To the editor:

In a recent letter addressing how South Lawrence Trafficway opponents are trying to use scare tactics to stop the 32nd Street alignment, I remembered a meeting in the South Park community building some years ago where I sat at the same table as Mike Caron as the consultation people at that meeting tried to sell the whole educational center idea to local school districts while showing numerous environmental and indigenous attendees pictures of complete apartment and development buildings in the middle of a drained wetlands area. This picture of development is identical to the developments currently happening east of the post office on 31st Street. I later sidelined this discussion by bringing up the Kansas Unmarked Burials Act of 1989 from a historical book I had with me.

The issue of indigenous religious practices has been omitted from this discussion repeatedly in a racist manner. I’ve read in the Baker Orange how one biology professor assumed all Native religious ceremonies were 49er dances that involved alcohol. Non-Native people act as if mitigation will respect Indigenous religions by completely sidestepping the issue and assuming everyone benefits from a win-win proposition. Native people have always been threatened with dire consequences if they didn’t cave to progress. No one has caved. Unfortunately, I’ve witnessed over and over the occurrence of dysconscious racism as described by former KU Professor Cornell Pewewardy in the book “Genocide of the Mind.” People being racist without even realizing it.