The Dilemma of the Fourth of July

Editor's Note: This commentary was published in observance of the Fourth of July holiday in 2015. Native News Online is republishing it again this year.

The other day I was eating dinner with my wife in a restaurant located in Gallup, New Mexico, a border town to the Navajo reservation. Gallup was recently named "Most Patriotic Small Town" in a nationwide contest. Soon after sitting down I noticed that we were seated at a table directly facing a framed poster of the Declaration of Independence.

The irony almost made me laugh.

When our server, who was also Native, came to the table, I asked if I could show him something. I then stood up and pointed out that 30 lines below the famous quote "All men are created equal" the Declaration of Independence refers to Natives as "merciless Indian savages."

https://nativenewsonline.net/opinion/the-dilemma-of-the-fourth-of-july-2