Dreaming of Christopher Columbus with an Ache in Your Heart
Christopher Columbus has become more symbol than historical person. As both inspiration and tragedy he remains part of our national tale.
Christopher Columbus has become more symbol than historical person. As both inspiration and tragedy he remains part of our national tale.
Can we move away from the master narratives of white privilege in our parks? Can we begin thinking of our park system as places of reconciliation? Can they become spaces for listening to what the myriad voices—human, natural, spiritual—have to teach us? Can we move from narratives of conquest to queries of connectiveness?
On a quiet country road in Logan County, Ohio, a humble marker notes the site of tragic encounter, the place of massacre and displacement, the trailhead of one people’s Trail of Tears. Passersby hardly notice the isolated and mostly forgotten forested hill, once the location of a Shawnee village that, according to a news report from the Ohio Historical Society, …
The ancestors painted their ghosts on this rock wall, marching through a dream beneath the twin suns fleeing the robed one who came to crucify an older way of believing.
History remembers Jesuit priest Pierre-Jean De Smet primarily as the missionary who brought Catholicism west to the northern Rocky Mountain region of the United States. His first entry into the region where he would have his most lasting impact came on a reconnaissance tour in the summer of 1840. ♨