In 1850, a hundred years after they had been slaughtered by the Ojibwe Indian tribe, the Dakota tribe presented their conquerors with a big Drum, to help heal the pain between them, and to put to rest any feelings of revenge or gloating that might still exist.
David Treuer, an Ojibwe Native American, offers his account of this symbolism and how the drum ceremony alleviates his Vietnam (he’s a veteran) grief. The article in The New York Times magazine is like a Drum presented to American Christians to allay any grief from the Indian wars of our past.
The Native Americans have taken to the God of our Civilization in the various Catholic Indian Schools, but not in general. They remain mired in aloofness to Christianity otherwise.
Civilization 