View from Native American Southwest

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The art and history museums from Tucson and Phoenix in Arizona to Silver City and Albuquerque in New Mexico contain enthralling treasures, and have been curated with an exceptional mix of talent, love and respect for Navaho, Hopi, Pima, Zuni, Apache, Comanche, as well as the pueblo-building and cliff-dwelling Anasazi, Hohokam and Mogollon peoples, and so many others. Their histories can only be reconstructed by archeological means, and the analysis of pottery shards, such as the exquisite works of the Mimbres Indians in the Gila mountains.

Visitor beware! Faced with extraordinary artifacts and fading 19th-century photographs of early native tribesmen and their families, you may find yourself biting your lip to hold back tears. You see a photo of "a group of hostiles." They are Geronimo with men, women and children, intending to surrender at the Canyon de los Embudos Peace Conference (March 1886). Despite losing all belongings two months previous in a U.S. attack, the group wears mostly new tunics and dresses — to show dignity and respect as they face virtual oblivion.

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Of course, all that happened a long time ago. Those were the days before we shifted our attention to places like Grenada and Iraq — not to mention Iran — in order to bring to those people as well the fruits of freedom, democracy and global development. Shall we some day preserve their memories, too, in our museums, on road signs, and in geographical place names, as well as, perhaps, in the names of sports teams and on sports memorabilia?

We go out of our way today to condemn and demand official, public apology for what was done to the Armenians. But have we ever officially and publicly apologized for what "we" collectively may have done to others — slavery, genocide, aggression? Or must each one of us do so in personal, private conscience? Can we not learn from the spirit of our southwest Native Americans to face our future with dignity and respect for all humanity?