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.They seethese people as not trying, when in fact in a good many instancesthey re trying to the best of their ability. Tradition plays such a major part it keeps them tied for fear.They don t fear white man.They fear white man s ways, and tradi-tions that in some instances conflict completely with theirs.Theyhave such a reverence for life and earth and all the elements.They seewhite man s factories, polluting, looting, burning, killing animalkilling, while they only kill to eat.All these things hold them back,into another place separate from the white man s ability to under-stand.So we don t have the tolerance for them that we should. But what do we mean by tolerance ? Hansen is opposed towhat she calls handouts, and argues that natives should be edu-cated, to know that they can gain for themselves through the labor of Hansen 197their minds and hands. She refers to the book Indian Givers. Lookto the books that teach what they know.So much of our medicinescome from their culture.They have the potential if we ll have pa-tience to help them see and trust. Understanding our mutual historywill, she says, expedite tolerance, and therefore trust.Today, she says, Native Americans should be mainlined intosociety. I don t believe in this nation-within-a-nation with treatyrights and all of this, she says. I think there should be certain rightsthey should maintain simply because it s been their right from the be-ginning of time, like the fishing rights, for a certain period of time.But not for all time. The reservation system isn t working, Hansensays. There are, of course, certain factions within every reservationfor whom it s working out beautifully.But the more educated ThePeople get, the more they can absorb society and the world and stillkeep their culture. Uneducated natives, she says, are unable to ne-gotiate their presence within two cultures. They can t make the tran-sition back and forth as the educated Native American can. Hansen feels that better schools are the key. But then again, theyreject it.It has to come from their people, their educators andslowly it is coming.We as white people want them to have everythingand be able to do everything, and they culturally aren t ready, evennow.I would say 60% are not ready, while 40% are being ab-sorbed, are bringing technical training back to the reservations forthe improvement of their people. But they re being fought againsttoo by their own people. Hansen reports that in 1996, the year after I attended the publichearings, she helped obtain permission for the Shoshone to go on themassacre site and perform ceremony for their dead relatives. I wasnot invited, Hansen says, which was all right.It was their privatething.They had their dedication ceremony, they did whatever they doto bury their dead spirits.They had their prayers and did theirsongs. Hansen says the Shoshone have seemed more relieved sincethen. The spirits of their dead are finally able to find peace after 135years.That had been such a worry that they would not travel throughthere at night, because they feel the spirits wander there at night try-ing to find rest.After the sun went down, the Indians were gone.They couldn t be there.It was a sacred site, but its history was unfin-ished, so to speak.I hope now that they feel calmness and satisfac-tion, in the fact that we got to the point where they were givenpermission from the landowner to be on the site. Hansen clearly 198 The Making of Historyfeels good about the understanding she now has with the landowner,whose name she will not mention. I have permission to take outthose I think will appreciate the massacre site otherwise, nobodygets through the fence. She doesn t get credit for having mediated these many conflicts,she says, which doesn t bother her. The only thing that bothers me iswhen they come on television and they interview Mae, and say thatfor all these years Mae Parry has tried to get and on and on.Mycommittee should be given credit.She was with us for three meetingsin 85 and 86; from that part on we never saw her, she never partici-pated.We didn t get the legislation in till 1989.In fact she was againstus for a little while because of the wording.But still she s given creditfor the whole thing.I resent that on behalf of my committee, not onbehalf of me, because I m not a glory hunter. Real credit, she says,belongs with Ganeale Swainston, the chairwoman who died of cancerin 1990, before the dedication. It was her conception. I point out to Hansen that it has been the work of women thathas propelled this project. We re the ones that get things done, shesays, chuckling.The warm day is waning.It s been a long talk, and we re bothtired.I ask Hansen if she has anything to add to our discussion, andshe shrugs. I ve told you the truth, as full as I can remember right now, shesays.She lifts herself from her chair and slowly walks me out to thetruck, back into the ovenlike air.We talk about the heat as we go.AsI get in the truck, she smiles and says, You be careful going homenow.We d hate to have to come after you. I honk and wave and head back down the four country blocks tothe steaming main street
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