Walk Towards Humanity

“We do what has been done to us.” A Native elder spoke those words to me over a decade ago. We were discussing how horribly human beings treat one another. The implications were clear. We do what has been done to us. The cycles of injury and trauma, of fear crushing innocence, of swapping roles from victim to oppressor are epidemic.

I have thought about that day, that conversation many times. “We do what has been done to us.” Such a bleak and retaliatory way to live and is it true? Yes. It is. However, there is a caveat. And one day it hit me.

My friend’s mother had endured the Long Walk as an infant. The Long Walk was the forced removal of the Dine people from their homeland by the United States government and military. Thousands of people died. As a child my friend had been taken to boarding school to be stripped of her identity. As an adult she had witnessed and fought against the poisoning of water on her reservation by mining. And then she had kindly opened her door and her heart to me.

She welcomed me as family. She patiently listened and could see my lack of understanding but never treated me with disrespect. She held no bitterness in her heart, nor did she wish harm to anyone from what I could tell.

So while her words were teaching me, “Watch out.” “We do what has been done to us” her actions and intentions told another story. “Yes, we do what has been done to us – until we stop.” I am forever grateful for the path towards humanity that my friend walked for me.

We can stop retaliatory living. We can end the cycles of trauma. We must.

This aired on WDRT‘s Consider This July 19.

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