Whether it is called Columbus Day, Native American Day, or Indigenous Peoples’ Day, its commemoration goes back to 1792 in New York. It goes without saying that the European discovery of America was consequential for both European peoples as well as for the many groups of Native Americans who inhabited this hemisphere.
The invaders and settlers had no understanding of the cultures they encountered and created a tragic history of mistreatment and displacement. We cannot relive the past but we can do something now in the present to create a future respecting the customs and needs of the Native Americans who inhabit this Nation.
Respecting sacred monuments and protecting natural resources can go a long way to establishing a more equal relationship between Native Americans and those of us who inhabit and share this land.
Prayer for the Day
Great giver o life, now in the season of harvest,
We come searching in this season of change;
Afraid to put our trust in you, we want what we can touch,
And put your gift of life on the shelf
Fill our hearts with your presence,
So we are open to him who came to lead the way,
In the name of the Model of our lives, `
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen
Thoughts for the Day
Our job is to be an awake people...utterly conscious, to attend to our world.
- Louis Owens, American novelist of Choctaw-Irish descent (1948-2002)
They ravaged neither the rivers nor the forest, and if they irrigated, they took as little water as would serve their needs. The land and all that it bore they treated with consideration; not attempting to improve it, they never desecrated it.”
- Willa Cather, American writer, from Death Comes for the Archbishop (1873-1947)
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name and glory,
For the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.
Why should the nations say, “Where is your God?”
Our God is in the heavens; God does what pleases
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands,
They have mouths but do not speak, eyes but do not see;
They have ears but do not hear, noes but do not smell
They have hands but do not feel; feet, but do not walk.
– Psalm 113: 1-7