Two Sides of the American Coin: Whitman and Ortiz

Yesterday marked Christopher Columbus Day across the US. It is a deeply problematic day and Americans across the country have been moving to instead celebrate Indigenous people’s day, commemorating those that were a part of this land long before and after the genocide and horror inflicted upon them by colonization. This is an interesting coincidence that we reached the point of Native American response to Whitman at this point in the semester and are looking at the relationship that Whitman had with this subgroup of America. There is a mixed bag of feelings about Whitman’s treatment of Native Americans with some seeing his work as a marker of appreciation for some of their customs, while others see it as an ignorance to the tragedy of their experience and the appropriation rather than appreciation of Native American Culture. Personally, I think Whitman lacks the insight to speak with authority about the West, as he seems to do in some of his work. There is a certain truth that he lacks which become more and more clear when reading works like that of From Sand Creek, by Simon Ortiz, someone who speaks with clarity and accuracy because that history is his own.

The poem that drew my attention to this the most was the one in which he talked about the ghost towns of the frontier that have become this imagined place of prosperity and excitement. There are two main sides of the story; Whitman’s and Ortiz’s. Whitman’s tells the story of the men in Nebraska in “Mirages” and the other is of Simon Ortiz explaining injustice that native people have had to go through and the depletion of their towns in “From Sand Creek.” Whitman’s side is the overpowering narrative. The recognizable and exploitable one telling of economic success and adventure on the western frontier. Of bustling new towns and happy people that inhabit them. This is the dominant narrative of the American west. The one you see in TV and movies of wild battles between cowboys and Indians, reinforcing stereotypes of savagery and depravity of the native peoples that dwell alongside their white settler counterparts. There is a truth to this narrative, however false it may be, in the minds of Americans because it is so recognizable. It is this same reason that Columbus Day has been celebrated and misrepresented in America for so long.

The other, truer, side to this story is that which is described by Ortiz. It reflects the small preface in which he refers to the towns in the west to be sad and unknown. The poem follows with feelings of despair and hopelessness for these towns and these people. All that these people are succeeded by is disease and suffering eventually becoming nameless because they have been forgotten by history. The story that is told is that of “conquest” and “destiny” causing subsequent “bitterness” and “wasted” opportunities of reconciliation and improvement.

The American west as we know it was a mirage. The towns that existed, as Ortiz said, were either desolate or they were turned into tourist attractions. There is a falseness and an exaggeration to tourist attractions by nature to give them appeal, so in reality underneath all of that everything is really just sad and unknown. It is not at all the point that there is nothing good going on in the west at this time, however the misplaced emphasis and lack of acknowledgment creates a smoke screen, clouding Americas view throughout history. It is movements to correct this narrative that we need to think about now. The Washington D.C. Council just voted to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, making it the most recent state (or district) to do so, following thirteen other US states, and among many other Cities across the U.S.

Here is an NPR article explaining some US States and Cities’ choice to switch from celebrating Columbus Day, which became a federally recognized holiday in 1937, to Indigenous peoples day.

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/14/769083847/columbus-day-or-indigenous-peoples-day