Chief Joseph & the Nez Perce

Kent,

It's 3 AM (ET) and I just finished watching on Book TV your talk about Chief Joseph from back in November in Minneapolis.
Chief Joseph & the Flight of the Nez Perce : The Untold Story of an American Tragedy by Kent Nerburn

Wow! I felt something from your stories of the pigs digging up the shallow graves and the girl going to get her doll. I have three children and my four-year-old daughter would definitely go back to get her doll. Thank you for telling these stories.

I was impressed by your interaction with the woman who challenged you on your reason for why Americans don't apologize for the genocide against the Native Americans.

I have always believed that the reason our country does not come to terms with the tragedy of the Native Americans is because we nearly killed them all. Japanese internment and African slavery was easier to acknowledge because there were actually people to apologize to, or at least their descendants. But to apologize in a meaningful way to the native peoples of North America would require us to return their land in order to return their spirit. Major cities and entire states would have to be torn down and restored to a natural wilderness. For the Japanese, we could give them money and for African-Americans, we can give them political power. But, for Native Americans, we have nothing to give them, because what the United States took from them is gone forever.

Thank you for making me feel something because that is what a meaningful connection is all about.

Daniel