The thing about local attractions is that residents seldom have time to visit them. Weekends are busy with the tasks you can’t accomplish otherwise with a 9-2-5 and being a “homeowner” is more like being owned. Nevertheless, one Sunday afternoon we ventured to The Museum of Indian Culture, just south of Allentown. I’d known about it for a few years, but wasn’t sure what to expect. Occupying the house built by the Bieber family (not the singer, but the local bus-owning company that died during the pandemic) way back, the museum is small, but intimate. The docents are unstinting with their time. This is Lenape tribal land and the museum houses some local, and some national, pieces. It also has a very extensive library.
Often it’s difficult to feel proud of being of European extraction. So many crimes were committed during the period of colonialism (and are still being perpetrated) that you just want to apologize over and over when you meet an American Indian. The thing is, every native American I’ve met has been gracious and kind. They still feel connected to the land in a way that seems foreign to Europeans. Colonialists (and present-day capitalists) saw (see) the land as for exploitation. We are slowly, hopefully, coming to realize that the indigenous way of living with the land is far more sustainable than the conquering attitude that metal smelting and gunpowder gave. I kept thinking, what would it be like if people we didn’t even know existed showed up and just started taking everything for their own? And claiming an all-powerful deity had given it to them? Wouldn’t we fight back, just as the first Americans did?
I was especially hit by the hypocrisy of it all. The code talkers helped win the Second World War. As our docent said, at the Carlisle Indian School Indians were severely punished for speaking their native language. They were being Christianized, of course. Then, during the War the military realized we have a treasure-trove of languages that nobody else in the world speaks. Suddenly their languages were an asset to be exploited. Native Americans proudly served (and serve) in the military. It is actually their land they’re defending. We spent an educational hour in the small museum not far from property we “own,” according to a law code of “right behavior” drafted by others. You might be able to leave places like this small museum, but they don’t leave you.
