance and can be categorized as close to despotism. He is either willfully ignorant to the struggles of many of our citizens, or he does not care. Either way, it does not bode well for this administration, nor for the preservation of the values on which this nation was built.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day
I am not speaking today to debate whether the second Monday in October should be called “Columbus Day” or “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.” I am grateful to live in a state that has mandated today as a holiday to honor Native Americans. Rather I recognize this date as a day to pay my respects to my ancestors. I don’t want to argue or try to further explain why Christopher Columbus should absolutely not be honored as a hero in American history. But I will use my energy today and every day to share the stories of my ancestors and of the Indigenous people of this nation. Their voices deserve to be heard, their stories told.
I am proud to be an American. And I am proud to be an American Indian. And I will never stop telling the stories of my ancestors. Of their struggles and of their triumphs. For it is through their stories that one can see what it is to truly live and appreciate the American Dream. May we always hold on to our past – every part of it.
