To the editor:

Considering both ethnic perspectives isn’t historical revisionism or political correctness. It’s stepping beyond ethnocentrism to acknowledge the suffering and genocide of people whose land was overrun. It’s acknowledging the forced sacrifices of the Kickapoo, Delaware, Iowa, Sac and Fox, Shawnee, Otoe-Missouria, Omaha, Wea, Piankishaw, Kaskaskia, Peoria, Miami and Wyandot tribes. These tribes’ land cessions make Kansas and Nebraska territories’ 150th anniversary possible.

When Haskell Manual Labor Institute was started in 1883-1884, Indian school employees were encouraged to kidnap as many children as they could. Bonuses were paid per acquired child. Tribal rations were withheld to make parents surrender their children to boarding schools. The U.S. Cavalry was involved in enforcing parental surrender of children. Bad food, little medicine, and communicable diseases caused high death rates at Haskell. It wasn’t until 1893 that Indian parents were allowed say in their child’s removal. This information can be verified in Brenda Child’s “Boarding School Seasons” and David Edmund’s “Education for Extinction.”

As for the wetlands statements, Haskell acquired lands through the granting of tribal money to be spent by the Department of Interior. Each tribe had a U.S. Treasury trust account for tribal improvements like infrastructure and education. I researched more than 110 treaties where education was promised in return for the taking of lands. Haskell Manual Labor Institute was and has been paid for by congressional and treaty appropriations.

Much correct information could’ve been acquired from Haskell’s historians or from the books listed above and Lee Francis’ “Native Time” — but it wasn’t.

Mike Ford,

Lawrence