Prof. Cheyfitz opened his conversation up with a question (which I’ll paraphrase here): who in this room is aware that we are standing on Cayuga land?  Not too many people in the class raised their hand, the total number certainly comprising a minority.  I did the classic half-way gesture–as soon as a thought about it, of course I was on Cayuga land.  But that was pretty much the first time I had ever thought about it.

Herein lies the problem with the way that most of us view Indian history in regard to our current situation.  It’s just not at the front of our minds to the extent that it ought to be.  For this reason, I found Prof. Cheyfitz’s talk to be very worthwhile.  In addition to him just being a wonderfully engaging speaker, the content that he presented was thought-provoking and informative.  In a short hour, my knowledge of the current situation of the Indian peoples increased by an order of magnitude.

The most interesting argument that the professor made was with regard to the use of the term genocide.  He takes the term to extend beyond its normal usage.  While I find his usage contentious, I definitely appreciate another potential avenue to look at this issue.