On page 189 of By the Fire We Carry, Rebecca Nagle quotes Suzan Harjo (Muscogee, Cheyenne) saying:
There has to be Native people who keep saying, ‘this is who we are. This is what we do. This is what we have responsibility for. These are the rights we have.’ No matter what kind of trickery there’s been to try to convince us [otherwise].
“Because we’re on a longer timeline anyway. We’re not just on the same timeline that other peoples are in this country. We are on a much longer one, backwards and forwards. And a lot of things are going to be straightened out along the way. Because they’re too blatant to stand.”
The aversion to people, ignorance of place, and indifference of history is as American as apple pie.
washing dishes: a father’s glimpses 