This has been a difficult article to write, not because of my personal circumstances, but because I have a hard time writing a joyful article when the residential school story is stirring the heartache of so many again. My mom's cousin, Wilma, who was like my aunt, had been sent from Nebraska to the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, but she never talked about it around me. It may have even been a good experience for her; I don't know. She was a bright light in my life. She taught me how to polka, ride a horse, and deliver lambs. Her love was always in the background of my youth.
I attended two Indian day schools on the Wind River Reservation, but my traumatic moments came from a boy who enjoyed chasing me with snakes as I came out of the outhouse. It may have been different for my Arapahoe and Shoshone friends, as we certainly did not learn their culture.
I did not know about the horrors of the residential schools until we came to Canada. I do not know how so many people could have been so cruel. I understand that there were kind teachers in the midst too; they must have had a difficult time dealing with their colleagues. I wonder if they endured simply to help children where they could.
History is full of stories about humanity's evil and those who stand against it. My favorite story is that of Corrie ten Boom and her family in Holland; they hid Jews from the killing machines of the Nazi Gestapo, and they paid a terrible price to do so. Corrie lost her father, her sister Betsy and her brother in the concentration camps. Here too, I have wondered how the guards could have been so cruel; yet the love from Corrie's family inspired millions.
Our world is full of violence now too. Terrorism, mass shootings and other forms of violence fill our daily news. Nations rise against nations, threatening to wipe them off the map. People and families hurt each other. The earth itself is in upheaval with volcanoes, earthquakes, unusual droughts and historic floods. Jesus warned His disciples of coming betrayals and hatred. He said, "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold . . ." (Matthew 24:12). I know that my love radically cools when I take my eyes off my Creator and focus only at a corrupt and broken world.
It is important, too, to understand that life is more than what we see in the physical world. I would not want to be one of the school abusers facing God. Children are important to Him. Jesus said, "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." (Matthew 18:5-6) He added in verse 10, "See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven."
Jesus only gave us two commandments. We are to love God with all our hearts and to love each other as He loved us. This gives me something to do in the middle of my heartache. If I go with my own reasoning and emotions, it does not help anyone, but Jesus allowed cruel humans to nail Him to an ugly cross to give us different options. We do not have to let the cruel ruler of this world, Satan, rule us. We can choose God. We can listen and care for the hurting. We can love.
Sue Carlisle grew up on the Wind
River Reservation in Wyoming. An enrolled member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, her passion is to encourage people to look at creation and see our awesome Creator. Sue is
author of Walking with the
Creator Along the Narrow
Road. She
and her husband, Wes,
now live in Thunder Bay,
Ontario.
