Bad Indians

A Tribal Memoir by Deborah A Miranda

I resumed reading this book this morning after a month or so. It is breaking my heart. But those are just words. After I read all I could this morning I held the book against my heart and felt such grief. Just a few tears where there should be rivers.

There have been rivers.

The first part of the book tells the story of the “Mission Indians” of California, who were of multiple tribes and who were displaced, enslaved, and broken from the 1770s to the 1830s.

This brokenness continues today in their descendants. There is so much loss – of self, of knowledge, of pride, of well-being, of sacred ways, of connection to Earth, of the ability to raise and protect one’s children, of language, of truth.

I am not saying very much, I know. It is too much.

Truth is told in this book in a personal and heart-breaking way.

It was difficult to read at first; now I am gulping it down.

At first I encountered simply anger. I thought I did not want to read angry bitterness. But I pushed on because part of my current journey is to read the truth of the tribal people in this country. And anger is part of it, of course – as uncomfortable as that might be.

I barely touched tribalism in the 3 countries I visited in Africa this February.

This feather of a touch has awakened a yearning within me for the richness of the ancient ways. And of course – one of the places to look is to the people and the stories of the tribes of this land – where I was born and have lived my life.

I did not know anything about the native people in California. I have already learned, in the first section of the book, a great deal.

Peeking into the next section, I have discovered that a law was passed in the early 1850’s that facilitated killing Indians from the California goldfields. $25 was paid for a male body part (a scalp, a hand) and $5 for a female body part. Congress appropriated and paid out over one million dollars for this service.

Nixon revoked this law in 1970.

There is so much we do not know of the effort to rip those close to the Earth from their ancient and sacred ways …and to simply use humans for personal gain.

This book is historic, tragic, personal, generous, and so much more.

It is brave and proud.

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