Christian nation, Indian Mascots, and American History

I have been musing about history and memory lately. The Christian nation stuff has been on the back burner for years (my back burner, that is) even though I have no real idea what it means. Is it God reaching down and making America? "Let there be a Continental Congress and a Separation of Powers" Or is it that the majority of Americans in the early period believe in a Judeo Christian God? Not sure how to count the Native peoples or African slaves, or even the diversity of European beliefs.

I think when D. James Kennedy uses the term, he means that God agrees with him and prefers people like Kennedy to non-Christians. The arrogance and self-serving part of that annoys the shit out of me.

But I digress and repeat. This last month, I have had the pleasure of hearing some very interesting people (not you, Prairie Dog). In Laramie, I heard Sherman Alexie and then last night, I heard Wilma Mankiller. For those who don't know, she served as the first female Principle Chief of the Western Cherokee here in Oklahoma. She was great. Brief and interesting. Speaking to a crowd of historians she spoke of how important history is to Indian peoples.

Something she said stuck. She talked about how people growing up native are taught all the dominant culture stories and histories. They all learn about Columbus and the Founding Fathers. They all learn what Americans are taught to believe about their country. They attend white schools, white churches, etc. But, she noted, Americans don't know anything about native peoples. In my tiny brain, I thought, yeah, it is as if for most Americans, Indians are fleeting images on the tv or Indian Mascots. They aren't real people who are constantly reminded of their odd status in this country.

The Columbus comment reminded me of a great anecdote from Sherman's talk. A woman told him after the session that she had read one of his stories to her child--one where Sherman told Indian kids that whenever a school teacher told them that Columbus "discovered" America, they should jump on the teachers back and shout "We discovered you!" Her son hadn't actually jumped the teacher, but he did raise his hand and object.

How to put these all together? Hell, I don't know. I have been thinking (and Cold in Laramie has contributed) about the desire to cherry pick from the past to create a Christian nation where former citizens prayed daily and worshipped the God of Abraham. That view only really makes sense if you think that Columbus did discover an empty and virgin land--one where Indians are more like nature than human. As I have noted, those who espouse that christian utopic past risk a racist nostalgia--where the best American past is one where Indians were killed for bounty, immigrant kids were chopped up in giant machines and mines, and African Americans were relegated to the worst land and back seats of the bus. The Good Ole Days look different from that perspective.

On my way to lunch, I heard a "Christian" radio show where the woman guest was talking about protecting kids from internet porn and the MTV, and I understood her situation. She then said that you had to even watch the textbooks that the kids brought home--the history books, she noted, didn't even teach their kids the truth! Can you imagine! Revisionist history was an epidemic, she said and I clicked her noise off. Maybe another blog can address what I think of the term "revisionist" history, but those who use it rarely understand that (as JoeG pointed out in a comment) David Barton constitutes the best example of what they mean by that.

But back to the "truth." Those who are trying to reimagine and rewrite the past have no claim to truth. They would be well-served to consider the different narratives represented here: Sherman's challenge to school kids and Mankiller's identification of different cultural world-views. Your simplistic past has no room for these nuances, and that is the shame of it.