Friday, March 29, 2019

a culture of make believe

"In a short time a group of commissioners arrived to begin organization of a new Indian agency in the valley. One of them mentioned the advantage of schools for Joseph's people. Joseph reliped that the Nez Perces did not want the white man's schools.
'Why do you not want schools?' the commissioner asked.
'They will teach us to have churches,' Joseph answered.
'Do you not want churches?'
'No, we do not want churches.'
'Why do you not want churches?'
'They will teach us to quarrel about God,' Joseph said. 'We do not want to learn that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth, but we never quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that.'" (p. 302)

from "Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown

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