4th of July Reflection
This Fourth of July felt different.
For most of my life, I celebrated because that's what we did. Fireworks, flags, cookouts. I never stopped to ask why or to learn the whole story behind what we were celebrating.
This year changed me.
When my son left for his apprenticeship helping restore Native land damaged by environmental disaster, it sparked something in me. I started digging into my own family's history. I grew up knowing I was Native, but I was mostly separated from that side of my family. It never really felt like a place I belonged.
The more I learned, the more pieces of my life began making sense. My love for the earth. My beliefs. The way I've moved through the world as an adult. I realized I'd been carrying parts of my ancestors with me long before I understood where they came from.
But I also uncovered the parts of history we rarely talk about. I learned that my own ancestors were sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Reading about what Native children endured there was heartbreaking.
Then I read the Declaration of Independence for myself and saw the words "merciless Indian Savages." To realize that the same document we celebrate every Fourth of July also contains language dehumanizing the very people who first called this land home stopped me in my tracks.
So this year, I'm chose something different.
I'm not rejecting America. I'm rejecting the parts of our history that celebrate the suffering, erasure, and forced assimilation of Indigenous people, including my own family.
Loving a country doesn't mean pretending it has no scars. Sometimes loving it means telling the truth about its history so we can honor everyone who has carried it.
This Fourth of July, I wore this shirt not out of anger, but out of remembrance. Because before I can celebrate freedom, I have to acknowledge the people whose freedom was taken.