Thanksgiving, Genocide, and Perspective

Before I begin my post, I must apologize to my (few?) readers. My long absence from the blogosphere has not been without cause. The past few months have been rather hectic with my student teaching and assistant-play-directing schedule. However, the business has been only part of the problem. The other part stems from a general lack of inspiration to write. I've kept my head down  for the last few months and focused on my busyness while taking the leisure time to unwind. Writing has not been part of that unwinding process until now. The five-day vacation (almost six if you count today's half day) for Thanksgiving has given me cause to pause, regroup, and refocus on several things. Thus I hope this may be the first iteration in a new habit of 
blogging and other writing. Now for the main point of this post.

This post is inspired by a picture that popped up on my Facebook newsfeed (is it even still called that?) today. Here it is:

My initial reaction to this plaque was a dismissive "Just another attempt to counteract Eurocentrism by dragging racism into the discussion." It seems wherever we turn, someone is counteracting the achievements of certain groups of people by blaming inequities on race. Souring the achievements of the Pilgrims by throwing in phrases related to Native Americans such as "genocide" and "relentless assault on their culture" seemed to be yet another example.

However, after some consideration, my attitude changed, in part due to the topic of our current unit in the class I am teaching. We have been studying several African genocides, most notably in Rwanda, Congo, and Sudan, and I have gained a new appreciation/revulsion for the horrors of this terrible crime. Still, is it appropriate to apply the word to the fate of Native Americans? According to the man who coined the word, Raphael Lemkin, genocide is "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group." Such acts include "killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." Can such a term be applied to the historical treatment of Native Americans? I do not think it is entirely appropriate, mostly because the treatment was not necessarily "deliberate and systematic destruction," at least not of the ethnic group as a whole. The overall effect of European arrival in America was the destruction of a large portion of the population and a significant blow to the culture of Native Americans, but I do not equate the experience of the Native Americans with genocide.

I feel I am walking a fine line here. On the one extreme, there are those who believe that the blessings of European culture and the advantages that American society has produced has benefited the world immeasurably while conveniently ignoring the harm caused to the original Native Americans and African slaves. On the other extreme, there are those who believe that the arrival of Europeans to America was the worst thing to happen to the continent and furthermore the advances of the Industrial Revolution have done more harm than good. I postulate that the truth lies somewhere in the middle (as it so often does). We can and should celebrate the triumphs of our national history, such as the landing on Plymouth Rock, the achievements of independence and a new Constitution, and the growth of a distinctly American culture. But we must also be aware that there are two sides to every story. Whatever benefits the Europeans brought to the Native Americans (not the least of which was the Gospel), they do not make up for the horrible way Europeans and eventually Americans treated the Native American people and culture. Keeping both perspectives in mind is key to a proper understanding of American history. Indeed, the dual-perspective approach has value in almost every area of life, from business to politics to relationships. Appreciating and building on the good while condemning and rectifying the bad is the key to progress. We would do well to take such a perspective.