My writing; Trail of Broken Treaties

In 1972 several Native American activist groups combined forces to attempt a march on Washington. They had two names, but the one that stuck was the Trail of Broken Treaties. This expedition was smaller than expected, poorly planned, and executed with difficulty. Somehow they managed to reach Washington D.C.One result of the poor planning and execution was they ended up without a place to stay.

I am sure few people today remember the takeover of the BIA building but that is what happened. In the days that followed a lot of things went wrong. Promises were unkept by the government due to bungling, low level bureaucrats. Doors opened and closed due to misunderstandings, miscommunication, and misdeeds. Neither side had the moral high ground.

Actually, saying "either side" is a misnomer. There were three or four interconnected and overlapping groups on both the Native American side and the government side. That further illustrates the confusion.

Well, due to a series of circumstances it seemed the police would take the building by storm. As it turned out cooler heads prevailed. After the Trail of Broken Treaties left for home it was discovered the sheer level of vandalism they had performed.Hundreds of thousands of documents were destroyed. Lamps were smashed, graffiti covered the walls, flags were shredded, decorations destroyed, and many worse things.

Some people have tried to defend this vandalism. And perhaps they are right to do so...I don't know and cannot say. Reasons include the mis-handled (and unintentionally broken) promises, unwillingness of some members of government to treat with them, tension and fear about the forthcoming police attack, and similar stresses. Again...maybe they were right and maybe they were wrong. I was not there and may not have the right to say.

But what I can say is too often in life people take excuses and apply them, no matter how tenuous the thread. Alcohol, drugs...people are excused for the behavior because they are just high or drunk. Teenagers make choices that have life long consequences and are excused for their hormones.We can all come up with excuses for what we do that is wrong. That takes little effort and less intelligence.

Standing up and being accountable for the actions we take is a different matter. Sometimes those things are right, sometimes they are wrong, and sometimes they fall into that grey area where they are neither right nor wrong. Accountability is something more than saying yeah, I screwed up. It is moving to rectify the wrong and, even more important, take steps to insure it does not reoccur.

A lot of irreparable harm was done by what happened in the BIA building. Not just to the documents...to the Native American activist movements. Distrust of each other would plague them for years to come. The general public would dismiss much of their rhetoric due to the perception of them, particularly the AIM members, as thugs, vandals, and criminals.

Were those judgments fair? It is hard to say. What is fair to say is if they had not used their surroundings as an excuse for destruction their world would look different today.There is an important lesson there. My actions come from me and there is no excuse for not behaving in ways that are never harmful to others.