Talking to Nigaan Sinclair today brought a few things to my attention, and made me think about some things that I never really thought about before. For instance, he talked about football and related it to the ways the people, particularly Native Americans and Americans, battled over land. Sinclair emphasized on how each football team basically has their own territory in which they try to protect from the other team. This is how the Native Americans were when the government repetitively stripped them of acres upon acres of land. With all the treaties and other agreements, the Indians were abruptly forced to continue moving further and further west and lost land. Looking back at everything we reviewed, it made sense, and football could have a negative representation in that manner. This is just another reminder of how we, unintentionally, show the Native Americans that we were and are fine with the whole concept of land stripping. This doesn’t make me want to discontinue playing football, but it was something that’s good to know. Now, I will think about things of that sort and be careful not to disrespect those that suffered and may feel hurt by the ways of us Americans. These precautions need to be taken by everyone with everything proposed in life. Think about the connotations that different things may have and ask if it will hurt others if you take part in it.
June 22, 2018