Reflection on Indigenous People’s Day

I remember sitting at my desk in fourth grade. It was a sunny day and out the window I could see some hills of Palouse farmland. Our teacher was covering the westward expansion of Europeans. I found myself wondering what happened to the Indigenous people and asked about it. “They moved away,” she said, “They live over toward Yakima.” I remember feeling a pain in my stomach. It didn’t feel right. She moved on to another topic and then it was recess.

It wasn’t until much later that I learned the truth. For millennia our Indigenous siblings managed these lands with science and wisdom – stew...