As I watched the videos in Module 1, quite a few stood out to me. Some I wrote about in other assignments, but here I chose to focus on "500 years in 2 minutes" by Wab Kinew. This video, as one may guess from the title, goes through the entire Native American history in 500 years, beginning at the very beginning of the white mans entrance into the country, The Video ends with Wab, walking into resembling the office of a psychologists and says, "Step into my office, grab a seat on the big couch, and lets talk". As the video ended, the first thing that came to mind was the fact that this video in 2 minutes summed up more than one learns in their average history course about the "Indians". 

Wab starts off saying "What went wrong? It wasn't always like this when we started down the path... When the settlers first arrived the natives welcomed them." Welcome them they did; with open arms. The Natives continued to welcome the whites over and over again. They welcomed their ideas and ways,  their metals and guns, they accepted their diseased that spread like wild fire through tribes killing many people. When they were told to go to boarding school and act like white people, they did that. Throughout the years the indians were persecuted, tested, and forced to give up their traditions and what not, so that they could be accepted into a country that ultimately boils down to the fact that it really was theirs first! 

One question that I have had for years, is why. Why is it that the white men came, felt the entitlement that it was ok to slowly take over a country that did not belong to them, and reduce the people who had lived in this country for centuries before, to dust. While today it has gotten better, I doubt that the Native Americans still don't have any negative feelings towards the US government.

Recently I heard a story about an argument that had broken out in the US between an immigrant and a white guy. The white guy was yelling at the immigrant saying,  "you people come into our country and take everything; work off the books, pay no taxes, etc..” There happened to be a Native American man standing near by who overheard the argument. He walked over to the 2 men who were arguing, looks the white man in the eyes and says “dude, YOU are the immigrant to OUR country. You people came in, polluted our land, spread disease and persecuted our people. This guy has not done anything different that you and your people”. The Native American turned on his heels and walked away leaving both men open mouthed. 

Every proud american tends to forget that while we may call this our country, there are only a few that can really call it their country. It is those that have been residing here for centuries. The Native Americans.