Cultural lessons from a cross country vacation

We started out this vacation concerned about three things: a deadly virus, a rioting culture, and a recession. But we ended it learning more than we ever thought: history, geology, geography, and social injustices.

Before we started our trip, I had read to John a few articles about Lewis and Clark. Their journey started East of us, went farther North than us, but did intersect our route multiple times. We read about their journey at quite a few of our stops, including Great Falls, MT, and along the Northwest Scenic Highway. And what we saw as a reoccurring theme is, they wouldn’t have made it without the Indians.

And so many places on our journey were named after the NezPerce Indians. Due to the repeat reminders, when we did have wifi, we used our data to search for their history, the backgrounds, why they were so instrumental in our country’s history in that area.

What we read was ugly. Multiple tribes helped the “white man” on his initial journey to the area. They told the travelors where there were waterfalls, where to pass through mountains, hwo to get horses, where to find food sources, and what food to eat when they were starving. They saved the Lewis and Clark expedition from freezing and starving. Lewis and Clark respected and appreciated their knowledge, but still thought of them as sub-par humans, never equals.

And what did the white settlers and the American army do in return? Forced them out of some of the most beautiful, lush, bountiful lands in our country...

 and forced them onto reservations in drought-ridden, arid, rocky, deadly soils. If they resisted, they were killed or forced into deadly situations until they surrendered, as the Nez Perce Indians were. If they didn’t resist, they were killed, as documented at the Sand Creek massacre.

This article was one impressive piece of literature we found in our research: (high mountain article)

And where are they now? Still on reservations, in low quality housing, poor living conditions, with social diseases strong. Why is it that the coronavirus is more rampant and more deadly on reservations than other places? Is it lack of health care? Lack of education about the risks? Or is it a continued distrust for a government who again and again has proven itself to have the Native Americans’ best wishes at the bottom of their priority list?

I never thought we’d end a family-friendly vacation to national parks into a history and cultural lesson on how our culture has abused groups in the past. But I’m grateful for the ability to open my kids’ eyes to the injustices of the past. And when they say, “That is just awful! but what can we do about it now?” I can tell them, “Make sure it never happens again in your lifetime.”

 

Learning about Native Americans