I’ve been researching indigenous peoples of the world for the master’s class I teach at the University of Florida on Global Activism. One assignment is to review the United Nations Sustainability Goals through the lens of people who came first. A word other than destruction or manipulation that sums up the treatment of all nation’s forefathers is indifference — lack of interest, concern, sympathy, or empathy. The term is adequate to summarize how societies have excused direct actions that robbed Peace from people. In the name of religion, nationalism, protectionism, colonization, and assimilation, the excuses to use power to destroy cultures and identities fill volumes of history books or don’t. When the stories are told, justifications are established in the conquerors’ words. Today, the indifference to those being uprooted in Peru or Myanmar reflects that faced by American Indians. We just don’t think about it. Amnesty International notes that Indigenous Peoples’ peaceful efforts to maintain their cultural identity or exercise control over their traditional lands, which are often rich in resources and biodiversity, often lead to accusations of treason or terrorism. Sound familiar? First Peoples who respect the planet’s great riches were overpowered by those who do not. What is wrong with a society that cannot see abundance and honor human elders who made our prosperity possible? It is not too late. It is why when we speak of Peace, we must include the truest meaning of people. For humanity’s sake, isn’t 2021 a time to repel those who profit from fear and who rail against immigration and promote war games that continue to ravage native lands? Can we walk past indifference to rewrite a history that led to the saying, “Kill the Indian, Save the Man,” used in 1887 by Captain Richard Pratt to justify the Americanization of the savages for their best interest and evidenced by the graves of thousands of Indian school children mounded in Canada? We face a reckoning about fake news and alternative facts, so no better time like the present to walk away from the indifference that has led to big lies which soiled our souls. PN [thepeacemanblog.com][#thepeacestore][#peaceants]