December 27 - Week 4

Today my dad and I hiked up the Amanda's Trail along the Oregon Coast. The day was sunny (a rather major miracle on the Oregon Coast) and the trail was a gentle climb up to the highest point on the Oregon Coastline (we're still not sure how that place is decided or measured, but we'll count it all the same).

The Amanda's Trail has a sad and dark history. In the middle of the 19th century, many native peoples were forced onto the Coast Indian Reservation along the Oregon Coast. An expedition from Fort Yamhill was sent out to find and collect any Indians that were not on the Reservation and bring them back. Amanda De Cuys, in spite of having a child with a white farmer and being blind, was one of the women who was caught and forced to march back to the reservation. During the difficult march, Amanda tore her feet on the ragged rocks near the sea. It was said that you could follow her trail by the blood she left behind as she was forced away from her home. (You can read more about her story here).

According to the UN, genocide is: 


"Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

1. Killing members of the group;
2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
4. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
5. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

When I think of the word genocide, my mind immediately goes to the Holocaust or to the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. I don't turn to the genocide that happened in my very own home. Seattle was once the homeland of the Puget Sound Salish speaking tribes which include the Puyallup, Snohomish, Muckleshoot, Snoqualmie, Nisqually, Skagit, Suquamish, Squaxin, Swinomish, Stillaguamish, and Sauk-Suiattle. These are distinct tribes which share similar languages. It was only about 150 years ago that these tribes, along with many others, were systematically removed from their homes and/or killed. What does it mean to live in a place where genocide took place?


Or what about living in a place where there were concentration camps? When I think of concentration camps, I think of Nazi Germany and Poland. I don't think of the ten concentration camps that we had all over the US to house the Japanese during WWII. Almost 120,000 people with Japanese ancestry (most were actually American citizens) were forced into concentration camps. In fact, one of these concentration camps was located near the small town where I grew up in Arizona. Dozens of stores were closed in Seattle because many of its residents were rounded up and shipped off to these concentration camps. What does it mean to live in a place where many of the residents were forced into concentration camps? What does it mean to grow up 3 hours away from one of these concentration camps and not even know it?

It means that I must be forever grateful for the privileges that I have, but I do not deserve. It means that I must actively pursue justice for those around me who don't have it. It means that I should actively seek to stop the genocides that are happening right now. It means I should acknowledge and learn from the tragedies of the past. 

And most importantly of all, I should heed these words: "The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything."