He remained the only mixed-race vice president in American history until the inauguration of Kamala Harris in 2021
That’s an aggressively white history, damn. It’s almost like they were trying or something.
Ok so I did more reading because the wiki alone was already fascinating. I mean the VP to Hoover, seriously really only white men for nearly 100 years, and the assimilation thing seemed weird to me. How is giving up your land and heritage a good thing? Well it wasn’t, at least for his tribe. They almost lost everything even their language.
Anyway I found this article really fascinating but the end gave me a chuckle
When asked on the phone how members of the Kaw Nation feel about Curtis today, a representative said it wasn’t her place to say. Then she hung up.
And all this started cuz his grandma was like fuck off don’t come home, go assimilate. She encouraged it and he was even sent to live with his white grandparents as a teenager. Maybe he was an asshole and that was her excuse or she really believed it idk but damn.
For many tribes, assimilation seemed like the only possible option. Having seen what the federal government did to Indigenous Peoples that refused to assimilate, sometimes elders would tell the younger generations to not come home. To sacrifice that they might at least live and love.
When you’re staring down the barrel of genocide, survival is all that matters to all but the most flagrant with their life.
Very few people give a shit about their culture when you’re looking at your children and deciding whether they should die for your cause.
I’d like to think that’s gonna be a hard no for 99% of good people.
Culture endures.
Thank you so much for pointing out my blind spots. You’re 100% right and my making light of it was insensitve and disrespectful. (I’m replying this to both of you so you have the notification, as both posts gave me a lot to reflect on. )
Oh that is nice if you to follow up. I don’t think it was intentionally insensitive. It was a reasonable conclusion to draw without knowing more context, but thanks for being mature and responsible for what you say/write. Seems pretty rare these days.
