Letter: They don’t understand

Typewritter, letter to the editor

What is the end of the attempt to obliterate all references to our country’s Indian past? I can’t ask Sarah, my great-great-great-stepgrandmother, who was a Cherokee, how she feels about all this commotion concerning Indian names. Incidentally, of all the Plains and Southwest Indians I have asked what they felt as their preferred designation, only one Sioux didn’t like Indian. He liked the term “First American.”

All said they were proud to be remembered of their past instead of being forgotten. If we eliminate all references to them, it will be like being forgotten. Being the name of a sports team relates to their history of competing with other tribes.

How far are the extreme minority activists going to push their complaints? Illinois and several other states are named after tribes, along with numerous cities and towns. Is their next objective to get all those places to change their names?

Most of the people who are looking to change the names have no Indian blood in their veins. They just want to hop on the train or maybe they just need to complain about something. These people will move on to something else in a while. Maybe it will be the Confederacy, race, gender or something else. It will probably be something they get off the internet and will never fully understand.

Chuck Johnson

Morris