Republicans are fighting to stop schools teaching the full story of slavery. They claim that to do so it is unpatriotic and undermines American values. Likewise the history of America’s colonial expansion into the West is often shrouded in mystery for fear that students might grow up questioning the mythologies they have been taught. This is true worldwide from Japanese children not being taught of the actions of the JIA in China. or Russian children not learning about the brutalities of the Stalin regime. Here is Arizona we keep our heads down when it comes to teaching about how the white settlers treated Native Americans or about how Arizona once belonged to Mexico and became an American Territory. There’s no commission to find the truth so most of it is buried in archives and passing references in historical books written by the settlers. For many teaching the truth about Arizona’s history serves only to cause upset and anger.

Nevertheless, our history is supposed to tell us who we are, loyal Americans wedded to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We honestly trust in the ideal that all men were created equal. We once subdued Native Americans by force and starvation, stripped of them of their culture and re-educated their children, then let them survive on reservations. Now we dole out casinos so that they can make some cash. Their leaders were sent on trains to rot away in distant prisons. The least sign of protest has been met with the savage retribution. We carve the faces of our leaders into the rock of their ancestral lands so that Native Americans know who is in charge. When we are attacked by a foreign enemy, we graciously allow them to fight and die for us and reward them with medals.

Ask average Arizona residents how many Native Americans there are in the State and I doubt whether they know. For them, Native Americans are out there somewhere planting their corn seed and waiting for rains, doing their dances. They make wonderful dolls and pots and weave baskets. They are an accessory to the tourist industry. So who is to tell the truth? If the schools and universities don’t bother very much, what’s left? Newspapers and the internet are a last resort and of course subject to editorial and financial controls. Occasionally a journalist like Thomas Fuller of the NYT reports on the 19th century massacres of local populations in California in the 1850’s, where US Army Captain, Nathaniel Lyne reported that they had herded Native Americans into a "perfect slaughter pen" with "gratifying results." Killing Native Americans in those days was thought of as ridding your house of pests. This is not taught in schools. Here our main journalistic outlet is The Arizona Republic and why would they publish stories of the atrocities perpetrated against Native Americans? It would only make people upset. Why shouldn’t we live out our lives in the Happy Kingdom of Lies. Lies are in vogue now and as the Fool says when threatened by the power of his master, King Lear, in Shakespeare’s play, "Truth’s a dog which must (go) to(the) kennel."