Home

Yesterday's blog I referred to leaving Colorado and moving back to the Midwest.  It was my first time living in another state, other than Wisconsin and Minnesota.  Being away from family was a new experience for me.  I remember that was the first time I compared my thoughts and feelings to a tree.  Imagine with me, a tree with its roots in Wisconsin and its treetop bent over into Colorado.  Of course, this bent tree suffers a lot of tension, wanting to snap back upright to its original stately position.  

Being away from your roots is not easy for some of us.  Yes, I have done it three more times after Colorado and I came back to the Midwest after each session in other states (California, Georgia, and Texas).  So, today when I saw this quote, I knew it pertained to me. 

HOME - I will go back home whether it is to live awhile longer or whether it is in death .  You know, that's where I will be.   - Ofelia Zepeda, Tohono O'odham

I saw this quote at the Heard Museum in Phoenix.  The Heard Museum contains one of the largest (one of top five) collections of Native American artifacts, most from the Southwest. There were two large collections donated by Fred Harvey, an entrepreneur who developed the Harvey House lunch rooms, restaurants, souvenir shops, and hotels, which served rail passengers and Barry Goldwater, former Arizona senator.   

But the most impressive, in a sad way, was the Boarding School exhibit.  In 1879, the government decided to forcibly take Indian children away from their family and home and put them into boarding schools.  Assimilate, Acculturate and Americanize

The next day the torture began.  The first thing they did was cut off our hair...While we were bathing our breech clouts were taken, and we were ordered to put on trousers.  We'd lost out hair and we'd lost our clothes, with the two we'd lost our identity as Indians.  
Asa Daklugie,  Chiricahua Apache, 1886

Below this quote was a barber chair with piles of black hair and braids on the floor.  

Here are some of the other exhibit titles - 
Captured, Changed and Civilized 
Balls, Bats and Medals
Piano, Play and Practice
Drawings, Paintings and Design
Friends, Family and Fiancees
Plow, Pen and Prayer

History is not all about success, inventions and famous people.  It's also about the harm that was inflicted on so many people, native and immigrants.

However, to get back to my theme of HOME, my decisions to live in other states away from my family and home state were my choices, I was not forced to leave or move.  So different than these young children.  I was a fortunate traveler.  

There were several films at the museum from different tribes. The participants spoke about home and what it meant for them to live, stay, and return to home.  They understood the tree of life and its root system.  They felt it, they lived it.

Just like I have and I am.