What has changed?
What hasn't changed?
In the last 400+ years, everything changed.
Indigenous First Nations People (500+ Tribes) went from self-governing sovereign nations, each with their own hereditary chiefs and vast hunting territories which provided them a sense of freedom few of us will ever realize.
Today most reservations are Third World concentration camps. (There are exceptions with some successful tribes who have chosen unique economic methods like gaming and enterprise to uplift and financially support their communities.)
What happened 400+ years ago? Why is this important? The governments who operated as conquerors wrote numerous treaties and made promises they never intended to keep. Those written promises were not worth the paper they were written on. Those governments led by a Great White Father were not honorable. They were thieves.
Taking children was part of that.
Taking children was traumatizing to entire tribes.
Taking away a future generation left little hope. It ultimately meant the end of entire communities of First Nations people who had no control over what was happening in their own traditional territory.
What most adoptees know is something happened and we had no control over it. But as adults we can take back our control and move forward. We need to find the truth and our names to do that.
We can go home. And we should make every effort to do so.
A few weeks ago, I attended this talk 1676 and Beyond here in Massachusetts. I learned so much about the area where I live now. I live in Pocumtuck Territory. I live near a massacre site called Great Falls. I pray every day for those murdered people and the aftermath and genocide of the Pocumtuck and other tribes in this vicinity.
Everything changed here in 1676.
Another History LESSON on Pilgrims & The Origins of Thanksgiving
Please watch this talk. It's important.
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