Crossing Borders, Building Bridges- February 3rd, 2010

Rosemary Nelson called for a government issued apology concerning the treatment of Native Americans at the latest installment of the Crossing Borders, Building Bridges series, and expounded upon her experiences as an Indian growing up in a North Eastern corner of California. Nelson, an advisor to the Indian Health Service, said that the reservation that she had grown up in was one of many institutions for homeless Indians. Nelson spoke of her “kind, magical, mystical” grandmother, and touched upon the rituals and emotional events of her childhood. “My aunt killed her mate”, said Nelson, and added,”she (my aunt) died on the streets of San Francisco at the age of thirty six”. Nelson’s father, said Nelson, became active in Indian affairs during the Korean War, after a relative returning home from the war was denied the right to purchased goods at a corner store. Nelson became Catholic at the age of seventeen, she said, without any influence from her Catholic father. Nelson named several individuals who died due to occurrences brought about by the grief associated with the modern position that Native Americans find themselves in.”Tribes are political entities with their own social systems that existed long before the United States was formed”, Nelson maintained, and she pointed out that federal prisoners receive more health care services than Indians on Reservations. Nelson elaborated on what was done to Native Americans, saying,”when you take away ritual, spirituality, culture, and dignity from a people, the loss is incomprehensible”. The need to teach students about Native American history, said Nelson, is imperative. “The Government owes an apology to Indians on a national and state level”, said Nelson. Nelson took questions, stated that there was definitely a “rationing of health care”, read a poem, and cited education as a good tool to fight bitterness and ignorance.