Forgiving the unforgivable, to salve generational trauma
December 1, 2017 8:24 AM Subscribe
After 30+ years fighting the US military and American settlers, Chiricahua Apache medicine man Geronimo surrendered to the US government in 1886. Geronimo and 341 other Chiricahua then became permanent prisoners of war at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where their children were sent to schools designed to strip them of their language and cultural identity. Journalist Anna Badkhen recently traveled to a small town in the Sierra Madre Occidental of northern Mexico, where Geronimo's descendants performed the Ceremonia del Perdón — a Ceremony of Forgiveness, celebrated their lineage and honored their roots in the very mountains where their ancestors denounced and hid theirs to survive. As the Apache try to forgive, Badkhen tries, in her words, “to learn what forgiveness is and whether it is possible.” (Via: 1 and 2)
That was an incredible and incredibly expansive essay. Thanks for sharing.
posted by Grandysaur at 6:59 PM on December 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Grandysaur at 6:59 PM on December 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
I wish I'd read something like this in Oklahoma history class in 1999.
posted by kwaller at 3:37 PM on December 2, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by kwaller at 3:37 PM on December 2, 2017 [1 favorite]
« Older If All I Was Was Black | Chapelier Fou, the musical mad hatter from France Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Oyéah at 2:02 PM on December 1, 2017 [2 favorites]