It's a testament, I think, to the lasting-ness of "Sesame Street" that when I told my mom that I was going to Oklahoma, her immediate reaction was "Ayyyyy-klahoma."
One thing I did not know about Oklahoma: the whole state is split up into Native American reservations. We were on the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache reservation, which you can see here:
(I got this picture from the Pawnee tribe website--http://pawneetribe.blogspot.com/--so the arrow points to the Pawnee territory.)
Of course, that makes me think of the US's bloody, bloody history, and while I don't have the time or the energy at the moment to ruminate (I kinda love that word) on it at the moment, I'll leave you with this:
Okay, probably not so historically accurate, but hell. We were the original illegal immigrants.
When we moved to Chicago from Texas, we drove through Choctaw, Muscogee, and Cherokee. It was unsettling to see signs for these territories and realize "Hey, all of these tribes were from east of the Mississippi originally." It was information I knew but didn't really *know*. I rank it up there with taking pride in the fact that the original settlers of Bethlehem, PA, we were told, had a very positive relationship with the local Native American tribe, but never thinking to ask as a kid "Well if that is the case, then where are they?" It's the difference between knowing history and understanding how you are part of it, inheritor of what has come before and agent of what will come next. I guess.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in OK, I got the strong sense that I was an intruder. Which, you know, isn't inaccurate.
ReplyDeleteBut I think it says something that we (or just I, really) don't get that sense in the Northeast, even though we know that there were Native American tribes there. They've been erased almost completely, except for things like town names--in Long Island, for example--Wantagh, Massapequa, Manhasset, Setauket. There are two reservations on LI as well.
It slaps one in the face more in a place like Oklahoma, where you can't help but acknowledge our part in history.