Last Wednesday, I attended the Becker-Rose Café series talk given by Professor Eric Cheyfitz. Professor Cheyfitz has been very involved with American Indian studies, previously serving as the director of the American Indian Program at Cornell and teaching on U.S. federal law. He gave us a brief history of the relations between American Indians and the U.S. government/citizens. It certainly was not as simple as the typical “Thanksgiving story”.

Professor Cheyfitz made clear that over the course of history and still today, there has been a great deal of controversy regarding how the U.S. has majorly disrupted American Indian culture in the process of seeking out their land. I asked a question on what Professor Cheyfitz thinks is the greatest misconception that American citizens have of American Indians to which he replied that the American people are very ignorant about American Indians. Starting in elementary school, children are not well-educated on American Indians and the more negative ways that the U.S. has impacted them.

Overall, I was interested in this talk because I am currently in an Education class that focuses on the social and political contexts of American education. In class this past week, we discussed American Indian education – the boarding schools and forcing the students to not practice their customs and speak their language. Given all that I had been learning about in class and from Professor Cheyfitz’s talk, I was intrigued by his view that the American Indians faced genocide. The fact that many American Indian children are hesitant about school and their chances of overcoming the incidence of alcoholism, suicide, and sexual assault struck a chord for me. School should be a place where children feel safe and accepted, not fear or having been wronged. In one of the readings for my education class, the author described the American Indian experience as being robbed of their culture and childhoods. Professor Cheyfitz confirmed that this was true.

In terms of what we can do moving forward to promote the well-being of American Indians without taking advantage of the culture, it seems that Professor Cheyfitz was recommending that we look to our past. This can be hundreds of years back or even more recently. There are court cases and other incidents that did not occur all that long ago. In instances like these, is it ever too late to instill change? There are courses here at Cornell that delve deeper into these issues. I would certainly like to take one to become a more informed student and citizen.