Making Up for One's Forebears

Here's something from about a month ago that I missed at the time. In fact, I wouldn't even know about now if it hadn't happened to come up in conversation this month. It's a various obvious cliche, but the line goes that writers write. I guess, because they wouldn't be writers otherwise. Runners run, singers sing, and drivers drive (but for some reason, doctors don't doct). It's kind of the definition of the word. I bring that up because most writers of any note have written far more material than whatever it is that's made their reputation. There are a lot more words--some of them even in print--than the ones with which we're familiar.

Such is the case with L. Frank Baum. He'd written for quite a while before he hit with the Wizard of Oz series. In the 1890s, just after South Dakota had been admitted into the Union, he published a weekly newspaper in Aberdeen, where he lived with his family. A couple of editorials he wrote there have received a certain amount of notoriety. The Indian wars of the West were coming to an end, essentially because of the near genocide of the Native cultures, all of which was a very hot topic at the time. In what could probably most generously be termed "racial euthanasia," Baum called for genocide. On the occasion of Sitting Bull's assassination, the writer noted Sitting Bull's nobility but argued that he was the last to hold such qualities. European settlers had done such damage to the native peoples that they had no choice but to finish the job. Two weeks later was the Wounded Knee massacre. In response to that tragedy, Baum again addressed the subject and criticized the army for not finishing the job. I'm not going to quote the editorials, but feel free to read them yourself.

But of course, those editorials are more than 125 years old at this point. They didn't suddenly come to light a month ago. The event in the news that I missed was a story of reconciliation. Some time ago, Baum's great-great grandson came across the editorials himself. In August, with some of his relatives and friends, he traveled in South Dakota among the Lakota and offered apologies for the words of his ancestor. Listen to a report on the situation from NPR. We'd all do well to learn a lesson from Baum's descendents and acknowledge and take some sort of responsibility for the errors of those who came before.