Finding Our Memories: The Path to Reconciliation

By David Bell

Third quarter of the State game and the action is fast. The White Swan Cougars are moving the ball, but the Toledo Indians have orchestrated a comeback and are now a few points behind. Everyone is down in the Toledo court, the ball is passed from one player to the next, finally the ball is moved into the key and out of the melee the ball rises into the air, hits the backboard, drops and rolls halfway around the rim, then rolls to the outside and down into a mass of arms trying to gain control.

"Who's got it? Who has the ball?" yells someone a few seats down in the bleachers.

Next to Jill is a Hank from White Swan. He yells back, "the Indians got the ball!"

The White Swan supporters residing in the bleachers roar out in laughter and yells of support for the team, causing just a hint of pause on the court (sounds like more action "up there" than down here where the game is!)

This level and this type of laughter are unattainable by a late night white television comedian. Maybe the laughter would rise up in a set by George Lopez or Cheech Marin in front of a Chicano/a or Latino audience. But for Hank, from White Swan, an average Indian just trying to get by, it was a natural. He voiced the thinking of everyone in the bleachers, at just the right time. Here it is, 2006 and a team of non-Indians and their supporters-teachers, parents, school board members, students-have yet to understand the comedic idiocy of calling themselves Indians.

Perhaps 2006 is the year we begin to question why we sit in the non-Indian bleachers and not hear the laughter on the other side of the court. How did we get here? How long have we been here? Can we move? The questions are neither easy nor easily answered. A starting place, though, may be located in our forgetfulness or maybe…our selective remembrance. Those stories passed down to us and those we pass on to future generations are most often located in our accomplishments and seldom in our hurt. A history of not acknowledging our hurt has developed eyes with cataracts. We see inequity but struggle to perceive the multiple building blocks-history, laws, morals, stories-holding it in place. Finding our memory is crucial to answering the questions. Finding our memory is crucial to hearing the laughter across the court from us.

For the last eighty-four years the Yakama Christian Mission has focused on working with youth. Eighty-four years of developing programs which help youth become young adults who make a difference in the world. Like any other entity we have had our days of doing this well and days of doing it not so well. The legacy, though, passed down to the current generation of Mission staff, is to ask the questions and search for the places where we have done the work "not so well." This type of reflection, searching for memory-all memory, is not always easy for hearing the "not so well" doesn't always feel so good. Yet this is the voice the Mission has found invaluable for it gives the truth of history, fullness and life forgotten. This truth can only lead to programming for youth that has more meaning for community and greater life for youth.

Thanks to Reconciliation, Mission staff has developed better ears to hear those speaking the "not so well." Being comfortable in the hearing has allowed transformation to begin and groundwork for young adult leadership to be tilled. Due to Reconciliation the Mission has begun laying a footing where acknowledging truth leads us into program development that might live into a realm where all have voice and equity is the norm.

Reconciliation has tried and continues to strive to help all of us to remember and find our memory anew. Bringing the church into awareness that we are those teachers, parents, board members, and students who are good folk, but folk who too often have forgotten our roots that came from hurt. Reconciliation calls us to remember our roots and become a people who are less likely to sit in the bleachers calling ourselves Indians, Chiefs, Warriors, Braves without experiencing the damage these words inflict on others. When Reconciliation is allowed into our lives, change occurs first within ourselves and then to the structure surrounding us. This is never easy, but when we begin to change the world, then we finally become reconciled to the forgotten of our world. Then perhaps we all laugh together.

The Rev. David Bell serves as Mission Director of the Yakama Christian Mission. He shares the leadership with his wife Belinda Bell and the Rev. Jill Delaney. The mission of YCM is to enhance the wellbeing of children and youth through advocacy and education. For more Information about YCM visit their website at www.yakamamission.org. Rev. Bell is also a member of the Reconciliation Mission Communication and Interpretation Working Group.