Last Friday, my Historical Preservation class and I went to the Manoa Heritage Center to prep for our scanning of the heiau there. We walked around the property, taking pictures and sketching initial maps of our scanning plan. There is a large home on the property that was constructed in the early 1900s. In it's backyard is the heiau (sacred temple). We learned that this was strange; typically back then families chose to build over these ruins because the views were better. Why build a home closer to the street when you could build a home on a hill, overlooking the entire Manoa Valley? Well, the Cooke family was different. They were deeply involved with the Native Hawaiians and were not okay with demolishing Hawaiian history by building their home on top of a temple. So they didn't. But, they were the exception.
We learned that there were once hundreds of heiau around the island, but the heiau left semi-untouched today are only in the single digits.
WHAT IS IT WITH PEOPLE COMING TO A NEW LAND, CLAIMING IT AS THEIR OWN, AND THEN DESTROYING HISTORY?
We see this all over the world, especially in our country. Columbus and his counterparts ventured to what is now the USA in the 1400s. They claimed everything and everyone as their property. The settlers/pilgrims followed suit and, as they moved west, the destroyed thousands of people, hundreds of tribes, and several languages. But, it was all okay because now we have America. Right?
Our Historical Preservation class began talking about this, about land as something that needs to be historically preserved even though there may not be some intriguing artifact on it. I brought up the Dakota Access Pipeline. In a poll of the class, 1 out of 15 students had heard of the Pipeline issues. Coincidence? I think not. The USA's history is deeply intertwined with silencing and eliminating the indigenous groups of North America. So why, when something huge like this is happening, would the media make sure it was exploding every news outlet?
I showed the students a map of the original USA lands of the indigenous Americans. The map is interactive, showing how reservations were established and ending with how much land the indigenous Americans now have to call their own. To put it simply, they have nothing. I asked the students, why are we so intent on building this pipeline through indigenous land? They have so little. What is the purpose?
Today we will figure that out. Students brought in articles that they found about the Dakota Access Pipeline. They will sit in small groups and participate in a socratic circle to discuss and grapple with some of the reasoning behind the protests. My hope is that they will see who's history is valued enough to be preserved and why it is their job to stop this practice. As a country, we have already erased, ignored, or deleted so many histories in order to "protect our image" as a world power. Yet, I wonder, if we truly want to be considered a world power, wouldn't we want to do that by changing our tune, addressing our past faults, and trying to bring awareness to the just and the right?
What happens if, like so many homes built on sacred Hawaiian land here, they build it anyways?
**If you don't know about the pipeline, please look into it. You can start here with your quest for knowledge. Once you do, please stand with us all and claim #NODAPL in our indigenous communities.
