The Crack in Our Liberty Bell…don’t you think it’s time

[– Michael Hendrickson is an Executive-in-Residence at the University of North Dakota and teaches Ethics and Self Responsibility in the Department of Accountancy. Sashay Schettler is a student in the class and the co-author of two Truth & Reconciliation articles written last year.]

Last year several students from the Ethics classes teamed up with American Indian students and wrote Truth & Reconciliation articles about historical, social and cultural issues related to American Indians. This year Ethics students and American Indian students are expanding the dialogue on campus and in the community. On October 18^th they will hold a fundraiser, in partnership with American Indian Student Services, at the American Indian Student Center with the theme of “Not Forgotten”. The funds will be used to buy children’s coats and winter accessories for the Spirit Lake Reservation. The featured speaker will be Leigh Jeanotte, retired Director of American Indian Student Services and a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. Leigh will talk about Truth, Reconciliation and the idea of what a shared history might look like.

As students continue to reveal Truths and seek out the road to Reconciliation around colonization, we look back to that document that Jefferson crafted. For most of us, the Declaration of Independence brings a lump to our throat as we recall – “…they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Most of us want to believe that the statement applies to all of us.

However, from the beginning the bell itself was apparently flawed, as it had to be recast in America after it was delivered from Britain. Metaphorically, our symbol of liberty has some other cracks. For example, “they” was memorialized as, “…all men are created equal.” So we began by declaring independence and at the same time marginalizing half of the people – and it got worse a few paragraphs later.

The Declaration to King George contained a long list of grievances including a generalization of the native population: “…he [King George] has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.” Sadly, it was actually the colonists who practiced “undistinguished destruction” on the native population by spreading disease, stealing their lands and practicing genocide – but the Natives didn’t write the history.

Our neighbors to the north under the leadership of Justin Trudeau have apologized to the indigenous people and last summer Trudeau invited the Pope to Canada to apologize for the Catholic Church’s part in the cultural genocide. This is part of a Canadian healing that has been underway for several years and includes an extensive unveiling of the truth facilitated in part by their Truth & Reconciliation Commission. We in America also need healing from the same kinds of wounds.

If we are to be one community, we need to include everyone. We need a shared story of our collective heritage. We need to include the stories of those who were here first, those who were forced to come here, as well as those who came for every other reason. As the Judds sang in Love Can Build a Bridge – Don’t you think it’s time…don’t you think it’s time?

Come join us October 18th at the American Indian Student Center at 815 Princeton Street for an evening of Indian tacos and stories at 6:30 pm. Bring a gently used coat or $5.00 for admission.