Professor Sonja Thomas’s lecture illuminated an interweaving of the global and the local. This interweaving is painful, yet not in totality. A web of events and far-reaching oppression was revealed all in small town Montana. It begins with the “Doctrine of Discovery”. The fact that the Vatican granted authority to steal the soil beneath vast civilizations of indigenous people simply because they were not Christians surprised and sickened me. Religion is used in such ugly ways across human history. Specifically this way led to displacement, genocide of many indigenous people. Eventually shoving them into systematic forms of oppression. Professor Thom’s mentioned people often belittle this trauma with statements similar to “It happened a long time ago. Get over it.” However, the impact of this trauma is deep enough to mark modern times. The example that she gave supporting this of in 2005 the United States Supreme Court incorporating the” Doctrine of Discovery” in their reasoning for denying land claims made by Native Americans was so shocking it almost seemed like a cruel joke. Some of whom I had hoped would be among the most educated people in the United States using a term with such enormous historical weight in a way that crushed the people burdened by the original historical implications of the terms was very disheartening. This set the tone for much of the rest of the lecture. Furthermore, the Catholic Church in Native American communities was a dark force. Settlers were not satisfied with stealing the land. Settler colonial violence also worked to steal culture and innocence. The violence is not dead. Sexual violence perpetrated by the nuns and fathers alike especially was mentioned to have known impact to this day. People on the often do not understand this when they are not living with the traces. Also, many simply are ignorant to this a whole due to the prioritization of the narrative of the winner and whiteness in American education. Realizations like this often make me curious about possible holes in my own understanding as another student brought up.
The juxtaposition of the violence of the Church in Native American communities with that of the Indian missionaries ideally guided by the zeal to spread the name of God was very interesting to me. Professor Thomas seemed to have such warm memories of growing up in the church. Her family was deeply connected and embraced by the community. This points to a depth to the Catholic Church. An organization can be so harmful to one and loving to another. The fact that Indian priests were coming to Montana, and Montana’s were actually interested in going to India gave me a spark of hope. I saw this as an opportunity for more more positive interactions between people that sometimes had little experience with much diversity and diversity. This glimpse of positivity ushered my mind into another realm of thought. While it is easy and understable to feel simply saddened by all this negativity, letting this acknowledgment of pain shape our thinking and actions is a better idea. This is key in resisting power structures that would rather have us review Lewis and Clark at the moment.