I was very moved by Professor Thomas’ lecture on “Indians on the Reservation: Missionary Priests from India and Catholic Settler Colonialism”. For starters, I had little to no background information on this topic; I was bewildered by many of the facts presented during the presentation, yet enthralled by Professor Thomas’ story. I did not know that native peoples were not considered citizens by the federal government until the year 1924. I did not know that states held the individual right to construct separate laws within their own constitutes. Many states obstructed the federal ruling and did not permit native people’s right to vote until the late nineteen fifties. The last state to grant the right to vote was New Mexico in 1965, just over fifty years ago. I could not recall a time when I had learned about any of this during my lower level education, and was moved when Professor Thomas noted that many schooling systems omit a significant amount of Native American and Indian history.
I truly enjoyed the personal stories of Professor Thomas. I especially liked how she shared the stories of all the different priests that would come and visit her family. What a neat experience to have priests constantly moving in and out of your home, sharing their knowledge and experiences. Professor Thomas best described it when she said, “Each brought a different meaning to life, a different way of expressing their beliefs”. This was something I could not relate to even in the slightest. I did not grow up with a strong devotion to religion and catholicism has played a minor role in my life. To hear someone else’s experience, when it differed so uniquely from your own, is fascinating. Furthermore, I loved how Professor Thomas had yearbook clippings as examples in her presentation. She also had quotes and examples of mistreatment by white Americans of Native peoples: “They spend all of their money. They get drunk. As a culture. They cant handle alcohol. Whether its genetics or whatever…”. Professor Thomas emphasized the importance of remembering and acknowledge this part of history as so many people try to belittle the displacement of Native Americans and the terrors they have endured. I was captivated by Professor Thomas’ closing statements: “For communal healing, the presence of the past is a must”. She highlighted that in order to move forward as a cohesive people, we must do so with the facts of history constantly present in our mind. They cannot be ignored or forgotten, the theme of both talks thus far.
In conclusion, I found some of Professor Thomas’ remarks during the question and answer session to be quite interesting. Her stories of how she grew up going to mass, in which there were more white congregants than Native, was surprising to say the least. She acknowledged her confusion as a young girl in the fact that there would be ten people and eight of them would be white. She further explained how it took time for her to understand why things were that way. Lastly, I was very intrigued by the story of her parents and the “controversy” they caused when marrying one another. They did not have an arranged marriage and this was seen as very controversial at the time. Overall, I enjoyed this second talk of history and how it is relevant and present in today’s world.