Identity Divided & Partial Annihilation
Misused People Gifts – Part 2
Now that we’re all familiar with the four people-groups and their gifts, we need to specifically speak of the abuse and misuse experienced by the Westward people-group. It’s for this group of people that led to the writing of “The Gift of People.” We had heard of portions of our family members having Indian or native American descent. I went to college in a town named for the native American Chief Tuskaloosa. Then, there are the numerous rivers like the Chattahoochee River, which was considered Cherokee territory. While I had these ideas inside of me like a burning itch, I had no idea that my thoughts had any substance. As we’ve taken road trips throughout the southeast, we find towns, cities, lakes, and monuments named for a group of people that as far as we can tell no longer exist.
Most places, like cities, lakes, rivers, etc. are named for those westward-people who once inhabited this land. History tells us that these people were relocated to reservations. [To the left.] I say they don’t exist, but people would argue with that statement and say they live on designated reservations. When was the last time you came across a native American reservation? Whether on purpose or by accident, the result and history is still the same.
When I researched reservations, it said that the population of those who remain are roughly one million in number. Well, that doesn’t seem like a large enough number considering how many places this group of people occupied. So what happened to the group of people who inhabited all these places that bore their names? Let’s briefly discuss the abuse and misuse that led to what happened to this people group, we have come to know as the western people-group.
Partial Annihilation
What do I mean by this? There was once a populous people-group that inhabited every portion of North American which is now the United States of America. This group of people have remains, artifacts, and monuments that attest to this as you’ve learned. However, the truth remains, there are very few that remain which indicates that this numerous group of people were annihilated, no longer exist.
Why have you never run across a native American, an indigenous person in the same way you run across a minority race in North America? In fact, it’s commonplace to run into a group of people who are considered the minority. How could it be that a person never runs across a native American, an indigenous person in the same way one runs across any other race or group of people? Isn’t that odd? This is what happens when a people-group is abused and misused.
Divided Identities
The effects of the misuse and abuse of this people-group has resulted in us being unable to make connections within the group. Allow me to say it differently. Even when you look at the reservations that remain, they are scattered all over the place. While I don’t know the why and all the reasons behind it all, what I know for sure is that it’s the result of the misuse and abuse of this westward people-group. Where we have decided not to think of them as one subset of the same group, but different groups entirely.
Have you ever considered that the Americas (North, Central, and South) were, for the most part still are, all connected? North, Central, and South America are all one big body of land. Wouldn’t it stand to reason that the people native to this great land mass would be connected in some way or another? Allow me to spell it out further. Out of all the people on earth, wouldn’t it make the most sense that those indigenous to one continent would have connections to each other? That would mean native Alaskans, native Americans, Mexicans, Latinos, Latin Americans, and Hispanics would all have some type of connection. Unheard of, right? The problem is that misuse of this collective people-group has caused us and even them to see themselves as different people-groups altogether. By doing so, they and we are robbing ourselves of the collective people-gift that this group can offer our world.
What’s interesting is this westward group has common attributes, physical characteristics, and gifts. We just refer to them by different names. This might explain why border-crossing today from Mexico to the United States is such a political issue. The results of abuse and misuse.
What happened to these people, God’s people, may never be answered to our liking, but where these people are and who they are today has great importance. With this new understanding, we open the door for people to be more empowered to do a couple of things or take a couple actions.
- Be proud of one’s background.
- Understand the gifts, skills, and talents one group possesses that are unique from the other three groups.
- Lastly, find ways to add value to the world around us and help take one’s people-group to the next level for mankind.
Question: can you add a conflicting thought you may have had regarding this westward group of people?
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