Today I was having dinner with my sister in Billings and an Indian man, obviously drunk, came wandering by our table and asking for food. My sister and said that we were not interested in giving him our food, especially as we had not even ordered yet. He intensely stared at us for a few seconds and then stated, "You don't give a shit about me, you stupid white girls. Go to hell."
Now residing in Southeast Montana, and on the Crow Indian Reservation, there is a high population of Indians living on reservations whose boundaries were created over a hundred years ago. Already, I feel like reflecting on the racism still palpable between Indians and Montana's white residents, tensions that were established with manifest destiny hundreds of years ago, and thrive still today. I will hopefully have more reflections on the subject as the summer progresses.
Painting by Edgar Samuel Paxson, "Custer's Last Stand"
