Professor Cheyfitz was kind enough to come in and speak with us about the history of “Indians” in NY, as well as the lives of present-day Indians. I was surprised that the politically correct term was actually ‘Indians’ and not Native Americans, since that was what we were always taught to refer to them as.  What I found more interesting is that ‘Indian’ Natives are just one type of natives, with some others being Alaskan natives and Hawaiian natives.

I think the most important thing that Professor Cheyfitz spoke about was the genocide and the lack of acknowledgement of stealing the Indian land. We talk about how the some Germans, to this day, won’t acknowledge the fact that the Holocaust had occurred, or how Turkey denies the Armenian genocide as the correct term for the killings that occurred in the 1900s. It’s funny and hypocritical how we’re doing the same exact thing with the Indian genocide and hiding the fact that some of that genocide still happens today. I found it interesting when Prof. Cheyfitz told us some of the different forms of genocide, like ethnic cleansing, withholding of vaccinations of smallpox, preemptive war, and brute slaughter. And I agree that genocide should not only be recognized as killing, but also the process of trying to wipe out a group of people, like ethnic cleansing. I think I learned more in that one session with Prof. Cheyfitz than I did in my high school years of learning “Native American” history. I think we should definitely acknowledge that we took the land from the Cayuga people and realize that much of what happened in the past to the Indians still affects them today. When Prof. Cheyfitz said most of the Indian reserves are very poor, I almost shed a tear because their suffering still hasn’t ended, after all these years. And when asked about what the average American can do for them, he said the most important thing is to give them education, and I just thought to myself how ironic it would be for Indians to learn about their own histories through American education. Though I don’t think it’s the perfect solution, it is probably the best we can get right now.